Interactive Electronic Group Research: December 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

personal finance

Intuit-owned Mint.com is heading to schools today with the launch of a free, online program designed to educate middle-school students about personal finance and financial management.

Mint has partnered with educational publisher Scholastic to develop materials that parents and teachers can use to teach children the ins and outs of personal finance management. The materials includes lesson plans as well as an interactive game, to teach children money management, budgeting and goals.

For example, the program teaches children the concept of compound interest with real-life math problems, and encourages children to set goals and budgets with their own current work opportunities (i.e. babysitting).

Mint says the curriculum will be expanded to 30,000 classrooms nationwide early next year. Considering the state of the economy and credit, teaching children financial literacy and sounds personal finance practices at an early edge is an incredibly important initiative. In terms of branding, this is a big win for Mint, which can start building awareness of its tools among students at an early age.

I never thought that at age 45, I'd celebrate my first Christmas. But nine months after meeting my current partner, I'm all set to do just that.

Being Jewish, I never celebrated the holiday. When I was little, and on behalf of younger relatives today, there were Chanukah presents. But those are small and only given by, or to, close family members. Sure I counted many Christians among my friends and exchanged a few gifts over the years, but one present here and there doesn't require much strategy.There are non-Christians who celebrate the holiday with a tree and presents, just for fun, and many who've pooh poohed the idea that Christmas is just for Christians. They say that putting up a tree and opening presents is for everyone, regardless of religion. I beg to differ. A holiday should mean something. Encouraging an empty observance feels just that to me: empty and vaguely insulting to those for whom Christmas has meaning.

I won't get into how it feels to be on the sidelines of the holiday season (although it's a lot worse than getting picked last in gym class), and I won't get into how having a birthday in December adds to the misery of not participating in the dominant event (but the former is always overshadowed by the latter, something you don't even celebrate). WalletPop is a personal finance site after all.

All of the above is emotional, not financial. But as I've recently discovered, the two are inseparable when it comes to Christmas.

This year, I am seriously involved with a man who celebrates Christmas. He has a large family and three children, all of whom eagerly plan for the holiday. There are parties, dinners, wish lists, letters to Santa and church services, and I am lucky to be included in all of it. Better yet, for the first time in my life, it doesn't feel false.

But it's also humbling and I've done pretty much everything wrong when it comes to shopping. It's a humiliating thing for a retail reporter and contributor to a personal finance site to confess, but there's an end of the year urge to purge, or er... splurge. Let my mistakes be a lesson, to me and anyone else in a similar position.

1. I Didn't Budget. Yes, I write for a personal finance site, and sure, I'm considered financially savvy, but they say doctors make the worst patients. The same apparently applies to finance writers.

I thought, "There's just these few people. How much trouble could I get in?" Plenty as it turns out, as I struggle not to give in to every urge. "Look, these fleecy pajama pants are perfect for ______," even though I'd already gotten her two presents and would have to buy one more for her older sister in the interest of fairness. Had I made a budget, this would have gone down quite differently.

2. I Didn't Make a List, for them or me. I made a mental list, but not having something solid for reference has me waffling at the store, and this indecision is leading to over-buying (see mistake number 1) and not writing down things that I want, which means I'll likely ponder returning a gift and risk hurting someone's feelings or hanging on to dud gifts. I'm used to buying myself the things I want or need; it would have been nice to receive them as gifts instead.

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Good news: School officials destroy girl's college plans over ...

Good news: School officials destroy girl's college plans over knife mix-up.

Larry Kramer: This Is Why Fox News Continues To Roll

People are getting lazy about forming their own opinions.

Skype, FCC, IBM and Tech News Before New Year's

Skype, FCC, IBM and Tech News Before New Year's While the week before Christmas and New Year's is typically slow with regards to blair pleasant, cbs, data mining, fcc, ibm, information technology, israel, itexpo, lance whitney, mazda, ...

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Who's Making Money

Rep. Rohrabacher Suggests White People Will ‘Lose Our Freedom’ If The DREAM Act Passes

In their efforts to bring down the DREAM Act, which would give children of undocumented immigrants who complete college or volunteer for the military a path to citizenship, conservatives have been smearing the bill as “backdoor amnesty” for undocumented immigrants and claiming it creates a loophole for terrorists. Unfortunately, many of their attacks have also taken on racial undertones. Yesterday, Fox News host Glenn Beck told a caller on his radio show that the bill would disenfranchise white people, saying, “if you’re white or you’re an American citizen or a white American citizen, you’re pretty much toast.” Beck suggested his caller steal a Mexican ID card in to receive the supposedly preferential treatment minorities will receive under DREAM.

While clearly bigoted, Beck’s comments appeared to have the joking tone of a self-described “rodeo clown.” But Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) was not joking when he took to the House floor Wednesday to warn that voting for “the Affirmative Action Amnesty Act,” as he dubbed DREAM, will “relegate the position of non-minority American citizens to behind those who are now in this country illegally.”

Appearing on Radio America with Greg Corombus yesterday, Rohrabacher expanded on the dangers to white people of DREAM, explaining that the “real zinger” is that it puts minorities “ahead of every American child who’s not a minority.” “hey can get into college before our kids,” Rohrabacher said on behalf of white people everywhere, warning ominously at the end of the interview that “if Americans aren’t alerted to this, we’re going to lose our freedom”:

ROHRABACHER: And one thing that people don’t talk, and this is the real zinger. … So they go to college, they finish, they get their legal status. Well, if that person happens to be a minority, which many, as we know, illegal aliens are Hispanic in background and other minorities, they then are immediately eligible to all the preferences we have written into our laws.

So we’re not only putting them in the line, so to speak, but we’re putting them ahead of every American child who’s not a minority. You put them at the front of the line for government education program, for jobs, for all the other preferences that we’ve written into our law. This is outrageous! Not only are we paying them money, that should be going to our kids education, but we’re making it so they can get accepted to college before our kids can get into.

Please alert the people, if Americans aren’t alerted to this, we’re going to lose our freedom and we know it’s in jeopardy right now.

Listen here:

Of course, the DREAM Act is not amnesty, nor is it affirmative action, and it is certainly not a measure to oppress white people. The bill extends conditional legal status for five years to young people who are upstanding citizens and in this country illegally by not fault of their own. It will also help enforce immigration laws, reduce the deficit, and strengthen the military, but that doesn’t seem to matter to Rohrabacher or Beck.

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/> [style="text-decoration: underline;">Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past four years. You can reach them by email: asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]

Evan here. If you are a transactional associate at a top US firm and your name happens to be of Asian origin, especially of Chinese background, then you are probably receiving multiple cold calls per day from recruiters. After all the Asia lateral biglaw markets, especially HK / China are red hot now and it is of course very easy to compile a list of top US firm associates with Asian names.

Keep in mind that there can be very negative consequences in giving control of such an important career move and job search to someone calling you out of the blue (no matter how many times they may call). We often get calls from very well qualified US associates with sad tales of at worst their resume being plastered unauthorized all over China or other Asia markets; or at best only authorized submissions (thankfully) but realizing their recruiter has done little more than emailing their resume to begin with and is unresponsive for weeks.

It is important to note that your resume is a very valuable commodity to recruiters calling you. When you are placed at a law firm, the recruiter who submitted your resume is typically paid (by the law firm) 25 to 30% of your starting base salary. Thus, the recruiters cold-calling you have a big incentive to get a hold of your resume and email it to law firms, with or without your authorization (believe it or not, some biglaw recruiters in Asia are known to be even less ethical than the worst of the lot in the US). Once your resume has been submitted to a law firm, the recruiter who did so “owns” your candidacy there for at least six months. Further, when your resume has been submitted without your authorization, it will take an affidavit from you to the target firm explaining such for the submission to be reversed (and basically that is you explaining to the firm that you did not know you even applied there, which can of course cool off any motivation of that firm to continue to want to interview you, and the unethical recruiter is counting on you to thus not take that route).

We try to think that a lot of recruiters do not take such unethical steps, but please note that even the most well-intentioned recruiters trying to break into the Asia markets are more often than not woefully inexperienced with such lateral placements (and even most of those with some experience have never been more than resume pushers).id="more-49277">

We recommend that you make sure you are represented by a recruiter who is willing and able (has the experience necessary in your target market) to act as your agent, instead of just someone who is only able and / or willing to email your resume to firms. You should be pro-actively looking for an agent (we recommend interviewing prospective agent / recruiters months before you start your search when possible), not simply handing your search over to a headhunter that happens to be calling with the earth shattering news that they know, for example, of firms in China that have openings for Mandarin fluent US associates in cap markets and M&A (almost every top US and UK firm in HK / China has such openings), or that the sky is blue.

The question you should be asking is not whether there are openings and whether you would be very competitive candidate for such spots (yes and yes), but whether the person calling you is best suited for representing you.

At the very least, make sure the recruiter cold-calling you can:

a) Provide at minimum 10 references of US associates they have actually placed in your target market in Asia (I could easily provide 50, as 10 is a very small and unimpressive number, but should be a minimum guideline to figure out if the recruiter actually has a history of successfully placing US associates in your target market); and

b) Is able to discuss in great detail each roles you may consider targeting, including details regarding the relevant partners involved (does the recruiter even have a business relationship with the particular partners making the hire), including their personality, practice area, and plans for growth. I usually refer to this as the “3 hour rule”, in that if you get the impression that the recruiter could not talk non-stop about your target market for about 3 hours, then move on to the next recruiter (does not mean you actually have to listen to them for 3 hours).

It can be a lengthy process to find the right fit lateral spot in Asia, especially if you are moving from the US. It is much more complex than simply moving down the street to another big office. Instead you are moving to a much smaller office, smaller group, a place where you will have a lot more responsibilities with clients and where your personality fit with your primary supervising partner will be key (not only for progression at your new firm, but also for the foundation of your career in your target Asian market).

It is also a very exciting move and you deserve to be working with an agent / recruiter (rather than headhunter / recruiter) who is excited about helping you and the firms / partners he is recruiting for in Asia; who is excited to be invested in your career for the long-term; not focused on a recruiting fee (is willing to give advice not corresponding with recruiter being paid if that is the best advice); and who is capable (actual long-term experience with the market and similar lateral moves) of giving you the best advice and guidance.

Our team at Kinney can of course do a great job for you on an Asia job search. We know a handful of recruiters outside our recruiting firm as well whom we can recommend and are happy to do so. If unfortunately you have gone down the road already of being represented by a headhunter (instead of an agent) and you need advice, feel free to get in touch with us as well. While we can’t represent you at your target firms in such situations (remember, your headhunter already “owns” your candidacy at any firm contacted for at least 6 months), we are happy to give you advice and guidance regarding job search strategy and which offer to take (we have helped numerous US associates in such situations, including helping them negotiate their comp packages).

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Rep. Rohrabacher Suggests White People Will ‘Lose Our Freedom’ If The DREAM Act Passes

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Thursday, December 9, 2010