About a year ago president Obama announced that he will be making a 100 million dollar budget cut from the 3.5 trillion US budget.

What does this mean? How much is a 100 million dollars compared to 3.5 trillion? If you are like most of us you’ll probably think that both of them are enormous sums of money… That’s because people tend to have a problem with big numbers.
To see how big the budget cut really is compared to the whole budget, check out this video below:

In the beginning of January last year we made a post about what we predicted will happen in 2009.

2009 is now over. Here is a look back to the predictions and how well we did.

1. The dollar will fall 20% or more against the Chinese yuan.

Verdict: WRONG! The Chinese yuan has staid on the same level in regards to the dollar thanks to the Chinese policy of keeping it fixed to the US dollar (+ some other currencies).

2. The price of gold will be up 10% by the end of the year.

Verdict: WRONG! The price of gold is up 23.4% in 2009. This means that jumped well over the 10% we predicted.

3. The price of oil will stay between 40 and 60 dollars for the most of the year and will rise to as high as 75 dollars/barrel by the end of 2009.

Verdict: CORRECT! The price of oil climbed gradually throughout the year but managed to stay in the 40 to 60 dollars range all the way from January to July. The end of the year saw oil prices rise as high as $79.

4. The Dow Jones Industrial Average will be up about 15%.

Verdict: CORRECT! The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 19% in 2009. That’s close enough!

5. The world economy will not recover from the financial crisis by the end of 2009.

Verdict: CORRECT! Unemployment rates are the highest in decades. The real estate bubble has not bounced back. The economies of the world are still weak.

6. There will not be any more major bank failures. We will possibly see governments taking proactive steps to save banks and other major companies before they are in actual trouble.

Verdict: CORRECT! Following the failings of 3 major banks in 2008 we have not had any major bank fail in 2009. All the large banks and insurance companies have been saved by the government before they went under. There have however been a large number of smaller banks that have failed and that have not been saved that remain mostly unknown to the public.

7. None of the three big US auto companies will fail in 2009.

Verdict: CORRECT! Despite fears in 2008 and the beginning of 2009 – Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are all here!

8. The housing market does not bounce back.

Verdict: CORRECT! The housing market is down and it doesn’t look like it will bounce back any time soon.

9. Inflation in the US rises.

Verdict: WRONG! According to official figures the inflation plummeted from 3.8% in 2008 to 1.8% in 2009. The USA has however changed how it used to calculate inflation. Using the old method it should be around the 10% figure.

10. Obama’s stimulus package passes in his first months in office.

Verdict: CORRECT! The controversial 800 billion dollar stimulus package was passed in February 2010.

11. More bailout money will be needed by large companies.

Verdict: CORRECT! Bank of America received an additional 20 billion dollar loan  in January 2009 in addition to the 25 billion dollars that bailed them out in October 2008.

12. US economy will not come out of recession.

Verdict: FALSE! The 3rd quarter of 2009 was the first quarter in more than a year that saw economic growth in the US. That means that officially the recession is over. In reality however unemployment rates are highest in decades, consumer fears are still rising and people are saying that it is still a recession.

13. There will be an assassination attempt on Barack Obama. If you won’t hear about it, it is because it will be kept secret.

Verdict: CORRECT! Obviously! Could it have been any other way?

14. Apple will launch a smaller version of the iPhone.

Verdict: FALSE! Although we saw the iPhone 3G S, we are still waiting for a smaller and cooler model. Odds are that we will be waiting for a long time…

15. Financial Jesus will end the year with more than 1000 subscribers.

Verdict: FALSE! 2008 started with a whopping 119 subscribers and ended with 469. We were about 500 users too short.

Total Score

9 out of 15. That is pretty decent if you ask me!

Have you ever wondered what is the yearly salary of the president of the United States of America? Well – you don’t have to look any further.

President Barack Obama’s Yearly Salary:

In 2009 the presidential salary for Barack Obama is 400 000 dollars per year.

In other words the president makes 33 333 dollars a month or 8 333 dollars a  week.

The president of the United States has always been the highest paid member of the government – that means that no one working for the government has a larger income than the president.

Up until 2001 the yearly salary for  president was $200 000 but thanks to a decision approved by the congress and former president Bill Clinton it was raised to 400 000 dollars.

The presidential salary had been 200 000 dollars since 1969. If adjusted for inflation it is actually the equivalent of 1,175,000 today’s dollars.
This means that the president makes about 3 times less in 2009 than he made 40 years ago in 1969.

Additional Money The President Gets to Spend:

In addition to the 400 000 dollars that the president of USA makes yearly he also has a whopping 169 000 dollars to spend on the things he likes.

$ 100 000 – The presidents non-taxable travel account.

This is the money Barack Obama can use if he wishes to travel or make purchases while outside of the United States.

In reality all the presidents travels and visits are paid by the government. The president always uses a private plane or an helicopter that flies wherever the president wants to go. The operating cost of the president’s plane Air Force One is over  $56,000 per hour! With that rate it would about 2 hours to go over Obama’s travel budget.

$ 50 000 – Annual Expenses account

In addition to the 400 000 dollar salary and the 100 000 dollar travel account the president has a 50 000 dollar annual expenses account that he can use for pretty much everything he needs to help him be a good president. Obama can use this money if he wants to buy a new tie or even an apple if he is hungry but just like with the travel account – he rarely has to use this money. The president gets everything for free.

$ 19 000 – Entertainment Account

In addition to everything else there is a 19 000 dollar entertainment account that the president can tap into if he wishes. The necessities of life are however covered – the White House has its own movie theater, bowling alley, pool room, tennis court, jogging track and putting greens for practicing golf. Needless to say – the $19 000 will only be spent if the president wants to do something not already present in the White House.

Full Amount the President Can Spend Every Year:

What Else Does The President Get

The president sure does get paid a lot when you compare him with the average American but you could also say with a degree of certainty that there is no one who wants to be a president for the presidential salary.

That being said – in addition to the US presidential salary and the presidential pay compensation – there are a lot of things that the presidents get for free.

He gets to live in a mansion with 132 rooms, 32 bathrooms, its own staff and the world’s best cooks. In addition, he gets to travel around the world wherever he wants with his private plane.

On top of all of that, the President gets  to use all the White House employees and services as he wishes. This includes  cooks, housekeeping, doctors, barbers, security and taking the Presidential limousines for a spin

Retirement

After a president leaves office he gets a life time pension. Today the pension is set to the level of the current administration’s cabinet secretaries or 191,300 dollars per year.
Additionally the ex presidents get travel accounts and free mailing privileges.

The Vice President

No one really cares about how much the vice president makes but nevertheless it is an interesting fact to know

The salary for the vice president of United States is 208,100 dollars. He also gets to spend $10,000 for expenses.

This is one of those things that I know I shouldn’t post but I’m doing it anyway!

Condoleezza Rice talking about George W. Bush

Michelle Obama – talking about her husband Barack Obama

Via Money & Shit

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While being a door-to-door salesman I learned what could perhaps be the most valuable lesson in my entire life:

Control the controllables

Focus on what you can control

Only focus on the things you can directly influence. For us, selling books, it meant 3 things – hours, demos, attitude.

I could control how many hours of work I did. The more hours I worked the more people I could show my books to. The more people I showed them to, the more people bought them. Simple!

I could control the number of sales presentations I made every day. I knew that the amount of money I made was directly influenced by the number of sale presentations I made. In order to make more money I had to show my stuff do more people. To do that I could work longer hours or do shorter presentations. Shortening my presentation time just 1 minute meant that I could do 2 more demonstrations each day. Now keep in mind that I worked for 72 days – that means 144 more sales presentations and 15 to 20 more customers during a summer. That’s a difference of a few thousand dollars. So next time you waste a minute think about that!

The last thing I could directly control was my attitude. I could not control if people who opened the door would swear at me, call the cops on me, or try to shoot me (yes, it happens) – the only thing I could do, was to control the way I reacted to whatever happened to me. When someone gives you the F word and slams the door on you for the first time in your life, it’s easy to stay positive. When it happens 30 times in a row, its a a lot more difficult. When you knock on the door you can never know what happens next – maybe someone just lost their job or a loved one and because of that pours his entire frustration on you. You can’t control that. The only thing you can control is how you react to it when that actually happens. You can let it get your mood down or you can decide to be happy – whatever it takes. It’s difficult at first but soon enough you start to take things impersonally. „This guy wasn’t screaming at me – he was probably screaming because he had a lousy day at work”.
So, in selling you can really only control 3 things – the hours you work, the sales presentations you make and the attitude you have. You can’t control whether someone buys your product – you can only influence it with your demonstration. When you do a superb presentation there is a bigger chance that the prospect will buy, but there is always a chance that he doesn’t need what you are selling.

Same principles work in all fields of life

When Michael Johnson ran the 200 meter world record – 19.32 seconds – he could not control whether he would win the race or not. The only thing he could do was to run as fast as he could and hope that he is faster than his competitors.

When Barack Obama runs for president, he can not control whether or not people vote for him. He can only control the way he gives speeches, talks to people and appears to the public. By doing these things superbly he influences people to vote for him, but he never directly controls them. He can only control himself.

Why FinancialJesus.com will be successful

When I started this blog 10 days ago I thought about the same thing I just wrote about – the things that make ordinary people failures and successes – the things that we control. I would really want this blog to succeed, have a lot of readers and eventually become my main source of income, but these are not the things I can directly control – I can only influence them through my actions.

Instead, I came up with a promise I can directly control – I will write 3 posts every workday until September 1st 2008. This is something I can truly control and it is my belief that having a lot of content is the best thing I could do for this blog in the long run!

What to remember

Whatever you do, control the controllables and you will be successful. There is no point to complain about the things you can’t change. Instead – change the things you can!

PS! Thanks to Adam Primero for a great idea to give yourself promises instead of setting goals. It feels a lot more powerful!

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