Should You Ask for a Raise Now?

Asking for a raise used to be a fairly touchy subject to begin with. You got nervous just thinking about approaching your superior to broach the subject. You rehearsed the lines in your head, trying to figure out what was just the right mix of forcefulness and modesty, humbleness and conviction that you were well worth the money you would be getting paid if you were given this new requested bump in pay.

Well, you thought the jitters were bad before the economy went into a free fall in 2008, now asking for a raise in certain environments is sort of a big joke, or at the very least, not considered to be the best career move if your business has been adversely affected to the Nth degree by this recession. I know in my day job, I really don’t even think about approaching that subject.

One, because we have a job that is designed around scheduled yearly and sometimes biyearly reviews where our salaries are reviewed and potentially adjusted for things like performance and cost of living adjustments. And two, because we just generally don’t have that kind of environment here, I don’t know why, but most of the people in my work group just generally don’t ask for raises. Maybe it’s that we’re content with what me make or feel that we are already fairly compensated, I don’t know.

For me personally, I just don’t feel the need to ask for one because I feel that it’s adequate, then again, I have a second line of income to fall back on, and I know that not everyone is like that. But what if your job is the only lifeline of money you have coming in? And what if you have taken on gobs of new job responsibilities in the wake of layoffs of coworkers, downsizing, or generally higher volumes of work? Should you feel justified in asking for more compensation then?

I think that you should, it’s just a matter of how you go about it. You do want to do some research beforehand. Make sure you know what people who are doing jobs similar to yours are making in general. Many companies now don’t make salaries, or at least salary ranges, a huge secret. So, you may have some numbers to start with if you’re looking at asking for a certain amount. Make sure you also know if you are indeed doing more work than coworkers who hold the same title as you and make the same money as you.

You have to have solid rationalization for asking for more money, and this may help your case when you go to the boss woman or man and ask them for it. If you go in prepared, and you know what you want and why you deserve it, then you boost your cahnces of getting that coveted extra pay on every paycheck.

The Changing Jobscape

I read the most interesting, if not somewhat frightening, article just a few days ago, about how the “great recession” as this recession we’re still in, has been termed, may permanently affect the landscape of jobs here in America. Most notably and perhaps the most troubling to me personally is the fact that employers are forecast to keep on hiring from outside the US because the labor is much cheaper, and this trend had already started long before the recession began. Sorry to say that this will just put Americans in an even deeper hole when it comes to looking for good paying jobs that aren’t going outside of our borders.

I have a family member who just had to take a job out of state – far out of state, because he couldn’t find any jobs that he would be getting paid almost equivalent to what he was making before, which just covered things like the mortgage, car payment and helping his kids out with college. This is nothing compared to the millions of Americans who still can’t find anything, or who are simply packing up and moving out of the US and abroad simply to find a job that they can do which pays them what they are worth.

It’s hard when you are qualified and no one can hire you because there are literally about ten times the candidates than there are positions open at the moment, and since people are taking it on themselves to further their education even more in hopes of finding a better job, there are all that many more candidates who have an equal or better qualification than you. This is obviously frustrating to someone who’s a hard worker and who also happens to have tons of qualifications and keeps getting turned down for positions.

It’s heartbreaking actually that a lot of our jobs are going overseas. In this great country, shouldn’t there be some sort of incentives to stop this from happening? Maybe some sort of tax credit to companies that hire within the US and promote US made products? It seems to me that we are going the opposite way of what is needed on this issue, and the current administration isn’t doing much to counter the mass exodus of US companies to areas outside to get their employees, and to set up shop. We need change, real change right now before these things permanently change this great capitalist system we have.

Previously Easy to Find Jobs Now Scarce

This is no real news, but I guess it really hit home for me today on a personal level that this really hits the folks that live around you, the people who are your family, your friends and your aquaintences, but until you hear a direct story it sort of seems like something that is happening elsewhere in the country, not in your part of town. So, I was talking to one of my coworkers today and she has a daughter who recently graduated from college, and she also has a son who is in his later teens and has just started college, who are both looking for jobs.

Her son is looking for just any old job to help pay for things that he needs, however, even jobs that were previously a dime a dozen, like jobs at grocery stores, and retail stores, are harder and harder to come by. She told me that one store had a line of about 200 people waiting to apply when a few jobs opened up. Also, she said that a grocery store where he was looking to get in had over 500 applicants on file before they could really look at his, and they couldn’t even hire any more people because there was no real turnover due to natural attrition, which often makes it easier for companies to hire new talent, since people just naturally leave jobs many times after a few years.

I keep hearing these stories, but now that I’ve heard one where even what used to be “run of the mill” jobs are hard to come by, it really hits home that this recession is for real, and for now anyways, it’s here to stay and make our lives harder for a while. If you think finding a lower paying no skill required job is hard, it’s even harder to find a job where you must have a degree, as in bachelor’s or masters, just to apply.

A family member of mine who is in the computer science field was laid off a few months ago and has been looking hard core for a while now, not really taking any days off without sending off resumes or scouring the web and other resources for job postings, and he said that it seems pretty hopeless right now that he’s going to find anything comparable to what he had before.

These are definitely tough times for everyone, and even those who are still enjoying a stable job and income are buckling down on spending still since they are afraid their financial situation could potentially change at the drop of a hat. And who can blame them with so many traumatic stories floating around out there?

Extra Money : Ebay, Pawn Shops, Garage Sales

Seems like, with the high gas prices and faltering economy, we’re all looking for ways to rake in a little spare change – or a lot of spare change, depending on whether you are one who has also been affected by the massive layoffs that have occurred as of late at many major companies. Unfortunately, some are having to part with their precious belongings to make ends meet until the rough times are over.

Pawn shops are gaining in popularity as more people need fast cash for necessities like food, utility bill payments and gas money. We’re seeing more pawn shop business growth in the last several years as the economy is crunching budgets with high inflation coupled with the increase in job losses.

The way pawn shops work is that you bring in some of your possessions and it will be given to the pawnbroker as collateral so they can give you a loan. Next, the pawnbroker will loan you money based on the value of your collateral.

Once you have repayed the loan with any interest that has accrued, the pawnbroker gives your collateral back. In the situation where you do not repay the loan as agreed, the pawnbroker will keep the possession you brought in as collateral.

The pawnbroker is the person who loans money on the basis of pledged goods. The pawn shop is the place of business for the pawnbroker. A pawn transaction is redeemable within 180 days unless it is renewed and the end result is the power of sale of collateral if the loan is defaulted.

The interest rate is, as an example cited in N. Carolina, a maximum of 2% per month. Annually, that is about the same as rates charged for credit cards. There are other fees to watch out for such as handling, storage or insurance fees.

At the end of the 6 month period, you either have to pick up your collateral or initiate a new loan on your possession. If you do not do this, the collateral then belongs to the pawn shop and they can sell it.

Even with the economic crunch, remember if you are using a pawn shop to gain quick loans, don’t bring in family heirlooms of great sentimental value. In the event that you can’t make the loan payments, your precious heirloom may be gone forever. Keep your collateral to impersonal items you could live without such as high tech electronic devices.

Other options for economic crunches are listing items on ebay or Craig’s list for sale to gain possible quick cash. Garage sales don’t compare as favorably as the resale value on your possessions are often as low as 10 cents on the dollar.

Quick Way to Raise Money

Many people, amidst what a lot of financial gurus are calling the biggest economic slow down in years, are looking for ways to make a quick buck to help pay for bills in the wake of tightening credit.

Times are quite different than they were even five years ago, when credit was relatively easy to come by when times got tough and people needed the cash to pay bills and to live. Now though, with banks tightening the ropes on lending, and mortgage lenders less likely to lend money based on falling home prices and busted equity, people are having to get second jobs and think of more creative ways to make ends meet.

One quick way to raise money may be to go through old jewelry, collectibles such as toys and nick nacks and other valuables or semi valuables and decide if they are really needed. If they aren’t, and they aren’t of too much sentimental value that they will be sorely missed, sometimes we have to make difficult choices what’s more important. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not all for liquidating your life whenever times get rough, but if it’s just sheer laziness that’s been keeping you from unloading some things you never use, it may be a great way to make a quick buck.

This one may be a long shot, but for some it will work. Try checking out the unclaimed money reports for your state and nationwide records. I have several friends who found unclaimed money in their names from everything from old, unclaimed paychecks, to unclaimed tax return money, insurance policy money and other various, more obscure forms of money that was owed to them, but due to missing connections or some other complication, they didn’t know about it or it never reached their hands.

I’ve known some people who have discovered there were unknown insurance policies that included them as beneficiaries, and albeit it wasn’t usually a windfall, but it was enough that anyone would want to claim it.

Try looking for odd jobs. Someone is always looking for help to clean their house, do yardwork, help them watch their kids and do other various odd jobs around the house or elsewhere. Keep your eyes and ears open for anyone who’s willing to shell out some cash for help! If you can think of any other imaginative ways to raise money when in need, please don’t hesitate to list them here….just nothing illegal please!

Saving for Emergencies

I read a story the other day that really touched a nerve with me, because I had lived in constant fear of how I was going to pay my bills month to month, let alone my rent in my small one bedroom apartment my boyfriend affectionately now calls the “cracker box” apartment, for years. I was working on one salary, and a modest one at that.

I was making a car payment, paying electric, heat, insurance, groceries – basically everything, and God forbid something go wrong with my car or anything came along that required hundreds of instant dollars, because I simply didn’t have it. I would have to charge it on a credit card, and that’s how I got myself into trouble with credit cards for a long time.

You see, people don’t realize how important an “emergency fund” is, because they simply don’t have the money leftover at the end of the month to even think about it. I know I felt this way. I thought, jeez, if I can barely make ends meet now, how am I going to worry about setting aside any additional money every month for a fund that I’d probably have to dip into every month anyways, because I’d fall short on the bills and have to use one of my four credit cards which never seemed to get paid down to un-stressful levels.

I’ve said before that one of my friends had a great idea when she started saving almost all of the change she ever got from anything in a jar. At the end of the month, many times she’d have almost fifty to a hundred dollars, and that was a nice little sum to start stashing away for a rainy day, or something worse, like bad health or a defunct car that costs hundreds of dollars to repair.

Look, I know financial times can be really hard sometimes, I’ve been there. But an emergency fund of some sort is almost like insurance for times when we need money the most and feel the most pressure to put things on credit, which can always snowball out of control if we’re not careful.

Coinstar Machines Rule!

I just had my first experience with the Coinstar machines, those machines that take all your change and turn it into money so you can spend it, and I am going to be a Coinstar machine regular from now on, believe me. It’s a very cool concept, and I’m jealous of whoever thought of this, because they have to be rolling in the dough from this unique and most likely highly profitable concept by now!

Here’s how it works. Everyone, almost everyone I know at least, takes their change and kind of throws it somewhere. For me, I have a change compartment in my car which I throw all my change from drive thru’s from fast food in every time I get change, or walk into a corner store to buy something. Then, I have my change I keep in my wallet, which I try to use every now and again, but sometimes it just gets too heavy, and I empty it into my third change-keeping place, my pouch underneath my bathroom sink (weird place, I know, but we have limited space now).

So, over about a year and a half, quite a bit of change has accumulated in this pouch. I finally decided yesterday I would take it to one of these Coinstar machines which you see periodically in grocery stores and other locations where they know you’ll most likely spend it. I found one at a local family owned grocery store online, so I went there with my pouch of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

I dumped a lot of it in a holding area, and periodically, would pull a lever up and put more into the slot when I heard the coin counting slow down a bit. It’s cool, because as it is counting, you see a tally of how much money you are putting in there on a computer screen on the front of the machine. The fee for using this convenient service is 8.9 cents on the dollar, which sure, may be a little bit of money you’re wasting, but in my opinion, since you have to pay for coin rolls anyways, what other way is there to conveniently turn your coins into dollars?

Anyways, you get either a voucher for cash to take to any cashier in the place where the machine resides, or you can choose to make a charitable donation and get a tax deductible receipt for it. I chose this time to take the cash voucher, and I used it toward the groceries I purchased. I had almost fifty dollars in change if you can believe it!

You just never know how much spare change you have lying around, so this is a great service. Heck, you can use it toward that credit card bill you’ve been meaning to pay off if you want!

Interpersonal Trappings of Money

I read a really intriguing study that was done on human behavior when it comes to money, or more specifically to having and not having money or images of money in their head. A study was undertaken by a woman who noticed that she started to behave differently toward her friends and family on an interpersonal relationship level when she received a significant boost to her salary.

The study involved people being paid a small sum to take a little test, and little did they know that they were either exposed or not exposed to images of money, and this was the primary goal of the research, to see how the people who were exposed to monetary images and the people who were not, behaved differently after their “test”.

The findings undoubtedly point to the fact that money does change the way we view things. For example, we are less likely to ask friends for help to do things that we normally would have before money entered the picture. Also, money tends to make people less charitable in many cases, if you can believe that.

People who come into money or achieve significant increases in salary usually start to think that everyone should “help themselves” and become less helpful to peers. Not so attractive, is it? The important thing is, is to remember that we all are human, and it is always important to help your fellow man or woman, whether it has to do with expendable income or just help with anything.

Wages Increase in June

Wages have reportedly risen sharply in June, which is flagging worries of inflation to financial analysts. The bad news is, that employers still are not hiring at the rate they need to to lower unemployment and get our economy going again.

The limited job growth and opportunities is related to overall rising energy costs, including the cost of gasoline, which has hit many retailers in the pocket book and prevented them from hiring for new jobs since many of them need to pay for gas for shipments and other shipping and freight costs.

Then there are the job cuts by department stores and other big retailers, home builders, and telecommunications companies that cut the hope for new job growth. There are other sectors such as health care though, who have been able to boost their payrolls, which accounts for the sharp increase in wages this month.

The Future of the Dollar

In America, we are used to our currency, or our dollar, being one of the most valuable and trusted currencies in the world, having higher valuations than say the Mexican Peso or other foreign currencies of impoverished nations. But is the future of the dollar so bright, or are we in for a “doomsday” as some financial analysts always seem to predict?

The American dollar’s position as the preferred global currency has proven to be a boon for our living standards and our investments, both long and short term.

The dollar however, has seen better days than this current century, with the European currency, the Euro, beating the value of the dollar by almost 30% at times.

American Spending and Saving Habits are a BIG Part of the Problem

It has been said that the people of America, including individuals, and the American government, both locan and national, are not the best savers, and are even worse at spending over what they make.

This is said to contribute to the downfall of the dollar. So, if you want to help, you’d have to modify your spending and increase your saving, think you can do that? Now, if we could all just jump on that bandwagon….