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Business Briefs
Star-Bulletin staff
and wire services
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FAST FACTS HAWAII
NATION
Deal with your debt in a systematic way
Are the holiday bills of 2005 starting to haunt your mailbox?
If this is a dreaded time of year for your financial state, with the credit card loans coming due, there are successful methods to address this potential monster. And it starts with some personal financial basics, according to a consumer credit counseling service.
First, assess your cash. How much do you have in the checking account, and any CDs, money market or other cash balances? Many people aren't 100 percent sure, especially if they're spending more time at the ATM than on balancing their checkbook.
Next, coordinate your bills. How often do you open the credit card company envelope, rip off the little payment sheet to send back with your check and then toss the rest of the mailing. Stop doing that. The rest of that form contains your overall balance, itemized spending and interest rate data. You need to know these things, especially if you're rarely certain how the amount due got so high.
Prioritize your expenses. Which bills carry the highest interest rates, which bills have harsh penalties?
The tips are from the Atlanta-based Consumer Credit Counseling Service.
Seize back that wasted airport time
Eventually -- or perhaps habitually -- we all get stuck in an airport waiting for rain, snow or an airplane repair to pass and help us get where we're headed. Depending on the delay's length, this can be a valuable time to do more than read, fume or gab on the phone.
The staff of TravelSmart Newsletter, published monthly from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., offers a few suggestions:
» Create.
Begin your novel, write your children a poem, send a relative a handwritten letter, take some photos. Most airports have suitable locales for all these activities.
» Exercise.
Many major airports such as Miami, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Fla., and Chicago's O'Hare, offer gym facilities. If you're in one that does not, consider a long walk around the entire airport. The nation's busiest, Atlanta, for example, offers six separate concourses connected by an underground thoroughfare. Most of the big ones offer similar large walking opportunities.
» Explore.
Most cities offer relatively convenient access to the central city. Amsterdam, Atlanta, Barcelona, Chicago, Hong Kong, Newark, N.J., Paris and San Francisco all have modern airports with easy rail connections to downtown areas.
Job interview is most likely pitfall
Where lies the peril in hunting for a new job?
For most people, the job interview is a likely spot for a misstep, according to a survey of chief financial officers.
Nearly a third, 32 percent, said this stage in the hiring process is the point at which most applicants err.
The resume was cited next, by 21 percent.
Other problem areas: the cover letter (9 percent), reference checks (9 percent), and the interview follow-up (7 percent).
The survey was conducted for Robert Half Finance & Accounting, a division of Robert Half International Inc.
