Posts Tagged ‘work’

Desperation For Jobs

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

One can tell the economy is in bad shape because the amount of lying that is going on with job applicants has skyrocketed comparitively with resumes and searching in the past.  People with no skills whatsoever are applying for work as skilled technicians, policemen and even doctors.

One hopes that in the coming year that the economy will change but in the meantime, the people who are out of work need to find something that they can do, anything, and just start getting it done.  To try to get into a field that you haven’t trained in or figure to wing it as you go along is bad business.

There are dozens if not thousands of more qualified people in the profession you are are wanting to get in and it pays to play it straight and don’t try to game the system.  You will get caught more sooner than later and it will keep the door closed from you trying to get work later on.

Better to go to school and get retrained for what you want to do and just get something to pay the bills (or at least a part of them) for the short term.  I have talked to recruiters who are hurting as well as human resource managers and they all have said that you have to be honest as well as persistant.  There is some work out there for what you do.  You just need to keep looking or be willing to retrain for new work.  I know it is easier said than done but hopefully things will open up for you.

Being creative to try and stand out is good but for some human resource people they get freaked out if you stand out too much.  Some stunts just backfire and it is best to present your accomplishments, how you can help a company save or make money and be willing to negotiate on your wages.

Good luck!

 

Oct 21 2009

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Desperation For Jobs

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Work the Brain

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Question from a reader:”Why should I bother going to college when I am going to probably join the military?”

My answer is that you still need to work the brain.  The military is just like any other business and if you look at recruiting information you can get more money by having more skills.  More skills result from having a better education.  Let us presume too that the Depression we are in won’t last forever.  What are you going to do for work if there are more people who have better qualifications than you?

The same will hold true in the military.  The Army wants to have soldiers who know their stuff in technology as do the Navy, Air Force and Marines.  You will not get the promotions that you want (nor the extra income) if you are an uneducated grunt.

You also will get a great opporunity to start thinking (hopefully) a little bit more about things in life as you pursue a higher education.  I will also throw in that getting an education is a gift because unlike grade school, in college, you can have a choice for what classes that you want to learn.

Talk to your friends and also a recruiting officer (unless he just wants to get you to sign up) for more information.  Anytime you can get an opportunity to work your brain, you should take it.  In the current business climate, heck, in any climate, there is always competition for resources.  If you were an employer or the military and you want to have the best, greatest candidate that you can for the position, you would want to see what kind of education they had, right?  Just simple economics.

This holds true also for older people and is one of the reasons that they are flocking back to school in droves.  They not only want to retrain to still be able to work but so that they can also keep themselves from getting infirm.  Brain deterioration happens from disease and also like anything else, from not using your muscle or organ.  So help yourself out and do what you can to keep your brain working.

Question from a reader:”I am over 62, live in California with my lady friend who is 67 and we are not married.  Can we qualify for Qualified Domestic Partner?  Thanks.”

My answer is based on the information that you provided, sure, you can qualify.  The term is also Registered Domestic Partner or abbreviated with the acronym RDP.  You may need to register and on the website for California Franchise Tax Board, check out publication, 737, Tax Information For Registered Domestic Partners.  At the Federal level you still would file as both being single or one being the Head of Household for the other if that applies and you hit the qualifications.  At the point that you are over 62, you need not be of the same gender for the State of California for RDP status.  You just need to pay attention to the differences and situations between the Fed and State tax filing requirements.

At the State of California level you would file as Married Filing Jointly.  You will have to mail in your tax return since you cannot e-file (yet) RDP tax returns for the California system.  Also pay attention to the community property rules.  Remember that California is a community property state and that you will have to split income evenly if you end up filing Married Filing Separately or if you are dividing up things that can be divided for the purposes of income tax filing.

When in doubt, contact a tax pro and you can see that I am open to taking clients right now.  Thanks for asking me the questions, please keep them coming. 

Oh, and before I forget, remember that for the purposes of taxes, don’t forget that quarterly tax filing is coming up and if you haven’t completed your work on your tax extensions that you have to start getting things ready for the October 2009 deadline.  I know it has been a rough year for business and people in general but you still need to get your taxes completed.

August 17 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.  Thanks for your support.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Work the Brain

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Unemployment Must Be at 20 Percent

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Happy Father’s Day, Dads!  Here is hoping that you have a great day.  While you are having that great day, take note of some of my observations to think about over dinner later on or maybe after the rest of the family has settled down to video games and television.  I hate to be the sober driver in our little alcoholic binge called life but I figure somebody should touch on what is going on around us.  Let me know your thoughts by posts and links afterwards, will ya?

Based on what I am reading and from what I am seeing, I think that I may have been close to the mark in some of my previous entries here and here.  When I read that places like Detroit are without national chain stores that tells me that at a very high level business doesn’t want to open anything up in areas where they feel there isn’t any money.

The only way that the large chain stores can make their nut to cover their rent or mortgage payments  on their stores is to have regular customers who can come in daily.  That is certainly the case with grocery stores where the perishables (milk, bread, eggs, meat, etc) spoil after a few days despite the best efforts at refrigeration and other shelf items just collect dust and cobwebs.  That isn’t a good way to make money.  It is poor business and I wouldn’t invest in places like that.  With people out of work and despite unemployment supposedly slowing, unless people are at a full time job, they aren’t going to have the income stream to support living.  Sure they still will be eating but they will look for better bargains than some of the stores can provide.

Failing that, people without money resort to five finger discount.  Let’s face it, if people are hungry, they will do what they can to eat.  One hopes that people can take the high ground but when people are starving, social norms go out the window.

I have no idea the exact criteria that is being used because you and I both know that statistics can be used to represent anything that people want.  One needs to understand the underlying information and who gains when numbers are changed.  Welp, it certainly would look really depressing if the numbers showed we were at 20 percent unemployment and based on what I saw during tax season and talking to friends and relatives, it is hard to find people who haven’t been hit by the Depression.

I seriously don’t see how any kind of recovery is going to take place until we get back to full employment.  Interest rates can’t go up because that will clobber the remaining eighty percent of the people who are trying to hang on to what they are doing right now.

Pundits are saying that a year from now we will have nationally 10 percent unemployment and here in California 12 percent.  I submit to you now that we are at 20 percent realistically.  I base this on the fact that at least regionally, there is one house on every block that is for sale.  There are tons of apartments for rent and people just aren’t moving here in droves any more.

A lot of people from Mexico and South America have either started moving back home or migrating to other states or nations.  I don’t see the bevy of workers all around looking for day labor like I use to.  Times must be tough. 

What can you do to make money from this?  People are looking to save money and will pay a little money if it ends up saving them or making them a lot.  Yes, everybody expects something for free but the saner people out there realize that if everything is for free, that means that their worth dwindles from $25 an hour to free just as well.  It is tough to feed a family of four or six on free.

Do what you can to get manufacturing started in this country as well.  Manufacturing is great because it is something solid that can’t be taken elsewhere easily.  It might be undercut in cost to be made but if you are savy enough to be in business there are other things that you might be able to market with this stuff (like killer service).

I’ve talked about the spiral of money and we really need people to be working so they can spend money to keep things spinning.  We need people to save money too and if their income is halfed or gone altogether, all bets are off as to what is going to happen.

Please keep the emails and letters going to our representatives and if you are in business, thank you for doing what you can to keep people employed.  If you are out of work, keep looking and think about what you can do to make money from this current environment.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Unemployment Must Be at 20 Percent

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Teaching Work Ethic To Teenagers and Children

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Question from a reader:”Why do we have such lousy service at fast food stores, department stores and any other service store that is still in business?”

 

goodservice1

 

As the photo above shows, not all service is done poorly.

My answer is that because nobody takes the time to teach children (who become teenagers) the basic work ethic.  The deal is that if you want to make money, you need to provide a service or product for somebody so they will want to do business with you again.  There is no magic to the formula but television, radio, the Internet and general yuck yuck attitude of people (and yes, parents, I am talking to you for not taking the time to teach your kids this stuff) have created many generations of people who are only working their job until they sell their screenplay, get hired as a top model, sell enough marijuana to quit their dayjob, etc. 

I am not talking about every child or teenager.  There are a lot of good and even great people who are working at fast food windows, electronic and department stores who take the time and give great service.  The problem is that when you have mostly mediocre to lousy service you tend reinforce the bad. 

The reason I am not ragging on adults is because most adults who are working can still force a fake smile and realize that in their most jaded nightmares that they still need to work.  You will see them trying very hard to do whatever it takes to keep themselves working and gainfully employed in our New Depression economy.

Folks, take five minutes and start getting your kids to say “please” and “thank you”.  Tell them to ask what they can do to help their customers or take the time to read their job scripts and make them their own with a positive attitude.  Life is more than videogames, skateboarding and whoring it up.  Well, maybe not much more but come on, gang, we need to ramp up our service industry a notch or twelve.  We are in a Depression and there is a lot of competition for work.  Employers will start laying off the slackers and problem children soon enough if they haven’t done so already.

So, to answer your question, the problem has been there for awhile, it just is more annoying when the economy is lousy and you have to part with hard earned or scarce money and aren’t getting service for the service that you are supposedly paying extra for.

Ah, also tell your kids to turn off their cell phones, no texting, and to pay attention while at work.  They are their for the benefit of their employer and not their hotty boy friend.  Don’t forget to arrive on time.  Employers don’t need to hear excuses because you didn’t plan accordingly to make it to your job when you should have been there.  There are plenty of other teenagers and even retired people who are anxious to fill your position.

And parents?  We already know that teenagers are already doing a great job trying to juggle hormone changes, body changes and dealing with school problems.  Don’t add to their issues by setting a crappy example with dealing with others.  Children and adults learn by example.  Remember to set a good example and then on top of that, set a better example. 

You will be remembered by your actions probably more than your words.  Trust me on that.

Happy Working!

March 31 2009 mid day

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.   Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Teaching Work Ethic To Teenagers and Children

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Just Starting Work How Much Is Enough To Save

Friday, November 7th, 2008

Question from a reader, “Kim, I have graduated college and am working.  How much should I be putting into my 401K that they are offering me?”

My answer:  First off, congratulations on being employed in this economy!  Kudos to your company as well for keeping their 401K intact.  The common wisdom is to maximize your contributions and save in your 401K as much as they will let you put it.  The rationale is that when you retire say 30-40 years from now, whatever bumps in the economy that we are going through now (bumps? they are more like mountains)  will look like nothing looking backwards in time.

The reality is that you need to live in the here and now.

If you can’t afford to max out your 401K, at least start putting in something, especially if your employer is offering matching money.  That is free money that you are getting and that accumulates over time.  If you are scared about putting money into the stock market, check with your human resources person or plan manager and see if they have some sort of fixed interest rate fund (most do) that you can park your money in for the short term. Always do your own due diligence and remember that you can be pretty forgiving with yourself if you are patient. You are starting early in your retirement savings and that in of itself is a good thing.

If you are married (and I am guessing that you are not) and have two incomes, it might be worthwhile to sit down with a financial planner and/or a tax professional so you can see which is the best way that you can save money and get the best situation you can in terms of taxes.

A lot of people don’t quite seem to get it right (as pointed out often in this blog).

In the long term, any money that you can park now is a good thing.  Remember though as investment warnings state, “Past performance doesn’t guarantee future returns”.  A lot of things can happen over thirty years and it pays to still watch what your money is doing and not forget about it.

Also, you didn’t mention if there was a grace period where you will be putting money in but won’t be 100% vested. Generally, check with your plan manager and read the timing of how and when you are actually fully vested in the plan and see if there is any tiered matching or vesting as you stay with the company.

You are asking a great question at a great time in your career.  All the best and keep me posted how things go!

Worried about the economy?  Looking for a part time job?  Please check out my book, Practical Money Making for suggestions about how to ride through the hard times.

 Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement
 

Kim Isaac Greenblatt
 

Kim answers a question about saving money in a 401K.

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Get That Part Time Job To Help With College High School or the Mortgage

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Finding it hard to make ends meet with just one job? Finding it tough to change jobs? You may want to think about picking up a part time gig. The problem is generally that you need to find something that will make it worth your time to do the work. If you are generally in need of cash, period, it doesn’t matter. Even in this tight economy you can find part time work if you look for it. Check out local Pennysaver, city newspapers as well as the internet. Check out the local malls and if you see something that you might be interested in – apply NOW, don’t wait.

This holiday season a lot of people will be looking for part time work to supplement their income.
With some of the larger chain stores going bankrupt, there may be slim pickens when it comes to looking for work at a chain store.

That just means you need to be more creative. It may mean that you need to go to the local mall and see if you can get a job as a shoe salesman instead of a video game store worker. Big deal. Cash is cash and you are not married to the job (or at least I hope you aren’t).

Make sure that you are putting aside enough savings to cover any income taxes that you may owe for your state as well as the Federal government.

Try not to spend money at the store you are working at because that defeats the purpose of making extra income.

Watch your schedule if you are going to college that your hours don’t conflict (or at least can be rescheduled) if you are taking classes or labs with weird hours. School should come first, unless of course you are fighting for your mortgage!

For more income making ideas and part time job suggestions, you may want to check this out.

Good luck and happy holidays!

Kim Greenblatt

Looking for seasonal work? Read Kim Greenblatt’s blog, profitable, for more information.

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