The Office of Doom

OK, so I have talked about living in the modern Office before, but this is getting out of hand.

In our move to be more employee friendly we have had a series of Human Resource (HR) initiatives. these have been from the slightly odd to the down-right scary. The sad thing is that I am sure it comes from a place of best hope and wishes...OK I know better than that. It comes from internal surveys that measure employee satisfaction.

About 6 months ago we received the results of our Employee Satisfaction survey and, big surprise, it was low...really low. So low that we had to do something.

First blame HR. Check. Second ignore the horrible raises and oppressive time lines. Double check. Third, get some slogans. Triple check! Fine, then the beatings will continue until the moral improves.

So here are some of the "improvements" that have been made recently:

• Hire a VP of HR - Especially get someone that doesn't understand out culture, but tries to be Hip by mis-using phrases and terms. Like, "Hey you are all into music so we should have a Square Dance!" And when you mention, for us, this is , well, stupid, you should be called out as a "wet blanket"
• Change the name of HR to People Services - Um...OK!
• Mandatory All-Company Meetings - Not a bad idea, but don't need a 45 min meeting to discuss when we should have a bake sale
• Ignore all of the data from the survey - Even though the survey said in big 74 point type that people were frustrated with the pay scale, keep saying, "that is a symptom, not the root cause!
• Use more Politically Correct Language! - When people are fired, they are now called "Alumni" What did they graduate??? When can I!

Anywho, I am sure that if I whine about it I'll just end up a, wet-blanket-alumni! Can't wait until the next survey. I am going to ask for a Pony, and hope for an Ice machine!

100th Post Spectacular

This is the 100th Post for the site. Kind of a milestone for me since I really didn't have a plan to start. I enjoy writing and I always enjoyed personal finance as well, though you wouldn't know it from mine!

At 100 posts averaging 350 words per (and I think I am higher) post, what does that word count equate too. Interested I looked it up on Fiction Factor and here is what is said for 35,000 words:

Novella 20,000 - 50,000 words. - Although most print publishers will balk at printing a novel this short, this is almost perfect for the electronic publishing market length. The online audience doesn't always have the time or the patience to sit through a 100,000 word novel. Alternatively, this is an acceptable length for a short work of non-fiction.

Cool huh? ..."this is almost perfect for the electronic publishing market"...Hey that's me!...an acceptable length for a short work of non-fiction...Me too!

Given that if this was a TV show they would do some sort of retrospective I thought it would be fun to pick my 5 favorite posts over the last 100 and give a line or two of background on them. I always wonder what influenced someone to write something, maybe you do to. Without further ado:

1. "Personal Finance by Michael Scott of the Office" - This is by far my number one read piece, probably because it got picked up by msn-money. I love The Office, both versions as it was a super UK BBC series first that I started watching on BBC America. This episode introduced the phrase to our house of "Things that no one needs, like back-up magic sets."


2. "The 861 Tax Argument Brought to You By Wesley Snipes" - I wrote this as my second daily post because I was looking up something else and ran across the Snipes story. Fascinated I hit up Wikipedia and looked up the tax argument. This was huge for two weeks with search for me...weird. The ones I think will really run don't, and then this takes off! A side note: He did get off of the Felony charges and was only convicted of three misdemeanors.


3. "Top Personal Finance Necessities" - I think while not earth shattering was probably a favorite of mine because it gave me a chance to show my entire philosophy, at least for those starting out. Never got a comment! You never know what's gonna resonate...


4. "180 Degrees in less than 180 Days" - Great Idea from Simplicity in Kansas (which is an amazing blog BTW). I like it because it gave me warm and fuzzies writing it thinking about how far we've come.


5. "We Saved 33% on our Grocery Bill" - Good solid advice on saving money on a big budget item. Wish I wrote that well more often!

Based on that I have learned posting the first 100 articles, I hope the they continue to be of service, or even lighten you day a bit! Budgeting doesn't have to be hard or painful or a prison sentence! It, with active money management and a good Success Map can lead you to reaching your goals! Can't wait to bring you another 100!

And to the 2,000 guests that have visited, and the next 2,000 to come - THANK YOU!

Life and Liberty Mentioned on msn Money...

Wow is all I can say!

I believe big thanks goes to Mrs Micah and Digerati Life and others picking up my blog Article "Personal Finance by Michael Scott of The Office" . Tonight it was a top feature in the MSN Money MoneyBlog in the "Smart Spending" section .

When I started the blog I didn't think it could get noticed. But thanks to many of you it has, so...THANK YOU!

Special thanks to Karen Datko @msn for picking it up!

(I wondered why I was having a record traffic night!)

Personal Finance by Micheal Scott of The Office...

I am a big fan of The Office, both the British and Us versions. There is one episode from this season that is sticking in my brain as I sit and hear many of my fellow office workers talk about budgets and getting their finances in order and start managing their money better.

In the episode Micheal realizes that he is running out of money. His finances in shambles he overhears that some people's finances got so bad that they had to declare bankruptcy. Believing that this is an actual declaration ala Ye Olde Town Crier (not to be confused with Jon Cryer) Michael address the room and yells, "I am bankrupt, I am declaring bankruptcy!" Luckily Oscar takes pity on Michael and decides that he will take a look at Michael's finances and see if he can help him out.

The next scene show Michael looking at an Excel chart like the one in the picture. save that it is three instead of five columns.

Oscar: Micheal, this first small column is what you spend on your needs. You know the basic necessities of live like shelter, food, etc..

Oscar (points to next column, twice as big): Micheal this column is what you spend on things you don't really need, like dining out, etc..

Oscar (points to third column, well larger than the other two combined!): ...and this column is what you spend on things that nobody needs, like backup Magic Sets...

The point is many of us, especially those of us struggling with our finances, have a hard time discerning between our Needs, Wants and Desires. We don't lay these out like a hierarchy that they are, we run to what feels better, rather than what is better for us. Like the kid ( mine!) who is always full until Ice Cream is available!

Here is the Life and Liberty guide:

• Needs - Don't get these and you...well die. Air, food water, shelter. The basic needs of life. Not I Need to be seen in a 535i BMW...not really the same at all.
• Wants - Things that make our life more comfortable, a refined need if you will. I want to eat pizza, it is good. Food sustains; pizza is a preference of a type of food.
• Desires - I desire to eat pizza from Wolfgang Puck's in Las Vegas, then see a show and retire to my suite for a massage...

Now it is OK to desire all of the better things in life; trips, fashionable clothes, Mont Blanc Pens, awesome watches (both my desires). But not at the expense of your other lower level priorities.

In other words a trip to Europe is a desire, contributing to my IRA so I don't eat Dog Food when I am 70 is a Want, much less making sure I have my own shelter (a Need).

So when you are budgeting and managing your money, really think about where in the priority chain the purchase of Your backup Magic Set is...

Dave Ramsey and the Snowball of Doom...

There are a lot of really good ways to begin to get your finances in order. From books, DVDs, website and blog there is really good (and also some Really bad) information out there.

So at the end of September when I looked around for a format that I thought could work for not only me, but my wife and kids as well, I weighed a lot of variables:

• Was is clear and consise? Lower amounts of wiggle room are best for me, because I "justify" my way back into old habits.
• Was there a way to involve everyone in the family? Didn't want to have to be the budget police. I always end up giving in.
• Was there a path post-getting out of Credit Card debt? OK I paid everything, I guess I could charge them up again...

Weighing all of these points and others I personally gravitated to the Dave Ramsey debt snowball.

For me these were the keys:

• The use of cash. Even using Debit cards we were spending too much. With cash when it is gone it is gone...like our Entertainment money right now!
• We could give areas for each of us to be in charge. She runs a lot of the cash envelopes; like for Groceries, Entertainment and Dining. She feels involved, cause she is! Those envelopes are 100% her call. If I want to buy Season One of The Office (which I do) I have to lobby her, just as the kids do for Harry Potter (HP won, damm Wizard!) Having real control over areas keeps people involved without one partner having to be the Budget Police
• Quick Wins. Although it is better financally to pay off debt in order of Interest Rates (as many blogs have pointed out) psycologically it felt nice to pay things off, real tangible change since you no longer have to pay the bill. This really helps me because I can lose focus and become disillusioned pretty quick

So how is it going?

I will give a full update at the end of the month, but so far we have paid off some smaller bills, stayed pretty much on budget (sometimes beating it) and kept everyone in the boat. Due to this our debt snowball is growing and we actually have a bill that we are actually paying more than the minimum on!

While I don't agree with everything Ramsey says, with a quarter of a year nearly under our belts, we are at least taking away from the pile instead of adding to it.

Can't wait to get our snowball to the size of a snowman. I think I will name it Dave...