stockreports

March 1, 2010

personal finance planning

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — erxhokeaqy @ 12:34 am

Perhaps the most standout feature of this revamp is the improved categorization that takes a ton of work off the plate of the user. The guys at Quicken have developed a learning algorithm for Quicken Online that allows users to self-tag, with the Quicken Online software remembering those tags and then applying them to other people's data. The more people who use it, the smarter the tagging gets. In my tests, the automatic categorizing/tagging works exceedingly well. Though Quicken Essentials takes a lot of cues from Mint.com, it's method of categorization is different (and superior). Mint obtains its categorization by performing a relatively simple Yellow Pages look-up. Later in the year Intuit will be combining the two approaches and hopes to achieve 95% categorization accuracy (Intuit bought Mint in 2009).

Out of the box, Quicken Essentials supports 12,000 US and Canadian banks. That will grow to 16,000 banks in the next 2-3 months. That's full coverage of every credit union and bank in the US. Transferring and converting your data from Quicken for Windows to Quicken Essentials worked pretty well in my tests. I just saved a copy of my Quicken for Windows file, moved it to my Mac, and double-clicked on it. All my data was easily imported without any errors. Keep in mind that I was only working with two years of Quicken data though. Quicken Essentials allows for conversion from previous Mac programs, Quicken for Windows 2007+, and the now defunct Microsoft Money.

If you're like me and just want a simple program to view all your financial accounts, see where your money is going, and keep track of balances and upcoming bills, I highly recommend Quicken Essentials. If, however, you're a Quicken power user who needs investing and planning tools, investment buy and sell tracking, TurboTax integration, or in-app bill pay, then QEM is not for you. Think of this edition of Quicken Essentials as iPhoto for your finances. It presents a snapshot of your finances and transactions in a simple to use interface. If you need more than that, it's best to look at iBank or Quicken Premier for Windows running under VMWare Fusion or Parallels.

Quicken Essentials for the Mac goes on sale today for $69 and requires Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6, an Intel-based Mac, and 1GB of hard disk space.

There are several ways to look at the next presidential election in 2012, especially since the current and new president, Barack Obama, appears unuusually vulnerable to being limited to one term.

This early vulnerability, after only about one year in office, could, following the 2010 mid-term elections this year, provoke an intraparty challenge to the president, as happened in 1980 when then-Senator Ted Kennedy took on incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Kennedy ultimately failed in that effort, but a politically wounded Carter went on to defeat by Ronald Reagan in the November election that followed.

Although it would take a huge wave reversal this year in the congressional elections, the Republicans might take control of one or both houses of Congress as early as this year.

All of this remains speculative, at this point, since so many events and conditions can intervene in an eight-month and thirty-two month interval. Political fortunes rarely go very long in a straight line either up or down.

But if all this predictive caution isn’t enough, I suggest that an even much longer period of time may be in order for political and policy planning for candidates and their political parties if they are not only to win the next political cycles, but govern successfully as well.

Barack Obama has been a political phenomenon. In 2008, the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic nomination was Hillary Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York.

But it was the novice US.senator from Illinois, Mr. Obama, who survived a long, closely fought battle up to the Democratic convention, and then went on to defeat Republican nominee John McCain in November. Although the latter was in the end a decisive victory for the first black U.S. president, it should not be forgotten that following their own convention and just before the mortgage banking crisis, the McCain-Palin ticket had pulled ahead in the race. The financial meltdown effectively ended the presidential race, but without it, it is not dispositively clear who wins.

In any event, Barack Obama did win, and did have a reasonably good idea for some time before election day that he would become the next president. While there is some evidence that Mr. Obama and his advisers, and certainly Democratic congressional leaders, had some idea of “what” they wanted to do if they won, there is now little evidence that any of them, especially in the executive branch, had thought out “how” they would accomplish their goals.

The “what” of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid political team has turned out to be a radical series of public policies which are mostly quite unpopular with U.S. voters. Even with huge majorities in both houses of Congress, they have been unable to pass very much legislation. In an historically brief time, in fact, they have squandered their decisive 2006 and 2008 victories, and appear he…

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February 28, 2010

how to budget personal finances

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — erxhokeaqy @ 4:22 pm

Perhaps the most standout feature of this revamp is the improved categorization that takes a ton of work off the plate of the user. The guys at Quicken have developed a learning algorithm for Quicken Online that allows users to self-tag, with the Quicken Online software remembering those tags and then applying them to other people's data. The more people who use it, the smarter the tagging gets. In my tests, the automatic categorizing/tagging works exceedingly well. Though Quicken Essentials takes a lot of cues from Mint.com, it's method of categorization is different (and superior). Mint obtains its categorization by performing a relatively simple Yellow Pages look-up. Later in the year Intuit will be combining the two approaches and hopes to achieve 95% categorization accuracy (Intuit bought Mint in 2009).

Out of the box, Quicken Essentials supports 12,000 US and Canadian banks. That will grow to 16,000 banks in the next 2-3 months. That's full coverage of every credit union and bank in the US. Transferring and converting your data from Quicken for Windows to Quicken Essentials worked pretty well in my tests. I just saved a copy of my Quicken for Windows file, moved it to my Mac, and double-clicked on it. All my data was easily imported without any errors. Keep in mind that I was only working with two years of Quicken data though. Quicken Essentials allows for conversion from previous Mac programs, Quicken for Windows 2007+, and the now defunct Microsoft Money.

If you're like me and just want a simple program to view all your financial accounts, see where your money is going, and keep track of balances and upcoming bills, I highly recommend Quicken Essentials. If, however, you're a Quicken power user who needs investing and planning tools, investment buy and sell tracking, TurboTax integration, or in-app bill pay, then QEM is not for you. Think of this edition of Quicken Essentials as iPhoto for your finances. It presents a snapshot of your finances and transactions in a simple to use interface. If you need more than that, it's best to look at iBank or Quicken Premier for Windows running under VMWare Fusion or Parallels.

Quicken Essentials for the Mac goes on sale today for $69 and requires Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6, an Intel-based Mac, and 1GB of hard disk space.

The bad news is that most reform comes when the existing system collpases rather than when it becomes clear that the math predicts insolvency. The good news is that reforms can work well. They change the game more quickly than expected because a savings base is formed and a huge part of the population are active capitalists. Chile is center-left politically but pretty conservative with economic policy because everyone loses when politicians start attacking private sector players or draining resources.

The actuarial reality is not liberal or conservative. The whole basis for our particular system hinged on ever expanding demographic growth in the working age category (from births, from adding work force participants and/or by moving up the retirement age.) What saved SS in the 1980's wasn't tweaking some payments or adding to retirement age, it was massive inflow of women into the workforce. Massive inflows of immigrants in the 1990's have helped FICA. There are non FICA costs to school districts, healthcare, law enforcement, etc. but FICA has benefited.

Increasing the defined benefit has been magic wand stuff – you assume that wealth will grow and productivity will increase. Social Security has played the magic game a bit through COLA and turning a blind eye to rampant fraud allowing ineligible recipients and criminals to tap payments. State and local governments have completely abdicated fiduciary responsibility and made defined benefit promises that are untethered to the tax base or common sense.It's heads I win, tail you lose for public sector employees. Stock market falls, tough luck, raise taxes and give my dough. In the private sector, companies go bankrupt and defined benefits end.

Part of the Chile story involved allowing people to choose to opt in or opt out of a private system if you were above a certain age. I think it was around 50. If you opted in, you kept the promised payments and the payments had to budgeted into the government budget. If you opted out, you received a credit based on past contributions but went to defined contribution and private accounts. Many more people opted in than pure actuarial analysis would have predicted largely because people don't trust politicians and want their own accounts.People decide if they want to retire early or work more, they can be frugal and pass savings on to their estate.

There is a safety net payment for the destitute but that is welfare not "retirement" and must be funded in each budget. You have to deal with larger reported deficits when making the move to allowing people to have their own accounts and the government is no longer robbing the funds to pay current bills. It is not as bad as it sounds and the system starts with indiviudal accounts having to allocate a percentage of investment to government bonds – something that is prudent anyway in a diversified portfolio.

Over time, most restrictions on where the investments go have been lifted and riskier investments allowed.People have separate broker accounts and could always allocate other savings to whatever level of risk they wanted.

It is not perfect but it is better than what we have and young and old pull together.

judas iscariot by hagia sophia

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February 25, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — erxhokeaqy @ 10:21 am

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February 19, 2010

Restaurant Franchise

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — erxhokeaqy @ 10:14 am

Some lawyers love what they do. Those who don’t are vocal about how much they hate their jobs. So what would the naysayers prefer to be doing professionally? Above the Law editors have heard these “dream careers” tossed around: government intelligence analyst, writer/journalist, banker (so they can keep making the bank), and — for those who want to stay in the law, but not Biglaw — assistant U.S. attorney, judge, or law school professor.

Some people are content to stay in the law but need a creative/fun outlet. It’s an added bonus if that outlet also makes money. One such endeavor is to open a restaurant. (The belief that most restaurants fail in the first year is a myth, after all.)

We’ve written before about lawyer-turned-Subway entrepreneur Larry Feldman. But being king of a sandwich-shop franchise is not really the glamorous side of food service. The daydream version involves starting up a place with a bit more character.

For some, being laid off has been a push to tap into a culinary side. Here in New York, a first-year associate caught up in law firm layoffs used the opportunity to open a Taiwanese steamed bun cafe in the Lower East Side, called Baohaus.

Further south, in Washington, D.C., another casualty of the recession layoffs got into the eat-out business. Julie Liu, a former Katten Muchin associate, launched a restaurant in Dupont Circle last year named Scion. She was very thankful to Katten for her three-month severance: it “basically paid for Scion’s kitchen equipment.”

We caught up with Liu about opening a restaurant with her sister, and got some advice for other wannabe restaurateurs.

Liu is a Northwestern law grad and former Teach for America teacher. She spent almost two years in Katten’s Chicago office. After being laid off last year, she moved to D.C. and opened the restaurant with her sister in June 2009. Liu originally planned to return to Biglaw but wound up landing a job at the Department of Education, so now she’s in D.C. (and the restaurant biz) for good.

ATL: How would you describe Scion?
We are a family-owned, neighborhood restaurant that serves great food and drinks. We aim to be affordable so that both my Teach for America friends and my Biglaw friends can enjoy a good meal at Scion. Our menu ranges from a diverse selection of appetizers to $9 burgers/paninis to $25 Buffalo Osso Bucco. We have the same goals for our cocktails and beers. There are fancy options and affordable options.

The long-term goal is to be a place where people want to come back over and over again because of the delicious food and great drinks and don’t feel like it would break the bank.

ATL: You’re working at the Department of Education and running the restaurant? How do you balance the two?
Resilience; and being ok with the fact that I’m pretty much tired all the time.

Actually, Joanne (my sister) is basically a machine, so essentially my role is to cover her on certain nights and weekends so that she can get some sleep or attempt to have a life. Joanne went all in for Scion Restaurant. She gave up her previous career completely and handles the bulk of the work and stress that comes with opening a new restaurant. She’s a CPA, so she handles all of the business and finance issues. She also is a total foodie and follows the food and wine industries very closely, so she works with the chef to create the menu and works with the bar manager on the beers and cocktails…

Joanne and I grew up in a restaurant family, which established our lack of need for sleep and ridiculous work ethic. I initially applied it towards academics (UVA then Northwestern Law) and then towards my initial careers (Teach for America and Biglaw at Katten Chicago). Now, I apply it towards Scion Restaurant, and words cannot describe how much more rewarding, motivating and fulfilling it is to see your efforts go towards your own small business. And to do it all with my sister by my side (and my parents very involved) has been an incredible experience.

When I first moved to D.C., I was offered a Biglaw job, a mid-size firm job (approx. 50 attorneys), and a job at ED (Department of Education). After less than 2 years in Biglaw, I was torn about leaving so soon, but that was mostly motivated by the fact that I still owe $175K in student loans to NU Law and not because I wanted to be a Biglaw attorney. What I realized is that if I could find a legal job that still allowed me to work on Scion Restaurant, it’d be an ideal situation. ED was the perfect solution, and I started chasing the elusive work/life balance and the myth I’ve heard that you can love what you do.

ATL: How’s running a business with your sister?
Joanne is really the brains and heart behind this entire project. She has an intense passion for the restaurant industry and often kids that I’m just her junior associate. We are each other’s #1 fan, but also each other’s toughest critic. We never hesitate to speak our minds and don’t hold back on our verbal spats. Growing up in a restaurant family helped because we learned that during intense moments, things get heated, but at the end of service, you have to let it go. We are constantly communicating (and not always kindly) and never hold grudges or go to bed without settling an issue. Sure, we can annoy each other, but we both agree that there is no one else we’d want to be in the trenches with for Scion Restaurant.

ATL: What’s your favorite part about it?
My favorite part is definitely meeting the customers. Biglaw was not the environment for me. After teaching in the inner city and going to a very social law school, suddenly I was thrown into a situation where I felt very isolated. I completed assignments for hours on end sitting in an office that became very lonely. Yes, I got client interaction, but that’s never the same as getting to know people on a personal level. I felt my personality starting to shrivel away and my usual social outlets had to be sacrificed for the Biglaw hours. As every Biglaw associate knows, we’re anxious when we’re not busy billing hours and we’re exhausted when we are billing hours. A work/life balance or happy medium was impossible. In Biglaw, I began to lose a bit of my enthusiasm and spirit. I’m an extrovert and get much of my energy from interacting with other people. I missed that a lot and it’s a wonderful feeling to have it back.

ATL: Does the legal background help?
The legal background is a huge asset. My major role is to review restaurant contracts and documents and apply for licensing and certifications. My legal training makes it easy to figure out all the steps in the process and most importantly, allows me to complete all the necessary tasks without feeling overwhelmed with all the details. We also have hired legal counsel who has extensive experience in the restaurant industry, but he bills minimal hours and simply points me in the right direction. From there, I can handle the drafting and filing for most of our paperwork.

On a social level, the legal background also helps because people love discussing my Biglaw experience and how I balance a day job along with Scion. It’s a great topic of conversation when I’m working the floor of the restaurant. It also helps when I’m tapping into the Northwestern Law alumni network to set up happy hours, summer associate lunches and firm social events.

ATL: Any tips for lawyers who want to open their own restaurant?
This is a tough question to answer because so much of what we’ve learned about the restaurant industry has come from growing up in our parents’ restaurant. Opening a restaurant is definitely an experience where you’re learning something new every day. In the past six months, I’ve learned more about kitchen equipment, linen pricing and the various kinds of mixed greens than I could have ever hoped to learn.

My first tip is that anyone who wants to open a restaurant must be committed for the long haul and know that there will be a lot of sacrifice in your social life and finances before you’re “living the dream.” Joanne likes to kid that many of her friends are having babies and she decided to give birth to a restaurant. She loses about the same amount of sleep, if not more, and is stuck with it through the good times and bad. Of course, we hope Scion will be profitable sooner than a child would be, but we still have to love it unconditionally while it hasn’t yet given back to us.

My second tip is that as with anything I do in life, you have to have a sense of humor. There’s just nothing you can do when someone sends a dish back because their dog won’t like the leftovers, pukes in your flowers, or bashes you on yelp.com because your cheesecake didn’t taste like what their Mom used to make. Not every dish will come out perfectly and not every customer will love us. We give 110% and want everyone to leave happy, but when things go wrong, you can only laugh about it, support each other and trust that tomorrow is another day.

My final tip is to be flexible. The restaurant industry is unpredictable. You have to be willing to adapt to whatever is thrown at you and survive. We can never tell whether a week will be busy or slow, yet we still have to prepare the right amount of inventory and staff for every shift. I love meetings and agendas and plans of action, but the reality is that everything will not always go according to schedule in a restaurant. Preparation is essential in running a restaurant, but the key to success is being good under pressure and knowing how to handle things when everything goes wrong.

Earlier: Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Entrepreneur / Small (or Not So Small) Business Owner

Like the loudest musical performance appearing in New Orleans, the place was clamorous as the Saints inched closer to a trip to Miami. There’s no venue crazier or wilder than the Superdome, mainly because there’s no team in the league as exciting or electrifying as the Saints.

It’s a franchise, greatly, cherished for charming performances and amplifies mystique with the ability to put fear on teams still alive. Fear their ability to execute on all levels, a dimensional franchise that brought hope to a despairing town after a calamity struck New Orleans.

Sadly, Hurricane Katarina pierced the hearts of a helpless community and much was deprived, until the Saints marched in and lifted sanity. But there’s more to a feel-good story, and not only have a tenacious team cured souls. Realizing nothing the Saints have done is a fluke, the nagging fortitude and energy are elements to fear.

So each moment in the Superdome feels invincible, like the home team cannot lose. Respectively, a loyal crowd is attached to football embracing the franchise with craziness and intense screams, hungrier than the players themselves.

The emotions of euphoria carried the Saints to a level of belief, purging all debates and pontification of immortalities. In case you’re wondering, Mardi Gras has initiated prematurely on Bourbon Street, where a huge block party anticipates sparking a rejoicing celebrations. The fervid crowd will pour onto the streets, soaking in the greatest victory and memorable moment.  

In the regular season, timeless flaws evoked dubious notions that the Saints weren’t the boundless contenders individuals had in mind. Late in the season, each moment revealed scary rationalization of New Orleans as a one-and-done team, based on a three-game losing skid to topple regard. During a sudden collapse, the Saints clumsily averaged 14.7 points when it was known for compiling the scoreboards. Every team has strengths and weaknesses.

The spectators entertained at the Superdome, a popular place to witness the aerial extravaganza, saw an efficacious Drew Brees hurl incredible passes to a bottomless receiver core. He exploited plays, designed to torment defenses. He executed plays opponents were unsuccessful stifling. Nothing in the Big Breezy stopped the creativity of jaw-dropping drives, which usually resulted in touchdowns.

Once again, the Saints had the swagger, finding its high-powered offense in time for the NFC Divisional round to literally manhandled the Arizona Cardinals, who again was noticed as the team from the desert with the word miracle written all over. Last year, we were caught by surprise when the Cardinals stunned the world and advanced to the Super Bowl, thanks to veteran quarterback Kurt Warner and wideout Larry Fitzgerald.

Your final score: 45-14

That decisive win punched a ticket to the NFC Championship game. The Saints await the winner of Minnesota and Dallas. But until then, an entire community relishes a moment of greatness. For some time, everyone waited for this moment, a time to erupt with the heroes of the town. The Saints are saviors, popular after alleviating the disastrous perceptions of reality. This is their city, this is their team, and this is their antidote to erase memories of a terrible tragedy.

As of now, New Orleans are marching, not to the nearest restaurant for gumbo, not to the local convenient store, not even to

Franchises are becoming increasingly popular with today's entrepreneur because the pressure of coming up with a “Great Idea” is eliminated. You're handed a product, a service, a brand, a set of policies and everything else you need to run a business-and if you choose correctly, those things are already proven to work in the marketplace. The question, then, becomes where you will set up your franchise, especially in a city as large as Houston, Texas.

West Houston is arguably the fastest growing area of the city, though it has technically been developed for decades. The old neighborhoods of Memorial, Mission Bend, Westchase and Westwood are transitioning into new businesses with modern architecture and fancy signage. So how do you choose a franchise location in West Houston, Texas?

Molly Petersen, the successful owner of a CiCi's franchise in West Houston, was graciously willing to answer my questions about her initial struggle through these neighborhoods. Having already built several locations on the East side, she was unfamiliar with the West and had to use her business sense to find just the right location.

Know the Residential Communities

If you're going to establish a franchise location in West Houston, Texas, the first thing you need to map out are the residential neighborhoods. Where do people lay their head every night? “Although many people work in this area of town,” Petersen explains, “a far greater number live here, and your bread and butter are the men and women who want to take their family out for a bite after work.” They don't want to drive far, so a neighborhood shop or eatery is the way to go.

Check Out the Competition

New franchisees are always wary of setting up a franchise location near a competitor, but according to Petersen, this is the wrong way to think. “Competition creates customers, especially when you're near a restaurant or shop that's showing exceptional profit.” Perhaps this is why you see a Lowe's near every Home Depot in West Houston-competition is the key to entrepreneurial success.

Choose Complementary Businesses

While competition is a great way to choose a franchise location in West Houston, Texas, you can also look for complementary businesses. “A coffee shop next to a bookstore is always going to do well,” Petersen says. “Same with an auto shop next to a gas station.” If you can find a business that complements your franchise, you can use associated business to bolster your profits. You an even work out a referral system with the other business to maximize customers.

Stay On the Beaten Path

One of my favorite restaurants is about to go under here in West Houston, and not because their Mexican food isn't up to par. It's tucked in the back corner of an L-shaped shopping center where it can't be seen from the road, and Peterson agrees this is a poor location for a franchise-or any business. Try to find a location in your budget that is visible from at least once intersection. This is when potential customers are most likely to see it.

Research Schools

Unless you're opening a bar or pub, Petersen says that schools are the primary target in West Houston, Texas. Just based on the sheer volume of educational institutions, you'll find that kids are the driving force behind where their parents shop, eat and congregate. Close proximity to schools will be a boon for your franchise business, so check out the nearest locations.

Some lawyers love what they do. Those who don’t are vocal about how much they hate their jobs. So what would the naysayers prefer to be doing professionally? Above the Law editors have heard these “dream careers” tossed around: government intelligence analyst, writer/journalist, banker (so they can keep making the bank), and — for those who want to stay in the law, but not Biglaw — assistant U.S. attorney, judge, or law school professor.

Some people are content to stay in the law but need a creative/fun outlet. It’s an added bonus if that outlet also makes money. One such endeavor is to open a restaurant. (The belief that most restaurants fail in the first year is a myth, after all.)

We’ve written before about lawyer-turned-Subway entrepreneur Larry Feldman. But being king of a sandwich-shop franchise is not really the glamorous side of food service. The daydream version involves starting up a place with a bit more character.

For some, being laid off has been a push to tap into a culinary side. Here in New York, a first-year associate caught up in law firm layoffs used the opportunity to open a Taiwanese steamed bun cafe in the Lower East Side, called Baohaus.

Further south, in Washington, D.C., another casualty of the recession layoffs got into the eat-out business. Julie Liu, a former Katten Muchin associate, launched a restaurant in Dupont Circle last year named Scion. She was very thankful to Katten for her three-month severance: it “basically paid for Scion’s kitchen equipment.”

We caught up with Liu about opening a restaurant with her sister, and got some advice for other wannabe restaurateurs.

Liu is a Northwestern law grad and former Teach for America teacher. She spent almost two years in Katten’s Chicago office. After being laid off last year, she moved to D.C. and opened the restaurant with her sister in June 2009. Liu originally planned to return to Biglaw but wound up landing a job at the Department of Education, so now she’s in D.C. (and the restaurant biz) for good.

ATL: How would you describe Scion?
We are a family-owned, neighborhood restaurant that serves great food and drinks. We aim to be affordable so that both my Teach for America friends and my Biglaw friends can enjoy a good meal at Scion. Our menu ranges from a diverse selection of appetizers to $9 burgers/paninis to $25 Buffalo Osso Bucco. We have the same goals for our cocktails and beers. There are fancy options and affordable options.

The long-term goal is to be a place where people want to come back over and over again because of the delicious food and great drinks and don’t feel like it would break the bank.

ATL: You’re working at the Department of Education and running the restaurant? How do you balance the two?
Resilience; and being ok with the fact that I’m pretty much tired all the time.

Actually, Joanne (my sister) is basically a machine, so essentially my role is to cover her on certain nights and weekends so that she can get some sleep or attempt to have a life. Joanne went all in for Scion Restaurant. She gave up her previous career completely and handles the bulk of the work and stress that comes with opening a new restaurant. She’s a CPA, so she handles all of the business and finance issues. She also is a total foodie and follows the food and wine industries very closely, so she works with the chef to create the menu and works with the bar manager on the beers and cocktails…

Joanne and I grew up in a restaurant family, which established our lack of need for sleep and ridiculous work ethic. I initially applied it towards academics (UVA then Northwestern Law) and then towards my initial careers (Teach for America and Biglaw at Katten Chicago). Now, I apply it towards Scion Restaurant, and words cannot describe how much more rewarding, motivating and fulfilling it is to see your efforts go towards your own small business. And to do it all with my sister by my side (and my parents very involved) has been an incredible experience.

When I first moved to D.C., I was offered a Biglaw job, a mid-size firm job (approx. 50 attorneys), and a job at ED (Department of Education). After less than 2 years in Biglaw, I was torn about leaving so soon, but that was mostly motivated by the fact that I still owe $175K in student loans to NU Law and not because I wanted to be a Biglaw attorney. What I realized is that if I could find a legal job that still allowed me to work on Scion Restaurant, it’d be an ideal situation. ED was the perfect solution, and I started chasing the elusive work/life balance and the myth I’ve heard that you can love what you do.

ATL: How’s running a business with your sister?
Joanne is really the brains and heart behind this entire project. She has an intense passion for the restaurant industry and often kids that I’m just her junior associate. We are each other’s #1 fan, but also each other’s toughest critic. We never hesitate to speak our minds and don’t hold back on our verbal spats. Growing up in a restaurant family helped because we learned that during intense moments, things get heated, but at the end of service, you have to let it go. We are constantly communicating (and not always kindly) and never hold grudges or go to bed without settling an issue. Sure, we can annoy each other, but we both agree that there is no one else we’d want to be in the trenches with for Scion Restaurant.

ATL: What’s your favorite part about it?
My favorite part is definitely meeting the customers. Biglaw was not the environment for me. After teaching in the inner city and going to a very social law school, suddenly I was thrown into a situation where I felt very isolated. I completed assignments for hours on end sitting in an office that became very lonely. Yes, I got client interaction, but that’s never the same as getting to know people on a personal level. I felt my personality starting to shrivel away and my usual social outlets had to be sacrificed for the Biglaw hours. As every Biglaw associate knows, we’re anxious when we’re not busy billing hours and we’re exhausted when we are billing hours. A work/life balance or happy medium was impossible. In Biglaw, I began to lose a bit of my enthusiasm and spirit. I’m an extrovert and get much of my energy from interacting with other people. I missed that a lot and it’s a wonderful feeling to have it back.

ATL: Does the legal background help?
The legal background is a huge asset. My major role is to review restaurant contracts and documents and apply for licensing and certifications. My legal training makes it easy to figure out all the steps in the process and most importantly, allows me to complete all the necessary tasks without feeling overwhelmed with all the details. We also have hired legal counsel who has extensive experience in the restaurant industry, but he bills minimal hours and simply points me in the right direction. From there, I can handle the drafting and filing for most of our paperwork.

On a social level, the legal background also helps because people love discussing my Biglaw experience and how I balance a day job along with Scion. It’s a great topic of conversation when I’m working the floor of the restaurant. It also helps when I’m tapping into the Northwestern Law alumni network to set up happy hours, summer associate lunches and firm social events.

ATL: Any tips for lawyers who want to open their own restaurant?
This is a tough question to answer because so much of what we’ve learned about the restaurant industry has come from growing up in our parents’ restaurant. Opening a restaurant is definitely an experience where you’re learning something new every day. In the past six months, I’ve learned more about kitchen equipment, linen pricing and the various kinds of mixed greens than I could have ever hoped to learn.

My first tip is that anyone who wants to open a restaurant must be committed for the long haul and know that there will be a lot of sacrifice in your social life and finances before you’re “living the dream.” Joanne likes to kid that many of her friends are having babies and she decided to give birth to a restaurant. She loses about the same amount of sleep, if not more, and is stuck with it through the good times and bad. Of course, we hope Scion will be profitable sooner than a child would be, but we still have to love it unconditionally while it hasn’t yet given back to us.

My second tip is that as with anything I do in life, you have to have a sense of humor. There’s just nothing you can do when someone sends a dish back because their dog won’t like the leftovers, pukes in your flowers, or bashes you on yelp.com because your cheesecake didn’t taste like what their Mom used to make. Not every dish will come out perfectly and not every customer will love us. We give 110% and want everyone to leave happy, but when things go wrong, you can only laugh about it, support each other and trust that tomorrow is another day.

My final tip is to be flexible. The restaurant industry is unpredictable. You have to be willing to adapt to whatever is thrown at you and survive. We can never tell whether a week will be busy or slow, yet we still have to prepare the right amount of inventory and staff for every shift. I love meetings and agendas and plans of action, but the reality is that everything will not always go according to schedule in a restaurant. Preparation is essential in running a restaurant, but the key to success is being good under pressure and knowing how to handle things when everything goes wrong.

Earlier: Career Alternatives for Attorneys: Entrepreneur / Small (or Not So Small) Business Owner

Like the loudest musical performance appearing in New Orleans, the place was clamorous as the Saints inched closer to a trip to Miami. There’s no venue crazier or wilder than the Superdome, mainly because there’s no team in the league as exciting or electrifying as the Saints.

It’s a franchise, greatly, cherished for charming performances and amplifies mystique with the ability to put fear on teams still alive. Fear their ability to execute on all levels, a dimensional franchise that brought hope to a despairing town after a calamity struck New Orleans.

Sadly, Hurricane Katarina pierced the hearts of a helpless community and much was deprived, until the Saints marched in and lifted sanity. But there’s more to a feel-good story, and not only have a tenacious team cured souls. Realizing nothing the Saints have done is a fluke, the nagging fortitude and energy are elements to fear.

So each moment in the Superdome feels invincible, like the home team cannot lose. Respectively, a loyal crowd is attached to football embracing the franchise with craziness and intense screams, hungrier than the players themselves.

The emotions of euphoria carried the Saints to a level of belief, purging all debates and pontification of immortalities. In case you’re wondering, Mardi Gras has initiated prematurely on Bourbon Street, where a huge block party anticipates sparking a rejoicing celebrations. The fervid crowd will pour onto the streets, soaking in the greatest victory and memorable moment.  

In the regular season, timeless flaws evoked dubious notions that the Saints weren’t the boundless contenders individuals had in mind. Late in the season, each moment revealed scary rationalization of New Orleans as a one-and-done team, based on a three-game losing skid to topple regard. During a sudden collapse, the Saints clumsily averaged 14.7 points when it was known for compiling the scoreboards. Every team has strengths and weaknesses.

The spectators entertained at the Superdome, a popular place to witness the aerial extravaganza, saw an efficacious Drew Brees hurl incredible passes to a bottomless receiver core. He exploited plays, designed to torment defenses. He executed plays opponents were unsuccessful stifling. Nothing in the Big Breezy stopped the creativity of jaw-dropping drives, which usually resulted in touchdowns.

Once again, the Saints had the swagger, finding its high-powered offense in time for the NFC Divisional round to literally manhandled the Arizona Cardinals, who again was noticed as the team from the desert with the word miracle written all over. Last year, we were caught by surprise when the Cardinals stunned the world and advanced to the Super Bowl, thanks to veteran quarterback Kurt Warner and wideout Larry Fitzgerald.

Your final score: 45-14

That decisive win punched a ticket to the NFC Championship game. The Saints await the winner of Minnesota and Dallas. But until then, an entire community relishes a moment of greatness. For some time, everyone waited for this moment, a time to erupt with the heroes of the town. The Saints are saviors, popular after alleviating the disastrous perceptions of reality. This is their city, this is their team, and this is their antidote to erase memories of a terrible tragedy.

As of now, New Orleans are marching, not to the nearest restaurant for gumbo, not to the local convenient store, not even to

New Subway by Vegan Butterfly

bill bartmann on making mortgage audit established franchises for sale, existing franchises for sale, low cost franchises sale

February 8, 2010

personal finance

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — erxhokeaqy @ 10:03 pm

Comments

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  1. I'm a big fan of Xero!

    I also use another great web tool http://www.streetfolio.com.

    I use Streetfolio to manage my real estate finances (mortgage, rent and property expenses).

    Both Xero and streetfolio are cloud based and simple to use!

    Posted by: StreetfolioFan |
    January 18, 2010 4:17 PM

  2. The excellent British-based (with coverage of all the relevant UK taxes, whether you're a sole trader, partnership or limited company with employees etc.) alternative to Xero is FreeAgent – sign up for a free trial then get 10% off if you subscribe here: http://www.freeagentcentral.com/?referrer=2jo837qt

     Posted by: Dave Nattriss |
    January 18, 2010 4:43 PM

  3. Definitely check out MinuteDock if you like Xero – it's a slick time tracker that plugs right into Xero. It automagically creates invoices based on your time entries, and lays them out in a coherent way that won't leave your customers asking questions! http://minutedock.com

     Posted by: James |
    January 18, 2010 5:52 PM

  4. This is a good idea for start-up business.

    Posted by: Jane Williams |
    January 19, 2010 4:28 AM

  5. The people at XERO have created their Network API that allows partners to integrate smoothly without any problems. It basically requires a simple line of code to transfer to and from XERO. Out of all my experience in integration with outside applications, XERO is one of my favourites!

    Posted by: Pete |
    January 19, 2010 11:07 AM

  6. 12,000 companies with Xero as of Sep 31st 2009. 15,000 today!

    Posted by: Elliot |
    January 19, 2010 1:28 PM

  7. When we're talking business accounting and doing it online…QuickBooks has a stellar app. (Quickbooks online)

    To your point in the article, managing that multi user access and sharing the right information is critical. QuickBooks Online makes it effortless to connect with other users…setting someone up to share your books real time or to access time tracking is as easy as e-mailing them an invitation. Away with the complicated set up or IT specialist.

    Kristen Berman
    QuickBooks Online Product Manager

    Posted by: Kristen |
    January 20, 2010 1:04 PM

  8. Kristen – correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Quicken Online is being phased out? Not so steller perhaps?
    http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2010/tc2010018_451437.htm
    “Four months after Intuit (INTU) bought personal finance Web site Mint.com, the company is preparing to phase out its Quicken Online software, moving Intuit's Web users to Mint.”

    Posted by: Justin |
    January 22, 2010 2:10 AM

  9. Is it not irresponsible for Quicken to be generating this product at it is being phased out?

    Posted by: Daniel |
    January 24, 2010 4:08 PM

  10. I use saasu.com for a fair few businesses now, as a business owner and angel investor it makes it very easy since it is all online and I can switch between businesses easily and you don't have to pay a ridiculous amount to get all the real features like payroll/salaries and inventory plus all the usual stuff like multi-currency and cool sales analysis reports. Cheers, Pete.

     Posted by: Peter J Cooper |
    January 24, 2010 6:36 PM

  11. Oh, I forgot to mention, saasu integrates with heaps of banks, has had salesforce integration for years plus timesheets inside and via integrated partners like 88miles. There are also point of sale integrations like touch cashier and content management systems integrations, payment systems and hundreds of partners. – Pete.

     Posted by: Peter J Cooper |
    January 24, 2010 6:38 PM

  12. @peter and Daniel…Quicken Online is being phased out, you are correct. Quicken focuses on helping manage personal finance.

    I was/am referring to QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online is Intuit's web accounting product for small businesses. We're not phasing out this at all! In fact, we're completely energized around helping solve small business accounting with a QuickBooks online solution. LMK if you have questions on this. Thanks for seeking the clarification.

    Posted by: Kristen |
    February 1, 2010 9:02 AM

  13. Are You Tracking Your Budget, Cash Flow, and Net Worth? [Dumb Little Man] “Tracking your net worth on some sort of regular schedule is a must for anyone serious about decreasing debt and increasing wealth.”

    11 moves to supercharge your finances [Smart Spending] “11 steps you can take to easily improve your finances in the coming year.”

    The Damage of Card Rewards [NY Times] “It’s possible that the poor pay subsidies to finance the rewards of the affluent.”

    How Poker Can Make You a Better Investor “Learn to avoid emotional traps by playing a little Texas hold ’em.”

    The Future of Plastic: 5 Credit Trends for 2010 [Smart Money] “If 2009 was the year of hammering out credit-card reform, 2010 will be the year consumers feel the effects of those changes.”

    — FREE MONEY FINANCE

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personal finance budgets

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — erxhokeaqy @ 6:08 pm

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  1. @rww there's a new UK personal finance site in beta called @MoneyDashboard http://www.moneydashboard.com/

     Posted by: Steven Renwick |
    January 7, 2010 12:22 PM

  2. Also don't forget freeagent http://www.freeagentcentral.com/ – it's great for the self employed in the UK, with built in invoice tracking and self-assessment.

    Posted by: Andy B |
    January 7, 2010 2:21 PM

  3. I have used mint off and on. I love how the design and user interface, but I wish it would work with the bank that holds my checking account. Perhaps i'll try out some of your other suggestions. Thanks for the info!

    JG
    loanpointusa

    Posted by: Joe |
    January 7, 2010 2:35 PM

  4. I've been very happy with Xpenser. I can setup a budget and record expenses with email and sms (it also does twitter and im and a few other things). The main thing for me is ease of use so I stick with it, and this is the only one simple enough to stay with.

    Posted by: Paula |
    January 7, 2010 3:33 PM

  5. For those looking for a more proactive approach to managing finances and budgeting (versus the reactive reporting approach supported by most tools), check out the Easy Envelope Budget Aid, built natively for Android and the mobile Web. It's based on the envelope budgeting approach of setting aside cash for particular expenses–in advance–and then spending out of those categories on a declining balance basis. Stop before you run out of your balance as opposed to find out after-thefact that you overspent.

    EEBA lets you check your envelope balances and record transactions at point of sale allowing you to carry your virtual “envelopes” with you.

    We're in open Beta right now, website at www.eebacanhelp.com

    Posted by: Chi-Ming @ EEBA |
    January 7, 2010 5:27 PM

  6. Where is Mint's mobile site? I've never seen it.

     Posted by: Sivan |
    January 7, 2010 6:08 PM

  7. There is also Serbian money management web application Slamarica . It's oriented not just for Serbia, but for all Adriatic region. There's more info on Digg http://digg.com/business_finance/Serbian_No_1_money_management_home_finance_web_application

     Posted by: Nemanja Djordjevic |
    January 9, 2010 1:04 AM

  8. Thanks for this article. I'm looking forward to the rest. I find it interesting that http://moneycenter.yodlee.com doesn't show up more often in personal finance software reviews. It's free as well, and is quite feature rich. Part of the problem is Yodlee doesn't do that much to market the consumer side. (For good reason, they give it away. :-)

     Posted by: Philip Eoute |
    January 9, 2010 9:54 PM

  9. @Chi-Ming thanks for telling us about EEBA. I'm definitely trying that out!

     Posted by: Philip Eoute |
    January 9, 2010 9:55 PM

  10. @Philip, you're welcome. We're iterating quickly, so let us know what you think!

    Posted by: Chi-Ming @ EEBA |
    January 9, 2010 11:01 PM

  11. I just love Mint… simple and easy to use… user friendly.. what can I say! Thumb up!

    Posted by: RichDadWisdom |
    January 10, 2010 6:46 AM

  12. But with any of the above: (1) can you manually add accounts not on their automated list; (2) multiple currency feature; (3) mobile/iPhone app?

    I've tried Mint and Wesabe. Mint is US-only. Wesabe has dreadful import (all tags/categories are lost) and doesn't believe in account reconciliation (”Why would want that feature?” was their reply; perhaps b/c it's the oldest accounting feature in the book and I don't trust a bank's statement.)

    I'm with MoneyWell (which uses envelope accounting), and is serving me well enough. But everyone's been waiting well over a year for a promised iPhone app.

    I would pay handsomely for any online financial programme that satisfied all 3 feature requests above.

    Posted by: Mr Ulster |
    January 11, 2010 6:22 AM

  13. In the uk theres http://www.inniaccounts.co.uk, but it's more for contractors

    Posted by: Toby |
    January 11, 2010 11:47 PM

  14. I started using Mint but quickly realized that its sponsors and partners, the big banks, don't want you to use cash. Most of these “free” sites to manage your money encourage one thing – card use. Whether it's credit cards or debit cards, they make using and tracking them easy, and using and tracking cash difficult. This is because the banks all make money on card transactions, whether they are debit or credit based. They make no money on cash transactions. One of the best ways to save money and control spending is by using cash, and none of these services encourage that, by their design.

    Posted by: B |
    January 13, 2010 11:54 AM

  15. Interesting article – what is the revenue model for sites like Mint, Kublax, MoneyStrands if the resource is free?

    Posted by: Ciaran O'Reilly |
    January 14, 2010 7:05 AM

  16. Mvelopes also offers online personal finance management. It isn't free but I like the envelope based budgeting which forces you to cut down on spending. It also offers mobile access so you can track your spending while you're out shopping.

    Posted by: Valerie @ Finance Software Store |
    January 14, 2010 5:28 PM

  17. I wonder how Cloud computing will influence online financial transactions. I am waiting to see what security issues evolve first.

    Posted by: Stop Home Foreclosure |
    January 18, 2010 5:53 PM

  18. Does anyone have any recommendations for Australia?

    Posted by: Marksin |
    January 21, 2010 2:07 PM

  19. How do users of these web-based financial programs feel about having their financial data available to these companies and the problematic privacy issues?

    Posted by: Jeff |
    January 23, 2010 3:38 PM

  20. Yes, but does Mint allow you to export all your data (including tags/categories) so that you could port it into another program? As far as I can tell, it doesn't. I have several years of data built up using Quicken for Mac. This represents not only a lot of work on my part, but an important resource for understanding my spending patterns (not to mention for calculating capital gains/losses on stock transactions come tax time). I've gotten sick of Quicken's sucky user interface (and the fact that it doesn't run natively on an Intel/Leopard mac) and I'm going to switch either to iBank or Moneywell (haven't decided yet). These are both desktop programs. iBank already has an iPhone app that synchronizes with the desktop version, and Moneywell is building one. Importing all of my old data from Quicken into either of these programs will be a piece of cake, as will exporting from these programs should I change my mind later. They also talk with my bank, just as Mint does. With my data synchronized to my iPod touch, I'll have continuous access to it, all without losing control over it. The problem with Mint is that once you start spending time customizing your data, adding tags, etc, you can't leave the Mint interface without losing your work. I'm not going to use any platform that attempts to hold me hostage like that.

    Posted by: Sarah |
    January 24, 2010 11:33 AM

  21. In the UK we've been developing the new one on lovemoney.com – be good to know what you think of that too. https://www.lovemoney.com/onlinebanking/

     Posted by: emma davies |
    January 29, 2010 3:31 AM

  22. I did it!

    I finally finished the manuscript for Your Money: The Missing Manual; I e-mailed the last chapter to my editor at 9:10 this morning.

    This book was a lot of work. I started writing it on 23 September 2009 at 12:27 p.m. Over the next 115 days, I gained fifteen pounds. (I actually gained eighteen, but I’ve lost three since the start of the year.) The final manuscript contains 125,244 words and 269 pages in Microsoft Word, which would be about 400 printed pages. That’s too long, so we’ll spend the next month whittling it down to something more manageable.

    During the past few months, I’ve been a virtual hermit, cloistered in my office (”deep in the word mines”, as I like to say), working 8-10 hours every day — and sometimes many more. Now that the book is nearly finished (aside from editing and printing), I calculate that my hourly wage for this project is…drumroll please…less than minimum wage!

    Still, I’m not doing this for the money. I’m doing it because I want to help people turn their financial lives around. I’m doing it because I wish I’d had a book like this twenty years ago. If Your Money: The Missing Manual sells enough copies to earn back its advance, that’s great. But if it helps even a handful of people get out of debt and start saving for the future, I’ve done my job.

    Chock full of goodness
    What’s in the book? Plenty of the stuff you see at Get Rich Slowly — but also lots of new topics, too. Here’s a chapter-by-chapter breakdown:

    • Introduction — I give a brief summary of my background and share the fourteen tenets of Get Rich Slowly. (2304 words, 5 pages, completed 09 January 2010)
    • Chapter 1: Happiness — I survey current happiness research. I explain how money is important but it isn’t everything. I also discuss the notion of lifestyle inflation (though we’re calling it “the hedonic treadmill” for the book). (6800 words, 15 pages, completed 05 October 2009)
    • Chapter 2: Goals — I discuss the importance of setting goals. Without goals, you have no reason to save. (6090 words, 13 pages, completed 12 October 2009)
    • Chapter 3: Budgeting — If goals are your destination, then a budget’s your map. But as most of you know, I’m not a fan of detailed budgets. Instead, I focus on looking at the Big Picture (including my favorite, the balanced money formula), suggesting readers can add detail as needed. (6975 words, 15 pages, completed 19 October 2009)
    • Chapter 4: Debt — I lived with debt for fifteen years. This chapter shares a bit about how I overcame my own debt, and then shares some of my favorite resources. My goal is to give readers the tools they need to kick debt to the curb. (7163 words, 16 pages, completed 16 October 2009)
    • Chapter 5: Frugality — This chapter got out of control! How can you compress this topic into just 25 pages? You can’t. I know some folks think frugality is pointless, but I’m not one of them. I sing its praises here. (11676 words, 26 pages, completed 04 November 2009)
    • Chapter 6: Income — The most overlooked topic in personal finance: how to make more money. You guys know I’m a passionate believer in boosting your income in whatever way you can. This chapter suggests some ways to do it. (11081 words, 24 pages, 10 November 2009)
    • Chapter 7: Banking — Banking’s not a very sexy topic, but there’s still some important stuff to cover, like how to find the best checking and savings accounts. (7836 words, 18 pages, completed 17 November 2009)
    • Chapter 8: Credit — Credit can be dangerous…but it doesn’t have to be. Here I go over credit scores and credit reports and offer some tips for using credit cards responsibly. (6350 words, 14 pages, completed 25 November 2009)
    • Chapter 9: Big Stuff — As great as it is to save money through frugality, it’s even more important to save on big things, such as cars, furniture, and vacations. This chapter tells you how. (13085 words, 26 pages, completed 03 December 2009)
    • Chapter 10: Housing — Yikes, this chapter was tough to write. I’m not sure why, but it got away from me. I had so much I wanted to say! In the end, I had to cut the info on “cost of living”, and I may have even had to cut the stuff on selling a house. There’s still plenty of meat here, though. (9906 words, 20 pages, completed 22 December 2009)
    • Chapter 11: Death and Taxes — When I started writing, I told my editor this chapter would suck. I didn’t feel confident about the subject. In the end, it was fun to write — and it turned out well. It’s tough to make taxes, insurance, and estate planning interesting, but I did my best. (10000 words, 21 pages, completed 16 December 2009)
    • Chapter 12: Investing — I outline the basics of investing, including some of the psychological pitfalls investors face. I encourage readers to look at index funds, but point them to good resources for other strategies if they simply must try to beat the market. (10684 words, 24 pages, 05 January 2010)
    • Chapter 13: Retirement — The chapter I completed this morning! I talk about the power of compounding and the importance of saving early. I also go on a rant about how much I hate retirement planning based around “replacement income”. (It’s so stupid!) (7872 words, 17 pages, completed 15 January 2010)
    • Chapter 14: Relationships — I close the book with a look at how money affects our relationships with family and friends. (The book is dedicated to my friend Sparky, who died a year ago today.) I also spend a little time exploring the notion of social capital, which is something I haven’t written about much here, but that I think is very very important. (7422 words, 15 pages, completed 11 January 2010)

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