Would you believe me if I told you I had a legitimate conversation this week about starting a construction company?? Didn’t think so :)
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Well another week is in the books and I think most in the Midwest and Northeast are wondering how much longer we have to put up with this snow and cold weather.
Blog Design – Things are moving along with the site redesign. I just approved the new logo and the next step will be looking over a few different design options that Dustin comes up with.
I don’t mind my current header, but I wanted a more recognizable square logo. I think it’ll be a good change, along with the many other features I’m implementing in the upgrade.
Speaking of blogging, I have started to add content to my new niche site. I’m shooting for one post a week so that when I finally make it public there will already be some content. I would share the URL but it’s kind of comparable to a building that is being prepped to have the foundation laid and subsequently the rest of the house. You don’t show people the foundation of a building; instead you wait until it’s completed.
Layoffs at Target – On Wednesday Target laid off 475 people, or nearly 4% of their corporate work force. That’s 1 out of every 25 workers at corporate headquarters. My sister works there and thankfully her job is safe; I have other friends that work there as well. It hits close to home and it’s unfortunate to see.
An interesting part of the news is that the necessary functions from these jobs will be moved to India or filled by contractors. An additional 700 jobs that were approved to be filled will no longer be filled. The outsourcing part of it reminds me of my post Why Plumbers Have More Job Security than Accountants. I’ve been saying for a while now that outsourcing is something we will see more and more of, and I (unfortunately) think this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Churn ‘Em – Well I don’t want to leave on that negative note, so I will end by talking about something good that happened this week.
I wrote about how I’m getting a free $400 for travel from the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard about a month ago. Well…after making my bi-annual car insurance payment and using my card for most of my other purchases, I hit the $1,000 mark and have my 40,000 miles (or $400 when converted to dollar figures) waiting for me in my account! Next step is to have my wife sign up so we will have an additional $400.
Below are the posts we published this week:
- Monday I shared A Better Way to Do the 52-Week Money Challenge. This includes a downloadable Spreadsheet where you can track your progress.
- On Tuesday Sally talked about her debt load in The Debt I’m In.
- On Tuesday I shared the Best Credit Card for Book Lovers – Barnes & Noble MasterCard®.
- On Wednesday Cat shared 4 Tips for Becoming a Full Time Blogger.
- On Thursday I explained Why Young Adults Should NOT Choose Catastrophic Health Insurance Plans.
Posts of the Week:
As usual, here are five posts from this week that I enjoyed:
- Melanie from Dear Debt talks about self-worth in Your Self-Worth is Not Your Net Worth
- Erin from Broke Millennial talks about finances and relationships in How I (Financially) Handle a Long Distance Relationship
- Stefanie from The Broke and the Beautiful Life discusses how she plans on working more efficiently in Shake Your Money Maker: Taking Action
- Kali from Common Sense Millennial talks about who is more frugal in A Frugal Battle Royale
- Liz from Budgeting for More shares 5 Tips for Managing Financial Stress
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How was your week? Doing anything exciting this weekend?
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I have a few friends working at Target as well. During the last recession most of my friends were still in school so we avoided job loss and layoffs. It’s a little weird now that we all have full-time jobs to think that once day those layoffs could be hitting one of us (and probably will at some point). Makes me want to set aside even more for my emergency fund!
Thanks for the mention, DC. Hope you have a great weekend.
BudgetforMore I was also still in school during the last recession so I’m in the same boat as you. It’s definitely hard to think about layoffs and how that may happen to people we know, or even ourselves. Hope you have a great weekend as well.
I am so sad to hear that about Target. I hope they don’t end up like Walmart. I guess I will just order everything from Amazon if that happens. Have a great weekend.
EyesonthedollarYeah the data breach really hurt their numbers because people were hesitant the first couple weeks about shopping there. Hope you have a great weekend as well!
This week our local meterologist said, “we will turn into Minnesota for the next 2 weeks”. Yikes! Can’t wait ’til spring! It’s sad to hear about the Target layoffs and that is so true about the trend to outsourcing. Not much going on this weekend. We have another snowstorm on the way for tomorrow so I guess I’ll be shoveling! :( Enjoy your weekend!
Raquel@Practical CentsHaha that’s pretty funny your meteorologist referenced Minnesota. We might narrowly miss a blizzard on Sunday in the Twin Cities – fingers crossed! Enjoy your weekend as well and I hope the storm isn’t as bad as you’re expecting it to be.
I’m excited to see what your new site will look like! It already looks good now so I can’t even imagine! :) Hope you have a great weekend
SenseofCents Thanks! That’s why I put off a site redesign for so long. I’m already fairly happy with the looks of my site, but there is some functionality and coding that I have wanted for a long time that will come with the redesign. Hope you have a great weekend as well!
Construction company? Hmmm :) Congrats on the new site design as well as the travel money from the credit card! Thanks for the link love too! My week was pretty exhausting, lots of work. I am going to get a massage this weekend, which is mostly covered by my insurance. As someone that didn’t have insurance for 2 years, this is a pretty big deal.
deardebt Haha the construction company sounds far-fetched or even surreal right now, but it would start with small projects. Might not happen for a couple years, though, if ever. Enjoy your massage, that sounds amazing.
I agree that business process outsourcing is going to to keep on coming. It’s just another challenge for Americans. Overseas, workers can definitely do things for a lower wage. And in a lot of cases, these are very bright, capable workers. On a positive spin, this is an opportunity to reaffirm our worker’s value: can we do it better, and by a large enough margin to justify our much higher wages? If we cannot, the jobs should leave.
We need to be flexible enough to find new positions and new fields if we cannot provide sufficient value. I love your example of a plumber. Lots of service based positions are protected from outsourcing. Can’t swing a hammer, turn a wrench, or pour from a tap overseas.
DonebyFortyIt’s almost a full 180 from where we were going. Seems like jobs went from being more blue collar, to white collar, and now back to some of those blue collar jobs like plumbers and electricians. I agree though if we can’t do it better or cheaper here the jobs should go. I’m very concerned about our ability to create new jobs here, though, and I just hope that the next generation of workers are up for the unique challenges the work force has in store for them.
Looking forward to seeing what you have in store with the new niche site! Thanks for the mention! I’ll be spending the weekend trying to organize my finances for tax time. Thrilling stuff :/
brokeandbeau Ugh that’s terrible, I’ve spent about 5 hours each of the past two weekends working on tax-related stuff. Not fun at all.
Way to go on the credit card churning! Speaking of which I just got a call from a credit card company as I was typing this asking me if I wanted another one for my business. Ugh! Need to screen calls more. Anyway, I just signed up with southwest for a business card and hopefully I’ll be getting my 50k points soon. That’s sucks about Target! Glad your sister’s job is safe.
Beachbudget I don’t have a business card yet and now I’m a little surprised I didn’t think of getting one earlier!
Interesting about the construction company! Did you end up blowing that idea off in the end? Week was good here, save for the debt fatigue that kicked my tail on Tues and Wed. Better now, though. :-) Have a great weekend, DC and Mrs. DC!
Laurie TheFrugalFarmer Nope not at all! It was a good first discussion about the idea. It’s going to be more of a long-term project but we’re just looking into different ideas and whatnot at this point.
Have a good weekend too!
Congrats on the new blog design progress! I can’t wait to see the final results! And I totally agree about plumbers. I frequently tell my son that I would actually love if he didn’t go to college and developed a trade like a plumber or an electrician. As long as there are homes, there will be work for you.
blonde_finance Thanks! I can’t wait to see what designs my designer comes up with. I think college and office jobs are stressed way too much. Plumbers and electricians can make a great living, even more so if they are entrepreneurial.
Having a new blog design is so exciting. I’m excited to see it in action!
I’m looking forward to seeing the updated site!