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The most critical component of custom building is obtaining the right budgets - Yes Plural - "for you." I can not emphasize this point enough. Every family has different needs and objectives. You are allocating resources (monetary, emotional, time, etc.) to your custom home and you expect to maximize your return on investment.
However, a custom home's return on investment is not the same as a stock holder's return on investment. Your return on your home's investment is personal. Yes, it should have financial implications, but it "MUST" reflect your family's lifestyle, values and personal sense of style. Your home should be an oasis. A place for entertaining, retreat, and solitude.
Therefore, you should require two budgets. One budget that outlines what you expect to pay for your home. No More, No Less. This is the financial budget. The second budget is a personal budget. This budget defines how your home will reflect your lifestyle, values and personal sense of style.
The personal budget outlines your requirements for items such as views; The style of architecture you want; How you entertain; What type of privacy your require; Do you work from home; Is there a need for a play area; How many Bedrooms do you need; What floor would you like the Master bedroom on; Etc.
It is "critical" that you are honest with the architect and your home builder regarding what you expect to pay and your requirements for your new home. No More, No Less. Without open, honest communication, the architect and your builder can not do the job they are hired to do - Design & Build Your "Custom" Home.
You should have both your financial and personal budgets prior to meeting with an architect. Your builder and the architect will work with your budgets to maximize your homes return on investment.
Brian Putnam is the Vice President of Operations and Owner of Stone Aspen Custom Homes in Colorado. http://www.stoneaspen.com
New Yorkers see the first high-speed Acela train from Washington to Boston in this file photo from Penn Station on Dec. 11, 2000. Amtrak hoped to compete with the airlines for passengers traveling the Northeast corridor, but slow tracks have prevented the trains from reaching competitive speeds for the length of its run.ZUMA Press / Newscom / FileEnlarge By Matthew E. Kahn, Guest blogger / October 7, 2010 High Speed rail is an interesting network problem. Any state along the route can make the entire network less attractive by not making the investments required to "keep the trains moving". Certain Republican governors are threatening not to invest in Fast Trains. Their ideology and commitment to smaller deficits means that their threats are credible. So what happens next? Will train boosters mail checks to these leaders to encourage them to avoid Amtrak speeds? Is bad behavior always rewarded in our political system? Now, this network isn't literally an O-ring. In that case, you are only as strong as your weakest link but in a high value of time economy --- how will trains compete if they go 200 MPG for part of the ride and 70 MPG for the other part? Average speed over the journey will determine the one way time and how the train will really compete with the incumbent planes.
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Matthew Kahn Mathew is an economics professor at UCLA and has written three books: Green Cities (Brookings Institution Press); Heroes and Cowards (Princeton University Press, jointly with Dora L. Costa); and in fall 2010, Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter World (Basic Books).
Perhaps geographers can create a new "straight line" across country through only Blue States showing how the fast train will proceed. If only liberals want to ride the fast train, then this ideological placement of the train may be efficient?
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The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday honored Victor Perez, the man behind the improbable car chase that resulted in the recovery of an 8-year-old girl abducted in Fresno, Calif. 'This guy is a true action hero,' said the governor. Here is his story and the stories of three other everyday heroes who responded to trying circumstances with extraordinary grace or courage.
Global News Blog The Vote
Leanne Sarco is a ranger at Grand Isle State Park, located on a barrier island off the coast of Louisiana. When the oil spill closed beaches and canceled her job running a summer program for children, she asked her boss if she could rescue hermit crabs instead. Her effort attracted volunteers from far and wide.
She recruited Facebook friends to save Gulf Coast's hermit crabs.
When park ranger Leanne Sarco saw oil-covered hermit crabs on the Louisiana beaches, she started her own project to clean and save them.
If your money situation feels out of control and you are living paycheck to paycheck it may be time to set up a personal budget. In its simplest form a home budget is based on expenses and income. It is the best way to regain control of out of control finances because it gives a quick and easy way to see exactly where your money is going.
The best way to do this is the old fashioned way, with a notebook and pencil. There is no need for fancy spreadsheets or financial software at this point; you just need to get a handle on what your money is doing. So with notebook and pencil in hand it's time to start setting up your personal budget.
When starting out sometimes it is a good idea to write down your financial goals. Are you getting out of debt? Saving for a future big purchase? Want to retire early? This will help you use your new budget for the right reasons and will help keep you motivated during the process.
Once your goals are written down it's time to get into the nitty gritty of budget building. Get out your check book register and all your monthly bills for the last three months. Leave nothing out; groceries, gas, gym memberships, credit card expenditures, utilities, insurance payments, mortgage's, that vacuum you financed, and anything else that you can think of.
Put each expense in the proper column or row in your notebook and then add each of them up and divide by three. This will give the average expense for each item on a monthly basis. This is the point where you will begin to see just where your money is going allowing you to identify areas where you are probably spending a little too much that could be put to better use.
The next step is to add up all your monthly income from your job or any other source of income you may have. Compare your monthly expenses to your monthly income; if you have less income then expenses you need to seriously work your way through your budget and cut as much as possible to get back to a positive cash flow.
Now that you have a snapshot of where your money has been going it is time to tell your money where to go so it works for you. This time you are looking a month into the future. Go back through your expenses and list out the important ones that must be paid and their payment due dates. Mortgage, utilities, transportation costs, food, and such are some examples of these expenses. Subtract these from your monthly income and what's left over can be used for other expenses.
The important thing to remember when making a budget is that every dollar should be accounted for in the budget. No more just spending money on a whim. If it's not in the budget you don't spend money on it unless you move money from another budgeted item to cover it. This keeps you from spending more then you make. And ultimately that is the reason to set up a personal budget.
If you seriously want to take back control of your money you need to build a Personal Budget. To learn more about creating a budget please visit the website Household Budgets by clicking here.
How much do you spend on food on a day-to-day basis? For most people, the simple answer is too much. It's not just the extra bag of chips or the impulse trip to the diner. There's also the cost of gas, electricity, and production time involved in getting food to your table. But saving money on food doesn't mean going hungry or giving up nutrition. Often, it only takes a few simple tricks. Here are five you can try today.
Make a weekly menu: Knowing what's ahead for the week will keep you from buying things that aren't on your shopping list. Or if you do buy stuff on impulse, you'll be able to keep it under control. It also saves those quick trips to the store for last-minute ingredients, which cost you time, gas, and money.
Take advantage of sales: If something's on sale, go ahead and stock up-but not more than you can consume before it goes bad. Get vegetables in bigger packs, bigger cans of broth, an extra pack of meat. You can always use the extras to liven up other dishes or even make a new dish altogether.
Use that crock pot: Slow cookers are great for budget cooking because they let you choose cheaper meats, use up less energy, and offer more creative meal options. They're not just for pot roast; there are lots of crock pot recipes for breakfast, soups, and even desserts!
Do some DIY: Whenever possible, make a batch of your own commonly use ingredients. Use meat drippings to make gravy or sauces, pre-cook your meats and save the broth for soups, or make a large batch of your kid's favorite dip. In the long run, you'll save a fair deal since you won't have to buy pre-mixed stuff anymore.
Switch off as you go: Don't leave appliances running longer than they should. Set your cooker to turn off automatically when done, and wait to the dishwasher to get full before turning it on. When you're done cooking, make sure everything is turned off-even that little blinking light in the microwave.
Simon Burke loves to cook delicious and nutritious meals for his family. And luckily for us he also enjoys sharing his cooking experiences and recipes with the rest of us. He has just found another article about budget cooking on this site all about frugal living that might interest you.
When you first realize that you may be heading for financial troubles you will most likely start thinking about setting up a home budget. When times get hard and you start getting those calls from the dreaded bill collectors you will normally start thinking real hard about a home budget.
When everyone wants a piece of your paycheck and you do not have enough money to pay everyone it is vital to spend your money wisely and in the right places. You want to make sure food is at the top of the list. If you are hungry it is hard to keep up the motivation to keep on chipping away at your pile of debt. Your rent or house payment also needs to be near the top of your priorities. Next you need to think about keeping the lights on. Your transportation you use to get to work is also very important. This article will look at a few of the things you need to think about when deciding who to pay first when setting up your home budget.
Keeping food on the table has to be about the most important thing you can put at the top of your budget. You do not need the best food to keep going but you do need to think about good nutrition and staying healthy. Getting sick will only cause to miss some days at work, which will put you further behind. This does not mean you should not pay your bills and go out to eat every night in a nice restaurant. By being careful you can eat pretty good for little cash.
Keeping a roof over your head is just as important as eating. Paying your rent or house payment needs to be over almost any thing else in your home budget. Lose your home and you will lose much more than just your house. There is a safety in your own place that seems to disappear when you no longer have a home you can call yours.
Next on the list would be your utilities. Although I would not consider gas and lights as important as food and shelter it is pretty important nonetheless. You can live in a house with no electricity if you have to but it is not a pleasant task.
Transportation needs to be thought about next. Your car is often your only way to work. If you do not work you probably will not have enough money to pay your bills. You may be able to take advantage of public transportation but this is not available for everyone.
Use common sense when setting up a home budget and pay the necessities first. Pay everyone you owe as fast as you possibly can and do the best you can by getting out of debt and staying there..
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Keeping control of your personal finances is, in theory, a fairly simple process. It is only human nature that makes home budgeting and financial control so difficult for many people. However, for the sake of this article, we will consider the simple side of the household budget equation, which is making a budget in the first place.
A good starting point in your quest to make a home budget, is to take stock of your current and recent situation, and list out all your monthly outgoings.
If you only do this from memory, there is a chance you will miss one or more important items. You probably have several sources of information on what those regular outgoings are, and whether they are easy to find depends on how well organised you are with your paperwork. It is worth checking back over at least three months bank and credit card statements, and jot down what your regular payments are out of those. At the same time, you can also make a note of items of expenditure that may recur later on.
Another source of information will be the bills and receipts that you have received over the past quarter. If you have not kept such documents and records before, then now is a good time to start. The good organisation of your important financial documents, and orderly filing of bills and receipts, will stand you in good stead for controlling the family budget when it is set.
Going over what you have spent over the last quarter will cover most if not all of your regular payments. However, it is important to think about whether you have any quarterly, annual, or new commitments that may not have shown up in your previous search. This part of the process in making your budget should give you a list that includes utilities (eg water, electricity, gas and telephone), insurance payments, mortgage and loan repayments, and credit card payments.
The regular payments you have so far found will form the core of your household budget. You can now turn those into a formal list, either on paper or on a spreadsheet, and put the amounts into the next column, with a heading notifying the month. Before moving on to the next phase, add a further 11 columns on the paper or spreadsheet, with the headings changed to appropriate months until you have a column for each calendar month for a year. I have prepared an example budget spreadsheet to help you.
For each of the items listed, decide whether they are monthly, quarterly, or yearly, payments, then repeat the monthly amounts in all the columns that apply. For example, monthly payments will go in all 12 columns but quarterly in only in the four columns when payment is due.
The next stage is for you to consider what other necessary expenditure will come out of your income every month. These other expenditure items probably do not show up as regular payments in the first stage, though individual payments may. These items may include food, household goods such as detergents, car maintenance, petrol (gasoline), and fares, which are essential to you, and you need to budget for each month.
Again, list these items in the budget list, and then enter amounts in each monthly column. What you will have then will be the "essential expenditure" part of the budget. This, if you like, is the unavoidable part of your budget. At least, it is unavoidable in the short term.
On top of that essential expenditure, though, we all have discretionary, unnecessary or indulgent expenditure, on things we like to spend on but do not actually have to.
However, before considering your non essential outgoings, there are two things it is advisable to do:
1. Total your monthly essential expenditure for each of the next 12 months, and
2. Write (or type) in your monthly net income at the top of your budget form.
Hopefully, "2" is much higher than "1", and you still have some income left to spend on non-essential things that make life more pleasant, plus some regular savings too.
Now that you know that you have money spare to spend on non-essentials, such as holidays and eating out, then you can also list those. You will then have a complete picture of your spending and income patterns, and have a basic budget from which you can plan ahead and keep your finances under control. If all goes well, you can also budget to save a reasonable amount each month, putting you well on the way to financial stability.
This how to make a budget article was written by Roy Thomsitt, owner author of the Eliminate Credit Card Debt Now web site.
Budgeting money is something of a neglected necessity in the modern world, with so many people lured into spending regardless of their financial situation. It has become almost the norm to spend each month more than is earned, often without even knowing it. This has led to severe debt problems for millions of people in the US and UK in particular, and an encouragement and acceptance of ignorance in personal money management.
Despite all the bad debt write offs, the banks and other lenders are happy with the situation. They build the risk factor of bad debts into their interest rates to ensure overall profitability, so borrowers are paying for the collective lack of ability to budget properly. Yet, budgeting is easy, so it is baffling in some ways that many people are unsure how to budget money.
Being able to budget your own money is a bit more than listing your incomings and outgoings each month, quarter, year, or whatever period you need to budget for. Yes, you must go through the listing process, and then keep an eye on both sides of the equation constantly. But there are other factors in home budgeting, and that is what this article is about.
The Greatest Incentive
To encourage yourself to budget money is important, as without the motivation, you will probably not budget that well. What incentive can there be to having a home budget and sticking to it? The answer is actually quite simple. Nobody becomes rich by spending more, or even the same, each month than they receive. Wealth grows from surplus; that is, the surplus left over at the end of the month after you have completed your spending.
Recognizing this can provide you with a kick start in wanting to learn how to budget money, and then put that learning into practice. Once you start to see those surpluses build, your confidence in wealth building, and incentive in budgeting, will grow.
Keeping Detached
It is important when budgeting to maintain a detached view of the figures. Think of yourself as a finance professional helping a consumer set and manage a home budget, and set yourself aside from any emotions that may seep out during a review of your budget. Some parts of the budget can arouse emotions, and thus distort sensible decisions. Things like cutting out a family holiday or weekend trips, that new bike for your son or designer outfit for your daughter, can be emotional sparks. It is important not to allow those sparks to set light to your well drafted budget.
Be Open
If you have a family, the household budget affects those closest to you. The budget is a family affair, and it does help to talk openly about it with your spouse and children who are old enough to understand. Children may not like sacrifices, but they will understand eventually. It can be an important part of their education if you involve them. If you can give them some incentive, too, such as building their own savings scheme into the budget, then they may even start to enjoy it and truly see the benefits.
Ignore Peer Pressures
Your personal budget is simply that, personal. It is therefore something you should see in the context of your own circumstances, not somebody else's.
To budget your money effectively you really need to be able to ignore peer pressures that may force you into unnecessary or unwise spending. Just because your neighbour or best friend is having two foreign holidays this year does not mean you need to also. Just because your brother or other relative has a new home cinema system does not mean it is essential for you too.
If you can let peer pressure run off you, like water off a duck's back, then you have made a big breakthrough in learning how to budget money.
Those are just a few of the other factors that come into play in learning how to budget at home, but they are all worth considering as you focus on your incomings and outgoings while home budgeting.
This how to budget money article was written by Roy Thomsitt, owner author of the Eliminate Credit Card Debt Now web site.
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You know that old dramatic principle of suspension of disbelief? You'll have to rely on it for this box-office smash, but you won't be disappointed. Harrison Ford plays a U.S. president who single-handedly employs his rigid antiterrorism policy when a band of Russian thugs hatch a mid-flight takeover of Air Force One. Gary Oldman, who chews the scenery as the lead terrorist, will shoot a hostage at the slightest provocation. Glenn Close plays the sternly pragmatic vice president who negotiates with Oldman from her Washington seat of power. If you can believe that the aircraft's pressurized cabin can sustain hundreds of rounds of machine-gun fire, you'll buy anything in this entertaining potboiler, especially thanks to Ford's stalwart heroics and some nifty special effects. Director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot) keeps the action moving so fast you won't be sweating the details. Don't forget your parachute! --Jeff ShannonPrice: $14.94
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Learning about budgeting and how it can help your personal financial life makes every aspect of your life easier and helps to give peace of mind. Most people, however, do not budget and have a hard time grasping the concept of why this might be important to them.
What is a Budget?
A budget is a spending plan that includes everything that you will spend money on. A good budget is one that includes all of your expenses and allows you to stay within your income. A great budget includes all of your spending and allows you to save for a rainy day and eventually invest some of that money, too, and still stays within your income. There is no reason why any person (or family) should not be able to stay within their personal home budget. One thing to be aware of is that no matter how detailed your spending plan is, if it doesn't include everything that you will spend money on, and does not address where you will get the money to cover your expenses, then it isn't a budget.
Isn't a Budget Just a Pain to Do?
Well, it does take some time and a little bit of discipline at first. But without it, you really can't track where you are spending your money, you will lose control of your expenses and not even be able to figure out where the money went. And to make matters worse, you may end up having problems figuring our where to get the money to cover a big expense that you forgot about. So which is the bigger pain, taking a little bit of time to do a proper budget or to have the financial headaches that come from not doing one?
How to Start Your Personal Budget
The first thing you can do is gather all of your bills and receipts, including credit card and cash receipts, for the past year and tally these up either on a piece of paper or a spreadsheet. Divide these into each month (as well as spending categories, if you are so inclined). This will give you an idea of how much you have spent in the past. Naturally you aren't going to have receipts for all of your cash. So, in order to complete this exercise you will have to start tracking all of your expenses. For the next two months keep a small notebook with you in order to track everything. Write down all of your cash expenses, credit card usage, and every bill you pay. Here is an example:
Amount Method Item
$4.87 cash coffee
$30.00 cash gas
$6.28 Visa lunch
$14.95 MasterCard flowers
Do this for two months! This is important, because it will help you to better understand your spending habits and where your money is going.
Okay, I've Tracked My Expenses, Now What?
Once these are all tracked you can put them into a worksheet that categorizes each item. You can total everything you spend under each spending category. This will be what tells you where your money really is going. And why would you do that? Well, you might be surprised to discover a few things. Consider that when I did this I realised that I was spending over $75.00 per month on drinks alone - that's not alcohol, it's just the morning tea and such. And I was spending more than that on snacks (junk food). So that was over $150 per month on things that I didn't really need. Once I cut those I not only saved a lot of money, but I also stopped gaining weight (a nice added bonus that I hadn't anticipated or thought of). I still drink the tea, but I pack it in a thermos.
Now that you have it all in categories, you can total it all up and see how much spending you normally do each month. This tells you your overall expenses to live the lifestyle that you are used to.
Next you need to take your income into account. Include all sources and list each separately. Total these up. And how does this total compare to your total expenses? For most people they will find that they are either very close (sometimes the same), or the expenses will actually be higher than the income. Either way, this needs to change. If your income is a fair bit higher than your expenses, then congratulations! You've been doing well in that sense. But if it isn't (like most people), then you need to start to manage a budget right away.
With your expenses at or exceeding your income, you will never be able to save for emergencies or retirement. Do you want to work all your life just making it by each month? Have a look at your expenses that you tracked. Find the easiest ones to cut the expenses in and start working at that. With diligence and good tracking, you will be able to save at least 10% of your income each month. Ideally you should be able to save 20% or more. If you can do that, then in four months you will have saved enough to survive for one month should you lose your income completely. Keep this up until you have at least three months, preferably six, of expenses saved. Then you can start investing for your future!
Good luck!
Johanus Haidner, MBA, helps people better manage their lives for a better future. His company, Haidner Management Corporation, offers financial coaching, bookkeeping and tax services, as well as business set up advice to small businesses. Johanus Haidner has pulled himself from the brink of bankruptcy after he lost his job and his wife left him with all of their joint bills and expenses. For help in budgeting, he has made a free spreadsheet, available at http://personalbudgethelp.com to help people better manage their personal home budgeting. A single father, Johanus' favorite activity is to spend time teaching and playing with his kids. In his spare time he volunteer teaches martial arts with The Academy of European Swordsmanship http://www.the-aes.org.
“Monetary warfare!” says The Financial Times. In North America, the US is pointing its heavy guns at China… The US Congress has proposed a bill naming China as a “currency manipulator.” How, exactly, is China manipulating the renminbi? It is holding steadfast to the dollar! This, says US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, “translates into a significant subsidy, artificially making US products more expensive, and jeopardizing efforts to create and preserve manufacturing jobs in America.”
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Bill Bonner Bill has written two New York Times best-selling books, Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt. With political journalist Lila Rajiva, he wrote his third New York Times best-selling book, Mobs, Messiahs and Markets, which offers concrete advice on how to avoid the public spectacle of modern finance. Since 1999, Bill has been a daily contributor and the driving force behind The Daily Reckoning (dailyreckoning.com).
In South America, Brazil fires salvoes at Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. “We’re in the midst of an international currency war,” said Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, on Monday. What makes the Asian countries a target of Brazil’s artillery? They intervened in the currency markets directly, selling their own currencies and buying, among other things, Brazil’s real.
The remarkable thing about these battles is that admirals scuttle their own ships. Generals spike their own cannon. All the combatants send out their currencies like foot soldiers – and then shoot them in the back. They are all trying to “manage their currencies down,” the FT explains.
Meanwhile in Europe, Ireland cannot assassinate its own homegrown currency. It doesn’t have one. It signed on to the euro. For the moment at least, the euro managers hesitate; Ireland will have to cheat its people and its creditors flagrantly rather than surreptitiously. On Thursday, it put another 5 billion euros into Anglo-Irish Bank.
These strange facts incite the following reflection on the whole scammy system. The trouble with today’s capitalism is that there is little honest capital left in it. It has been drained away by quackery, debt and fraud. Real capitalism requires solid capital – money you can trust. But real money disappeared nearly 40 years ago. That was when the last traces of gold were removed. Since then, all currencies have been “managed.” No longer fixed measures of real wealth, they have become tools…supposedly used by the authorities to promote full employment and growth…but in fact little more than monetary felonies.
From the end of the Napoleonic wars until the beginning of World Wars of the 20th century, the world’s money system was backed by gold. You couldn’t “manage” it. You couldn’t devalue it. You couldn’t talk it up or talk it down. You couldn’t beggar thy neighbor by cheapening it or enrich him by making it more dear. It was what it was. The new experimental money system began in the Year of Richard Nixon, 1971. Thereafter, the supply of money could increase much faster than the supply of goods and services. US money supply (M2) rose 1,314% between 1970 and 2008, from $624 billion to $8.2 trillion. What did all this ersatz new money do? First it flattered…then it corrupted…and finally, it robbed.
America’s working stiffs were the first to get whacked. Inflation made them feel like they were earning more; but they haven’t had a real, hourly raise since the system was put in place 4 decades ago. And now, America is struggling to make sure they get none in the future either. Lowering the dollar against the renminbi increases the cost of probably 90% of the goods in Wal-Mart and Costco – where the working classes shop.
But this has been going on ever since the managers began taking liberties with the dollar. In the 1960s, the working man – 90% of the population – got 60% of the income gains of the period. By the end of the bubble years – 2001- 2007 – he got just 11%. This has resulted in a “record income gap,” says this week’s news. Half the nation’s income goes to the top 20% of the population, nearly twice as much, compared to the bottom 20%, as in 1967; it’s the biggest gap since they began keeping track.
Consumer prices rose 5 times over the last 40 years. The stock market went up 15 times – from 800 in January 1970 to over 12,000 in 2008 – roughly in line with the increase in the money supply. But the phony money betrayed the rich too. Investors were misled. Capitalists erred. Trillions of dollars went down rat-holes. Consumers were spent out, but the capitalists kept building shopping malls. Now, stock market prices have gone nowhere for more than a decade. And household net worth – most of it in the hands of the wealthy – has declined $12.3 trillion from the peak. When the mistakes are finally flushed out, they could be down another $12 trillion.
The horns have sounded and bells have been rung. It is 1939 in the currency war – just the beginning. When it is over, every managed currency in the world will be dead or wounded. But we will be wiser, too. When the new managed dollar was introduced in the “Nixon Shock” of August, 1971, nobody knew what it was worth. When the end comes, everyone will know.
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The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.
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Vocation. Career. Job.
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Trent Hamm The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds – we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.
Three different things that so often seem to overlap in our minds. However, when we let them overlap, we lose something valuable in the translation.
A job is simply any situation where you are paid in exchange for your labor. Nothing more, nothing less. Warren Buffett has a job, as does the cashier down at the local McDonalds.
A career is a sequence of jobs in a similar field that ideally lead to promotion within that field. I’ve had two careers in my life – The Simple Dollar is my second career.
A vocation is what you were born to do. It’s that point where your skills, talents, and interests intersect and you’re most able to change the world around you. Your vocation and career might overlap – or they might not.
Why the distinctions? I think we illustrate them best when we look at them pairwise.
Job versus career So often, we merely look at jobs as pieces of a career. When we move on from our current job, we simply look for the next step in our career path – or we look for the first step in a new career path, right?
Actually, neither one has to be true. A job is nothing more than a way to put income into your pocket. It only becomes part of your career if you choose to put that extra value in there.
Quite often, when people are in desperate need of income and are out there searching for work, they are so locked into continuing their career that they fail to look for a job. You can have a job without it being the continuation of your career. Instead, it can merely be the source of income while you search for that next career step.
Job versus vocation A job is nothing more than a way to fund a vocation.
One of my favorite images in that regard comes in the form of one of my closest friends in college. He had a job as a night cashier at a gas station near campus, where he worked from 10:30 PM to 7:30 AM about four nights a week.
At first, I thought this was terrible. It was just a dead-end job, and he seemed to be giving up so much of his college freedom for it. I decided to start popping in every once in a while to see how he was doing.
Every time I visited him, he wasn’t sitting behind the counter bemoaning his situation. Instead, he usually had a sketchbook with him and a set of colored pencils of various kinds. He would spend hours simply making sketches of the items on display there, mastering his skills of shading and perspective.
He’s now in graphic design, and I’d say that his time in the gas station was merely a job, a job that he recognized existed solely to enable his vocation.
Career versus vocation Right now, my career path is that of a high-throughput writer. I’m a blogger who posts two lengthy articles a day, plus freelance work, plus some independent projects. Those jobs all add up to more jobs in that career path.
My vocation, however, has only vaguely to do with what I’m doing today. My vocation is writing, but my career is only one particular flavor of that. There are many other areas of writing that I wish to explore as time moves on. I am drawn, with every ounce of my being, to someday write carefully crafted works of fiction and nonfiction. Not 5,000 word days where I’m trying to communicate several ideas as quickly as possible. Instead, more careful, nuanced, researched writing.
My career is connected to my vocation only in that it’s giving me the skills I need to explore that vocation more thoroughly. The career itself isn’t the end goal – it’s merely a piece in a much larger puzzle.
What does all of this really mean in terms of day-to-day choices? I think it boils down to asking yourself a few introspective questions.
First, how does my job actually play into my larger career goals? Many jobs certainly do lead to another career step. Some jobs do not. Know what you’re getting from that job beyond merely the paycheck – and understand what you’re willing to give in exchange for that.
Second, is my job enabling me to build towards my vocation? If it is, then use it. Use every element of your current job that you can to help you build a path into your vocation. If it’s not, then it’s just a way to put some money in your pocket as you seek a better result.
Third, is my career actually what I was meant to do? I can’t tell you the number of people that write to me when they’ve suddenly realized that their career isn’t at all what they want to be doing with their lives. The sooner you realize that, the better, because it gives you the time you need to begin thinking of your current job as merely a job rather than a career element. A job is something you use to move along in your vocation, whether it’s solely because of the income or whether other resources are at work in that equation.
One final thought: regardless of what you’re doing right now at your job, you can be working towards your vocation or building towards your next career step. In either case, if you want something great in your future, you’ve got to work for it, whether it’s in the form of hitting a home run in your work performance so you can move ahead or utilizing the resources of your job to help you build up the things you need for your vocation.
What’s it going to be? Either way you go, now’s the time to stand up and start fighting for your future.
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The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.
There are several points that will influence our financial lives, but possibly absolutely nothing influences our funds and our fiscal future very as significantly as a practical and correctly adopted household budget. All as well handful of us have learned how to price range properly, and this failure to develop a household spending budget can lead to all method of monetary ills.
A single of the principal motives so numerous of us fail to generate a budget is that we sense that developing a funds is overly complicated. In reality, producing a funds does not have to have to be at all difficult. Producing a spending budget can be as simple as writing down each and every cost and retaining monitor of it for a month.
The best way to do this is to carry close to a basic budget sheet, which can be as basic as a little notebook. Into this price range sheet, write each and every item you obtain, from that morning cup of java to the muffler on your vehicle. At the finish of each and every week, enter this budget data into your favored spreadsheet or budgeting program, assigning each cost a class as you go. This straightforward method will make it a excellent cope easier to preserve monitor of your bills heading ahead.
Often this easy funds physical exercise is a good eye opener for customers, and a excellent way to recapture dollars that has been leaking out of your pocket. Following all, that $four everyday cup of caffeine may well not appear like very much, till your spending budget exhibits you that forgoing it by generating java at residence could save you over $100 per calendar month. Individuals weekly dinners out may not appear like that big a deal, till your price range exhibits you where you could lower again without having impacting your lifestyle.
The usefulness of the month-to-month budget is countless, and understanding wherever your funds is coming from, and wherever it is proceeding, is an essential very first step when it comes to obtaining a take care of on your finances. Till you take the time to set up and stick to a reasonable budget, you may well be unable to get a accurate picture of your financial situation.
There are numerous items families and people can do to boost their fiscal circumstance, from landing that promotion to taking on a 2nd work. Number of issues will provide as very much energy, nevertheless, as lastly sitting lower and creating that home budget. The price range is the most simple of all economic documents, and it is crucial to acquire the bull by the horns and get that price range underneath manage. Making a budget is not easy, but the rewards are fantastic.
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Remember Latvia? Before the attention turned to Greece, Latvia was portrayed as the country with the biggest crisis (partly unfairly).
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Stefan Karlsson Stefan is an economist currently working in Sweden.
But now the Latvian economy shows clear signs of recovery, with retail sales in August increasing by 1% compared to the previous month and 4.6% compared to August 2009. And industrial production increased 3.5% compared to the previous month and 20.5% compared to August 2009.
While output is still significantly below pre-crisis levels and unemployment still far too high, Latvia's economy is clearly in a recovery. This recovery comes "despite" the fact that Latvia hasn't devalued and implemented tough but necessary austerity measures.
Meanwhile, the government that pushed through the tough these austerity measures was re-elected with a wide margin.
Both of these news will help Latvia bring down the budget deficit and thereby qualify it for entry into the euro area.
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The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.
Entrepreneurs are the job engine in our economy during good times and bad. They are the primary creators of new jobs leading our growth during booms, and they lead job creation coming out of recessions.
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Dr. Jeffrey R. Cornwall Jeff is the Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
The latest job creation figures from the Intuit Small Business Index suggest that while job growth is somewhat better than last year this time, job creation among small businesses is not at the levels we need to spur a recovery.
This index showed modest job creation in August, with at estimated 39,000 new jobs created. However, September data showed only 27,000 new jobs created.
Additionally, there was no increase in hours worked or compensation. If these figures had improved we could hold out hope that small businesses were growing through increased productivity. But, this is not the case.
These figures mirror the drop in intention to hire new employees found in other surveys of small business owners over the past few weeks.
There is no sign that small businesses are ready to lead a recovery any time in the foreseeable future.
All of this is evidence that supports the growing consensus that we are in for a prolonged period of high unemployment.
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The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.
Did you know that while credit card debt could be avoided by some timely home budget planning, it is a substantial reason for over one million bankruptcies each year? The reason for so many bankruptcies is because many individuals do not fully understand a contract when applying for a credit card. Furthermore, many forget to make payments, spend without keeping track of expenses, and along with annual credit card fees, see their debt increase exponentially.
Credit card companies are typically blamed by those who have racked up a significant amount of credit card debt, however, in reality, it's about time that these people took responsibility for their actions that got them in that situation.
One event of careless spending with the credit card does get you into a lot of debt. What makes you accumulate a large amount of debt is when you continue buying with your card with keeping track of each expense. Hence, it's not difficult for anyone to reduce their credit card debt. All you have to do is simply spend less than what you bring in. By having this in mind, you can start planning to reduce your debt over the long term.
If you wish to achieve your goal, then you will have to use your won't power more than your willpower. It's important to figure out what you really need and decide whether it can be afforded according to your income, without forgetting to reward yourself with a luxury every now and then. Reducing and removing your debt will take some attention but eventually it will happen - you might be surprised with a bit of control, how you will see the debt going down.
At first, you will have some trouble sticking to your debt reduction plan, but rest assured, if you stay strong and willing, it will all be worth it.
After getting out of credit card debt, it's vital that you no longer return to old habits. Summoning all your strength towards your approach to your spending, will bring yourself closer to being the winner in this situation. You can compare this to dieting: at the beginning, it's not easy to stick to new habits, but it will all be worth it once you discover that your financial situation is healthy once again.
Your financial problems can really be helped with good Home Budget Planning.... and remember don't spend money you don't have!
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Homes running on predetermined budgets work more smoothly than others. Budgets ensure that there are calculated funds for all type of expenses and some emergency ones too. Families willing to save cash benefit a lot from home budgets. Maintaining and preparing budgets have become ever so simple with household budget spreadsheets. These templates are available online, most downloads are free.
Here are some examples of home budget spreadsheets:
- Family Budget Spreadsheet: It gives an outlay of budget for the whole year. Trying to fulfill some long term goals, like purchasing a car or home? This spreadsheet will help to exercise budgets economically and help to determine approximately the money that can be saved in a year, based on earlier expense patterns.
- Home Budget Worksheet: This helps to chart out family as well as personal budgets for a year. One can store information about mortgages, savings, installments, debt, interests, and several other categories.
Almost all the home budget spreadsheets have printable format. They have the facility of adding and deleting categories depending upon requirement. Equipped with home budget spreadsheets, you can make use of personal budget spreadsheets- this acts as double tool. You know where to spend personally and can maintain detailed sections on where every penny was spent.
At the end of every month, you know how much was saved and then the balance can be carried over to the next month. This helps to rotation funds and limits withdrawing money every month from bank. Every month's budget template will help to analyze the pattern of household spending. On the basis of this experience, the next month's budget is worked out more economically while fulfilling all household requirements.
One of the major advantage of household budget spreadsheet- helps to prioritize things and reduce unnecessary expenditure. Budgets help especially those who are frivolous with money. Its not that budgets make you walk on a tight rope, they just motivate to take economically informed decisions.
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Smoot-Hawley here we come.
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Robert Reich Robert is chancellor's professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Clinton. He has written 13 books, including 'The Work of Nations,' 'Locked in the Cabinet,' and his most recent book, 'Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future.' His 'Marketplace' commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes.
Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot, you may recall, sponsored the Tariff Act of 1930 that raised tariffs to record levels on more than 20,000 imported goods. The duo said this would protect American jobs and revive the economy. It did the reverse, plunging the nation into an even deeper depression. Other nations retaliated. Global trade plummeted. Americans got poorer, as did millions of others around the world.
Why do I think we’re on the way back to Smoot-Hawley? Because with Republicans and blue-dog deficit hawks gaining ground after November 2, the chance of boosting the economy with an “infrastructure bank,” another big spending package, or even a big round of middle-class tax cuts is roughly nil. This means a lousy economy — possibly for years.
And that leaves trade as a sitting duck.
High unemployment turns the public against trade. In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, more than half of those surveyed (53%) said free trade hurts America. That’s up from 46% in 2007, and just 32% in 1999.
Traditional big-business Republicans support trade. But the tea partiers who are taking over the GOP don’t. An astonishing 61 percent of people who describe themselves as “Tea Party sympathizers” say trade is bad for America. That’s close to the 65 percent of union families who are against trade.
Think about it. The ground troops for both parties – tea party Republicans and union Democrats – believe free trade is bad.
The tea party movement represents the isolationist wing of the GOP. It’s a direct descendant of Mr. Smoot and Mr. Hawley. Not only are tea partiers against trade; they’re also against immigrants. At the first national convention of Tea Party Nation last February, former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo brought the crowd to its feet by denouncing America’s so-called “cult of multiculturalism” and accusing immigrants of threatening America’s Judeo-Christian values. “This is our country!” he declared, to wild cheers. “Take it back!”
Neither trade nor immigration has been responsible for the huge job losses of the Great Recession. These losses have been due to the bursting housing bubble and collapse of domestic demand.
But dig deeper and you’ll find a longer-term truth about trade. While all of us have benefited from access to lower-cost products made abroad, the burdens of free trade have fallen disproportionately on what we used to call the working class.
Globalization is part of reason the median wage of male workers hasn’t risen in three decades, adjusted for inflation. Starting in the late 1970s, technologies like cargo ships, containers, and satellite communications, followed by computers and the Internet, enabled companies to efficiently parcel out work around the world wherever it could be done most cheaply. The result has been to undermine unions and destroy many good-paying routine jobs in America.
Meanwhile, the biggest benefits have gone to the top – to executives of U.S. global corporations, Wall Street financiers, big-name entertainers, and the most successful digital entrepreneurs. All have been sufficiently educated and well-connected, or lucky enough, to find a huge and growing global market for what they sell.
The consequence has been a degree of inequality not seen in this country since the late 1920s.
The winners from globalization have gained so much that they could have fully compensated the losers and still come out ahead. They could have financed better schools and free higher education for most Americans, along with wage subsidies that brought almost everyone up to a higher standard of living.
But they didn’t. Instead, they fought to keep their tax shelters, loopholes, and lower marginal rates, and they fought against more outlays for public investments and social safety nets. Wall Street got bailed out but Main Street got zilch.
So we’re on the cusp of new isolationism that’s likely to hurt all of us – a backlash against free trade, immigration, and maybe even international bodies such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and IMF.
Isolationism and nationalism are the handmaidens of an economically anxious and frustrated middle class. That was the lesson we learned 80 years ago, but forgot.
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The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. This post originally ran on www.robertreich.org.
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Have you ever wished to make a start on setting up a home budget but were not sure how to start? Couldn't work out how to do the calculations and were not sure whether the answer would be correct? No more reason to stall. Use a pre-formatted spreadsheet that you only have to enter your financial income and expenses into. There are many of these available on the Internet. Ready to look at the benefits? Let's go.
Benefit #1. A spreadsheet clearly shows your thinking and the calculations used to arrive at the answer. What's more, it allows you to add extra items quickly and see their impact on your financial position, or your free spending amount.
Benefit #2. A spreadsheet can be quickly and easily copied and the data changed to suit a friend or another member of the family. Maybe a teen's budget or a hobby budget could be started using the same initial template. You could also easily copy one month's budget and reproduce it 11 more times to last for a whole year.
Benefit #3. A spreadsheet can be printed and taken with you for further study, or passed on to members of the family for their input.
Benefit #4. A spreadsheet allows for "What If" questions to be asked of it. For instance, what if you were to reduce the spending on clothes and add some extra funds to credit card payments and/or holiday savings? The answer to this question could be instantly calculated by just changing 2 or 3 numbers.
Benefit #5. A spreadsheet can teach you a new, very marketable skill. You may find you pick up this skill really quickly and want to add more elements to the budget like graphs, personalized formatting and more calculations. A spreadsheet is really only a calculator, but with a lot more flexibility. Setting up a budget for yourself, is a good place to start, since this is an easy project. You could progress on to building a Savings Growth Calculator, a Retirement Goal Calculator or a hobby expense and income sheet, and the list goes on. Spreadsheets are used everywhere in the finance, marketing, teaching, manufacturing and sales functions in many businesses worldwide.
Benefit #6. A spreadsheet can improve your accuracy. If you have set up the spreadsheet correctly, you can be sure that that the answers provided are correct, time after time. It's easy to see the formulae used and to check their correctness. Others can check these for you also, if you need some help in this area.
Benefit #7. A spreadsheet allows for easy changes to be made to your assumptions and data, as your circumstances change over time. Let's say you receive a substantial pay raise? No worries. Just adjust the income numbers and the new answer falls out. What if you wish to spend less on some item for a month and apply these savings to another expense item or save a little more? Not a problem. Just change the required data and the answer is immediately available.
If you want your budget preparation task to be as simple as possible don't waste your valuable time with scraps of paper and a calculator. Use the tool that will save you time and hassle, the spreadsheet.
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Home budgeting software helps you make a budget quickly and efficiently. A variety of services are available in the software market. Some software come as free downloadable software and others can be purchased for a small fee. There are software designed to work with Widows, Mac and Linux. The best service is the software that has all the functions to suit your unique requirements.
While choosing home budgeting software, it is important that the software is easy to install. You can also check if the manufacturers provide periodic upgrades to the software so that your software will contain up to date and easy to use components for easy home budgeting.
While looking for the best fit for your needs, you should keep a few features in mind. These features will help you make a budget quickly and track your expenses according to budget easily. Check if the software automatically categorizes expenditure. The software should also allow you to add categories in addition to the programmed categories within the software. You can also check if the software reconciles accounts and offers other features like import and export of data and tracking expenses. Some advanced programs connect to PayPal and bank accounts and track withdrawals from these accounts. In short the best service will have all tools and components to put you in control of your home finances.
Good home budgeting software will have tools for efficient reporting. Reporting is an important component of budgeting software. These reports will help you review your budget periodically and to make adjustments. Simple options may provide a detailed report of incomes and a report of expenses only while advanced services will give reports of expenditures, investments, tax reports and reports by expense category to give you an accurate picture of how much money you had at first and where the money went at the end of each month.
The best home budgeting software will have the tools you require for accurate budgeting. Some software have inbuilt financial calculators. These financial calculators are useful especially if you need to repay loans or a mortgage.
Some home budgeting software come with tools to protect the privacy of the user. The software can be password protected to keep your finances private and to prevent misuse. The software will also have the facility to backup your data and restore the data easily in the event, the hard disk of your computer crashes.
The best option for you should be easy to install and use. The software come with detailed user manuals and tutorials for easy and efficient usage. Some home budgeting software manufacturers offer detailed manuals or tutorials on a CD Rom or a detailed FAQ page on their website for reference. To make it even easier for customers, some manufacturers offer online or telephone support to make installation and usage simple.
The most important consideration before buying home budgeting software is cost. You should shop among the available software and choose the software that is affordable yet has all the components that suits your unique financial needs.
Choosing the best home budgeting for your needs will make monthly budgeting easy and will assist you in controlling your monthly finances accurately.
See a complete list of the best personal finance software and other free web based software
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People experiencing problems with personal debt are not the only ones who could benefit from proper budgeting when it comes to household finances. Finding a long term solution to debt does involve learning to control spending, but budgeting is a process from which anyone can get real benefits. Budgeting is not so much about scrimping and saving and saying no to everything, as about a comprehensive reorganisation of your finances. Done properly, budgeting will help you actually do more with the money you have.
The easiest way to begin budgeting is to use a household budget form. This will allow you to find out exactly where all your money goes, and then use that information to plan how much you really want to spend on everything. It is a two stage process - finding out where you are now, and working out where you are going to go from here.
A good household budget form will list out all your possible sources of income and expenditure, to help ensure that you do not forget about anything or miscalculate. If you use one that automatically calculates totals for you, this will reduce the likelihood of errors. It is very important to complete household budget forms carefully, as a very small slip on a number can have a significant impact on your totals. Imagine the difference an extra 0 would make to your salary figure!
Once you have completed all your income and expenditure, the totals should show you clearly your 'bottom line'. You will see instantly whether you are spending more than you earn or not. If your spending is within your income, then you have no big problem, but you could still use budgeting to re-balance your spending to where you want it to go. If you spend more than you earn, however, then you need to take action and a budget can help you.
Your next step has to be to start from your actual figures for monthly spending, and put new budget figures in for what you can afford to spend on each of these areas in future. Clearly some areas you will have no choice about, such as mortgages, etc, but others you will have a lot more leeway. You need to work out your new budget so that your total expenditure is less than your income.
The next, and possibly most difficult part, is sticking to the new budget that you have worked out from your household budget form. This involves careful monitoring of everything you spend, and being able to keep track of your spending in each of the different areas. It also involves the same thing for anyone else in your household who will be involved in the process with you. This is where you may find it useful to look at home budgeting software to help make this more manageable.
Whether you use a household budget form or a budgeting software package is of less importance than that you manage to stick to your budget. Use whatever system works best for you.
Download free household budget forms now on the author's website. KD Garrow has worked as a senior manager with significant financial responsibility for the last twenty years. His debt cures website offers free, unbiased advice on a range of debt related issues, including advice on household budgeting software, money saving techniques, consolidation loans and how to check your credit rating free of charge.
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America's Cheapest Family shows readers how to save up to $3,000 annually on groceries with their proven strategies, tips, tools, and tricks.
The average American family spends 10 to 15 percent of its take-home pay on groceries. Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half gives them a sure-fire opportunity to reduce that number forever. With the proven plan in this book, the average family can save more than $3,000 a year on its grocery bill.
"Can cutting coupons do that?" a consumer might ask. Of course, these money-saving experts teach coupon-clipping strategies, but they don't stop there. Readers learn how to plan their shopping to save big bucks, effectively store food and save cash, identify products that save time and money, beat the grocer at pricing games, and more!
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Giant is a movie of huge scale and grandeur in which three generations of land-rich Texans love swagger connive and clash in a saga of family strife racial bigotry and conflict between cattle barons and newly rich oil tycoons. It's also one of the most beloved works of director George Stevens who won an Academy AwardO* for this film one of 10 Oscar nominations** the film earned.Running Time: 201 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569706903Price: $26.98
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Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1958 direct-to-screen follow-up to their My Fair Lady was--miraculously--every bit as memorable as that stage smash. Set in fin-de-siècle Paris and based on a Colette story, Gigi also is about a girl (Leslie Caron) on a lower rung of society who blossoms into Cinderellahood before our eyes and ears. Thank heaven for Hermione Gingold and Maurice Chevalier as her mentors, and Louis Jourdan as her prince. The screenplay writer and lyricist Lerner always said that Gigi's title song was his favorite of all he'd written, and it's easy to see why--"Gigi" is a transcendent anthem to being transformed by love from an unexpected source. The entire score, including "Say a Prayer" (which had been cut from My Fair Lady), "I Remember It Well," "The Night They Invented Champagne," and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," comprise a sparkling, rare soundtrack recording that stands alone and can be enjoyed and understood by those who have not yet seen the movie, deprived souls that they are. The winner of nine Academy Awards (plus a special Oscar for Chevalier), including Best Picture, Gigi was the last great MGM movie musical and one of the best. --Robert WindelerPrice: $20.98
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Cops spoke in favor of legalizing marijuana at a press conference on Sept. 13 in Los Angeles organized by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of police officers, judges, and prosecutors who support Proposition 19, the California ballot measure to control and tax Cannabis (Marijuana). From left, Stephen Downing, retired LAPD deputy chief, William Fox, former deputy LA County DA, former Torrance PD beat cop and drug identification expert Kyle Kazan, at podium; and retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray, right.Damian Dovarganes / AP / FileEnlarge By Tim Worstall, Guest blogger / October 7, 2010 We are, in troubled times such as these, supposed to put everything on the table aren't we? Question not just how government does things, how many people it employs to do so, but also what government does and whether it should even be trying to do it?
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The Adam Smith Institute The Adam Smith Institute is the UK's leading innovator of free-market economic and social policies. Politically independent and non-profit, the Institute promotes its ideas through reports, briefings, events, media appearances, and its website and blog.
Yes, I thought so too so allow me to suggest one of my pet points. We should legalise and then tax drugs: all of them.
This report estimates that legalizing drugs would save roughly $41.3 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition...(...)...The report also estimates that drug legalization would yield tax revenue of $46.7 billion annually, assuming legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco.
We're a little over 1/5th of the US by population and perhaps a little under a 1/5th by GDP: then again we tax booz'n'baccy more highly than they do. The net revenue of such a change would therefore be around the £20 billion mark for the UK budget. That's a pretty handy chunk of change that's being left lying there in the street really, a free feast rather than that free lunch which we're so often told doesn't exist (and indeed, in most versions of economics such free lunches do not exist: we have to add the stupidity and perversity of puritans and politicians to the system to see where they are created).
But let us also appeal to the higher values, not just those of lucre. As the man said:
That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right...The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns him, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
It's not often that we get to both sort out the financial mess left by the previous Labour Government and also increase freedom and liberty at the same time. But we do have that opportunity now: let's take it, shall we?
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday honored Victor Perez, the man behind the improbable car chase that resulted in the recovery of an 8-year-old girl abducted in Fresno, Calif. 'This guy is a true action hero,' said the governor. Here is his story and the stories of three other everyday heroes who responded to trying circumstances with extraordinary grace or courage.
Global News Blog The Vote Leanne Sarco is a ranger at Grand Isle State Park, located on a barrier island off the coast of Louisiana. When the oil spill closed beaches and canceled her job running a summer program for children, she asked her boss if she could rescue hermit crabs instead. Her effort attracted volunteers from far and wide.
She recruited Facebook friends to save Gulf Coast's hermit crabs.
When park ranger Leanne Sarco saw oil-covered hermit crabs on the Louisiana beaches, she started her own project to clean and save them.
