Should I Stay or Should I Go?

By 2 Cents on December 30th, 2011 | Category: BJ News | 11 comments
open-door

This indecision’s bugging me … Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble An’ if I stay it will be double So come on and let me know!

~ The Clash

OK, so quoting a vintage Clash song from the 80s gives away my Gen X affiliation – and could easily be considered a little cheesy to boot. Still, I couldn’t think of any better way to frame this article. I wrote in November that I was taking a little time off to ponder the future of Balance Junkie and work on a new business venture. Today, I’d like to outline some of the thought processes I went through over the past 6 weeks or so and offer some tentative conclusions.

So far, things are going decently with the business and we’ve accomplished a lot of the [...]

Read on and enjoy … Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Category: BJ News |

America is the Most Indulgent of Any Other Country

By 2 Cents on December 16th, 2011 | Category: Spending | 3 comments

The following is a guest post. While it speaks to American consumerism, there may be some food for thought for debt-laden Canadians here too.

The economy is in shambles, and while many would like to blame the deterioration of our economy on big government and big business, a large percentage of the blame also lies in the spending habits of the American people. As a whole, we spend too much, borrow too much, and save too little.

“Look at consumption levels and control for purchasing power over the last several decades, and America is simply in a league of its own.” states Sheldon Garon, Princeton Professor and recent author of Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves. “The only people who come close are people in Britain, but they are about 85 percent of the level of American consumption. Germans, French and others [...]

Read on and enjoy … America is the Most Indulgent of Any Other Country

Category: Spending | Tags: , , |