This book is a financial literacy manual that can guide your prosperity strategy for years to come. It is not the typical Debt/Wealth manual it is comprehensive and “Value Packed”. The book delivers a holistic approach to debt and wealth management.

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For those of you keeping track of the unemployment rate and job creation at home (because it’s a lot of fun),  you may have noticed  something somewhat confusing.

The unemployment rate has declined two months in a row , but job creation has been  very weak. Economists say the number of new jobs created during December and January was not even enough to keep up with the influx of new workers and population growth.

So how can the unemployment rate drop when there are clearly not enough jobs being added?

In December, the unemployment rate dropped from 9.8% to 9.4%. In January, it fell again to 9%. But employers only added 103,000 jobs in December and a mere 36,000 last month. Economists had predicted a growth of more than 140,000.

If there are millions of Americans who are collecting unemployment, and the nation only creates a couple hundred thousand jobs, it doesn’t take a mathematician to see that the the numbers just don’t add up.

There are a handful of reasons that there’s such a major discrepancy between unemployment and job creation.

The explanation you’ve probably heard most often is that people are giving up their search for work, or their unemployment insurance benefits have dried up because they’ve gone so long without a job. The unemployment rate only takes into account those Americans collecting unemployment.

So-called “discouraged workers” are not even considered to be part of the U.S. workforce.

It’s estimated that there are another 10-million Americans who are discouraged or underemployed. That would make the real U.S. unemployment rate about 17%.

If you look at it that way – a drop in the unemployment rate may not necessarily be a good thing.

Another thing you have to take into consideration is that when you look at both unemployment and job creation you’re essentially comparing apples to oranges.

That’s because two different groups are being surveyed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics looks at individuals when it calculates the unemployment rate. But the government goes to businesses to find out how many jobs have been added each month.

That’s one big reason why the Bureau of Labor Statistics is now adding a new category to it’s monthly research… self employed workers.

For the first time, the jobs report released last Friday included the fact that there are around 14 million Americans who are self-employed. That’s way up from the last time the BLS looked into that information. Old data indicated around 9-million Americans were working for themselves.

It certainly appears that many frustrated people are no longer waiting for employers to increase hiring, and instead they’re creating their own jobs.

Sarah Horowitz, the executive director and founder of the Freelancers Union, says the employment picture in the U.S. is changing quickly.

“People are working gigs now, but the BLS is tracking jobs. They’re two different things,” Horowitz explained to the LA Times. “We are really moving towards a gig economy.”

That might be a smart idea, since regardless of the fact that corporate profits have been setting records, major employers have not been adding jobs. Some economists, like Robert Kuttner, say that’s because the major corporations “no longer need America’s workers.”

Writer Harold Meyerson talks about just that in a piece for Kuttner’s publication The American Prospect. He says recognizable corporations like General Electric, Apple and Hewlett Packard are creating more and more jobs overseas.

“In 2001, 32 percent of the income of the firms on Standard & Poor’s index of the 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies came from abroad. By 2008, that figure had grown to 48 percent.”

You read that correctly. In 2008, nearly half of the money for paychecks from major U.S.-based corporations left this country.

Even when companies do add jobs – there’s just way too much competition. It’s estimated that for every job opening there is an average of nine people also in line for the job. So when you go in for an interview – you can expect to be competing against eight other applicants.

Take Google as one perfect example. The search engine giant recently announced that it was adding 6,000 jobs this year. Sounds great, right? The problem is that after Google made the announcement it received 75,000 applications in just one week!

The good news is, if the American people truly are working towards creating their own jobs, that may be the best way to boost job growth and the economy.

Small businesses typically lead the way in an economic recovery. Plus, a study by the Kauffman Foundation indicates startups create an average of 3-million jobs per year. That’s about four times more than any other group. In fact, the report’s authors says without job growth from startups there would have been negative job growth in all but seven years between 1977 and 2005.

(Read a PDF version of the Kauffman Foundation Report)

However, there are issues and risks with both becoming a freelancer and starting your own business. Entrepreneurs still need to figure out issues like health insurance and retirement planning. Not to mention the fact that most startup businesses do fail after the first couple of years.

But America has always been a nation of risk-takers, pioneers and crazy cowboys, heroes with heart. Even if big business and the government leave us hanging – let’s hope that the real Americans rise up once again.

For more on jobs creation in the news, check out the AP video below.

Image: Andy Newson / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Image Credit – catalin82

Kasey Steinbrinck writes about personal finances and the economy for Check Advantage. The online company offers cheap checks including QuickBooks checks for small businesses. Contact Kasey to request free original content for you blog or website.

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If you’re struggling to maintain a reasonable standard of living whilst keeping up with the monthly bills then you almost certainly have a debt problem.

If you’ve already searched online for sources of debt advice, you’ll probably have come across several commercial and charitable organisations all claiming to offer you free and impartial advice. Debt consolidation companies, IVA companies, debt management companies, the list is endless. But how do you know which will give you honest, impartial advice and which you should stay clear of? Many industry ‘experts’ believe that it’s as simple as saying stay clear of commercial debt organisations all together- they are motivated by profit so how can your best interests be the same as theirs? Whilst this view is understandable, it is a gross oversimplification as there are in fact a number of ethical commercial organisations in the UK. However, it’s definitely true to say that whilst not every commercial organisation is out to take you for everything you have, your chances of getting impartial advice from a registered debt charity is way higher – so why take the chance?

Leaving aside those debt companies that are in contravention of any number of Office of Fair Trading guidelines and shouldn’t even still be trading, the main difference between a good commercial debt advice provider and a charity is that a charity will provide debt management (a type of debt relief where the organisation negotiates with your creditors to reduce payments) for free whereas all but one of the commercial providers (the exception being Payplan) will charge anything up to 15% of your monthly payment. The fee-charging companies claim they provide a superior service to justify the fee, however 15of your monthly payment equates to your debt taking 20% longer to pay off. That would have to be some service!

Using a debt advice bureau, like the Citizens Advice Bureau is a great place to start searching for up to date and honest debt advice. They can also give you advice about an array of other issues such as your benefit entitlement. The only major issue with local CABs are that they are underfunded and overstretched with very long waiting lists in many areas (not ideal when you’re dealing with a serious debt problem). Alternatively there are other reputable, free and impartial telephone based charities that will assist you with your debt problem, these include: National Debt Helpline (0808 808 4000), Debt Advice Foundation (0800 043 40 50) and CCCS (0800 138 1111).

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Getting out of debt during the times of recession is very important. If you wait for the economy to get better, your problems will simply increase. After the recession, thousands of Americans lost their jobs and they failed to repay the creditors. They became defaulters and started receiving collection calls from the creditors. Eventually, the debtors filed for bankruptcy so that they can avoid collection calls and get rid of the unsecured loans that they have.

However, filing bankruptcy invited further troubles for them. Once they filed for bankruptcy, they lost their credit score and credibility. As a result, they failed to get any further credit from the creditors for the next 7-10 years. This is because of the fact that the report of bankruptcy filing continued to show up on the credit history for that time frame. Thus, getting out of debt with the help of bankruptcy filing did not turn out to be very fruitful. It is therefore advised that if you are unemployed, you must try getting out of debt using other debt relief options. Debt settlement is by far the best option that can help you to eliminate at least 50% of the debt that you have.

Settlement requires that you must have an overall unsecured debt of $10K or more. Also, the debt must be consolidated in one place and you must be able to able to prove that you are in financial hardship. If you are unemployed, proving this will not be a difficult thing. All you need to do is to hire a reputable debt settlement company. According to the new debt settlement laws, you need not pay upfront fees to the company that you hire. The negotiator from the company that you hire will advise you to stop all the payments to the creditor and go delinquent. Once you do so, the creditor will wait for 12-16 weeks and then sell off the debt to a collection agency for as little as 20-30 cents against each dollar. The negotiator knows when this happens and then contacts the creditor with a better deal of 30-50 cents. The creditor agrees to the deal because of the fact that new deal will mean 100% return on investment for the collection agency and eliminates at least 50% of the debt that you have. Once the negotiation is complete, the settlement company will charge the service fee. This is how you get out of debt when you are unemployed.

Debt settlement is a viable option to filing bankruptcy and is becoming increasingly popular amongst Americans with over $10k in unsecured debt. Creditors are ready to negotiate. You can literally eliminate 50% of your unsecured debt with a settlement. Check out the following link to locate legitimate debt help in your state.

Free Debt Help

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The impact of recession has resulted in shortage of jobs, with that people are burdened with huge card debts. This has also given way to rise in bankruptcy cases as a solution to prevent debt.

There are benefits of credit cards as you can make an easy payment, but there are many rising problems behind this. Every year you just end up a huge amount in paying the interests, this benefits the card companies a lot. But the scenario has changed and these companies have financially collapsed.

The rising financial problem for credit companies has led to the evolution of legal methods to eliminate card debt. This includes debt consolidation and debt settlement. Debtors, who owe more than one card, can combine all the credit debts into one, at lower interest rate, which is called as loan consolidation. It is the easiest process to pay back, the only aspect to focus is on making monthly payment as a replacement for paying just the interest rates.

Another debt advice, beside consolidation loan, is the settlement of debts for getting a debt relief. In case of a settlement, a negotiation between the lender and the borrower takes place which results into a deduction of a portion of debt.

It is also recommended to consult an expert or counselor, who can provide you with legitimate advice. Debt cases vary, and your case may be different from others, and right information can only help in debt elimination.

Sailing through this recession period is no doubt a difficult experience, at the same time to balance expenditure and maintain the debts installments. Don’t endure this problem for a longtime, instead solve it out quickly.

Internet can help you to find out detail information and you can even come across cases of successful people who have handles various debt situations.
You can even come across various relief programs; the best aim is to target the relief network and social websites.
While searching the information, find out some experienced people from the network and try to find out their valuable advice.
You can even reach some debt settlement companies and acquire debt advice.
Be careful while selecting a relief program and get it verified by a financial advisor so that it doesn’t create any future problems for you.

The above can definitely help in reducing your debt amount. Try to find out genuine debt settlement companies and use the relief network wisely that will help you to resolve your debt problems.

If you are over $10,000 in unsecured debt it would be wise to contact a debt settlement company while conditions are so favorable. A legitimate debt settlement company will be able to eliminate 60% of your unsecured debt on average. There are now online services that will compare debt settlement companies for consumers and provide a top performing company in their area. To locate a top performing debt settlement company in your area check out the link below.

Legitimate Debt Settlement Companies.

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Altoids man! Is there a better breath mint out there?

You could eat garlic-marinated onion rings while smoking a cheap cigar and those little mints could still freshen you up enough to allow for a top quality make out session.

Of course, Altoids also come with high-class packaging. If you’re a fan of those “curiously strong peppermints,” you’ve probably got tins all over the place – in jacket pockets, desk drawers and your glove compartment.

Now you can go green, feel frugal and get creative all at once thanks to a bunch of ideas compiled by the blog The Art of Manliness.

We’re talking about more than just using it to hide your condoms and weed. They’ve got 22 cool (and useful) ways for you to reuse your Altoids tin.

A few of the ideas include a portable barbecue grill. “Perfect for life as a hobo,” say writers Brett and Kate Mckay.

There’s also the pocket Martini Kit so you have something to wash down your BBQ mouse, and a pocket First Aid Kit to treat your burns.

I think my personal favorite was the pocket tackle box. Perfect for the fisherman who likes to travel light. The McKays suggest it for backpackers who don’t have a lot of room.

Now most of these ideas are intended for the male species. But I can think of plenty of great ideas for the ladies too.

A little make-up kit for your purse, a pocket sewing kit, or melt down nearly used up candles and make a new one inside the tin. Now don’t start leaving comments calling me a chauvinist. I realize women may want pocket tackle boxes and grills too!

I’ve only covered a few of the ideas from the Art of Manliness here. Check out the entire post 22 Manly Ways to Reuse an Altoids Tin for the rest of the suggestions.

One of my favorite musicians is piano-man and songwriter Ben Folds. A couple years ago, I attended a concert where he showed how he uses Altoids tins  to get a certain sound out of his baby grand piano. When I’d heard the recording of the song, I swore it was just a synthesized keyboard sound – but it wasn’t. Check out the video of a live performance below.

We’d love to hear what other ideas you have for reusing an Altoids tin. Leave us a comment and share!

Image Credit: joshey

Kasey Steinbrinck is the web content creator for online check printer Check Advantage. Visit the site to check out Cool Checks and Cute Checks at prices up to 75% off what your bank charges. Contact Kasey to get free original content for your blog or website.

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Debt relief methods can come with different shapes and packages. Most of the best known methods are market based ones as these debt relief methods receive a greater backing through marketing. However, it may be true that, most of the time the best methods are overlooked by many people due to the lack of publicity they receive. This article looks at some of those methods which are among the best debt relief methods.

While looking at ways of getting rid of debt, it is equally important to know where to find the best advice on debt relief. Free debt relief advice is relatively easy to locate on internet but the concern is the validity and the credibility of the advice given by the websites and online service providers. Therefore, before jumping in, it is best to evaluate the Company or the person you are consulting on this matter. Allocating a little bit of time can keep you out of danger and can also help you to get the best advice when it comes to eliminating debt.

In any event, the best debt relief methods, in my opinion, are the ones that gives you much freedom, convenience to execute, safeguards your credit report and empowers you by nurturing the financial discipline in you so that you will not face the same sorrows a couple of years down the line! But, what are the debt relief methods that can deliver these requirements? We shall look at those methods now.

The best method, although not very famous is debt reduction-settle your debts methodically while minimizing the amount of money you spend on the settlement. You can prioritize the payments by using any of the methods such as debt snow ball method and interest rate method. The payments, however, has to be effected until your debts are wiped out. A little bit of courage and commitment can take you there!

The other method I recommend is debt consolidation. Do you have so many debts which you want to combine to one loan backed by equity? Then that is exactly what we achieve through debt consolidation. Only concern is that you will not get a discount on the debts but the interest cost could be much lower due to the secured nature of the loan.

These methods are recommended as they achieve the desired outcome with the least possible effect on your reputation and the credit report.

Debt settlement is a legitimate alternative to bankruptcy and should only be considered by consumers who have at least $10k in unsecured debt and are experiencing a financial hardship. To compare debt settlement companies it would be wise to visit a free debt relief network that will provide a free debt consultation to determine which option is best for you.

Free Debt Consultation

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