Waiting on Winter's End

Seeing the Dow drop almost 5% in the last three days reminds me that we are not out of the woods yet. Unemployment levels were up in almost every State last month. Wisconsin's unemployment rate is at 8.3% up from 7.9% in November 2009. In an earlier post, I had said that my income for 2009 was about the same as 2008. Unfortunately, that estimate was wrong. I received my W-2 form and 1099-INT forms this week, so I was able to get a more accurate reading on last years income. The results show that my income was down by 13% from 2008.

The good news is that being in a lower tax bracket means that I will see a better tax refund this year. The company I work for has put us back on 35 hour work weeks, so my concern is that I will need to continue to look for ways to cut expenses 2010. Unfortunately, the only thing we have left to cut is the food budget. So, a better plan for this year would be to find a better paying job, or find a way to generate some income from the Internet. That's why all of my web pages have ads on them. Is it generating any income for me? No, only Google and Amazon are getting rich off of the ads. It's amazing how important advertising on the web has become. This is certainly an area that is still growing and changing every day. There are certainly a lot of companies out their looking for people who have had success with Internet advertising.