It is popularly said that “Money is the root of all evil.” But, Dear Reader, I can unequivocally state that money itself is not evil. Having money does not make you a bad person. Rather it is the pursuit of more and more money, the lusting after money; greed that produces deleterious effects in people. Greed is the root of evil.
Money is just another tool to be used in bartering with others for what you need. It simplifies the process of life by offering a universally accepted medium of exchange. Instead of trading eggs for flour or firewood for meat, you trade your efforts in your area of expertise for money, then trade the money for the things you need to support yourself and your family.
Using money as a bartering medium is far more convenient than exchanging physical goods, especially since so many people these days produce no physical goods. I’d say the vast majority of American citizens support themselves as service providers not goods producers. They may be Payroll Administrators in a corporation, or County Tourism Directors, or Network Administrators in a hospital, or a cook in the local grammar school, or even a laborer in a factory that does produce goods, such as furniture. But at the end of the week, they are not paid in sofas and chairs. What a good thing *that* is! Read the rest of this entry »
© Brigitte A. Thompson, Datamaster Accounting Services, LLC
One of the best business management tools you can learn to use is a budget. Oh, I know; “budget” ranks right up there with IRS, death benefit, hemorrhoids and goiter as words we want to avoid associating with. But, this word does not have to be something vile and filthy. You don’t need to wash your hands after writing it. It can, in fact, be an excellent tool for helping you improve your peace of mind and your quality of life.
Lately I’ve been reading quite a few articles offering advice on pricing an eBook. They range from the adamant insistence that all eBooks should be 99 cents to the almost snobbish claims that artistic integrity demands that eBooks be priced the same as paper books – and hard bounds at that! Most of the proponents of a particular view have a good point to make, but these points are all too often used to whitewash the entire spectrum of eBook genres and their authors with a one-size must fit all attitude. I vigorously disagree with that, and I’d like to chime in on some of the other views I’ve heard discussed and add one or two of my own. 
I’ve been looking around for my next book and think I may have come up with an idea. There are a lot of newbie authors coming onto the scene who are being confronted with the fact that if they enjoy any success at all as an author that fact places them into a new category of the populace by the US Government: Self-employed.
