25 Sep, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
Not even a little excited. The problem is that last year the company that I work for implemented some nifty, handy-dandy, employee evaluation software. Great for the company. Bad for the employees.
Not one employee that I’ve talked to received a raise that exceeded 2.5%. That’s not so great. Let me tell you why.
Inflation hovers somewhere around 3-4%. Inflation is the measure of growth in costs of items. So, if the costs of items grew by 3-4% last year, and I received a raise of 2.5%, I’m actually losing 0.5-1.5% over last year.
Obviously, some companies cannot afford to give all employees raises that are astronomical. Some employees are at the near the top of their salary range and as such are unable to get a higher raise. However, a raise that at least matches the inflation rate would certainly be nice. I dare say it should almost be required.
Again, this year, they are using the same software to “assess” our work and determine salary ranges and raises. Again, I think there will be some unhappy employees who will be losing money year to year because of a sub-inflation pay raise.
And that is why I’m not excited about my next raise. How’s your raise looking this year?
Technorati Tags: pay raise, pay scale, salary range, raise, inflation, inflation rate
3 Sep, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
.thumbnail.gif "A Penny Saved official seal")
I stumbled upon the says-it official seal generator and thought I would give it a try. Sure it’s completely off topic here, but it seemed like a fun exercise.
You can click on the image to see a larger version and be able to read the text a little better. They actually have quite the selection of images for the center and it seems to be expanding daily, but I found it rather hard to find a good financial related image. And even the scales that I decided upon were technically labeled as the scales of justice and not financial scales. Oh well.
You can get your own says-it official seal too!
Technorati Tags: official seal, seal, says-it
31 Aug, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
I’ve talked about The Long Tail here before and reviewed it at Thatedeguy.
Since I received the book for free from the author and found it to be a very good read not only from a technology perspective, but also from a business standpoint, I’ve decided to share the wealth so to speak.
I’m giving the book away! For full rules and how to enter visit The Great Long Tail Giveaway.
Technorati Tags: the long tail, long tail, giveaway, free
25 Aug, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
The Festival of under 30 Finances is up at Pragmatic Finance.
It’s a doozy this week with plenty of great articles to peruse. I didn’t contribute this week. Bad thatedeguy!
The thing you really must stop in for is the question this week though. It’s a good one.
If you could go back and tell yourself one piece of financial related advice as you first entered college or the job market, what would that be?
Head on over and read all the great answers. Some of us Under 30′ers are getting pretty smart in our old age. 
Technorati Tags: under 30 finance, festival of under 30 finance
21 Aug, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
I’d like to introduce the newest member of the Thatedeguy Network of blogs. eBay Habit.
eBay habit will cover online auction tools, tips, tricks and general information. Obviously, the market leader in the area is eBay and as a result, most of the information contained there will be eBay centric, but other sites and any new sites that spring up will be covered as well.
Help me give a warm welcome to eBay Habit and stop in and take a look. Add eBay Habit to your reading list too if you like! The content is a little thin as it’s only just begun but there is plenty of fun stuff planned.
Technorati Tags: ebay, ebay habit, thatedeguy network, thatedeguy, online auction
14 Aug, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
JLP of AllFinancialMatters was giving away a few(5) copies of the book “Achieving Prosperity” and guess what? I Won! I’ve sent JLP the pertinant info off by email so hopefully he’ll be able to get it shipped off soon. So exciting to win something once in a while!
Thanks JLP!
Technorati Tags: win, context, acheiving prosperity, JLP, allfinancialmatters
11 Aug, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
The festival of Under 30 Finances is up at BeachGirl’s Budget Blog. It’s the grand 3rd edition and it continues to grow as it goes.
Make sure and stop by and read all the entries! A Penny Saved’s entry was “Pay off student loans before mortgage?”
This weeks question was “Would you rather have a job with high pay and no benefits or a job with ok pay and good benefits?”. The overwhelming answer is all there. It would seem to be unanimous as well.
Feel free to send in any entries for next weeks Festival. And remember, you don’t need to be under 30 to contribute. Us under 30 folks are happy to take advice from our elder, wiser pfblogging friends!
Technorati Tags: festival of under 30 finances, festival, finance, personal finance
3 Aug, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
I’ve fully implemented the contact form which can now be used to contact me at any time. It works out quite well and already has seen some use.
The feedburner feed is up and running, however, the current feeds will not be redirected to that feed. As many of you who currently subscribe to my feeds will have noticed, when the current feeds get redirected, it ends up somehow redirecting to the feedburner feed for Thatedeguy and not for A Penny Saved. Until I get a fix, consider the current situation a permanent one.
I’ve decided to hold off on the subscribe to comments addin as there are already rss feeds for the comments and the additional addin might just add up to confusion.
[/tags]update, website, site update, site, feedburner, feed, rss[/tags]
3 Aug, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
I recently completed reading Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more” and wrote a fairly full review on Thatedeguy. Cruise on over and check it out.
The concept is that as digital media and virtual store shelf space create a diminishing cost for retailers to store product, more product will become available. That product won’t come from the varying industries creating more(although the do every year), but from what Chris dubs “The Long Tail“. Previously un-profitable products that sell less than 100 copies a year will become profitable because of the relative lack of costs to store the product.
From my Review:
What’s more important about this book is that it makes a you think. As a person of entrepreneurial spirit, the book opens new ways of thinking about business. Business online especially, but it also lends insight into the workings of your typical brick and mortar business as well.
I encourage any of you who are of a digital mindset and have any ties with business at all to pick up a copy of Chris’ book. It’s a relatively quick read and well worth the money.
Also, I’ll try and remember to point it out later, but I will be giving away my copy of “The Long Tail” sometime this month.
Technorati Tags: the long tail, chris anderson, business, economics, digital media
31 Jul, 2006
| Author: Penny Saved
The following are my favorite 5 posts from the first half of 2006. I’ve disqualified any that appear in the most popular list. Of course, these may not be the best of the best of A Penny Saved, but they are my favorites. Without further ado, in no particular order:
A quick and easy way to set up your savings strategy that is based on research done around the world
A superb snippet on a website that allows for easy investing in Gold Bullion
A article that delves into the wonderful world of DRIP stock investing
The most efficient and effective way to improve your credit score
This one gets a nod simply because of the subject!
So there you have my favorite posts from the first half of 2006. Again, you can visit the most popular posts via the list on the right sidebar and can peruse the archives via the archive list on the left hand sidebar.
Technorati Tags: favorite, popular, 2006 posts
