Part one of "Rethinking Education" is a starting point meant to show you just some of what's available online in terms of free educational opportunities. This follow-up focuses on the planning and action phase, and one very important factor to consider is this: you need a new approach to getting and continuing your education, wherever you decide to take it.

• You need a degree to get to the next level in your organization, but you're already working full-time.
• You need a degree, but you're not sure which one would really help.
• You have a degree, and it's not paying off the way you thought it would, so you want to get another one.
  

A) Rethinking  Education


Rethinking in this context is not to rehash, but to look at the issue from another level. Assuming you've gone through basic elementary schooling, however long ago, you have to understand that the way you learned things then is different from the way you're expected to do things now. The old systems can't handle the demands of the emergent new reality. You can't exclusive rely on old methods of learning when you're expected to adapt to the changes facing you now.

Many brick-and-mortar schools are accused of inflating the employment rate of their graduates to attract more students. Online schools, on the other hand, still have to battle the image of being diploma mills, studying "online" not being seen as serious as "actually going to college." Education is in a slow state of flux, and while it's changing, we still have to figure out what we want to learn while the old rules are breaking down.

We're all going through some really hard times right now. What with the current economy and the job market being flooded, it's hit and-and-miss-miss-miss when you send out resumes or answer want ads. People are expected to do more work for longer hours at whatever pay they can negotiate for, and nobody can help it, it is what it is.

An article in the New York Times states that an M.A is the new bachelor's degree. Ph.D's, M.A's and B.A holders  are competing fiercely  over available positions and job openings, and even when you get a foot in the door, you can be turned down for being over-qualified for one job and yet not be qualified enough at another.

• Your BA Is No Longer Special (Jezebel. As an aside, the comments alone are worth the read.)
• Down but not out: Voices of the long-term unemployed (Yahoo) and Down But Not Out (Tumbler)
  

What do you do?

• A good opportunity comes up through word-of-mouth, but then you take a pass. "I don't have the time, and I have all I can handle as it is." And you don't mention how a similar opening just slipped through your finger because you're still smarting about that one instead of the one that just landed in front of you.

• A friend mentions a new venture in the works that might just be perfect for someone with your qualifications, and you regretfully say, "I'll have to take a rain-check, I'm fully booked, thanks." Only you're not, not really. You're just not ready yet.

Intimidation works one of two ways, and both are a matter of perspective: Either you see what you're facing as something too big for you to deal with, OR you believe you are not up to the task of dealing with it. E.g, it's too much, or you're not enough. Sometimes you can feel it's both.

Whatever side of this divide you stand, you look at it from a distorted perspective. You're too small, the task is too big, it's too much, you're not enough....and when the inevitable anxiety digs in, you feel so strongly about it that your mind comes up with all sorts of explanations to support your feelings.

What are you telling yourself about this situation?

I'm going to tell you something you already know about making your mornings flow smoother. Ready?

To have an easy start to your day, create a system where you set up needed things the night before. This is the short, polite version of "Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance."

Even in this economy, people's lives have a way of establishing equilibrium. We're hardy little survivors, we are, and life has a way of settling into a state of stability as we adjust to our new circumstances. And whether you're a free-lance artist, a stay-at-home-parent, a line worker, an executive or an executive assistant, you have a work day: a time of day where you labor.

That equilibrium posits that you have a relatively steady life. For the most part, you can safely expect things to run on a certain schedule. You can assess and prep for the situations you expect, you can prepare the things you need for those events, and you have a hold on what's going to happen in your regular workday and work week... that's why you have  routines.

Routines grow around things we need to do on a regular basis, everything from how you wake  up and feed yourself in the morning, to the way you set up your office and desk, to the things you attend to first as you balance your workload, all the way down to your before-bed rituals.

You know what you're going to do? Prepare the way for it to go smoothly.
You know what you want to happen? Set it up so it will.
You know what you need to do? Stop over-analyzing it and do it.

Pawn Stars is a reality show on the History Channel. It chronicles the working day of the family-owned Gold and Silver Pawnshop in Las Vegas. Rick Harrison runs it with his father Richard ("The Old Man") and his son Corey ("Big Hoss"), assisted by Corey's childhood friend Austin "Chumlee" Russell.

Now, you might dismiss the whole thing as staged and gimmicky, but there is undeniable value in the education and entertainment --edutainment?-- you can get from the show. Anyone who wants to see marketing psychology in action can learn a lot from watching it. Think of a "Pawn Stars" episode as a 30-minute lesson on customer relations, pricing, risk management, working with family and  running a business -- without the big words they use in business school.

Respect the bottom-line.
If Rick feels he won't make a profit on a possible sale, he turns it down. No matter how excited he gets initially, he decides if buying an item would mean missing the bottom line, he won't buy. "Will buying this thing make money? Can I make a profit reselling it?" If the answer's no, he tells the customer why, and walks away. "We're not here to break even, we're here to make money."

Here are more links with security tips, this time with great stuff from Lifehacker.com.

On passwords:

• I Will Use Good Passwords, by Joe Kissell of Macworld.com
• Password Hasher, a Firefix security add-on.
• Pick A Good Password, part one and part two (which is basically a very short mnemonic tip).
• How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords, by John Pozadzides, plus this great article on The Threat of Free Public Wi-Fi, with videos.
• Making your passwords safer.

Assorted phishing and protection tips:

• A phishing flowchart for the uninitiated, and a guide to avoiding online scams.
• 8 methods to avoid phishing scams, at Marvquin.com, and 44 more ways at Focus.com.
• Report phishing attempts at Phishtank, so other people can protect themselves too.
  
• Protecting yourself from malware attacks.
• Protecting your data the right way.

Here's a little compilation of useful articles from an excellent resource, MakeUseOf.com, to give you a few helpful suggestions on more secrute browsing and internet use.

Whether you're doing business or buying stuff, you can check out the following articles for safety tips on account security and credit card protection.

• How to safely connect to your online banking account.
• Keeping your credit-cards safe when shopping on-line.
• Keeping your PayPal account secure.
• Keeping your important accounts safe.
  Comments read more

I know we just finished a series on business lessons from defensive driving, but I'm assuming you're all adults and are responsible people.  That being said, this post is about beer.

To be more specific, brewing your own.

The resources cited below are from past visits and click by's on Life Hacker, The Simple Dollar and GenX Finance. You're certainly free to do your own research, since these are just starter lessons and simple tools for the brewing process.

In case we haven't mentioned the site before, Trent Hamm's finance blog, The Simple Dollar (with 73,000 readers) is one of our most frequently visited resources. Since his blog has been around since 2006, this means you have years of entries to choose from with great advice on a wide variety of issues, from making your own laundry detergent, to the merits of cooking at home, to reader Q & A's, to the pay-off's of making sensible money choices in the face of other people's negative opinions (and he also shares on how to deal with those opinions).

Hamm also has a Small Business section too, and aside from the many well-thought out articles (especially his 14 part Money Rules series)  you can also download his free e-book, “Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on Just One Page.”

Another favorite is Wisebread, a blog community updated daily with deals, commentary, analysis and advice on personal finance. Play around in their forums for stimulating discussions geared towards helping you "live large on a small budget."

Power-napping is not just for cats (as those people lucky enough to support a cat can attest to). Da Vinci did it. Edison did it. Churchill did it. Millions of less-stressed-than-you people do it and managed to keep their lives running smoothly, you can too. See,it's not really the difficulty of taking a nap in the middle of your work day as it is getting over the intense urge to Do Something More Productive, and the guilt that comes with laying this urge aside.

Circadian rhythms govern our resting and active periods. Modern life lets us control this (somewhat) with various drugs of choice, the most common of which is caffeine. Napping can bring you back to the rhythms of your body, leading to better performance.

Remember nap-time when you were very young? Children needed time-outs from the frenetic activity their enormous energy levels could give them, so, boom, nap-time. Adults usually get to control their energy slumps with quick-fixes like coffee, but why not try implementing a small nap in your daily cycle to re-charge yourself?

Some of the following sites were recommended by a JROX resource, MakeUseOf.com. I visited the sites and here's my take: