The Online Investing AI Blog

Like most things in life, we usually make snap decisions about buying a car. We go to a dealership to “look at cars”, and two hours later we are excited to discover we are driving our shiny new car home. Has this happened to you? It has to me.

Unfortunately, this is the worst possible way to buy a car. $250 per month may sound affordable, but nothing could be further from the truth. $250 per month does not come close to the cost of owning and using a car.

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Dreams Come True, Investing, Money, Success car, cost, debt, ERE, groceries, Investing, Money, payment, retirement, Success, work

Recently I have written a bunch of posts about America’s worsening financial situation, and the economic chaos that could ensue. I believe that it is important to manage our finances in a responsible way, and that it will serve Americans as well as the rest of the world to clean up our financial mess. However, that doesn’t change the fact that America is the best country to live in.

Everyone wants to come to America. Nobody is sneaking into Cuba. Nobody is sneaking into Iran. Everyone wants to come to America. We have the most opportunity, the best government system, a good legal system and, most importantly, freedom.

America is so great because anyone can come here and succeed. Millions of people have come without any money or even knowing the language. However, our free economic system allows anyone to work, build a business, and become wealthy. That’s why America is the land of opportunity.

In fact, the desirability of America has been its greatest asset. Smart, hard working people from every country in the world have come here because it offers them the most. As they grew and succeeded, so did the country. In just a few hundred years, America became the most powerful economic power in the world because of the hard working people who came here.

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Success, US Economy america, business, countries, immigration, india, legal system, Success, Uruguay, Vietnam, work, world

We all tend to think of the boss as the man or woman in the corner office, or cube, who controls our lives for at least eight hours a day. Usually more.

After work, you carry the boss home and spend the remaining hours of the day discussing, kvetching, and bitching about him or her.

For most, this is when the idea of financial freedom becomes so appealing. The line of thinking is: if you have money to escape the job, you’ll have money to escape the boss.

It’s good thinking. But look closely. Who really is your boss?

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Investing, Money, Online Investing AI boss, bosses, financial freedom, invest, job, money management, personal finance, personal financial freedom, save, spend, work

Graph from Investors.com

For those without jobs and those in positions they can’t stand, the Investor’s Business Daily had some good news… Finally.

According to the Labor Department, the U.S. economy has started to add jobs.

A senior analyst from Barclays, Michelle Meyer, concurs with the assessment.

“Before summer, the recovery should lose its jobless label. By the end of the year, the recovery will feel like a recovery not just to economists but on Main Street too,” she said.

Economists expect the job market will be adding 200,000 jobs a month by year-end.

That’s all great news. But it doesn’t mean anything if we haven’t learned from this.

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Business Strategy, Investing, Money, Online Investing AI, US Economy career, emergency fund, jobs, mutual fun, personal financial freedom, unemployment, work, workers

John Grogan was a hard-working writer.

He rose up through the ranks of journalists, winning lots of awards and recognition. The pay wasn’t bad either–by journalist standards. But it certainly wasn’t enough to fund his real dreams–those aspirations that bubbled under the surface. The ones that his friends and families probably rolled their eyes when he mentioned. The ones that “didn’t pay.”

John wasn’t deterred, though.

John worked hard and wrote a tale about his attention-deficit dog, Marley. The book–Marley and Me–and the movie based on the book became blockbusters and the financial freedom opened up new career paths for the writer, including his dream of becoming an editor of an organic gardening magazine.

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Dreams Come True, Money, Online Investing AI, Success aspiration, dream, employment, inspiration, job, John Grogan, marley and me, work

Pic by mamamusings @ Flickr

Most employees are bound by a strict code. To keep employed, they’re expected to be loyal, dependable, perform tricks on demand, and subvert their own will to the will of the organization.

If this description sounds vaguely familiar, it should. This is basically the description of both a good employee–and a good dog.

In most workplaces, employees are cogs in the inevitable means-to-an-end. And that’s the way they’re treated.

The problem is that most people want to be good employees. It’s tied in with the work ethic that makes these workers feel like they are both a bad employee and a bad person if they don’t offer anything but their best work. On the other hand, they don’t want to be treated like a faithful hound, either.

There are ways, though, that you can be a bad employee, but remain a good person. It starts with the novel idea that no matter who signs your checks, you are always working for yourself.

Here are a couple tips:

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Internet, Investing, Money, Online Investing AI, Success boss, career, freedom, labor, office, responsibility, salary, self-reliance, wealth, work

It’s been said that resourcefulness is the ultimate resource. I think that for companies, innovation is the ultimate resource. Especially after seeing this screencast from Gregg at Envy Labs on Dan Pink’s blog. It really got me thinking about how innovation creates success for companies.

How awesome is that! They created a cute and funny video that people see when they unsubscribe. I don’t know if it has really reduced the unsubscribe rate. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it has.

What else is awesome about the Punish Derrick video?

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Business Strategy, Internet, Success flow, fun, groupon, innovation, punish derrick, Success, unsubscribe, work

Flickr (Creative Commons)

You have to wonder sometimes: do you think the guy who tests rides at Disney World wakes up and says, “Crap… It’s Monday… I have to ride the friggin’ roller coaster.”?

Does the staff photographer at Playboy say, “Stupid 8 a.m. photo shoots,” when his alarm clock rings?

Wonder if the buyer for Macy’s gets up on Monday and thinks to herself, “I can’t believe I have to buy all those purses.”

It wouldn’t surprise me.

The bureaucracy and office politics of the workplace can suck the fun out of the most creative, most meaningful work, turning it into… a job. And jobs are full of micromanagers, non-existent managers, backstabbers, risk averters, and the ilk who seek to commoditize inspiration and who turn the thing you were born to do into the thing you are bored to do.

Fortunately, technology and new business models offer us radical options. The world can be your workplace. You can even keep your current job while you experiment with some of the following options, designed to refresh your inspiration and give you an opportunity to transform your job back into your passion.

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Business Strategy, Dreams Come True, Internet, Money, Online Investing AI, Success, US Economy boss, consult, freelance, fun, job, mission, nine to five, occupation, Success, work, writing

Mondays stink.

Unless, of course, you develop residual streams of income. Then, Monday is just another day to earn money.

Residual income is derived from products and services that you work on once and they continue to generate income–perpetually. The internet has opened up more residual income streams than ever. Before, rent and royalties were about the only types of residual income stream available to the common person.

New residual income products and services include:

• eBooks
• Affiliate sales
• Blogs
• Web advertising
• Contextual ads
• Invention royalties
• Video and podcasting seminars

And there are a lot more. To learn more, you can check out the following sites, all of which specialize–in one form or another–in the creation of residual income.

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Business Strategy, Internet, Money, Online Investing AI, Success blogs, ebooks, freedom, job, monday, Money, personal finance, personal financial freedom, residual income, royalties, wealth singularity, work

headsclouds @ Flickr

Do you think that little room in your house–the one where you set up your desk and computer–is especially scary?

Then why is your boss so freaked out by it?

Home offices are not a threat to productivity; they’re a threat to power. Certain people are turned on by an office full of fawning subordinates, even if they’re paying for the attention.

But don’t worry about working for these bosses much longer. They’ll be obsolete. Innovative companies with enlightened managers are out-performing and out-saving their dinosaur competition by creating more creative work options.

Here’s why:

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Accelerating Technology, Business Strategy, Internet, Money, Online Investing AI, Success, US Economy company, computer, entrepreneurship, future, home office, personal finance, power, productivity, small business, work