Indianapolis- Green Candy, in association with INside Indiana Business with Gerry Dick and WISH-TV’s 24- Hour News 8, will be hosting a Job Hunters Workshop on April 22nd at the Gene B. Glick Junior Achievement Education Center. The event is part of series of community events that Green Candy has been putting on in Central Indiana. Green Candy, a locally based Personal Finance website, has also hosted a comedy benefit and a 5k running race to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. 



“We are pleased that Green Candy is helping do great things for this community, all the while raising money and awareness for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,” says Sara Glenn, manager of special events for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The two-hour event will feature several prominent speakers. Some of the experts scheduled to appear are: Gerry Dick, President of Grow Indiana Ventures, who will discuss the climate of business in central Indiana. He will also discuss what industries are hiring in central Indiana. Peter Dunn, radio talk show host, WISH-TV Money Analyst, and founder of Green Candy, will discuss preparing your finances for a job change. Chuck Gose, a local networking and social media enthusiast, will be highlighting the importance and dangers of social media during a job search.

“Searching for a new career can be a tedious process, and we are glad that we can help bring some encouragement and tips to those that are looking for work,” says Gerry Dick, host of INside Indiana Business.

Peter Dunn, founder of Green Candy notes, “With unemployment hovering around 10%, we must make sure that we support those that are looking to enter or re-enter the workforce, this includes recent college graduates that are starting their job search for the first time.”

WISH-TV plans on highlighting the event as part of their continuing coverage of the unemployment challenges in Indiana. “We have long believed that the entire community is uplifted when the unemployed feel the support of their fellow Hoosiers,” says Jeff White, president and general manager of WISH-TV’s 24- Hour News 8.

The Do. Be. More. Job Hunters Workshop will be held from 9-11am on April 22nd. Cost for attendees is $10. All money will go directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Central Indiana. Seats are limited. For tickets and information go to www.GreenCandy.com or call 317-576-8550.

Count your Transactions – In lieu of budgeting, consider counting the number of times that you spend money over the course of one week.

Go to AnnualCreditReport.com – Starting out on the wrong side of debt and credit can mean decades of anguish. Get your credit report every year.

Embrace “I can’t afford it” – Your goal is not material accumulation. Your goal is not money. Your goal is financial awareness.

Give of your talents – You must appeal to your charitable calling early. Your willingness to think of others will benefit you financially. You will view your money life with scarcity. Giving to charity is not necessarily about giving money. Give your time and talent.

Start the Ween – The longer you depend on your parents, the worse things will be for both parties. Your goal post graduation is COLD TURKEY.

Measure your use of Social Media – One of the first thing your potential employer will look at is Facebook. Lock it down. You need to also build your LinkedIn page.

Grad School is not a holding area – Furthering your education is very important, but securing a graduate degree without a purpose is a major financial error that will span decades

A recent AP story details the plan of Toys R Us to readopt layaway for the holiday season. And I say HOORAYYYYYY. Too over-the-top? Sorry. Yeah.

Layaway is a tool used by retailers to keep customers buying during tough credit times. The practice started back in, you guessed it, the Great Depression. Customers make a down payment on an item, and then continue to make payments on the item prior to taking possession of it when it is paid in full. It is quite the alternative to taking possession of an item prior to actually owning it. Back in the day (1980s), layaway was a huge strategy for retailers such as Marshalls and TJ Maxx. But the strategy disappeared when retailers figured out that they could instead “sell” you a store credit card, give you the item now, and then charge you ridiculous amounts of interest. Not only that, but since the customer had possession of the item, they were much more likely to make the payment on a non-standard payment schedule (read: late). That is why layaway disappeared. Don’t get it twisted.

And this is why layaway has reappeared. Consumers aren’t qualifying for the revolving credit that stores offer, therefore stores are turning to their old friend, layaway. And as you might have guessed, layaway has returned with a newfound sense of benevolence. Hooray, big business is still allowing consumers to buy things they can’t afford (Google search: sarcasm). But I would take layaway any day, over delay of pay.

About Green Candy™

Green Candy™ (www.GreenCandy.com) is an online financial assessment tool that helps Gen Y-ers and Millennials get on the right financial track before the “debt hits the fan.” Introduced by radio personality, comedian and financial expert Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com), Green Candy’s ™ various “pods” allow users to assess their financial health and competency in common areas such as Debt, Budgeting, Investing, Charity, Risk Management and Major Purchases, as well as in areas unique to Gen Y. A subsequent series of targeted worksheets, podcasts, tip sheets, and action plans guides them to the financial promise land. Green Candy™: Get in control before the debt hits the fan.

About Pete the Planner

Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com) is expert financial planner Peter Dunn’s super-saving alter ego. Peter is an award-winning comedian and rising star in the financial world. Named one of “Indy’s Best and Brightest” in finance in 2007 and media in 2009 by KPMG, Peter was also declared one of NUVO magazine’s “30 under 30 to Watch in the Arts” for comedy. Peter is the author of What Your Dad Never Taught You About Budgeting (2006) and is the host of the popular radio show Skills Your Dad Never Taught You on News Talk 1430 (WXNT). He blogs regularly at www.petetheplanner.com/blog. Pete appears regularly on Fox News and Fox Business as well as various CBS stations. His newest book, 60 Days to Change, is due out in November.

Don’t get me wrong. I am huge fan of the obvious, and in fact, as a quasi-journalist, I often restate the obvious. So I am pleased to inform you, based on recent study by Equifax, Moody’s, Economy.com, that if you make less than $30k per year you have over a 30% chance of default or delinquency on your mortgage. Wow, that’s refreshing. What is also interesting to note is that you have over a 5% chance of default or delinquency if you make $80k per year.

This just in to the Pete the Planner newsroom….the grass is green.

Be sure to sign up for book updates here. My new book, 60 Days to Change: A Daily How-To Guide With Actionable Tips for Improving Your Financial Life will be available in November.

My neighborhood is having a community Garage Sale this weekend. I saw the sign on my drive to work. I never participate in these sorts of things because I’m generally freaked out by strangers milling around my garage. However, I decided that I would participate this weekend in the name of (financial) science. It’s Eat What You Earn Weekend. Okay, I made that up. But why not?

We are going to use the money we make in this impromptu Garage Sale to pay for dinner on Saturday night. If we make $20, then we eat cheap. If we make $150, then I’ll be calling a cab….kidding.

Do it.

About Green Candy™

Green Candy™ (www.GreenCandy.com) is an online financial assessment tool that helps Gen Y-ers and Millennials get on the right financial track before the “debt hits the fan.” Introduced by radio personality, comedian and financial expert Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com), Green Candy’s ™ various “pods” allow users to assess their financial health and competency in common areas such as Debt, Budgeting, Investing, Charity, Risk Management and Major Purchases, as well as in areas unique to Gen Y. A subsequent series of targeted worksheets, podcasts, tip sheets, and action plans guides them to the financial promise land. Green Candy™: Get in control before the debt hits the fan.

About Pete the Planner

Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com) is expert financial planner Peter Dunn’s super-saving alter ego. Peter is an award-winning comedian and rising star in the financial world. Named one of “Indy’s Best and Brightest” in finance in 2007 and media in 2009 by KPMG, Peter was also declared one of NUVO magazine’s “30 under 30 to Watch in the Arts” for comedy. Peter is the author of What Your Dad Never Taught You About Budgeting (2006) and is the host of the popular radio show Skills Your Dad Never Taught You on News Talk 1430 (WXNT). He blogs regularly at www.petetheplanner.com/blog. Pete appears regularly on Fox News and Fox Business as well as various CBS stations. His newest book, 60 Days to Change, is due out in November.

Be sure to watch Pete the Plannet in Fox News at 2:45 PM est today. I’ll be talking about the huge uproar over Overdraft fees. Find out who is to blame.

Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell your clergy (sorry, I got carried away)

Indiana University recently announced a plan to address the concerns over rising tuition. President Michael McRobbie discussed the new plan on September 1st, 2009. The plan calls for tuition “credits” to offset tuition increases for “good” students. Students that maintain full time status, hold a B average, and our considered in-state will receive about $300 in tuition cuts.

Recently, Indiana University, as well as Purdue University, have been under pressure by state lawmakers to adjust their increases in tuition. Please allow me to boil it down for you. The lawmakers suggested an acceptable range of tuition inflation. IU disagreed, and raised tuition significantly more than the lawmakers recommended. The lawmakers got mad, and held up building project approvals, and then IU created this plan to appease them. 

But let’s consider the very essence of the problem. Lawmakers felt that IU raised their tuition too much in the face of a daunting economy. It was felt that students (and families of students) would be asked to  sacrifice more economic resources in a time when economic resources are scarce. However, the real problem is this: well educated students will be flooding the job marketplace with giant amounts of debt and no jobs to be had. So whereas the “good” student will now be facing these prospects with less debt, the “bad” student will be facing these prospects with more than the already distinguished “good” student. 

Performance in college is much like performance in the mainstream economy. Some individuals rise to the top and flourish, while others sink to the bottom. This is where things get a little hairy. People will succeed and people will fail. And those that succeed create a better path for themselves along the way via incentives, and opportunities created by their hard work. As you may agree, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, that age-old process of incentivisation and achievement is beautiful. 

The problem is this: the “bad” students, those that create their own financial disadvantages via sloth, are going to be at an even bigger disadvantage when it comes to getting control of their financial lives. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that these students receive a hand-out. I’m simply suggesting that there are always going to be below average students (thus the average), therefore this new program simply puts these below-average students in a deeper hole in relation to their achieving peers. It will probably incentivize a few hundred students to push for that B average, but it more likely will put a bigger financial divide between the good and bad student. 

IU must realize that their incentive program, while noble, will actually put their average and below average student at a bigger economic disadvantage than ever before. They would have been better served to cut tuition across the board, and leave the dangling carrots to the corporate world.

About Green Candy™

Green Candy™ (www.GreenCandy.com) is an online financial assessment tool that helps Gen Y-ers and Millennials get on the right financial track before the “debt hits the fan.” Introduced by radio personality, comedian and financial expert Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com), Green Candy’s ™ various “pods” allow users to assess their financial health and competency in common areas such as Debt, Budgeting, Investing, Charity, Risk Management and Major Purchases, as well as in areas unique to Gen Y. A subsequent series of targeted worksheets, podcasts, tip sheets, and action plans guides them to the financial promise land. Green Candy™: Get in control before the debt hits the fan.

About Pete the Planner

Pete the Planner (www.PeteThePlanner.com) is expert financial planner Peter Dunn’s super-saving alter ego. Peter is an award-winning comedian and rising star in the financial world. Named one of “Indy’s Best and Brightest” in finance in 2007 and media in 2009 by KPMG, Peter was also declared one of NUVO magazine’s “30 under 30 to Watch in the Arts” for comedy. Peter is the author of What Your Dad Never Taught You About Budgeting (2006) and is the host of the popular radio show Skills Your Dad Never Taught You on News Talk 1430 (WXNT). He blogs regularly at www.petetheplanner.com/blog. Pete appears regularly on Fox News and Fox Business as well as various CBS stations. His newest book, 60 Days to Change, is due out in November.

Have you ever felt like you aren’t given an opportunity to help? You know, you aren’t asked to be on committees, you aren’t asked to rally the troops at work, or you aren’t allowed to use your special talents to enhance the lives of your coworkers or people in your community. This is a quite a common feeling, specifically for those in Gen Y. A lot of it has to do with the fact that as a young person, you generally aren’t placed in a leadership role. But the funny thing about leadership is that sometimes you have to take it by force. And if you aren’t tripping into any leadership opportunities to help others, then you need to create your own.

There is something refreshing about ambition and achievement. Ambition is the desire and drive to do something more than you are currently doing. And achievement is the end result of acting on your ambition. The crazy thing is that most people get lost in the middle. Somewhere between identifying desire and finishing a journey is where people usually fall off the horse. Which means that many times people don’t ever actually ever get on the horse. Expressing desire to help or lead, without actually doing anything is weak. Don’t get me wrong, good for you for having the desire to help or lead, but shame on you for keeping it only as a pipe dream. It kinda goes back to the concept of dreaming of winning the lottery without actually buying a ticket. It cost $1 to dream, and it only takes a little action to achieve. 

Do something. Do anything…to set you on the action track. Organize a can-food drive at your office. The achievement would be quite gratifying. Start writing a book. Why the hell not? It’s fun. Just don’t ever say that you are thinking about writing a book. That means that you are too lazy, stupid, or scared to type one word into…well…Word. Just start. Helping and achievement are addictive. Just get started. Set a goal to do 10 push-ups per day for a week. Just do something to get some achievement momentum. Once you have that momentum (and confidence) then startexpanding your projects (helping).

Feel free to continue to coast along, but I assure you that doing lots of big things is a hell of a lot more fun.