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Murphy’s Law

Posted by Daniel in Advice, Budget, Debt, Frugality, Insurance, Jobs, Planning, Uncategorized

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Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. -Murphy’s law

A few weeks ago I was at the beginning of a 2 hour drive back from a friends lakehouse with my brother when, in the 105 degree Texas heat, the motor for the passenger window broke and the window would not roll up. I spent the rest of the drive progressing in emotional state from pissed off that my brother broke the car (which he wasn’t at fault) to being flat out grumpy because I was so hot, to laughing so hard I cried because of how ridiculous we felt.

Have you ever noticed that setbacks always seem to occur at the worst possible time, and more importantly that they always occur to you? Your computer crashes the night before a paper is due, you get sick before new health insurance kicks in, or you get in a wreck just after you drained your emergency fund to get your transmission fixed. It never fails, Murphy’s law (or what my family has come to know as “Luck of the Bowen”) always seems to show up at the most inopportune times making life much more hectic.

Now take a second and think about all the incidents like this you have had in your life; where it seemed like something that ordinarily would have just sucked, happened at the most awful time.

In looking back, was it really that bad? I would guess not. I know that when I think about the events in my life where everything seemed to go wrong, I realize that whether it was a true catastrophic event or something as silly as the car window not rolling up I am the person I am today because of how I got through them and what I learned from them.

Being a member of the Bowen clan, luck of the Bowen is always in effect and it always hits the pocketbook. As a result Mary and I have taken what we’ve learned from past experiences and started some “hedge” funds to hedge our bets against the expenses that always come out of nowhere.

We have our emergency fund for general emergencies, so far we have managed to save away 3 months expenses if both of us loose our jobs, and 6-8 months if one of us loses a job. We feel like we are in a good place with our emergency fund, and we continue to add to it every month, but we realized that there were other things for which we needed to be putting money away in preparation.

The car window breaking led to us starting a fund to replace the car. After all it is 11 years old with 150k+ miles on it. On top of that, my Labrador continually eating things she shouldn’t (Christmas Ornaments, Bottle of Tums, the Couch, a Chair…) and our Chihuahuas overly expensive teeth cleaning bills ($600) led us to hedging our bets for the dogs and creating a pets fund in which we put money every month for when one of the big pet expenses comes up. (Yes, pets can be VERY expensive, but in my opinion they are completely worth it).

We created these additional funds because we have learned from past experiences which forced us to use credit cards when we didn’t have the money available.

On top of all of these things we are currently evaluating life insurance policies outside of our work coverage, because life is just that unpredictable.

 

No One Cares About Your Resume, and Why You Should

Posted by Daniel in Advice, Gen-Y, Jobs, Life, networking, Planning, Uncategorized

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NEWSFLASH: No one cares about your resume.

What’s that you say? You’ve spent hours perfectly crafting every word in order to make yourself look fantastic on paper? You even read my advice on resume building? That’s very kind of you, but I repeat, no one cares, and here are 5 reasons why.

  • Resumes are boring. No one wants to read them, not even recruiters. It’s a chore that takes time, and realistically the last time you did read one (instead of glance at it) was when you were writing your own.
  • People are lying to protect your feelings. When was the last time you or someone you know told a friend you wouldn’t forward their resume on because it was crap? When was the last time you asked for resume advice and everyone told you it looked good? Friends think a lot of things, but very few friends will be brutally honest to help you, if no one is giving you constructive criticism try sending it to other people.
  • Your resume won’t get you a job. Do you really think someone is going to hire you based on a piece of paper?
  • You’re exaggerating. Everyone does it to a point, but did you really collaborate with the team on the $300 million dollar project, or did you just make copies for them? If by chance someone does read your resume, they are reading it with a skeptical eye and taking it with a grain of salt.
  • You are sending it into a black hole. Applying online? Unless you have a persons e-mail address not a generic recruiting address, it will most likely never be seen by  a human eye. Even if you are sending it to a real persons address, remember it’s a chore to open it and they probably don’t want to.

With all this said, it’s true, no one cares about your resume, but you should still care. As much as it kills me to say it, resumes are still very important, and here are 5 reasons why:

  • It’s not for other people, it’s for you. Your resume should be a running tally of every impressive thing you have done, and you should use it as a refresher to remind yourself of these things. It should be up to date whether you are job hunting or not, and when you accomplish something of note, write it down. You can always shorten your resume, it’s very hard to lengthen it. Know your resume backwards and forwards and be able to expand on everything on it without fumbling. Even know what doesn’t make the final cut, your resume will help you in the interview (but be careful to not only talk about what is on the resume).
  • It is currently the most accepted way to showcase yourself. We are fast approaching the days when someone will say “send me your link” instead of “send me your resume,” some early adopters have already started this with LinkedIn, however, for the time being the resume is still the most accepted way to showcase yourself.
  • Key words help you get a foot in the door. Remember that black hole I wrote about? There is a way out, and that is through key words. More often than not applying to a generic recruiting e-mail address will send your resume into a software program in which it will be looking for key words. If it matches the key words, then someone might look at your resume to see if you fit the bill and invite you in for an interview. So remember to use industry language. (Note: although this is my most hated form of applying for a job, I actually did get my current position this way. It never hurts, but don’t get your hopes up.)
  • Be true to yourself. A little embellishment is expected but always be true to yourself and NEVER lie on a resume. Lying on a resume is career suicide and it will come back to haunt you. It is better to not get the job by being honest, than to get it by lying. Just ask George O’Leary, former head coach at Notre Dame who was forced to resign because he lied on his resume.
  • It won’t make you, but it can break you. First impressions are important, and the resume is frequently someones first impression of you. While it may not make you, it can definitely break you, so in the off chance that someone actually looks at your resume, it needs to be easy to read and perfect. One misspelled word and you are through.

As Gen-Y becomes more of a staple in the work place I see a lot of this changing, particularly the accepted resume format. I believe we will transition to websites with professional bios being the standard (non-boring) way to showcase yourself. But in the meantime, I’ll continue my love/hate relationship with resumes.

What Do Your Trophies Mean For Your Career?

Posted by Daniel in Advice, Gen-Y, Jobs, Life, Uncategorized

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Going home to your parents house after moving out is always kind of eerie, especially when “your” room is still full of your stuff. I had that eerie experience earlier this week when went to my parents house and realized that the majority of things left in my room not only define me, they define my entire generation.

As many may be guessing that stuff is my collection of trophies from growing up. I have trophies, medals, and awards for everything. I have a soccer trophies, baseball trophies, pinewood derby trophies, a medal from a poetry contest, and tons of certificates and ribbons. It’s really quite an impressive collection, until you look closely and realize that most of them say “competitor,” and none of them say “1st place.” When I came to this realization I just started to laugh because it finally hit me. I really did get a trophy for everything I did, and I never even won anything! (OK, my high school swim team won the national championship, but I assure you I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I was an “alternate” so I could go on the trip).

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I have to wonder, what do these trophies mean for my career? 

At this point in my career, I’d have to say, not a good thing because the real world has already smacked me in the face for having an expectation of a big shining trophy (metaphorically).

After my first 10 months of working I had my first formal review in which I learned what my raise would be. My boss started out praising my performance and telling me I had done a good job, and then he got around to telling me what my raise would be. I was on the edge of my seat, “My first raise!” I thought, ” I wonder what my promotion will be, Sr. Analyst!?, either way I’m taking Mary out tonight to celebrate!”

That’s about the time when my daydream came to a screeching halt as my thoughts were interrupted with ”2.7.”

“2.7 Percent?” I asked, knowing that I must have heard wrong.

“Yes”

At that point I must have given him the look of death.

“You’re not happy” he said, as I was biting a hole through my lip and trying to keep my composure.

“Well, I don’t know what you were expecting” he said in a calm, business like voice, but “I gave you the max HR would allow.”

That comment stopped me dead in my tracks, “what was I expecting?” I couldn’t answer it. I really had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that I was that I deserved praise, an awesome reward, and hopefully a pizza party afterward. At least I got the praise.

I look at that situation now and I realize that I was subconsciously expecting some sort of championship trophy (in this case more than a 2.7% raise, and hopefully a promotion) when I didn’t get it, I reacted poorly and threw my own little version of a tantrum in which I went on to pretty much tell him that if I wasn’t going to be paid what I was worth, I would find a place that would pay me what I was worth.

Lucky for me I had a really cool boss and when I called later that evening to apologize for being an idiot he laughed, and understood that I was flying blind and had nothing to base any expectations on. In hindsight yes, my reaction was EXTREMELY stupid, and I really don’t know why I was expecting more, especially when I had already survived a layoff that year.

This experience has caused me to pump the brakes a bit on my expectation for praise and rewards, I still work to the best of my ability, and I still want a trophy, I just don’t expect one anymore.

What do you think being part of the “Trophy Generation” will mean for your career?

The Party Always Ends

Posted by Daniel in Advice, Budget, Corporations, Finance, Frugality, Jobs, Life, Planning, Uncategorized

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In the midst of what seems like endless economic chaos, I work for a company that is doing exceptionally well right now. So well that many people are getting caught up in it. Private equity firms are constantly knocking on the door, and it seems like I frequently hear talk of an IPO.  

As the Treasury Manager of the company, and the writer of this blog, I try my hardest not to get caught up in it, though I admit it’s hard. As a personal finance writer, I preach to be conservative with your money: save, invest prudently, and keep an emergency fund; and as a financial professional in charge of all of a companies cash I act the same way, because if there is one thing I know, it’s that the party always ends.

Adorning the walls of my office I have hung constant reminders of this: vintage advertisements for Chrysler and Chevrolet. Every time I look up and see the ad for “The New 1967 Chevrolet Pickup” or the “Silver Anniversary Edition Chrysler New Yorker,” I think about what their management would have said at that time had someone approached them to announce that their company would go bankrupt. As much as I’d like to think they’d sit down and ask “how? when?” I have a feeling that they would have laughed it off. After all it was the heyday of the automobile!

Think about approaching an internet startup in 2000 (really, any startup will do), with the same information. Money was being handed out left and right, it was a huge party!, but the vast majority of them got caught up in the party and never looked at the bottom line. For a prime example, watch the movie e-dreams which follows the rise and fall of kozmo.com.

What about telling Bear Stearns in 2005? Worldcom or Enron in 2000? Blockbuster in 1999? All of these companies were at the peaks of their “Party” stage in these times, only to go drastically downhill a few short years later.

With all this said, I’m not against the “party,” in fact I love the party stage it’s fun and very exciting, but like any party, you have to party like the party will end, or else you wake up in the bushes wondering where your clothes went.

In personal finance partying like the party will end means saving, planning for retirement, and keeping an emergency fund, all while still enjoying your money. In the business world, that means always keeping an eye on costs (I just saved the company $15k by changing vendors for deposit tickets), managing the funds prudently (and safely), always striving for efficiency, and growing the business at a manageable pace.

If you stick with this advice, the party will last longer, and you’ll be prepared if it abruptly ends.

Why Is Money Taboo?

Posted by Daniel in Advice, Finance, Frugality, haggling, House, Jobs, Life, Uncategorized

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Today my wife told me that she gets embarrassed when she is around and I try to haggle. I guess I can understand, I used to be like that too, and only over time have I grown bolder. With this in mind, I have to ask why is it that in America, money seems to be taboo?

In other cultures around the world, you are considered stupid or odd if you don’t talk money. In most parts of the world if you buy something without haggling the salesman will probably make fun of you for being a sucker as soon as you walk away. In America haggling is only considered acceptable in 3 scenarios. The first scenario is if you are buying something from a street vendor (like in New York), the second when you are buying something off of craigslist, and finally, haggling is OK when you are buying a big ticket item like a car or a house.

For some reason society has deemed it alright to negotiate and talk money in these scenarios, but if haggling is acceptable in these scenarios, why isn’t it acceptable in your daily spending? If just by asking for a discount you could get one would you go against this social norm?

I frequently go against this norm, it doesn’t always work, but when it does it feels great. Think about it from the salesman’s perspective, if 5% or 10% off will close the deal and allow them get on to helping the next customer why not? And if 10% off saves you $5 will it be worth the awkward moment? The worst thing that could happen is that they will say no.

Talking money does not only mean haggling, it means sharing your salary, something strictly forbidden in America.

In other cultures sharing your salary is not about bragging, it’s just normal everyday conversation. Xin Lu over at Wise Bread wrote a great post about how her Chinese culture influences her money habits. In the post she talks about how her father once helped a friend get a 20% raise, something that would not have been possible had they not been talking about salaries.

If by sharing your salary a friend could tell you that you are undervalued and try to help you get a higher salary is it OK? If you got a 20% raise I’m pretty sure you’d think so.

Recently I started a new job, and by talking about the offered salary and benefits of the job with someone else, that person helped me to effectively negotiate the offer . Does it feel odd for me to know that someone else knows my salary? Yes a little, but the person who helped was glad to do it and I am extremely grateful to him for it. Sure, at the end of the day I was the one doing the negotiations, and yes, it was a bit awkward, but it was well worth it.

The point here is that Money shouldn’t be taboo. Not everyone is rich, and there is nothing wrong with that, but our culture has ingrained in us that money separates us and defines us. Nothing could be more wrong. Money is something that needs to be talked about by more people, finances cause people more stress than anything, and they are the number one cause for divorce; but if we would all be more open about money we might be able to help each other and it could all change.

Do you talk openly about money? Why or why not?

An Open Farewell Letter To My Co-Workers

Posted by Daniel in Advice, Gen-Y, Jobs, Life, networking, Uncategorized

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I’ve never been much for the “standard” way of doing things, because I know if I put my own style behind it it’ll be more memorable. So this post is a blend of a standard blog post and a parting or “keep in touch” letter to my colleagues, in which I out myself as a blogger.

Today is the last day of my first job out of college. As I have written before (elsewhere on the site), I graduated 2 years ago as a cocky know-it-all, but I honestly don’t know if I learned as much in my four years of college as I have in my 18 months of work at a Fortune 500 company. Between the training I have received, the mentors I have found, and the day to day business interactions I have been able to participate in, I gained not only a great deal of knowledge which I will carry with me for the rest of my life, but also many close friends. I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for taking me under your wings, teaching me, training me, and putting up with me on the days when I would endlessly quote lines from various movies or TV shows.

I also greatly appreciate the trust you placed on me and the encouragement you all gave me when I took on new projects around the office. This trust has served as my gold star that, as a member of Generation Y, I am stereotypically striving for. It made me feel proud to go into work and work harder to fulfill what you thought I could do.

For all of these things, and many many more, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making my time with you quite enjoyable.

For my fellow Gen-Y reading this, remember that you You Are Who You Associate With, and while you really don’t have much of a choice with who you surround yourself with at work (especially in your first job), you can only hope to be surrounded by as many good people as I have been surrounded with in my first job out of school. It’s important to remember that you are still learning, so don’t be afraid to latch on, ask tons of questions, and observe. You aren’t expected to know everything and most people genuinely want to help you succeed however they can. I have truly appreciated having this kind of support, and you’ll soon find that you have it too, you just have to remember to ask.

If you haven’t figured out by now, this is my website on which I’ve been chronicling my journey from cocky know-it-all to professional with more to learn. I mainly deal with the topics of business, personal finance, and entrepreneurship for Generation Y, and I don’t get “personal” on the site unless I can relate it to something professional. Jump in, kill some company time and have a look around if you’d like, but whether you do or don’t, please try to stay in touch.

One of the great advantages of blogging and social media is that it makes it very hard to lose contact with someone, so I encourage all of you to stay in touch. I am providing enough modes of contact for there to be no excuse not to.

Email: daniel at this domain dot com

My Facebook Profile

My LinkedIn Profile

Twitter: @danielpbowen

Coming soon-ish: DanielPBowen.com

Or, you can always Google Me (I’m number 2, but closing in on #1 thanks to my syndication on Brazen Careerist).

I hope to hear from you, and wish you all the best in whatever life hands you.

Daniel P. Bowen

You Are Who You Associate With

Posted by Daniel in Advice, Entrepreneurship, Gen-Y, Jobs, Life, networking, Planning, Uncategorized

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Cliques are everywhere, they are unavoidable.  As we grow up we float from clique to clique and we change “lunch table groups;” perhaps we were even members of a couple of different cliques at once. Our friends shape our reality and influence us beyond belief.

Even as we get older peer pressure is still extremely powerful. Have you ever noticed that no matter how old you are thugs hang out with thugs, executives hang out with other executives, and entrepreneurs hang out with entrepreneurs? The list is infinite! I wakeboard and I hang out with other wakeboarders, I’m ambitious so I surround myself with ambitious people… get it?

By surrounding myself with wakeboarders I am constantly pushed and encouraged to try new tricks, by joining a local running club I am pushed to become a better runner, and by making the effort to surround myself with entrepreneurs and others who think differently I am encouraged to take risks to follow my entrepreneurial dreams.

So take some time to think about what you aspire to be and do. Do the people you surround yourself with share these same goals and aspirations?  Do they want to see you succeed? Do they push you to be come better at a mutual interest?

I’m not saying to dump your friends, I have many good friends who don’t share some of my most important interests, but think about the groups or “cliques” you belong to. What are they doing to further your career and aspirations? If nothing then make the effort to surround yourself with the people who will!

What if you want to be an entrepreneur, but all of your friends want to work their 9-5 for the rest of their lives? Go find an entrepreneur! They are in every city and small town. It doesn’t have to be the CEO of a large company, it can be the owner of the local hardware store; it doesn’t matter! Walk up to that person and explain that you want to be an entrepreneur and start asking questions, set up a weekly meeting, even ask them for a part-time job like Holly at WorkLoveLife did with a local coffee shop! These acts get your foot in the door to meet their entrepreneur friends as well as give you an understanding what it’s like to run a small business.

The internet is the most useful place to start. Search for local groups on Meetup or LinkedIn and find the group that fits your interest. For startup culture a local Dallas Entrepreneur, Alex Muse, co-founded a great blog group called SpringStage that is a coalition of bloggers who write about startups and startup life, it truly is a great resource.  Use Twitter and start following those you admire; I love how I’m able to follow Guy Kawasaki and Lance Armstrong, both are people I greatly admire! 

What are you waiting for!? Surround yourself with the people you want to be like and others who share your passions to ensure that you make your own dreams come true!

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