Recent reports have had people wondering if the unemployment rate should be changed due to the amount of people who are self-employed. In 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 10.1 million Americans were self-employed. It makes you wonder if self-employment might be the door to a new career. But, is self-employment an option for the unemployed? Are there careers that match your experience? Chances are the answer is yes.

What Jobs Are Available?

In truth, there are a number of jobs you can do to be self-employed. Whether it’s offering a service, such as fixing computers, or doing contract work online, there are jobs to be found. Some of the most popular jobs include freelance writing, design and help desk work. Of course, these are just a few options. You could also sell items on an auction site, sell crafts at a local flea market or even start a career walking dogs. There is no limit to the amount of jobs available for the self-employed. Best of all, you can take on more than one job to increase your income. Continue reading »

Inflation and high unemployment rates are the results of this bad economy. While it has been hard to live through, it has taught many people about living within their means. Instead of buying something “just because” people are being more conscious about where their money goes. Of course, we could all use more tips. Here are five tips for adjusting your spending habits because of the economy.

Track Spending

Nothing is more eye opening than to track your spending. When you track your spending you can see how much those little purchases are costing and what you can live without. As time goes on, you can create categories and see how your spending changes in each category from month to month. Continue reading »

The recession is really taking a toll on everyone — even beer drinkers.

Because of the belt tightening measures almost all American households are implementing, everything is being cut down, even beer. There is a growing trend of beer drinkers now choosing cheaper priced brews when they buy them in supermarkets and stores. And this is a trend that the premium beer manufacturers are not happy about.

So what can you do? Well, if you’re Grupo Modelo SAB, the largest brewery in Mexico, you have to revisit some of your strategies. The company’s exports of its beers, including its top selling Corona, has declined by 5.3 percent in the first half of this year.

Modelo hsa said that it will be focusing on marketing to entice consumers to buy its beer. The obvious strategy of cutting prices to increase sales is not being entertained by the company because it will face higher input costs. One of its strategies is to even revive a popular ad it had in the 90′s as a way of stretching its marketing budget.

I don’t know about this strategy. Will beer drinkers buy expensive beer if they see an ad that’s more than ten years old? You have to be really drunk to get sold on that.

WASHINGTON, DC – When he’s not busy lowering interest rates, bailing out financial institutions or making ceramic piggy banks with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is overseeing the young men who would like to date his daughter, Anna. Like all dads, Ben is concerned about what might happen on these dates, which is why he came up with his 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Daughter. The rules are so popular among his Washington colleagues with daughters, Bernanke is considering developing them into a sitcom pilot for the Fox Business Channel.

When young Republican men enter the foyer of the Bernanke home, they come face-to-face with two stone tablets containing the following Bernanke rules:

1. If you pull in my driveway in anything but a limo, it better be a private jet.

2. You may not touch my daughter in front of me unless it’s to hand her a copy of your financial statement.

3. You must wear a dark suit at all times, even to the beach. You can only take it off to save a drowning banker.

4. When it comes to sex, think of my daughter as a Swiss bank and you as someone who shops at the grocery store with coupons.

5. If you think the late fees on your American Express Centurion Card are atrocious, wait until you see the fee for bringing my daughter home late.

6. If my daughter comes home crying, it better be because you took her to a sad movie about Democrats taking over Congress.

7. While waiting for my daughter to make her grand entrance, don’t fidget or bother me with questions. Nothing drops faster than my interest rate in you.

8. You may only take my daughter to noisy crowded public places where there are no places to have sex. One of my favorite spots to take her mother was the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

The Prosecco — that fizzy, champagne-like wine is growing more and more successful each year. Italians consider it the perfect aperitivo for summer and other countries are following suit with their own prosecco vintages.

Recently, the Italians have decided to protect the prosecco variant by upgrading it into the country’s A-list wine classification, DOCG. The new designation now protects the name Prosecco, the grape variant and new regulations imposed on its production.

One reason that both businessmen and wine experts cite when talking about prosecco’s increased popularity is, surprisingly, Paris Hilton. A few years ago, Paris endorsed the Rich Prosecco brand, which came in gold plated cans. Her endorsement brought prosecco to the public consciousness and, in effect, different manufacturers started releasing their own versions even if these were not produced in the region in Italy where the original variant was grown. This was now the impetus Italian growers needed to push for the new classification.

So in effect, Italian winemakers were actually helped by Paris Hilton! And I always thought Paris won’t contribute to anything much.

L’Oreal is one of the top cosmetics companies in the world. The French company owns a wide range of brands — Shue Uemura, Maybelline, Lancome, Kiehl’s and Garnier. L’Oreal is a big player in the cosmetics industry so it goes without saying anything it does will be closely scrutinized. And, let’s face it, in a business as shallow as beauty, you’d think it will be easy to avoid certain pitfalls. Unfortunately, the guys at L’Oreal are too engrossed on what they consider as “beauty” that they don’t even realize these pitfalls even if it’s already staring them in the face.

Just recently, L’Oreal was found guilty of racial discrimination by the French Supreme Court. The conviction stems from the company’s policy that Garnier sales staff should be “bleu, blanc, rouge” — the colors of the French flag but also the company’s code for white French people. What were they thinking? That people won’t likely buy lipstick from a person who’s not white? It’s just stupid beyond words. How can they even think their bottomline can be affected by the ethnicity of the sale staff. I want to buy hairgel, I won’t care if the salesperson’s from Mars, okay, I probably would, but only in so much as I’d want to strike up a conversation with a person from another planet.

In this day and age, it’s quite shocking that a company as progressive as L’Oreal would still propagate discrimination. It just reeks of bad taste offensiveness. I mean, the French has been described as rude and aloof but, I don’t believe they’re racist. L’Oreal is giving the French people a bad reputation.

Come on, L’Oreal guys! I think you know that beauty is not just skin deep. Merde!

From Arizona, not that customs officials didn’t appreciate art but the find they got was truly one to behold, 90 pounds of marijuana stuffed into the frames of several paintings that was supposed to be smuggled into the US. The daring ploy to smuggle the drugs almost succeeded till a nosy dog put his nose on something within the designated art that was enough cause for further examination and viola, x-ray reveals the marijuana leaves contained within the frames, sending the man into custody wasting seemingly very good art and very good frames. Just goes to show you that the need for cash makes people do stupid things.
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The Beatles is the most successful band of all time and by all accounts the best selling band, too. I think someone made a survey or study and found out that the Fab Four made a gazillion dollars from the sales of their albums.

And now, more than thirty years after The Beatles released its last album, the Fab Four is about to rake in millions for The Beatles’ current owners of its music rights.

According to reports, Viacom — the publisher of The Beatles: Rock Band — has guaranteed payment of $10 million to the song and likeness rights-holders of the band and the payment is guaranteed to increase when it posts good sales figures.

The owner of The Beatles catalog is Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which is a joint venture between Sony and the late Michael Jackson. The two other record labels that have control over the remainder of the music are Apple Corps for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and EMI Music for George Harrison

According to estimates, the rights holders could stand to earn up to $40 million. One of the reasons for this big payday is because of the large amount of songs that are in the game. And this will also likely increase because of the plans by Viacom and MTV Games (who distributes the game) to release album packs every month after the game’s release.

And to add to the windfall, this month also sees the release of the remastered Beatles catalogue. This is going to be raking in money because it is the first time that The Beatles’ work has been remastered and given that new polish.

It’s amazing how a band that has been gone for decades can end up selling so much more again and earning the Fab Four boatloads of money.