Personal Finance News Saturday 6/8

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

10 High-Paying Blue-Collar Jobs

By Jacquelyn Smith | Forbes 

We tend to associate hefty paychecks with briefcases, neckties and lab coats – but it turns out there’s plenty of money to be earned by those who sport hard hats and coveralls.

This may be surprising considering the gradual decline of union memberships over the years and the fragile state of America’s workforce, but plenty of talented and skilled blue-collar workers earn six figures doing electrical work, repair jobs, and other labor-intensive trades.

[More from Forbes: 8 Great Jobs That Don't Require A Four-Year Degree]

Forbes combed through data gathered annually by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division of the Labor Department, to find some of the highest-paying blue-collar jobs. The BLS culls its information from surveys it mails to businesses, and it releases its Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates data each spring. The figures are for 2012.

What defines a blue-collar job? The American Heritage Dictionary says, “Of or relating to wage earners, especially as a class, whose jobs are performed in work clothes and often involve manual labor.” We took that definition and excluded work that is largely managerial or supervisory to compile our list of 10 high-paying blue-collar jobs.

Some of the professions on our list require only a high school education, but many call for extensive training and apprenticeships that can last as long as four years. To become an elevator installer or repairer, for example, you must complete a four-year apprenticeship, says John Dalton, a field operations manager for the Stanley Elevator Company. “It can take up to four and a half years, including final exams, but once you get your license, you’re really qualified to do it all.”

Dalton says elevator installers and repairers are well-rounded trade workers who never stop learning.

“There is always a new set of obstacles, a new set of opportunities, and the equipment is always changing. I’ve been in the business for 16 years, and I’m still learning.”

To read the entire article from Jacquelyn Smith | Forbes :
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-high-paying-blue-collar-121049018.html


Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. -James D. Miles


Hi my name is Philip J. Miano and I am the founder of PJM Personal Finance and Productivity Coaching specializing in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Bank Reconciliations, Goal Setting, Time Management, and Organizational skills. Please visit my website: http://pjmcoaching.com. 

Personal Finance News Friday 6/7

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

‘Real Money’: Save Money On Your Daily Commute

ABC News’ Paula Faris reports:

California newlyweds Rob and Lisa Oshima are trying to save money to start a family. But like so many of us, they’re spending too much time and money commuting.

Rob drives 20 miles one way from his home in Orinda, Calif., to his job in San Francisco. It takes him about two hours one way and costs $100 a week. Lisa travels 40 miles to her job in Palo Alto, which adds up to $80 a week. Together, their commuting costs come out to $720 a month.

The Oshimas aren’t the only ones suffering the price of long commutes. Each day, 600,000 Americans travel at least 90 minutes and 50 miles to work with 10.8 million Americans traveling an hour each way, according to the 2013 Census. The average household spends almost $3,000 a year on gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But does it have to cost so much? Alex Bayen, a transportation expert and associate professor of systems engineering at U.C. Berkeley, says no. There are secret commuter shortcuts that can help you save.

Tip 1: Change your driving habits. You can save big on your bottom line with a gadget called Automatic. It plugs into your car, tracking your driving and alerting you where you’re burning the most fuel and what easy changes you can make to save the most money.

To read the entire article from ABC News’ Paula Faris :
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/06/real-money-save-money-on-your-daily-commute/


Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
Ninety-nine percent of the failures comes from people who have the habit of making excuses. -George W. Carve


Hi my name is Philip J. Miano and I am the founder of PJM Personal Finance and Productivity Coaching specializing in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Bank Reconciliations, Goal Setting, Time Management, and Organizational skills. Please visit my website: http://pjmcoaching.com.

Personal Finance News Thursday 6/6

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

6 Costly Retirement-Saving Setbacks

By Jane Bennett Clark

Scenario 1: Your path to retirement is wide, gently sloped, paved with good intentions and free of potholes—including market declines, job loss and health problems.

Scenario 2: Your path to retirement is steep, littered with obstacles and fraught with perils, including procrastination and the temptation to raid your accounts to finance other pressing priorities.

Unfortunately, scenario number two is more likely. In a new survey by Ameriprise Financial of people ages 50 to 70, virtually all of the respondents said they had experienced at least one retirement derailer, and more than half said that it had seriously affected their retirement savings. The average amount lost or forgone: $117,000. A poll of Kiplinger's readers showed similar results.

You can't stop life from knocking you off your feet, but you can plan for the unexpected and move forward after the inevitable hard knocks.

Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/retirement/T047-S002-6-costly-retirement-saving-setbacks/index.html#4WFiV32r5w5RXqy2.99


Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
If you'll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives. - Vince Lombardi


Hi my name is Philip J. Miano and I am the founder of PJM Personal Finance and Productivity Coaching specializing in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Bank Reconciliations, Goal Setting, Time Management, and Organizational skills. Please visit my website: http://pjmcoaching.com.

Personal Finance News Wednesday 6/5

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

Malware That Drains Your Bank Account Thriving On Facebook

By NICOLE PERLROTH | New York Times 

In case you needed further evidence that the White Hats are losing the war on cybercrime, a six-year-old so-called Trojan horse program that drains bank accounts is alive and well on Facebook.

Zeus is a particularly nasty Trojan horse that has infected millions of computers, most of them in the United States. Once Zeus has compromised a computer, it stays dormant until a victim logs into a bank site, and then it steals the victim’s passwords and drains the victim’s accounts. In some cases, it can even replace a bank’s Web site with its own page, in order to get even more information– such as a Social Security number– that can be sold on the black market.

The Trojan, which was first detected in 2007, is only getting more active. According to researchers at the security firm Trend Micro, incidents of Zeus have risen steadily this year and peaked in May. Eric Feinberg, founder of the advocacy group Fans Against Kounterfeit Enterprise (FAKE), has noticed an uptick in Zeus-serving malicious links on popular N.F.L. Facebook fan pages such as one created by a group called “Bring the N.F.L. To Los Angeles.”

To read the entire article from NICOLE PERLROTH | New York Times:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/malware-drains-bank-account-thriving-004702493.html


Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
Don't wait. The time will never be just right. -Napoleon Hill


Hi my name is Philip J. Miano and I am the founder of PJM Personal Finance and Productivity Coaching specializing in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Bank Reconciliations, Goal Setting, Time Management, and Organizational skills. Please visit my website: http://pjmcoaching.com.

Personal Finance News Tuesday 6/4

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

When to Start Taking Social Security Benefits

by Donna Fuscaldo

Published May 31, 2013

FOXBusiness

When it comes to maximizing Social Security benefits, it’s all about timing.

“If you look at a married couple, there are 81 different strategies on how to claim Social Security,” says David Richmond, founder of Richmond Brothers. “A lot of times people don’t know their options.”

Filing too early for Social Security can mean getting a smaller check and potentially leaving thousands of dollars on the table, while waiting until Full Retirement Age (FRA) can maximize monthly payments.

Social Security benefits are designed to supplement retirement income, but too often people rely on these benefits as their only cash flow in retirement.

“Most clients assume they should take it right away at 62 and many times that’s not the best way to do it,” says Richmond. “Social Security went from a safety net to a primary source of income, and that’s not what the program was designed for.”

To determine when to start collecting benefits, financial experts say you must identify your FRA, which is when you can collect Social Security benefits without penalties. The Social Security website can help calculate this number.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/05/31/when-to-start-taking-social-security-benefits/#ixzz2VGzCVEdH


Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.


Hi my name is Philip J. Miano and I am the founder of PJM Personal Finance and Productivity Coaching specializing in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Bank Reconciliations, Goal Setting, Time Management, and Organizational skills. Please visit my website: http://pjmcoaching.com.

Personal Finance News Monday 6/3

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

Cord Cutters Lop Off Internet Service More Than TV

By Anton Troianovski | The Wall Street Journal 

For all the fuss over Americans dropping their cable subscriptions in favor of Internet video, another type of cord cutting appears to be more common.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans canceled their home Internet service last year, surveys suggest, taking advantage of the proliferation of Wi-Fi hot spots and fast new wireless networks that have made Web connections on smartphones and tablets ubiquitous.

Last year around 1% of U.S. households stopped paying for home Internet subscriptions and relied on wireless access instead, according to consumer surveys by Leichtman Research Group Inc. Just 0.4% of households in the last year canceled their pay-television subscriptions in favor of getting video entertainment over the Internet via services such as Hulu or Netflix (NFLX).

 

Dropping home Internet service isn't a great deal for heavy Internet users, however. While smartphones are fine for email and social networking, wireless data plans can be expensive and easily drained by even a single streamed high-definition movie. Free Wi-Fi is more widely available than ever, but cutting the Internet cord means users have to rely on cellular access at home.

Still, frustrated by rising cable and Internet bills, some subscribers are testing whether their smartphones and free Wi-Fi might be good enough. Others, unable to afford both services, are having to make do without easy access to streaming video for entertainment and education, underscoring the persistent differences in how people of various economic levels go online.

To read the entire article by Anton Troianovski | The Wall Street Journal:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cord-cutters-lop-off-internet-214300323.html


Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
Simplicity is not a simple thing. - Charles Chaplin


Hi my name is Philip J. Miano and I am the founder of PJM Personal Finance and Productivity Coaching specializing in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Bank Reconciliations, Goal Setting, Time Management, and Organizational skills. Please visit my website: http://pjmcoaching.com.

Personal Finance News Saturday 6/1

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

How do you get better at your job?

May 30, 2013 By Harvey Mackay

 

When I am hired to speak to a company or association, I typically talk ahead of time to six to eight people who will be in the audience to get a better sense of the group.  I ask them a series of questions about creative selling, teamwork, negotiations, how they get close to their customers and so on.  Then I surprise them and ask what they do to get better at their jobs?
Over the years some of the typical answers I’ve received include:  going back to school to learn new skills or get another degree, joining trade organizations and attending events, networking, listening to speakers, reading everything they can get their hands on, being more available, working harder and smarter, improving people skills and many more.

These are all great ideas, but I’d like to add to the list and share some of my ideas on what you can do to get better at your job.

Improve your time management.  Most people fail because they let time manage them rather than managing their time.  Time becomes a crook.  Often it’s the people who make the worst use of their time who complain there is never enough of it.

Get organized.  This will not only improve your productivity, but it will streamline your life, lower your stress and save you money.  The Wall Street Journal reported that the average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per year retrieving misplaced information from messy desks and files.  (I’m still working on this.)

Stay positive.  Positive thinking is more than just a tagline; it changes the way we behave.  And I firmly believe that when I’m positive, it not only makes me better, but it also makes those around me better.  Positive thinking turns obstacles into opportunities.

Write down your goals.  Goals not only give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day.  Goals tend to tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life.  Achieving goals produces significant accomplishments.

To read the entire article from Harvey Mackay:
http://harveymackay.com/column/how-do-you-get-better-at-your-job/


Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
Don't put a limit on anything. The more you dream the farther you get. - Michael Phelps


Hi my name is Philip J. Miano and I am the founder of PJM Personal Finance and Productivity Coaching specializing in Budgeting, Debt Reduction, Bank Reconciliations, Goal Setting, Time Management, and Organizational skills. Please visit my website: http://pjmcoaching.com.