Posts Tagged ‘Your Money’

Looking for a house, but waiting for the market to bottom? Don’t wait too long. Five or 10 years from now, when the financial crisis is a story you remember over a glass of single malt, first-time home buyers will look at this moment in time and realize the golden opportunity they passed up. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are close to 5.5% now, and this week there are suggestions the Fed might soon drive them down to 4.5%! Pretty good for a 30-year fixed. So good, NY Times financial columnist Ron Lieber says it might be time to get off the sidelines. And if your credit score isn’t 720 or higher, he says, take steps for the next several months to improve your score and qualify for many of the best mortgage rates.

Airline passengers are willing to pay extra to check a bag or reserve a seat with extra legroom. Now, United Airlines (www.united.com) is betting some of us will pay more to join fast-track security lines to qualify for PRIORITY BOARDING. At a dozen or so major airports, including Boston, Chicago, Denver, Washington DC, New York’s LaGuardia, Los Angeles, San Francisco) economy class passengers can now join first-and business-class and frequent flier elites in special “premier” lines for $25 each way … Snow has begun falling on ski slopes, and so have prices of lift tickets and luxury hotel rooms at many big destination resorts. The New York Times reports today that the STEEPEST DISCOUNTS can be found in Rocky Mountains whose destination resorts rely on visitors flying from distant locations. Aspen Skiing Co., says business fall 5-15% this year, and Vail bookings is already off 23% for the season.

The National Law Journal reports that the legal sector continues to bleed jobs. 2,200 jobs in August, 1,600 in September, and 1,100 vanished in October. So far, the profession is down by nearly 16,000 jobs compared to a year ago. But what about lawyers who remain employed, but who would rather do SOMETHING else?

Law career consultant Dave Behrend discusses one such group:

“Every day,” writes Behrend, “Thousands of thirty- to forty-something associates go to work unhappy and unstimulated. They’ve practiced law 12 to 15 years and, even though many of them are well-compensated, they don’t have a passion for their work anymore, their careers are going nowhere, and they’re sacrificing their personal lives just to meet the increasing billable hour requirements.

Sadder still, he says, these young lawyers bring home all the distress and heightened agitation of their work. And it affects their families and the significant others in their lives.”

There’s hope, though, says Behrend, a national law career consultant for more than 20 years. Even the unhappiest associate (or in-house counsel or government lawyer) can discover if the Act II of their career is in some other setting. But the answer only comes with honest self-reflection.

* Are you still getting assignments/cases commensurate with your skill level … or not?
* Are there reasons you might not be measuring up to the firm’s expectations?
* Is your practice group overlooking you, and why might that be so?
* Is there less work available now because of the economic downturn … or for some other reason?
* How likely is it that you will make partner when you factor in all the associates at your firm?

Behrend’s message to clients is that no matter how much money they make, there are few things worse than going to work every day without energy, enthusiasm, or enjoyment.

He says these are times to be brutally honest with yourself and ask, “Have I stayed too long at (the firm or in-house)? If you don’t believe you’re challenged where you are, if you sincerely believe your skill-set, knowledge, and business-development capabilities could be better suited in another setting, then the chances are your Act II is waiting for you somewhere else.

– Behrend, based in Philadelphia, has a national career coaching practice. For contact information, click on Careers (Avenue Resources) and go to the Career Counselor Locator (Pennsylvania).