The effects of the economy slowing down are hitting people in every aspect of their life. Now, if you visit Busch Gardens, you won’t be able to enjoy a free glass of beer courtesy of Anheuser-Busch anymore. The company decided to nix their hospitality centers at Busch Gardens that are famous for giving out glasses of Bud and Bud Light. Busch will be converting the hospitality centers to cafes and restaurants, and they cite the reason for taking away the free beer is because it alienated guest of the park to only people 21 and over. Yeah right. They’re struggling financially, and they punish the customers for it.

I’ll have to admit, I was a little upset by this news. It has been a tradition of mine to go get a free glass when I go to Busch Gardens. It’s hard to find anything that’s free these days. What’s next? Will restaurants start charging us for tooth picks?

I am excited about 2009, because I am expecting big things to happen in my life. I have the opportunity to start a business and we will be spending a full year in Orlando, a town that I’ve never lived in before. In October, I left my day job as a claims adjuster. There were many factors that went into the decision, but the main one was that my wife took a position as a physician’s assistant for a prominent neurosurgery practice in Orlando, Florida. I did not have an opportunity to transfer my job to Orlando, but I was thankful, because I got out of an industry that I was not passione about. I am a firm believer that we should all strive towards careers that we love, not careers that pay a lot of money. During my job search in the past few months, I realized that so many people take opportunities solely for the compensation and not the work they will be doing. Then, when they fail at that career, they wonder why it happened. It happened because they hated what they were doing.

Are you in a career that you hate? Did you wake up on New Year’s Day thinking about changing careers or starting your own business? The beginning of the year is the best time to develop a plan that sets you up for doing work that you love. I read this great book called 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller, and it has helped me re-think my entire approach to developing a meaningful career. Miller teaches people to identify things they are passionate about in their life and turn it into a career. We often look at a career based on the earning potential and growth of the industry. We hardly ever evaluate a career based on whether we would devote our heart and mind to it.

If you are having a hard time coming up with a career to pursue based on your passions, check out these top 30 careers from the U.S. News and World Report

Here is the list:

* Audiologist
* Biomedical equipment technician
* Clergy
* Curriculum/training specialist
* Engineer
* Firefighter
* Fundraiser
* Genetic counselor
* Ghostwriter
* Government manager
* Hairstylist/Cosmetologist
* Health policy specialist
* Higher education administrator
* Landscape architect
* Librarian
* Locksmith/Security system technician
* Management consultant
* Mediator
* Occupational therapist
* Optometrist
* Pharmacist
* Physical therapist
* Physician assistant
* Politician/Elected official
* Registered nurse
* School psychologist
* Systems analyst
* Urban planner
* Usability/User experience specialist
* Veterinarian

Is 2009 the year when you will wake up on Monday and be excited about getting up to start your week? Will you give up a steady paycheck to pursue what you love? Will you start working with a purpose that gives meaning to your life? If I am speaking to you right now, know that I am with you. This is my number one goal this year, to start a career that I will pour my heart and mind into each day. The business that I will be starting is a financial counseling business. There is no better time than now to start a business that helps people start a budget, get out of debt, save money, and work through financial crises such as foreclosure, collections, and bankruptcies. The difference between me and a financial planner is that I will target the average American that struggles with their finances. I will work with high net worth and low net worth customers, and I will be devoted to helping the people of this city, state, and country gain control of their finances to build long-term wealth. This is it, so if you have an idea and you want to discuss it with me, feel free to Contact Me.

Obama is labeling the proposed plan as an “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan”, and he wants it passed as soon as possible. The price tag could be $775 billion, and once again, politicians think the only way to get out of this economic slump is to spend more money. This philosophy was practiced by Bush and now Obama. Here is the speech he gave and released on radio and on YouTube.

What are your thoughts?

Before we start looking ahead to the new year, reflection on the past year is always a good exercise when evaluating your financial goals for the coming new year. Don’t dwell on the past, rather reflect on your accomplishments and failures and learn from them. Here is a list of some of our accomplishments and failures from 2008.

Accomplishments:

1. We more than doubled our income. My wife graduated from physician assistant school, and she accepted her first job. I left my job to move to Orlando where she accepted the position, but even with the money I make from blogging, we have doubled our income from 2007.
2. We bought a house at a price well below market value. The area we are in is a sought-after area near downtown Orlando, and we don’t anticipate the value of the property to go down much more than the price we bought at. This was a major investment for us, and we plan on living here for the long-term, so it will definitely be a tool to help us build financial wealth in the future.
3. We stuck to our normal budgeting system with our envelope system and cash flow budgeting plan.

Failures

4. We only reduced our debt by about 10% and I wanted to reduce it by 25 percent.
5. I quit my day job, and I underestimated how tough it would be to find another one in the current economic climate.
6. My 401(k) lost about 40% of its value. There wasn’t much I could do about this one. I could have thrown it all into a more conservative mutual fund, but I don’t believe in trying to time the market.

I have definitely learned that buying a house takes a lot of money, and it’s not over when you move in. Then, you have various home improvements and alterations that you want to make which add up. I believe this purchase contributed to us getting off track with our debt reduction. I am going to look to diversify my retirement account portfolio a little more so that my aggressive approach does not take such a big hit if we suffer from another stock market blow in the future.

So, what were your accomplishments and failures? How have you learned from them? Comment below and let’s get this discussion started.

Coincidentally, my favorite story about giving involves a gift I gave to someone, but don’t take this as a self-serving story to build myself. The summer before my senior year of high school, I went on a mission’s trip to Cuenca, Ecuador with my church’s youth group. Cuenca is a quaint town nestled in a valley of the Andes Mountains, and it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. The mission was to bring a small bit of medical supplies relief to the physically handicapped in Cuenca. In order to be a part of the trip, each high school student was required to bring a wheelchair with them. We also brought dozens of canes and walkers along with us. As you can imagine, checking 42 wheelchairs on an airplane was no easy task, and the airlines wasn’t even prepared for us to be bringing them despite the fact that we warned them weeks in advance.

Our missions team was split up into four different groups. We rotated areas that we served each day between medical supplies giving and wheelchair fitting, construction work, and ministry to a women’s prison and childrens orphanage. I’ll never forget the day that our group was assigned to be at the clinic where dozens of physically handicapped people lined up to receive our supplies. I thought to myself, “Getting a wheelchair is the worst of our worries in the United States”. But in this poor mountain city in the middle of South America, wheelchairs were a scarce commodity.

That day, I met the man that received the wheelchair I brought from the states. It was one of the most powerful moments in my lifetime, because I was giving a gift that would change someone’s life. We took a picture together, and I smile every time I see that picture while flipping through picture books. We often take for granted the power of giving to others, and we often underestimate the impact that a gift will have on someone. The anonymous gift of $500 that a single mother receives during the holidays could allow her to provide for her children during Christmas. The scrapbook you make for your mother could warm her soul beyond any expensive gift you give her.

I know that the season of giving is over now, and we’re looking ahed to next year, but remember that giving is something you can do throughout the year, not just on the holidays. And remember that the difference you can make from your generous giving could have an impact on someone’s life for a lifetime.

We all had a rough year with the stock market, and we all know how much money our 401(k) and IRA lost this past year. We’ve also seen our home values drop, and we’ve watched our friends and family go through painful foreclosures. So, where do we invest our money? CD’s? The banks are going out of business. Money markets and bonds? Sure, if you want your money to rot. Stick it under your mattress? Hopefully, you won’t stick it under your mattress, but I have a feeling that some of you are contemplating it!

What I Will Be Doing

My wife and I will start contributing to my IRA again, and in August, we’ll start contributing to her 401(k). She has to wait a full year before she can start contributing to her 401(k). She gets a company match on her contributions, so we don’t want to miss out on the free money. We have contemplated investing in a rental property, but we realized that we will not have enough money to put towards it until the end of 2009. I think this is a good thing, because the housing market probably hasn’t hit rock bottom yet.

Why I’m Continuing to Invest In The Stock Market

1. I don’t let headlines affect my investing strategy
2. I am 27, and my goal to retire is at age 60. I have 33 years to let my money work for me, and I am confident that the stock market will continue its long track record of above 10% growth.

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3. I believe in the American economy. Even though I believe that there are politicians trying to turn us into a socialist country, I believe that the American dream will never leave the hearts of this country, and therefore, entrepreneurship will continue to thrive.

So, have you thought about your investing strategy 2009? What are your thoughts?

I don’t like to dwell on the past, but I was curious how much you all lost in your 401(k) this year. Obviously, this is personal information, so you can share with us the percentage lost rather than an actual dollar amount. My money was pulled out at the end of October, because I left the company that held my 401(k). I decided to roll it into an IRA, rather than keep it there. Just in September and October, my account lost about 30 to 35% of its value! That’s pretty depressing, but I found solace in the fact that much of that money was matched contributions from my company.

So, was yours worse or better than 30%?

This is the busiest time of the year for the post office and other package shipping companies. One of the hidden costs of Christmas is shipping costs, and we often overlook the extra expense. I know you have all experienced the shock of going to the post office to ship a few packages and you walk out having spent a $100 just to ship a few gifts! Here are a few tips for helping you save some money this week as you rush to ship out the rest of your gifts.

Use Bubble Wrap Instead of Newspaper

Newspaper is much heavier than bubble wrap, so it will increase the weight of your package quite a bit. If you are green conscious, and you don’t like using plastic and/or styrofoam for packaging, write a note in the package asking the recipient of the package to re-use the packaging material.

Try Priority Mail Over UPS and FedEx

You’re going to pay a lot of money for UPS and FedEx, because they will typically guarantee a day that the package will arrive. Regular priority mail will not guarantee a day, but I have found that it typically does not take longer than 2 to 5 days within the continental United States.

Send Those Packages Out Today!

If you wait until the very last minute, you’ll be pressured into express mailing the packages, and that will cost you a hefty penny. You’ll spend anywhere between $21 to $45 dollars per package!

Use Services that Provide Packaging

I like priority mail flat fee services, because you can cram as much stuff as possible into the box, and the price is still the same. So, if you have a bunch of small, non-fragile gifts to send to a family, I suggest using a flat rate box.

When Is the Last Day To Ship My Packages?

Usually, the 20th is the very last day to get your packages out if you want them to make it by Christmas Eve. If you send by Express mail, you can overnight it on the 23rd, but you’ll pay more for shipping than the gift is worth.

Over the weekend, Bernard Madoff of Madoff Funds, was arrested for securities fraud, and he has admitted to swindling hundreds to thousands of investors out of $50 billion dollars over an undisclosed period of time. Madoff has been in business managing investments since 1960, but he also ran a hedge fund that was basically a Ponzi scheme. A ponzi scheme is a scam where early investors are paid investment returns from later investor’s money. Eventually, all of the money is gone and everyone loses out. There is never enough money to support the money paid back to earlier investors. Madoff’s hedge fund was boasting huge returns on investment, and this is how he attracted so many investors, including big names like Steven Spielberg.

My opinion is that Madoff started a hedge fund without the intention of it turning into a Ponzi scheme, but when he made bad investments and the hedge fund went broke, he tried salvaging it with illegal practices and reported false returns in an effort to attract more investors to pay off earlier investors. The only good news about this story is that he confessed to everything and by the honesty of his information to the Feds, it sounds like he is remorseful about the entire situation. However, that doesn’t help the fact that he ruined the financial lives of many charities, retired people, and other high net worth investors that lost their retirement nest egg.

What can we learn from this story?

1. Always have full control of your money and your investments. Be involved with your money on a daily basis. If an investment, mutual fund, or hedge fund seems like something fishy is going on, get out of it. Never set and forget your investments, assuming that it will taken care of and your finances are on auto pilot. It’s your money, and you make the final decisions on your investments.
2. Do your research. Surround yourself with a financial advisor and CPA that you trust to help you make financial decisions. You’re not an expert, and you don’t have time to be an expert, so surround yourself with people that can help you make your investment decisions.
3. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. Follow this timeless piece of advice, and you will never be lured into a scam. Many investors were lured into the returns that this fund was boasting, so they put much of their nest egg in one basket. We all have gut feelings, and if your gut feeling says something isn’t right about a certain investment, then stay away from it. Your gut is probably right.
4. Diversify, Diversify, and Diversify. So many investors forget about this crucial key to investing. Diversifying your portfolio is finance 101, yet so many people disregard it. I would never put more than 10 to 20% of my long term investments into one mutual fund, single stock, hedge fund, or any other type of investment.

It’s a sad story, because so many people were affected by this, and now they will be starting over or essentially never experiencing a retirement. But, the good news is that they caught him, and many investors will learn from this story.