Clean up that dirty resume!

Are you applying for a job soon, I mean a CAREER job?  Are you taking the time to put together an excellent resume, perfect for that specific position you are applying for?  And if you are going to be sending your resume electronically, read on…

When working on a resume, the easiest, quickest and most important investment of 8 seconds of your time is this…

Make sure that when you are finished with your final version of your resume for a particular job, you highlight all of the text and copy/paste it into a new file/page.  Don’t forget to save that new file.

The justification for the copy/paste is to get rid of any nasty or complicated coding that may have resulted from your major editing session/s.

A one shot copy/pasted version of your resume will NOT have the codes embedded within the page to allow for this illicit behind the scenes look at your resume or to jam up any sensitive resume reading software.  DO THE SAME for your cover letter.

Make use of your driveway

Do you have a driveway but no car, or a wide driveway with room for an extra car? It doesn’t matter whether you rent or own your house/apartment, read on…

This is what you do:

1. Assess your neighbourhood to see if there are any “institutions” such as your school or office buildings or any commercial/industrial establishments that have pay parking lots by checking the aerial/hybrid view of your area on the net, and walking or biking in the area.  If so, and you find that legal, free parking during regular business hours is scarce in the area, then you can continue to step 2.
2. Time how long it takes to walk directly from your place to the nearest office buildings/institutions with pay parking lots.  Write down the time in minutes, and write down the daily rates for parking.  If they are not easy to find, go to the outdoor smoking area and ask someone there how much parking is for the day for them.
3. Write up a ‘Parking Spot for Rent’ flyer using this simple template that you can download for free and include the following: Monthly rate (make it about 20-25% cheaper than the going rate in the area) and your first name and email or phone number. Note: You can also create a new email account that forwards to your own account with a name such as cheap_parking_spot@hotmail( dot) com.
4. Post it semi-discreetly within view of the smoking zone/area outside of the building.  People will see it, talk about it and tell their peers.  If you are able to post on a bulletin board inside (with or without permission) by all means go for it!

When someone contacts you and you are negotiating details, be sure to negotiate parking times (for example: available only from 7am to 7pm, that way your guests can still make use of the spot), duration of availability (3 months, 6 months, a year?!?) and that you require 30 days advance notice if they plan to discontinue parking in your driveway.  Reassure them that you will also provide them 30 days notice as well.  If you can agree on something,

This is what you do:

cont’d 

RRSP’s!? I’ve got bigger things to worry about!

 The following information is for Canada only.  For site visitors outside of Canada, please visit your local government website or speak with your local financial institution to see if a similar program is available for you.

 RRSP’s!? I’ve got bigger things to worry about! This is most likely true, but if you look at how long it will take you to set yourself up with them vs. how useful they actually are, it would be a mistake for you to overlook them right now at this stage in your life.  Here are the reasons why:

•  Who cares about retirement right now! Do YOU? I don’t!  At our age, RRSP’s are the best tool you can have to provide you with the opportunity to have some easy, “non-liquid” money to put down as part of your down-payment for your FIRST home. 
• Even if you’re a starving student, it makes sense to establish an automatic monthly withdrawal from your bank account of as little as $10/month.  After a year, not only will you have $120 in RRSP’s, but you will get back 30% of what you have contributed, on your tax return in the spring.  Yup, all of which you can then reinvest into your RRSP and get a return next year of 30% + 30% of your last year’s 30% reinvested.  Confused? Doesn’t matter.  The point is that it’s allllll good.  Don’t forget that time + a decent compounding interest = $$$ just keeps growing.
• If you don’t do it NOW, you probably won’t do it until it’s too late.  In order to use your RRSP contributions towards your first home, they have to have been in place for at least 6 months before the official withdrawal date for your First Home Buyer’s Plan.
• Oh, and repayment of the borrowed RRSP money towards your first home is easy… Your first two years, there is no obligation for repayment, and then the total amount of RRSP dollars borrowed towards your first home gets divided by 15 (15 years) and you only need to pay THAT amount, every year for the remaining 15 years.  This does not end up being very much money.  You can do the math.
• Stepping out into the real world after post-secondary schooling can be a frightening experience for many.  But if you’ve already got your feet wet having learned about finances, insurance, investments, it won’t seem so bad.  And in this real world,  you’ll have the upper hand (with the confidence you’ll exude) by walking with your head up high and a strong keen gaze knowing how much power you actually have, by how you’ve so effectively laid out the path before you.

So here’s how it’s done:  

•  Assuming you have already made the switch from your traditional bank to an institution that provides No-Fee Banking (if you haven’t already done so… look into what your fees are and see if it is worth your time to switch to an institution such as President’s Choice Financial or ING or one of others that provide this service) then call your financial institution and let them know that you would like to set up automatic withdrawals from your bank account towards an RRSP savings account.  You can start with $10/month.  Ask a lot of questions and you will learn a lot. You can also check out their websites to see what other types of RRSP’s they offer.