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Balancing Your Budget and Developing Long-Term Savings

There are many things to buy and in today’s consumer culture it is more difficult than ever to say “NO”. Learning to live within your means and save for the future is a discipline you can learn over time to create financial security. Putting effort into changing habits makes a big difference in how successful you will be in creating a savings plan. Balancing your budget is as much about habit as it is about planning. Learning where to find deals on products, understanding value, and making better choices takes time to ingrain as a way of thinking. Start small and slowly move toward higher levels of spending discipline.  You can still get what you want but should learn the best use of your money. You will have to give up the idea of spending as a type of wealth. If you are truly wealthy you can spend on lots of things you enjoy; but they do it with cash. Wealthy people don’t normally just waste money and have a keen sense of value. Spending all your disposable income and maxing out

The Benefits of San Diego County and City Partnering on Charger Stadium Project

San Diego County and San Diego are partnering through putting in $250,000 a piece to hire attorneys, consultants and industry experts to determine the best way to approach keeping the Chargers in San Diego. The plan to collaborate between the two governmental entities is a good one that tells the NFL and the Chargers that they are serious about keeping them here but also about protecting taxpayer interest. San Diego County and the City of San Diego are stakeholders in the same project and would both benefit from keeping the Chargers in the area. Stadiums are expensive beasts that can easily cost over a billion dollars to develop. Most of the expense related to developing and building will be footed by taxpayers to it is important that the full scope of the project is understood. There are times when cities get into projects and quickly find themselves overwhelmed with the project, cost, data, and legal ramifications. Effective legal challenges are mounted and soon what appeared to

The Benefits of Staying Home and Living Mooch Economics

Young people are staying home longer and delaying their inevitable jump out of the nest egg into real life. Some may wonder why this is happening when their Baby Boomers left home while still in their late late teens (18). If you think about why they are doing this and the benefits it brings them you can't blame them for smart  mooching economics. In the past young people couldn't wait to get out of the house in hopes of striking out on their own. Working for minimum wage they took their sleeping bags and roomed with their friends. Over time they got a better job, earned more money, and eventually found someone they wanted to marry. Not long after that they were buying their very first starter home. Those days are gone and they are not likely to become popular again soon. Over the Great Recession young people couldn't find employment, needed a degree, had material wants, and became influenced by other cultures. No longer was a healty person who was willing to work ensur

Is GDP the Best Measurement of Economic Growth?

Numbers are only representations of ideal states and are in and of themselves subjective to what they measure. A paper by Stow & Stow (2013) discusses some of the fallacies of relying too heavily on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) without considering the deeper meaning of the numbers. Fallacies of judgment can occur when governments adjust their economy to improve upon GDP but don’t look at actual economic activity. GDP is calculated by adding =C+I+G+NX. Any improvement in consumption (C), Investment (I), Government Spending (G) and Net Exports (NX) would result in an improvement in overall GDP. The numbers could be misleading in the long run and lead to poor policies decisions. When consumers spend more money they are not necessarily improving total wealth of the nation even though GDP rises. They are simply spending their money, dwindling their savings, buying now instead of investing later, and taking on debt. They may be encouraging organizational profits but not excl

Gallop Poll Shows Positive Worker Outlook

A poll by Gallop brings discusses improvement in worker perception of employment. 58% of full and part-time workers say they are completely satisfied with their jobs as compared to 50% in 2009-2013. The growth in the economy, lower unemployment rates, and improving employment opportunities are having an impact on worker perception.  The numbers also spotlight a few areas of concern. The amount of work, physical conditions, relationship with bosses, job security, recognition and workload are above 50%. Areas below 50% are opportunities for promotion, retirement, health insurance, earning power, and job stress.  Benefits such as health insurance and retirement have taken a significant hit in the current market. Employers often cut back on these expensive benefits due to the inherent increasing costs with little direct return to the employer. Employees will be asked to pick up a higher percentage of these costs.  A problem results when earning power is not sufficiently ri

Book Review: The New Middle Class by Steve Gunderson

The New Middle Class Creating Wealth, Wages and Opportunity in the 21 st Century by Steve Gunderson delves into the problems faced by middle class Americans. He expresses concern over the mismatch of American values, education, economic policy and American competitiveness. The middle class is slipping away and policy makers should consider new ways of encouraging a 4-5% growth rate and higher levels of educational attainment to maintain prosperity.  National development should be based on those values that made America great. It is the desire to continue to move up the economic ranks while not ignoring wider responsibilities. Yet without improving upon the education system the grasps of middle class are sifting through the hands of those who desire it the most. The system needs to change and improve if the U.S. will maintain its competitive stance.  The far majority of jobs today (85%) need some secondary education beyond high school.    The path to maintaining the middl