According to The Wall Street Journal, millennials are reluctant to take sales jobs immediately after college graduation. Rarely today do newly-minted graduates and job seekers aspire to sales careers, since most people, at least in their demographic, associate sales jobs with telemarketers calling at dinner time or with sales clerks nipping at their heels at the mall. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/taking-a-sales-job-after-graduation-34484/#y74IVMBCmX6D0OV4.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk
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Since the beginning of the 2007 housing bubble the media has been focusing on the high levels of student debt that has exceeded $1 trillion dollars. Students are graduating with mounting debt that can exceed $40,000 for an undergraduate degree and not learn a single valuable skill that will make them employable. Parents are starting to ask college administrators whether it is even worth it to send their child to college when they come out learning no new skill other than knowing how to study. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/learning-a-valuable-employable-skill-in-college-36380/#HOCKxbLGHGg16KCk.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk As a student moves into middle school, his or her creative mind starts to become more like a factory assembly line, processing information and not asking questions. This is largely due to the widespread move toward constant state testing and data gathering and decades of teacher-to-student instruction where the teacher talks and students listen without having to think on their own. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/entrepreneurship-and-creativity-in-education-37733/#iXXhvMcdcyOjq8JR.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk
In July 19th, 2017 show Mr. J Real Talk discussed 50cent Effen Vodka deal, the little details of purchasing a vehicle, and how fun in the sun can turn into fun in hell.
Purchasing a Vehicle When purchasing a vehicle it is important to look at the all the small details before making the purchase. People often over look additional costs such as local and states taxes, license plate fees, and other fees that can add up. Before making the purchase do your research, get a good interest rate on your car loan, give a sizable down payment, and make sure your total car costs do not exceed 20% of your monthly net pay. 50cent Selling his stake in Effen Vodka Reports are saying that 50cent recently sold his minority stake in Effen Vodka, which made him a cool $60 million. This is 50cent's second successful business ownership venture, the first being the $200 million he made from Vitamin Water when it was bought by Coca-Cola. Fun in the Sun can turn into Fun in Hell When vacationing make sure you do your research and not go extremely cheap. There are times when spending a few extra dollars is worth every penny, for example, extra leg room on long international flights and flying direct instead of connections. Trust me spending a few dollars will not only save you the headaches but also from having to spend extra on hotels or missing flights. Resources https://www.dmv.org/ http://www.taxrates.com/ https://www.hopper.com/ http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/11/whens-the-best-time-to-book-a-flight.html https://www.vibe.com/2017/07/50-cent-ends-partnership-with-effen-vodka-60-million/ Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk RSS Feed
As millennials, it is our dream to work for ourselves and have no boss. For many of us, that means becoming “entrepreneurs.” Media outlets have made this profession famous over the last decade—and made it sound easy to achieve success. Read more Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk I remember the exact moment that I realized inexpensive fast food could hurt my wallet and my health. I was living in Oklahoma City and preparing to move. I was spending a lot of money on the move, but getting everything ready left me short on time and energy to cook (packing my kitchen stuff didn’t help either). So, I ate nothing but fast food for ten consecutive days. Big mistake. Read more Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Three Decembers ago, I was sitting at my desk contemplating a way to ring in 2014 with a positive attitude. I was heavily in credit card debt, owed money for a car I bought in the spring, and my savings was less than $100. Read more Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk When I scroll down the news section on my iPhone, I see some news post about the importance of personal finance education. However, society still needs to be reminded the importance of personal finance in schools. What should be discussed is how to correctly apply personal finance education based on the student body being served. Before using personal finance curriculum, educators should ask, “Who is my student body? What do they already know? What topics are of interest?” Would you let your doctor diagnose you with medicine without asking you questions? So why do we let educators teach personal finance to students without doing an analysis and ask questions before applying a personal finance curriculum? Know the difference No school district is identical, and each has different study bodies with different needs. For example, there are school districts where a majority of students are on free or reduced lunch and others were the median family income is in the six figures. So how does an educator teach personal finance when one student body barely has enough to eat and the other has plenty of choices of what to eat? What is needed is designing a curriculum based on the student body. If your student body lives in an environment where renting an apartment and pre-paid debit cards are the norm it does not make sense to teach students about the foreign stock exchange? I am not saying you shouldn’t look at a later date but know your student body and what they are going through in life. Ask before applying When I was teaching personal finance to 8th graders, a decent amount was from low-income households that cared more about knowing the difference between gross income and net income than the stock exchange. I also recall a time when a member of the community volunteered to teach a personal finance topic to an inner city school and mentioned her difficult experience. The individual did not go further into details, but after looking at the curriculum, learning about the student body, and listening about her experience I could see why there was difficult experience. There was no connection between the curriculum, the student body, and the volunteer. To best serve students do your homework and select personal finance curriculum based on their needs, learn about their backgrounds, and ask questions. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk When I was building my start-up, I was also working a full-time job and getting out of credit card debt. It was not easy balancing all of this. When I focused on my start-up, I lost focus on my full-time job—and vice-versa. I knew that one day I would fully commit to my start-up, but I wanted to be respectful to my full-time job until then. Read more Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk I walk into a coffee shop and I see a sign marketing a $10 lunch special. I thought to myself, “$10? Really? Just a few more dollars and I have a dinner.” The $10 lunch special includes with your choice of salad or sandwich, one piece of fruit, and one bottle of water. You are more than welcome to purchase your $10 lunch special but let’s put it into perspective. If you spend $10 on the lunch special at least three times a week for the entire year you are spending $1,440 (not including taxes) and this is not including your morning coffee. With $1,440 you can open a Roth IRA or IRA account or pay off your student loans. Think twice before purchasing your $10 lunch special because being financially savvy starts with a financial attitude of not spending on useless expenses. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk “And I will always love you…” the famous song from Whitney Houston’s Bodyguard soundtrack was the song I thought of when relating credit and love. When you love someone you do things out of the ordinary. The same goes for credit. You should love your credit, care for your credit, and go the extra mile to care for your credit. Not giving attention to your credit can hurt you in the long run especially when seeking a job in the financial sector, obtaining a mortgage, or applying for a new credit card. Let’s explore how credit and love are the related. Don’t commit if you’re not ready Protecting your credit is like defending your love one, you can tell people you have a good credit score but do not let them mess it up. A family member once asked me to co-sign with them on a mortgage loan for a house, and I said no. I love my family, but I knew that I would have to be responsible for the loan and I was not ready to commit to the loan. If you do not feel comfortable taking on the responsibility then do not be a co-signer. Check up Credit card companies are now offering FICO scores updated on a monthly basis. Every time you make a monthly payment check your credit score for changes, good or bad. Don’t forget to do your yearly credit check to monitor what is on your credit. Checking up on your love one is important just like your credit. You may not have the time to get daily updates on your credit, but monthly and yearly check-ups are necessary. Analyze but don’t obsess When checking your credit read what loans you have in your name and what credit cards are open in your name. If anything is out of the ordinary get it fixed. Examine the details but don’t very overly obsess because you may overthink on details that are not important. For example, having several credit cards open is not a bad thing; it helps your credit history. But do not max out all of our cards and do not have numerous credit cards that require yearly membership payment. Just like in love you want to make sure your relationship is going in the right direction, but you do not want to overthink every detail, you may look obsessive. Credit and love have similar methods but different goals. Before committing make sure you're ready, check up and analyze your credit. Mr.JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk A few years ago, I walked out of a supermarket and, out of curiosity, grabbed the local newspaper to look at its job listings. I was a few weeks away from graduating college, and my start-up had not generated cash. I needed a job to make ends meet. Read https://community.saltmoney.org/community/find-a-job/blog/2017/05/11/how-to-not-land-your-first-post-college-job Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk As a millennial, I tend to lack patience for certain things—like waiting for food at a restaurant. But for my financial portfolio, I recognize that patience is necessary. Building a financial portfolio is a commitment, not a task. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Continue reading https://community.saltmoney.org/thread/4729 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk As millennials, it is our dream to work for ourselves and have no boss. For many of us, that means becoming “entrepreneurs.” Media outlets have made this profession famous over the last decade—and made it sound easy to achieve success. Read more https://community.saltmoney.org/community/find-a-job/blog/2017/04/27/don-t-mistake-your-side-hustle-for-entrepreneurship Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk A few weeks ago I was honored to present at the 2017 Institute for Financial Literacy in my hometown, Chicago, Illinois. My presentation, Doing what Works Best for Students, was a 101 lesson on how instructors, directors, and counselors teaching personal finance can develop their lesson using the Dick and Carey Model. The model begins with the needs assessment and favors a behaviorist approach. As a personal finance educator, counselor, and blogger I change my style of teaching, content selection, and examples based on the student body. And as I mentioned during the presentation personal finance educators make the mistake of using the strategy to all students before analyzing the students. Not every student is going through the same personal finance issues, for example, a military veteran may be going through mortgage payment issues, divorce, daycare, and host of other matters while an 18-year-old freshman just wants enough money to pay for food and books. What is great about the Dick and Carey model is that it analyzes the learner, helps in constructing the proper instructional strategies, understanding the student's contexts, and finally deciding what content to use in the classroom. Designing should not be cut and dry it needs to be fun and interactive. In personal finance we all have the same goal, assure individuals are financially literate, but it's how we get to the goal that will differ. The Dick and Carey Model is just one of the many instructional design models to use, and it may not be the one for your needs. But you should use some design model as a planning guide. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Most recently in one my classes, I made the joke that people should start getting evaluated on their grades by successfully passing through a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) line at a major airport during peak times with a short time span between getting in the TSA line and reaching their gate. I love to travel, but I cannot stand waiting in the security line and board the plane. It seems that people have lost their commons sense skills. A few weeks ago I was traveling from Chicago to Oklahoma City at one of Chicago's major airports, and a family was standing at the front of the boarding lane when clearly their boarding group was not even called. When other boarding groups were being called, they just stood there without barely moving. I was clearly agitated that the people working the counters would not say anything. Ladies and gentleman commons sense go a long way in the airports. If your boarding group is not being called or even close to being called do not block the way for others because for a few more dollars you can purchase priority boarding if you need to be one of the first to board the plane. If it were up to me, college students would need to pass a common sense test. I would set them off to a major airport (e.g. New York's JFK, Chicago O'hare, Los Angeles International Airport, or Atlanta) to fly domestically from one major airport to another. I would then make the student go through security at peak times and give them one of the middle boarding groups where the plane are filled with first-time flyers. Students would be evaluated on their patience, politeness, and if they have any common sense. For a bonus, they could fly to an international destination where they have limited ability to speak the language. And let's not forget its a resume line for real world experience. Where else would you get a real world experience dealing with people who forgot common sense and manners? Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk College can be summed up as four years of countless all-nighters writing papers on a topic you don’t care for, binge-watching a television show that has no plot, and endless amount of energy drinks to keep you up during boring lectures from a professor who is out of touch. And yet college students want to continue the lifestyle by going to graduate school right after graduation. But how can you tell if graduate school is really worth the investment? Read more http://millennialmagazine.com/is-graduate-school-worth-the-time-or-money/ Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk I am a young professional, a Latino and a member of the Millennial generation. But growing up in a household where neither of my parents graduated from high school nor had adequate financial literacy, I did not know what it meant to invest, save or appreciate the power of a dollar. Read more http://blogs.hrblock.com/2014/02/27/the-financial-diary-of-a-hispanic-millennial-what-ive-learned/ Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk In my start-up experiences, and I've had my fair share in my 20's, the one key ingredient that start-ups need to have are a coherent working team. Yes, execution is important and yes ideas are worthless but if you don't a team that can work together during the bad times, especially when no paychecks are going around, having a well-established team goes a long way. I remember my first time at a start-up the main reason for the collapse wasn't the product or the execution but the poor handling of team management. One of the main co-founders was such a control freak that everything and anything could not have been done unless it was his way. The three of us who took part in the business plan competition that won our first round of capital either quit or got kicked out, I was the one who got kicked out. Two other start-ups I was part also failed because of the lack of teamwork. I remember the first meetings were filled with happy thoughts but as soon as work needed to get done communication diminished and daytime jobs along with excuses took priority. I recall how in an online magazine start-up, the principal founder was so upset about our first online magazine issue that he talked to me for an hour of his displeasure, and we never worked again on making another issue because everyone else had other things to do and could not get over the fact that the issue did not come out his way. Starting the next Facebook or Snapchat is difficult enough but finding the right chemistry in a group is even harder. How many mainstream startups have you heard where the primary funders broke up? Does Facebook and Twitter sound familiar? This blog post was not meant to downplay anyone I worked with because each start-up brought something valuable to the table, but the main challenge was building a team chemistry that would take the start-up to the next level. So when you are building your start-up make sure your team has chemistry because that's what will get your start-up from nowhere to somewhere. Mr. JEducator, business, and blogger on things that matter in life. Follow @joseful Yesterday I wrote a post about companies giving people with start-up and gig job experience the opportunity to work for their companies. The reason for doing so is because there are just times when no matter what you do you just happen not to find the right niche in the gig economy thus having to make money working for someone else. In this article, I am focused on a person building an entrepreneurship career regardless if they are part of a start-up or working for a company. Innovate at all times Every day I find new ways to innovate myself because I am a product that has to sell myself to the market and be ruthless in my pursuit of having the customer want to buy my services. For example, when a client wanted me to create an online professional development course with a zero dollar budget I had to innovate in what training I had in online education and resources that were low cost or free. If you are not innovating, someone else will take your place. The same in entrepreneurship if a business is not innovating some other company will take over. There's a Solution to every Problem Last night my father told me, "except death, everything has a solution, " and my dad is correct. There have been times when a student or co-worker quickly quits and says there is no solution to the problem. I then look at the problem and find a simple solution. For example, a student would say, "I can't find any resources for my peer team teaching assignment" and I would respond with, "did you use Google?" The student would respond with a no answer, and I would mention to the student to start using Google. There is a solution to every problem whether we like it or not so find the solution because innovative companies and successful individuals always do. Persistence The one word I would say that keep successful companies and individuals at the top is persistence. No matter how hard it gets or what the future holds persistence goes a long way. I wouldn't have been able to get where I am at if it was not for persistence. What lacked in the start-ups I was part of was persistence among some individuals. Persistence gets people through the tough times, makes them innovative, and can find a solution to the problem. The world is quickly changing and globalizing at every turn in every industry. Having entrepreneurial traits such as innovation, finding solutions, and persistence goes a long way in an entrepreneurial society. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk When reading over job classifieds on LinkedIn most of the jobs require some sort of masters degree and/or five or more years of experience. Let's not forget that job openings are either minuscule or non-existent so how than does a person gain experience if there are no jobs to begin with? Companies should start taking people who worked for start-ups or in the gig economy seriously and here is why. Working in a start-up or gig economy job will require the person to build customer relationship skills, leaderships skills, creative ways to gain customers, and most importantly patience. I cannot think of another job in the gig economy where being an Uber driver or TaskRabbit tasker would require patience with customers who may be impatient or rude. Or in the start-up world where there is no guarantee of a paycheck every two weeks. With that being said companies should also realize that job experience is going to come from non-traditional ways such as start-up experience and gig economy jobs and no longer from the typical 9 to 5 job that most have done away with. I've had several tries in the start-up world and there has been no better training that could prepare for working in a Fortune 50 company. I can tell you that having patience and building a strong team are critical factors in the start-up world that without them the start-up will most likely fail before even launching. Being in a start-up you have to continuously innovate and be persistent because if your not than there is no traction in the marketplace. And with no traction comes no money and with no money comes no job. Why wouldn't a company want someone with start-up or gig economy experience? If anything it shows that the person is hungry for success, ambitious, and willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. There are no safety nets in the start-up world or in the gig economy and that makes the person more creative, built tougher for the tough times, and be optimistic for the future. So companies I am telling you know if you want a person hungry for success, ambitious, and willing to go the extra mile for your company don't set aside a persons application when you see start-up or gig economy experience. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk As a personal finance advocate, educator, and counselor I am all for budgeting. However, I admit that I get extremely lazy when I have to go into an excel spreadsheet and plug in my income and expenses. I would lose track at times and forget to do it on a daily basis. I am sure many other people feel the same way when creating and maintaining a budget on an excel spreadsheet. Thankfully apps such as Mint and private banks do the budgeting for you. My private bank has a pie chart that categorizes my expenses and I can set limits on how much I want to spend per category. It even has personal finance resources for my convenience. If you are looking for an easy way to budget either get an app that does the budgeting for you or sign up with bank that has online budgeting tools associated with your bank account. The good thing about an online budget is that you have online access anytime anywhere and you don't have to worry about plugging in the numbers on a daily basis. Be smart and get online today and start your online budget. Mr. JEducator, business, and blogger on things that matter in life. Follow @joseful If you’re a sports fan you more than likely have heard of LaVar Ball, father of Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo Ball. All three kids are rising basketball players. The oldest, Lonzo, is a freshman at UCLA (University of California-Los Angeles) and projected to be a top pick in the NBA draft. Everyone is talking about the Ball family because LaVar Ball said that his son, Lonzo, is better than Steph Curry. LaVar even went as far as saying that he could beat Michael Jordan one on one, yes MJ the GOAT. Regardless of the antics I can’t help but to admire LaVar’s guerilla marketing skills with his brand, Big Ballers Brand (BBB). Guerilla marketing is a low-cost unconventional marketing tactic to yield maximum results. LaVar is using a serious guerilla marketing tactic because whenever you see LaVar on television you see the BBB shirt and hat and it worked because it got me to the BBB website to check out the gear. LaVar is using guerilla marketing to it’s finest to market BBB. Let’s just hope all the talking about his sons will produce results in the NBA. But if it doesn’t at least the world knows Big Ballers Brand. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk |