Firm Hope In a better tomorrow!

Some good Samaritans are helping one Hiram, Georgia, family whose home was hit hard by floods. CNN’s Catherine Callaway reports.

Money Magazine published a great articled on how to make your money last after you retire. You can find the original article on CNN. This is some good advice for all of us.

Figuring out how to draw secure retirement income from a portfolio is a challenge in the best of times; today it’s made more complicated by fear. Having seen the worst-case scenario unfold in the past year, you’ve probably gone into loss-avoidance mode. But deflecting market risk leaves you vulnerable to inflation risk — and the risk that you’ll outlive your money. So hiding in cash won’t save you.

“No one investment can protect you from every risk you’ll face,” says John Ameriks, head of Vanguard Investment Counseling & Research. What you need, rather, is a basket of investments that provides:

1. Stable income you’re not likely to outlive.

2. The potential for that income to grow to beat inflation.

3. The ability to access cash to meet unexpected needs.

4. Adequate protection from market downturns.

Here are three smart strategies to achieve those goals. The second offers the best chance of making your money last; however, you’ll lose access to a big chunk of your savings. The others give you more control, but less certainty. There’s no free lunch in retirement — but the menu that follows presents some interesting options.

Strategy 1: The traditional stock-and-bond portfolio

YOU’RE A CANDIDATE IF …

You have enough income from Social Security and pensions to cover most of your basic expenses (so you could weather a market storm) and/or you’re confident in your ability to manage your portfolio.

THE PREMISE: You invest in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and cash that has the potential to generate current income and capital gains. You pull out money as needed, starting off with a 4% annual withdrawal — $40,000 on a $1 million portfolio — then increasing the dollar amount by the inflation rate each year.

Done correctly, this gives you a 77% shot of your money lasting 30 years, says Ibbotson Associates. The higher the withdrawal rate, the lower your odds. So this strategy may not work if you need more income than 4% would provide.

THE DRAWBACKS: A sizable loss early in retirement could undo you. If your portfolio loses 20% the first year, the chances of your savings lasting 30 years could drop to roughly 50%. Alternatively, if the market does well over the long run, you could be left with a huge sum late in life, so you would have lived more frugally than you had to.

HOW TO PULL IT OFF: Allocation is key. Going 100% into bonds might protect you from a market meltdown, but such cataclysms are rare. And you’d lose out on inflation protection. Loading up on stocks gives you a better shot at increasing your income, yet you may get mauled by a bear market. So aim for the middle ground: For someone just entering retirement, a broadly diversified fifty-fifty stock-to-bond blend like the one in the chart above, right is a reasonable starting point.

You also have to be flexible with withdrawals. In a declining market you may have to skip the inflation boost or scale back the amount you draw down. Conversely, if the markets go on a run, you may be able to take more. Check yearly at T. Rowe Price’s Retirement Income Calculator.

Finally, be strategic in the way you tap assets. Start with taxable accounts; then tax-deferred (401(k)s and traditional IRAs); then tax-free Roths. That way the latter accounts compound longer without the drag of taxes, so you can build bigger balances and draw more income over time.

Strategy 2: Stocks, bonds – and an immediate annuity

YOU’RE A CANDIDATE IF …

You need more income for basic expenses than you’ll get from Social Security and pensions. Or you’d like to avoid subjecting all your savings to market volatility.

THE PREMISE: Invest a portion of your savings in a lifetime immediate annuity, an insurance product that will send you fixed monthly checks for as long as you and/or your spouse live. You’ll manage the rest of your portfolio as in Strategy 1. The payoff: You’ll have another layer of guaranteed income and still have funds to tap.

This strategy provides longer income security than the first because the payout from an immediate annuity can’t be easily matched by another sure-bet investment. Recently immediate annuities paid out roughly 8% for a 65-year-old man, or about $40,000 a year on $500,000. You’d have to invest significantly more to get the same assured lifetime income from long-term Treasuries. The reason immediate annuities pay so well? Investors’ money is pooled, allowing insurers to essentially transfer funds from early croakers to those who hang on past life expectancy.

THE DRAWBACKS: Once you hand over, say, a few hundred grand for an immediate annuity, you typically give up access to the money. You can’t use it for a new roof or a vacation in France, or pass it down to your kids. Plus, if you’re hit by a bus early in retirement, the annuity will have paid out less than you put in. For those reasons, many people perceive immediate annuities as potentially wasted money.

Another concern: Annuity payments are usually fixed, meaning they’ll be worth less over time because of inflation. A few insurers offer inflation-adjusted immediate annuities, but the payouts start considerably lower.

Finally, while annuities eliminate market and longevity risk, they introduce another risk: Your income security is based on the financial health of the insurer.

HOW TO PULL IT OFF: In reality, money in an annuity is no more “wasted” than the premiums you pay to insure your house. So try to get over that psychological hurdle, since this strategy presents your best chance of maintaining income.

To make it work, you want to devote enough to the annuity so that the income, along with Social Security and pensions, covers your basic expenses. But you don’t want to go overboard, as you’ll lose too much liquidity. Plus, you’ll need to use what’s left to try to beat inflation, since your annuity payments won’t.

There’s no one “right” mix. Splitting savings fifty-fifty between an immediate annuity and a diversified portfolio can provide the same 4% inflation-adjusted income as in Strategy 1 — but with a 99% chance of lasting 30 years. If you can live with less certainty, you can boost your income to, say, 4.5% by drawing more from your portfolio. Or, you could invest less in the annuity.

Consider buying in stages. That prevents you from over-committing and from investing all your money when interest rates — which drive payouts — are lowest. To mitigate the risk of insurer failure, stick to companies highly rated by Standard & Poor’s and A.M. Best, then spread your money among two or three companies. Check at nolhga.com that the amount you’ll invest with each company is covered by your state’s insurance guaranty association.

Strategy 3: All of the above, plus a variable annuity

YOU’RE A CANDIDATE IF …

You need more income than Social Security and pensions will provide, but you want access to more of your savings than Strategy 2 allows.

THE PREMISE: While maintaining a stock/bond portfolio, you’ll also invest a portion of savings in an immediate annuity and a portion in a variable annuity with a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit (a.k.a. VA with GLWB), an investment account promising a minimum withdrawal for the rest of your life.

In a VA with GLWB, you choose the investments, within limits. You can dip into the account as needed. And you can typically leave the greater of (a) the account balance or (b) your original investment minus withdrawals to your heirs. So it’s more flexible than an immediate annuity.

The other advertised benefit: Your income has the potential to grow if your investments appreciate. Say you invest $250,000 and are guaranteed 5%, or $12,500 a year. If, on your contract anniversary date, a rising market has pushed your balance to $300,000 after fees, your 5% will be applied to that amount, boosting your income to $15,000.

Even if a market crash later knocks your account to $200,000, you’re still guaranteed 15 grand (though if you want to cash out, you’re limited to the actual account value).

THE DRAWBACKS: Flexibility comes at a price. First, variable annuities pay significantly less than immediate annuities, only about 5% for a 65-year-old. Second, the plans come with such high fees, often 3% or more a year, that it’s difficult for your account value to grow at all, let alone keep pace with inflation. Third, though you can draw more than your guaranteed amount from the account, doing so will reduce your income for future years. Last, you face the same insurer risks as in Strategy 2.

HOW TO PULL IT OFF: The high fees and low payout of the VA explain why you need an immediate annuity in the mix: Without it, the odds of maintaining your target income are slightly lower than with a stock/bond portfolio alone.

Together you want the payouts, along with Social Security and pensions, to cover your basic expenses. So how much in each? The more you put in the variable annuity vs. the immediate, the more of your assets you’ll have access to.

In exchange, you’ll settle for a lower guaranteed payout. A reasonable mix: Put 25% of savings into an immediate annuity, put 25% in a VA, and invest the other 50%. That gives you a 92% chance of getting the income you want for 30 years. You’ll end up giving away more of your savings to fees than with the other strategies, but, alas, you have to pay for security one way or another.

If a collector contacts you about a debt, you may want to talk to them at least once to see if you can resolve the matter — even if you don’t think you owe the debt, can’t repay it immediately or think that the collector is contacting you by mistake. If you decide after contacting the debt collector that you don’t want the collector to contact you again, tell the collector — in writing — to stop contacting you. Here’s how to do that:

Make a copy of your letter. Send the original by certified mail, and pay for a “return receipt” so you’ll be able to document what the collector received. Once the collector receives your letter, they may not contact you again, with two exceptions: a collector can contact you to tell you there will be no further contact or to let you know that they or the creditor intend to take a specific action, like filing a lawsuit. Sending such a letter to a debt collector you owe money to does not get rid of the debt, but it should stop the contact. The creditor or the debt collector still can sue you to collect the debt.

In today’s economy, many people are looking for a new job or a second job to help supplement their income. Thanks to online job posting sites, it’s never been easier to surf the Web for your next career. Unfortunately, this convenience has also led to a slew of scams that take advantage of job seekers by stealing sensitive personal information — the first step of identity theft. The prevalence of fake job ads has increased in recent years. While a number of these scams are quite elaborate and can often times look legitimate, there are ways to tell real job opportunities from tricky identity theft tactics.

Whether it’s under the guise of a background check or a work-at-home opportunity, when it comes to online job searching, there are many potential identity theft scams. Usually, however, they tend to share certain aspects in common that can serve as a red flag.

• Avoid any circumstance where a company asks for your Social Security number, bank account numbers, PIN, driver’s license number or other sensitive personal information up front. They may ask for this information in order to do a “background check” or in order to grant you access to parts of the company’s site. In reality, these are just tactics to get your personal information. Almost no company would hire you from your resume alone, sight unseen. Don’t let your excitement about a potential job opportunity cloud your good judgment.
• Keep your eyes peeled for poor spelling and grammar as well as jobs based out of developing countries. While there are certainly jobs available across the world — and none of us are immune to the occasional typo — these factors may be able to tip you off to a job scam. If anything about the listing seems suspicious, look into it further.
• Consider opening a separate e-mail account from which to submit your resume and apply for jobs. This will help reduce the incidence of spam and the potential for phishing (fake emails that appear to be from a reliable source designed to acquire personal information). It can also help you keep all of your information consolidated and easy to access.
• When in doubt, research the company to which you are applying thoroughly. Most reputable companies should have a presence on the Internet beyond a single Web site (anyone can create a fraudulent site). Similarly, make sure that your contact person actually works for the company in question. If you can’t discern this from the Web site, feel free to call the company’s main line and ask for this person. Be wary of any personal e-mail addresses or phone/fax numbers with area codes inconsistent with the company’s location.
• Finally, avoid positions such as “Payment Representative” or “Accounts Receivable Clerk” for any but the most reputable companies. A number of “money mule” scams use unsuspecting victims to transfer laundered money, leaving the victim a responsible party and vulnerable to legal proceedings.

SOURCE: Experian

What happens when two incomes become no incomes? This was the topic that Debra Donston-Miller recently tackled. She found that coordination and flexibility are the keys, according to couples who are working their way through dual layoffs.  Here is her article …

Fourteen million Americans are now out of work, nearly one in every 10 American workers. Among those is Charley Gosse of McLean, Va. In late 2007, Gosse was laid off from his job as chief financial officer at a nearby private school and has been in search of a job ever since. Also among those 14 million is Laura Gosse, who was laid off in January from her job as vice president of an online marketing company.

Laura and Charley were once dual wage-earners in a two-income family that also includes two young daughters. Now Laura and Charley Gosse are tightening their belts to make ends meet on dwindling severances, savings and unemployment benefits while conducting dual job searches for a no-income family. They’re not alone.

More than 151,000 two-income families became no-income families in 2008, the latest year for which statistics were available, raising the total to 663,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number was up 29 percent from 512,000 in 2007.

For the Gosses and others facing two layoffs and two job searches, the experience requires more than just a plan to save money. A dual job search, said experts and families who have experienced it, requires a different job-search strategy. Any plan must support and coordinate resume writing, interview scheduling and traveling. It must also take into account potential decisions about whether to relocate or accept an offer that could change life for every member of the family.

Adding structure and support

For the Gosses, it was mainly a matter of finding ways to support each other search and accommodate two schedules.

When Charley Gosse was laid off in late 2007, the family immediately went into cost-cutting mode. Laura’s salary covered expenses, but she and Charley didn’t know how long he would be out of work and so they went into “complete savings mode.”

The couple cut back on lots of different things. They eliminated dinners out and vacations, and they let their live-in au pair go since Charley was home and could care for the children while Laura worked.

When Laura was laid off in January, they took belt-tightening to a new level.

“We both received severance of different, varying lengths, and (by that point) we’d been frugal for a year,” she said. “So, it was just like, ‘OK, let’s tighten the belt a little more.’ ”

The bigger challenge was managing what was now two ongoing job searches.

“We both started looking for full-time work,” Laura said. “Charley was staying home because of my situation, and when that changed, we both had to concentrate on looking for jobs.”

Laura said the parallel job hunt got off to a bit of a rocky start: “We were both doing our job hunting. (Our younger daughter would come home from preschool), and we didn’t really have any structure. We felt bad that we were both trying to figure out our way and she was just kind of playing by herself.”

Realizing that more structure was key to managing two job searches and a family, Laura and her husband worked out a schedule where each worked at the job hunt every other day while the other held down the home front.

“That’s the model of what we would want people to do,” said Donna Spellman, the director of Self Sufficiency Services at Family Centers of Greenwich, Conn., a human-services agency that, among many other things, provides career and family counseling.

“If one person is staying behind with the kids, focusing on keeping things moving along smoothly, that person is creating space for the other person to do their thing,” Spellman said. “And perhaps tomorrow or the next day, they switch. But it means that everybody’s truly doing their part. They’re not scrambling, and they’re not saying, ‘I thought you were going to stay home!’ It’s not about that.”

Flexibility and part-time work

While Laura and Charley found that structure was key, they also learned that they had to remain flexible.

Their flexibility was put to the test recently when Laura obtained a part-time job that took her away from home three days a week. Now, “the days that I am home, I give [Charley] those days to do what he needs to do so we can keep moving forward,” she said.

Laura added that she and Charley “switch off” when necessary — for example, when an interview or meeting comes up.

Family Centers’ Spellman said it is critical that both job-hunting partners demonstrate this kind of flexibility.

“It will happen that somebody’s going to get a call that’s going to be very spur of the moment — ‘I’ve got an interview, and I’ve gotta go,’ ” Spellman said. “The partners have to be flexible as much as possible.”

Laura and Charley have been working together so that each of their job-hunting strategies, resources and skills can be leveraged by the other. For example, Laura showed Charley how to use the LinkedIn network, and the couple reviews each other’s resume and cover letter before sending them out.

The Hudgins family

Another no-income family, Lavoyed and Cheryl Hudgins, are also sharing the load.

Lavoyed was a special assistant to former Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, managing 800-plus employees and a budget of $130 million. Cheryl was an executive assistant for Fletcher, and before that she worked for another former governor and an Army general.

After Gov. Fletcher lost his run for re-election in November 2007, the new governor dismissed Lavoyed and Cheryl, along with other members of Fletcher’s staff.

Lavoyed said Cheryl and he weren’t terribly worried at the time they were let go, as Cheryl found a good job with benefits shortly thereafter. However, that job happened to be in the automotive industry, and Cheryl was laid off about two months ago.

Lavoyed, who said he and Cheryl have extended their job search and will consider relocating, stressed the importance of mutual support in a two-person job search.

“We’re extremely fortunate in that we have a wonderful, solid, strong relationship,” he said. “As a matter of fact, when she was laid off, I think it actually helped me because it helped me stop focusing just on myself. I had to be strong for her at that point.”

That kind of mutual support has bolstered the dual job-hunting Gosse couple, as well.

“There’s a lot of stress when one parent is out of a job; when two parents are out of a job, clearly that puts a lot of different stresses on the whole thing,” Laura Gosse said. “But it has not been as stressful just in terms of working out the mechanics with my husband. We’re compatible, and we work well with each other. Both of us have been accommodating with each other.”

Lavoyed said he and Cheryl, who have three grown children between them, enjoy their time together but also recognize the need for time apart.

“Being together 24/7 has not been an issue for us,” Lavoyed said. “But we do realize that there are times when we need a few hours apart. No matter how much you love each other, you need a little break once in a while. So, we try to consciously employ that tactic.”

Double the stress

In today’s economy, the job search can be prolonged, a fact that is all too familiar to both the Gosse and Hudgins families. When not one but both members of a couple are conducting such a search, motivation and enthusiasm can be tough to come by as anxiety sets in further.

Spellman and other experts interviewed by TheLadders stress the importance of remembering that the situation is temporary.

“For most people, it was just bad timing, bad luck,” Spellman said. “It happens. There’s never a good time, but it is temporary.”

“The mind has to change the concept of, ‘It’s going to take me a while to find a job,’ ” said Kevin Skinner, who has a Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy and is an author and radio-show host. “’It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when I get that new job.’ ”

Family Centers’ Spellman said she understands that it can be difficult to maintain a positive attitude under such difficult circumstances, but that such positivity could be the difference between landing a job and not landing it.

“Attitude is three-quarters of it,” Spellman said. “It’s not just, ‘Do you have the hard skills?’; it’s ‘Do you click on an attitude level or on a personality level?’ And so a healthy attitude and a positive, upbeat personality are going to really carry and enormous amount of weight — and that’s going to be both at home and in the workplace.”

“It’s only temporary”

Yet when both members of a couple are out of work, there may be no financial fallback. Even couples with healthy savings and severance can’t help but wonder and worry about making ends meet.

When those ends aren’t quite coming together, it’s important to put aside feelings of guilt and blame, Spellman said. Remember that you didn’t ask for this situation and that it’s only temporary.

“You have to put your pride aside and be OK with it,” she said. “The guilt, the blame — those are just wasted emotions. It’s too consuming, and it’s really not about that.”

Spellman said the United Way, public libraries and regional Departments of Labor are great sources of information about available services.

“This is not forever,” she said. “When the tables turn, you can be the one to help support somebody else.”

Laura and Charley Gosse are working together to make it through this rough spot as they look ahead to their family’s future.

“I remain hopeful,” Laura said, “and he does, too.”

A woman named Dianne Villano started a Web site, www.supportourmarinesinc.org, which sends care packages to Marines on the front lines. She gathers things like letters from local elementary schools, Q-tips, energy bars, coffee and nonperishable food items. The letters she gets in return show what a tremendous difference packages from home can mean when some soldiers are not getting anything at all.

She was spending $1,200 per month of her own money on this. She uses her own apartment with the balcony as a storage station for the supplies. She then goes to the local USPS and flat rates the packages. After two years of doing this her accountant told her that she needs to start a charity to make these donations from local businesses tax deductible.

She is still waiting to hear from the IRS about official 501c3 status. Her goal this year is to raise around $25,000 and she has been accumulating more and more Marine units who need her help. One unit gave Dianne their American flag they used throughout their Iraq tour. Other wives have called and written her telling her how much the packages have increased morale and gotten their loved ones through difficult times.

Anonymous giving and acts of kindness can lead the giver to a very lonely place in the universe. Like the Lone Ranger or some other disguised hero, we do kind things all the time and so often the people on the receiving end don’t see it or don’t recognize it.

Living a life of altruism, in its most ideal form, means setting the ego aside and not doing what we do for credit. Usually, I have no problem with this at all. But there are those days, perhaps when I’m feeling a little weak or drained, where I find myself feeling lonely with it all, feeling like I’m giving, giving, giving, to a world that is in super receiving mode and asleep to what’s being done for them. I get a little discouraged.

Even idealized heroes had their inner circle of friends who knew who they really were and what their life was all about. The Lone Ranger had Tonto. Batman had Robin and his butler, Alfred. You get the picture. Being truly altruistic means we do what we do without expectation for credit or recognition. Otherwise, it’s not truly altruistic. But at some point, we have to be good receivers to continue to be effective givers.

I remember shortly after my first child was born that my wife and I reached a point where we were really struggling to make ends meet. We both had jobs but the pay was very meager.  We were both doing work that we loved doing and we were really caught up in the magic of being new parents.  But a financial reality burst our bubble one day.We had nothing left in savings, and bills that were due, some overdue, could not be met.

We talked with other people about our dire circumstances. We got a lot of sympathy but we were still feeling a lot of stress and not coming up with any solutions. And then it happened. I opened the front door one morning and found a plain white envelope tucked inside the screen door. Inside the envelope was $100 dollars. I felt this tremendous sense of energy swell up within me, surrounding me like a great, warm comforter. Some kind soul anonymously gave what felt like an awful lot of money to me then. They obviously didn’t want credit for their generosity and to this day I’ve never known for certain who it was.

In those days, that $100 would have just about paid for a month’s rent. And even though it wasn’t enough to make good on all of our bills, receiving the money gave us such a sense of relief and humbleness to be blessed by some great kindness of a friend who wanted no credit from us whatsoever. We made it through that dark time, not so much from the money we’d been given, but by realizing how powerful an act of anonymous generosity can be.

I’ve paid that act of kindness forward over and over many times. And even being the veteran giver that I consider myself to be, my mind still swings like a pendulum between the extremes of totally selfless giving and the need to receive something in return occasionally. Despite the back and forth energy of the momentum that is created, my sense is that I am ever moving forward through a world that often feels thankless and uncaring. I am constantly aware that there have probably been countless occasions when I have been the receiver of many acts of kindness from others who may have been aware of what they were doing even though I was asleep to their gift.

I am committed to being more awake to what’s going on around me and to showing my gratitude whenever possible for any act of kindness  given, even if it’s as small a thing as someone holding open a door for me.  Living a life of kindness is like breathing: for every breath out, there has to be a breath back in.  That isn’t about ego.  It’s about staying alive and being fully human.  To quote the animated film Ratatouille “Let’s do this thing!”

CNN has a great tool on their website to see how healthy your finances are. Check your financial health!

ALPINE, UTAH — Even though a cup of joe isn’t exactly Jeff Smith’s cup of tea, he gets a buzz out of kicking back at his local coffee shop and spying on yawning — and often downright grumpy — morning customers as they realize their foam-whipped morning fix has been paid for.

“They just transform,” Smith said. “They get this confused look, then grin from ear to ear and look around for someone to thank. They can’t figure it out.”

A cashier then slips the baffled customer a small laminated card with an unusual message: “You’ve been ‘tagged’ with an Act of Kindness.”

The middle-age Alpine resident is so addicted to the charitable high he feels from “small acts here and there” that he’s spent a small fortune launching an Internet-based company intended to help others experience the same feeling.

The lofty notion of kindness being passed from person to person like a sort of benevolent influenza was featured in the 2000 award-winning film “Pay It Forward.”

But Smith’s Web site, goodwillpaidforward.com, punches the concept up a notch — or a full rung — by allowing do-gooders, even those wishing to remain anonymous, to track the contagiousness of their kindness on Google map.

“Now you can literally see how your act of service has spread all over the world,” he said excitedly. “It’s incredible.”

A sheet of 10 tags can be bought online for $16. After the tags arrive by mail, the buyer logs on the Web site and types in a provided code to activate the series.

The newly motivated humanitarian then goes to work carrying groceries or mowing lawns with a pocket — or keychain — full of tags.

“Sure, we can serve without tags, and we should, but do we?” Smith questioned. “Not enough, and sometimes not at all. So these (tags) act as a great reminder. You think, ‘I’ve got to get rid of these.’”

Like the proverbial cash that burns to be spent, Smith says, the mini cards itch until they’re properly scratched with a good deed and given away.

Each tag passed out can be tracked on Smith’s Web site as it wonders the earth from one amicable person and one continent to the next.

Those tagged type their ticket’s individual number on the Web site and leave a comment, then pass it on.

Once purchased, the same sturdy tag remains in circulation for what Smith refers to as several “generations” or “ripples” of kindness.

“Like ripples of water,” he said. “Throw the first pebble and watch it multiply.”

In short, a person’s original 10 acts of kindness often increase to 100 in as little as a month’s time.

To date, the 7-month-old Web site has tracked 11,763 acts of kindness, nearly 60 a day.

An active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smith said he was especially moved to create the feel-good movement when late church President Gordon B. Hinckley noted, “It is not enough to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. … And the good that is in you must be spread to others.”

The self-made, affluent businessman said the operation is not intended to turn a profit, but he wouldn’t mind if tag sales paid enough to make it a self-sustaining operation.

Attesting to his altruistic claim is a rare sight: a popularly visited Web site without a single advertisement. There’s not one neon-blinking, cursor-following, pop-up ad on the whole site.

“Sure, I want to get paid back on it, but that’s not everything,” Smith said. “I feel good about it.”

Where it does make money, though, is in the fundraising department.

After Smith’s son’s baseball team found out it was facing a 20 percent financial shortfall after dwindling sign-up numbers, they sold the sheets door to door for $20 — of which $12 per sheet went back to the team or organization.

“People don’t mind buying one, even in these (economic) conditions, because they can feel good about it,” he said.

And apparently people do. A glance at the Web site shows comments of appreciation for acts a few dozen ripples deep, ranging from shoveling snow off of sidewalks to an anonymously given cashier’s check for $5,000.

In about a month, the lengthy Web site name goodwillpaidforward.com will be changed to tagten.org “in reference to tagging 10 folks with kindness,” Smith said.

“It’s a tag-you’re-it thing,” he said.

SOURCE: Deseret News

David Perry, a longtime headhunter, says you’re wasting your time if you’re looking for job postings online. And he should know: he’s often the guy on the other side helping companies lure new talent. Perry, who’s based in Ottawa, says that in the last 22 years he has accomplished 996 searches totaling $172 million in salary. And the bottom line in today’s economy, he says, is you have to tap the “hidden job market.”

Perry’s also the co-author of “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters” and he recently spoke with Fortune.

Just last month, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis warned lawmakers at a high-profile Congressional hearing on the government’s $700 billion rescue plan that he had no doubts 2009 would be an “awful year” for the credit card industry.

What’s the “hidden job market”?

When companies say, ‘We have a hiring freeze,’ that doesn’t mean they’re not hiring. It just means they’re not adding headcount. Every year there’s 20-25% turn over. So in a 1,000-person company, 200 or 250 people are going to turn over, either through attrition, or someone moves. Those companies are still hiring but they don’t want to tell you.

So how do you find these jobs?

What you have to do in a recession is map your skills to employers to where you know they have a problem you can solve. My advice to job hunters is pick 10 to 20 companies, no more, and pick companies you’re interested in, and that you think you can add value to. That requires researching companies, and so that list may take you two weeks. If you’re trying to crack the hidden job market and you know the job position you want reports to vice president, find that vice president on LinkedIn and look at his profile to see who else he’s connected to and go ask them, ‘What’s this guy like to work for?’ Do the research before you even pick up the phone.

How can you get someone’s attention?

We can go into billboards, sandwiches – that stuff only works once. It’s only for one person who figures it out once, once in a city. If you’re looking for fun stuff, we have this thing called the coffee cup caper, 30% of the time it will result in an interview. You send an employer a coffee cup with a little $5 swipe card with a little note that says, I’d like to get together and talk with you over coffee. I’ll be calling soon. And you send it by U.S. post two day delivery, and that gets registered. So when they’ve signed for it, you wait about 20 minutes and then you call them. And then you go, Hi, I know you just got my package.’ You’re proving you’re imaginative and creative.

What something people should avoid during a job interview?

This drives me insane: I’ve seen people mentally deciding in the interview whether they want the job. That’s the last place to decide. You go into an interview, and you sell like your life depends on it. You’ve got to get the job first. I’ve seen it thousands of times. There’s this point in the interview, where people go ‘Hmm, do I really want this? You can see their body change. The employer picks it up and it’s gone. If the employer is telling you, ‘I love you,’ and you’re not saying ‘I love you too,’ it’s over with.

How about following up afterwards?

If you really like the opportunity, don’t go home and write thank you very much. Go back and write a letter that says, upon further reflection of what we were talking about, here’s what I bring to the table, here’s how I see myself fitting into the organization, including a 30-60-90 day plan.

How can someone attract a recruiter’s attention?

You have to go to ZoomInfo and LinkedIn and create a profile. All corporate recruiters and probably 20% of the headhunters in America have ZoomInfo accounts. When we start a search, companies aren’t going to advertise. The headhunter goes to ZoomInfo, types in requirements that we need, like skillset, degree, city, functional title, and up will come anywhere from a hundred to several thousand people who fit that criteria. Then we go to LinkedIn and run the same search. If you’re in ZoomInfo with a picture, we’re going to call you first. Just reverse engineer what recruiters are doing so you get found.

How can you really impress a potential employer?

It hasn’t worked in years just to bring in your resume, except only in the most junior positions. I concentrate on directors to CEOs, and the last interview for us regardless is always a Power Point presentation of what you’ve learned, pain points, and how you intend to fix that. Everyone talks about being a great leader and great communicator, so prove it. Don’t go into an interview and treat it like it’s just another business meeting. Your career is your biggest asset now – because it’s certainly not your house.

by Jia Lynn Yang. Copyrighted, Fortune. All rights reserved.