We all know that the current economic situation means we have to be on top of our games if we want to land or keep a job—and even more so if we’re looking for promotions, raises or increased benefits. The good news is that this might be easier than it seems.

Learn from Domino’s: Improve Publicly

This msnbc.com article discusses how Domino’s pizza revamped its recipe and seriously increased its profit by acknowledging and improving its shortcomings.

What can you learn from that strategy?

• Listen to your critics. While some people will naysay no matter what, others will offer you honest feedback—and it might not all be positive. If you’ve heard one criticism of your performance or work strategies over and over, it’s time to do some serious thinking about how you can fix that issue.
• Make a plan for change. If you have a problem with organization, for example, rather than accepting that you are disorganized and it will hold you back, develop a new strategy for sorting your papers and files. Ask organized friends and coworkers for tips and help.
• Publicize your efforts. Part of the reason why Domino’s saw a serious bump in profits after changing its recipe was because the company advertised what it was doing. Let your boss and your coworkers know about your plan and ask for feedback. This shows that you’re taking initiative to make yourself a better employee.
• Ask for feedback. During your next employee review, ask specifically about how you’ve improved in the area you were working on. Subtly emphasizing your continued efforts will reinforce your value and commitment to your boss or supervisor.

Follow Up on Helpful Leads

In this post from WalletPop.com, the author looks at the “let’s stay in touch” phenomenon.

It seems that, even when employment opportunities are scarce, many interviewees fail to follow up on certain job leads. Why? Common answers include these:

• I don’t want to impose myself. Have you ever been given a phone number or email address of someone who “could use your skills” or “might have an opening for you?” According to experts, you should always contact these people. While it may feel like you’re burdening someone much busier than yourself, chances are that person can help you in some way.
• She’s just being polite. If an interviewer or someone who claims to have a job lead suggests that you “stay in touch,” don’t assume that person is just flapping her gums. Follow up the initial conversation with an email – even if it’s just to thank her for her time. This will remind her to take the steps to help you she proposed.
• He’ll get back to me if he was serious. Waiting around for an interviewer or a prospective job lead to contact you is a huge mistake. You are your main priority, but you aren’t anyone else’s. Plus, people with full-time jobs are busy and may mean to get to you but keep putting it off. Take the step of making contact to ensure you get the help you’ve been offered.

General Motors bought the luxurious Cadillac brand all the way back in 1909. According to Bloomberg, now, in an era when bankruptcy of all kinds are rampant and the new GM operates in the shadow of a $50 billion bankruptcy backed by the U.S. government, Cadillac is attempting to edge away from the stigma of GM’s financial woes.

What’s in a Name?

The subtleties of marketing and presentation can have a major impact on the way a company and its products are perceived.

To distance itself from GM, Cadillac will alter some of the little things, by removing the GM name from its dealerships and from Cadillac marketing campaigns. Email addresses that used to feature @gm.com will now read @cadillac.com, and Cadillac will no longer participate in GMs national promotional campaigns like the Red Tag Event.

A spokesman for Cadillac confirmed that the strategy to separate itself from GM was the result of GM’s recent restructuring process.

A Change in Strategy

Only a few years ago, Cadillac began applying a silver GM badge to all of its vehicles, affirming its relationship to the parent company. At the time, the company cited their own studies that revealed the positive associations that customers had with the GM brand name.

GM’s bankruptcy and restructuring, however, have changed the way that consumers see GM and its brand, according to Cadillac officials. There is now, Cadillac reps told Bloomberg, a negative connotation with GM “because of the bankruptcy.”

Pointing out Luxury

Some Cadillac dealers were upset that they were lumped in with the rest of the GM brands during the yearly Red Tag Sale.

As Cadillac dealers, we didn’t like being lumped in with the other GM brands, said general manager of Suburban Cadillac in Ann Arbor and Troy, Michigan, told Bloomberg, especially when they threw us into the Red Tag sale. We felt it cheapened the brand.

Cadillac will like increase its promotion of leasing options, which are more popular with luxury buyers, rather than focusing on the discounts and rebates used in the Red Tag Sale strategy.

Starting a Trend

Cadillac is the first of the GM units to distance itself from the GM brand, but it’s not likely to be the last. GM marketing chief Susan Docherty told Bloomberg that Chevrolet, Buick and GMC are also beginning to play down their affiliations with GM. This includes removing GM signage at dealerships that sell other non-GM brands, and continuing research into how customers perceive GM.

A provision in the 2005 bankruptcy law that limits the advice bankruptcy attorneys may give their clients is not a violation of the First Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled this week.

Bankruptcy attorneys are prohibited from advising potential bankruptcy filers to take on more debt leading up to their case, as it may lead to bankruptcy fraud.

According to the Washington Post, Minnesota bankruptcy law firm argued that this interfered with lawyers’ responsibility to give “unfettered, candid advice.”

In the case, Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz v. United States, the firm challenged the constitutionality of the provision of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, known as BAPCPA, that prevents debt relief agencies, including bankruptcy lawyers, from giving certain types of advice.

The section of the law states

A debt relief agency shall not… advise an assisted person… to incur more debt in contemplation of such person filing a case under this title.

Trying to discharge debts that have recently been taken on is one sign of bankruptcy abuse, which could case a bankruptcy petition to be dismissed.

However, in the ruling, written by Justice Sonya Sotomayer, the court obliged that some new debts may actually be beneficial before filing bankruptcy, and that it is an attorney’s duty to provide accurate advice.

In a footnote, Sotomayer wrote

Advice to refinance a mortgage or purchase a reliable car prior to filing because doing so will reduce the debtor’s interest rates or improve his ability to repay is not prohibited.

It would make scant sense to prevent attorneys and other debt relief agencies from advising individuals thinking of filing for bankruptcy about options that would be beneficial to both those individuals and their creditors.

The ruling emphasized that, above all, attorneys and debt relief agencies should provide advice that is ethical.

Additional Resources

Full Text of the New Bankruptcy Law

To buy or not to buy? Every day, many of us find that this is, indeed, the question. But few of us have established consistent, go-to methods or criteria for answering that question. So why is it important to develop some such criteria? For a few reasons.

Conscious Decision-Making

Let’s say you need a new car and you’ve been saving money, so you won’t need to take out a car loan. You have enough money to buy a snazzy model with neat accessories, but should you go for it when a less-showy car would save you a couple thousand dollars?

Or, to use an example more familiar to many of us: you got fifty dollars for your birthday from a family member, which you weren’t expecting. You need a new coffee maker and were going to buy a simple one with money you’d saved. Should you splurge on a fancier model with the “found” birthday cash?

Laying the Groundwork

While these decisions may seem like no-brainers, they are actually excellent opportunities for practicing conscious decision-making. This post from GetRichSlowly.org offers a handy “Should I Buy It” flowchart, which covers these questions:

• Can I afford it? This is a good place to start. If you can’t afford something, the flowchart says, you shouldn’t buy it. Case closed. Notice that it doesn’t ask if you could afford it with an extended financing plan or a higher-interest loan.
• Is it something I need or lack? If you can afford something, the flowchart doesn’t point to “buy” immediately. If you answer “no” to this question, the flowchart says you shouldn’t buy it.
• Is there a cheaper option? Ah-ha. Here’s an important part. If you answered “yes” to the above question, this is the reality check. If you could save some money by choosing a baseline model (consider the hypothetical scenarios above), now’s the time to do so.
• Is the cheaper option high-quality? This is an important consideration, too: if you want that car or coffee maker to last, it may be wise to get a slightly more expensive model if you’re paying for quality. But if the inflated price is all extras (think espresso or steamed milk options), it may not be such a good idea.
• Is quality important? If you answered “no” to the above question, it’s important to consider this before dropping more money than you need to. How much do you really need that quilted layer on your toilet paper?

Remember: when spending money, a little preparation is worth a lot of perspiration.

Additional Resources

66 Ways to Save Money (PDF)

What Causes Customers to Buy on Impulse? (PDF)

The National Retail Federation is predicting that Americans will trend towards spending their tax refunds more liberally this year, based on the results of a recent survey the group conducted.

The trend would move from using tax refunds to pay down debt and saving, to start spending refunds again in what the federation described as cautious.

Consumers to Treat Themselves

The NRF’s 2010 Tax Returns Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey found that 12.5 percent of those who expect a tax refund this year plan on treating themselves and their families to a car, television or other major purchase. This figure is up from the 11 percent that was recorded last year.

A little bit of free money will go a long way for Americans this year, said Tracy Mullin, President and CEO of the NRF. Retailers planning special promotions over the next few months may find that shoppers are a bit more receptive to opening up their wallets than they have been for the past year.

According to the researchers behind the survey, Americans are enjoying the idea of spending a bit more indulgently after paying down debt and saving their money carefully in the past few years.

Refund Spending and Tax Filing Trends

According to the survey, 43.9 percent of Americans who are expecting a refund will use it to pay down their debt. This number is down from 2009’s 48 percent. The number of people expecting refunds has declined as well, however, from 68.4 percent last year to 65.5 percent this year.

The survey also reported that 60.6 percent of people filed their taxes by the end of February, which allows the IRS to return refunds already.

Another 24.4 percent of filings will be sent in in March, and 15 percent more in April.

More than 54 percent of taxpayers in the U.S. file their taxes online, up from 50.1 percent in 2007. A third of filers will use software to file, while about 18 percent will employ an accountant, tax professional or bankruptcy attorney, and almost 12 percent will enlist the services of a friend to file their taxes, according to the study.

As tax season rolls around, you may find yourself vowing to develop a better system for storing and organizing income statements, receipts, bills and other important documents that can get lost in the shuffle of everyday life all too easily.

Keeping track of your papers can be crucial, too, if you receive a bill from your credit card issuer or a statement from your bank that seems incorrect—you can verify the charges or balances with agreements and terms you received earlier.

Tracking Hard Copies

If you prefer paper records to digital ones, consider these tips for organizing.

• Invest a little money: If you don’t have a spare filing cabinet handy, buy an easy-to-use storage unit. Try to find something that won’t be a hassle to get to every time you need to file something and that has easily visible divisions.
• Invest a little time: Organizing the paperwork you have now can lay the groundwork for future organization. Consider timing yourself to see how long it takes to transfer a piece of paper from its envelope to its proper place in storage—when you know you’re looking at only a few extra seconds, you may be more likely to stick with it.
• Set a date: Setting aside a regular time of the week or month to organize your paperwork may be a useful way to make sure it doesn’t get out of control.

Going Digital

If you’re interested in converting your paper files to digital ones or simply better organizing bills and statements you already receive online, you have several options.

• Sort your mail: Create a folder (or several) for mailed invoices, receipts, bills and bank statements you receive. The nice thing about email organizing is that it’s often free and will automatically sort documents by date.
• Send it away: If you aren’t interested in scanning all your old papers (and it could be a time-devouring task), consider looking into paid services available from Shoeboxed, Backblaze and other companies that offer a mail-away service for converting paper files into PDF files (reviewed briefly here).
• Get the equipment: The link above also mentions equipment that allows you to scan and save your paperwork from the comfort of your home—but this is typically the most expensive option, so if you’re on a budget, it may not be practical.

Keeping track of important papers, statements and other documents can also help you if you need to seek personal bankruptcy relief.

The New York Times recently reported on some tactics banks are using to protect revenue streams that they might otherwise lose with the Credit CARD Act regulations in place.

Background: The Overdraft Fees You Pay Now

One of the major banking abuses addressed in the Credit CARD Act is abusive overdraft loans—when banks charge if you make a debit card purchase or ATM withdrawal that exceeds the balance in your checking account.

According to the Times:

• Total bank income from overdraft fees: In 2009, banks raked in a whopping $38.5 billion from overdraft fees alone (including debit/ATM overdrafts, check and online bill pay overdrafts and bounced checks).
• A few people taking the hit: In 2008, 93 percent of bank revenue from overdraft charges came from a scant 14 percent of consumers—those who overdrew their accounts five or more times per year.

Clearly, banks offered this “service” primarily to bring in revenue, not to protect consumers from embarrassment at the checkout.

The Change: Overdraft “Protection” No Longer Automatic

Thanks to certain provisions of the Credit CARD Act, banks are now required to offer consumers a banking option that does not include expensive overdraft protection. Check incoming mail from your bank carefully, as you may receive a notice informing you that your services are about to change.

Specifically, many banks are alerting consumers that they will no longer be enrolled in automatic overdraft protection beginning on a certain date—and practically begging them to opt into such protection.

Here are some common arguments your bank might use to get you to opt in and how to respond:

• Your card will not work for transactions that overdraw your account: This is probably a good thing, actually. Yes, you may face some embarrassment at the checkout, but at least you’ll save yourself hefty overdraft fees that would have otherwise been charged to your account. Plus, you’ll know right away when it’s time to deposit more money, or, if your checkbook is balanced, look for fraudulent charges.
• …Even in emergencies: Many banks are apparently stressing that even “emergency” purchases will be declined if your account doesn’t have enough money to cover it. This is why it’s a good idea to have an emergencies-only credit card or a card that you generally don’t use too much.
• Changing fee structures: Some banks are reportedly limiting how many overdraft fees can be assessed to one account in one day; others seem to be trimming the fees themselves. Still, would you rather pay some money for this service or none and not have it?