The Year of the Counter Offer

When I meet a recruiter, I always ask how business is. This week at a local networking event I was surprised to learn 2016 is the year of the counter offer.

This recruiter, who works for a national placement agency, told me recruits are receiving and accepting the counter offer so often (more frequently this year than ever before) her firm has named 2016, “The year of the counter offer.” Seeking new employment as a way to force an employer to give you a raise is so popular this agency is calling it a trend.

She stated despite the great recession having ended a few years ago, many companies continue to be apprehensive about the economy, are reluctant to convert temporary employees to permanent and have not given employees a decent raise in years. Millennials who accepted jobs below normal starting salaries are tired of waiting for a fair wage and are using the counter offer as a salary negotiation tool. 

Companies are well aware of how much it costs to hire and train a new employee:

According to Zane Benefits:

Some studies (such as SHMR) predict that every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it costs 6 to 9 months’ salary on average. For a manager making $40,000 a year, that's $20,000 to $30,000 in recruiting and training expenses.

But others predict the cost is even more - that losing a salaried employee can cost as much as 2x their annual salary, especially for a high-earner or executive level employee.

I learned this the hard-way after one of my employees left last year. I now realize it is cheaper in the long run to figure out how to keep employees rather than having to endure the time and cost of recruiting and training someone new.

If you do threaten to leave your job be aware of the potential risks:
 
You may not receive a counter offer:
You or your position may not be as valuable to your employer as you think it is. Also, some employers think everyone is replaceable and have a policy to never give a counter-offer. 

Accepting the counter offer could hurt your reputation:
Most employers have good memories; from this day forward you may be known as the employee who resigned to get a raise.

My company has this employee – he actually accepted a counter offer on two separate occasions. When he was seeking a promotion last year he came very close to not getting it because of reservations as to whether he was management material. Similar to my friend who is known as the 4:00 and she's out of here employee, he is known as the counter offer employee. As he struggles to adapt to his new management role, several managers site his counter offer history as an ignored warning sign.

You are burning bridges:
I accepted the counter-offer when I was in my 20’s. Very similar to the scenario above both a co-worker and I accepted counter-offers after finding new jobs with the same placement firm I referenced above. We had both been warned of the disadvantages of accepting the counter-offer (if we are unhappy now, we will most likely be unhappy six months from now just better paid). We both had liked our jobs, but needed and thought we deserved more money. In both cases, our employer matched our new salary as an incentive to keep us. Unfortunately, a year later we were both out of a job when our entire department was relocated to Chicago. My co-worker regretted her counter-offer decision as she struggled to find another new job. I never regretted mine because I easily found a job on my own, but the agency I had worked with never worked with me again. I am sure there was a "don't work with" note attached to my file.

You may be fired in the future:
If our entire department had not been downsized, I wonder if our jobs would not have been in jeopardy in the future. Assistants were hired for both of us shortly after our counter-offers were put in place without our permission or request. My co-worker’s assistant didn’t work out and left a few months after she was hired. I struggled to keep mine busy (would you train an unwanted assistant to do your job). He was the first person to leave when the department lay-off was announced.

My recommendation:
My company’s economist projects 2016 as a year of slow but steady growth, but 2017 to be a year of contraction. My recommendation is instead of 2016 being the year of the counter-offer make it the year your find a great new job especially if you have a few years of experience. If you wait and are underpaid, underemployed or your company still hasn’t hired you permanently you may be stuck in an undesirable work situation for several years to come.

Have you ever accepted a counter offer? Was it a good decision?

Does Everyone Over 40 Long For a New Career?

One of the first things I noticed upon meeting my new physical therapist was how unhappy he was in his job.  He began his career as a self-employed physical therapist specializing in workman’s comp injuries. His primary client had been a large factory in the Milwaukee area.  His days had been long since he had to cover all three shifts, but the pay was excellent.  Then in the early 2000's the factory was sold. The new owners had stringent business insurance requirements he was unable to meet. His contract was terminated and he was replaced by a large company.  He was offered a job with this company, but declined.  He questioned the educational background of their therapists and the salary he was offered was insulting.

He spent the next year working with his two small remaining accounts and trying to secure new business, but Milwaukee had lost numerous manufacturing facilities since 1986 and the ones who remained were not looking for a physical therapist.  Eventually he closed his business and accepted a position as a staff therapist with a company affiliated with one of the local medical providers. That was where he was working when I met him.

A lot has changed since my therapist graduated in 1986:

Around the end of the 1990's, a bachelor's degree in physical therapy was slowly replaced by master's and doctorate physical therapy degrees. My therapist who holds only an undergraduate degree was grandfathered in. He tells me his company recently hired a new graduate with a master’s degree.  He points to her and tells me she doesn’t know any more than he does.  She earns an annual salary of $55,000 while he currently makes $75,000. He also has a 401(k), is eligible for state unemployment if he finds himself downsized and has medical insurance. He had had none of these while self-employed.

What he doesn’t like about his job:

He always has to be on.  He has to meet and talk to patients all day while his ex-wife who works as a financial analyst can just sit and stare at her computer when she doesn’t feel like working.

He is now billable and has to track his time hourly. He works with 24 different patients at all times.  He has to have vacation time approved in advance. He can’t just take an afternoon off on a nice day or not go in the day after a holiday if he doesn’t feel like it.

He can’t drink a soda while working with a patient. His new company told him this is rude.  To do so he would have to offer them a beverage as well and they are not in the beverage serving business.

His job is boring.

Every day is the same.  Of his 24 patients three of them usually have elbow tendinitis – my affliction. The treatment for tennis elbow is always the same. 

I suggested working with people in their homes; thinking he might enjoy that more.

He said that would be much worse and more boring than his current job.  You then work with the elderly and your job consists of, “See you again on Wednesday Betty be sure to squeeze the bag of beans when I’m gone.” At least in his current job his patients usually get better.

I asked if he had to maintain continuing education. 

He does and he likes doing that, he enjoys learning something new and his employer pays him for his time while he is out of the office.   He then got up and left.  When he returned he said he had just signed up for a day of CPE.

If he could have a do-over what would he do?

He’d be a TV reporter, but at 45 he thinks he is too old for TV.

At our last appointment he said he thinks everyone longs for a career change after age 40. It is hard to know at age 18 what you will make you happy when you are 40. 

As for me, I kind of think I would have preferred a career as a physical therapist rather than as an accounting manager, but I choose accounting, so I am making the best of it. As to everyone, I am sure many people do long for a new career.  I heard my company's President make two comments in the last week about not being happy with his career choice - running the family business.  He is 47 and at one point wanted to be a lawyer or a politician. 

Do you think everyone over 40 longs for a new career?

How Not to Feel Trapped? Advice from Andre Agassi

One of my coworkers, I will call him Frank, is trapped in his job.  He is approaching 70 and forced to continue working to pay for his wife’s medical expenses. His wife has been bedridden for several years due to M.S. Frank is loud, abrasive and intimidating.  His constant complaining brings his entire department down.  Frank is also at the top of the list of employees my company hopes to force into retirement with our software conversion.

I read Andre Agassi’s book Open: An Autobiography earlier this year for my savvy reading challenge.  While thinking about my new series staying relevant over 50 I couldn’t help, but think of Andre Agassi.

The surprising thing you learn early in Agassi’s book is he hated playing tennis.  From an early age when his dad bought a fire breathing dragon contraption that shot tennis balls out of its mouth he hated tennis.  Tennis was his dad’s dream not his own.

Andre thinks a lot about what he can control in tennis and in life:

I tell Perry that I having no choice, having no say about what I do or who I am, makes me crazy.  That is why I put more thought, obsessive thought, into the few choices I do have – what I wear, what I eat, who I call my friends. (Pg. 66)

I obsess about the few things I can control and racket tension is one of them.  (Pg. 13)

The time has come.  I need to take control of my money.  I need to take control of my F***ing Life. (Pg. 114)

I find peace in his claim that perfectionism is voluntary.  Perfectionism is something I choose, and its ruining me, I can choose something else. (Pg. 189)

And lastly, his life and his tennis (he was losing a lot) didn’t improve until he chose tennis:

I play and keep playing because I choose to play. Even if it’s not your ideal life, you can always choose it. No matter what your life is choosing it is everything. (pg. 359)

Agassi also began using the money he made from tennis to make a difference. In 2001, Agassi opened the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, a tuition-free charter school for at-risk children in the area. According to Wikipedia, he personally donated $35 million to the school.

Do you feel trapped in your job?  According to Forbes, 52.3% of Americans are unhappy with their work.

From time-to-time I too feel trapped in my job.  My husband retired last year and ever since we’ve been bombarded with unexpected bills; ranging from helping a family member, to dental and medical expenses to a new vehicle for me. Plans of early retirement continue to get pushed further into the future.  

What can I do?
I can change my attitude and choose my job. I can remember why I decided to become an accountant – I thought it would be a reliable and lucrative career.  And be grateful that for the most part my career has been both.  I can try to stay present at work instead of writing blog posts in my head all day and I can help others.

From time to time I ask Frank how he is managing and he breaks down and tells me not good. That he never lets his wife see his anger or his fear.  I listen and suggest he look into signing his wife up for Medicare (she is 68) and a supplemental plan – and don’t judge why he hasn’t done this already or why our HR manager hasn’t suggested this.

I also find it helpful to leave work at a reasonable time, go to the gym and use my vacation days.

Frank has to choose his job too.  He has made the decision to continue working until his finances are under control and in the process has become difficult to work with.  Management will only put up with a difficult employee so long. If he truly wants to meet his goal he will have to change his attitude.   

Do you feel trapped in your job? How do you cope?

Please Note, I am an Amazon Affiliate

New Series: Staying Relevant over 50

It is official – my company will be converting our client-server business software to a new cloud based system later this year. The contract was signed this week. My boss and I knew our company’s owners would decide to make the conversion someday, but we thought (were hoping) it wouldn’t be quite so soon.

After the announcement was made, one of our company owners told me both my boss and I spend too much time entering and manipulating data.  There are more important things we should be working on. He also mentioned that 50% of our employees would not embrace this change and was hoping some of the curmudgeon’s would retire. (I wrote more about this in my post Do software conversions force older employees into retirement?)

My immediate reaction was skepticism and a fear of the unknown.  How will my job change?  Will I have enough work to do if the reports I spend hours creating are automatically produced?

Fortunately, I was comforted by Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. He writes:

Americans fear technology in the near future because they see it as a replay of the globalization of the near past.  But the situations are very different: people compete for jobs and for resources; computers compete for neither. (pg. 141)

And

Computers are far more different from people than any two people are different from each other: men and machines are good at fundamentally different things.  People have intentionality – we form plans and make decisions in complicated situations.  We’re less good at making sense of enormous amounts of data.  Computers are exactly the opposite they excel at efficient data processing, but they struggle to make basic judgments that would be simple for any human. (pg. 143)

I wish my company’s owners would read this quote:

The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete. (pg. 141)

It appears my job’s focus in the future will be on interpreting data which I do enjoy, rather than creating spreadsheets which I must admit at times can be mind-numbingly boring. I need to remember

Worry and regret never solves tomorrow’s problems and only drains away energy from today. James Altucher

This post is the first in a new series I am implementing called, “Staying relevant over 50.” A few years ago, I read a statement claiming advertisers don’t market to the over 54 age group because this group is no longer relevant.  My ultimate goal of this series, other than providing relevancy suggestions and tips, is to prove these advertisers are wrong.

How do you recommend staying relevant over 50?

Please note I am an Amazon Affiliate

Requesting “Doggie Bag” at a Business Lunch

Amy writes:

When I graduated from college my mentor gave me a list of business rules* to follow.  One of her recommendations was to never take anything home from a business lunch in a doggie bag because it makes you look cheap.  Recently at an interview lunch, I was nervous and unable to eat more than a few bites of my entrée.  While I would have appreciated the leftovers, when the waitress asked if I needed a take-out box I said no.  My interviewer appeared annoyed and asked why I wasn’t taking my leftovers home.  I blurted out I was told you should never request a doggie bag at a business lunch.  He said that was ridiculous and I walked out with a doggie bag.  Was I wrong?

Dear Amy,

In this instance I think you were not wrong to refuse the doggie bag, you were wrong to not attempt to eat more.  When you didn’t accept the take-out box the interviewer must have thought you were being wasteful. I once attended a business lunch where a guest ate only a few bites of her salmon entrée.  She too refused the take-out bag.  I didn’t say anything, but surmised she had not liked the food.   

In choosing what to order at a business lunch, I always select the easiest item to eat in the mid-priced category.  Usually for a lunch this is a sandwich.  I then focus on eating the main entrée leaving the sides especially fries or chips for last.  If I can’t finish all my food, it still looks like I’ve eaten the majority of my plate.  I also sometimes stop eating if everyone else has long since finished.

On a side note, the person requesting the lunch should always pay the bill.  I’ve had a couple of business meetings at coffee shops where the party requesting the meeting was late.   I usually give them a few minutes, then go ahead and buy my own coffee.  This too is probably a mistake, but it just feels weird to me to sit there with nothing and wait.

Do you request a doggie bag at a business lunch?  What about coffee shops, if you are the first to arrive do you buy your own coffee?

*Other items on her list were to never hang your sweater over your chair, never let them so you cry and to always go alone to networking events – you are forced to meet other people.

Rethinking My Decision to Prepare My Own Tax Return

I have always considered my ability to prepare my own taxes a side benefit of my CPA license. I work in industry, so I don’t prepare anyone’s taxes other than my own, but felt I was proficient enough to prepare my own return. This year was different than prior years in that my husband had pension and social security income for the first time, we sold investments and I was hoping to use the personal energy credit for the water heater and gas furnace we had purchased in 2015. I spent three weekends preparing our returns and in hindsight think perhaps I should have used a professional preparer. Here are a few things I learned:

Only 85% of social security benefits are included in taxable income.

My husband started receiving social security last year, since I work full-time I knew we would pay tax on this income, but was surprised TurboTax included only 85% of this benefit as taxable income. According to the SSA website: 

No one pays federal income tax on more than 85 percent of his or her Social Security benefits based on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules.

Pensions are taxable, but not according to my husband’s 1099-R.

On the form 1099-R my husband received for his pension, the taxable amount box was blank and the taxable amount not determined box was checked. When I entered the 1099-R exactly as provided, TurboTax concluded the pension wasn’t taxable. After reading TurboTax guidelines concerning pension income, I decided the pension income had to be taxable and entered it accordingly.

Remember the personal energy credit I was so excited to take advantage of:

From my post Appliances Don't Qualify for Energy Credit:

The $500 lifetime credit (10% of cost up to $500) for energy efficient improvements has been extended until 12/31/16. I am excited about this one since we installed a new furnace and water heater in 2015 – although $500 doesn’t come anywhere close to covering 10% of what we spent.

It turns out:

The energy credit for natural gas, propane, or oil furnace or hot water boiler with an annual fuel utilization rate of 95 or greater is capped at $150.

TurboTax did not ask for any information on water heaters, so we did not receive a credit for the new heater. Today I found the following on the Energy.gov website:

Natural gas, propane, or oil water heater which has either an energy factor of at least 0.82 or a thermal efficiency of at least 90 percent: $300.

Perhaps I missed something for the water heater, but at the time I determined we were only eligible for the $150 credit. 

Establishing cash basis for our sold investments was kind of nightmarish:

The 1099-B I received for our sold securities included basis for only a portion of our sold investments – there was a section for transactions for which basis is reported to the IRS and another section titled transactions for which basis is not reported to the IRS.

My boss, who prepares taxes on the side, informed me there was a law change about four years ago requiring brokerage firms to provide basis information for mutual funds purchased after January 1st, 2012. Since the assets we sold included mutual funds purchased both before and after January 1st 2012, the 1099-B provided basis only for the assets purchased after this date.

I called our brokerage firm who was able to provide the original cash basis for all our sold investments. I then had to reconcile the basis by each individual asset by date (there were several pages of these). The final cash loss I calculated did not equal what was on the 1099-R. In the end, my husband pushed me to file with the information I had. The loss wasn’t off by a lot only about a hundred dollars and I did use the lessor loss. If we are ever audited and I was wrong at least the IRS will owe us money.

Taxable losses can be deducted up to $3000 and the excess can be carried over to future returns:

According to the IRS website:

Generally, realized capital losses are first offset against realized capital gains. Any excess losses can be deducted against ordinary income up to $3,000 ($1,500 if married filing separately) on line 13 of Form 1040.

Losses in excess of this limit can be carried forward to later years to reduce capital gains or ordinary income until the balance of these losses is used up.

Okay I am sure I knew this when I took the CPA exam, but didn’t make the correlation when we sold the assets. I deducted the loss and am not questioning this one further.

Our taxes are filed – I paid $92 for the federal and state TurboTax Premier. I know of a tax preparer who sets her fee based on the number of forms she prepares, so I imagine I would have paid $250 or more if I’d have hired someone to prepare this return. My co-workers tell me my boss’s fees are reasonable, but I didn't want him to know my entire financial situation. I think I will be okay preparing my return next year, but if we ever sell securities again I will strongly consider seeking professional help.

Do you prepare your own tax return? Are you sure you took advantage of all the incentives available?

Why Your Spouse Hides Money?

In a previous post I mentioned I’ve had a few requests over the years from employees who wanted to hide money (commissions, bonuses and pay increases) from their soon to be ex-spouse during a divorce. Divorce, though, is not the only situation where I’ve received requests from employees wishing to hide money.

When the company where I work was in the process of transitioning payroll processing to an outside provider our owners decided to make direct deposit mandatory.  Check distribution had become a nightmare for our in-house payroll staff.  One week an employee would want their check mailed to their work location, the next to their home, sometimes they changed their request more than once for the same paycheck. If a payroll clerk made a mistake or didn’t get the latest message she was verbally abused and complaints were made to the owners.

Not everyone was in favor of direct deposit:

When the mandatory direct deposit announcement was made, several employees at one of our locations threatened to contact the department of labor.  They felt their rights were being violated. These employees were paid via commission and were using a portion of their check, unbeknownst to their spouse, to fund their weekly poker game. Since commissions fluctuated, their spouse didn’t miss what she wasn’t aware of.  Mandatory direct deposit is not legal in all states, but is in the state of Wisconsin, so our owners went with their mandatory direct deposit plan. Pay-stubs were mailed to the employee’s home.

After the transition to direct deposit, complaints stopped and conflict over paycheck whereabouts subsided.  That is until we announced we were issuing separate bonus checks this year. The same group of employees from above requested these checks be mailed to their work location rather than their home. They didn’t want their spouse to know they had earned a bonus. They actually made the comment, “If we screw this up heads will roll.”

The above employees were all male, but I also know a wife who hid money.  When my male co-worker’s spouse changed jobs a few years ago she failed to tell him she had neglected to roll over her 401(k) distribution money into another qualified plan.  He discovered this upon receiving an unusual 1099 the following year.  When he asked where the money had gone, she confided she used it to pay down credit card debt. Debt that currently had a balance of over $20,000. This debt also came as a surprise.  Her credit card statements had been mailed to her sister’s house. What had the credit cards been used for? Nothing in particular; clothes, shoes, purses, and expensive beauty products.

This marriage survived, but just barely. My co-worker took over the management of their finances, he cut up her credit cards, she took a side job cleaning offices to help pay down her debt, he opened a checking account in his name and gives her a monthly allowance.   He has tried to teach her about money, but thinks she’s not listening.  She spends her entire allowance each month without saving a single penny. He confided he has a hard time trusting her and occasionally checks her vehicle’s trunk for hidden purchases. 

I suggested perhaps he is not the best person to teach her about money:

I am sure it is hard for him to not let his anger surface during these money lessons making it easy for her to shut him out.  I’ve heard good things about NFCC and Dave Ramsey’s classes which are commonly held at local churches.  I recommended they attend a class or financial counseling session together. He vehemently disagreed. She needs financial training not him and refuses to go with her.

I had a conversation with her recently when she stopped by our office, she tells me they don’t have cable or internet at home and she finds this burdensome.  She was also on her way to buy some Aveda shampoo because it made her hair smell so nice.

They need help setting joint goals:

He wants to move to a bigger home, to save for their son’s education and to save for their retirement.  I’d be surprised if she doesn’t want these things too. A counselor could help them prepare a budget they both could live with. She also needs to learn how to spend less than she earns and the importance of an emergency fund.

Why do spouses hide money?

A spouse may feel since they are the one who earned the money they get to determine how it is spent, their goals aren’t in alignment, they are covering up a bad habit or they are competitive with each other.

Why do you think spouses hide money?


  *Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on brokeGIRLrich, Disease Called Debt and DIY Jahn*

Financial Considerations in a Collaborative Divorce

 
Last week I ran into an acquaintance who is in the process of getting a divorce. She tells me things are going smoothly; it is a collaborative divorce with no attorneys involved.  Both she and her spouse are going out of their way to be civil towards each other for their children – a 12 and 14 year old.  They are also amicably splitting their assets and will have joint custody.

The accountant in me had to say, “Don’t forget to discuss which parent gets to deduct the children on future income tax returns.”

She responded with “I never thought of that.” and “How do you know that?”

I’ve worked in some aspect of accounting for almost 30 years and have my CPA license, but to be honest, most of what I’ve learned about the financial pitfalls of divorce comes from co-workers and friends complaining after things have gone badly.

Here are a few tips:

Claiming your children as dependents:

Usually the parent who has custody of the children for the greater part of the year will claim them as dependent exemptions on their income tax return. This is an important designation because most often the parent who can claim their children as deductions is also the parent who receives other tax related benefits and credits.

Head of Household

This filing status is only available to the custodial parent. It provides a bigger standard deduction and looser tax tables than single taxpayer status.

Higher education costs:

The spouse that claims the children as a dependent is the parent allowed to claim the American Opportunity Lifetime Learning Credit (this can be worth up to $2,400 during the first four years of a child’s education). If you do not claim your children as dependents you can’t claim this credit even if you were the parent paying their college bills.

Get it in writing:

In joint custody situations parents can take turns claiming the children, but this has to be in writing. Make sure it is part of the divorce agreement.  If the non-custodial parent wishes to claim the child, the custodial parent must waive their right to claim the child on IRS form 8332.

Don’t assume you are entitled to the exemption because you pay child-support:

A newly married co-worker filed a joint tax return with her new husband claiming his daughter from a previous relationship as a dependent. (She thought the first parent to file gets the exemption).  The child’s mother also claimed the child despite being told my-coworker had claimed her.  His return was audited, the IRS deemed the mother as the custodial parent and eligible for the deduction.  My co-worker and her new husband had to pay back taxes were fined and required to pay interest on their return.

Alimony:

Alimony is considered taxable income for the recipient.  If you receive alimony make sure you make estimated payments or set aside a portion of each check so you are prepared for your tax bill the following year.

Alimony payments are deductible by the person paying them, but only if made on account of a divorce decree or written agreement. An oral agreement will not suffice and payment must be in the form of check, cash or money order.   

Retirement savings:

401(k) distributions are taxable.  If you want your spouse to be responsible for taxes on distributions they receive from your retirement account make sure your divorce papers include a (QDRO) qualified domestic relations order. Without a QDRO, you may end up paying the tax bill.

Spouses do hide money:

This is probably the biggest lesson I can give you.  During my 30 years of working in accounting departments I have been asked more than once to not pay a commission, bonus or to withhold a raise until after an employee’s divorce is final.  I’ve seen this at more than one company and the request is always granted – it is the employee’s money.

I’m not familiar with how collaborative divorces work, if lawyers are not involved I recommend consulting with one anyway to make sure all interests are covered.  Consulting with a tax accountant can’t hurt either.

Are you aware of financial pitfalls in a collaborative divorce?

Learning About Swagbucks From Angie of Angie's Angle

This month I joined Susannah Kellogg's blogging buddy match up called Solidarity Sisters. Susannah who blogs at Simple Moments Stick, pairs two like bloggers to connect and work together over a specified period to grow their blogs. I was paired with Angie of Angie's Angle. Angie is a full-time lifestyle blogger with many talents and interests. Immediately I noticed we had several things in common: dogs, food, health, gardening and books. Angie was also there to console me when I lost my beloved dog Buck to cancer earlier this month. She is no stranger to grief having lost her childhood fur baby Rascal at 17 1/2.

For our final challenge, a collaborative effort, we decided to swap posts. Angie is a member of Swag Bucks – something I’ve always wanted to know more about, so today she is sharing her insights into their program. Since I read a lot about nonfiction,  for my post Angie asked that I recommend some of my favorite histories or biographies. Head over to Angie's Angle to learn what biographies I recommended.

Here is Angie:

Today I am going to talk to you a bit about Swagbucks. 


What is Swagbucks:
For those that don't know, Swagbucks is a program online (no downloading required but can earn you a bit more points if done so) where you earn points towards gift cards completely free.

 

My husband and I now both do it on a daily basis.  Yes, you are allowed more than one account in the household, as long it's separate emails and they are the one working on it, not you working on both.  We mainly work towards getting our goal on a daily basis and each month we cash out for at least $25 a month in Amazon.  Most of the time we each get $50 but some months, it's only the $25.

 

How do you earn?

It's really easy but does take a bit of time each day.  

 

Search - use it as your regular search engine and you can randomly earn points for doing that.  I do believe most of the time you can earn up to three search wins a day.

 

Daily Poll - there is a daily poll each day that you can earn a point with, so really simple there.

NOSO - each day you go through their daily offers, just clicking more deals and hit the end where you put in a code and earn 2 points.  Again very simple.

 

Answer - you can go through and do surveys to also earn points on a daily basis.  You can earn 1 point for each survey you disqualify for up to five times as well. 

 

Games - you can earn 10 points a playing their very easy games, like Swagasaurus Run.  Get 2 points for every 2 games you play.  So play 10 times and you can earn your max 10 points for that.  Sometimes it takes a bit more than the 10 times to earn it, but still very simple way to earn those points.

 

Shop & Earn - you can also earn points just while doing your regular shopping online and going through Swagbucks to earn a bit of extra points back.  It does take 30 days I think it is to credit, but still worth it in my opinion.  

 

Mobile - there are some videos you can watch on your phone to earn extra points in your day.  Each of them you can earn 10 points a day on and there are 6 different programs to do so.

 

Discover - there are also various other ways you can earn, but it varies with the type and what  you are doing to earn it.  But just clicking around on Swagbucks itself will familiarize yourself with the ways you can earn and how.

 

Curious and want to hop on the Swagbucks train?  I swear to you it's totally legit and sometimes can be an enjoyable way to earn some extra for your household.  Join today through my referral link and I'll earn while you earn.  

 

Any questions?  I'd be happy to hop over to Savvy's blog and see if there and answer them to my best ability. Thanks for Savvy wanting me to tell you all & her about Swagbucks.

If you would like to participate in the Solidarity Sister's program click here to apply.

Do Software Conversions Force Older Employees into Retirement?

I’ve joined a real-life book club. Our first selection was Fredik Backman’s book A Man Called Ove.

What is A Man Called Ove about?
Ove is a grumpy old man. So when a chatty young couple moves in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, he has some choice words for them. But the altercation is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association their very foundations.

Highlights from our book club discussion:

Since Ove is considered a curmudgeon, we started the meeting with a definition:

From Merriam-Webster::
A curmudgeon is a person (especially an old man) who is easily annoyed or angered and who often complains.

I was offended that Backman considers Ove, who is “only” 59 at the beginning of the book, as old and a has-been in the work place. (My fellow 50-something book club members nodded in agreement at this observation). Ove is forced to retire from a job he’d held for more than a third of a century because he did not have adequate computer skills. This led to a lively discussion about whether companies are properly guiding older employees through change.

The current trend at many firms is to convert their client-server business software to a cloud-based system. Supposedly this will eliminate manual processes and allow employees to access information from anywhere. Managers and business owners especially like the idea of better access to crucial information at their fingertips.

When I stated I had been privy to discussions at both my professional organization and in my own company of employers hoping these changes will frustrate older curmudgeon-like employees and force them into retirement, a book club member piped up:

In her twenty years of working as a manager of HR she has yet to see a company implement change properly. 

At my own company I’ve seen over and over where a software upgrade, a new program or tool is rolled out with almost no instruction or training given. This is after thousands of dollars have been spent on the new feature. If we are lucky, we are given a link to an on-line demo to review. The most adventurous of us may read the on-line tutorials and teach others, but the majority of the long-term employees continue to perform processes the way they’ve always done them or manipulate the new system into the old manually or with excel causing more work in the long run.

As to whether the soft-ware change will force the older employees into retirement:

I think not. Most likely these older employees would have already retired if they could afford it. They will continue to work holding onto that paycheck as long as possible, but will become more caustic. Making them even more susceptible to layoffs.

Behind Ove’s bitter exterior is there a softie inside?

All our book club members seemed to think so and that the circumstances of Ove’s life had made him bitter. Again I can relate this question to one of my co-workers. He is going on 70 and continues to work to pay for his wife’s in-home care and medical expenses. She suffers from M.S. and has been bed-ridden as long as I can remember. This co-worker is loud, abrasive and intimidating. Other employees are terrified of him. He is also at the top of the list of employees my company hopes will retire during the software conversion. For some reason, I’ve always gotten along with him and will volunteer to call him when others are afraid to. Just last week he told me how he had recently almost lost his wife. He choked up as he told me she was his sweetie. I asked about his dog (we both have labs) He mentioned how the dog wouldn’t play or eat while his wife was in the hospital.  I am positive I changed his mood for the better when I asked how the dog reacted to her homecoming. Definitely a softie at heart.

Can a relationship between two opposing personalities work when one is black and white and the other is rainbows?

Ove describes himself as a man of black and white. And his wife as color. All the color he had.

Our book club facilitator didn't think so, but the rest of the group thought it could work if they didn't have children. Again I can relate this question to my work place. Some of the largest conflicts in my organization are between departments or employees where one has a black and white personality and the other is rainbows. As my boss likes to say about a colorful employee, “I will agree to disagree with her.”

The one and only comment from the lone male member of our group – he enjoyed the Saab references.

In closing, I don’t want to give away any of the plot, so I will just say my fellow book-club participants thought A Man Called Ove was a good book. I thought it was good, not great, but an excellent book club selection. 

Have you read this book? Did you like it?

Does your company manage change well? Do you think too much change forces older employees out of the work place?

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Appliances Don’t Qualify for the Energy Credit & Other Tax Tips

To stay informed of changes to the tax code, I attend an annual tax update seminar every January. Here are a few tips I learned from this year’s event:

The personal energy credit has been extended:

The $500 lifetime credit (10% of cost up to $500) for energy efficient improvements has been extended until 12/31/16.  I am excited about this one since we installed a new furnace and water heater in 2015 – although $500 doesn’t come anywhere close to covering 10% of what we spent. 

It is important to note appliances do not qualify as an energy efficient improvement despite the sales rep at your local appliance store* insisting they do.  According to Energy Star, upgrades to biomass stoves, air source heat pumps, central air conditioning, gas, propane, or oil hot water boilers, gas propane or oil furnaces and fans, insulation, roofs, water-heaters (non-solar) windows, doors and skylights do qualify if they are upgraded in an existing home that is your principal residence. New Construction and rentals do not apply.

Audits of charitable donations are on the rise:

Our speaker, who works as a tax preparer, has seen an increase in client audits of charitable donations in recent years. To make sure your donations are not disallowed make sure you have proper documentation.

For Cash donations under $250 you will need a cancelled check, credit card receipt or written communication from the charity.

Cash gifts over $250 must be substantiated by the charity. 

Noncash donations under $250 must be supported by receipt, written communication from the charity or written records.

$250 or over must be substantiated by the charity.

$500 or over must include acquisition detail.

$5000 or over requires written appraisal.

Documentation requirements:

Written support must include the name and location of organization, date of donation, description, value and condition.

Those coupons you receive with only a date stamp when you drop your donations off at a goodwill or charity drop boxes are not considered adequate substantiation. Our speaker has seen these types of donations disallowed.  With those coupons the IRS cannot verify you actually donated ten sweaters, they were worth $25 and were in excellent condition. Instead she recommends dropping items off at the charity’s main location the requesting applicable documentation.  If that isn’t possible she suggests taking photos of your donations.

You can stack these childcare deductions:

Child and dependent care credit

The child and dependent care credit is allowed for children under age 13 and other qualifying dependents.  Eligible expenses are limited to $3000 for one dependent, $6000 for two or more. Income limits do reduce the credit, but don’t phase it out completely.

Flexible spending FSA deductions

Take advantage of employer sponsored flexible spending FSA deductions.           You can contribute up to $5000 in employer sponsored FSA account.  The FSA plan then reimburses your dependent care expenses using pre-tax dollars.

You can’t use the same child care expenses for both the credit and the FSA deduction, but you can stack them.  Meaning if you have $8000 of annual expenses you can deduct $3000 as a tax credit and be reimbursed $5000 from an FSA plan.  Just remember a portion of the dependent care credit could be phased out due to income limits.

*According to an auditor I know who used to audit appliance stores the mark-up on appliances is 300%.

Do you have any tax saving tips to share?

Should Mom Pay for Daughter’s Blue Hair?

 Kim asks:

While home from college over winter break, my 20-year old daughter asked for $300 to get her hair highlighted blue.  My husband refused to pay for such a ridiculous expense. She then stormed out of the house spending most of her remaining break with friends.  We’ve paid for her hair styling in the past, but she usually didn’t spend more than $75.   

My husband and daughter have a history of conflict beginning two years ago when he took away her phone and car until she broke up with her boyfriend - who we both thought was a loser.  She broke up with him a month later right before she left for college. The relationship between my daughter and husband hasn’t been the same since. We pay her tuition and give her $400 a month spending money.  She uses this money to pay her rent which is $300 and to buy food.  She also has a credit card.  I’ve been paying her credit card bill each month which has been as high as $600 and am starting to resent it.  My husband thinks I’m spoiling her and that she needs to pay her card with her own money. I would like her to save her money for graduate school.

We also don’t like her new boyfriend, but I won’t let my husband force another break up.  She was so cold towards him the last time. I want my daughter to be successful and happy what should I do?

Should Kim pay for her daughter’s blue highlights?
I asked my own stylist if blue highlights were popular at her salon.  They are not, her salon doesn’t even stock blue dye. Blue highlights are expensive because it requires a two-step process that involves stripping the natural color from your hair then adding the blue color. She doesn’t recommend blue because it requires a lot of maintenance to keep blue looking good. Blue doesn’t hold up well on hair and may fade to an ugly green after only a few weeks.  She also thinks at twenty Kim’s daughter is an adult and needs to have adult hair – which is not blue.  If she wants to have a little fun with color, she recommends purchasing blue hair extensions instead.  The one below can be purchased here for $9.99.

What is really happening here?
You are both treating your daughter like a child and she is acting like one. Do you really think your husband forced you daughter to break up with her boyfriend?  I don’t.  I think she broke up with him because she wanted to.  If she didn’t want to break up with him she would have told you they broke up just to get her stuff back then continued to see him behind your back.   Check out this post where I answered a question on how to get your daughter to break up with a loser. (Short answer - you can’t.) I also think your daughter knows her frivolous spending irritates her dad which is why she asks for things like blue hair.

You and your husband need to stop playing good cop/bad cop in regards to money. It isn’t good for your relationship with your husband or your relationship with your daughter. I suggest the three of you sit down and go over your daughter’s fixed expenses.  I’m sure $400 is not enough to cover rent, food, utilities, gas and other miscellaneous school expenses. You and your husband need to agree on an amount you are both willing to give your daughter each month then you Kim can’t give her more after the fact. Be very clear how much you are giving her then let her know she will be responsible for the rest.  Instead of saying I’ll pay $75 for this, but I won’t pay for that, just give her $500 and let her manage her own money. I would be very surprised if her credit card spending does not go down once she has to dip into her own savings.

Do you require your children pay a portion of their expenses while in college? How did you determine how much to give them? Did you ever try to manipulate their decisions with money or stuff?

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The Problem with Recruiting Companies

When my employee resigned resigned last year, our human resource manager decided to use a staffing agency to replace her.   She went with a prominent agency who sold us on temp-to-perm. The perfect candidate had just walked through their door and could start the next day. We wouldn’t even have to interview her. Instead, we’d conduct a working interview – evaluate her work for one full day for free.  If we felt she was a good fit we’d keep her, if not they would provide a new candidate. 

I reviewed the candidate’s resume which looked promising.  She had 7-years of solid accounts payable experience. She had left the payables job a year ago after a management change. Since her degree had been in marketing, she had decided to try to get into her field by taking a job in retail.  After a year of working retail she now thought she had made a mistake and wanted to get back into accounting.  I agreed to the working interview.

My current employee had two weeks remaining of her 3-week notice. I wanted her replacement to get as much training with her as possible. When the temp she showed up the next day – five minutes late – I introduced her to my current employee who immediately began the training process.

At the end of the day I met with the temp.  We talked about her accounting background. She provided some great ideas to improve the efficiencies of our payable systems.  Of course I was impressed.  She did say she would have a hard time making our 8:00 start time because she needed to wait until after her daughter was on the bus.  We agreed to an 8:15 start time. After working for us 90-days, if all went well I told her we would offer her a permanent position.

She was a great employee for about a month.  Then the 8:15 became 8:30.  Sometimes it was 9:00 and even 10:00.  There was always an excuse and most of the time she called in: she had a tooth ache, she needed emergency dental surgery, her daughter missed the bus, she was sick, her daughter was sick, her car wouldn’t start, her sister needed a ride, her car wouldn’t start again and lastly she had forgotten to take out the garbage. I’d had enough.  I gave her a warning.  She needed to be at work every day on or before 8:00 for the next 3-weeks, not 8:15, but 8:00 or I was not going to make her a permanent employee.  I also gave her work related goals.  Forget about all those great ideas she had; she wasn’t coming close to keeping up with the daily work. 

The next day she was 5 minutes late. She continued to be 5 – 10 minutes late every day for about two weeks.  Then she woke up with a stomach ache and called in saying she would be a couple of hours late.  I was done. My boss didn’t even get a vote – he still liked her ideas.  I called the agency requesting a new candidate.  The agency provided a new temp in two days.

The funny thing is in follow up conversations with the agency they told me there was a note in my previous temp’s file:

She had called 2 weeks earlier (the day I had given her the warning) and asked the agency to reassign her.  She didn’t like our processes and didn’t want to work for me.

No one at the agency had bothered to let us know. 

We were offered discounts for our new temp.  They also performed a background and reference check on our previous temp. Based on their discoveries, which they wouldn’t share, they weren’t going to use her again.

My new temp worked is a gem and after 90 days she became a permanent employee. 

One day shortly after my new temp became permanent she shared her experience working with this employment agency. Her job with my company had not been her first temp-to-perm position. She had been with a different company previous to ours.  This company offered her a permanent position.  She told the agency she didn’t want the job.  She didn’t like the work and her office was in the basement.  It reminded her of the mailroom in the movie Elf.

http://www.simblissitycottage.com/2014/03/transitioning.html

The agency wouldn’t take no for an answer telling her to think about it.  They called her a few days later and gave her one of the strongest sales pitches she has ever been subjected to, but she stayed firm and said no.

Now I know why the agency never told me us my previous temp had asked to be reassigned:

They were trying to change her mind.

The problem with recruiting agencies (or at least this one) is that they are only concerned with the sale. They don’t seem to care about the companies they are working for or their recruits.  They just want to earn a commission.  And what is up with not performing background and reference checks prior to a permanent offer?  I was told this is standard policy. I can’t help but wonder if our HR manager would have recruited this candidate instead of the agency we would have spotted something and not wasted almost three months of training time.

Have you had a bad experience with a recruiting company?

A "Savvy" New Year

If I could summarize 2015 in one word it would have to be “overwhelming.” It began with having a stressful year-end close after the company I work for had its busiest December ever – I am the accounting manager. Then the day after our year-end audit was completed one of my employees resigned. Her replacement didn’t work out, but of course we didn’t discover she was inept until after she had incorrectly posted a month and a half of payables. I spent most of the summer correcting her work, training a new hire, a summer intern and lastly a part-time employee. On my summer intern’s last day she told me she would never want a job like mine because it seemed - overwhelming.

The good news is after numerous meetings and discussions with my boss and company owners they authorized me to hire a part-time employee. She is awesome and for the first time in the 16-years I’ve been at this company I have someone to help me with “MY” work. So far, I am experiencing the easiest January I’ve ever had. There are rumors that we switching our business software in 2016, so this lull in my workload is most likely temporary. 

I started 2015 with the goal to live healthy on a budget. Living healthy quickly went awry as I began working eleven hour days. I stopped going to the gym and became a frequent visitor to the work candy bowl. Once work settled down, I cancelled my gym membership and joined Jazzercise which is a better fit for me. Their location and class schedule is more convenient and I find the classes more enjoyable and injury free.

But I didn’t get back to working out on a regular basis, until Jazzercise announced their holiday challenge. If I worked out 20 times between November 15 and December 24th, I would win a cosmetic bag:

 

 

I didn’t need or want the bag, but I enjoyed to process of signing in each night and working towards an achievable goal.  With one day to spare, I am happy to announce I took home the little bag.

There is a new challenge for February – attend 30 classes in 35 days and win a tank top.  I know this isn’t a doable challenge for me.  With my work schedule and other priorities I can't realistically attend more than 25 classes.  The Jazzercise owner seemed dejected when I told her so.  She wants everyone to succeed.

Which brings me to my birthday challenge - to become savvy at 53. Back in July I set a goal to read 200 nonfiction books in five years.  The premise is 200-500 books is the equivalent of one good mentor. To date I have read ten books:

1. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

2. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown

3. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

4. Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan

5. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof

6. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Talibanby Malala Yousafzai

7. The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys' Clubby Eileen Pollack

8. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

9. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

10. Bad Feministby Roxane Gay

At this rate I’m not going to make my goal, but I don’t want to quit.  So instead I’m giving myself an attainable goal for 2016 - I plan to read 30 nonfiction books.   

Another piece to becoming savvy at 53 is to write down 10 ideas a day. I am happy to report I have kept up with this and have several post ideas I hope to share in the future. My ultimate goal is to bring back Ask Savvy which are my favorite blogging posts.

What are your goals for 2016?  Are they realistic and attainable?

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