By Jonathan Timar | Published December 15, 2011You know that old cliché saying that’s usually attributed to somebody’s grandpa? It goes something like this: “Used to be people understood the value of a dollar.” I’d like to update that saying a bit for our modern age. Try this on: “It used to be people understood the value of, well, anything.” Sadly that […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published November 28, 2011I’ll never forget the moment I heard those words. I was sitting in the back row, at a sales training seminar. I had already made up my mind that I was in the wrong place, training for the wrong job. But I had not yet found the courage to be true to myself and leave. […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published April 30, 2010A couple of week ago an acquaintance of mine recommended that I read a book called Blue Ocean Strategy. Now typically what happens when someone gives me an unsolicited recommendation like that is that I file it away in the “later” pile and often never get around to it. As it happens though I really […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published April 7, 2010I have been submitting my photos to Shutterstock.com for four years now. In a month I will close my account with them and never submit another photo again. Here’s why; sometime over the next few weeks I expect to finally crawl over the minimum payout threshold of $75. I do not intend to spend another […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published April 6, 2010Today marks the first week that I have transitioned away from my 9-5 job into working for myself. My life has become a lot less secure. I do not know how much money I will have next week. I am not even sure if I will make any money at all for the entire month. […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published October 18, 2009When needed some new credit card icons for The Limelight Shop, I was surprised to find that what was available online really wasn’t all that good. The options ranged from cheesy and outdated, to way to fancy to be professional. I just needed something in between. I wanted nice looking icons, not too plain, but […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published February 3, 2009Now that I have your attention, I will confess that this article is not about me. Though I have been called ugly and stupid, I have never taken such characterizations too seriously. Though not without my fair share of insecurities, I have never felt myself to be ugly, and while at times I may be […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published July 29, 2008Bill Gates is such an asshole. That’s not what I think, but a lot of people do. In fact the level of vitriol directed towards Bill Gates and Microsoft is really quite mind-boggling considering that the man has given away tens of millions of dollars of his own money to charities funding AIDS prevention, agriculture […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published June 9, 2008Yes, that’s right. I just said that you can fund your child’s entire retirement for only thirty dollars a month. Notice I did not say that you can fund their education for only thirty dollars a month, I said you can fund their retirement. You are doubting me already, I can feel it. Don’t. There […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published June 7, 2008When I graduated from Broadcasting School I had fifteen thousand dollars in debt hanging over my head. The primary debt was student loans, a car loan and a sprinkling of credit card debt for good measure. I carried that debt for a few months out of necessity before making a conscious decision to eliminate it. […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published June 5, 2008When you walk down the street and get stopped by a panhandler, what do you do? If you are like most people, you rush by as quickly as possible, avoiding eye contact. You don’t feel that person deserves any of your money, but you’re slightly embarrassed at your unwillingness to part with a few cents, […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published May 31, 2008Look around you. Look at your friends, family, and even your co-workers. How many of them would you say love going to work every day? How many of them do you believe finish every day with a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of joy? Now ask yourself how many seem to be going through […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published May 25, 2008Everyone has the potential to be rich. Unless you were born into poverty in the third world, and even sometimes then, you have the power to rise up beyond your beginnings and become something much greater. The difference between poor people and rich people is in their minds and how they think, not in their […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published May 22, 2008Living paycheck to paycheck is no fun, but with the exception of a lucky few born into privilege we have all done it at some point, or several points in our lives. Unfortunately a lot of us get so used to living that way that we come to view it as “normal”, and in doing […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published May 16, 2008This evening I was surfing around and came upon a blog known as The A-hole Blog. I must admit despite not being in total agreement with the guy, his blog is living up the name. But the beauty of it is that even though he really is a real asshole, his writing is so gloriously […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published January 23, 2008Some people have an irrational fear of credit cards. They are firmly convinced that these little bits of plastic are somehow possessed by the devil himself. The reasoning is that because credit cards can lead people into trouble that the cards themselves are the problem. Obviously this is not true. Blaming the plastic, or the […]
By Jonathan Timar | Published January 22, 2008In June 2007, exactly seven months ago, I was in debt to the tune of $15,000. That may not sound like much, but consider that my annual after tax income as a recent broadcasting school graduate, working in retail while looking for a “real” job, was a meagre $13,000. That means that my total debt […]
