Washington – In a surprise move, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday proposed a “last choice option” to avoid default on the national debt that would require the support of just over a third of the House and Senate to raise the national debt ceiling.

The McConnell proposal, which requires special legislation to be adopted, gives the president expedited procedures to increase the debt limit by as much as $2.4 trillion that require only submission of a plan to reduce spending by a greater amount. There is no requirement that Congress actually pass those spending cuts.

But even if the cuts are never passed, the proposal has two political advantages for Republicans: It forces President Obama to lay out his proposed spending cuts in writing, a longtime GOP demand. And it absolves Republicans of responsibility for sending the nation into its first-ever default, as early as Aug.

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One of the first things most investors look for in a dividend stock is the current yield. You will commonly hear things like stock XYZ is yielding over 6% or stock ABC has a higher yield than its peers . While there is no doubt the dividend yield can be a useful factor in selecting the top dividend paying stocks, it is certainly not the most important.

There is actually a lesser known (but just as important) financial ratio that investors can use to screen dividend stocks. This financial calculation is called the dividend growth rate and can provide beneficial data for the investor. Lets take a look at both financial ratios and why calculating the growth rate is important.

The yield of a stock is a financial ratio which calculates the percentage paid out to shareholders in dividends compared to the current share price. This percentage represents an estimate of the return on investment an investor could expect in dividends. Read more…

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Individuals looking for employment often times have a number of hurdles to climb in order to land that new job. A number of employers believe using background checks and credit searches on applicants gives them a feel for if the applicant is honest and good at managing their daily lives. To many individuals, peering at one’s history with credit cards and loans however is going a step too far.

Employers should not assume that because a potential candidate for their company has a bad credit history they will then turn out to be a bad employee.In an effort to be sure that employers do not go too far in using credit history to screen each and every applicant, some states have been discussing and/or passing legislation to limit the reach of businesses.

As federal law reads, an employer is required to get written permission from an applicant to run a credit check.

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Summer is a great time to use unique opportunities for saving to your advantage. If you have been hoping to add to your emergency fund or pay down debt, summer is a good time to find the extra cash that you can put toward reaching your financial goals. Here are some easy ways to turn summer time into easy savings:

Use Your Car Less

During the summer, I like to walk or bike instead of taking my car. When I need to run errands around the neighborhood, or take my son to a Scouting activity, I ride my bike. The warm weather also makes it more pleasant to walk to the bus stop and use public transportation. If you walk, bike or ride the bus, you can save a great deal on gas especially with the current gas prices. On top of the gas savings, you can enjoy the added perk of better health as you get more exercise.

Keep the Lights Off

One of the great things about summer is that you can keep the lights off for longer. Read more…

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– Most professionals, and almost all executives, have learned to man or woman up in hard times.  They wear a mask that displays confidence and projects success to the world, because they know there’s no whining in business.

The Great Recession has made executives a little more willing to be honest, but only if they are projecting a positive and confident “turn-around” future outlook no matter how dire the future may be in reality.  Failure is not an option.  Failure is seen as personal and still remains shameful even if out of one’s control. 

It takes guts for a professional to take the mask off.  It takes strength for anyone to be vulnerable by opening themselves up publicly for judgment by the world.

Former construction company CEO Mollee Harper is courageous.  She has character.  Mollee is willing to be painfully raw and powerfully real for what she sees as a larger good.  She is speaking out.

The Great Recession has turned her life upside down and inside out with no mercy.  She went from being a custom construction company CEO to being on food stamps.  She still exudes personal confidence, but she is taking the mask off when she reveals she is uncertain what her life will look like in a year.   She wants it to include a job she can be an asset in again.  She wants to get her life back on track.

Why should you care?  This is just another failing economy hard luck story, right?  We can’t fix what we don’t acknowledge is broken.  When America has a growing class of highly qualified, well educated, and starving for work former professionals who have now been unemployed 12-24 months, there is a major problem. 

The combination of a jobless economic recovery and a growing dismissive attitude toward the unemployed professional by the employed business class is creating an “unemployed professional to poverty” class.  This could never happen to you, right?  Mollee Harper didn’t think so.

Mollee has always been successful and considered her work her primary focus in life.  She certainly could never have imagined not being able to afford food.  She has been looking for employment since the construction company folded over two years ago.  She went through all her savings in eighteen months and applied for government food assistance with no other options. 

How could this happen?

The recession is moving into its third year, and the recovery has been the worst since the Great Depression.  The official unemployment rate has remained at or above 9% for a record setting 21 months and rose again to over 9% in June 2011.  The official rate only counts those that are collecting unemployment benefits. 

On December 8, 2010, the Labor Department released its 2009 work report. In 2009, there was an increase of 2.7M long-term unemployed Americans looking for jobs in 2009 over the 2008 total.

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