How I Will Be Rich

According to Forbes List of Best Cities For Jobs, Salt Lake City, Utah is the best place to live for a better job. The unemployment rate is low and the rate of income growth is high. Apparently, San Diego (or nowhere in California, for that matter) made the list. Florida and Oklahoma are also apparently good places to live as well.

The list is based on five factors:

• Unemployment Rate
• Job Growth
• Income Growth
• Median Household Income
• Cost of living

I also find it quite interesting that none of the country’s major cities made the list. There’s no New York, Los Angeles or Chicago…

If you are unsatisfied with your job and you just aren’t making the money that you think you deserve, maybe relocation is an option. If I wasn’t so heavily involved in my family’s business, I know I would definitely consider relocation. Salt Lake City is a beautiful place too…

Read the Full Article Here.

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Last week was a rough week for my blog. There was a lot going on here in San Diego. To make up for it, I’m going to pick some of my favorite posts from over the last two weeks. When I finally got to reading my RSS reader, I had something like 500 posts to sift through. Here’s what I found:

• Brip Blap has a very interesting article entitled, “Follow the White Rabbit to Financial Freedom.” It basically discusses personal finance but with a Matrix theme. It’s a fun idea.
• Consumerism Commentary gives 5 Tips For Unexpected Job Loss. Some good tips to always have in your back pocket… Just in case…
• Financial Hack gives you 117 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Reading This. Sort of counterintuitive for running a successful blog… It’s about procrastination with all sorts of great quotes.
• FreeMoneyFinance has Money Saving Tips For the Entire Family. Who couldn’t use some extra money advice. That’s why we all read these sites…
• Generation X Finance discussed the statement “You Don’t Need To Save Money - Just Use the Equity in Your Home.” Basically, the article discusses why it’s not a good statement to be making.
• There is a guest post over at Get Rich Slowly called “Understanding the 7 Habits of Wealth.” It’s a great article about the virtues needed to build wealth.
• Finance is Personal asks Are You Getting Paid What You’re Worth? Isn’t this something everyone wants to know?
  
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already discusses The Financial Incentives to Being Healthy. I’ve got to post about this, seeing as I also help run a health website. Health and Finance in one post… A Great read.
• I Will Teach You to Be Rich wrote an interesting post called “Look How Men’s and Women’s Magazines Write About Money.” Definitely worth a read.
• Lazy Man and Money talks about Saving Money by Making Your Own Beer. I’ve always wanted to do this but have never really gotten around to trying it.
• Mighty Bargain Hunter has 8 Ways to Invest in Yourself. There are some good ideas here to help make you more money, healthier and happier.
• Moolanomy discusses Choosing the Right Tool For the Job. When setting up various savings plans, you want to make sure you are using the right tools.
• Stock Trading To Go gives you 8 Ways to Fight Stress From the Stock Market. And yes, it is often very stressful. Follow some of this advice.
• Money Smart Life discusses How to Work Extremely Hard and Get Nothing Done. Try not to do that.
• Simply Thrifty has 50 Do It Yourself Halloween Ideas. Fun idea, given the season.
• The Digerati Life discusses retiring early in her post, “Ready to Retire Right Now? Find Out if it’s Time to Quit the Rat Race.”
• The Frugal Law Student gives 13 Ways To Kill A Cold Without Killing Your Budget. I’ve been battling a cold now for a little over a week… So this seemed appropriate.
• The Simple Dollar talks about Preserving The Things That Money Can’t Buy. This article was especially relevant to me, given the fact that a natural disaster just swept through my city.
• The Ririan Project gives a list on How to Be Frugal Without Being Cheap. This site constantly puts out quality content. They are typically articles on health but here’s a great one on frugality.
  
• Young and Broke discusses Financial Basics - What’s a Bond? A great quick read for a new investor who wants to know about bonds.

So that’s my, extra long, list for the week. Those are the articles I’ve found over the past 2 weeks that I really enjoyed. Post comments. Let me know what you think.

Enjoy,

-M

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This is another tip that I really feel can help make a person successful. You’ve got to make other people feel important. Every person on the planet wants to feel important. Have a philosophy in life that everyone that you come in contact with is important. It can go a very long way. If you are in business and you make every customer feel like they are your most important client, you are almost guaranteed to have a repeat customer. If you walked in to a store and the store’s clerks didn’t give you the time of day, would you feel comfortable returning? Of course not, you want to go somewhere that you felt your business is wanted.

This concept does not just apply to business. An excellent book, called The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, told a little story that describes my point perfectly. He told a story of a bus driver that wasn’t really the nicest guy. He would constantly pull away from the bus stops with people running towards the bus who were a little late. He, for the most part, had no mercy. If you were late to the bus stop, you missed the bus. There was one man, however, who would always sit up in the front seat of the bus and talk to the driver. He would talk about how hard the bus driver’s job must be and how he really respected the work that he did. He really talked up the bus driver’s job and really made him feel important. Because of this, the man never missed the bus, even if he was running late. He was the one man who made the bus driver feel important and in return, the bus driver always made sure he made the bus.

In the business world, the best sales representatives are the ones that can make their clients feel important. I’m in the shutter industry. In this industry, I get people selling me lumber, paint, hinges and various other components. Some people are surprised to learn that I don’t always go with the cheapest components. It means a lot to me to purchase from the people I most like dealing with. If a company tries to make me think that we need them, I’m almost instantly turned off. When a company makes me feel like I’m their most important client and they will do anything they can to keep me, they’ve usually got me locked in.

Another very intriguing statement from The Magic of Thinking Big is that of all the creatures on this entire planet, only about one in ten million is a human being. I think that makes all humans pretty important in the grand scheme of things.

-M

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Things are starting to calm down a little. My home is safe, Joe’s home is safe, Alana’s home is safe and we are all fine. I can’t really say everything is back to normal because so many people have lost their homes and the air is still terribly smoky. I’m going to be getting back to my normal posting schedule again. I’d like to think I have a good excuse for being so inconsistent.

I mentioned I’d like to post some pictures that I’ve taken and Brip Blap described the fire as like watching a car crash. It’s horribly tragic but you can’t take your eyes off it. That’s pretty much exactly how every San Diegan that I’ve talked to felt as well. It’s horrible and so many homes were lost and so many personal items that people cherished were lost but at the same time it was extremely exciting. I don’t think anyone in San Diego would disagree that what happened here was exciting. It also brought people together. The community really outstretched their arms and embraced all of the victims.

With all the damage that these fires caused, there’s still some good to come from it. A community came together to help each other out. Here are the pictures that I promised. Hopefully you can deal with the quality. I have several digital cameras and some of them aren’t the best of quality. (Click them for a larger version)

These fires have caused me to find a new addiction. I’m in love with digital photography again. I took two photo classes way back in high school and I’ve recently revived the love. So I’ve opened up an account at flickr. If anyone cares I’ll post the link later. I want to get some more stuff up first.

-M

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I just wanted to thank everyone who has expressed concern for Joe and I and our homes and community. As of right now our homes are still safe. We are not out of the woods yet, however. The fires are still burning strong and I’m being told that there is one still within a couple miles of my house and a completely separate one within miles of Joe’s house. Luckily, I’m hearing the wind is going the opposite direction and no new evacuations have been ordered.

Last night my girlfriend received a notice that she was to evacuate. She actually lives near Joe. About an hour later, the evacuation notice was reversed and I headed over there and snapped some pictures from her vantage point.

If you don’t mind, in a couple of days, I would like to post all of the pictures that I’ve snapped throughout this whole ordeal. Would anybody be interested in seeing them? I know it’s not really personal finance related but it’s what’s happening in our life right now and it’s been the only thing on everyone’s minds in our community.

Side Note: My girlfriend is an insurance agent. I guarantee I can give you some personal finance advice from that perspective.

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