Those who have found themselves out of a job and in need of income often look for anything that they can find from a job standpoint to bring in money. That is not a bad thing to do when money is scarce and bills are going unpaid.
However, if you are in a position to be able to consider this, it might be a good time to make a career change. Many people who feel trapped in their current career positions, may never make the effort to try something that they would rather do. But, as long as your financial situation is stable, this could be the best time to try.
Prepare Financially
Before considering such a move, examine the financial implications. If you will be experiencing a drop in income because of your choice, then you should have enough money set aside to finance your venture for a period of time. This will help you be able to give it a go without having to worry about money for expenses. Avoid raiding your 401k or other retirement funds.
Eyes Wide Open
Be sure that you set realistic expectations for yourself in your new career. You cannot expect to be at the top earning level when you just start out so, watching for opportunities to advance as openings come up. Or, if you are not able to advance because of the type of career, then set expectations accordingly. If you are taking a severe cut in pay, you might have to take a part-time job to make up the short fall. And, a reduction in expenses can help, too.
Give Yourself Time
Set a realistic time-frame to make the new career work. Success does not happen overnight but you should not continue to drag out your attempt if there are clear signs that it isn’t going to work. Add to this the realization that economic forces sometimes have an influence on business success.
Obtain Advice
People who consider career changes are wise when they seek the advice and input from those who are already in the positions that they are seeking. If you can find a mentor or one who is willing to give you instruction on what to do and how to do it, then your chances for success will be greatly increased.
No Regrets
Whether you fail or whether you are a success, determine that you will have no regrets in your decision.
If you have been fearing the worst at your job or maybe even lost your job in this troubled economy, you might want 
to make an investment in your future now. The job market all over isn’t so great and chances of finding a new job after losing your old one may be getting slimmer each day. If you have been looking and still remain unemployed, you might need to think about changing tactics.
Investing in your future now may give you a leg up on the competition in the job market, especially a tough job market. Research shows the recent enrollment in graduate programs are on the rise as more people are understanding the need to learn more to earn more. While it may be difficult to finance your further education goals while you are not working, the investment you make in yourself will reward you in the end. There are options for you to return to school, even in a bad economy, you just have to be proactive about finding out about all the choices you have.
Visit the Prospective School Counselor
If you have an idea of what school you would like to attend, visit the school and find out what options you have for financing your education. The financial aid or enrollment department should be able to answer your questions and may even be able to provide you information about local financing opportunities you may not have known about otherwise.
Explore Your Options
There are many ways to pay for school. Here are a few of the choices you might have to finance your education goals:
Subsidized/Private Student Loans – since you are unemployed, you may qualify for many more student loans programs than if you were working full time. Many older adults won’t qualify for federal loans but returning students may be eligible for a $2500 tax credit based on expenses related to their pursuit of higher education.
Find a Part time Job – since many graduate school programs take a year or more, you might need to take a part time job to help pay the bills while you finish school.
Back-to-School Scholarships/Grants – there may be some programs in your area for people who are returning back to school after a long hiatus. Check with your local resources and on the internet for scholarships and grants for people in your positions.
Learn Online – there are many programs online that are less-expensive and more convenient for those with busy lives and families.
Go Part Time – to make your costs a bit easier, check with the schools of your choice to find out about the options for going only part time, taking a few classes at a time to make it more affordable, even if it takes longer to get through school.
Consider going back to school to advance your current skills or to even change your total career direction. Despite the bad economy, there are still many industry that are thriving during the economic struggles of the nation. Discover the different programs that will help prepare you for a total career makeover and don’t be afraid to pursue the career path you always wanted.
While some people are just happy enough these days to get a decent new job, there are many more of individuals who 
need a new job but can not afford to take one without a proper salary to go with it. Especially during these tough economic times when layoffs are frequent and the job market it tough, there may be times when you are essentially receiving a salary that is just way too low for the job.
If you are approached by a potential employer with the opportunity for a good job but a not-so-great salary offer, there are some tactics you can try to up the ante so you don’t have to miss out on a good job. Try some of the following moves and see if it helps you get the money you need to survive financially without insulting anyone involved in the process:
Talk About Salary Upfront
If it all possible, broach the topic of salary should you be called back for a second interview. If you are unable to come to terms on the subject of money then you can walk away without having to invest much of your time or effort into working a job that is not worthy of your talents.
Be Honest with Human Resources
If you get a call back and a salary offer that is much too low, approach the hiring manager and be appreciative of the offer. Mention your enthusiasm over the potential job but that you don’t feel the salary is commiserate with experience in your case. Provide them with a salary range you are willing to accept and even inquire if other positions in that range are available. You may not get far but it definitely be worth your time, effort and honestly.
Suggest Alternative Arrangements
If you are really digging the potential job, perhaps you can inquire about taking on the position in a part-time capacity to prove your worth. Some employers will not be flexible about hours, duties or salaries. If you there are no alternatives worth pursuing, bid adieu and get back to networking.
The one thing you want to remember is to not burn any bridges or insult any one that may be a potential lifeline in the future for you. There is also a good possibility that the candidates left or the one subsequently hired will not fit the bill and your resume may get revisited. Be polite and gracious when refusing a job offer. Alternately, if your salary negotiations do work in your favor, be sure to thank your new employer and prove your worth to the company.
You may feel your salary can be flexible just to get a good job but there is no reason you need to accept a lowball offer without trying for better. It is your income that pays your bills and you must consider before even an interview how much you are willing to take and how much you really need to be making to do more than survive week to week, otherwise you are subjecting yourself to debt problems and personal finances troubles instead of focusing on your new job.
Financial Aid. Financial aid basically is found in grants and federal subsidy programs. Information on these can be found in the admissions office of colleges and universities around the country.
Student Loans. Stafford loans are available to students to help pay for their college related expenses and are federally backed loan programs. These are low-interest and deferred plans that give students a way to finance their education and not have to begin the payment process until after they graduate.
Bank Loans for College. Parents can take out loans specifically set up for their college-bound students. These loans are commercial in nature, but offer good rates and terms for repayment. Satisfactory credit ratings apply to these loans which might keep some out of these plans.
Scholarships. There are a myriad of scholarships available. Checking with the admissions office is a good start to see what programs they have available. But also, a good exercise would be to check the Internet for scholarships that are independent of a specific school. Some are community based and can be accessed by checking with local business organizations in your area.
Employer-based reimbursement programs. Some companies provide 100% reimbursement of tuition upon the successful completion of a semester with passing grades. While you have to front the money when you sign up for classes, you can get your money back at the end when your final grades are published. Even if your company does not pay 100%, any percentage is better than shouldering the full amount on your own. If you are pursuing a health science related field, you will find many hospitals and medical businesses that are willing to help financially while you work with them or sign a commitment to work for them fulltime for several years after you graduate.
Tax Relief. There is tax relief available for higher education expenses offered in the recently signed economic stimulus bill. The American Opportunity Tax Credit is worth up to $2,500 for tuition paid out in 2009. This credit is also available in 2010 as well. The restriction is that the student cannot be past the first four years of post-secondary education.
Old-fashioned way. Many students still find it necessary to work their way through college. It makes for a very busy life, but in the end result provides a very fulfilling pathway. Those who scrimp and save every little penny to pay for tuition and other expenses related to higher education are more likely to appreciate the effort that it took to obtain the degree come graduation day.
Hey, we are all looking for a way to make an extra buck or two, right? Did you realize that there is a small ‘gold mine’ right in front of you? That’s right. Aluminum is in high demand and the prices that it garners at reclaiming and recycling centers makes this worth looking into as far as a secondary source of cash is concerned.
Even though the plastic bottle has replaced the aluminum can as the delivery material of choice for bottlers, the fact remains that there is still a significant amount out there. You have to look no farther than your own community to see this in full force. Next time you are filling your tank with gasoline, look into the waste receptacles. Yes, you will see aluminum cans there for the taking.
So, how much cash can one generate by collecting and selling aluminum? It depends on where you live, but currently as of this writing, used beverage cans (UBC) in loose bags; either whole or flattened brings around $.14 per pound. That might not seem like a lot, but consider that we have a lot of used beverage can waste in our communities.
Here are some tips to help you get into aluminum can collections for profit.
Look at less traveled highways. If you go walking and looking for cans, look along roadsides where there is not a great amount of traffic. This is where many people are prone to throw out their trash, and inevitably you will find aluminum cans.
Parks and public places. Look at parks or other public locations where there are high concentration of outdoor activities. In fact, if you can schedule your foraging right after a major event, you will score big time.
Get a crusher. After you collect your cans, clean them out and let them dry. Then, get yourself a crusher and flatten them. They consume less space that way.
Check with your local recycling center to make sure that they take aluminum and then find out what the current rate for the metal is bringing.
Your search for aluminum cans might be better as a part of a search for other metals that are recyclable as well. Copper and other metals are worth more, but are more difficult to find. If you take a strategy of looking for everything, then you will be surprised at what you will find especially along roadsides.
While this might not seem to be a worthwhile effort, you might consider doing this with a local group like boy scouts, etc. They like these kinds of efforts. Also, consider that the effort you are putting forth is helping the eco system as well. And on top of that, you get paid for it. Not bad.
The 2009 Stimulus Package or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is now law as it was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Obama. How does the small business fare under this new set of incentives and tax breaks? The package attempts to help small businesses obtain needed capital for operating and expansion while creating jobs.
The Small Business Administration is allowed to reduce or eliminate fees that are associated with the participation in the loan guarantee program. This guarantee program insures banks against default by small business who obtain these loans. Also, the SBA can now increase the guarantee to 90% of the qualifying loan amount.
There is also a provision in this package that offers “small business stabilizing financing” which allows a small business to pay off existing loans with up to $35,000 from the SBA. These provisions are limited in the offering period to the SBA to administer.
Other features allow the SBA to guarantee up to $3 billion in debt which will help banks be able to buy more of these loans with lower risk. The government wants to attract new banks to participate and those that do to increase their lending through the SBA.
Loss accounting benefits have been modified to allow companies who take losses on operating expenses to increase the time in which they can write off those losses from two years previous to five years previous. This benefit is for companies with gross revenues of $15 million or less.
The next provision in this Stimulus bill is for new equipment purchasing. The package allows a small business to write off up to $250,000, up from $125,000 for 2008 and 2009 in order to spark new equipment purchases. This benefit has a cap for businesses that spend more than $800,000 per year in new equipment, which means that small businesses are clearly in the crosshairs of this option. Vehicles, machinery and computers are all eligible items that can be used as expenses.
If you need to hire employees for your business you will find a credit of $2,400 per worker if they are an unemployed military vet or high school dropout. Under the existing Work Opportunity Tax Credit a business can claim a tax credit for 40% of the first $6,000 in wages paid to a worker who is in a qualifying target group of disadvantaged workers. These groups now include the veterans who left the military in the past five years and who collected unemployment four weeks before being hired. Also disconnected youths are eligible for businesses if they are between the ages of 16 and 25 and have not attended school or were unemployed during the previous six months.
Those who invest in small businesses will realize an increase in capital gains tax breaks from 50% to 75% with restrictions. These are that if you must buy the stock after this stimulus bill has passed into law and hold it for five years. If so, then this tax break will benefit you.
Finally, there is a provision for SBA microloans which are made through non-profit community organizations. These loans have a maximum of $35,000.
The debate rolls on as to whether or not these measures are enough to boost small business and ignite the economy in a meaningful way. But the increases warrant a review in order to help make sure that your small business has a greater opportunity for financial success that it otherwise would realize without them in place.
In the last 6 months, the US economy has seen perhaps the largest shake-up since the great depression. The real estate market severely receded after hitting new all time highs, unemployment is now over seven percent, the financials industry has seen a number of emergency mergers and acquisitions, it’s much more difficult to get certain types of loans, and government debt is piling high as the eye can see.
We’ve seen a number of banks either fail or nearly fail and be saved by the last minute by a fed-engineered buyout by another bank. The first to go was Indymac back in September. Other banks such as Wachovia and AIG soon followed suit. There are still a number of banks, such as Citigroup, that are still teetering on the edge, despite large cash injections from the federal government.
What is it that all of the banks that have failed or have come close to failure have in common? They were lending people that simply couldn’t afford to repay their loans. There was simply a massive amount of available credit, so instead of letting that investment money sit idly by, they relaxed lending standards so that more people could get loans, even if there was no reasonable expectation that they could afford them.
These banks started offering sub-prime mortgages to consumers with histories of bankruptcy, large amounts of outstanding debt, relatively little income and generally bad credit. The banks justified these loans using advanced calculations which took into the factor that some of the customers would fail to repay, but on balance the investments were still sound. Unfortunately, the banks severely underestimated the percentage of people that would fail to repay their loans and the value that these banks had in those mortgages fell dramatically.
However, there were a group of banks, mostly small community banks and credit unions, that were largely unaffected by the major problems faced by the financials-industry. These banks and credit unions were much more careful about who they lended money to, taking a much closer look at the person and their ability to repay before offering them a loan. They offered fewer sub-prime mortgage options to customers, so they have had much fewer of the ‘toxic’ assets on their balance sheets which might otherwise cause a bank to go insolvent.
Ultimately we can learn that the answer to the nation’s major bank problems is not injections of capital or new regulation, but rather a new commitment to only loan money to people that can actually afford to repay the loan. It’s time to move away from only looking at a number to determine someone’s credit-worthiness and look at the person as a whole.
With a federal budget deficit marking over $1 trillion dollars for the first time in history, the stock market reeling, real estate prices crashing, the credit market contracting and consumer spending falling through the floor, conventional wisdom would be that it’s not a time to start taking risks and opening a new small business. However, there are a number of factors which make it an excellent time, perhaps the best in recent history, to start a new small business.
First, retail space and real estate as a whole is very affordable right now. There’s much more of a supply of retail space in strip malls, malls, and other retail centers than there is demand. If you’re not a retail business, there is an equal oversupply of office space. This means that when you are out looking to buy or rent a piece of retail or office space for your small business, you can take your time, shop around, and force your potential landlords to fight against each other to get your business.
With unemployment nearing 7.8%, you will have a lot more applicants for jobs and can be much pickier about who you bring on board to your company. This will allow you as a business owner to have more competent employees and you will likely be able to employ them for less than you would if the economy was booming.
Material and supply costs are also facing a significant hit since there is less of a demand for them. If you are manufacturing a product, you’ll be able to create the same products for a lot less than you would otherwise. This means you can pass the savings on to your consumers and increase your sales or simply have a higher profit-margin for each item sold.
With many businesses folding during the down economy, you can also very likely pickup used office supplies and office furniture at a substantial steep discount on auction. It might not necessarily seem like a huge thing, but office furniture is extremely expensive (much more than the furniture you might buy at a furniture outlet center for your home), and if you can reduce costs as a small business owner in any significant manner, that’s huge.
With significantly decreased demand in many areas, that means you’ll be able to start your business for much less than you would otherwise. You’ll have lower real estate / retail space costs, more affordable employees, lower material and supply costs, and be able to scoop up cheap office furniture and equipment.
You can start out slow, getting only what you need, and then by the economy picks up and other people start thinking it’s an okay time to start a small business, you’ll already have a head start on any competition that might come up and get the benefit from the increased consumer spending that comes from an economic upswing.
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