Category Personal Development

For those of you whom are getting ready to graduate college, or still have some time to go, you may want to consider taking the time to put together a solid resume to send to potential employers when the time comes.  You have a lot of resources available to you right now (Career Development office for instance) to help you fine tune your resume, and get noticed by employers when the time comes.

This doesn’t exempt the rest of the work force!  With our recent economy, I know that there are a more than a few people out there  searching for employment.  Keeping your resume up to date will help you get focused quickly after a job loss...

In speaking to a friend recently about credit cards, mortgages, and personal finance, he confided that he had very little knowledge of most things finance related.  The question he eventually asked me was “What is the difference between secured and unsecured debt?” Since I feel the answer could benefit more than just my friend, I decided to post it up here for all to see.

Secured Debt is debt backed by something tangiable.  Good examples of a secured debt are your vehicle and your mortgage.  There is a physical good that can be reposessed or foreclosed on to recoup losses by the lender in the event you fail to make the payments.

Unsecured Debt is debt without a tangiable asset to back it.  The best example of this would be a credit card...

When I entered the real estate arena, I decided I needed to address my phone plans.  My cell phone plan with 1,000 minutes per month was just not going to cut all the additional phone calls I was making – some calls just can’t wait until after 7PM!  Please note that any rates that I provide in this post are based on my home in Amherst, NY.

The two options I considered were having a Verizon land line phone installed, or finding an online Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service to run over top of my preexisting broadband connection.  I ended up choosing Skype as my VOIP solution.

If you follow my Twitter at all, you will have noticed that I lost my wallet yesterday.  I didn’t discover this loss until today, when I went to work and realized it wasn’t in the pocket it belonged in.  After getting angry with myself for misplacing it (which I’m about 90% certain I did at this point), and tearing the house apart looking for it (multiple times), I realized that this isn’t the end of the world, and that everything in there can be replaced.  Take the time to read this article and prepare youself for the inevitable loss of your wallet or purse!

One thing I want to point out is the importance of having copies of your documents available (front AND back).  Preferably, have a digital copy and a hard copy or two...

One of the biggest problems I have is facing my fears.  I don’t think I’m alone when I say that, either.  It seems that often times people would rather avoid doing something, sating something, or being something, because they have a fear.  Fear of rejection, fear of failure, and in my case, fear of death via a large mechanical device flying off a track.  The idea of a roller coaster failing with me on it is TERRIFYING!

This past week, my room mates Matt and Patrick, as well as our friend Ian, decided that I needed to conquer this fear.  Let me rephrase this.  Matt and Patrick, coaster enthusiasts, decide to break Ian and I, flat footed soil bound folk, into the wonderful world of coaster at Cedar Point in Ohio.

More after the jump.

For the pas...

It’s a common misconception that professional athletes such as professional football players don’t have to deal with financial strains that many average people face on a weekly basis when their paycheck comes through and the bills are sitting on the table.A recent article posted on the NFL Players Association website brought to light a situation that I never thought existed.

The average player coming into the league just out of college starts at $285,000 a year and after taxes and deductions they round that figure down to about $147,000 a year.One thing that surprises me is that many of these players are financially struggling during the off season because they only get paid 17 weeks out of a 52-week year, and stretching that money gets more and more difficult as time goes on...