Do you fritter your time away?  Do you complain that with full-time work, kids, household chores, and the jillion other things on your to do list, you have no time to pursue your real dream, like starting that dot-com or writing the great American novel?  I used to complain a lot about the lack of time, until I realized that successful people find the time to achieve their goals.  I recently read a magazine article profiling the best-selling author David Baldacci.  Before he became a famous novelist, Baldacci was a trial attorney working long hours at a D.C. law firm.  However, at the same time, Baldacci was also penning his first novel, Absolute Power.  Baldacci would spend time writing from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. after a full day at the office.  I find Baldacci’s commitment to his writing incredible, given the grueling hours that he had to put in at the office.  This unwavering focus on writing paid off, when a publishing house snapped up Baldacci’s first novel, while he was still working his day job.

Baldacci is just one example of successful people that don’t let a perceived lack of time get in their way.  But believe it or not, most people don’t take advantage of the 24 hours that they and everyone else on this earth have.  A relative of mine set me straight one day when I was complaining about the lack of time to do this, do that etc.  He said to me, ”how much time do you waste watching TV?”  I had to admit, plenty of time.  I also looked around at other people I know who want to accomplish this and do that, but also whine about ”no time!”  These are the same people talking about what happened on American Idol last night and how many DVDs from Netflix they were able to cram into one month.

So, to ditch the complaining and start making progress on my goals, I’ve decided to compose a short list of my resolutions to make better use of my time.

• Limit junk TV watching to three hours a week.  What I mean by junk is programming that has no newsworthy content and is pure entertainment.  I’ll probably use this allotment for times where I’ve come home from work and my brain is so fried that I really cannot work on anything else.
•  Limit Internet surfing to 30 minutes a day.  This does not include research that I am doing for this blog and for my start-up business.
• Stop procrastinating on less-than-desirable tasks and just DO IT.  I’ve found that sometimes I spend so much time justifying my procrastination that I could have used that time to finish the task! 
• Set specific deadlines for accomplishing your goals.  While “straddling” - keeping your day job while starting up your business - affords you a safety net, the downside of keeping a regular job while you are starting up your business is that there is no sense of urgency to get things done.

 I’m going to apply these resolutions to my life and see how far I get by the end of this month.  Do you have any suggestions to add to this list?

Do you ever dismiss an idea to do something for whatever reason because it seems too far-fetched or pie in the sky?  Well, listen to this story.  Inc. Magazine profiled Laurel Touby, a writer and creator of www.mediabistro.com in its March 2008 edition.  Touby’s website contained job listings for professional writers but also served as an online community, with advice on health insurance and resume posting.  What I found to be really interesting about Touby’s story was that her business sprang from her simple desire to meet more people in New York City.  Touby, a contract writer and editor for Glamour magazine, worked from home.  Because of this, she felt lonely and isolated (working from home, I can relate to that!) and started hanging out in local cafes.  Eventually, Touby decided to take advantage of her natural affinity for hosting parties and began putting on “media salons” at local bars, where she would invite members of the media community, like senior writers or successful freelancers.  Touby’s idea caught on fire, and her parties became bigger and bigger.  Touby was thrilled with the fact that she now had a social life with a minimal outlay for postage and invitations.  The attendees bought their own drinks.

Touby then moved to e-mail for her invitations and in 1996, created the mediabistro website.  After she saw that www.monster.com was charging for job listings, Touby began to do the same.  Touby’s site worked its way up to several thousand job listings each month at $279 a pop, and it eventually caught the attention of Jupitermedia, which bought the site in 2007 for a cool $23 million!

Touby’s story is an inspiration for budding entrepreneurs.  Many people, myself included, come up with dozens of ideas but fail to act on any one of them because we’re afraid that it won’t work.  Or we just try too hard.  Sometimes, when you do something just because you like it, the opportunities will come.

For me, filing my taxes ranks comparably with a visit to the dentist on my list of gotta-do-it but hate-it activities.  There have been a few years where I have actually waited until the late evening of April 15 to drive over to the post office to drop off my tax return.  However, this year there is an extra incentive to filing early.     Congress recently passed and the President signed the economic stimulus bill, which promises rebates of $600 per individual and $1,200 per couple, subject to certain income limits.  The rebates are scheduled to be mailed out in May; however, because of the income limits, your eligibility for the rebates will be based on your 2007 tax return.  So, say federal tax officials, the earlier you file, the less likely your rebate from the economic stimulus legislation will be delayed.  Cold hard cash is a great reason to bite the bullet, figure out where you put your W-2 form, and fire up the Turbo Tax software.

Remember during the height of the housing bubble, when some real estate investors vowed to jump in like vultures and scoop up properties when the market turned south?  The Wall Street Journal (”WSJ”) recently chronicled this bottom-feeding in “Florida Bust Spawns Vulture Culture” by Jeff P. Opdyke.  Home buyers and investors have flocked to Florida sifting through the glut of housing properties looking for a deal.  In Miami-Dade county alone, there are 25,000 condos available for sale.

With those numbers, you would think that a good deal is a no-brainer.  Prices indeed have dropped drastically.  According to the WSJ, prices in Miami have falled as much as 40 percent.  However, reading another article in today’s WSJ (”Open Season for Bargain Hunters”), I noticed an interesting statistic.  In spite of the large drop in prices, housing prices in Miami still remain about 64 percent higher than they were in December 2002.  Is the 40 percent off condo still considered cheap?  It’s like going to what you think is a fabulous sale at your favorite clothing store and snapping up an outfit at 40 percent off that was marked up four times by the retailer.

Price drops by themselves don’t mean that a property is a good deal.  My husband’s company stock reached an all-time high of $160.00 during the tech boom.  A 40 percent drop in the stock would yield a price of $96.00 per share.  Guess what the stock ended up trading at, when the smoke cleared?  A $1.50 per share.  Ouch!

So, as an investor, how do you narrow the field to determine what might be a good deal?  My rule of thumb - can you rent it out at a monthly rent of at least one percent of the purchase price?  This rent would need to cover your mortgage, real estate taxes, insurance, homeowners’ fees, maintenance and repairs, as well as tenant vacancies.  This rule eliminates a lot of potential deals, but it saves you a lot of pain, particularly when you have to hold on to a property for a long time, perhaps several years before seeing an appreciable gain in the price.  After you have weeded out the overpriced deals, ask the following questions.

• Is the rental market strong in the area?  If it is Miami-Dade county, probably not.  Ideally, you’d like to buy a property with a tenant lined up already, unless the price is rock-bottom, or you have sufficient cash reserves to carry the property for several months.
• What is your financing cost going to be?  If your mortgage payment is at least 90 percent of your expected monthly rent, it’s probably too close for comfort.
• What is the price history of the property and surrounding properties? 
• How much intrinsic value does the property have?  Is it located in an area with limited housing stock or in an area like Miami-Dade, where housing stock is virtually unlimited.  This question goes to how much appreciation you might see in the property’s value.

Obviously, I’ve only skimmed the surface of questions that you should answer before entering into a deal.  Buying real estate is not a transaction that should be done on a whim.  The key to investing success is doing your research, knowing your market, and looking at everything with a healthy dose of skepticism.

As you may have guessed, this blog is named “financial gal” because it is written by a woman.  Notwithstanding the name, the financial issues I blog about are not gender-specific.  However, I found one article in the March 2008 edition of Entrepreneur magazine, ”Women: the Alpha Advantage,” to be particularly interesting.  Aliza Sherman, who penned the article, writes about the advice of Christopher Flett, the author of What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business: Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook.   Flett says that women need to do the following in the workplace:

• Stop trying to fit in with the guys’ team.  The only team in business, according to Flett, is profitability. 
• Stop speaking negatively of others at work.
• Stop giving up power to alpha males colleagues and clients.

Flett points out that women inadvertently cede power by including everybody in the decision-making process and making concessions to reach consensus.  Sherman also quotes Maria Bailey, a marketing entrepreneur, who says that women become too emotional about business and often take things personally.  By contrast, men get to the point and do not internalize issues. 

Being more “alpha” in the workplace can help you claim more opportunities, work in a more focused manner, and appear more credible to colleagues.  This advice is especially valuable in the hair-raising world of entrepreneurship.  Where decisions may make or break a business, Bailey observes that women often view their own companies as their “babies” and are not prepared with an exit strategy when things go south.  Having tangled with business colleagues at work and as an entrepreneur, I can appreciate this advice.  Next time I am confronted with a difficult work situation, I will consult my alter “alpha” ego.