In our country’s state of financial uncertainty, it’s hard to imagine our states’ governments shutting down.  What if the money to operate our states just isn’t there anymore?  On a state-by-state basis, state workers have been facing spending freezes and potential layoffs. 

So what happens if your state government shuts down?  CNN Money talks about it here:

“State budgets are so squeezed that some governors are threatening to shut down state operations if lawmakers can’t address massive spending shortfalls. States are facing shutdowns because of the dismal condition of their finances.

Governors and lawmakers have been reluctant to make deep and unappealing cuts, particularly to education, health and social services, but have also been loathe to raise taxes.”

-Read the rest of What happens if your state government shuts down?

What to Do if You are a State Worker Facing Layoff

No amount of great job performance can counteract the funding for your job not being available anymore.  If you can’t be paid, you don’t have a job – plain and simple.  It won’t matter if you’re the best worker in the office, you’ll be looking for a new job.

There are some important steps you can take now if you’re afraid that your state government may be shutting down and your job may be in jeopardy. 

1.  Prepare to look for a job in the public sector.

• Education:  Go back to school, take college classes to refresh your skills, or get certifications that will help you get a new job.
• Resume:  Update your resume with any skills you have that might give you an edge over other applicants.
• Recommendation:  Get letters of recommendation from managers, supervisors, and coworkers.

2.  Get your finances in order.

• Emergency Fund:  If you don’t have an emergency fund in place already, put one together as fast as possible.  Make sure you stash enough to cover living expenses for 6-9 months, in the event you can’t find a new job before then.
• Get Frugal:  Cut out the frills and spending on non-essentials.  Transform Yourself from a Money Waster into a Money Saver – A Complete Frugal Makeover

My husband, Michael, sometimes teases me about my frugal measures, and always lets me know when my thriftiness has gone overboard! (That’s not very often – money saved is money saved, right?) 

I’d love him even if he weren’t frugal, you know, but yesterday I found reason number 1,000,001 that I love my husband so much.

Even though sometimes I call him a frugal heckler, he’s secretly almost as frugal as I am.  Of course, he would deny that to anyone if confronted, just like a child sneaking cookies between meals. 

But I know he’s frugal.  How do I know?  I have proof.  Incontrovertible proof…

Last night, Michael was sitting on the couch and spotted the All You magazine lying on my desk (which we all know is packed with coupons).  He grabbed it and said, I think I’ll just look through this for a few minutes…”

I wondered what he was up to, but later that night I found out.  When getting in the shower, he told me he was almost out of bodywash.  “No problem”, I said, and brought him a full bottle of Axe shower gel out of my stockpile.  That’s when I found my proof of his frugalness:

Just as he was closing the sliding shower door, he peeked around  and said, “You know, there’s a coupon for Dove’s new manly bodywash in this month’s All You magazine.  Just so you know.” 

With a smile, I let him close the shower door.  That’s my frugal husband!

Get more Frugal Friday here.

If you have not heard these yet, you won’t be disappointed.  They are never far away in my MP3 or CD changer.  Each one you’re able to listen to over and again. If it seems silly to listen to the same audiobook over and over again, consider how many times in your life you’ve heard that song on the radio. Without further ado -

 1.  Richest Man in Babylon, By George Clason – This is one that my Dad bought for me (the paperback, not the audio) 30 years ago, and it was already a classic at that time. 

I was just a kid then, and while I didn’t fully understand all of the teachings – you might think that the lessons would be lost on an 8 year old, it turned out to be a more life altering book than, say… my X-Men comics that I liked so much. You know, Wolverine is cool too – but he’s no Arkad. 

2.  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t, By Jim Collins – Jim Collins and his team of researchers poured their hearts into a 5 year project analyzing what makes a good company great.  Statistics. Logic. Analysis. I actually became sad half-way through the final disk because I knew it was almost over.  (It’s okay – I started it again!)

3.  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey – Taking initiative and working WITH people. Setting your goals.  Aligning your goals with your personal values.  Setting up mission statements for yourself, your family, and your business.  He discusses delegation, leadership, and Dr. Covey encourages personal growth that really helps to develop your professional skillset.

4.  Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life, by Donald Trump – Donald Trump is the Gangsta Rap of Personal Development.  I say that because listening to him, it’s kind of like listening to a rap where the whole song is only about how amazing the rapper is – how much money, and fame, and women are constantly around and how much “bling” the rapper has and how everything he touches turns to gold. 

That’s true for The Donald, much like it’s true for the rappers that sing it, and sing it, and sing it, until it becomes true.  Everyone loves a winner and in this book Donald tells it like it is – “Fake it until you make it”, and keep singing the song you want to come true.  Not bad advice, and he really opens your eyes to opportunities that you might have overlooked previously by having a too-limited view of possibilities. 

5.  How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie – What an incredible listen.  Not only is the information still completely relevant – it is just awesome listening to the stories of a man that interviewed Roosevelt, studied Lincoln the way Jim Collins studies corporations and developed the body of work on personal development and interpersonal relationships in a way that up until then had just not been done. 

This is a true masterpiece.  This title should replace a book in our high school curriculum.  It should be required reading. 

6.  Awaken The Giant Within, by Tony Robbins – Tony Robbins is larger than life.  The man is 6’7” and he has more energy than what can fit into that frame.  He is so fired up and his energy is contagious. 

He challenges you to really dig deep – to get personal with yourself and to get very real.  What do you want out of your life – your relationships, your money, your work, and what do you decide to accept as your values?

7.  Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki – Rich Dad, Poor Dad was so influential in my life, I just HAVE to pass it on.  Influential in more ways than you might suspect.  While all of the things that Robert Kiyosaki teaches are GREAT insight into money, cash flow, what is an asset versus what is a liability – it taught me more than that. 

Robert Kiyosaki is rich by selling information that he got from his “Rich Dad” – and if the information came from “Rich Dad” but Kiyosaki can get rich selling it, than I can cetainly take information I bought from Kiyosaki and teach others about the information for free. 

It was from this realization that FreeToGetRich.com was born.  So a big thank you from all of us, Mr. Kiyosaki.

• What are you listening to that is worth mentioning? 
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Above the need for good credit is the need for personal security.  While paying off credit cards improves your credit AND provides that financial cushion (since the credit will be available if you need it), “pay off my credit cards” has been the first steps in a strategy towards financial independence.  However…

Now that the banks are closing down credit cards whether they have been recently used or not, and whether or not they have been used responsibly – it’s important in this current economic environment that we first protect ourselves, and look out for our credit scores secondly.

In the event that you are laid off, or find yourself otherwise unable to work – you must have a way of paying your bills.  You will either need credit or cash available. 

The problem with the “pay off my credit cards” strategy is that you can no longer count on having the credit available when you need it.  You may be surprised to find out that the bank is no longer interested in offering that debt availability to you.  They can reduce your credit limit, raise your interest rate, or even close out your credit card account altogether.

Since paying off credit card balances works as a safety cushion only when you can count on the credit being available when you need it, the old advice of “establish savings while paying off your credit card debt” must be sidelined until you have got enough set aside to live on if you have to.

How to Grow your Emergency Fund

• Until you’ve got your emergency plan funded, switch to paying minimums on the credit cards, and get that emergency fund in place.
• Ensure that you have enough cash to live on for at least 3 months.
• Once you’re at 3 months of cushion in your emergency fund, split your efforts between paying off credit card balances and growing your emergency fund to cover 6 months of expenses.

When you’ve got an emergency fund that is able to support you during hard times, it’s safe to resume your strategy of “pay off my credit cards” by switching back to paying off your credit card balances as quickly as possible.

As a master motivator and a star lecturer, Jim Rohn has been influential in the lives of so many.
If you’re not familiar with Jim Rohn, you are likely familiar with his work, as it’s been passed on through Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, John Assaraf, and Denis Waitley (John and Denis are both speakers in “The Secret(DVD)"

When you’re ready to grow and start embracing all that this life has to offer, you need to start receiving Jim’s E-Zine.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  – Buddhist Proverb

In February of 2008, Jim Rohn was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis.  As a way to say “Thank You” and “God Bless” to a man that has had such a massive influence on so many, a video tribute to Jim Rohn has been setup. 

And as a special tribute to Jim Rohn, here’s our own tribute to him – a collection of embedded videos (including “Tribute” part 1 & 2):

Jim Rohn Tribute Part 1:

Jim Rohn Tribute Part 2:

Jim Rohn from “How to Have the Best Year Ever”, Part 1:

Jim Rohn from “How to Have the Best Year Ever”, Part 2:

Jim Rohn from “How to Have the Best Year Ever”, Part 3:

A Seven Board is task list that focuses on getting you moving instead of focusing on being complete or comprehensive.  It is essentially the first 7 tasks you can think of for the first 7 projects you can think of.

I created the seven board after reading The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and found that applying some speed tasking techniques can quickly outline projects which need to be done.

Here’s a common problem we encounter:  You know you’ve got a lot to do (generally speaking), but you can’t think of anything specific that you have to do “now”, and you can’t think of what things have priority and need to be done quickly versus items which can wait.

If you don’t get some direction, you risk losing momentum on your projects. Until you get your workload broken down into manageable chunks, you will lose valuable time idling in frustration.

The Rule of Seven

“People can not remember more than seven items in a list.”

I’ve noticed a sub-rule of The Rule of Seven is that everybody, upon learning about this rule – is sure that they can remember much more than 7 items in a list, and immediately makes an attempt to prove The Rule of Seven wrong!

We are going to use The Rule of Seven to our advantage. We are going to break through the “I need to get everything done and I can’t think of what I need to do now” mindset.  We are going to do some Speed Tasking and generate a Seven Board of projects and tasks that need to be accomplished.

How to Create a Seven Board

1. Open a new Excel spreadsheet.
2. In cell A1, type “Projects”.
3. Next, type in seven projects that you need to get done across the first row.  (These don’t have to be your seven most important projects. The idea here is to use the rule of seven to get ideas quickly without over-thinking.  If you only get 6, don’t sweat it.)
4. Then, in the seven cells underneath each project, list out each project into 7 tasks. They do not have to be in order, they do not have to be equal in scope-  they only have to come quickly.
5. When you notice your brain slowing down at task #7, move onto the next project and list out the next 7 tasks.

Once you’ve got your Seven Board filled out, look it over. Prioritze the projects (left-to-right) and prioritize the tasks (top-to-bottom) by importance.  Next, grab the tasks (either individually or use the whole column including the Project heading and the tasklist) and drag and drop them into your task list in Outlook.

By using a Seven Board you can quickly create 49 new tasks in minutes and keep moving forward on your projects without getting overwhelmed.