I got called to a job site early this week to inspect some townhomes for a homeowner’s association. The problem was that multiple townhomes were having their windows leak. The owners had paid to have their leaky windows replaced, but what the contractor who was hired to replace their windows didn’t tell them was that the windows weren’t the problem.

The problem was much bigger than that: none of those townhomes had Tyvec® underneath the siding. When a home is built, underneath the siding there must be Tyvec®. The combination of the siding and Tyvec® is what protects the house from rain and mold. If the Tyvec® is missing, it won’t be noticeable for awhile, but eventually, your home will leak. But of course by then, the builder is long gone and has already pocketed the money on that cut corner. I’ve seen this a lot in homes built since about 1960 or so.

Luckily for these townhome owners, based on the photos and assessment from my inspection, they’re taking the builder to court to pay to have the siding taken off all the townhomes and have Tyvec® added in.

Pull off some siding and what do I see? No Tyvec®. You can protect yourself from cut corners like this!

The government has been stepping in more recently to try and save homeowners from shady, lying contractors, but people are still getting hosed every day. So what can you do to avoid getting screwed by a builder, fix-it man, or other contractor? Here are 4 blue collar tips:

(1) If you can figure out how to do it yourself, then do it yourself. Replacing windows, remodeling your bathroom, building a deck…whatever it is, if you do it yourself then you’ll do it right and you won’t cut corners to be cheap (hopefully). But if you can’t do it yourself?

(2) Get 6, yes 6, bids from different contractors to do the job. It’s takes time to do this, but it’s worth it. Take the 2 highest bids and throw them out—they’re ripping you off. Take the 2 lowest bids and throw them out—they’re going to cut corners to keep the cost low (but you won’t know it until months or years down the road). Pick one of the two middle costing bids.

(3) Contractors on Craig’s List tend to be of the “cutting corners to stay cheap, but you won’t know it until years later” type. You can include some Craig’s List contractors when you get your 6 bids for the job you want done, but be wary.

(4) If you live or are moving into a “boom town” or some location that has grown up fast, be extra careful to have your place inspected for shoddy work and cut corners. Those types of places are where I see the most offenders.

Any contractor can make something look great, but will it stand the test of time? Like myself, there are some honest fix-it men (and women), but the huge number of bad contractors out there makes people paranoid. And they should be. Do your homework, read reviews, get 6 bids for any job, and for Heaven’s sake, remember that you get what you pay for.

A couple times a week TB posts a few cautionary tales about the ins and outs of the construction trade, like this story on fire safety. Always worth a visit. What say you, readers, will you go out and get *six* bids for a major job?

Thanks for reading! Please join the conversation by leaving a comment. I'm interested to know your thoughts.

There are a few posts scheduled, so please do come back.

On Friday 5/25, TB from Blue Collar Workman has a great article on exterior home insulation. TB walks the walk of home construction and repair, so it’s a worthwhile read. “What You Don’t See Does Matter”

On Sunday 5/27, three mini-reviews and recommendations of books on Japan. “All Things Japan”

On Thursday 5/31, V. from Funny About Money penned a fantastic article on living overseas with kids. Not to be missed.  “Living Overseas with Kids? Does It Make Sense?”

On Sunday 6/3, an old post resurrected and edited for content, from the 101 Centavos archives. “How To Save Hundreds of Dollars a Year”

On Wednesday 6/6, challenging some myths and strongly held notions. “What You Know Ain’t So”.

On Saturday 6/9, another recycled/edited post.  “More Random Tips for the Kitchen”. Read about making that perfect little frittata in a cast iron 6″ skillet.

Alternately, you could take advantage of the modern technological marvel known as email subscription. Merely choose to receive email updates, and you won’t have to check back in.  Engrossing 101-Centavos-type content delivered straight to your mailbox for your reading pleasure.   Top right hand corner.  Click away.

By the way, “arrivederci” literally means “until we see each other again”.

Ciao a tutti!

The view from the Centavos (or Centesimi) front door

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Top retirement fears, according to my not very thorough web research, drawing from no less than a dozen newspaper articles, blog posts and national poll results.

1. Poor health
2. High healthcare costs
3. Being physically incapacitated
4. Not enough money
5. Having to move in with relatives or own children
6. Social Security crapping out
7. Not *ever* being able to retire
8. Having to work as a Wal-Mart greeter
9. Greedy, grasping, needy boomerang kids
10. Discovering the true value of Depends coupons

OK, I made up the last three.

I can add one more fear, my own: not being able to eat well. Not terribly rational, but that old saw about seniors trying to get by on a miserly Social Security check and eating dog food has always stuck with me.

Not having enough to eat goes hand-in-hand with not having enough money. With enough money, you can buy splendid, tasty food, in wonderful settings, as the mood may strike.

Still, splendid food is pricey. Blueberries flown in from Chile and strawberries trucked in from Mexico will certainly be higher, not lower in price by the time we’re ready to take that walk on the beach and retire.

Rather than just work harder, and save scrimp save ever more, we’ve taken another path.

We bought a rural property as a fall-back retirement plan. On this nine-acre parcel there are established fruit trees, grapevines, nut trees, berry bushes, and we’re planting more every year. A raised bed garden is coming along nicely.

Peaches, plums, blackberries, and zucchini

Total cost of the all the produce in the picture? $2.49, plus tax. The peaches and plums came from trees which need little or no upkeep — the peaches from one single tree. The blackberries grow wild. And the zucchini came from seedlings split out from a single 4″ nursery pot (the $2.49).

Now, our actual retirement plans are a little more ambitious than that. Ideally, we’d be flitting back and forth between Italy and the U.S., six months at a time. Or even forget about coming back to the U.S. Depending on where the kids end up, we could wind up back living overseas the year round. I could consult internationally, occasionally. Maybe some of the miles gathered on business travel could offset some of the cost of our tickets.

But if it all goes pear-shaped? What if the company reneges on the pension plan, Social Security tanks, and the stock market implodes, taking our investments down with it? Well then, we move out to the hacienda, add chickens and rabbits (oven-roasted rabbit, nom nom!), maybe even some ducks and a family cow. Lots of good, wholesome food to keep us healthy in our dotage. No Kibbles ‘n’ Bits casserole for us.

Not that a general financial catastrophe is what it would take.   Unexpected personal disasters happen all the time to ordinary people.   What parent wouldn’t spend every last dime on an adult child’s legal defense?  Or for expensive medical treatment?   I personally know of two people from my workplace whose spouses gambled away their life savings. Others have cashed in their 401(k) to help with a sick grandchild.

The property is a productive asset that we think hope will hold its value. If anything, we’re focused on making improvements. Every grapevine and fruit tree that is planted will increase both the property’s productivity, and in a small way, its eventual sales price, should we ever decide to sell.

Not that there are any illusions about the romanticism of country living. For one thing, there’s more bugs. And inexplicably, more dickheads throwing beer bottles out the car window and into my ditch.

Big cities have their own yin and yang. Along with conveniences like better hospitals, good shopping, nice restaurants, and a larger circle of friends, you get more noise, *much* higher property taxes and more traffic.

Still, this is a at-a-minimum fall-back plan.  At its most basic, we’ll have a  roof over our heads — a tastefully decorated roof, courtesy of Mrs. 101 –  and be able to feed ourselves.  A little place in the country, a financial survival citadel of security on which to not just get by, but hopefully thrive.

If the preceding sounds a little too much guns-and-doomsday stuff, not meant to be so.  I’ve already heard the wisecracks and throwaway comments about machine-gun emplacements and buried food caches (the hacienda, with its open fields and easy road access, is a miserable failure as a strategically defensible retreat.  Real hardcore survivalists would sniff and make snarky comments of their own).  My parents and grandparents grew up in the countryside, in a quite spartan environment.  This is simply emulating a simpler, more cost effective lifestyle, again, as a base minimum.

And those needy, grasping boomerang kids? They’d be welcome to come stay with us. There’s plenty of work to be done around the farm.

Thanks for reading! Please join the conversation by leaving a comment. I'm interested to know your thoughts.

Because politics can be a dry cheerless subject, pictures of puppies is a much better visual

With the Republican nomination long ago buttoned up by Mitt (heave) Romney, and the winding down of Ron Paul’s campaign, a little attention thrown the other candidates can’t hurt.

Dan Carlin recently interviewed both the Independent and the Libertarian candidates on his podcast Common Sense.   Both interviews are well worth a listen.

Buddy Roemer, the Independent candidate, I admit I hadn’t heard of.  Frankly, his campaign’s landing page could use a better slogan than “Roementum across the nation”.  Let’s ask Joe Lieberman how well this uniquely witty catchphrase worked for him in ’04.   In the interview however, he comes across as very believable in his focus on his number one issue, campaign finance reform.   Acknowledging that the political process is bought and paid for by PACs and moneyed special interests, Gov. Roemer pledges to not accept any donation larger than $100.  True to his word, OpenSecrets.org shows 82% of his finances as originating from small donors (shouldn’t it be 100%?).  Another takeaway from the interview is how Roemer has been shut out from the debates.    It’s a bit disgusting what machinations that the media and debate organizers will engage in to keep viable alternative candidates out the limelight.

Gary Johnson, the former Governor of New Mexico, won the Libertarian party’s nomination for President earlier this month.  For my taste, Johnson is a bit too infatuated with the “Fair Tax”, which in and of itself is a gigantic oxymoron.   But he makes some good points on cutting back on overseas involvements, fixing the nation’s balance sheet, and restoring civil liberties through the repeal of the Patriot Act.

Gary Johnson needs to pick up his web game, though.  Google results for “Buddy Roemer Independent” brings up Roemer’s campaign site at the #1 slot. Do the same for “Gary Johnson Libertarian”, and his campaign page can only manage ninth position.   I’d give better odds to Roemer over Johnson on appearing on a nationally televised debate.  The fact that Johnson is an extreme athlete is interesting, but no qualification for a national leader.   Also, why can’t he get Ron Paul to endorse him?

Endorse Gary Johnson, Win a Free Puppy!

In any event, recent news that the Ron Paul campaign is winding down as its cash money dwindles (but no debt! — take that, Gingrich, you fraud!), makes it worthwhile to give these two alternates a second look.  Not that either of these two have a snowball’s chance in hell, but perhaps hearing other ideas may lead to incremental change down the road.

(More election sweepstakes at Financial God, with Betting On The Future President)

What say you readers, how likely are you to even consider a third party vote? Sound off in the comments…

Right then, on to some interesting links in the PF sphere from last week.  WiFi access is sometimes spotty when on the road, but I had some limited time to log on and peruse last week.

Investing and Money

Jim @ JLCollinsNH has the latest in long series on  stocks, investing and retirement:  Stocks, Part VII – Can Everyone Really Retire a Millionaire

Dividend Ninja:  Why You Shouldn’t Buy Facebook: Part-1. Go read it, and stay tuned for part 2.

PK @ Don’t Quit Your Day Job starts off with a good article on the eternal optimism of Wall Street analysts.  Sure, who likes a Negative Nellie anyways?  Who Will Rate the Raters: The Analyst Crisis on Wall Street

Another PF Blogger who’s not buying into the hype. Kurt @ Money Counselor, with Facebook IPO: Not For Me

The Biz of Life with The Income Potential of MLPs

Average Joe @ Free Financial Advisor posted a while back on the Passive Income Lie.

Money Cone, with the Five Minute Retirement Plan.  A good financial advice tool that is also free. Not developed by Average Joe.

Roshawn @ Watson’s Inc. is back with another killer post, Is Money Real?

Liquid @ FreedomThirtyFive blog, with Euro-ver Indebted

More excellent oil and gas analysis from Mich @ Beating the Index, with The Viking Oil Play in Alberta

Good Eats

Because no Good Eats section would be complete with out a tried-and-true recipe from Mike and Molly, here’s THE Chocolate Cupcake of Chocolate Cupcakes.

Agatha K writes eloquently on the hazards of yo-yo and fad dieting… and how the costs of compliance can add up, in The High Cost of Dieting

Personal Finance & Lyfestile (*)

Not your usual PF article, from Aloysa @ My Broken Coin:  The Financial Dangers of Being a Mail-Order Bride

Joe @ Retire By 40 defines his blog’s mission, with The Retire By 40 Value Proposition

Is your house way too large?  First Gen American with Useless and Beloved Living Spaces

Jacq @ Single Mom, Rich Mom with What If Higher Education Was Like Shark Tank….  Entertaining as always.

Health is a number one priority in retirement. Squirrelers lays it out in The Staggering Costs of Health Care in Retirement

(*) the domain’s already taken for Lyfestile.com.  I checked.

Carnivals and Roundups

The following carnivals and roundups were kind enough to include some of my scribblings…

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #33, hosted by My University Money

Carnival of Financial Planning #237, hosted by The Skilled Investor

Festival of Frugality #337, hosted by Money Wise Pastor

Financial Carnival for Young Adults, 12th Edition, hosted by 20′s Finances

Financial Carnival for Young Adults, 13th Edition, hosted by 20′s Finances

Midweek Reading, Exorbitant Privilege Edition, over @ Financial God

Round Up:  Dave Ramsey On The FaceBook IPO, over @ Money Mamba.

Yakezie Carnival, Will Smith Slap Edition, hosted by Young Adult Finances

Len Penzo’s Black Coffee, Anniversary Edition

That’s all for this week.  Thanks for reading and stopping by, and thanks in advance for subscribing via RSS Feed, Email or follow on Twitter.

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"Three Known Beauties", by Utamaro (1753-1806)

Just a couple words is all you need to know when traveling abroad. “Hello” and “thank you” and a big smile will open a lot of doors in the East, especially in a business setting, and most especially coming from Americans, renowned foreign-language ignoramuses.

For this reason, I was a little panicked upon arriving in Tokyo, having somehow forgotten the dozen or so Japanese words and phrases I picked up years ago on a project jobsite. The Blackberry and Google Translate to the rescue, and the first taxi ride was successfully negotiated.

A bit irritating how my brain can retain the totally useless Charm of Making from Excalibur, but not vital information like foreign language phrases.

Minnesota Nice

Highly recommend Minneapolis as a port of entry to the U.S. The immigration lines seem to be shorter, the border agents more courteous, and the whole place generally more agreeable than a big city hub like Dallas, Chicago or Atlanta.

The food choices are decent, not overly crowded, and virtually all the concession workers and airport staff are first-generation immigrants from Ethiopia. Gives me a chance to practice my Amharic, all three words of it.

Springing Amsegenalehu (thank you) on a cashier when getting my change back will most always elicit a big smile, and possibly lead to a short friendly conversation on Ethiopia and the greatness of Ethiopian ‘ngera bread and spicy zeegeeny stew, and why-oh-why is there not an Ethiopian food restaurant in the terminal. Except when the person is from Somalia. “Why you speak Ethiopian to me, I am Somali!”

Now Boarding…

The two hour flight from Seoul to Tokyo was on a Korean Air 747 Jumbo Jet.  A full flight of about 400 passengers.  Mostly Japanese day-trip shoppers.  Every single one of them seemed loaded to the gills with multiple carry-ons and giant shopping bags from the (expensive) duty-free.

Although the size of the plane was unusually large, even more unusual was that time of boarding was scheduled for 30 minutes prior to departure.  And by golly, 30 minutes it was:  first call 16:00 hrs, wheels up by 16:30.

Other international flights on US Airlines usually start boarding a full hour before takeoff.

Hard to explain the difference. Maybe there are more pre-flight checks with longer flights. Maybe catering takes longer to load. One thing that jumped out is that there were numerous flight attendants on duty, all young and smiling and willing, positively busting a collective hump helping the passengers get those bags stowed in the overhead bins.

Contrast that to the usual surliness of American flight attendants, who look like as if they resent passengers for coming on their plate.

Bah!

West Entrance Gate to Seoul, c. 1904

Asian Bidets

Athough Korea and Japan may have their cultural differences, one of the areas they seem to em, have settled on, is that combination of toilet/bidet. Virtually every hotel bathroom I’ve stayed in has the following ablution options:

Just press a button.... (photo courtesy of Wikimedia and Kuebi)

I think that’s all that need to be said on this subject.

Food Rules

Korean BBQ was good the first day, not so much the second.

I’m always up for a culinary adventure, try anything once.   Bring on the cold noodle soup, deep-fried bugs and duck blood pudding.  Boiled turtle? Give it a shot.  Raw garlic slices? You bet.

Korean BBQ is generally very good, with its thinly sliced meats grilled over an open flame, consumed with a variety of side dishes and cold beer. Thinly sliced beets, salad greens, onions, the ubiquitous kimchi, and seaweed salad. Great stuff!

This time, the side dish with gray-hued tentacles of sorts got a pass.

Not an attractive vibrant gray, either, say like freshly shucked oysters, but a dry, zombie-flesh mummified kinda gray. Pair it up with something that looked like raw liver, and my appetite was in serious jeopardy.

Maybe that’s the reason the BBQ session wasn’t that palatable. My culinary mind felt obligated to give it a go, but my stomach fought back with the queasies. Still, I felt just a little vindicated in that even our Korean hosts steered clear.

New rule: food shouldn’t be gray.

Wrapping Up

Short blogging week. WiFi strangely not available in the Prince Sakura Tower in Tokyo, a rare techno-fail more than made up with all kinds of nifty hotel room swag, and superior service.

Any thoughts, readers?

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Sumo wrestler Raiden Tameimon -- Japanese colour woodprint, 19th century

Last minute business trip, so part of the fare is business class, which breaks my heart in all kinds of ways.

Back in another employment life, *all* travel was business class, and upgrades to first were not uncommmon. Except in extreme cases like today, where the booking came a couple of days before the travel date, the present gig has a corporate policy of economy travel, from the company CEO down to the lowest peon. And that’s OK with me.

I don’t get too worked up about the skimpy legroom or execrable quality of the chemical paste that passes as airline food.

Asi es la vida.

But a little luxury never hurts.

I’m quite looking forward to Japan, even if it’s only for a day. I’ve only been through the airport a couple of times, and this will be my first time on the ground in Tokyo.

Some posts are pre-scheduled, but responding to comments or emails might be intermittent for the next month or so, dependent as it will on finding the next WiFi hotspot.

Thank you for reading along, and stay tuned for a possible update from the road.

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Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Domestic Operations Branch. Bureau of Special Services. (03/09/1943 - 09/15/1945)

Mixed Feelings… That’s what you get when your most hated enemy rides off a cliff in your faithfully restored 1972 Dodge Challenger R/T (the original joke has your mother-in-law driving off the cliff, but I’m quite fond of my MIL). I had the same mixed feelings when I read about the Occupy The Farm movement in Berkeley, CA.

Gill Tract is a 10-acre parcel in the pricey city of Albany, owned by the University of California at Berkeley.  Recently, some Occupy-styled activists have squatted on the property, turning it into a communal farm.

A small group of professors, students and activists have long argued for putting this property to a productive use. The property owners (themselves theoretically “owned” by the California state residents) have a different concept of productive use, having planned to sell the parcel for mixed development of retail, office and apartment space.

Enclosure of common agricultural areas was a policy in pre-Industrial Revolution England, with common farming or grazing areas being fenced, allotted to private owners, and eventually consolidated under wealthy landowners for the purpose of more “productive” scientific farming.  One consequence of the policy was the migration of former tenant farmers to the cities, to provide the labor in the workshops and factories, and thus fuel the Industrial Revolution. ( This is only a one-paragraph summary of a fairly complex historical event – for a more exhaustive treatment, see here).

In this case, there is no way that a simple vegetable farm could profitably operate within one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. I’m guessing the sale price of a 10 acre lot in the East Bay is probably in the range of $25 to $50 million.

The mission of Occupy The Farm, according to their website, is to reclaim  “… this land to grow healthy food to meet the needs of local communities. We envision a future of food sovereignty, in which our East Bay communities make use of available land – occupying it where necessary – for sustainable agriculture to meet local needs.”

OK, I could get behind that philosophically.  I’m sympathetic to urban guerrilla gardeners, about as much as I respect the rights of property owners.  But the SF Bay Area is not exactly a food desert.  Throw a stick and you’ll hit a CSA, farm stand or organic food store.   To claim that farming this parcel without the property owner’s permission is “essential for post-peak-oil-food-security“… weeeell, that’s to engage in a bit of a little self-serving hyperbole.  And, not that the SF Bay Area needs more strip malls, either.

As I said, mixed feelings.

Power farming displaces tenants from the land in the western dry cotton area. Childress County, Texas Panhandle - photo by Dorothea Lange

Good Links

Here’s some worthwhile knowledge to pick up.

First up, any post that includes a neat turn of phrase like “For the love of all pork fried in bacon fat, please dress appropriately for the interview.” deserves top billing. Shawanda @ You Have More Than You Think presents 7 Timeless Tricks For Mastering The Job Interview. One would think that in these days of immediately available information, that candidates would just know to come dressed in a suit for a professional position. And one would be dead wrong.

Len Penzo alphabetically compiles a list of PF do’s, don’ts, quotes and bon mots, with Personal Finance for Dummies, As East As A-B-C.

Kevin pulls no punches over @ Invest It Wisely: Getting Screwed Out of Your Hard-Earned Capital: How CDs and GICs Are Rip-Offs for Long-term Investing

Squirrelers tackeles retirement, a closer prospect for some:   Different Ways to Plan Ahead for Retirement

Sustainable Personal Finance has a post on crowd-funding. Always an option for people wanting to start an urban farm.

Joe @ Free Financial Advisor has some fees that he hates more than Spirit Airline’s new $100 fee for carry-on bags.

Paul @ The Frugal Toad, on whether it’s time to ditch the penny.

Liquid @ FreedomThirtyFiveBlog has an interesting thesis for a hedging portfolio.

More on investing in energy plays, Mich @ Beating The Index writes at length on Eagle Energy Trust

Good Eats

John @ Married With Debt:  Spaghetti Squash: Cheap Healthy Food and Recipe

We can always depend on Maggie @ Square Pennies for some good things to eat. On Mother’s Day, Maggie posts on favorite things to do with strawberries.

And finally, a very summery dish of tuna-stuffed tomatoes from Eleonora @ Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino   “Pomodori Al Tonno”

Summer Reading List

This is what’s on the iPad and the library shelf:

The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. The Durants are often cited in Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast, so I decided to give this slim little book a whirl. At a 102 pages, it’s short enough for me to take on my trip to Korea and Japan next week. Travel books all reside on the iPad these days.

The Fuller Memorandum (A Laundry Files Novel), by Charles Stross. Stross is a favorite SF cyberpunk author, probably best known for his Singularity-themed novels. Recreational mind candy for summertime vacation reading.

Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821, by George Selgin. A history of privately coined money in Industrial Era Birmingham. Debating whether to take this heavy one along on vacation. It might just be a summer-long project, read in the shade while alternately bird-watching in the garden.

Carnivals and Roundups

Carnival of Retirement, 18th Edition, hosted by Simple Finance Blog

Yakezie Carnival, Facebook IPO Edition, hosted by One Cent At A Time

Carnival of Money Pros, hosted by Financial Success for Young Adults

Carnival of Financial Planning #235, hosted by Living in Financial Excellence

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie, hosted by One Smart Dollar

Daisy @ Add-Vodka featured “Career Tips for Young Folks” in her roundup, Saturday Links and Blogs I Love: Summer Edition.

Mich @ Beating the Index has more energy news from EIA, and a clutch of interesting links, including one from here.

Going back to Occupy The Farm, what do you think readers? Are these folks on the right or wrong side of history and of property law?

Thanks for reading! Please join the conversation by leaving a comment. I'm interested to know your thoughts.

The Image of Wisdom (photo credit: Matt Lawler - Wikimedia Commons)

This is a series of blog posts, dormant for a while, resurrected for a while.  These would be career tips #15, #16 and #17, meant for young people entering the work force.  Little practical nuggets gleaned a few years in the grind.

Do It to Yourself First

“Whatever you choose to do to yourself, will be less painful than if done by others”.   Another present-day boss is fond of saying this, and applying the little dictum to internal audits and reviews.

The idea is to change and improve your own processes first, to spackle those efficiency gaps,  rather than be forced by outside persons and events.

On the home finance front, not too different from subjecting a household to a draconian debt repayment plan, rather than being hounded by outside creditors.

Look for Grey-Haired Knowledge

In other words, find a mentor.  With the disappearance of pensions and the change in culture, long tenure at companies has become a bit of a rarity.  In some companies,  there may be still a few who old-timers around who have put in their thirty or forty years at the company.

Leaning on an experienced person to learn is a viable strategy in life, let alone a budding career. 

Besides operational or job-specific knowledge, a seasoned pro can impart little bits of company lore and legend.   Hoary old stories about past campaigns, initiatives, and more importantly, lessons learned, may not necessarily be retained in company training manuals.  In fact, just the opposite may be the case.

When these grey-haired persons leave for that final retirement, a little bit of  knowledge goes away.

It’s to your advantage, young person, to ensure that it sticks around.  And what better place to have it stick around than your own head first?

Don’t Hurry

This is a good tip I picked up from a former boss.  He would always be ready for a meeting five or ten minutes ahead of schedule, enter the room and sit down in a very deliberate way. Arrange his folder, his pen or pencil, and then sit back calmly and watch or greet who entered next.

I asked him about this, and his response has stuck with me to this day:  “If you look rushed, people might think you don’t know how to manage your time”.

It’s also good policy to not exaggerate and even comment how busy you are, even if you’re on in over your head (as most of us are in these lean-staffed days) and about to explode from stress.

A familiar business small-talk intro is  “Staying busy these days?”.   The common answer is roll eyes and bemoan the lack of time, people, resources, etc.    What is less common is an insouciant shrug and an answer of, why yes, pretty busy, but we manage and by.  This projects an image of can-do competence, confidence and optimism. All good things.

At least that’s what I’ve been told by a gray-haired old-timer.

Other reading on this in this career tip series:  Toothpaste Engineering, and Career Tip # 14: Right versus Wrong

Thanks for reading! Please join the conversation by leaving a comment. I'm interested to know your thoughts.

Street of a Chinese Village (photo by Stougard - Wikimedia)

Geopolitics

Jim Rogers, a widely-quoted commodities investment guru, moved to Singapore and is teaching his young daughters Mandarin because the future is in Asia.  The Chinese economy rolls on and on with high growth rates.   And yet, there’s reasons to be skeptical about the economic boom that is heralded to come.

This week’s exhibit A comes from an article by Dr. Brahma Chellaney in the Singapore Straits Times:

“The Resistible Rise of Asia“

A favourite theme in international debate nowadays is whether Asia’s rise signifies the West’s decline. But the current focus on economic malaise in Europe and the United States is distracting attention from the many serious challenges that call into question Asia’s continued success.

Professor Chellaney is the author of a recent book titled Water: Asia’s New Battleground.I’ve not yet ordered the book, but from reading excerpts and reviews it appears to be on the alarmist side.  That will not take away from the realities that purportedly endless growth eventually smacks up against physical constraints, such as water and arable land resources.  I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining enough read.

Exhibit B comes from of my favorite travel writers, Robert D. Kaplan,  writing on Stratfor about the conflict and source of tension between the two great powers:

“The India-China Rivalry”

As the world moves into the second decade of the 21st century, a new power rivalry is taking shape between India and China, Asia’s two behemoths in terms of territory, population and richness of civilization. India’s recent successful launch of a long-range missile able to hit Beijing and Shanghai with nuclear weapons is the latest sign of this development.

Read more: The India-China Rivalry by Robert D. Kaplan | Stratfor

And for balance, here’s the folks at Control Your Cash on why you shouldn’t worry about events far far away:

“Think Locally, Act Locally“. 

Just like most of the non-financial headlines (“Amanda Bynes Gets DUI”, “Scientists Find Connection Between Diet, Weight”, “Some Chick Casts Aspersions on Ann Romney”), the financial headlines are there largely to take up space.

Legitimately important financial items – this county to increase its sales tax rate, this state to float bonds it won’t be able to cover – get buried because they’re even more mundane than the stuff that makes it to the headlines.

Agree with the premise.  Spend too much time fretting about events halfway around the globe, and you won’t get anything done closer to home.  Your home.

Me, I’m interested in Asia geopolitics from a personal and business perspective.  I travel there once or twice a year, and some of our family’s stock investments (such as oil and gas stocks) are directly affected by economic events in the region.

And, no danger of widespread fretting over either headline.  Neither made it in above the fold in the North American news cycle (I checked).

Investing & Personal Finance

If interested in dividend stock investing, a good place to start is Dividend Monk’s latest roundup of dividend stock investing articles from around the web.

Financial God has a rundown on what not to do: Five Tips on How to Protect Yourself from Getting Financially Destroyed

During the California gold rush, the entrepreneurs who made solid returns were the ones who sold the shovels and clothes to the gold miners.  Mich @ Invest It Wisely tries to capitalize on the North America exploration boom with a bet on a services company.

Average Joe @ The Free Financial Advisor has a few thoughts on retirement.

Paper or plastic? New or Used car?  JT @ Money Mamba breaks it down.  Why Do People Say You Should Buy Used Cars? Because They Haven’t Shopped for One

Of course any post by Darwin’s Money is going to make the cut.  Financial Musings on my Vasectomy

Motivate!

Shilpan @ Street Smart Finance on How To Super Charge Your Relationship

Kevin @ Invest It Wisely with How These Mental Anchors Are Seriously Holding You Back in Life

Joe @ Retire By 40 with Don’t Quit Your Job To Follow Your Dream

Steve @ Brip Blap has a good list of what and what not to do to build prosperity… “38 Random Thoughts on Building Prosperity”.   The best one:  don’t be stupid about frugality.   “Frugality does not mean spending ten hours sewing socks together that could be replaced for $8, or using a blend of toenails, toothpaste and BubbleYum to make homemade glue. Your time must be SPENT wisely.“

Good Eats

Miss Shawanda @ You Have More Than You Think with a whole week’s worth of menu plans, including white bean and sausage stew, which sounds *really* good.

How to improve on regular ol’ brownies?  Toots posting at WorkSaveLive shows you how, with Better-Than-Crack Brownies.

Gardening

A short tip on square foot gardening, the method popularized by Mel Bartholomew.   Instead of building the bed out of 2″ x 6″ lumber, make it 8 or even 12 inches high.  You can still put the six inches of “Mel’s Mix” (compost, vermiculite and peat moss) as the growing medium, but the increased height of the borders will allow for a few inches of mulch on top of the mix.

The mini-farm is doing just swell @ Mike and Molly’s House.

More China scenes - "A Man and his Beefs" (photo by Stougard - Wikimedia)

Carnivals and Roundups

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #30, hosted by My University Money

Carnival of Financial Planning #234, hosted by Personal Dividends

Carnival of Financial Planning #233, hosted by Boomer and Echo

Carnival of Financial Planning #232, hosted by Mom’s Plans

Carnival of Money Pros, hosted by Money Cone

Carnival of Money Pros, hosted by Novel Investor

Carnival of Money Pros, hosted by My Journey to Millions

Carnival of Retirement, 17th Edition, hosted by Young Cheap Living

Carnival of Retirement, hosted by Broke Professionals

Financial Carnival for Young Adults, 8th Edition, hosted by 20s Finances

Financial Carnival for Young Adults, 10 Edition, hosted by 20s Finances

TotallyMoney Blog Carnival- Big Bang Theory Birthdays Edition, hosted by Debt Black Hole

Totally Money Blog Carnival, April 23rd Edition, hosted by My Personal Finance Journey

Totally Money Blog Carnival #65 – Success, Wealth and Happiness Edition hosted by Balance Junkie

Yakezie Carnival, Severe Weather Edition, hosted by Money Q & A

Yakezie Carnival, Earth Day Edition,  hosted by Frugal Toad

Yakezie Carnival, 4-22 Edition, hosted by Faithful With A Few

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That’s if for this week, folks.  Closing with a backhandedly snarky article featured by The Hindu newspaper.

Dowry Pours Cold Water on Chinese Men’s Hopes

For generations, anxious parents in rural China, like those in India’s villages, prayed to the heavens for a son, reflecting the strong traditional preference for boys over girls.

In some Chinese villages, however, having a daughter is slowly becoming the rage, at least according to recent accounts of families having to shell out tens of thousands of yuan to find brides because of an alarming shortage of women.

Spend a few generations killing off daughters in favor of sons, and soon enough your culture is back to paying dowries.

Thanks for reading! Please join the conversation by leaving a comment. I'm interested to know your thoughts.

( what follows is a guest post of sorts, filed under Politics and Current Events )

Earlier this year, reader Carlos left a great series of comments on a post by Fred Carach. (“Kiss Real Estate Goodbye – An Appraiser’s Viewpoint“). I emailed Carlos to thank him for his readership and commentary. In the course of the email exchange, Carlos lamented how in this modern age, his letters to the editor of his local paper kept going unpublished.

While this blog has a minuscule readership compared to the Letters section of the mighty Miami Herald, Carlos’ letter is so passionately eloquent that it deserves *some* exposure. Carlos doesn’t (yet) have a blog of his own, so I’m glad to lend him mine for a bit.

I should say that while I share some of the sentiments in the letter, I’m not in complete agreement with Carlos. The letter is quite critical of President Obama. I could write a similar one about George Bush… Or Bill Clinton… Or to lesser degree, Ronald Reagan (I have a soft spot there). In my own opinion, most U.S. Presidens have done little to promote and advance individual liberty, and much to increase stupid and wasteful government control over our lives. Nevertheless, Carlos makes a great point about the degraded symbolism of the Honored Guest at the State Of The Union address.

Here’s Carlos…

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Miami, Florida

Gentlemen:

Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan aboard an American boat in California, 1964. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since Ronald Reagan first seated Lenny Skutnik next to the First Lady in the State of the Union gallery in 1982, Presidents during major addresses have recognized 40 such heroic Americans who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments of exceptional citizenry.  

Today we have a President who seats a symbolic victim in this same place.   

Muddled in process and politics, he rallies popular resentment on industrious folk and American self reliance with his continued protracted ineffectiveness.

A collectivist leader of people, he perennially sees all of life as unfair and unjust, our American life as static that must be limited by committee decree, and that the only way we can make some of us better off is by making some of us worse off.  How archaic!

The great leveler, the instiller of a false sense of entitlement, our divider-in-chief continues to incite and draw on the basest of human emotions, avarice and class envy, with his shallow, now stale rhetoric of mendacity as he drags out this same repeated failure for time immemorial, the tired old collectivist creed of sloth and deceit, as he seeks ultimately a life by government ration for all of us.

It is a creed where equality and environmentalism trumps everything under the sun, even the future of our young.

(The 40 are detailed by Stephen Frantzich in his book, “Honored Guest:  Citizen Heroes and the State of the Union”.)

The President’s Press Secretary has said that this State of Union Address would be bookends to his speech at Osawatomie, Kansas last month.

One hundred years ago, a proven leader of men, a vibrant, virile man of decisive action who could well lead and inspire industry within people ventured to a very small town in East Kansas. 

Having been a Calvary Colonel, a Police Chief, a Navy Secretary, a New York Governor, a Vice President and a President he could relate well to an industrious populace of proud, productive, self-reliant Americans, patriots with the work ethic of a strapping lumberjack.  

Rough and ready Teddy Roosevelt drew a crowd of 30,000 to tiny Osawatomie, Kansas as he spoke proudly of the unlimited potential of industrious Americans who saw America’s promise as boundless and true, drawing on a book by Herbert Croly, “The Promise of American Life”.

A century later in stark contrast, what have we now but a President who draws but a mere crowd of 1,200 in an era when you can easily hop in your car and traverse paved roads and interstate highways to the very same Osawatomie, Kansas at its only high school to hear him speak of his own perceived limits on modern American life, and of his view of American despair.  

President Barack Obama - State of the Union speech 2012

A President of such protracted ineffectiveness who will say anything not to lead, a community organizer that rallies popular resentment on industrious folk that earn what they have and save, and wallows in sloth and his own perceived inequality and unfairness in all of American life drawing on the basest of human emotions inciting class envy with authority desperately seeking re-election having no record to run on.  

What have we but an untried, inexperienced President in pampers within an empty suit with an increasingly desolate voice of folly who can better relate to an effete interior decorator with his own soft creed of mollycoddle, sloth, and deceit.  

A President who sees the federal government on a street corner handing out a $1,000 every second and thinks the line will someday get shorter.

Ben Franklin once said, “House guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days”.

To diminishing crowds, this President repeats a shallow spineless collectivist rhetoric of mendacity that after nearly three years has gone stale, rancid and whose voice will soon fade out with little more than a whimper cast high upon the heap of collectivism compost and its long historic failures from time immemorial.Sincerely,
Carlos Lumpuy
Since 1960 on Champlain StreetWhether professional or personal, all human relationships have at their core and as its basis, one singular and fundamental premise:
Respect.
Without it, there can be no relationship, and we fail not only our positions, our service, our labor, and ourselves, but those and all that surrounds us.

-Carlos Lumpuy, Landlord, Miami, Washington, D.C.

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What do you think, readers? Had you heard of the Honored Guest tradition before? Harsh criticism of President Obama, or not?
Big fan of Ol’ Rough-and-Ready? 30,000 is indeed an incredible crowd to attract at a rally in those times of limited means of communication. Comments/opinions welcome. As politics can be a touchy subject, please keep discourse civil.

Thanks for reading! Please join the conversation by leaving a comment. I'm interested to know your thoughts.