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10+ Job Search Tips To Getting Hired During A Pandemic

These job search tips pertain to seasoned professionals as well as recent graduates. I have gone through job search, applications and interviews multiple times in my 15+ years of professional life including a layoff.

As a hiring manager for startup companies and big corporations, I hope to share what I have learned throughout my career to help you get hired and land your next job especially in this challenging time.

1. Have the right mindset

Mindset is your greatest asset

Having the right mindset is absolutely crucial in the whole job search process. If you started out thinking no company is currently hiring during coronavirus, then you probably will not feel like applying and that just closes out any potential opportunities and possibilities. On the other hand, know that there are companies that are still hiring and you keep on with your effort to job hunt, it will eventually pay off in one way or another even landing your dream job.

Patience & Persistence: keys to successful job search

Job search is a long and exhausting process that needs a lot of patience and persistence. Don’t let any negative thoughts discourage you to the extend that you give up any hope. Being motivated is important and while the process might be slow, trust that taking small steps will lead you to your goal.

Be open to change

As someone who was laid off before in my first job after 4 years with the company, I have to say that it turned out to be one of the best things that happened to my career. It led me to my second job with a startup company where I made many lasting friendships and met my mentor. It’s cliche but true is the saying,

2. Know what you want

Cope with a layoff

If you have recently been laid off, it’s normal to feel disappointed and may even feel a sense of betrayal. Before diving into job searching though, take the time to cope with the feeling of disappointment and acceptance and recovery first. While going through the different stages of grief for the job loss, ask important questions about what you want to do, what you are good at as a way to discover yourself. The clearer you know what you want the better you will be at achieving your goals.

Increase clarity to achieve your goals

With the said, not everyone knows what they want and what their purpose are in life; some discover themselves over time and some never will. Also people and their wishes change over time through experiences, circumstances, age, etc. You don’t have to know 100%, you just need to understand to the extend what to prioritize for the foreseeable future. It will help align your job search criteria to your desires, values and priorities to find your new ideal job.

3. Build a strong profile and elevator pitch

By understanding yourself a bit better, you can be more effective in building your professional profile. It’s the fundamental of which everything you do is built upon.

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shopping list stock up for quarantine emergency

Coronavirus Quarantine Checklist: What To Stock Up At Home?

This is slightly off topic for the blog but it’s relevant to what’s currently going on. As I was looking for a shopping checklist to help people stock up for emergency, I couldn’t find a well organized list. So I created one here for you.

While we all should stock up necessities during this quarantine period, remember to buy only what you need for a month. Let’s not think only for ourselves but for others too. Stock up, but don’t hoard!

If you plan to order groceries delivery, order a week or weeks ahead. Depends where you live, the availability and schedule might be all taken up at least several days out.

Below is my suggestion of essential items to stock up for a family, you may not need to buy everything, get what you need as per your usual.

Food

Dry Food

  • Bread
  • Breakfast Cereals
  • Jam & Spread (strawberry jam, marmalade, nutella)
  • Cookies & Crackers
  • Pancake Mix & Syrup
  • Baking Mix (brownie, muffin, cake, etc.)
  • Oatmeal & Instant Oatmeal
  • Cocoa Milk Powder

Staples

  • Pasta
  • Rice
  • Grains
  • Noodle & Instant Noodle
  • Soft Taco

Pantry

  • Sugar
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Ketchup
  • Flour
  • Cooking Oil

Canned Food

  • Soups
  • Pasta Sauces
  • Canned Fruits or Vegetables (corn, beets, etc.)
  • Spam or Tuna

Frozen Food

  • Breakfast Waffles & Pancakes
  • Toaster Strudel & Tarts
  • Meatballs or Fish Sticks or Hashbrown
  • Dinner Rolls
  • Pizza or Pizza Rolls
  • Ready Prep Meals
  • Desserts & Treats (cheesecake, butter cake, etc.)

Fresh Food

  • Fruits (bananas, apples, grapes, mandarins, strawberries, blueberries, etc.)
  • Vegetables (cabbage, carrots, radish, etc.)
  • Garlic & Onions & Ginger
  • Potatoes
  • Avocados
  • Meats (beef, chicken, pork, ground beef or pork, etc.)
  • Seafoods (Frozen Shrimp, Fish, etc.)
  • Sausages & Hotdogs & Ham

Dairy

  • Eggs
  • Milk
  • Cheese
  • Butter

Kids Food

  • Granola Bars
  • Goldfish
  • Chips & Snacks
  • Popcorn

Beverages

  • Water
  • Juices
  • Coffee
  • Tea
  • Soda

Personal Care

  • Soap (handsoap, body soap, etc.)
  • Shampoo & Conditioner
  • Toiletries (toilet paper, paper towel, toothpaste, etc.)
  • Feminine Hygiene (menstrual pads)

Cleaning

  • Dishwash Detergent
  • Laundry Detergent
  • Disinfectants & Wipes

Medications

  • Prescription Refills
  • Medicines (cough drops, cough relief, pain relief, fever reducer, etc.)
  • Multivitamins or Supplements
  • Bandaid

Baby Supplies

  • Baby Food & Formula
  • Diaper
  • Wipes

Pet Supplies

  • Pet Food & Treats
  • Cleaning Supplies

Did I miss out anything else essential? Stay safe and healthy!

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best things to do during coronavirus quarantine

Top 10 Things To Do (Or You’ll Regret Not Doing) During Coronavirus Quarantine

We are experiencing unprecedented times and events in our lives right now but there’s nothing that we cannot overcome collectively. Together we will get through this and beat this virus as well as the fear and market turmoil it sparked.

While we are doing our part to social distance from potentially spreading virus unknown to us, there are things we can do to best utilize time at home that we will be glad we did once the pandemic is over. Here’s a list of things we can all use our time for while we go about our lives as normal as possible.

Disclaimer: Please note that when you purchase through affiliate links, I may earn a referral commission, which helps to run this blog, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.

1. Stay home to flatten pandemic’s curve can save lives

By the time a given community has a confirmed case of coronavirus, it is highly likely that as many as 1000 people already infected. In order to contain the virus, we cannot wait until a confirmed case to start staying home.

Given the spread and cases growing rapidly at global scale, the least everyone can do to help flatten the curve is by staying at home. It is to protect yourself, your family, your community.

Even you think you are healthy and won’t get sick, think about the difference you make by not spreading the virus to more people. Let’s protect others who are vulnerable to this virus especially seniors and people with medical conditions.

2. Stock up on necessities but don’t hoard

Many cities around the world have ordered self-isolation or quarantine or even lockdown. To lessen the need to go out for essential or grocery shopping, every household should start stocking up necessities.

In California where we live, I think we’ll need to stock enough for about a month given the quarantine order has already been in place.

Stock up to the amount that you need, but don’t selfishly hoard unnecessarily out of fear.

Supermarkets that we go to have started putting limit for essential foods and household goods, we are limited to 2 bottles of 1 gallon milk of any kind per household.

While I know we will easily run out of milk since my 3 year old drink at least 32oz daily, we just have to adapt to this new circumstances and make adjustments ahead with or without alternatives.

3. Stay healthy and reduce stress

While we all are practicing social distancing and staying at home all day, it is important that we continue to stay healthy. That means keep your exercise routine but do it indoor.

Cook at home and eat nutrition foods.

Avoid binge watching that compromises sleep at night, because sleep is the #1 most important thing you need that boost your immune system in order to stay healthy.

If you are sick, for the sake of people around you in your house as well as anyone outside when you do go out, wear a mask.

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when to buy Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet stock

When To Buy Mega-Cap Tech Stocks In This Market Sell-Off?

Thought this was an interesting take of the stock prices on the AAMG mega-cap tech companies. I never followed any market analyst advice on what prices to buy and own a specific stock. Most analyst don’t even feel confident enough to take a position when it comes to stock prices and how low is low but Craig’s report showed his resistance and level of confidence at the same time I thought was worth keeping eyes on for what I could possibly learn from this.

Market Analyst Craig Johnson said on CNBC’s Trading Nation on Monday (Mar 17th, 2020).

On Microsoft:

[stock_ticker symbols=”MSFT” show=”symbol” number_format=”” decimals=”2″ static=”” speed=”” class=””]

“… if we see this stock pull back to say the $140 or $132 level area, you’ve got a lot of support down there from a long-term chart perspective. And if you’re a long-term investor, this is where you want to buy it,”

On Apple:

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“He notes that the $225 level would present an opportunity to buy, a 10% drop from where it currently trades. It has not traded at those levels since September.”

On Amazon and Alphabet:

[stock_ticker symbols=”AMZN” show=”symbol” number_format=”” decimals=”2″ static=”” speed=”” class=””]

[stock_ticker symbols=”GOOG” show=”symbol” number_format=”” decimals=”2″ static=”” speed=”” class=””]

“Amazon and Alphabet also have potential if they see a bigger drop. He identifies the $1,700 level for Amazon and $1,000 for Alphabet as buy spots.”

Read the full article here: This is when to buy Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet stock from CNBC.

He also shared his thought about Tesla back in Dec 2nd, 2019.

On Tesla:

[stock_ticker symbols=”TSLA” show=”symbol” number_format=”” decimals=”2″ static=”” speed=”” class=””]

“Tesla’s multiyear chart shows that Tesla’s stock has for the most part traded between roughly $240 and $385 per share.”

Johnson said he was looking to take money out of the stock at the current level (in December) and wait for shares of Tesla to revert back to the lower end of the trading range at $290 or below before becoming a buyer.

It seems we are going back to that trading range once again as the stock continues to plunge.

Read the full article here: Here’s where the pros would buy in for Tesla from CNBC.

The information here is for informational purpose only and should not constitute financial or investing advice. I am not a finance professional.

What are your thoughts on this or the whole stock market right now? No matter what’s going on in the market, the most important thing now is to stay healthy. With good health, we human is capable of overcoming any adversity.

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investment-plan-to-prepare-for-kids-college

Setting Clear Investment Plan To Save For Kids College In Volatile Markets

The stock market downturn in the past 2 weeks serve as a good reminder that the stock market is risky and volatile. It’s not a wake up call per se because going into this type of investment we know all along that it always carry a high risk. But, we invest anyways because it provides the highest potential returns. However, as much as we make the informed decision to invest, it is important that we make as much of a plan about our investment strategy.

Invest for the long term

While I am not too overly concerned about this round of bear market or crash (although my total equities have just dropped $50K on paper), I think it’s still a good chance to reassess our financial goals. I intend to write down our plans in a way that we can stick to over the long term and note actions we need to take now as well as in the foreseeable future.

Plan an exit ahead of using the fund

Technically, I have as far as 24 years from retirement, but personally I would ideally prefer to retire in less than 10 years. For bear market that happens so often in every 3-5 years, we have to keep on riding out the market ups and downs and keep investing with the long term in mind. Plan an exit ahead of any need to use the investment fund.

Even though reaching my retirement age is still a long way to go, we are not that far off from having to cash out some of that savings to fund our first child’s college education. It’s coming up in the year 2026. And then 4 years after in 2030 our second child will go to college, and then 4 years later in 2034 our youngest child will also too.

Diversify investment types

Among different types of investments, I have to admit that we aren’t that well diversified. For example, we are currently not investing in real estate (other than our primary residence) at the moment, although we had done that in the past. It is a consideration and option down the road though. For now, just between stock market investment and cash in savings, that is probably how we will rebalance our asset allocations for the near future.

Ways to pay for kids college

I think it would be a dream if all our childrens’ college education are funded by scholarships. If not, the second best scenario would be subsidies from their employers, if they managed to land on any work-study type opportunities. Otherwise, we will most likely have to tap into a combination of our investment accounts with some student loans, if we don’t want to touch neither IRAs nor 401K which will be needed for retirement.

Below are several ways for students to afford college:

  • Scholarships and grants (and financial aid)
  • Employer subsidies
  • Work-study opportunities / paid internships
  • Student research positions
  • College savings / 529 plan
  • Parents savings / investments
  • Federal student loans
  • Parents retirement (IRA, 401K, etc.)

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difference between market correction and bear market

What’s Market Correction, Bear Market and Recession?

We keep hearing about the words market correction and bear market being used on the stock market news a lot. If you are investing, you should know and understand these financial terms and their differences and not be surprised by them when they actually happen. As you will see below, these events do occur rather frequently.

The more you realize that they are common the better you can be prepared for how you manage your investment and retirement plans. The worst thing in investment can happen due to bad investing decisions out of either fear or greed. And lack of knowledge is usually the main cause of fear.

What is a market correction?

Market correction is defined as drop of 10% from the market peak. On average, corrections last 4 to 5 months and occur as often as every year (8 to 12 months). The market has had 22 corrections since 1945, 10 of the corrections within the last 20 years. The previous correction had ended in December 2018. The stock market loses, on average, 14% in a correction.

What is a bear market?

Bear markets is markets in which the stock or index has fallen more than 20%. On average, bear markets lasted 14 months and took 24 months to recover. There have been 12 bear markets since 1945 / WWII with average decline of more than 30%. The biggest decline was bear market of 2007-2009, which went into a great recession with stock market suffered slightly more than 50% drop.

What is a recession?

A recession is a period of negative economic growth that happened 2 consecutive quarters in a row that last more than 6 months. It goes beyond the financial markets as to effect the economy as a whole visible in GDP, unemployment, industrial production and sales. On average, recessions since WWII have lasted a duration of 10 months.

Market Crash & Bear Markets In The United States Since 2000

  • Dot-com bubble (Mar 10th, 2000): Collapse of technology bubble.
  • 911 attacks (Sep 11th, 2001): September 11 attacks caused the global stock market to drop sharply.
  • Stock market downturn of 2002 (From Mar 2002 with dramatic decline in July and September):
  • Bear market of 2007-2009 (Oct 2007 – Mar 2009): DJIA, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all suffered declines of over 50%.
  • Financial crisis 0f 2008 (Sep 16th, 2008): Largely due to subprime loans (provisions of loans to people who may have difficulty maintaining repayment schedules.
  • Bear market of 2011 (Between May 2nd and Oct 4th, 2011): S&P 500 entered a bear market with a decline of 21.58%.
  • Market sell-off 2015 (From Jun 3rd, 2015 until August 2015): Dow Jones fell 1,300 points in 2 days. The plunge wiped out a total of $10 Trillions on global markets.
  • Stock market downturn of 2018 (Sep 20th, 2018): S&P 500 dropped 19.73% while DJIA fell 18.78%.
  • Coronavirus stock market crash 2020 (Feb 24th, 2020): Dow dropped more than 3,700 points or over 10% in less than a week. Largest one-day point drop in history with Dow fell over 1,190 points in a single day.

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invest-in-yourself-and-your-future-career-options

Invest In Yourself And Your Future Career (Part 2)

Whether we reinvent ourselves after 40 depends on individual’s happiness level. For somebody who is perfectly happy with what they do every day and would be as excited to continue do that for the next 5 or 10 years, you may not need to reinvent yourself. But even if you don’t need to reinvent yourself, it is still important to invest in yourself. I’d like to think of it as a constant need as a way to be fulfilled in order to not feel empty as a human being on earth. Invest in yourself and you can invest in others.

If you haven’t checked out the part 1 of this Ultimate Guide To Investing In Yourself (2020): Personal Development, please start there first and then come back to the part 2 here. When talk about investing in yourself, we must look at all aspects of our lives because the key to living a fulfilled lives is when balance and harmony is reached. Not every aspects will be equally great, that’s not the point but at least maintaining some balance without neglecting some part of yourself.

Remember this:

So with part 1 all about Personal Development, which I dedicated the whole post to that alone, the next parts include career, health (physical), mindset (mental), wealth and relationship. Career being the focus of this specific post for now. Below are some ideas we can implement to help expand our future possibilities.

Career

Having a meaningful career is critical in feeling a sense of purpose. Our professional life and personal life when equally satisfying will increase the level of our happiness. If you are on a job that you dread about going to do the work every morning, it’s time to reassess your why and figure out something that you like to do instead that will also pay the bills.

For people who has built a career they love now can still be looking at ways to either boost their current career or future career to stay ahead. Investing in yourself not only improve your career options but also increase your lifetime earning power.

1. Start a side job / freelance / business

Do you have a desire to switch career at some point? Perhaps to leave a 9 to 5 job. Or a desire to start a side job or freelance or business. Don’t let fear hold you back. Instead, make plans of how you are going to achieve it one day. A goal without plan is just wish but with proper planning, getting to do what you want to do and be what you want to be are all possible. Don’t ever think that you are too old for it or that you lack experience. You just have to really commit to overcoming every bump there is along the way. Stay persistent, you will eventually succeed.

2. Start a blog

Want to try making extra side income online? Think you have stories you want to tell? Starting a blog to share what you know can be a gift to yourself and a gift to people who find your content helpful.

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seo tips that grow blog traffic

10 Effective SEO Tips That Will Grow Your Blog Traffic

You love creating and sharing and that is why you have started a blog or website. Now, wouldn’t it be more fun knowing that there are people who actually read what you share? But before that, they have to be able to find you.

That is why SEO (Search Engine Optimization) matters because it is essentially how search engines like Google allow others to discover your blog. The higher you rank on search results for particular keywords, the more likely people will land on your pages.

So here I put together a list of 10 effective SEO tips that every blog must know in order to grow your audience.

1. Research Topic and Keywords

Before you even start writing any posts, you might think about what topic to blog about. This is a good time to do a little bit of research to validate the topic and keywords are the ones that people are interested in reading.

Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner are 2 separate tools that are very helpful when researching for topics and keywords.

Google Trends is especially helpful for 2 reasons when you enter a search term:

  • It shows related topics and queries
  • Gives recently trending searches

Google Keyword Planner is similar but provide more extensive results:

  • Keyword search volume
  • Relevant keyword ideas

Both of these tools are free.

2. Create Blog Format Types That Captivate Audience

  • How-To guides
  • List style posts (“Best of” or Tips list posts)
  • Visual posts
  • Personal stories

How-To Guides

It’s easy to understand why How-To guides are so welcomed. They are tutorials that are designed to teach something. It serves a purpose in the way that people who want to learn will need them. Tutorials with step-by-step guides provide an easy to follow instructions that ensures that a certain goal is met upon completion.

List Style Posts (“Best of” / “Top X Tips”)

Similarly, list style posts are the 2nd most popular type blogs. They are usually formatted with headings and subheadings that make reading and finding information easier. 

Visual Posts

People often say “A picture is worth a thousand words”.

Adding images that are relevant is a powerful way to send your message across. It is also very effective when you provide step-by-step instructions with screenshots. Images are simply easier to digest. Visuals add colors and moods when done correctly stimulate positive emotions and feelings.

3. Write Catchy (Max CTR) Headlines

  • Numbers
  • Emotional words

Numbers

Numbers and digits stand out in a group of alphabet letters. So try to use them in headlines or titles as a way to grab your readers’ attention. Titles with number will improve the Click-Through rate, which will help with the Google ranking.

Emotional Words

Besides keywords in your headlines, emotional words tend to attract people to click through and read. Some examples of emotional words are:

FreeEasyTodayProvenFastPowerfulBest

4. Make Your Posts Easy To Read

  • Spacing and padding
  • Headings and sub-headings
  • Bulleted list

Spacing And Padding

Nobody likes crammed website or blog.

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best early retirement personal blogs

6 Best Early Retirement Blogs That Are Personal

Not denying that there are a lot of websites and blogs which we can learn personal finance and retirement planning from. Most websites although subject centric, it’s hard to have a connection with unlike personal blogs we can relate through the bloggers’ experiences and journeys.

That is why I find myself returning to the same personal blogs more often than commercial ones and so I compiled this list of personal finance blogs about early retirement that feel personal and I absolutely enjoy reading.

I will also add to the list over time as I discover more blogs like these.

Making Sense Of Cents

While Michelle, the author of Making Sense of Cents is way younger than 40, she has a lot of wise advice she shares on her blog. What I like about her blog is that she keeps it real and her writing is very easy to relate to. Her personality is approachable as you can see from her responses in the comments.

Among the money saving and earning posts that are all helpful tips, I’ve enjoyed the most from her post about how to make money blogging. Most of her posts have very comprehensive information and she also shares her monthly income reports. If you want to learn about saving money and making extra income from side jobs, her blog has a wealth of ideas to help and inspire you.

Millennial Money

Many of the personal finance blogs that become successful have become commercial blogs. They are great websites but have since lost personal touch by the creators themselves. That’s not with Millennial Money. It still remains like a personal blog with Grant’s voices across the blogs, but in addition, also carries a ton of great information.

The website is very well thought out and designed. Articles are all very comprehensive, I especially like reading their reviews written with pros and cons and ratings.

Financial Samurai

“Slicing through money’s mysteries” as Sam the author described. In his blog, he really slices the financial data and explained with in-depth analysis on investing and early retirement. He created a detailed chart on how much one should have in 401k retirement savings by age and the different ways one can build passive income streams.

One of his best passive income streams is from his book he authored and titled How to engineer your layoff. Both he and his wife have retired, I remember reading that he retired at a young age of 34.

Retire By 40

Another very personal and interesting blog on investing and early retirement is Retire By 40 created by Joe Udo. Joe retired at 38 from an engineering career and started writing his blog since 2010 with a focus on passive income. The multiple income streams he shares include online income, real estate crowdfunding, rental properties, dividend stocks and investing in retirement accounts.

He tracks and shares his dividend portfolio and income and it’s wonderful to see how he raises dividend income targets year over year and projected to reach over $15K this year.

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5 Best Of Personal Finance Products & Why I Love Them

Sharing my personal experience and perspectives on these popular products and services written with my very own opinion and personal take. I’ll skip the product intro because you already have the basic knowledge about them and what they are used for, I think I can offer you a distinct review through personal stories that will be more helpful than general info.

Here are my stories with each of these financial products that are best in their market.

Best Budgeting App – Mint.com

Cost: FREE

I have been using Mint the last 12 years before the company was acquired by Intuit. By far, it’s been the best budgeting and expense tracking software / app.

Track towards budgets and goals

Personally, I had saved money towards goals for buying a home and building an emergency fund with the help of Mint by understanding my family spending and cashflow. It allows me to create budgets to track my spending every day with color coded progress bar, which helps me to stay in check controlling on our discretionary spending like shopping or dining out.

Report on saving trends and net worth

Mint is designed to auto categorize every transaction, while it may require my manual re-categorization at first for a few transactions every now and then, it’s becoming smart enough to do its job well over the years. Using the trend graphs, I have been able to watch and assess our net income and net worth for when the time comes to do our annual financial reviews.

Is Mint safe?

I think the most important question and concern that hold people back from using the service which connects to all the financial accounts a person has is this – is Mint safe? My short answer is yes. Mint is safe to use and you can read about how Mint, an Intuit company (the same maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks) address the security concerns here. But, if I may just add, we all should still apply best practices for good online habits in doing our part.

Best Financial Planning Software – Personal Capital

Cost: FREE (Unless you sign up for their advisor service)

I use Personal Capital mainly with the free program. While they offer financial advisor and investment management services, I am not considering those human services since I enjoy doing the research myself and DIY financial planning. With that said, the free tools are great, I recommend everyone to at least give it a try.

Track your net worth, cashflow, investment, retirement and more

With Personal Capital, you can see all your accounts in one place. It allows you to track your net worth, budget, cashflow, and portfolio. What’s really cool is the retirement planner and savings planner to help you track progress towards your retirement, savings and education goals. Also, the investment fee analyzer helps you to see how much fees would have incurred throughout your investment accounts. Through the investment checkup tool, you are able to compare your asset allocation with a target allocation based on your individual profile.

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