Here’s a corrollary to yesterday’s thoughts on underearning income. Anne Fischer from Fortune Magazine urges people who feel they are underpaid to consider whether they are actually overtitled. Here’s the letter to the editor:

I was among the top five salespeople at my software company last year, and I’m pretty sure I’m drastically underpaid. I really like working here, but I suspect I’m not being compensated fairly because I’m the youngest person in this role. How can I verify what other people in my position are making across the industry, to support my argument that I deserve more money?—Super Closer

Annie’s tips include checking with Salary.com (which I’ve noted in the past I’ve found inaccurate), classified ads, and recruiters.

She cites this advice:

“Over-titling” was a common practice in the tough financial climate of the past few years when, [Bill] Coleman [from Salary.com] says, “many people were offered trumped-up job titles in lieu of salary increases. As a result, their actual experience level and value to the company may not be on a par with the salary they expect based on their title.”

I see this in my own company, where for example there are many Vice Presidents, many of whom function mainly as department heads.

The Festival of Frugality #8 is up at Frugal Underground. Lots of great articles there.

I was fortunate to be interviewed by Scott for his Money Blogger Podcast. My episode is up, and you can listen by subscribing to this RSS feed or downloading (or streaming) this MP3.

It’s very strange to hear myself talk, especially when I have a tendency of rambling. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it. Perhaps it will provide some insight into me and Consumerism Commentary… on the other hand, perhaps I’m boring. You be the judge.

Last week, I finished reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s not really about personal finance; it’s about the accuracy of certain snap decisions. I read the book with the intent of relating its message to the topics I focus on here.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking describes how some people have the ability to make accurate judgments in a split-second. In some cases these judgments are more accurate than those following a systematic, scientific review of the situation. The main thing to take away from the book is those people who are experts in their field can often make better decisions subconsciously in the first two seconds of an event than what their conscious mind can handle.

Gladwell’s stories involved very little that most people could gain. Only years of experience can prime the subconscious for “thin-slicing,” and this point is often hidden in the book.

There was nothing I could learn from this book that could be applied as advice or thoughts for the typical investor. This is a book about experts. This is a book about Warren Buffetts—the author mentions the Oracle of Omaha to bridge the phenomenon to theories of investing at one point, but it doesn’t have anything that you or I could take away without years of intimacy with a subject.

What if you do have intimate knowledge of investing? What kind of snap judgments could be made? Whether a company is a good candidate for a buy? I think it would have to be something more specific. You could take a look at an annual financial report and know whether a company is in good shape or is hiding something. You could watch the CEO on Bloomberg TV or CNBC and know whether he or she has confidence in the company. That’s about as far as I see this going.

If you’ve read the book, feel free to share your thoughts on whether there is anything within that could be applied to personal finance.

There is a lot of talk on the internets about online savings accounts raising their interest rates for customers; here’s something a little different.

PayPal has been offering for a while a pretty high interest rate—over 4.25%—on money held in their money market fund. Unlike money market accounts and savings accounts, your money isn’t insured by the FDIC, but in reality, there’s little chance of your money losing value. Anyway, the company just sent out a communication to alert their customers that they are lowering their interest rate.

I will generally keep any money from transactions in my PayPal account for a maximum of a few days. I try to get the funds into ING Direct or Emigrant Direct as soon as possible. Continue reading for the full text of the email, if you discarded it thinking it was junk mail as many messages purporting to be from PayPal tend to be. Read the rest of this article »

Are you an underearner? The general consensus for increasings savings in financial advice circles is to rein in your spending, since the expense side of the equation is easier to manage than the income side. You can cut back your spending on cable television by 50%, but getting an equivalent 50% increase in pay is more difficult.

If you are an underearner, this might not be the case. You may have already reined in your expenses, but you’re still not making much headway, even though you’re working hard. An article in MSN Money explores this topic.

Do you have these traits?

• You talk about your life as if you’re trapped or have no choices.
• You underestimate your worth; you often give away your time, experience and skills for free.
• You crave the “comfort zone” and are controlled by fear.
• You’re vague about money, often not knowing exactly how much you make or owe or own.

• You’re “anti-wealth” and have negative attitudes about people with money, viewing them as greedy, snobs or workaholics.

  I know I match the first two on the list, and maybe the fifth depending on my mood and the news cycle. Number three doesn’t make any sense to me and it should be obvious to my readers that number four doesn’t apply. I’ve got great skills and most people would consider me quite intelligent, yet I’m in a dead-end job at the moment. I’ve been trying to do something about that, but it’s been rough. I know I’m underemployed and I should have the responsibilities that go along with a job making perhaps twice what I’m earning now, but it’s been hard convincing others of that.

  How about you? Have you ever been an underearner? The first piece of advice the author in the article gives is to change your mindset—and start charging more for your services. That may be a good start, but it doesn’t control the day job side of income. If you were an underearner, how did you improve your situation?

Good morning! The Carnival of Personal Finance is up at Fat Pitch Financials! There are so many articles to choose from. When you’re done reading, don’t forget to check out the latest Carnival of Debt Reduction which I posted earlier this morning.

More Carnivals should be published later this morning, but I’ll be taking care of the latest issue with my car so I may not be around until later in the day.

Update: The Carnival of Investing is up at Canadian Capitalist.

One of my closest friends has started a business designing accessories with funky fabrics. She joined together with her boyfriend who specializes in oils and acrylics. They love doing this work and the items they produce are great. Take a look at Serajay Designs if you want to see what they mean by “retro-modern accessories for your home.”

The power comes from Hippo, the hippo.