I recently rented the movie, “Margin Call.” The storyline, simply put, is about one investment firm’s decisions in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.
This is definitely one of those movies that kept me thinking long after it was over.
The how and why of what happened doesn’t seem to be as much about understanding the technical or financial details of the crisis as about understanding the motivations, circumstances, lifestyles, personalities, aspirations, and situations that the players found themselves in.
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Self expression isn’t always easy. Maybe that’s why I admire those who openly exhibit an apparently unshakable confidence to be themselves.
It’s easy not to realize that behind outwardly confident people there are probably many encounters with ignorant people than most people are even aware.
It seems that in life, it’s almost impossible to escape criticism entirely. The schoolyard “Sticks and Stones” saying and the online advice of “Don’t feed the trolls” is only a small part of the story. Read more »
In the current economy many people are cutting back on “extras”, or at least attempting to. But are we as frugal as we think we are?
Maybe we should start by getting clear on what frugality means to each of us. As we know, frugality can have a full range of definitions and connotations which range from the negative, i.e., being a Scrooge-like miser, to the positive, i.e., being a monk-like minimalist.
In general, as expressed in this blog post entitled: “Frugality – Not Just for the Poor”, frugality is described by The Frugal Goddess as a positive, i.e., “it is about getting the maximum out of available resources.” Read more »
I really don’t like to hate. But there is one thing in particular that I just hate that I love. It is: Diet Coke.
I admit, I love Diet Coke. I love the brand. I love sipping it in the afternoon (especially around the 3 o’clock hour); often I even love it with breakfast. I love the Olympics for which they are a sponsor. I love the sound of the can opening. I love the feel of the plastic 20 ounce bottles. I love the red color in the logo. I love it over ice. I could go on and on… Read more »
There were some recent news reports that the board game, Scrabble, was changing the rules of the game to now allow Proper Nouns.
But, before anyone, who hasn’t yet heard the whole story, gets overly excited about nothing, be comforted to know that any kind of sacrilegious move like that would not apply to the Classic version, but would only apply to an upcoming Family Friendly version of the game.
While Scrabble really is “just a game”, our first knee-jerk reaction to the initial news reports does tell us something about ourselves. Read more »
I’m sure you’ve probably heard the saying: “Less is More“. I would agree that, at times, saying too much, doing too much, giving too many details can take away more than it adds.
Sometimes leaving space for someone else to fill in the blanks can be truly magical. And, often, summarizing ”key take-aways” gets your point across much more effectively than losing someone’s attention half-way through.
The tricky part is knowing when to leave “well enough” alone. There is often that desire to add or give just a little bit more. It isn’t always clear when too much is simply too much, or when not enough is not enough.
Lately I’ve been starting to see how the Goldilocks principle of ”just right” can be nicely applied to embarking on new endeavors. Consider these examples: Read more »
Recently another couple of people I know unexpectedly lost their jobs and joined the ranks of the temporarily unemployed, not by choice, nor due to poor performance, but quite simply due to their company’s decision to re-organize its structure and strategy.
True, it really isn’t anything new that companies reorganize or merge or go out of business. It really does happen all the time. Unfortunately, we just happen to be in a time when a lot of this is happening to a lot of people at the same time, thus making it that much more noticeable to everyone.
Losing a job (that you may or may not have loved) no longer seems to be something that only happens to other people. The possibility of this happening to any one of us, or to someone we know, just seems to be that much more of a real possibility than ever before.
This makes me think of a favorite Mary Engelbreit artwork quote of mine:
“Life is 10% what happens to you and
90% what you do with what happens to you.” Read more »
The current financial crisis has certainly made many people re-think their way of doing things. I would expect that those hardest hit by a sudden, severe, and unexpected shock would most likely be the first to change their ways. But, for how long?
The degree and amount of change will certainly depend on how hard hit such individuals and their loved ones have been by this financial crisis, as well as their ability to recover from it, what and how much has been lost, and what is still at risk of being lost.
And, what about those of us that are still in pretty good financial shape and are not being forced to change due to circumstance, will we still change some of our habits based on a reawakened awareness to the realities of risk and uncertainty? Read more »
Physical product over-consumption clearly hasn’t been good for our environment nor for our pocketbooks, but, is enough being said about service-sector over-consumption, too?
Do we really need to hire someone to regularly clean our homes or take care of our lawns, have a personal assistant or personal shopper, pay frequent visits to a chiropractor, get pedicures and manicures, or massages, or attend expensive seminars, multiple times per year?
Once we are used to the convenience (and benefits) of these kinds of service-sector amenities, and we see our neighbors and co-workers indulging in them, they are hard to give up. Plus, these things are important for the health of our service-sector economy, too, right?
What if we can learn to be happy with or without spending money? Maybe knowing that we could easily give up those kinds of things, if necessary, would be a good skill to acquire? As Suze Orman has suggested, what if we only spend money on things that we can truly afford to and not spend money when are only able to afford things on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis? Read more »
Just as there are two main political parties in the U.S., so, too, does there seem to be two main income-earning paths that people pursue: (1) be an employee, or (2) be an entrepreneur.
Of course, there are the Switchers, those who leave the “safety” of employment for the “risk” of self-employment. The Switchers have been more of the minority to date. But, what if that tide is turning? Will our current economic crisis create a larger percentage of employees or entrepreneurs?
I hear more and more how “the Depression Era created more millionaires than any other time”, that “this financial crisis is our biggest break“. Now is also a time of much rightly placed mistrust and suspicion. And, we are again and again reminded that what appears ”too good to be true” probably is. What are we to make of all this well-meaning advice?
Isn’t pursuing our dreams ”risky”? If people don’t pursue their “dreams” because they don’t know how (or are afraid they won’t be able) to make a profitable living at it, is that really an unwise decision? Living the life of the stereotypical “starving artist” doesn’t make society a better place for anyone, right? Read more »
