What Obama’s VP Pick Can Teach You
By Jessica Wakeman | MainStreet.com

With conventions approaching—the Democrats meet in Denver on August 25 and the Republicans follow a week later in Minnesota –it is time for the presumptive presidential candidates to unveil their choices for vice president.

Senator Barack Obama could announce his decision as early as Wednesday, and his shortlist of potential running mates is widely considered to contain four names: Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Rival Senator John McCain is expected to take more time. Mike Allen of Politico writes that the presumptive Republican nominee “plans to celebrate his 72nd birthday on Aug. 29 by naming his running mate at a huge rally in the battleground state of Ohio.” Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are reportedly McCain’s top contenders.

MainStreet asked Josh Greenman, opinion editor at the New York Daily News and a former speechwriter for Senator Joseph Lieberman, for insight on how the candidates will make a choice, and what we can learn from their choices.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Both Obama and McCain are senators and will likely look to make up for a lack of management experience, Greenman says. They can do this by picking a vice presidential running mate who has run a large city as a mayor or a small state as a governor. “Obama will have to pick somebody who mitigates his weaknesses,” says Greenman. The junior senator from Illinois will likely pick someone like Evan Bayh, who is on the Select Committee on Intelligence.

IN YOUR OWN LIFE

Finding a partner who strikes a balance is key because initial attraction can be deceptive when it comes to building a team, says Victoria Colligan, co-founder of Ladies Who Launch, which helps to incubate the business ideas of female entrepreneurs. Finding the perfect number two to complement your talents and strengths may mean ignoring your instincts. “If I immediately fall in love with the person, it’s actually not a good thing,” she says.

Amy Swift, also of Ladies Who Launch, concurs that a number two should have a different thought process than the number one. “I try to never hire anybody who can do the same thing I can do. You’re duplicating personality types and not solving a problem.” For example, if the CEO is a big-think visionary, the number two should be a detail-oriented decision-maker. A willingness by the number two to do things that the CEO is tired of doing is also a plus, Swift says.

Since you’ll be spending so much time together, should your number two be a friend? Experts say it may be best to stick to working with professional acquaintances and let friendships develop out of work instead. A friendship doesn’t necessarily have an “alpha dog,” Swift says, but work needs a hierarchy. There can be a “fine line between friendly banter and a directive,” she says, and tasks may not get accomplished if the number two cannot make the differentiation.

Back to the White House race: Who the candidates pick as a running mate will serve to brand them in the eyes of the American people. The choice of a potential vice president shows whether or not a candidate knows himself, his strengths and his weaknesses. This philosophy translates to the business world as well. “You don’t need to know everything,” says Colligan. “You just need to surround yourself with good people.”

RELATED LINKS:

Surprising Facts About the Possible Vice Presidents
How To Step Down With Grace

What’s stopping you from grabbing $500 worth of free gas?

MainStreet investigates the Geezeo Gas Giveaway, and wonders… who will be the big winner?

John Lennon imagined a peaceful world in the classic song “Imagine”. So why I am about to tell you about a trend sweeping business? Aren’t business and world peace (or other do-good pursuits) ill at ease?

Not necessarily.

Here is an intriguing idea. For-profit businesses willingly decide to make donations to non-profits: by giving company stock.

Richard Bernstein is the CEO of a London-based venture capital fund called Eurovestech. Eurovestech is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It provides start-up capital in technology-based businesses.

But here’s the cool part: Eurovestech also issues new company shares in batches of 100,000 and gives them to charitable organizations. From Eurovestech’s point of view, it costs a fraction of giving the same amount in cash. For the recipient, it’s a gift that has the potential of large up-side growth. Recipients can sell the stock immediately to raise funds or hold on and hope that the stock rises in value.

According to Ode magazine, Bernstein’s small company has donated 8.2 million shares to more than 70 charitable and non-profit organizations. This amounts to a stock market value of almost $3 million.

Says Bernstein in the Ode article by Bruno Giussani: “I’m ready to go to see any CEO in any company anywhere in Europe to explain how it works and show how simply it can be done from the company’s point-of-view.” He continues by saying, “I want to get to the point where it’s embarrassing for a company not to be ’sharing alike’”.

Let’s hope this movement catches on here, across the pond. What a great way to share profits with organizations that work hard to make the world a better place.

Imagine that!

Another handy summer list from our friends at MainStreet.com. Cheers!

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Top Ten White Wines For Under $10
By David J. Critchell

Summer officially begins this weekend. For the wine aficionado and the casual sipper alike, that means it is white season—that time of year where the cup is more likely filled with a Pinot Grigio or a Sancerre than a Cabernet or a Merlot. To learn about all different types of wines check out MainStreet’s Wine Center.

But while many people are pretty astute at navigating the reds on the wine-shop shelf, the same doesn’t generally hold true for whites, which can remain a bit of a mystery.

Click here for the list.

So with the first wave of economic stimulus checks coming through, I am eager to see the total amount that will actually be sent to us. According to the IRS website, we should be receiving it by this Friday.

However, our family doesn’t plan on stimulating much of the economy with the check. We plan on using it to pay off a major bill. Something that was supposed to be paid off with our tax refund, but that didn’t happen due to our washer and dryer quiting on us!! (Yes, at the same time - Oh the joys of being an adult with responsibility now!)

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and different magazine articles talking about how many are planning on following the same idea as our family - paying off a large bill/credit card debt/etc.

However, I was watching a news program the other night, CNN I believe, and it mentioned that while the government is expecting a large number of citizens to use it to pay off debt, they fully expect the economy to still be stimulated. How? They are expecting that once citizens free up debt, they will go right back to charging more because 1) it’s “available credit”, and 2) things are rising in cost (so how else will they pay for it?) I thought about it, and I agree. For the average American they are probably right.

But don’t fear, Geezeo is helping its users to redefine the average American! We have the tools to help set up budgets and track our spending so we can be better prepared for the things that might happen tomorrow. Take full advantage of the capabilities. Set some goals so that you can pay off that debt, keep it off, and have a cushion to rely on in hard times (so you really can stimulate the economy with the IRS check and a guilt free conscience!!). Share your successes with us in groups such as You Don’t Really Need It…tales of consumerism. And if you do take a step backward (which most of us do), you can always get your purchase off your chest by confessing your money sins here!!!

Ladies, look away. This is for those of us who have want to buy flowers for that special someone but don’t see the point in feel like $90 dollar roses don’t adequately show our appreciation for that special someone. Keep the money in your pocket to pay off your debts but still get her a beautiful bouquet of two dozen red roses.

Amazon Flower Deal
(no affiliate link)

I believe you can select any roses, but I chose the two dozen roses. Add them to your cart, complete shopping, and then at the point your would enter your credit card look at the right. The flowers are only $12 dollars TOTAL! Talk about a slick deal. The flowers are for delivery on February 14th so your special someone should have no idea. Obviously, this deal probably is only for TODAY or the week so act quickly. One of the best reasons to read Geezeo everyday.

For more savings tips, check out our Geezeo group: Couples and Money! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Have you ever considered the “money story” of your life? In it, are you a victim? A victor? A bystander? A recipient?

Each of us has a different story; and even better, we can choose to change that story.

Just finished the book “Money, a Memoir: Women, Emotions and Cash” by Liz Perle.

The book would be appreciated most by women of all ages. Even though the woman writing the book is from a different generation (she’s a baby boomer), I can see a lot of similarities in the emotional issues she faced and those that many of my peers face. Do you choose a traditional path? A career path? How do you juggle both? [Side note: that partly explains why women are starting businesses 2 to 1 over men].

But back to what we tell ourselves about our money. For example, here are some stories I used to tell myself:

* People who care about money management are shallow, boring, or conservative.
* I am terrible at numbers — so there is no way I could ever understand enough to manage my money.
* I am a creative person and therefore I shouldn’t make money. Making money will diminish or influence my creative output.

Yet, over time I’ve changed these little self-stories:

* People who care about money management are responsible, independent, and exist across the political spectrum.
* Basic math is all I need. Managing my money significantly reduces my stress level.
* I am a creative person and I deserve to be paid because I can do what others cannot do easily or do well. Money itself has no way of diminishing or changing the root of who I am. I choose whether or not money influences my creative output.

What are yours?

Silly me, I thought “DRIP” was just a setting on my beloved coffee maker.

In fact, I’ve recently learned that DRIPS could be a great investing strategy for someone like me. Are you like me? You might be, if any of the following apply:

+ You’ve got a long time horizon before retirement
+ You can only spare a little right now to invest for the long-term
+ You’d like to save yourself brokers fees and buy stocks from companies directly

What are DRIPs? Dividend Reinvestment Plans. I’m just starting to read about them and so far they sound very, very promising. You can buy stocks directly from the company (with minimal fees) in staggeringly small amounts. You agree to reinvest all dividends. This makes it possible to literally buy in tiny, tiny increments every paycheck. What a great way to supplement your other investing. Or, like me, the ability to buy and hold small blocks of stock.

I’ve been reading a book called “Eight Steps to Seven Figures: The Investment Strategies of Everyday Millionaires and How You Can Become Wealthy Too” by Charles Carlson. That title is long, but not nearly as seemingly long as the time horizon to pay off my student loans.

Yet, maybe like you, I’ve come to realize that I can’t put off investing just because I (currently) have loan debt. With time on my side it seems to make sense to start NOW. Buy-hold-buy-hold, etc.

DRIPs are very appealing because they don’t take much money to start. People profiled in the book treated these small investments as just another weekly bill. Soon, they had amassed enough that, along with the compounding effects of time, they’d accumulated a lot.

You can use Geezeo to track your expenses so that you can find those small amounts to invest. Small amounts over time equal big amounts!

Here are some links on DRIPs (sorry, no points for good design!):

http://www.fool.com/DRIPPort/WhatAreDRIPs.htm
http://www.dripinvestor.com/index.asp

Punk band, “The Drips”: http://www.myspace.com/thedrips

Geezeo team at Tech Cocktail Boston!

Along with some other awesome sponsors (Compete.com, North Bridge Venture Partners, ZoomInfo) Geezeo had the opportunity to sponsor and help organize the first Tech Cocktail event in Boston. The event was a huge success! Local entrepreneurs, bloggers, writers, and investors came together in a fun and laid back atmosphere for an amazing time.

In addition to support from Eric Olson and Frank Grubber the Co-Founders of Tech Cocktail, we were able to put this thing together with two of our best buds here in Boston, Jay Meattle and Brian Balfour. Great working with you guys!

Along with good tunes and free drinks, Compete and ZoomInfo were giving away and sporting Wiis on the big screens and Geezeo had money tanks! People jumped in to grab some “G’s” and a chance to win a trip to Martha’s Vineyard. Congrats to Erik Sebesta who walked away with the MV trip.

Tech Cocktail Boston is all about supporting innovation and the local startups. Some great companies showing off the “the next big thing” included Party Resume, Veveo and Fafarazzi.

Check out the Tech Cocktail Blog for a full run down of the event. You can also see some great pics on Flickr.

Looking forward to the next one!

I had to walk past a dead man this morning on the way to get groceries.

Talk about putting a damper on the appetite.

The police were there and trying to determine the cause of death. Judging by the fact that there was blood all over his face and head, I’d guess he met his maker thanks to a large, blunt object. But that is purely the speculation of someone who once indulged in too many true crime tv shows.

Now, the neighborhood isn’t particularly dangerous. I shop at this particular vegetable stand because tomatoes are 79cents a pound versus $1.29 around the corner. The corner a block away from this stand has its fair share of crack addicts and homeless people. This guy looked like he might have been one of them.

“Horrible way to go!” I thought. And then I thought: “I wonder if avocados are on sale today?” And then I immediately thought: “Is it wrong that I am mentally doing my grocery list immediately after walking by and seeing that?”.

I settled on the fact that it might not be respectful of the dead. But, I supposed, my indifference probably didn’t hurt the man’s feelings now.

The connection to personal finance is that I shop here versus the fancy supermarket. I guess with fancy supermarkets you pay more but your chance of seeing a human corpse is usually much lower.

This, however, wasn’t what sparked this entry. Rather, a different observation involving food shopping, which occurred over the weekend:

I was walking down the street minding my own beeswax when a man and I were stopped by a traffic light. I glanced over at him in time to watch him pull a dollar’s worth of quarters out of HIS EAR. He then put one quarter back in his ear. It was a snug fit but he seemed entirely casual about it. “What? You don’t keep quarters in your ears?” he seemed to suggest. I considered for a moment if I was on a hidden camera show. I must have looked really appalled. Then I watched as we crossed the street and he bought a piece of fruit with the remaining 75 cents!

Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Those quarters are on the loose. Wash your hands, folks.