Young People You can Still be Rich

Great article from yahoo from Ramit Sethi a 26 Year Old Author of "I Will Teach you to be Rich"

Ramit Sethi: Yes, You Can Still Be Rich

This article touches on a lot of things I've been thinking about lately, as a young adult with a somewhat stable job, I have some savings right now, and some capital, but I am nervous with what to do with it in this economy. And what if I do lose my job, I may need that money as back-up to continue living here in San Diego as I would like to right now.

"As young people, we don't pay attention to our money. When there's something you're neglecting and you just hear bad news, you again don't pay attention, but you feel guilty about it. It's a combination of apathy and guilt that comes with money, just like eating and working out. 'I know I should go to gym four days a week, I shouldn't eat that pizza.' We know that we should be figuring out something about money and should probably do a Roth IRA, but we don't know where to get started. There's so much conflicting advice out there."

Can I get an Amen.
And then rounding out the interview with this.

I assume you follow your own advice and have money in the stock market, and it must have lost significant value lately. How do you not get down about that?

I built an infrastructure where I only focus on one thing -- earning more. It gets automatically disbursed -- 20 percent to investments, 5 percent to savings, etc. In terms of dealing with losses, first of all, I don't check into my investments every day, and I don't think anyone should. Second, there's a difference between losing when everyone is gaining and losing when everyone has lost.

I'm resolutely focused on the long-term. I do believe the long-term prospects are great, but I'm not a prognosticator. My focus is on living a rich life, which also means being able to visit a friend or buy what you want. Being rich is just partially about money."

This is what really sold me on this entire article, Ramit, you've got the right idea my friend.

Scary Times

I don't know how better to explain the severity of our current Recession...


This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession -- showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been. Over the last 13 months, our economy has lost a total of 3.6 million jobs – and continuing job losses in the next few months are predicted.

By comparison, we lost a total of 1.6 million jobs in the 1990-1991 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing; and we lost a total of 2.7 million jobs in the 2001 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing.

Career In Progress: For Me, Every Job REALLY Is Temporary

http://www.careerealism.com/career-in-progress-for-me-every-job-really-is-temporary/

Loving this new article from Susan Pogorzelski over at CareerRealism.com
See her personal blog at http://twentyorsomething.wordpress.com/
Just another complete testament of the manner Gen Y is looking at Careers.

"However, finding a job in my field after gradation was harder than I expected. I think that I naively believed that once I had the degree in hand, doors would be opened and all it would take was the gentle nudge of ambition (and a resume) and I would be on my way to the career of my dreams."
Pretty sure that's part of what they promise heading into college isn't it? I know that's exactly how I was thinking as well.

Shameless Promotion

Ok so I found about this through a Shameless self promotion by the gentlemen over making a comment to a group I am on in LinkedIn, but his promotion worked on me I guess.

http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/ca6630203.html

This one is specific to me as it is about Gen Y'ers in the Hospitality Industry.
Aptly titled - (De-)Generation Y

Which I'm not personally sure how I feel about, it's always interesting to see a perspective from the outside as well.
I will dissect this article in further posts.

How Can Gen Y beat the Downturn

As a Gen Y'er currently lucky enough to have a job. I can't speak from personal experience, but something I see and know regularly is that there are always ways to make things more efficient and different. Bringing in a Gen Y perspective can often open up idea's that perhaps have never been thought of.
Social Media? What about an Excel Macro to automate that annoying forecast each week.
OnRec.com - has a great article even though it's from the UK, many of the theories still apply.
"How can 'Generation Y' adapt to beat the downturn"
"Current Generation Y graduates and first jobbers - those born between the late 1970’s and 2000 - are being badly affected by staff cut backs. In times of recession the phrase 'last in first out' often rings true for many organisations, and for Generation Y having never experienced a recession the current economic climate may come as a shock."
The owner of my company and my boss always bring about the fact that we've been here before (albeit not necessarily to this extent) but that recessions happen and it often brings about the biggest chances for progress.

One of my favorite quotes is perfect for a time like this economy.

"Only when it gets dark enough can you see the stars." -Russell Lynes

So go out, and be the brightest star in the dark sky.

Donald Kohn on the BailOut

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Donald Kohn explains why we can't know who has our money.

A Generation Y Mentality

So just in browsing found a pretty interesting little site, which I really am loving because it is some Gen Y mentality versus the workplace. http://www.generationyblog.com/

Here is their latest article daftly named.
"3 Reasons to give the Middle Finger to Corporate America"

So this post is going to be focused on why I give the middle finger to Corporate America, and let me be the first to say that this post isn’t going to be a rant on Wal-Mart and all the sleezy messed up things corporations do, because personally I believe that without the corporations we wouldn’t have much of a life in America.

This post is going to be focused on the reasons why I don’t want to put myself through an extensive process to grabbing a one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art, desk job, working nine to five at Price Water House Cooper making $55,000 a year plus benefits. To start my reasons why, I’m going to start with the first part of the extensive process.


Reason One: The Interview

Senior Year of college, where you should be in total drunken bliss, but instead you are worrying about your Interview, where someone inside a corporate company gets to sit and judge you over a period of an hour. Companies make judgments and decide if you are good for the company based on body language and mannerisms. So you are telling me that if I cross my legs to the left, but my employer likes his legs crossed to the right, I won’t get the job…basically. And all this.. Just to either let you know that you are going to have to come back for a second Interview or thanks but no thanks, and good bye.

Note: I have been through the Interview Process and have been accepted into a few companies so this is not a bashing rant because I’m pissed that I didn’t get a job

Reason Two: Your a piece of Sh$%

The second reason I give my middle finger to Corporate America is because it doesn’t matter how skilled you are, and what you can do for the company, you are simply a pawn that goes into their strategic chess game. You start as a pawn and you have to work and work and you get promoted a nice 5% increased salary, yet little do you know that the inflation rate was also 5%. After 20 years in the company you might make partner of some sort, and be making a nice $130k a year with benefits. The key thing to note is 20 years.

Reason Three : You can do so much more

Your destiny is not to work for a company for 40 years and then retire. You should make your life extraordinary and really make a difference somehow. My suggestion is to truly find out what you want to do in life. If you want to be in a certain industry, getting the corporate job might be good to get some experience under your belt before you start your own thing. However, don’t get a job just because of money. Money should be your last thought, you can make $250 everyday online and in life. Do something you love, and love what you do.

So there you have it, the mentality of one Gen Y'er.
The complete antithesis of what my parents were taught when they were younger.
I can't help but notice he never uses the word 'career' once in his article.