Jenny’s Review Place

The end of the year is almost upon us. Unless you run on a fiscal year instead of a calendar year, this means that you need to take a serious look at your 2009 business spending right now. You want to see if you have money left over this year that should be invested back into the business. If so, use it before December 31st because you’ll be able to deduct the expenses off of your taxes in a couple of months.

What should you buy before the year ends? You want to buy things that your business truly needs and will benefit from having. You also want to make sure that these are things that you can write off as real business expenses on your taxes. This is especially true if you work for yourself from home.

For example, you wouldn’t necessarily want to get the fancy light fixtures from Elk Lighting that you have been eyeing if you’re a freelance writer. It may be hard to justify writing those off. Then again, if you own an art gallery that could really benefit from those lights then it would be a great expense. Otherwise choose things like a one-time deep cleaning service, much-needed computer or office equipment or new marketing tools for the business.

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We all know about Miss America and Miss Universe. Some of us know about less popular but still famous “Miss” pageants like the pageant for Miss Gay America or the pageant for Miss Chinatown that is held in some cities. But very few people know about another kind of pageant that’s been taking place for nearly forty years. It’s the Miss Claddagh pageant.

The Claddagh is a symbol of Irish heritage. If you are familiar with it then your familiarity probably comes from the fact that you have seen Claddagh rings worn by people in your life. These are typically considered to be Celtic engagement rings although they may be worn by people for reasons other than marriage.

Although the Claddagh is most familiar to people because of the jewelry that it is worn on, it’s a symbol that means a lot more than just something to be worn on your body. It represents the strength and character and values of the Irish people. These values are exhibited by the women chosen to be Miss Claddagh each year.

The Claddagh symbolizes friendship, love and loyalty. The women who are crowned Miss Claddagh are all kind, loving women who place a big emphasis on the love and commitment that they have for their community. It’s an honor to be chosen for this award even if many of us aren’t familiar with the ceremony.

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Most of us have some idea of what an SMS gateway is. SMS gateways are what we use to send text messages to one another on our mobile phones. There is another kind of gateway that cell phone companies are starting to offer though which is a bit more complex than the SMS gateway. It’s the SNG or social networking gateway.

A social networking gateway is a method of aggregating all of your social networking interaction into one place. Essentially, this gateway serves as a dashboard where all of your different social networks are linked. This means that you can upload a photo or a text message update to your SNG and then send it out to multiple social networks at once (such as Facebook and MySpace).

Some people mistakenly think that the SNG is a premium SMS gateway. However, SMS really only refers to the sending of text messages. Whenever you get into more advanced gateways, you’re starting to talk about something that goes beyond text into multi-media.

Whatever you want to call it, it seems that SNGs are the way of the future. Most of us find ourselves with profiles on multiple social networking systems. Mobile social networking is growing. As a result, SNGs that we can update from our mobile phones simply make sense.

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The other night, my husband and I watched Maxed Out, a documentary on the American way of life credit card debt.  It was very interesting but also very scary, and talked about how serious the problem of credit cards really is.

Watching Maxed Out made me want to pay off my credit cards and stop using credit altogether, except for when you really need to — such as when you are buying a house.  Of course, this requires a lot of budgeting, to ensure that you don’t spend more than you are bringing in, and that you are putting money aside for emergencies.

This is difficult for most people, but it is entirely possible to do so, if you are able to master your spending impulses.  Also, don’t forget that in today’s day and age, you can also turn possessions into money pretty easily.  For instance, if you find you need money for something, you can sell gold jewelry for cash – there are pawn shops and online gold buyers to whom you can sell gold, and you can also sell pieces online via sites such as eBay and Etsy.

There are other ways to raise money when you need it, too.  Most of us have at least something of value that we could sell if we really needed money: for instance, electronics, cars, collections such as antiques, etc.  While it’s probably not your first choice to sell your possessions, if you need money it’s far better to sell them now and replace them later, than to get yourself deeper into credit card debt!

Technorati Tags: credit card debt, Maxed Out, Sell Gold, sell gold jewelry for cash

I have always been a firm believer that if you work hard that you will be rewarded.  That is the same belief that I had nearly fifteen years ago when I started out in the corporate world and it has worked very well for me.  From my lowly position in the mail room to head of marketing now, I really feel that all my hard work has paid off.

But I have just accepted my biggest promotion yet, which is promotion to the national director of marketing.  The catch is that I will have to move to the head office in Tampa, which will mean that I will have to leave our home behind to make a new one.

So, we have been looking at Tampa houses for sale in hopes that something will catch our eye.  There hasn’t been anything that we have truly been in love with yet, but we will be taking a road trip down there this weekend to check things out and look in person.

If we are unable to find a home right away, we might just hold onto our old one and I’ll go down there early and rent until we find something that we like.  Whatever the outcome, I know that it will be a grand adventure and a great reward.  I can’t wait!

Technorati Tags: Tampa houses for sale