Reader: I’ve been in my current job for five years. I’ve also had a second job for three of those years, but now I’d like to make a change. Do you have any advice on how to convince a potential employer that I’m a good hire, even though I had a couple of jobs in the past that I quit after a month or two?
Dave: Quitting a job after a month or so isn’t normally some kind of sin that automatically disqualifies you from being hired. It might be with some corporate goober who’s looking at things through some silly, one-size-fits-all hiring paradigm, but that alone wouldn’t be the kiss of death around my office.
Now, would we look at something like that and want to know what happened and what your explanation was? Absolutely. But if it made sense, there wouldn’t be a problem. However, if it made you sound flighty or disgruntled with things in general, we’d probably pass.
My guess is that the fields you’re interested in are like most — there’s a lot of importance put on who you know. And I don’t mean this in a negative way. Work and try to develop good relationships with people in your field and those associated with it. If that’s in place, they can honestly give out positive references.
Knowing someone within the field or at the company, or being connected to someone with a positive reputation, can help you avoid the resume slush pile. It can help cut through the mess and achieve clarity.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Keep emergency Funds and Loans in separate banks
Dear Dave: My wife and I are debt-free except for our home, and we’re currently putting money aside for our fully loaded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Currently, we have our emergency fund account in the same bank as our checking and savings accounts. Do you think we should move it to a different bank?
Steve
Dear Steve: I wouldn’t worry too much about that if I were you. The only exception to that might be if you had loans that you owed to that same bank. Then, I would probably move my emergency fund out of there just in case something went wrong with the loans.
Some commercial loan documents now give the bank the right to take money out of your account to pay the loan — without your permission. If you had a car loan, for instance, with that particular bank, I wouldn’t keep a bunch of money in that bank. They normally don’t do that unless you’re way behind on the bill — and then it gets pretty adversarial.
Sometimes there can be things like a simple clerical error, and there’s no chance of that happening if the money’s in another bank. But in your situation, I don’t see any harm in you being there.
Dave
Steve
Dear Steve: I wouldn’t worry too much about that if I were you. The only exception to that might be if you had loans that you owed to that same bank. Then, I would probably move my emergency fund out of there just in case something went wrong with the loans.
Some commercial loan documents now give the bank the right to take money out of your account to pay the loan — without your permission. If you had a car loan, for instance, with that particular bank, I wouldn’t keep a bunch of money in that bank. They normally don’t do that unless you’re way behind on the bill — and then it gets pretty adversarial.
Sometimes there can be things like a simple clerical error, and there’s no chance of that happening if the money’s in another bank. But in your situation, I don’t see any harm in you being there.
Dave
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
How to budget
Dear Dave: I have a question about budgeting. I give myself and my husband $150 a month each for blow money to be used on whatever we want. I’m upset because he spends all his eating out, then he buys other things he wants that he has no money for. Am I being too stingy?
Cheryl
Dear Cheryl: I think you guys are handling your money poorly. You’re acting like his mother instead of his wife, and he’s acting like a little boy instead of a man. You don’t want to give your husband an allowance and then not be happy when he spends money “he didn’t have” because he went over what you dictated to him. That’s a bad budget process.
The budget process, if you’re the nerd in the family, should start with you writing it all out. Then he sits down with you, has an equal say in the decisions and you two okay it together. He needs to understand that this is you asking him to man-up and be part of the decision-making process, so that you can both be in agreement as to what’s best for the family. In one sense, you may not like it at first, because right now you’ve got control of things. But in another sense, I’ll bet you’re pretty tired of carrying the weight of all the financial decision making and being the only adult in the household.
He doesn’t even have to work on all that much. I want you to lay it out, but I expect him to sit down and go over it all with you. You’re not asking him to be an accountant with a pocket protector, but you have every right to expect him to be in on the decisions that are made about your family and your finances!
Dave
Cheryl
Dear Cheryl: I think you guys are handling your money poorly. You’re acting like his mother instead of his wife, and he’s acting like a little boy instead of a man. You don’t want to give your husband an allowance and then not be happy when he spends money “he didn’t have” because he went over what you dictated to him. That’s a bad budget process.
The budget process, if you’re the nerd in the family, should start with you writing it all out. Then he sits down with you, has an equal say in the decisions and you two okay it together. He needs to understand that this is you asking him to man-up and be part of the decision-making process, so that you can both be in agreement as to what’s best for the family. In one sense, you may not like it at first, because right now you’ve got control of things. But in another sense, I’ll bet you’re pretty tired of carrying the weight of all the financial decision making and being the only adult in the household.
He doesn’t even have to work on all that much. I want you to lay it out, but I expect him to sit down and go over it all with you. You’re not asking him to be an accountant with a pocket protector, but you have every right to expect him to be in on the decisions that are made about your family and your finances!
Dave
Monday, May 11, 2015
Should you borrow to buy a car
Dear Dave,
My wife and I are on Baby Step 3 of your plan. We’re also saving up to buy a car with cash. We’re about $3,000 away from our goal, but now my wife wants to go ahead and finance the rest. She has started wondering what the difference is in borrowing to buy a car and borrowing to buy a house.
— Lex
Dear Lex,
This is a good question. It sounds like you guys have made good progress, but now one of you is running out of steam. That’s OK. Getting out of debt and staying out of debt can be a tough road.
For one thing, cars go down in value. The second thing is I don’t like debt of any kind. I don’t really like borrowing for a house even, but I tolerate it as long as you use a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage with payments that are no more than a fourth of your take-home pay. I mean, it’s a much larger purchase. You can get a great car for $15,000 to $20,000 dollars. Depending on where you live, a good home can cost you 10 times that or more.
Still, the best way to build wealth and have a high-quality financial life is to not be in debt. You’re never going to win with money in the long term if you can’t learn to delay pleasure. That’s the bottom line. Personal finance is about controlling the person you see when you look in the mirror.
Every one of us has that little 4-year-old kid inside, a little kid whose name is Immaturity and who wants what he or she wants right now. What your wife is asking is a normal request, but it’s also a sign that we all have to address that little kid that’s inside us once in a while — and tell that kid no.
— Dave
My wife and I are on Baby Step 3 of your plan. We’re also saving up to buy a car with cash. We’re about $3,000 away from our goal, but now my wife wants to go ahead and finance the rest. She has started wondering what the difference is in borrowing to buy a car and borrowing to buy a house.
— Lex
Dear Lex,
This is a good question. It sounds like you guys have made good progress, but now one of you is running out of steam. That’s OK. Getting out of debt and staying out of debt can be a tough road.
For one thing, cars go down in value. The second thing is I don’t like debt of any kind. I don’t really like borrowing for a house even, but I tolerate it as long as you use a 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage with payments that are no more than a fourth of your take-home pay. I mean, it’s a much larger purchase. You can get a great car for $15,000 to $20,000 dollars. Depending on where you live, a good home can cost you 10 times that or more.
Still, the best way to build wealth and have a high-quality financial life is to not be in debt. You’re never going to win with money in the long term if you can’t learn to delay pleasure. That’s the bottom line. Personal finance is about controlling the person you see when you look in the mirror.
Every one of us has that little 4-year-old kid inside, a little kid whose name is Immaturity and who wants what he or she wants right now. What your wife is asking is a normal request, but it’s also a sign that we all have to address that little kid that’s inside us once in a while — and tell that kid no.
— Dave
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
High income with high expenses
Dear Dave,
My wife and I have just started getting on track with our money. We have $2,000 in savings, and the only debt we have is our house and two cars. I work in the oil and gas industry and make about $180,000 a year, but things are pretty volatile right now. We’re upside down on both vehicles, and we owe $39,000 on one and about $48,000 on the other. Under the circumstances, should we go ahead and build a fully funded emergency fund or work on paying off the cars?
— Kendall
Dear Kendall,
Are you kidding me? Sell the cars.
You need to go to Kelley Blue Book’s website right now and find out what your cars are really worth. Then, put them on the market as a private sale. You’ll get thousands more selling them that way than you will at a dealership. You’ll have to talk to a local credit union or bank for a small loan to cover the difference, plus a little bit more so you guys can get a couple of little beaters to drive for a while.
You’ve got close to $100,000 in car debt hanging over your heads. That’s a disaster. I want you to take a moment and think about how things would be without these stinking car payments. Your lives would change completely.
Hopefully, you’ll be able to keep your job. But this car debt is the scariest thing I’ve heard in a long time, even with your great income. Get rid of those things now.
— Dave
My wife and I have just started getting on track with our money. We have $2,000 in savings, and the only debt we have is our house and two cars. I work in the oil and gas industry and make about $180,000 a year, but things are pretty volatile right now. We’re upside down on both vehicles, and we owe $39,000 on one and about $48,000 on the other. Under the circumstances, should we go ahead and build a fully funded emergency fund or work on paying off the cars?
— Kendall
Dear Kendall,
Are you kidding me? Sell the cars.
You need to go to Kelley Blue Book’s website right now and find out what your cars are really worth. Then, put them on the market as a private sale. You’ll get thousands more selling them that way than you will at a dealership. You’ll have to talk to a local credit union or bank for a small loan to cover the difference, plus a little bit more so you guys can get a couple of little beaters to drive for a while.
You’ve got close to $100,000 in car debt hanging over your heads. That’s a disaster. I want you to take a moment and think about how things would be without these stinking car payments. Your lives would change completely.
Hopefully, you’ll be able to keep your job. But this car debt is the scariest thing I’ve heard in a long time, even with your great income. Get rid of those things now.
— Dave
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