How many AIG executives, Merrill Lynch financial managers, and Lehman Brothers bankers are likely to buy an apartment on Park Avenue or a house in the Hamptons this year? The answer: not enough. Anyone on Wall Street or even Main Street knows that the financial sector in the United States has never been uglier. Executives saw their net worth eviscerated and even completely obliterated.

But the woes of Wall Street will cause a ripple effect on most American consumers. This is not only because the $700 billion bail-out will cause the dollar’s value to decrease and taxes to rise, the pain can also be felt in their ability to borrow. Credit card companies and financial institutions that deal with auto loans are also vulnerable to market constrictions. Insurance companies, which have remained strong despite Wall Street woes, will be hurt if the economy takes another beating.

The pain will spread from the banks to their back office IT operations, lawyers, accountants, and professional employees who depend on financial companies for work. From CEOs to the janitors, people who are employed by the financial, real estate, and insurance sectors will have limited spending potential.

If this scenario is not bad enough, the fact that most jobs are centered on certain towns make the situation worse. Bankers usually live in one community while the IT professionals live in another. Manhattan is the hub of all this turmoil, but its fallout is already being felt in different parts of the country. Economists are predicting that the value of Manhattan real estate will sink from layoffs and shrinking bonuses in Wall Street. It is estimated that Wall Street accounts for 12% of all jobs in New York and around a quarter of salaries.

The Wall Street problems will make themselves felt in the lives of every American and the $700 billion bailout is just the beginning of it. While economists believe that this bailout will have a positive impact over the short term, it is frightening to find out what its long term consequences are.

Don’t you love it when you get that order of French fries and find an onion ring in the container? What about getting an extra soda from the vending machine? Free things tend to make your day or at least make the moment. Why not keep the spirit alive in your investment strategy?

My friend Chris Hubinsky and I recently formed an investing company called H&L Ventures, Ltd. Our goal for the first few years is to build a strong portfolio with a solid base. We want a structure that will last for years and solidify our financial futures. We are employing a dividend grabbing strategy that I will call the Check, Please! Strategy or CPS.

The CPS focuses on buying stocks from secure companies that pay dividends numerous times each year. Many of the big corporations pay dividends quarterly. These dividends are free bonuses to the shareholders (you) that can be rolled right back into your investment. More often than not, the dividends are between 10-50 cents per share. “This Joe Lawrence guy is a moron!” you must be saying to yourself.

You would be right on many occasions, but not here. Let me show you some numbers. If you bought $300 worth of General Electric (GE) back on January 6, 2006, you would own 8.45 shares (I went to 2006 to use real numbers). GE paid $.25 per share dividends throughout 2006. After the first quarter you would have made $2.11. Again, not much but work with me here.

Allow the dividends to be reinvested (most brokers do this automatically, like Sharebuilder.com) and you will have .06 of a share. Your new total shares are 8.51. Keep this up until today, and you now made $24.74 in dividends and own 9.18 shares. That is $25 for free in two and a half years. Sure, it is not a retirement check, but give it a few more years and that number will continue to grow.

H&L Ventures uses Sharebuilder.com because it allows for fractional stock purchases and only $4 fees per trade. To learn more check out Quality Over Quantity.

The one word you should keep in mind when choosing a financial adviser is “fiduciary”, it basically refers to someone who puts your financial interest above his own. This characteristic is essential in the world of money because you will be entrusting your fortune and your financial future to the adviser you choose.

It can be challenging to find genuine fiduciaries because in most cases, advisers have a certain “suitability” standard wherein they provide an appropriate return on your investment. Take note of the word “appropriate” because most advisers are unlikely to stress themselves out in finding the “best” choice for you.

Look at this example. If you can save $10,000 for your retirement fund, the adviser can ask you to invest it in a low-cost index fund that has a potential of generating 8% returns annually. After 30 years, you will have earned $1.1 million which is a good safety net. However, look at another scenario. If the adviser recommends you to invest the money in high-cost investment mediums, you might get a 6% return annually. After 30 years, you will have around $800,000 which is obviously a lot lower compared to the former strategy.

As you can see, the recommendation of your financial adviser can significantly affect your future financial capability. Sure, the latter option, which is the high-cost investment, is “appropriate” You didn’t generate any loss after all, but you definitely netted lower than you should have compared to when you invested your money in the index fund.

If you are looking for the best return possible, you need to distinguish between genuine fiduciary and the “suitability” standard most financial advisers set for themselves. Getting an adviser who puts your interest first undeniably will provide a lot of benefits for you and your family over the long term.

Have you ever gone into a store and were blatantly ignored? You wanted quality service but instead the worker only cared about his task at hand or his personal issues. This is very frustrating! Have you ever done the same thing to a user of your product or service? It is very easy to lose focus of the customer while doing the work or even during project management.

Project management possesses a very high level of responsibility and requires constant multi-tasking. All too often our focus shifts to the deadline or the current roadblock that we are facing. Having this determination is a great motivator. The problem is that you become willing to do whatever it takes to get there and often the user’s (customer’s) needs are ignored. Example: I hired a guy to do landscaping at my house and gave him a detailed plan of the plants I wanted and where they were to be placed. He could not get a certain plant I wanted, so he bought a different one so he could finish the job on-time.

This landscaper’s tunnel vision made him completely forget what I (the user of his services) wanted. What results from this form of project management? Disgruntled customers, bad reputation, not fulfilling the contract, etc. These results can be sidestepped very easily by simply putting yourself in the user’s shoes. Think about how you would want to be treated. By simply practicing the Golden Rule, you are less likely to have an upset customer.

Schedule and budget often tempt us to stray from the original plan. We see that if we continue with what we are doing the project will be a week late or over budget. To prevent this we take short cuts that dramatically alter the outcome. It is best to first look for another place to save time/money. If there is no other solution, consult the customer and be up front. Ask whether time, money or completion to spec is more important. Once this is answered, you can press on with the customer’s best interest in mind. Everyone will win.

Remember getting that first credit card? It would be used strictly for emergencies. None of those ever really popped up, and you got a letter in the mail last month saying that you credit limit just doubled. All of a sudden temptations start to resemble emergencies.

Getting a pair of shoes, going out to dinner, going to a concert or buying a CD all of a sudden become easier and easier. This is free money! I can buy anything I want, without waiting and only have a small monthly payment. Perfect.

It is perfect until you run some numbers. That dinner you ate last year and charged has been paid for many times over. A balance of $1,000 at 18% would take 153 months to pay off, if you made the minimum payments, and you would have paid $1,115.41 in interest alone. That is enough money to buy everything that you charged twice. (Money for Tomorrow)

Credit cards sound pretty dumb now, don’t they? The solution is a savings account. If you open a savings account and start saving, you will no longer need a credit card. Simply put $20-$50 a pay period into your savings account the day you get paid. You probably will not even notice it gone. This will give you anywhere between $480 and $1,200 after a year.

An amount this small is not going to rocket you to early retirement, but it will replace your credit cards (aka the devil). Each year this amount is going to rise, just like your credit limit. You can put in more money if you choose to increase your balance at a faster pace.

How does a savings account replace my credit cards? Good question. Many people have what they call an “emergency” savings account. An account to be used for emergencies, just like that credit card you got in the mail. The difference is the interest actually works in your favor as opposed to being against you. Many of these accounts even have debit cards for convenience.

Create your own emergency account and cut up your credit cards!