My Personal Finance Blog

My career is in Human Resources and my first introduction to layoffs occurred in the mid 1980’s when I worked for the Miller Brewing Company. Never in the history of this illustrious company had we conducted salaried layoffs, and it was perceived as letting go of your closest friends and family members. It was horrible, and for hundreds of people it forever changed the meaning of the expression, It’s Miller Time.

The first layoffs were accomplished with a high level of secrecy, and also the greatest respect and dignity. It started in the morning, and a warm and inviting lobby that offers a bar and beer taps was suddenly quiet as a funeral parlor. People passed each other in the halls without establishing eye contact because you might learn something you didn’t want to know. If someone said, Hello, how are you? The awkward response might be, Why are you asking, what did you hear?

One at a time, the affected employees were advised by their supervisor, allowed to collect their things and say goodbye to friends. Next they were escorted to the HR department where we advised them of their benefits, remaining pay and next steps. Then we walked them to the door. We were instructed to be swift, firm but caring. When it was over, we then laid off members of the HR team who had just helped to let go of the others. We anticipated this might happen.

As the layoff was occurring, I remember sitting at my desk and waiting for the next person on the list to show up. Usually you knew the person and could anticipate how they were going to react, but it wasn’t always as you anticipated. What allowed you to establish a connection with them was the fact you might get the axe yourself by the end of the day. You never knew, so you felt like you were in this together. It actually helped to ease the pain.

Eventually you developed a preference for which reaction you wanted a person to have, sort of like switching channels on TV. What I liked most were the people who saw this as a springboard opportunity to finally escape a declining business situation, transform their life and career, finally do something entirely different, move to a warmer climate, start a new business, write a book, or even take a much needed vacation or sabbatical from working. It was amazing the possibilities some of these optimistic people had already dreamed up with such short notice. It was like they were anticipating the layoff and already had plans. Many of them actually commented they felt sorry for the people who were left behind. Rather than waiting around any longer for something bad to happen, they were regaining control of their life and career, and it felt good. After meeting with several of these opportunistic thinkers, I was already dreaming what I might do, and was almost hoping to get laid off myself.

What kept my feet on the ground and head out of the clouds were the occasional people whose lives seemed completely dependent on just the Miller Brewing Company. They couldn’t imagine life after Miller and were stuck in the mindset of “why me, why now, why not someone else, what am I going to do, what do I tell the wife and kids, I don’t even have a resume, I’ll never find another job like this, I just bought a new car, how do I pay the mortgage, I’ve got two kids in college, or I don’t think I can make it through the day.” You couldn’t help but feel sorry for these people, and sometimes worried. We were instructed to watch for difficult cases and to connect them with the appropriate resources that were on standby. What you wanted to do was pair them up with the upbeat person who just left and felt like they couldn’t get out of there fast enough. But that would happen later.

The next day we had arranged for an outplacement provider to speak with the entire group and to discuss a wide range of transition topics. Most people were still in shock, but on the third and fourth day, people were commiserating with each other, talking about how their layoff was handled (comparing scars), and about the people they were sad to leave behind and what might happen to them. You could almost sense the transformation that was happening, and it was good. It was obvious that the opportunistic thinkers had hit the ground running, and you could easily assume they would land much faster. This wasn’t always the case.

What distinguished the people who landed sooner or with something better was not necessarily their positive attitude before the layoff. Although that helped many people to initially endure a bad situation, it was a person’s developing positive attitude and sense of purpose after the layoff and whether they could sustain it. Many people had to get through the initial shock, adjust and regain their composure, and then deal with their situation. The people who had a more difficult time ultimately landed jobs as well, but it took them longer because their positive attitude and purpose were slower to develop.

Bottom line, it was how a person felt that determined how soon they acted and what they did. They acted on their emotions caused by what they were thinking. Favorable thinking resulted in feeling better and delivering better results faster. Unfavorable thinking resulted in feeling not so good, and the outcome was procrastination or mixed results.

It’s twenty years later, and after working now with tons of people in transition, I’ve seen this happen repeatedly. I cannot think of one person who was previously unemployed or lost their job that did not find another. It was like there was a job reserved for each of them, and they didn’t have to worry. If only they could have taken a pill and woke up later to find they were already settled into a new job. This was impossible because whatever happened was the direct result, not of their circumstances, but how they thought, felt and acted regardless of their circumstances. Their circumstances were always secondary to their thinking and fulfillment of their purpose.

I refer to the people who get this as the advantaged. They function with a mindset that is made content by control of their emotions to get what they desire. It’s an optional state of mind that enhances your ability to think clearly, feel better, make better choices, deliver better results, and to endure regardless of your circumstances, even layoffs.

But realize this has nothing to do with the power of positive thinking that assumes you’ll get what you want by thinking positively. Get real. Wishful thinking has nothing to do with it, particularly if you’re purpose is to keep putting food on the table. It’s about the proven fact that people act on their emotions caused by what they think. You still have to get up, get moving, and get it done, and what causes you to do this most effectively and with greater resolve is how confident and committed you feel. This begins with how and what you were thinking. Was it about the hurdles, or the goal line?

From my experience, the advantaged were always the ones who despite their layoff, reasoned to recognize the agreeable middle ground. They chose to see the good in the bad, the rainbow, silver lining and light at the end of the tunnel. Rather than waste time needing, wanting or worrying, they imagined already having their purposes fulfilled, and they leveraged their resulting contented emotions to think clearly and to act with greater resolve to achieve the results they desired.

Because everyone’s purpose was different, they each had different thoughts, but generally speaking, they were thoughts that did not ask why me, but inspired feelings of joy, optimism, excitement, enthusiasm and gratitude, and they went something like this:

Things are looking up and already I’m feeling better and better.

This enables me to finally do what I’ve always wanted to do.

Thank goodness this is over and I am getting on with my life.

How exciting to think what is going to happen next.

Is it possible to skip the group meeting because I have things to do?

Now I can do what I’ve always wanted to do.

I can see already how this is turning into something really great.

This is happening just in time. I can’t believe this.

I’m free, thank God I am free at last.

There’s a purpose and reason for everything, and I’m excited to learn mine.

I am certain about what I want next and can already see it happening.

I am fully engaged to do what I must to get it.

Want to bet I land a better job than what I had?

I am capable of doing what’s required to get whatever job I want.

I feel confident the job I want is right now looking for me.

My thoughts are focused positively on my purpose only.

I can sense that other people I don’t even know are ready and willing to help me.

It’s amazing how this seems to be fitting nicely into my plans.

So you see it’s not the layoff that opens the door to creating a brighter future. It’s the meaning you assign to the layoff or anything else that happens, and also your predisposition to reason and recognize the agreeable middle ground, and it enables your contentment. Not everyone chose to see it this way, but later wished they had.

The advantaged realize that satisfaction is illusive, unreliable and sometimes beyond their ability to control or afford. They live contentedly in a beautiful but imperfect world with beautiful but imperfect people, and they’re not expecting everything to go their way. But this doesn’t mean they can’t control how they think and feel in order to have and enjoy the life and career they desire. They reason to recognize the agreeable middle ground, and doing so gives them more strength and advantages than most other people could ever imagine.

© 2007 by Jeff Garton All Rights Reserved

Jeff Garton is a career coach, author and VoiceAmerica radio host whose background includes a career in HR with the Philip Morris Companies. He also leads the campaign to retire job dissatisfaction. For information, and to join the campaign, please visit http://www.careercontentment.com

Staying on top of the family finances does not have to be difficult. With a little planning, your finances can be kept up to date with ease. Believe me, having a handle on your family finances goes a long way in creating family harmony.

The first step is to set up a bookkeeping system. We’ve used Quicken software for years. It has helped to keep track of our expenses, and we have been very happy with the program. It takes a little bit of time to set up initially. The second part of your bookkeeping system involves setting up a place to save your receipts. We use a small cardboard divider file with a special slot devoted to “receipts that need to be posted”. The key idea here is to have a place where you store all receipts from expenses (including ATM withdrawals) so that they are readily available when you go to enter them into your bookkeeping software.

Once you have the system set up, then you simply enter your receipts, whether income or expenses. As you enter each item, you select a category for it to go into. Reconciling your account is done online. One of the greatest advantages in using an automated system like this is the ability to see your expenses by category. With the click of a button, you can find out what you spent on groceries, entertainment or any other category for any time period, like last week, last month, or the last quarter. Many other reports are available such as a cash flow report and an itemized categories report. Using this system has streamlined our ability to keep our account updated. Bills are easily paid on time.

Once you’ve established your bookkeeping system, then you must set aside time on a regular basis to update it. For our family, we’ve found that a weekly update works well. My husband and I alternate weekly turns on posting receipts and then reconciling our account. It never takes us more than 30 minutes at a time and our account is always balanced.

If you are behind in your finances, start by doing just 15 minutes at a time. You’ll catch up eventually. Then, be sure to make time on a regular basis to keep up with your account. Having your finances in order is a real stress reliever and can be attained by anyone!

For money saving tips and money management ideas, be sure to visit www.NotMadeOfMoney.com.

Many employers today want to know what group health insurance is and how does it affect them. A group health insurance plan is an insurance plan that is sponsored by the employer and allows you and your dependents to take advantage of the benefits of health care insurance. Many times, the cost of the group health plan is shared by the employee and the employer. As an employer, it is hard to differentiate what insurance company would be best for the needs of you, your employees, and your employee’s families. In a sea of endless health care insurance quotes, co-payment options, and a thousand different providers, things could get tricky. To make things a bit easier, choosing a Group health plan illinois will allow both you and your employee to experience the maximum benefits of a health care insurance plan.

Group health plan illinois will allow you to select a group health insurance policy and then allow any one of your employees to join, if they so do choose. If you are not sure what percentage you would like to cover, you can sit down and figure that out before you start the Group health plan illinois process. An employer can cover anywhere from 0-100% of the health care insurance plan, it all depends on the situation and the price that you as an employer are comfortable with. Remember, however, that if you are looking for the best employees out there, designing a competitive benefits package will set you apart from the rest of your competition. When someone is looking for a job, a benefits package is usually an important aspect. Creating a plan that will entice the best and brightest workers will only be beneficial to you and your company. With a Group health plan illinois, they can help you get there. If a prospective employee is deciding between you and your competition, a great Group health plan illinois could be the deciding factor between you and the other company.

Before making the decision on what type of health care insurance you will go with, you also need to know what will be right for you and your business. Group health care insurance is for employers who are able to add toward their employees premiums.  If you have an employee or potential employee that has bad medical history, supplying a group health insurance plan will ensure them medical insurance because group coverage does not turn anyone down. It is very simple to get your company started on a group health insurance plan. Just contact a local health insurance representative and they will be happy to assist you. They will ask you some questions and put together a number of quotes from different health care insurance companies. Once you compare the rates and benefits of the plans, you will be matched with the best plan. Once the plan is put into place, you will be able to put your company out there and say you provide great health care insurance plans for all of your employees.

Being a Health Insurance consultant Jose Anderson has good experience for many years in this field. He highly recommends www.cvty-healthinsurance.com for the information regarding Personal care insurance, Group health plan illinois, WellPath North Carolina and Health America.

Health insurance has become a hot button issue in US politics. With Washington making some progress in healthcare reform, this leaves Americans divided into three camps. Although estimates vary, it seems up to 50 million cannot afford private health insurance. The middle ground is help by those who do earn enough to pay for some private health coverage, and then there’s the comfortable group whose employers provide health coverage. Movement from one camp to another can be painful. It’s the difference between peace of mind and security on the one hand, and struggle and worry on the other. Because it can be a serious shock to a family to lose the health cover provided by an employer, Congress introduced the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) in 1986. The name may not sound important, but the Act has proved a vital reform to allow families a bridge between employer-provided and private health coverage. Almost all businesses employing 20 or more must join the scheme and tell their employees of their rights. COBRA is available to the majority of those who lose their employer-provided insurance, whether by termination, lay-off or voluntary termination. It can also apply when people lose hours and no longer qualify under a health plan, go through divorce or lose cover through the death of a spouse or parent. The umbrella of protection lasts for up to eighteen months in the ordinary case. Where a family member is disabled, the protection can extend to twenty-nine months. If the conditions are met, ex-employees are allowed to buy health coverage at group rates. This is more than the cost of the plan run by their employers (plus a 2% administration fee), but less than the cost of private coverage. The coverage runs from the date the employment terminates. If there’s a delay in putting the COBRA policy in place, the premiums have still to be paid as from the date employment terminated. This can sometimes be quite a large lump sum to find. The COBRA policy ends when the ex-employee or family member gets another health plan, no payments are made on the COBRA policy, or the period of protection ends. The advantage? While it’s in force, the insured and family get the same basic entitlements as under the employer’s plan. The COBRA scheme has been working well in providing a subsidized breathing space during which people may find new employment with a health plan or with a rate of pay that can support private health cover. Unfortunately, with unemployment rising towards 10%, it’s growing increasingly difficult for people to find new employment. Thus, as savings run out, families are dropping out of the group COBRA coverage and into uninsured status. It’s a sad fact of life that if a family cannot afford a COBRA premium, it cannot afford a private health insurance policy. The best place to shop around for replacement cover is online. Term health insurance can be an economic way to fill the gap until full coverage can be restored. Hopefully, the economy will pick up and more jobs will come. As the economy revives, more will be able to find affordable health insurance online.

Sites like http://www.hiinetwork.com/what-to-do.html let David Mayer help people around the world in understanding and learning more about the subject. See what David Mayer has written for the site here.

ter life you can start an online home based business entirely on your own if you have some innovative idea just research the idea and expand on it for Starting a home-based business has many rewards and challenges.

It has increasingly become a very popular way in which to earn a primary or secondary income. Business owners can set their own schedules. Business owners can manage their own time. Business owners can set their own vacation schedule or their time off. Business owners can simply generate more business to support higher salaries. Home based business owners get to accept full responsibility for all successes and failures of their business and be able to work independently.

You need to undertand all of the distractions that a home based business brings into the family environment. Yes bringing in the family will will overcome some of the distractions and help your family understand why you must spend so much time on your business.

Online home based business removes the traditional boundaries of the ’standard job’ and allows practitioners to work to their own schedules, do their own thing, and for themselves. For a better life you can start an online home based business entirely on your own if you have some innovative idea just research the idea and expand on it for Starting a home-based business has many rewards and challenges. Find out what it is like to live and work in the same space, and read about experiences of other home based business owners. With the Internet you can get all the information you needand the best part is when you need it. See what other business owners are doing go to Bogs and ask questions related to your online home business or about starting an online based home business.

With all the corporate layoffs, employee downsizing, lack of jobs, high gas prices, and long commutes; it is now necessary for many people to make money online with a work at home job, or start their own home based business. Make money online easily with a home business system that virtually runs on autopilot. For many years now, starting an online home based business has been a dream for thousands of people. In fact, so many people are starting their own work at home based businesses that, by the time you are done reading this sentence, someone in the world will have started an online business that is run entirely from their home.

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