#baseball #BaseballSeason #TroublesInBaseball #HopeSpringsEternal
This time of year, hope springs eternal for every baseball fan.
Spring training has started. The first pitch of the regular season is just around the corner.
Yet, as USA Today columnist Bob Nightengale writes, all is not well in the baseball world. His column on the subject also ran Feb. 22, 2019, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
One star free agent, Manny Machado, just signed the richest contract in Major League Baseball history. He’ll play for the San Diego Padres for $300 million.
Still, other star free agents are still unsigned. Some of them, Nightengale writes, have few teams bidding on their services.
And, there’s talk of s players strike in 2021.
Players, and probably fans, wonder why these stars still linger on the market so close to the beginning of the season.
Aren’t the teams still in competition with one another? Don’t they want to suit up the best team at the start of the season so they have a shot at getting to, or winning, the World Series?
Long-term contracts for stars used to be the norm. But with the prospect of injury, a risk that a “star” will not be a star anymore after getting all that security, are keeping owners, in many cases, from betting big on one or two players. They prefer short-term deals, just in case.
Yes, even highly paid athletes undergo on-the-job issues. They may pale in comparison to the issues in your world, but still …
If you find yourself in a situation in which the good times seemed to have disappeared, the ballplayers are feeling the same thing, perhaps on a different level.
The ballplayers may think that going on strike in a couple of years will solve their problems. You may not have that ability.
But you still have to take matters into your own hands.
If your world is no longer what it was, YOU have to change it.
Are you not making enough money? Is your job to your liking? Is your job, and other life events, eating your time alive? Do you long for a different lifestyle?
If you answered no to the first two, and yes to the second two, know that there are many vehicles out there that can put more money in your pocket, and more time in your life to do what YOU want.
To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Remember, times change and, in this day and age, quite frequently. Gravy trains eventually slow, and even come to a stop.
Promises that you perhaps have relied on through life can be broken. What you were hired to do may change.
People need to be open to things they may not have ever dreamed of doing. If they are not, they may be left behind.
So pencil yourself into the lineup and take your turn at bat. You may never play baseball for a living, but you can still make your life a real hit, or even a home run.
Peter
Tag Archives: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WAGES RISING, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO KEEP UP WITH COSTS
#RisingCosts #WageIncreases #ImprovingEconomy
The economy is improving.
Therefore, interest rates are rising.
Therefore, wages are increasing as unemployment is decreasing.
Therefore, costs of just about everything is rising, which may be canceling out wage increases for many.
In its Weekly Explainer, published Oct. 29, 2018, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution took on this subject, largely quoting economist Aaron Sojourner of the University of Minnesota.
Sojourner spent a year as part of the Council of Economic Advisers in Washington.
The unemployment rate is now as low as it has been since the dot-com boom. Yet, it’s really hard for a lot of people to get a meaningful raise, which is defined as exceeding the price increases of necessities, the article says.
Real average hourly earnings, meaning wages adjusted for inflation, in August for all employees are up 0.1 percent, the article quotes the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall prices have increased by the same amount during the same time period, the article says.
“On average, most workers were running in place,” the article reads.
Moreover, for ordinary workers over the last year, real average hourly earnings actually decreased 0.1 percent, the article quotes the BLS.
If you are an average worker, whether or not you have gotten a raise recently, you probably feel that you can’t get ahead.
Sure, employers are fighting over a finite labor pool, poaching even within a restaurant chain, some of which have eased their rules against that.
So one may end up going from one job to another, doing pretty much the same work, and might see $1 an hour more. But if the cost of what you have to buy is increasing by that much, you may think it’s better to keep up than to fall behind – and it is.
So what’s a person who really wants to get ahead to do? That depends on whether that person is willing to look at things that can put extra money in his or her pocket, without interfering with what he or she is doing now.
That doesn’t mean a second, relatively low-paying job. It means looking at something that could dramatically change your life for the better.
There are many such vehicles out there that potentially can do that. To check out one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, keep your eyes open for a better-paying job. Look at doing something you may never have thought you would do. Rather than complain about how things are, do something to make your life better.
Though employers may look desperate for help in some areas, there’s only so much they are going to pay for that help. No matter how much your boss may like you, if you threaten to go, there’s only so many inducements he or she will offer to convince you to stay. Try not to make such a decision on emotion. Always have your mind on what would be best for you.
When unemployment is down, wages go up, and prices go up to pay those higher wages. It’s a progression you cannot stop. But you can look at things that, with a little effort outside of your job, and a strong goal for your life, can allow you to reach your dream.
Peter
HIGH STRESS ABOUT FUTURE
#FutureOfAmerica #FutureOfUS #MyPersonalFuture #StressAboutFuture
More than two-thirds of Americans are stressed about the future of the country.
So says the American Psychological Association’s annual “Stress in America” survey.
Isaac Stanley-Becker discussed the survey in a Washington Post article, also published Oct. 31, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Though the article focuses on politics, let’s step back and discuss stress in one’s own life, and how to combat it.
First, we have to know what makes us stressful. Certainly, it can be the political environment, but the country has survived – and thrived – despite any politician.
More likely, though, we have things in our own lives stressing us, and we use politics as a blame outlet.
One stressor could be a job. Some people are overworked, underpaid and have no time to enjoy what really matters to them.
Others worry that a good situation that they have at work – no matter how much they might complain about it – could disappear tomorrow.
Still others are stressed by family or other personal circumstances.
Generally, stress doesn’t get rid of itself. Either the stressor goes away, and is replaced by something better or more pleasant, or the person finds a way to relieve the stress.
For many, when one stressor goes, another steps in. That’s why people can’t depend on good fortune to strip them from stressors, although, if it comes, good fortune is usually appreciated.
Usually, some type of action is required to remove stress, or at least minimize it.
What kind of action? It might be to look for a better situation. Good fortune comes to those who prepare for it, so by looking for a better situation, you are preparing to find it.
Family or personal situations are a bit more delicate. You can’t erase your family. But there may be situations that you can remove yourself from. Then, you have to keep from being sucked back into such vortexes.
If you believe your job is threatened, or if you have a job that is eating you alive, there could be a simpler way of removing that stress.
Look at how you spend your non-work time. Family and recreation can be important stress relievers, but you might consider spending a few, part-time hours a week pursuing a completely different goal.
There are many vehicles out there that can enable a person to supplement, even replace, an income by spending a few part-time hours a week. Though they don’t involve a “second job,” there is work involved. But the rewards can be life-changing for the person who really needs to remove stress from his or her life.
To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
As for the future of America, there is a lot more good out there than bad. Though the bad stuff gets more publicity, and rightfully so, the good things often go unnoticed, at least by a wide audience.
One way to ease any stress about America’s future may be to go look for those good things. Take a walk in the woods, observe the beauty, and see what destination finds you. You may find that walking back to your originating point is completely unappealing.
As you make your journey, take care not to overlook what could be good for your life.
Peter
DRUG PRICES ALL OVER THE MAP
#PrescriptionDrugPrices #DrugPrices #PrescriptionPrices
Stephanie Garman picked up her prescription at CVS one day.
This time, she took a look at the receipt.
Retail price: $355.99
Her amount due: $3.47
In other words, she paid a1 percent co-pay for her relatively expensive drug.
David Lazarus took on this subject in an article for the Los Angeles Times. It was also published Oct. 8, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Someone is obviously benefiting from this, but I don’t know who,” Lazarus quotes Garman.
Garman obviously had good insurance. “The purpose of insurance is to protect patients from the full cost of medical care at the point they need it,” Lazarus quotes Patricia M. Danzon, a professor of health care management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “An insured patient never faces full price,” Danzon is quoted as saying.
Lazarus also quotes Amy Davidoff, a senior research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health, calling drug pricing “a black-box negotiation process” between drug makers, insurers, and middlemen – called pharmacy benefit managers – who haggle behind closed doors over how money changes hands.
Patients who have good insurance can purchase drugs blissfully ignorant of how much drugs cost. Patients without insurance get billed the full rate. If they can’t afford the medication, drug makers often have programs for such people to get their medications at costs they can afford.
We won’t get into the complications of pricing drugs, other than to say that drug makers want to get back the cost of developing the drug, which can take years or even decades, and the cost of getting the necessary regulatory approval, marketing the drug to prescribers etc. – as well as make a profit.
They will hire the benefit managers to negotiate the prices with various prescriber networks, and to supply those networks.
Not everyone is charged the same price. It can depend on volume, which network you are in etc.
Bear in mind, too, that largely happens only in the United States. Other countries with single-payer health systems tell the drug makers what THEY will pay for medications.
Since drug makers make their largest profit in the U.S., they don’t want this system to go away. They know that those who really need their drugs will do whatever they must to get them, even if it means going broke.
This is a tough problem to solve. We want to keep the drug makers actively doing research to find new therapies for various diseases. We want to make drugs as affordable as possible. At the same time, we want to make health insurance as affordable as possible.
One thing the average person can do: look for different ways to make money so that if a big illness requiring expensive treatment hits you or your family, the cost will be less painful. There are several vehicles out there for putting a good bit of extra money in the pockets of those willing to explore them. To check out one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, we need to continue to look for ways for people to get well without having to liquidate their retirement savings, sell their homes or sell valuable family heirlooms at pennies on the dollar, just to pay medical bills.
With all the ingenuity we have in the U.S., someone certainly can find a way to do that, whi8le satisfying all concerned.
Peter
BANKROLLING ADULT CHILDREN
#AdultChildren #BankrollingAdultChildren #AdultChildrenLivingAtHome
Four out of five parents provide some type of financial support for their adult offspring.
They spend twice as much on them as they do saving for retirement.
Half of parents are willing to draw down savings, and a quarter would go into debt or pull from retirement savings to support kids who’ve left the nest.
These are facts according to a new survey from Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, a research firm, which provided the results to USA TODAY exclusively.
Janna Herron tackled this topic in a USA TODAY article that was also published Oct. 3, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
And it’s not just giving them daily financial report. Parents pay rent for their kids. They pay for weddings and vacations. You might expect parents to pay for college, or loan their child money for a down payment on a house, but they also cover groceries, cell phones and other expenses, the article quotes the survey.
It had been predicted a few years ago that the Baby Boom generation would see the greatest transfer of wealth from their parents, largely because their parents’ houses had increased dramatically in value over their lives.
Now, it appears, that same Baby Boom generation is helping their kids, to a greater or lesser degree, live the lives they want.
As these parents struggle to have enough financial security in retirement, will their children be in a position to repay them for all they had done for them?
As we break this down, it helps to have some perspective. Just a few decades ago, job security was more prevalent. One could rent an apartment or buy a home in most locales for much less than it costs now.
Kids are graduating college with much more debt. They are postponing things like marriage because many of them can’t even afford to move out of their parents’ house. The jobs they have could go away tomorrow – and many have.
On the other hand, lifestyles are more expensive today. Years ago, one didn’t have all the gadgets that make life easier today. Not only do the kids today have them, they need them. It’s tough to survive today without a computer or cell phone, but they make life much more expensive than it was years ago.
If you are a young adult, you should seek to gain independence, financial and otherwise, from your parents.
If you went away to college, you probably had a roommate. Think about a roommate, or roommates, to make living on your own more affordable.
Watch your daily expenses. If you have a $5 a day coffee shop habit, get a Thermos and brew your own. If you buy lunch every day, think about brown-bagging it.
And, thinking further outside the box, think about using a few part-time non-work hours a week pursuing one of the many vehicles that can help you make potentially a lot of extra money. To check out one of the best, message me.
Remember, too, that Mom and Dad deserve the best retirement they can have. If they have helped you in your youth, it behooves you to help them later on, and pay them back.
Life as a young adult is different for you from what it was for your parents. That should not give you license to live off them forever. Because life is different for you, YOU have to learn to think differently.
Peter
WE LOVE VACATIONS, BUT SHOULDN’T WE BE WORKING?
#vacations #vacation #working #jobs
Ah, vacation.
We work so hard for it.
We wouldn’t want to be on vacation all the time, would we?
Brian O’Connor, a philosophy professor at University College in Dublin, Ireland, took on this subject in an article published April 29, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Although annual leave is a right in many workplaces, it is of significant value to employers, too,” O’Connor writes.
Studies urge employers to embrace paid leave, the article says. It refreshes workers, and gives employers opportunities to expose others, who would do the work of the vacationer, to other jobs in the company, thus gaining workers with more diverse skills, O’Connor writes.
O’Connor’s point: vacations are designed as a respite from work, but we all need to be working, rather than being on vacation all the time.
Let’s break this down further. First, as employees, most of us get paid time off in a variety of fashions. There is vacation time, which tends to increase with years of service – up to a maximum, of course.
Then, there is sick time which, in theory, is there to use as needed for illness or other emergencies.
Finally, for those with certain jobs, there is paid time to attend educational seminars, specific offsite training etc.
Some employees will abuse some of this time off, particularly sick time. We’ve all heard the expression of calling in well. Sick time, of course, should ONLY be an insurance policy for illness and emergencies, and should be used only when necessary. Mental health days, unless they are for a specific diagnosed condition, should not be taken. (People with a diagnosed mental condition may have fewer employment opportunities).
Some people don’t get any of this paid time off, despite the encouragement to employers to provide it.
Others are generously paid for NOT using their time off when they retire.
Others, depending on the job they have, are literally punished for taking time off. They have to work extra hours prior to leaving on vacation, and face a huge pile of work when they return. Others can just comfortably go on vacation, without added pressures or work before and after.
With today’s technology, some can take the job with them on vacation. If you are one of those, you may need to set some new priorities.
Though O’Connor’s article argues that vacations are merely a rest from toil, and that toil is something that doesn’t please you, it can be argued that a permanent vacation – or a change in your life – may be needed. There are many vehicles out there that, for a few part-time non-job hours a week, can give you the freedom to change your life for the better. To check out one of the best, message me.
Despite the nobility of labor, if you don’t enjoy what you do, or if what you do does not provide you with the life you want, it may behoove you to look at alternatives.
Your personal goal should be to go on your longest vacation ever – retirement – as soon as you are able. In today’s work world, that decision sometimes can be made for you.
Peter
DOES YOUR PERSONALITY AFFECT EARNINGS?
#personality #earnings #PersonalityAffectsEarnings
Many of us have witnessed people being belligerent a t work. Perhaps they got fired.
We may have seen others who suck up to the boss, and get promoted.
But what about more subtle personality traits? Do they affect how much one might earn?
Tyler Cowen tackles this subject in an article for Bloomberg. It was also published Sept. 17, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Cowen quotes a study by Miriam Gensowski at the University of Copenhagen. She revisited data from California schools, back in 1921-22. She culled out the top 0.5 percent of student in the IQ distribution, meaning they scored 140 or higher on the IQ test.
What did she find? Cutting through a lot of numbers, she discovered that conscientiousness mattered for men. Men who scored higher on the conscientiousness scale earned an extra $567,000 over their lifetimes, the article says.
For women, extroversion correlated with higher earnings – even more strongly than conscientiousness, unlike for men, the article says.
The article quotes the study saying that more “agreeable” men earned significantly less. Remember the saying, “nice guys finish last?”
“One possibility is that more agreeable men self-select into lower-earning, more subordinate professions,“ Cowen writes.
And, perhaps no surprise, the smartest ones among the smartest ones generally earned more, the article says.
OK, so you are who you are. You may think you aren’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, and the study referenced above may not have looked at people like you.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t make it above where you think you should be – if you want to.
Being conscientious will help. If that doesn’t come naturally, work on it – man or woman. Conscientiousness is something that can be acquired with effort, if it doesn’t come naturally.
To a lesser extent, extroversion can also be acquired but, for some, requires a good bit more effort. If you are naturally shy, you can change that, but you have to be motivated to WANT to change it.
Right now, you could be working in a job that you do not believe will EVER make you “successful,” as experts seem to define it, or wealthy. Don’t fret. There are ways out there for people, even shy people, to be successful. You just have to be willing to look for them. And, though you may be shy, you HAVE to be teachable.
If you WANT to change your life and are willing to check out one of the best such vehicles to potential success, message me.
Teachability can compensate for many natural personality traits. Conscientiousness, however, is easy to learn, in relative terms.
The lesson here, perhaps, is don’t let the person inside you take the best out of you. Be willing to find the best that’s inside you, and bring it out.
Sometimes, it takes another person to see the best that’s inside you and help you bring it out. Sometimes, you never know who that person might be. It may be someone you already know. It may be someone you haven’t met yet.
Don’t look at what someone is offering with the person inside you who wants to take the best away from you. Look at that person believing that the best of you has yet to appear.
Peter
FINDING YOUR PASSION REQUIRES LOOKING FOR IT
#passion #FindingYourPassion #LookingForYourPassion
People advise us that we won’t be truly happy unless we find our passion.
But, according to a study from Stanford and Yale-NUS in Singapore, searching for one’s passion may actually make it harder for people to figure out what they love to do.
The study was quoted in an article on the subject published July 28, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The Idea of ‘finding’ one’s passion implies that people have built-in interests just waiting to be discovered, and if you can simply figure out what they are, you will magically be able to embrace them,” the article quotes the study, which will be published in the journal Psychological Science.
True passion develops, and is not found, the article says. It develops “through being open-minded about delving into a new topic and being willing to put some work into it,” the article says.
Let’s look into this further. Let’s say you have a passion for art. You know it’s there, and you pursue it. It may not make you a good living, mind you, but you pursue it anyway. Then, you figure out how to make a living.
Now, if you have a job that’s hardly your passion, and you have no outside activities that you are really passionate about – OK, watching your favorite sports team, or other sedentary activities, doesn’t count — then, you have to find something that produces both passion and profit.
That requires LOOKING, rather than sitting and waiting for it to come.
It also requires THINKING — contemplating whether you could make something your passion.
Locating your passion requires action, not reaction. It requires pursuit and creativity, not serendipity.
Your passion could be placed in front of you by someone you know, or someone you don’t know but have just met. A person who truly is looking for his or her passion will look and listen when someone presents a new idea to him or her.
Again, if you are in a job that is NOT your passion, find something about the job that, if not arousing passion, will make you want to go to work every day with a smile.
Meanwhile, be open to new opportunities that may be presented to you. There are many great ways out there to make money outside of your job, that won’t interfere greatly with what you are already doing. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Going along and getting along will probably not produce passion. We all have things we have to do to take care of ourselves and our families. That doesn’t mean we can’t take time for things we really enjoy.
The ultimate passion comes when we love what we are doing, regardless of what other reward we get from it. But if that other reward is handsome, that’s a real bonus.
Yes, you can become passionate about something you know nothing about now. You have to look for that passion, and you have to know it when you see it. Then, you have to pursue it – with a passion.
Passions aren’t like snowflakes that fall from the sky. They are more like fires that have to be started, stoked and maintained. In other words, YOU have to ignite your passion.
You may not know it when you see it initially, but you must have the drive to create it, perhaps from some unexpected source.
Peter
CHILD-CARE WORKERS IN DEMAND
#ChildCare #Child-CareWorkers #ChildCareInDemand
They are using non-compete clauses, college tuition incentives and non-refundable wait-list fees.
Are these engineers or scientists? No, child-care workers.
There is a child-care workforce crisis – at least in Seattle, where Sally Ho based her article for the Associated Press. The article was also printed in the Sept. 9, 2018, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The situation basically goes like this: the booming economy is encouraging child-care workers to leave their highly demanding, low-paying jobs for other positions.
And, at least in Seattle, the demand for child-care programs is booming, the article says.
What are the child-care providers doing? They are requiring and enforcing non-compete clauses for their workers. To raise money to increase salaries, they are requiring families to pay fees to get on a wait list, the article says.
Child-care workers in the U.S. make less than parking-lot attendants and dog walkers, the article quotes Marcy Whitebook, co-director of the University of California, Berkeley’s, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.
“If you can’t get workers to do the job, then it’s hard to expand the supply. And when the economy is good, that’s when you need to expand the supply,” the article quotes Whitebook.
In 2017, there were 132,000 more children up to age 6 in Washington state who could use formal child-care arrangements, compared to the number of available child-care slots, the article quotes
Child Care Aware, and advocacy group.
Two-thirds of all children up to age 6 have parents who are both working. Some child-care centers are so popular in Seattle, New York and San Francisco that parents pay to get on waiting lists while still trying to conceive, the article quotes Whitebook.
Research show children who attend good preschools are better off as adults, with higher incomes and healthier lifestyles, the article says.
The obvious answer here is to make child-care work more desirable by increasing workers’ pay. But there’s a delicate economic reality: there’s only so much most parents will pay for child care. If the cost of child care is the same, or exceeds, one of the parent’s salaries, it makes no sense for that parent to work – at least economically.
When looking deeper, the solution for parents is for at least one parent to have more time flexibility, while still earning money. Time flexibility, plus money, equals choices for parents. If they WANT to send their child to a day-care facility or preschool, they can. If they want to keep them home until kindergarten, they can.
There are many vehicles out there that parents can utilize to build more time into the family, while still earning a potentially greater income than many W-2 jobs pay. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Meanwhile, if you are a child-care worker, particularly in an expensive urban area, and you like your job, know that you are in demand. Don’t hesitate to ask for a raise, if you believe you are not getting paid enough for what you do. Or, you, too, could use your non-working hours to supplement your income in a different way.
If you are parents, or parents-to-be, you may have to think outside the box to figure out how you are going to manage raising children with work. It may entail a whole new form of thinking on how the family can create time flexibility, with enough income to give that child (or children) the life they deserve.
If you now get paid only for time worked, imagine what you can do if you got paid by leveraging your time to give more of it to your family.
Peter
PRIVATE SCHOOLS BETTER THAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
#PrivateShools #PublicSchools #education #QualityEducation
A new study has turned conventional wisdom on its head.
While most think that private schools do a better job educating students than public schools, the study shows it not to be true.
Valerie Strauss tackled this subject in a Washington Post article that was also published Aug. 7, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The University of Virginia researchers looked at data from more than 1,000 students. It found that “all of the advantages supposedly conferred on private education evaporate when socio-economic characteristics are factored in,” the article says.
The study also found no evidence to suggest that low-income children or children in urban schools benefit more from private school enrollment, the article says.
“You only need to control for family income and there is no advantage,” the article quotes Robert Pianta, dean of UVA’s Curry School of Education. Pianta conducted the study with Arya Ansari, a postdoctoral research associate at the university’s Center for Advanced Study for Teaching and Learning.
Pianta also says that kids who come from homes with higher incomes and parental education achievement offer young children, from birth to age 5, educational resources and stimulation that other children don’t get, according to the article. These conditions presumably carry on through all school years, Pianta concludes, according to the article.
Let’s break it down further. Some private schools can offer what public schools can’t, such as religious education. It may be worth the parents’ expense to see that their children get that religious education along with academics.
But for those parents looking purely at academics, there is probably no need to incur the expense of private education.
Certainly, there are other reasons, too, to consider private education. Safety may be one. A private school may incur whatever expense is necessary to make sure there are no unwanted visitors in school.
Those parents who cannot afford private education, over and above the taxes they pay for public education, can rest assured that their students likely would not do any better academically in a private school.
Certainly, there are private schools designed for children with special needs – though most public schools have solid programs for those students.
In short, unless there are special circumstances, a student will probably do no better in a private school. The key is how much parents value education, and how willing they are to work with their children outside of school.
We like to measure education on what kind of job a student can get after graduation. If you have a student who is unsure what he or she wants to do with his life, there are plenty of vehicles out there through which they can earn a potentially good income while they are trying to figure out what they want. To learn about one of the best, message me.
Educating children, so they can turn into good, productive adults, is perhaps the greatest task we as a society are challenged with. Governments in many areas have been reducing education funding over the years, for a variety of reasons.
But, aside from parents, there may be no more important people in a child’s life than his or her teachers. Parents can support their child’s school in many ways. The most important way, though, may be to put a high value on education, and help the child learn the importance of education from the day they are born.
Peter