Tony Brewer

Someone sent me an email this past week offering to pay me a couple of hundred dollars to do a “shopping detective” job. Without giving me any details, they requested that I send them my name, address, social security number, and phone number. There was no information at all about this so-called “shopping detective” company, and the return email address was simply to one of those free email places like hotmail or yahoo.

So I replied back to them, asking them to let me know more about their company. As you can imagine, they have not responded at all. I was hoping that I could gather more information so I could turn them into the authorities. Well, I at least reported them to their email servers as fraudulent. I hope no one is stupid enough to fall for their scam!

Thanks to Lemuel Craft

Last month my boss announced to the office that we would all be getting a 10% pay cut across the board. I was already stretched to the limit financially, so I had to find a way to cut my costs. I am grateful that I still have a job, but I knew I was in trouble. I don’t make very much as it is, and every month I get deeper and deeper into credit card debt. My worst fear was that I would fall behind on bills and have to move back in with my mom and dad. I’ve been out on my own for over ten years now, so that would be a tough pill to swallow. The good thing is that cutting 10% wouldn’t be that difficult. I figured that I could do that by not eating out so many times each week and looking into my clear bundle pricing. Hopefully with these small changes I can make things work. I guess I’m just going to have to be more conscious of my spending if I don’t want to have to go back and live with mom and dad.

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching I have been thinking of something to get to give as a Valentine’s gift for me girl. I don’t think that stopping by the grocery store and picking up the typical box of chocolates will quite do the trick, although she does love chocolate. So I’ve taken to the Internet to find some kind of chocolate that isn’t an “everyday” type of chocolate.

You wouldn’t believe how many candy/chocolate companies have websites these days, but it didn’t take me too awfully long to find some See’s chocolate at sees.com that I like the looks and sound of. So good that I’ve gone ahead and ordered several varieties for her, her mom and my mother as well. Might as well make all the women in my life happy for the day!

I know that some folks go all out on Valentine’s Day and buy nice quality expensive jewelry and/or go out for a fancy dinner, but they way that the economy is these days and considering all the money that I just dished out for Christmas, I think a box of nice quality chocolates will do just fine. And of course I’ll get to nibble on some of the goodies as well!

I was reading an article on the Time.com website about how a lot of companies are participating in what is termed “Greenwashing.”  I had never heard of the term “Greenwashing” before, so I was curious and read the article.  It seems that “Greenwashing” is the term used to describe the action of promoting a product or service claiming that it is better for the environment than it really is.  The article included links to other articles that showed instances and examples of greenwashing by real companies.  I found the article to be informative, and have bookmarked the links for future reference.  It is disappointing to see how many companies are so shameless in their false promotions!

For years I have satisfied my dreams of investing in my own education. A wise person once said that an education is one investment that can not be taken from you. A majority of my education the past few years has been from books, online materials and seminars. You don’t get college credits by reading books, but the knowledge gained can be more powerful than some of the courses you do get credit for.

The biggest cost for me is time, the time spent learning could be spent working and earning money, it could also be spent with the family, or relaxing, all valuable things to do in life, so the vast amount of time I spend at conferences and seminars costs much more than the admission fee. The time I spend reading forums and online manuals could be spent doing other things to earn money.

With so much out there that I want to learn, and with so many opportunities to earn, it’s tough to decide sometimes where to invest the time.

Of course education is my favorite investment with time or money.