It is a sign of the times. Given the current economic woes, many people are turning to a second job to make extra income.  Things are bad everywhere with no sign of improvement on the horizon.  The temporary boost in employment statistics generated by the thousands of part-time census jobs has evaporated.  The numbers just keep getting worse.

Here in Florida we had a .1% jump, which wouldn’t seem so awful if we weren’t already at record unemployment levels.  Now unemployed job seekers have to face off against not just their unemployed brethren, but also the employed (and therefore viewed as employable) workers seeking second jobs and the housewives/college students/retirees who were out of the job market altogether but are now jumping back in.

Even ex-governors of Illinois are not immune to the pinch.  Apparently, sending his wife out to appear on ludicrous reality TV shows isn’t enough to keep Rod Blagojevich and family in style.  Blago showed up at the Chicago Comic Book Convention to hawk his marketability.

The pricing scheme: $0 appearance fee, $50 per autograph, $80 per photo op.  Seriously.  Blago stated in an interview on Fox News Sunday this week that he didn’t make very much money at the show.  But his idea of ‘not very much’ might be different from yours and mine.  And the amount he claims to the IRS is probably very different from the amount he actually received in cash.

I guess the moral of the story is that maybe the economy isn’t as bad as we thought.  Apparently there are individuals in the Chicago area willing and able to fork over gobs of their hard earned money for the signature of a disgraced former politician.

MOSAIC may not be a household name, but they are the world’s largest phosphate mining company. They provide the raw materials that go into the fertilizer that grows the fruit and vegetable products that you consume every day. Last week, they announced plans to lay off over 200 workers from their plant in rural Polk County, FL.

You read the headline that a company resorted to layoffs and your logical response is “it’s the economy, stupid.” Good answer, but wrong. It isn’t the economy. It isn’t a lack of demand or resources and it isn’t competition, domestic or foreign.

MOSAIC was forced to idle their Fort Meade plant and lay off workers because of a line on a map. There is a road, aptly if not creatively named County Line Road, separating Polk County from Hardee County. MOSAIC has, over the course of decades, mined all the phosphate from their land on the north side of the road, but they own more than 10,000 phosphate rich acres on the south side of the road.

Despite their legal ownership of the land in Hardee County, appropriate zoning, and approvals from the US Army Corps of Engineers, MOSAIC’s enormous drag-lines sit idle on the north side of the road because of a restraining order (they’re not just for crazy ex-boyfriends anymore) issued by a judge in Jacksonville. Not just one, not two, but three distinct environmental groups have sued to stop the company from mining any of their land in Hardee County.

Oddly enough, MOSAIC isn’t even a party to the lawsuit, leaving the defense of their very business in the hands of… the Federal Government. The three groups – the Sierra Club Inc, People for Protecting Peace River, and ManaSota-88 – filed suit against the US Army Corps of Engineers. The allegation is that the expansion of the mine would essentially destroy nature and turn the county into an environmental wasteland fit only for cockroaches and high school dropouts (I’m paraphrasing).

Regardless of the impact it will have on the next generation, these people don’t want industry intruding on their little slice of retirement paradise. The current economy is forcing more than enough layoffs as it is; it doesn’t need any help from a group of people who earned themselves a nice living somewhere else in industry have since retired and moved to Florida.

All small business owners and new entrepreneurs set out to strike it rich and live the American dream.  Then, reality sets in and we see there is a lot more to making a business work than having a good idea.  It takes hard work, determination, self-control and passion to make it all come together.

I have chased down many ventures that I have been luke warm about over the years.  For example, I looked into a couple of Multi-Level Marketing ventures and tested the waters.  None of them took off for me because I never had the passion to be a salesman.  The companies were probably great and the products were quality.  In fact, I received some of my best training from their training reps and programs.  However, I never gave my heart to the cause.

Starting a new business (even maintaining an old one) takes loads of effort and sweat.  If it is something you truly don’t care about, you will move it to the back burner and it will eventually fail.  You will hit many roadblocks and speed bumps along the way but have to motor past them.  If you decide to look for an easier route, the venture will go under.

My childhood mentor owned the martial arts school I taught at.  My friend and I were the only staff he had for over 200+ students.  We loved teaching the art and loved everything about it.  Because of our passion, we motivated others to come and train.  The more experienced students were always there to help out in the classes and train with us.

My boss would not sleep until he found a way through the roadblocks.  When our equipment was getting beat up, he came up with creative ways to get new gear.  He was fully invested in every aspect of the school.  Because of this, he turned a hefty profit.

Just a brief word of advice: don’t waste your time, money or efforts on something your not passionate about.

I have been watching a couple of stocks very closely the past couple of weeks and am waiting to pounce.  They are both technology related, but one is online sales and the other is computer bits and bytes.  Overstock.com and Cirrus are my picks for this week.

I am going to start with my favorite, Overstock.com or NASDAQ: OSTK.  At the time of this article it is trading around $22.94 and is riding the price roller coaster between $22 and $23 with change.  The 52-week high is at $26.50 and I expect it to take off to the low $30 range soon.

As of now, I can not get a good grasp on when the  price hike will come, but I do not expect a down-turn any time soon.  Overstock is a great buy because the management is very solid all with great track records.  The CEO’s father is now a member of the board and he has an amazing record of success.  Also with what matters most, the financials look great.

Online retailers do not have as much overhead as brick and mortar retailers do, but have the potential to move as much, if not more, volume.  This adds up to more of a profit margin.

I am looking to buy OSTK around $22.50 and then sell right before it hits $30.  Once the $30 milestone is hit, investors are going to cash in on the profits.  Get out before they do.

Finally, Cirrus.  This company gained lots of momentum after a shout out from Jim Cramer on Mad Money.  They are the company who has the contract with Apple for parts that go inside of the iPhone, iPad and other goodies.  Unlike Apple, who is trading around $250 per share you can jump on Cirrus (NASDAQ:CRUS) for under $15.

Currently, CRUS is trading at $14.38 and hanging out in the $14 range.  I am convinced you can pick up some shares for just under $14 if you are patient, but this stock will continue to grow to almost $20 a share.  This is one for those who are high-volume buyers to ride.  You are not going to make much as a small investor here.

There was much hullabaloo this week over Apple’s decision to ban all pornographic applications from their app store. Porn-addicts around the nation huddled in Internet chat rooms and decried Apple for abridging their first amendment rights. Over and over again, in all form of media, the cry went up: “1st Amendment, 1st Amendment”.

So, as a public service, I’d like to provide here the unabridged text of the first amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

It doesn’t take a legal expert to realize that it is IMPOSSIBLE for Apple to violate the 1st Amendment rights of pornographers, or anyone else for that matter. Apple is not Congress. The 1st Amendment protects us, the people, from Congress. That’s it. Anything else is revisionist at best. Forget what you’ve hear on TV or read online.

The 1st Amendment is a proper and necessary safeguard against government censorship. But that’s it. Apple can choose to sell or not sell whatever they want. No one is forced to buy an iPhone; porn on demand is not a right. This whole debate is misplaced.

We live in a free market economy (mostly, sort of). If you don’t like the way Apple does business, buy an Android. That’s the way it works. Apple is a corporation. All slogans aside, all corporations exist for the sole purpose of maximizing shareholder wealth. If enough people are so upset about the lack of porn that they switch cellphone companies, it would put pressure on Apple to reconsider their business model because they would be losing money.

I don’t know if Apple made the decision based on their values or on the demands of the market. I’m guessing that the negative feedback for having porn was greater than the negative feedback for banning porn. Either way, the decision is Apple’s alone and I think it was a good one.

A couple of years ago, my friend and I started an investment company.  We decided to throw some spare cash each month into a ShareBuilder.com account and buy some stock.  Individually, we were doing good, but together we have done much better than we expected.

We have consistently beat the market with our “free money” strategy and boast a 30% return on our investments.  By no means am I bragging, because I know I am not talented.  I just want you to know the tools we use to help get to this point.

First off, Google Finance is my favorite.  They give you all the info you need plus great interactive charts.  I can go back as far as I want to on each stock and see their dividend payouts and try to spot cyclical trends.  The charts allow me to compare each stock with others in their sector as well as the Dow and S&P.  Google offers news and financials for each pick.

Then, we use ShareBuilder.com because they allow for the purchase of fractional stock.  Most other sites force you to buy whole shares and you don’t get to take full advantage of your money.  For example, I have $100 and want to buy Coke (NYSE:KO) at $53.34 a share.  I would only be able to buy one share at other sites and have $46.66 left over in my account collecting dust.  Instead, I could buy 1.87 shares with ShareBuilder.com and have every penny working for me.  I am truly perplexed others don’t do this.

Recently, I have adopted two new websites to aid me.  First one is TheStreet.com owned by the Jim Kramer of Mad Money.  It offers lots of great insight.  I have disagreed with many of the hold/buy/sell opinions, but have had to prove to myself, “why?”  It has helped sharpen my sword.

Next, there is Yahoo Finance.  They offer many different data fields on each stock that most sites overlook.  I used to think they were crowded with info, but now I understand more and value all the help I can get.

Check out these sites for yourself.  Any others?

Those looking for a solid performer with huge room and potential for growth, listen to this pick.  In fact, get to the mountain!  Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMRC) is a great stock teetering on a tipping point.  I believe it is ready to climb, I am actually putting my money on it.

Continual improvement is something I always have believed.  As a novice investor, there is much room to learn.  I have up to this point learned how to build a solid portfolio, which has produced for me quite well.  My strategy is a long term one that I coined “free money.”

Free money, I choose stock with solid financials who pay out great dividends.  I consistently have made money over the past two years in a down economy and am gobbling up more shares by reinvesting the dividends.  However, that is a moot point today.  My next chapter is about learning the sectors and what affects their movement.

I decided to start in the Consumer/Non Cyclical sector after sipping on my Panera coffee.  In doing so, I came across Diedrich Coffee (NASDAQ: DDRX) whom is being noticed as a company with huge earning potential.  In fact, they were crushing the other stocks in the sector until the DOW collapsed last week.  I would be jumping all over this stock if they were priced a couple dollars cheaper.  Not because I think they are over-priced, in fact, they are a great buy at $34.63.

The lower price desired is because there is high speculation that they are going to accept the buyout offer for $35 a share by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.  Therefore, if they do, you would not gain much if any.  However, GMCR is sitting in the middle of their 52-week range.  They have tons of assets and very little debt.  Their management is solid, and they are moving to open new distribution channels.

If they obtain DDRX, it would slip right into their proposed launch of a wholesale line.  DDRX primarily deals with wholesale customers.  Weird how the announcement to launch wholesale is quickly followed with an offer to buy DDRX.

Goldman Sachs is the face of what’s gone wrong with the American financial system. They are nigh universally reviled among the blue collar general populace who has no use for an investment bank.  Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, is considering dropping them.  In England, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called them morally bankrupt.  Back in the US, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing them.

So, obviously all this is having a pretty big impact on Goldman Sach’s bottom line right?  Right?  Well, it is true that there has been a big change in Goldman’s earnings for the first quarter of 2010.  They are UP.  A lot.  Goldman reported first quarter earnings of nearly three and a half BILLION dollars.

Sometimes numbers like this can be obscured by the the magnitude of the industry.  Does the average Joe know if $3.5 billion is a lot or a little for Goldman Sachs?  Probably not.  And it’s probably good for Joe’s blood pressure if he doesn’t know because Goldman’s earnings are up 91% from a year earlier.

How can this be?  Well, simply put, Goldman’s clients are leaving.  If you had a doctor who was a well-known scoundrel who was known to be grossly inept and was being sued for malfeasance,  you’d find another doctor.  But what if he was the only MD in town? Or what if there were other doctors, but you believed them all to be worse than yours?

You’d hold your nose and stay.  That’s more or less where Goldman’s clients are right now.  Somewhere between denial and out of options.  So they stay, Goldman proclaims its innocence, and the investment firm continues to make money hand over fist.

Until & unless the government’s lawsuit is settled, Goldman will continue to operate business as usual.  Investors beware.  Ignore all warnings, and you’ll end up with what you deserve.

You have the power over the challenges and tasks you face.  You just might not know it yet.  Not too long ago I learned a new term: self-efficacy.  The concept was not foreign to me, just the term itself.

Self-efficacy is your belief in your abilities.  Those with low self-efficacy believe they are not able to accomplish certain tasks.  When they face a new challenge, they lose the battle in their head before they even start.  In contrast, those with high self-efficacy believe they can conquer any  feat.  Nothing will stand in the way.

We all have faced a new situation and thought we were inadequate to deal with it.  The results were we did fail or we barely survived.  Michael Holmes asks in his book, I Shall Raise Thee Up, “Why is it that the salesperson who can ‘close the deal’ in his mind’s eye will always surpass their counterparts who ‘hope’ the prospect can see their products’ value?”

There truly is an advantage to having the confidence to complete something.  I was placed into a key role during a team martial arts competition in front of 15,000 people, standing 10 feet away from Chuck Norris.  I had 100% confidence in my ability and the ability of my team, and we performed without missing a beat.  We attained high self-efficacy through training and practice.

It would have been disastrous if we doubted our abilities.  We would have failed and looked foolish in front of a very large crowd.  Training builds self efficacy.  Practice allows you to envision success.  The more you go through the motions, the more likely you are able to see yourself being a success.

Michael Holmes actually talks about this concept in his chapter on vision, although he doesn’t use the term self-efficacy.  He talks about the lens in which we see the world  through.  If we are optimistic and confident, there is nothing that can stop us.  Picture being a success at the start of a new task, and you already have a leg up on the competition.  You can do it!

Of all the taxes and fees that business owners must pay (and there are many), the least understood is probably the tax on tangible personal property (TPP).  In fact, many small business owners don’t even know what constitutes TPP.  The confusion is intensified because the requirements vary from state to state.  For example, some states consider certain types of vehicles to be TPP, while others do not.  Some states will tax inventory, while others specifically exclude it.

All states do agree that tangible personal property is best described as everything that isn’t real property.  Real property is the ground and everything permanently affixed to it.  So, the building and the land are real property.  The “stuff” inside the building is generally TPP.  TPP for a typical business would include computers, furniture and fixtures, leasehold improvements, and supplies.

An important thing to remember when preparing your TPP return is that every asset that is physically located at the site carries some value for taxation purposes.  Depreciation for your county’s TPP return is not the same as depreciation for federal income tax purposes.  While an item can be fully depreciated on your federal return, it will never reach $0 value on your local return until it is disposed of and physically removed from the property.

The best rule of thumb for reporting your tangible personal property is to report everything with ample detail.  If you made a significant software purchase and you’re not sure if your state taxes software, report it but spell out clearly what it is.  Your county officials will exclude it if it isn’t, but you’re not risking the penalties associated with not reporting.  You can’t lose by giving too much detail on your TPP return.