Crazy Two Days from MSN

Wow!

Crazy traffic over the last few days via MSN Moneyblog and Karen (again)! She linked my Brett Favre piece and over 4,000 people came in two days.

Thanks to all who came, especially those who have signed up! Good stuff coming this weekend.

Work is crazy now with three major projects being wrapped...Only home long enough for a shower, shave and repack!

Wish all the best and Thanks Again! Especially to Karen who has picked up three of my posts and given my little blog an amazing exposure!

What the Green Bay Debacle Can Teach Us

First off...I love football. I am not a big pro sports guy, but I enjoy all levels of football. From little kids playing Pop Warner, to High School, College and the Pro's, for me there is no better drama in sports.

Even though I am no Green Bay Packer fan (Go Cowboys!) I can't help trying seeing parallels in our own career path that we need to understand.

For those not following the story; basically Brett Favre, a future Hall-of-Fame Quarterback for Green Bay (GB), decided to retire at the end of last season. It was a shock, given that the team well over achieved expectations. It wasn't a shock though that it was coming. A 15 year veteran, he had hinted at it for two years. Brett retires, team moves on, new QB, other personnel changes...then Brett decides he made a hasty rash decision and he wants to come back...(cue record scratch sound). Team says we have moved on, Brett say fine trade me to this team. GB says nope, they are our rival and it would hurt our fan base, but you are under contract so we control that move.

It gets worse from there, now there are rough feeling etc.. It isn't resolved as of this writing, but probably will be this week.

So...how does this ties to personal finance and career advise?:

• No matter how good you are, you are replaceable - Brett's one of the best ever, but the team has moved on
• If you don't own the business, you don't hold the cards - Brett is famous, rich and well liked...But see #1. It doesn't matter if you are the star performer, the business can move on without you
• Don't make rash career decisions - If Brett had not rushed his retirement call (even if pushed) he wouldn't be in this spot with no leverage.

Its a sad story for a sports hero, team and fans to learn that even the best, eventually, are displaced. But it is a lesson we all should know too.

July Finance Review: The Month That Was

The smell of firecrackers are gone, and the first whiffs of "Back to School" are in the air. The month that was is, is was and will be is now! (say that 3 times fast!). Great month even with the Evil Ninja fair popping up and spending too much there, we still did pretty darn well with an increase of $2, 093 to our Net Worth!

Highlights:

• Lowered a few Bills - Made an effort to kill a bunch of these $5-10 nagging monthly charges from various accounts. A few more to go, but we also killed a few bigger quarterly ones as well. This will save us over $1000 a yr!
• Net Worth up by $2,093 - Still mostly debt reduction, but better to kill a 12.99% credit card debt than earn 3% in a savings account!
• Reached the 1/3rd pay off point in our consumer debt! (OK 32.73%...close enough to celebrate!) Original number: $68,897.23 - Now: $46,344.81 - Paid off since 10/07: $22,522.42

Points to Work on:

• Property Taxes Coming in October - Need to step up savings if not gonna touch Emergency Fund. $3,040 in ETrade Account right now for it, probably need another $1500!
• Weekly updates op MS Money and Excel charts - Daily too much bi-weekly to long. Today took 2hrs to get everything to my love OCD-esque level.
• All of us to pull reins in tighter when envelopes are empty...No more robiing Paul to pay Peter!

Goals:

• Pay Off StateFarm CC - $2836 - Down to $1920! #1 Snowball debt getting payments of $280!
• Pay Off Car - $4594.87 - Down to $2474, Coming down quick!
• Pay Off CC CitiBank Platinum - $8989 - Now $8345 This is still getting Minimum payment as we snowball the State Farm Card
• Pay off all CC Debt - Paid off $1600 since beginning of tracking
• Save 100% 2008 Property Taxes - $4500 - $3040 Saved in E*Trade Account. Back to working this amount. Whatever not achieved will come out of Emergency fund, but would rather not tap it.
• Keep Snowball 100% Intact - $308.43 Is the Current. Once StateFarm is paid off, it will be $654.72!
• No CC Use - For the TENTH month! Getting close to the 1-year mark! 60 more Days!
• Increase Average FICO-Score to 720- Without CC payoff not gonna happen this year, but still getting better. Now average 7001.7 over the three agencies!
• Stick to Cash Budget System - Yep!
• Net Worth increased by $20,000 - $12,000 so far!

Baby Steps:

• Baby Step #2 - As stated above, now at nearly 1/3rd paid off!

That's it!

The More I Write, the Less People Read

Quick post today.

I have noticed something interesting since I have been back writing the Blog. The more I post and write, the lower the subscriber list goes!

It made me think about how we all react to availability.

Question: What is generally the best Rated Episodes of a TV series...Answer: The Premiere and the Finale! It is probably the reason people used to really like mini-series!

Not that I will stop posting just to get my numbers up, but it was just an interesting observation (at least to me!).

The Tata Nano PTII

Back in January I posted about a car that was announced by Tata Motors. The Nano was to smash price barriers for the third world and sell for less than $2500.

Well Tata, which recently bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, is having a tough time hitting the price point given the commodity price increase over the last 6 months.

Today in BusinessWeek they spotlighted the status of the little wonder and some of their prospective customers, especially in India. Based on the taxes and other initial expenses the car won't be quite as cheap as hoped. A good used car, with AC can be had for about $3000 (and if you have been to India, you'll recommend the AC!).

Will the Nano be as successful as its iPod namesake? Who knows, but I remember when dealer in the US were all worried be a car out of Eastern Europe...the Yugo!

First Blogger in Space

I plan to be the first blogger in space. It would only be for 2 1/2 hours and 5 mins weightless, but it officially counts as space travel for the (very wealthy) everyman. Virgin Galactic can make that a real possibility.

OK, so I am $199,990 short on the ticket price (I have $10 left over from my allowance) and they have already per-sold 250 out of the first years 500 seats, but it still leaves 250 more :) Plus I'd like to go when all of the kinks are worked out!

OK, so personal finance would be out the window, but I am from that first generation of kids that had astronauts as hero's. I was just six-months old when Neil Armstrong made that "Giant Leap for Mankind," 8-yrs old when Star Wars came out not to mention in my teens when I realized it probably wasn't gonna happen in my lifetime, Buck Rogers or not. This really is stuff of dreams

Just a few years ago Burt Rutan changed all that. His PRIVATE company designed a ship that went into space, safely returned and collected the X-Prize. The X-Prize was a $1 Million prize to the first that could pull it off. While he spent well more than that to do it (Paul Allen of Microsoft fame was a key investor) the prize lit a spark under a great group of businessmen that went for it.

Richard Branson of Virgin fame, saw the excitement and quickly made a deal with Burt to turn his design into the first affordable space excursion available to man. Before this some very rich folk had bought $10 Million rides to the space station, but Virgin is taking it to a whole other dimension.

In the first year alone, as I said, Virgin hopes to fly 500 people into space. To put that into perspective, that is nearly equal to ALL of the people that have EVER gone into space. Pretty amazing.

Look, I get that this is a horrible investment. However it isn't dis-similar to wanting to climb Mount Everest or take a Submarine to see the Titanic. In fact the price will come down in time and with increased competition.

Anyway this is the sort of thing that is neat to at least highlight. Remember it is a curse and a blessing to say, "May you live in interesting times!"

Who's with me! Moon or Bust :)

Up like a Rocket, Down like a Feather

The title is how I have always seen gasoline pump prices go. It seems like when oil goes up $1 barrel, gas will jump that day. Forget the logic that says, there is no way oil got from the Oil Derrick, to the refinery and to the gas station to be pumped into my car in Southern Oregon the next day.

However, the second part of the statement is true also. The day prices go down, do the pump prices? Nope. It can take days or weeks to fall. The talking heads (the PR people, not the band) will tell you, "OH, it takes time to filter through..."

I have to say though, this time feels different. Maybe this is due to demand actually falling this time and the oil companies trying to stoke usage. Summer is their traditional big demand month and yet in June demand was 5.2% off!

According to this article prices are going to dip up to 25 cents more by Labor Day. Cannot come to soon. Energy has been a key driver (along with cheap money) of inflation. Perhaps we can escape the "Pit and the Pendulum" one more time!

Are the prices coming down where you are as well?

Best of the Week; No Dawson's Creek

It has been a staggeringly busy week as I have four projects all coming to a head, perhaps making my head implode at a date TBD.

That being said, plenty o' great stuff on others sites and given that all is TV today are Dawson's Creek Reruns (on four channels???) it shows me I have no more excuses to not post today! :)

Here are the Best of the Week:

• Funny About Money - Great story about how a little good will is generated, by just paying attention. More stores should think this way!
• Iowa Hippie Chick - Dawn discusses where the blame lies with extended debt...probably don't need to go past your bathroom mirror!
• The Digerati Life - Neat article on becoming a professional blogger! SVB is one of the best, heed the advice!

Favorite Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Money Post:

• The Office of Doom - Based on the responces, I don't think i am the only one living in Doomsville :)

Well, that's it! Almost end of the month so I am beginning work on my month end report. So far, so good!

Video Games Kill Kids in the Congo

In a recent article on Yahoo Games I read about how certain components in Sony's PS2/3 and other electronics devices directly led to a rare metal becoming scarce and driving third world dictatorships, like the Congo, to use Slave and child labor to mine the material.

I had never heard of the metal before, but apparently when the PS2 was really in demand Sony was having a hard time getting enough of an "unrefined metallic ore, coltan." After processing, coltan turns into a powder called tantalum. Still have never heard of it, but apparently demand drove the price of this stuff from $49/pound to over $250! You know how the dictators like their money, so "Leave the Blood Diamonds, and mine the Blood Diamond Pokemon!"

I am not trying to draw a conclusion here about video games at all. My real point is how much we have in the civilized world, and how much we take for granted. How many other product issues out their like this where a popular product (which could never be afforded there BTW!) Are being built at the expense of others...I have inspected factories in China, I will tell you...lots!

I often wondered what a person must think about people far away that spend more then they may ever make on...plastic! That they paint or process everyday!

To sum it all up, it is easy to focus on the hardships we can have here (see yesterday's post!). But for the most part our toughest day is way better than most ever achieve!

Take advantage of this bounty!

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!

I Am the Madame Cleo of Oil

Back in my post on July 9th I said it felt like the oil bubble was about to burst. Of course the day after I wrote it oil went up...To nearly $150. But a funny thing then happened, it slipped. No problem said the investors, "Its a temporary shelf price due to goblety-goob."

This ignored the gravity (pun intended) of the rest of the news. Demand is down, way down. In fact for the first time year over year gas usage in the US looks like it will contract. All it takes is a very small pinhole for a giant to blow-out or completely leak out.

I am not saying the $2 gas will be here by Christmas, but maybe $100/barrel oil...The oil producers got this. No one believed that the intrinsic value of the Texas Tea was anywhere near $150/barrel. The didn't think it was $20 either, the pendulum swings both ways...usually to far.

So unless Capt Crazy in Iran, or Major Mayhem in Venezuela pull off a Joker-level whackness act, I gotta believe the price support isn't there. If so it is going to be a big help to US families.

However, I AM the Madame Cleo of Oil predictions so I'll say $100/barrel before Christmas. It probably won't stay there, but it will touch it.

So let it be written...

ps - Like the "real" Madame Cleo I am a complete fake... :)

Fighting the Big Boys...

BusinessWeek had a great article story about how small, local, coffee houses were competing with Starbucks. And not just surviving, but thriving. While Starbucks is its own worst enemy (although they are at least taking the right steps to right the ship) in a lot of areas, including here in Southern Oregon, they are getting their butt handed to them by local, or regional chain.

So how do you compete with a behemoth?

• Zig to their Zag - Competing directly can be suicide. If they are trying to expand into other areas, focus on your core. Or, Muffins vs Cookies. Pleasant people vs the not so nice (at least here).
• Know your niche - They grew because they became an authority on coffee. If you are gonna compete find your niche or sub-niche, like fast service, special Teas better loyalty rewards, etc.
• Work Harder - Howard Schultz works very hard, but the bigger you grow even a 1% bad apple quotient is gonna creep in (if not higher). Be prepared to personally out-work them. I have tried a lot of new places because they were, well, open! Hire other hard workers. Pay them more then the competition and only hire the best. If they aren't fire them and do it yourself. If you can't outspend them (and you can't!) Gotta make this step!!!

This applies to any business. If you say you can't compete, you can't. You won't buy better then them no matter how hard you whine, so work hard, work around them, and know your business and I guarantee success!

Personal Finance Tips from Jay Leno

Great article in USA Today about Jay Leno. The Tonight Show host is in the midst of a changing of the guard of the Late Night Hosts. Conan is set to replace Jay as early as next Summer as the Host ad Jimmy Fallon, of SNL fame is replacing Conan.

The fact the NBC would replace its host, who is still far and away the ratings leader (although I still prefer Letterman - Sorry Jay) shows how scared NBC was to lose Conan to another network. My gut is that, as Jay said in the article, he won't have a hard time finding a gig with either Fox or ABC.

So what's this have to do with personal finance?

Mixed in with the story you get some great tips from a guy with a lot of money:

• Don't live beyond your means - Jay has NEVER used a dime form hosting the Tonight Show. It has all been banked. He still does 150+ gigs a year and lives off of that income.
• Modest Tastes - Jay is still a burger and brat guy even though he could afford the best restaurants in the world. Often people spend money, because they this that they are Supposed To!
• Making Your Hobbies Self Sufficient - Jay is one of the foremost authorities on cars...and he has a lot of them. But he also has sponsorship deals with GM and various magazines that help pay for the hobby. Plus the increased value of the cars once finished develops a great asset.
• You can be Green and Frugal - The sidebar is great in talking about how Jay saves money via solar and the environment (and probably his guys health) by using alternative sources to solvents

Anyway I came away from the article a bigger fan of Jay's, not to mention I think that there are some great lessons for all of us here. That being said, if Jay wants me to drive any of those cars, you know just to keep them running, I am in :)

The Best Week Ever - Begins

Another Week has come and past and I am the biggest fool at last!

OK not really, but I have been running around so much lately that i haven't really had time to spend with the kids. Well this weekend we are doing a bit more. Easy to forget that they grow up sooo fast!

We went to see Batman yesterday and today, the fair (all budgeted and saved for BTW!). The kids are excited since we really didn't get to have a real vacation this year. We all really enjoyed the movie, but a warning that it is dark. Other then the guy dressed up like a bat, it could have been a Scorsese crime drama. Really good. Joker steals the movie big time, making Heath's death all the sadder, this movie would have taken his career to the next level.

On to happier things, the Best of my Favorite Blogs:

1. Cath L - I nearly stopped here...Every once in a while she does these Uber post that are just amazing. It will take all week to read, but you'll gain really neat insight...I have 3-4 new must read blogs from it!
2. Get Rich Slowly - This is one of the Top Personal Finance Blogs out there as evidenced by this great post on Investing. Given that I get less than 1% of their traffic, I am sure my recommendation will be the final straw that pushes them over the top for success!
3. Simplicity In Kansas - This blog is always amazing and reminds us all how much we could be doing! This is a short/sweet post that made me laugh :)

Our Top Post this week was due to a challenge by Mrs Micah:

• My Microsoft Money is Bigger Stronger Faster

A couple milestones passed earlier that I failed to call out but there are pretty darn impressive to me, as, like I have said, I am always appreciative that anyone comes here to read this blog:

• Over 225 Posts!
• Over 14,000 Visitors! Wow!

Thanks again for all the support and I look forward to the next 14,000!

Random Act of Conscience as I Fly Home

Got in late last night. While flying home, I started thinking, I just can't believe July is half over already! Seems like it was just Christmas.

That being said did some quick bill paying and this is looking like a pretty good month (knock on wood!). Balances are coming down, no new charges. About ready to complete our 9th month without using a Credit Card (used our debit card only).

If I was reading this back then I wouldn't have believed it! Since we have kept our snowball up and as the minimums have reduced, we are paying more and more off per month.

How is your month going?

Well..off to sleep and getting ready to see Batman tomorrow with the Boy! We are looking forward to it, but I must say I waste good chunks of these shows watching his reaction! Then Sunday we are going to our local fair.

Big doin' at the Circle K Theodore!

I'll review with my post tomorrow!

Wow! Direct TV Sucks!

Wow, I had a horrible experience with Direct TV tonight. And after reading more on the net it seems that it is their modis operandi.

I received my bill for the month today when I returned from work. Given that I was paid today and I am traveling all day I want to get everything paid and ready to go before I leave.

So I open my Direct TV bill and notice that I am being charged for NFL Sunday Ticket. The first of 6 $41.50 charges have been added to my account. Only problem is that I told Direct TV that I would NOT be re-upping the service this year. Given that I am asking all others to trim and live in budget, can't ask any less of myself, so it is no go.

So, no problem it says right on the bill that you can address billing issues one the internet. After getting my Net account all going I go into billing and I CAN change my package type...as long as I am increasing my service...oh no..I know what this means. I am marketing boy.

Re-loaders

These fine folks are also called retention. They offer you deals or whatever to stay. Can't blame them as it is expensive to get new customers, try to keep them. But for me, I am not working them, I just wanna move on. I don't want to explain to Trixie that, "No I really do understand that its like Peyton Manning is in my house."

So I gotta call...

So I call the 800 number and can only describe my experience to that of brave Ulysses. First it is the "talk" system that picks the wrong input every time. I mean a random generator would have more luck (I miss the push button #2 days). I have to call back 8 times. As 6 times it finally routes me to the wrong port and drops my call, 1 time I believe I hit a bizarre tech chat line and then finally in cue...for 90 minutes...on hold…with a horrible message every 1-2 minutes.

"Hi this is Peyton Manning, press #2 to order NFL Sunday ticket now!" That mean I heard 45 marketing messages for the thing I am trying to cancel.

I finally get a real person, and you can tell they are being beat. You know, the kind of dog that lowers its head quickly when you go to pet it. Nice kid, but by this time dinner is cold, and I am chapped. I get a very nice explanation about how they will drop it, I review the next payment with him and I hope all is resolved.

Hey, I am a marketing guy, these companies survive by getting you and blocking all of the fire exits...I get it...but all the did is give me the desire to look to replace them!

Oh, yeah, Peyton...Go Cowboys :)-

Tempus Fugit is NOT a Rap Star

Crazy time at work right now. Five major projects on my plate all at once. One just launched, two more need to by the end of the month, and the remaining two follow quickly behind this.

The point of telling you that isn't for the sympathy (although I like the "Poor Baby" as much as the next guy), but to tell you about something that hit me hard today...The busier you are, the faster time goes. Today it felt like literally I walked in, had one big long meeting and then it was 7pm! And it wasn't just the meetings but all of the project prep. It has been like this for the past...career...kidding, this heavy for the last two weeks or so.

When this is happening to you, in whatever you are doing, here are some tips that I have developed to maintain sanity:

1. Remember; This too shall pass - Every job from CEO to stay at home Mom to combat soldiers, you can be busy all the time but the mayhem is usually x amount of time. If not there are larger issues in play!
2. Compartmentalize - Whatever thing you are doing right then, give it 100% attention. Multi-tasking is NOT as efficient as doing, completing and repeating
3. Track and Verify - Measure twice and cut once! Have a daily list with ABC priority; must get done, Needs to be done, and would be nice to be done. Not everything is an A! A good guideline is 20/60/20% buckets. Then do not quit until the A's are done...and save the list! When you get down on yourself review your progress. You've come a long way baby!
4. Don't allow interruptions - "Sorry no I don't have a minute, but please book a quick 5-10 minute meeting with me to resolve." It wastes so much time to start-stop-start-stop and you fall out of a groove. You'll be surprise how few people interrupting will book that time! But when they do, give them the same focus you were giving whatever you were doing when they came in.
5. Fill your schedule - With time for your A's. I know I need about 3-4 uninterrupted hours to get this stuff ready in time for thee presentations...Book it! If you are expected to stay pretty current on email, like I am, I book the time and the amount that I am gonna get through. I have 3-30 min slots to answers emails and I try to keep them brief!
6. Make sure one of those compartments is rest! - I have seen people choke a big presentation (Opportunity!) by not taking the time to eat, rest and focus.

Well my blogging compartment is now full! :)

What works for you?

New Is a Relative Term...

We live in a "Here Today Gone Later Today" society. Folks are all geared up to see the new Batman movie that opens Friday. But know this, as sure as I am typing this we will be saying the same thing 2, 3 or 4 years from now, Can't wait to see the new Batman or Hancock 12 or get the new CD from our favorite artists.

This really got me thinking; to quote (or massacre a theory) from Einstein, time is relative. What is new, won't be later, the other thing that changes is our knowledge and perception.

OK enough of the deep stuff.

The wife doesn't like "old" movies, she like the new stuff, don't blame her, she is in the majority. Sure she has a few favorite DVDs that she'll watch a few times, but she isn't a nostalgia hound like me. I, on the other hand, love old (2-50 years) movies that I have seen a bajillion times. Are the effects as cool? Probably not, but the stories are there and they are still great.

So two weekends ago I had the two younger kids all day while the wife was picking our 15-year old up from her visit at Grandma's for the month (separate post!). I decided that I was going to indoctrinate the two into the movies I loved in my youth. It went over like gang-busters to where I am working the 15-yr old now as well.

As you who are old enough, probably can guess one of the moviews based on the pic, but here are a great 5 DVDs to buy (they aren't new so cheap!) or rent and enjoy these comedies:

• Ghostbusters - The kids flipped! I had a good time as well. Still very funny. A little dated, but great mix or light fright and silly.
• Back to the Future - Real soft spot in my heart for these movies. Longer story to be shared later, but the kids jump and cheered when Marty decks Biff!
• Planet of The Apes - A HUGE personal favorite. All-time twist at the end, best line ever "Get your paws off me you damn dirty ape!" and for the older viewer great subtext. Plus written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame!
• No Time for Sergeants - Andy Griffith at his funniest. Hard to get the wife past the Black and White cornyness, but the kids loved it!
• Ferris Beuller's Day Off - Gosh this movie is funny and now a favorite of my 15-yr old. I feel sorry for today's teens not having John Hughes movies!

I currently have a touch over 1,000 DVDs (we bought most of them dirt cheap) and some special set boxes as well. Sure I could sell the less watched ones, but they really are a collection for me at this point and I happily lend them out when asked, "What's a good movie to watch!"

The first time you see a movie, or if it has been purged from the memory banks, it is new to you! So seek out those movies you either missed the first time, or loved and need to revisit. And if you do, expose someone else to it as well. It just might become a favorite for them as well!

One side note, the kids really loved that if they liked a movie, they could see the sequel right away!

My Microsoft Money Is Bigger Stronger Faster

Responding to a direct challenge from fellow blogger, the lovely and talented Mrs. M, I completed a big finance project this weekend. Well OK it is never really compete, but my goal was to rest up my MS Money account. OK so I finished the project then accepted the already complete challenge, but she said it was OK, so there.

 

Never one to ignore the free gift of links from another, I said on her blog I would tell how/why the project came about.

 

Back in March my computer first went down. Something about a drive partition. It wiped out everything... Through Herculean efforts by this great resource I found locally for computer repair we were able to at least save my data, but no program data. So I had my last backup...from January. This was over 60 days old that was not really complete either.

 

Around this time (end  of March) I was going through a burnt-out phase regarding finances due to a bonus that I still believe I was hosed out of as well as slower than expected growth opportunities at my current gig. In other words I was being a bit (re: a lot) pouty.

 

Luckily my Excel Master tracking sheet was fine and I survived by using this tool, which works good for basic tracking, but it wasn't designed, by me, for reports and spending pattern sort of duty. So, as I am want to do, I procrastinated. But, it has been in my short-term goals list to get up and going.

 

So this weekend I rebuilt the file from January complete to this Saturday (July 12th). To this I had to do the following:

• Get a new copy of the software, as my last copy was a digital download. Always get the disc backup for $5 more...well worth it!
• Get all of the bills together from the last 6 months (3.5" high stack!)
• Input all of the data
• Test the reports
• Bring in all of the new accounts (lie E*Trade) and do the same thing for them
• File all of the paperwork

Well I still need to get the stack filed but it is in chronological and alphabetical order!

I can once again use all of my favorite reports and "what-if" scenarios, but the main point is that I took one of the key opening steps:; Get organized!

My next project; Short, Medium and Long personal goals and tracking!

OK Mouseketeers, what's your next, or first, step in your plan!

The King of Beers Get an Emporer

The King of Beers has met his match and for a mere $50 Billion will now be part of InBev, A Belgium Based, Brazilian run conglomerate that makes Stella Artois and others.

Originally rebuked by the BUD board InBev came back with an offer that just couldn't refuse, $70 per share, or 27% higher than its 2002 all-time high. This creates the world's largest Beer Company, and gives InBev #1 Market share in the US auto-magically Given that BUD has nearly 50% market share between all of its domestic brands.

Given BUD's investment in Groupo Modelo (Corona - 50%) and China's Tsingtao Brewery (27%) we are likely to see the FTC and EUro regulators step in and do their dance. However given the strength of other competitors in the market of others, likely only small changes to the portfolio are expected.

That, however, might not be the case (pun intended) for BUDs St Louis operation that may get pulled way back. Gotta pay for that premium some way and it will probably be on the backs of the workers there. InBev has promised that Budweiser will be the new Flagship brand for the company, but these deals are often paid for via the synergies of the two companies. Meaning that either St Louis will start brewing InBev brands and their breweries will close or the other way around...but usually "to the victor the spoils."

I wonder if the Clydesdales will be wearing wooden shoes at the next Super Bowl?