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I ran into a college classmate a couple of days ago and we shot the breeze on current news. He told me he recently received a job promotion and a raise in salary.  Being in the same field, I can ballpark what he’s getting. It kind of surprised me. Smart guy that he is, he hadn’t been compensated properly in my opinion.

Or maybe I’m just over-payed…

Whenever I go into this line of thinking, my friends and family always tell me that it’s the organization’s decision whether I’m worth it or not. Apparently I am, since I make performance bonuses each year or I get some other kind of recognition award.

But what I think really helps is that my reputation precedes me. And people value that reputation.

When I was in high school, I was in enrichment classes. From what I remember, we were the laziest bunch of students ever. We’d rarely do our homework. Why? Because we had the reputation that we would cram the night before and come through at exam time. Compare this to the brow beating the “normal” classes got and homework check everyday. We took the same exams but we got the breaks. How fair is that? It was a lesson but in more ways than one.

And in college, I’d be minding my own business sitting in a middle row (not in the front with the keeners nor in the back with the sleep deprived). I’d get singled out by other students. I seriously hope it wasn’t because I was giving off the NERD vibe.

Even though I have the intellectual capacity for most things, I have to work hard at it. Nothing comes naturally for me. So imagine my surprise when others asked me to tutor them - even though I was just as clueless, learning as we went along. Heck, maybe it was because I was one of the few girls in the male dominated courses but I was friendly and approachable to both the girls and the guys. Word got out and I ended up getting paid for tutoring logic circuits and assembly language. Another lesson learned.

Fast forward to the present. At work, people know they can get a quick answer from me. They often bypass the normal chain of command and if within reason, I get things done for them. And frankly, my supervisor is just happy he doesn’t have to deal with it. In meetings, I’m always prepared and well-read on subjects. I don’t waste anyone’s time.

By doing these little things, people give me the benefit of the doubt on the timeline of the more important projects. As the examples above show, I’m neither that hardworking nor am I the brightest. But people value the reputation of helpful efficiency. It literally pays.

Career :: 12 Comments »

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I’m looking at the calendar and I am reminded that we’re one month away from the 2008 RRSP contribution deadline of February 29th. For Americans, RRSP is our equivalent of your 401k plans.

I plan to max out my contribution limit but since I’m still undecided on how to invest in these volatile markets, I’m going to put the money in a money market fund for now. This just saves me from the pressures of buying something I’ll regret later.

Speaking of pressures, I came across an article in the Sault Star yesterday. Apparently, high pressure tactics are used by scammers on unsuspecting investors who are in a hurry to meet the deadline.

Here are some very surprising statistics from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC):

One in 20 Canadians is an investment fraud victim, the OSC says. Two in five Canadians have been approached with a potentially fraudulent investment.

About one-third of fraud victims are conned out of less than $1,000. Another third lose between $1,000 and $5,000.

To add insult to injury, 25 per cent of fraud victims are hit up again.

I’m assuming these numbers are not isolated only to the RRSP season but even so, it’s still a high amount. So, despite the “it will never happen to me syndrome”, it is always nice to review material on how to recognize scams.

Here’s my public service announcement of the day courtesy of the OSC - Recognizing Scams:

• Promises of high-return, low-risk investment opportunities
• Unsolicited calls
• Loans to access locked in RRSP funds
• Promotion of offshore tax havens
• Unregistered salesperson
• Offer of free seminars and workshops
• Tax-savings or tax-shelters
• Opportunities to invest in a company that’s about to go public.
• Requests for help in transferring funds
• Unsolicited e-mail messages, also known as “spam”
• Swap worthless stocks for recognised blue chip stocks
• Investment is limited to accredited investors but exceptions will be made for you
• Promise of huge profits with little effort
• Non-disclosure agreements
• Schemes involving recruiting of others
• High-pressure sales tactics
• Requests for personal information
• Company’s purported ‘track record’
• Use of confusing financial jargon

Investing :: 2 Comments »

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Even for those who do not normally follow financial news, the name Jérôme Kerviel is getting pretty recognizable in the mainstream media… Pretty understandable if you’re on the hook for losing €4.9 billion through fraudulent trading at the second largest French bank, Société Générale.

I know numbers get thrown around a lot and they become pretty meaningless but let’s reflect on this a moment. Convert this to U.S. dollars and add in all the zeros, you have $7,140,000,000.

What exactly can you buy with this amount of money? Thank goodness for Google because someone actually calculated this. Take your pick:

• 110 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets
• 8 Queen Mary 2 luxury cruise liners
• 1 week’s worth of U.S. oil imports
• 2 Freedom Towers at Ground Zero
• 17 million Apple iPhones
• Nearly double Bolivia’s foreign debt
• But only 4.76 percent of President Bush’s economic stimulus plan

The most astounding thing from preliminary reports is that his motives are unclear. He didn’t stand to profit from his trades even though he only made a modest €100,000 ($145,700 U.S.) from salary and bonus combined.

Do I really believe this?   That he acted alone and that it’s not some sort of cover-up for something else?  Okay, whatever.  I know there are ethical hackers but if you want to prove a security point, I don’t think you need to do it by jeopardizing billions of dollars.

And it’s not exactly the best timing either, when the world markets are volatile with the threat of a U.S. recession and banks are on edge with even more reputation risk after subprime losses.

So I guess if he didn’t do it for money, he did it for fame.

If convicted (as if not already through the media), his name will be synonymous with other financial screw-ups. The question is how much time he’ll do.

Nick Leeson - lost $1.4 billion U.S. for Barings Bank, sentenced 6.5 years

Yasuo Hamanaka - lost $2.6 billion U.S. for Sumitomo Corporation, sentenced 8 years.

Toshihide Iguchi - lost $1.1 billion U.S for Daiwa Bank, sentenced 4 years

John Rusnak - lost $691 million U.S. for Allied Irish Banks, sentenced 7.5 years

In the news :: 6 Comments »

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It’s week 7 of Entrecard link love. It’s that time again to give shout-outs to the blogs that have appeared in my widget for the past week. Let’s begin…

Invest with Dax - Dax believes that Annaly Capital Management is a good candidate to profit from the Fed cuts and he’s made a play on it. He might have mistimed it though as Annaly issued new shares which was not well received by the Street. Let’s see how it plays out. Good luck, Dax!

Make Mad Money Work is a blog that follows Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on CNBC. What I found interesting in the show recaps is that Cramer believes that the market has bottomed out and it’s time to buy… Read what Cramer recommends.

Toast & Egg Me is one of the more popular blogs in Entrecard. I had the advantage of advertising on his blog when it was cheaper and it was one of my best traffic performers. Read what the effects of dropping 300 cards a day has done for him.

I ran across a very interesting video on the Sound of Gold blog. It is an interview that Warren Buffett had with Charlie Rose. Among the many things that I’ve flirted with is the idea of buying a baby Berkshire share. I believe I’m enough of a fangirl that I should put my money where my mouth is. What has held me back is the fact that the man is old! But watch the video at 22:52 min. to hear what Buffett said about his successor. Gives me more comfort that Berkshire will be in good hands after Buffett is gone.

Free Forex Training is a blog authored by a full time trader, fund manager and mentor. This blog is a wealth of information for those who want to get into currency trading. His latest post was on Fibonacci retracements.

Trainee Trader comes back this week with another great tutorial on how to simulate a financial portfolio with Google Finance. This stuff is free, so why not?

High Stakes Living just keeps on coming up with really neat stuff to buy if I were rich. My cool pick of the week? Alienware’s curved monitor! I don’t play games anymore but I could be persuaded to cast a healing spell on a meat head warrior as that thing is just SICK!

And that’s all for another week. Thanks all!

Blogging :: 4 Comments »

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Visitors of this blog know that I try to be informed and I read a lot. However, I am also jaded by what I read. Frankly, I question if people are getting lazy in the “financial porn” industry. It’s the same sales copy over and over again. The problem is that there are lots of expectations out there. There are investing rules that you should abide by because… actually, I have no idea.

Seriously, who made these rules and why should I care?

I am currently reading a book called “Stock Market Rules: 50 of the Most Widely Held Investment Axioms Explained, Examined, and Exposed” by Michael Sheimo.

It sounds promising enough and I have always liked myth busters. Throughout the course of the next few weeks, I will present the chapters that I find interesting so you can decide for yourself whether these “rules” are meant to be broken.

Good Companies Buy Their Own Stock

I must admit that I did believe this axiom. After all it’s a positive news event. Company buybacks increase earnings per share since there are now fewer shares outstanding; it shows confidence that the company has in itself; the company believes that its stock is undervalued. All good, right?

Like anything else, you have to dig a little deeper. Is the announcement of a buyback to offset bad news? Is the stock truly undervalued or are some companies dumb enough to buy back shares at a premium? And yes, they can be. Read this Fortune article on how companies Buy high, sell low. Finally, if the share price is so undervalued, why isn’t the company using the excess cash for growth?

These are all very good points that I personally never thought about because I followed the standard “rules” without question. So next time you buy shares of a company because of the positive implications of a company buyback, give it some extra thought and research.

Investing :: 6 Comments »

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