“I’m a millennial. My friends are, too.  We did everything right.  None of us can get REAL jobs that are not wait staff, go-go boys, and the like.  We went to Top 10 schools and we are stuck being interns.  We know social media.  Where are the jobs?”   This question was one that I was asked at a recent event.  These fresh college grads aren’t the first ones I’ve heard from on this issue.

My company’s Your Career Campaign™ service has helped—and is helping—new college graduates find their first job…and these are kids who are graduating from top tier schools.  Friends and business colleagues have shared their stories as parents of adult children who have returned to living at home after graduating because the only job they could find was as a cook, parking garage attendant, etc.—not the jobs they dedicated 2-4 years of their lives to qualify for.

At the same time as this talent shortage and youth employment issues are occurring, there is also a global need developing to secure the next generation of leadership now and over the next three years, according to the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s Resetting Horizons:  Human Capital Trends 2013 report.  Manpower’s The Great Talent Shortage Awakening: Actions to Take for a Sustainable Workforce report echoes similar findings, with a lack of future leaders cited as the foremost concern for about 25% of the 2,000 senior human resource executives they interviewed in 14 countries.  One of these interview participants accurately summarized the current dilemma:

“Many of us downsized at the junior level and stopped doing campus recruitment several years ago.  We are just now learning the lesson of what it means to lose a talent cohort.  You can’t downsize at the analyst level and not expect it to impact you five years later when you are looking for the next leader.”

The real kicker is that according to that same Manpower report, only 4% of those employers facing talent shortages are actively looking to recruit younger workers!  Yet 13% of these employers facing a talent shortage are trying to resolve the issue by recruiting from untapped talent pools, such as candidates outside the local region and/or outside of the country.  Yes, they’re looking at increasing immigration quotas to fill those ranks, but, no, they’re not looking at hiring their own country’s unemployed local youth.

Hmm, seems to me that the solution to part of this talent shortage that will also address the need for the next generation of leadership is for companies to start hiring unemployed younger workers, training them in the specifics of their current hard-to-fill positions, and securing their talents for the future by creating rotational management training programs that offer participants additional college or training (MBA or specific skill sets) at significantly reduced prices or for free…but with a 2-3 year claw back window if the young worker ends his/her employment with the firm before a certain date.  During that time frame, the firm can focus on the individuals that fit their long term leadership profile for further development and promotions.

Since we were given a 98% approval rating for our content, I thought that I would share some of the topics we covered.  The first one is on college.  So, please enjoy this short YouTube video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS04kmG7YEM&feature=youtu.be

Not only will you find the answer to the question, “Is College Worth It?,” you will also hear me briefly answer these related questions:

• Is college for you (or your children)…or are there other better alternatives?
• What if you (or your children) can’t afford college?
• When should you choose to go to a top tier university?

With the price tag that college comes with today, additional education is not the automatic “yes” it used to be.  Research and thoughtfulness beforehand are now required.

Quite frankly, even though I have a MBA in Analytic Finance, Econometrics, and Statistics from The University of Chicago, I’d rather tackle a thorny interest rate lattice using the Ho and Lee model and a massive Monte Carlo simulation than to try and figure out how to implement this Act.

One little example:

►If you’re under 50 full-time employees, you don’t need to worry about this Act because you’re exempt.

►Oh, wait, if you have 30 full-time employees and a bunch of part-time employees, you need to start filling out the paperwork so as to avoid penalties being amassed in 2014.  Why?  Because your full-time employee count includes full-time equivalent employees and seasonal employees on top of regular full-time employees.  By the way, full-time employees are defined in this Act as employees who work on average 30—not 40—hours or more a week.

►To calculate whether you have less than or more than 50 employees, you need to calculate the number of full-time equivalent employees by collecting the total number of hours worked by all non-full-time employees (which are those with less than 30 hours a week, and don’t forget to include seasonal workers) and dividing by 120.

►Then add to this the number of full-time employees hours for each of the 12 months worked and add the monthly totals , then divide by 12.  If the average exceed 50 full-time equivalents, even though you only have 30 employees working 40 hours a week—which is what full-time used to mean—well, then you need to determine whether your firm is covered by the Act and needs to file voluminous paperwork…or do you qualify for a seasonal employee exception?  Oh, and by the way, it’s too late to fire anyone to lower your count because you would have had to make that adjustment before this month started.

►Ok, so you just put your left foot (full time) in, then put your right foot (part-timers, including seasonal) in, then shake it all about…

►Oh, wait, did any of those employees earn their hours of work in foreign income or worked outside of the U.S.?  Well, then take your left foot out…I mean, then put your left foot in (but without the foreign hours), and you shake it all about…

►Oh nuts, just do the Hokey Pokey because you’re going to turn yourself all around with this Act…and that’s what it’s all about.

Have a good day…and remember, whatever else, keep your sense of humor because it’s going to get a lot more confusing for quite some time.

It was quite gratifying to read recently in his Blackstone Blog what Wien calls the 20 life lessons he’s learned in his first 80 years, because they were almost exactly what I espouse as a career strategist.

Here are the ones that really resonated with me from a career strategy perspective:

• “Network intensely.  Luck plays a big role in life, and there is no better way to increase your luck than by knowing as many people as possible.  Nurture your network by sending articles, books and emails to people to show you’re thinking about them.”
• “When you meet someone new, trust that person as a friend.  Assume he or she is a winner and will become a positive force in your life…Occasionally you will be disappointed, but your network will broaden rapidly if you follow this path.”
• “Evolve.  Try to think of your life in phases so you can avoid a burnout.”
• “When seeking a career as you come out of school or making a job change, always take the job that looks like it will be the most enjoyable.  If it pays the most, you’re lucky.  If it doesn’t, take it anyway.  I took a severe pay cut to take each of the two best jobs I’ve ever had, and they both turned out to be exceptionally rewarding financially.”
• “There is a perfect job out there for everyone.  Most people never find it.  Keep looking.  The goal of life is to be a happy person and the right job is essential to that.”

What more needs to be said?  Wien has summed up so succinctly what it takes to grow a career and your life.

Quite frankly, even though I have a MBA in Analytic Finance, Econometrics, and Statistics from The University of Chicago, I’d rather tackle a thorny interest rate lattice using the Ho and Lee model and a massive Monte Carlo simulation than to try and figure out how to implement this Act.

One little example:

►If you’re under 50 full-time employees, you don’t need to worry about this Act because you’re exempt.

►Oh, wait, if you have 30 full-time employees and a bunch of part-time employees, you need to start filling out the paperwork so as to avoid penalties being amassed in 2014.  Why?  Because your full-time employee count includes full-time equivalent employees and seasonal employees on top of regular full-time employees.  By the way, full-time employees are defined in this Act as employees who work on average 30—not 40—hours or more a week.

►To calculate whether you have less than or more than 50 employees, you need to calculate the number of full-time equivalent employees by collecting the total number of hours worked by all non-full-time employees (which are those with less than 30 hours a week, and don’t forget to include seasonal workers) and dividing by 120.

►Then add to this the number of full-time employees hours for each of the 12 months worked and add the monthly totals , then divide by 12.  If the average exceed 50 full-time equivalents, even though you only have 30 employees working 40 hours a week—which is what full-time used to mean—well, then you need to determine whether your firm is covered by the Act and needs to file voluminous paperwork…or do you qualify for a seasonal employee exception?  Oh, and by the way, it’s too late to fire anyone to lower your count because you would have had to make that adjustment before this month started.

►Ok, so you just put your left foot (full time) in, then put your right foot (part-timers, including seasonal) in, then shake it all about…

►Oh, wait, did any of those employees earn their hours of work in foreign income or worked outside of the U.S.?  Well, then take your left foot out…I mean, then put your left foot in (but without the foreign hours), and you shake it all about…

►Oh nuts, just do the Hokey Pokey because you’re going to turn yourself all around with this Act…and that’s what it’s all about.

Have a good day…and remember, whatever else, keep your sense of humor because it’s going to get a lot more confusing for quite some time.

It was quite gratifying to read recently in his Blackstone Blog what Wien calls the 20 life lessons he’s learned in his first 80 years, because they were almost exactly what I espouse as a career strategist.

Here are the ones that really resonated with me from a career strategy perspective:

• “Network intensely.  Luck plays a big role in life, and there is no better way to increase your luck than by knowing as many people as possible.  Nurture your network by sending articles, books and emails to people to show you’re thinking about them.”
• “When you meet someone new, trust that person as a friend.  Assume he or she is a winner and will become a positive force in your life…Occasionally you will be disappointed, but your network will broaden rapidly if you follow this path.”
• “Evolve.  Try to think of your life in phases so you can avoid a burnout.”
• “When seeking a career as you come out of school or making a job change, always take the job that looks like it will be the most enjoyable.  If it pays the most, you’re lucky.  If it doesn’t, take it anyway.  I took a severe pay cut to take each of the two best jobs I’ve ever had, and they both turned out to be exceptionally rewarding financially.”
• “There is a perfect job out there for everyone.  Most people never find it.  Keep looking.  The goal of life is to be a happy person and the right job is essential to that.”

What more needs to be said?  Wien has summed up so succinctly what it takes to grow a career and your life.

Ø “A recent survey by Allianz Life Insurance Co. of America found that about half of women earning more than $100,000 worry about being bag ladies.”

Ø “The Allianz survey found that 77% of married women depend on husbands to handle investing…(yet) most men aren’t particularly savvy about building up retirement money either, so women may be naively relying on a person who isn’t helping her enough.”

Ø “According to research by Financial Engines, only about a third of people with retirement savings plans at work are investing appropriately.”

Ø “Studies of investing behavior show young people blowing it by being too conservative, and older people taking too many risks with money they can’t afford to lose on the verge of retirement.”

Ø Professors AnnaMaria Lusardi of George Washington University and Olivia Mitchell of the University of Pennsylvania “have tested Americans and found ‘actual financial knowledge sorely deficient for high school and working-age adults.’  In addition, they found that people far overestimate their ability to make proper personal finance decisions…Lusardi found that inherited wealth or job success was no guarantee people would be smart about money, and that blacks, Hispanics and women are the least likely to build wealth because of deficient knowledge.”

Ø  “Women are particularly at risk because they live longer than men and often spend down household savings caring for sick husbands.  About half of women live to 90, and many widows struggle to make leftover savings last when they have no idea how to invest.”

As someone who helps companies and professionals craft smart financial human capital choices, it makes me glad that there’s an answer to the lack of knowledge captured above—it’s Money Smart Week this week.  So please go to www.moneysmartweek.org, choose an event or two that covers a topic you want to know more about, and go.

These events are free and the speakers have been vetted so they do NOT try to sell you anything.  As a Money Smart Week Partner myself, I can attest that we are giving freely of our time and knowledge because we are dedicated to changing the statistics given above.

*******************************************************************************************************************************

Full disclosure and a shameless plug :  Gail MarksJarvis and I are presenting a Money Smart Week event this Friday, April 26, 2013 at noon to 1:30PM at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 230 South LaSalle, entitled “2013 Career Money-Making Strategies:  How to Get/Enjoy the Career You Want & Make the Money You Need (from college through retirement).”  Basically, we’re there to answer the questions you have on these topics.  Full information can be found by CLICK HERE or by calling 630.466.7095.  RSVPs are required even though the event is free with 10 chances to win Gail’s and my books plus free Top 10 Savings/Investing Tips and Top 10 Career Money-Making Tips handouts for all.  Call 630.466.7095 or email hqs1@juno.com to reserve your spot.

 My  favorite topics in this video are:

• Why today you need to save while your parents/grandparents didn’t have to be concerned and yet they are leading some really neat retirement lives.
• What state and city workers, public school teachers and librarians, and other public sector workers should be thinking about and what they should know about how the law protects…and doesn’t protect…them.

 Now, on to the Top 10 Reasons why you should read this book.

1.  There’s a good reason why this book just won the 2013 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Award by The Institute for Financial Literacy–it’s fantastic. It explains in easy to understand terms why individuals now need to save for their retirement (when earlier generations didn’t have such a pressing need) and how starting young with $20 weekly really adds up. Plus Gail explains–again in easy to understand terms–what to do if you didn’t start saving earlier in your life.

2. This was an excellent book. It was easy to understand, which is very important as I get closer to retirement. I have never understood Wall Street and investing, although I have been an active investor. Since reading this book I feel more confident and knowledgeable about my investments – 403b and IRA. I recommend this book to anyone who not only plan to retire, but also most importantly want to understand investing in stocks and bonds.  This is first book I’ve read that really says what to do. Bought for self and enjoyed so much, I bought another for a relative. Highly recommend for those of us who aren’t daily traders and need to invest but have no idea where to start.

3. After a dinner conversation with friends in which the issue of retirement came up, I became uncomfortably aware that despite the fact that all of us at the table were highly educated, none of us knew our “number” for retirement. As we are all mid-career, it occurred to me with some urgency that I needed to face the issue and educate myself about it. The next day, I found Gail MarksJarvis’s book, and I have been carrying it around with me for weeks, reading it first cover to cover and re-reading sections as I make calculations and formulate a better retirement plan than I had prior to reading this gem of a book. Ms. MarksJarvis explains thoroughly and concisely in layman’s terms how to understand various retirement plan options, the way the market works, mutual funds and index funds, asset allocation, and–my favorite–chapter 11: “Do This.” The book really empowered me to formulate a plan that not only makes sense, but also alleviates my anxiety about the future. The book offers comprehensible explanations of complex concepts, yet it remains a pleasure to read throughout. Did I just say that about an investment/finance book?! I have already recommended “Saving for Retirement” to several friends and co-workers, and I hope Ms. MarksJarvis will continue to disseminate her vast knowledge of the financial world to those of us who do not work in finance but need to build our retirement pies.

4. This book is full of common sense advice and the advice you might get if you were to pay for a financial advisor. And while it has a lot of basic advice it is also appropriate for the person who might be in the market but not really understand why or how to make it work for them.

If you have been investing for some time, understand how much you need to retire, and can explain to someone who doesn’t understand how much they might need for retirement and explain some of the financial terms such as Spiders etc; then this book is probably too basic for you.

This book has a lot of basic information that would be useful if you were just getting into the market for investing. For example, there are chapters titled “What is a Mutual Fund?” and “Know your Mutual Fund Manager’s Job”. And while those may seem like simplistic chapters they have good information.  It also delves a little bit deeper into how to invest. For example; the chapters on asset allocation, how to pick funds, and target date funds.  Each chapter is divided into smaller segments tied directly to the topic at hand.

During the course of this book the author provides a lot of analogies that help clarify the subject. For example; the author says essentially ‘sure you can save and not invest and it’s just like taking a long walk and using baby steps or you can invest and it’s like getting some help on your walk, each step takes you closer’. To me it was exactly like having a conversation with a friend who knew more than I did about these matters.

One of the things I really like about this book is that the author speaks to you as a friend and does not at any time speak down to you. There are a few charts and graphs but nothing that is overwhelming. There are a lot of questions and answers and for instances in this book. And there are examples of what other people have done but not too many that it’s overwhelming or distracting.

I didn’t think I’d enjoy reading a book about financial matters because it’s such a dry topic. I just knew that it was probably something I needed to read. I’m glad I did and I actually enjoyed it.  Well worth the money.  Enjoy.

5. This is one of one of the best written books on planning and saving for retirement. It is extremely well-written, down-to-earth, easy digestible and accessible. I recommend it for all ages but especially for those in the 20-30 age group. It is advice far more wise than a company or government pamphlet abd presented in such a understandable format. The advice given is not necessarily new but it is aimed towards those of us who struggle with understanding finances and retirement planning. Gail MarksJarvis does a fabulous job of present vital information on a boring but important topic.

6. People new to retirement planning will find this book both accessible and useful. The author first provides assurance that if you, the reader, feel as though you’re in the dark regarding retirement finances, you have a lot of company. She walks through an array of retirement examples as she goes through the book. One of my favorites involved a bunch of middle-class retirees who all seemed to be living the good life: dinners outs, vacations, lots of golf, etc. Turns out that those retirees struggled a lot to make ends meet when they were working, but in retirement received not only Social Security but old-style pensions as well. But the author dispels any fantasies YOU should have about relying on either of those in the future.

Gail MarksJarvis guides you through today’s retirement world, indicating that it’s pretty much all on your own shoulders to ensure that you have enough money in your golden years. She indicates that unknown health care needs coupled with the uncertain futures of Social Security and Medicare programs will require people these days to save more than the retirees of yesteryear. The advice she offers, however, is fairly tried and true, encouraging the reader: to take advantage of company matches in 401(k)’s; to max out retirement contributions (if you can); to start retirement saving early; to use IRAs (even if you already have a 401[k]); to invest in low-cost index funds rather than popular, high-cost funds; to invest heavily in stocks early on; etc. She pretty much tells you all you need to know.  This book is good for beginners as well as seasoned retirement planners. A beginner might find it tough to get through due to its length (a bit less than 300 pages), but the book is an easy enough read.

7. I wasn’t exactly sure what this book would contain, secrets for how to get the money to save so you don’t retire penniless, or would it be about investing strategies? It turns out to be a well written guide book to the basics of investing in the different retirement accounts available in the USA. I was impressed by this book and even though I have read many books on investing, none were as clear and simple to understand as this book. I learned quite a few things, including what a Roth IRA can do for you. Any other time that I have read about a Roth IRA I never understood why it had such appeal. One simple paragraph or two and I comprehended. That is a sign of a good “How-To” book. Make it simple enough that not only can the reader understand, but they can also put the advice into practice.

One of my favorite things in this book was the constant pushing to remind young adults that starting to save now in a 401K or IRA would over the long haul leave them with a tidy retirement fund of somewhere in the vicinity of $1,000,000. Yes, we are aware of inflation on that amount over 30-40+ years, but how much better to have that million dollars even if its spending ability has diminished, than no money saved at all? This is a book every parent should read and then give a copy to each of their high school age kids or college kids at the latest, so they can secure a future for themselves. I will be passing my copy over to my son to read and I anticipate some good conversations with him about the book and what investing plan we both should come up with. I’m so late in the game but financial problems have reared there ugly heads for me way too many times, but I do look forward to trying to get our finances earning the best they can.

For anyone who doesn’t understand the stock market, how to invest in their 401Ks and IRAs, this book will help you to not only understand but make wise choices because of the knowledge they have gained. A must read book for the baffled.

One thing I was very impressed about in this book, is that it was written without ever once saying this or that fund is `sexy’. Somehow over the last few years, the word sexy has come to replace words like great, fantastic, etc. Since stocks and investing are asexual, they literally can’t be `sexy’ and I’m glad that this writer knew that. Unfortunately this bad habit of some writers tends to feel like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

8. This book does an excellent job of explaining the options for investing your 401k or IRA and the importance of doing so.  There’s not a lot of math, but there are a lot of examples of (if you invested this amount this way for this many years, your end result would be ____ vs. invested that way, you’d have ____). It gives an excellent feel for historic trends and assurance of how cycles work and why you shouldn’t panic.
It also helps to understand how mixes of bonds and various types of stocks (US, international, large/small, aggressive/growth) work and can be used to offset each other for gain and risk. Also, how this might change as you age.

Even though I’ve read a number of books and guides on this, this is one of the best I’ve come across for actually giving easy to interpret methods for looking at your fund options and deciding where you personally, based on your goals, want to be.  For those not wanting to do a lot of work, it also gives some “easy” options which are better than doing nothing or making bad choices.

Specific ideas advocated include (not in this order):
• How bonds work and how they can lose or gain money
• How stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs work
•  Differences in risk, performance, and meaning between large, small, and mid-cap and how you might want to mix them
•  How to view international stocks
• Index funds
•  Performance of index funds vs. more managed or specialized funds historically
•  How to evaluate your mutual fund manager
• The importance of the expense ratio, and why you really do need to bargain shop for low fees.
• How brokers and financial planners get paid and why they may not be as good of an option as doing it yourself.
• Free money from the government for low income investors or from company matches for those that have them
• How to calculate your income in retirement and what you might need when considering pensions, social security, and your retirement accounts.
•  Some basic information on pensions
• Differences in life expectancy for men and women.
• Common mistakes – putting a lot in one stock, panicking due to not understanding cycles, too much in stable value (particularly at a young age), not investing, not investing up to the match, saving too little (or too much!) and so on.

Chapters are easily labeled and you can flip to them easily if you want or just read it straight through. Easy to read, not terribly technical, but doesn’t treat you like an idiot either. Author is perhaps a bit more conservative than I would be but she really does focus on helping you decide your own tolerance and work toward that. Also does a great job for those that don’t want to go to a lot of effort giving you options that are far better than doing nothing. I’m more willing to do a little effort, but the info in the book still helps a lot.There is a lot of reliance on online calculators but the author gives her own website where she promises to update as those links change.  Author intentionally leaves out a lot of math, but would have been nice to have some basic equations (maybe referenced in the back) for those that would prefer to do their own. However, it’s not like you can’t figure it out yourself if you really want to.  I felt it highly useful…made me rethink my allocations. When I looked at her advice and then the funds available to me and figured out how I would have done (based on historical data) her advice outperformed my own guessing.

9. Every person should receive this book after graduating high school. While I love Dr. Seuss’s, “Oh the Places You’ll Go” I realized that after reading this book you won’t go far if you don’t have a retirement savings. I am 32 years old and I had not saved $1 for my retirement. After reading this book, I realized that all of my family haven’t done so either. Gail was right, most of us don’t know what to do, are afraid, and so do nothing. Well I no longer feel this way. I actually feel empowered now. I have a plan of action thanks to Gail, that will set me straight for all the years I lost and it won’t drastically change the way I currently live now. What most impressed me about this book is that it is for everyone. It is for young and old people, people who have some finance knowledge or none, people who may like to take risks or play it safe. Gail has thought of everyone and included everyone into this book. Finally, it is an easy read. I’m a lover of fiction but after reading the 1st chapter of this book, I could not put it down. I finished it within a few days, and now it has become a reference tool for me. I have post-its, bookmarks, and notes in it, and I look back on it when I need to. Please do yourself a favor and read this book. Share it with your friends and family, it is the best gift you could give anyone. You are handing them knowledge for their future that they will so desperately need. I have started to save now in my 401k and I have opened a Roth IRA all by myself and I have never felt better! Gail has changed our lives. Thank you!

10. I read and followed the advice in MarksJarvis’ first book. Unlike a number of my friends, I survived the 2008 crash and have done well. I’m concerned, however, about what I’m supposed to do now, with our stock market continuing to swing wildly, high unemployment, Europe melting down, and China slowing down. In this new edition, the author once again provides straight forward advice, telling me how to invest simply and showing me how it worked during the worst stock market since the Depression. I’m giving this book five stars and recommending it to investors at the beginning, middle or end of their retirement saving years.

Another fun element added to the Money Smart Week roster this year is The 2013 Money Smart Week Scavenger Hunt, which is a free, nationwide, photojournalistic, scavenger hunt where all the tasks the participants demonstrate how financially savvy they are.  The hunt offers some $600 in prizes and you can still join in as it doesn’t end until April 27th—go to www.moneysmartweek.org/hunt if it sounds like an interesting activity for you and yours.

Another whole host of fun yet free and informative events taking place nationwide and in Chicago can be found at www.moneysmartweek.org on their Calendar of Events page.  Of course, if you’re in Chicago, and you would like to hear myself, Kathy Graham, and nationally syndicated financial columnist for The Chicago Tribune, Gail MarksJarvis, talk about:

• how to make more money while getting, keeping, and growing your job/career.
• how to keep and grow the money you make while still enjoying life and taking care of the people you love.

 …and you get to ask us all the career and financial questions you’ve been wanting to know the answers to, such as:

 AFTER SCHOOL: how can I find my dream job? How can I afford to work my dream job with my huge college debt load?  Are there other choices besides working whatever comes my way so I can pay the bills?

 THRU MID-CAREER:  how can I grow my career, pay for the family, take care of my parents, and still find something to put away for retirement and have a bit of fun to boot?  I am so squished!

 AT THE TOP:  I’m at the top of my career…so what do I do next?…and how do I afford doing it?

 RETIRED: I have plenty of money, but what do I do with my time? OR I’m afraid that I will outlive my savings—what can I do to prevent that from happening while still enjoying my life today?

…then please plan on attending our free event, 2013 Career Money-Making Strategies: How to Get/Enjoy the Career You Want & Make the Money You Need (from college through retirement), on Friday, April 26, 2013 from noon to 1:30PM at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.  All you need to do is RSVP in advance to hqs1@juno.com or by calling me at 630.466.7095 for further information.

In the meantime, please also view on YouTube Gail MarksJarvis Part 3, which is  my interview of Gail, who happens to be the recipient of the 2013 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education Award by the Institute for Financial Literacy for her book, Saving For Retirement (Without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery).  You’ll hear Gail explain:

• How to quit shooting yourself in the foot by learning how to turn $30k in savings over 30 years into $500k…rather than getting stuck with only $40k.
• How to make the most of your money without suffering.
• Why she (and I) are big proponents of Money Smarts that are fun, free, and informative.

Before reading their comments, remember that a signaling device is a mechanism used when it’s hard for a buyer to tell whether a item (or person) for sale is fool’s gold or the real thing.  One way a seller can signal that they’re truly gold is by building a brand name.  The process we recommend and help our clients implement in our Your Career Campaign product line is to establish a marketing brand that highlights through many examples the abilities that their desired next position requires for success.

By publishing such information in the public domain—backed by others’ recommendations, testimonials, and endorsements—a verifiable identity emerges that reaffirms that their performance and skill set is as advertised.  Economic theory clearly states that sellers with or who are high quality products need to signal the quality of their products so that buyers can distinguish between the fool’s gold and the real deal.

Of course, the other question that professionals should be asking themselves in private is:  “If my work services are quality, do my marketing materials, both traditional (resumes, bios, etc.) and online platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, website/blogs, etc.), truly reflect the level of delivery and the promises that my branding is stating that I can and do deliver?

So, here’s what the some attendees thought regarding social media as a signaling device:

• “Who reads these blogs?”
• “Obviously, LinkedIn is the most important signaling tool.  The others seem to demonstrate how technology savvy you are.”
• “LinkedIn is the critical tool in this technological age to grow a career.”