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Happy Form

If you don’t know why you are hear, please read about the 21 Day Happiness Training Challenge.

Garage & Yard Sale Manual

After months of research and planning I recently had a successful garage. Here’s my how-to yard sale manual.

Step 1: Preparation. You can never be too prepared. I detail advertising, setup, planning and more.

Step 1.5: Marketing. Here is the text of the ads I placed.

Step 2: Management. Pricing, haggling, staffing, and other “Day Of” issues.

Step 3: Wrap-up. It’s done. What now?

Finally, we’ve got a Page of Tips. This is sure to grow over time.

Nigella Lawson and the High Cost of divorce

Celebrities

Nigella Lawson Eats A Banana (Photo credit: Kaptain Kobold)

Heartache and heartbreak are hard enough to endure but imagine having to go through the loss of a relationship while the world looks on. Such is the high price of celebrity divorce and the latest victim is the beautiful and talented television chef, Nigella Lawson. Shocking photos of Nigella apparently being choked by her husband, Charles Saatchi, surfaced in the media following the June 9th dinner at Scott’s restaurant in Mayfair, London, where the incident occurred. Saatchi’s advisors urged him to humble himself and admit a public apology for the assault. Saatchi denied any wrongdoing, saying he never assaulted her and in fact, was actually removing mucous from his wife’s nose. Nigella was stunned by the admonition of “nose-picking” and his refusal to apologize. She left Saatchi and their family home in Chelsea.

The two sides continued to disagree about the pictures; Saatchi claiming it was just a “playful tiff” and Lawson hurt and humiliated by the public’s assumption of her as victim of domestic violence and her husband as her tormentor. Insult was added to injury on July 7th, when Saatchi announced his intent to divorce his wife in the media instead of directly to her. Lawson, who had been waiting for a public apology, was blind-sided by his cruel divorce announcement. Lawson and Saatchi have been married for 10 years; Saatchi has claimed that the couple had become “estranged” the last few years. Saatchi claims that he had no choice but to act publicly since his wife “failed to defend” him with a statement to the media. In fact, Lawson has remained silent at the advice of her publicist so as not to further affect their children. Lawson (53) and Saatchi (70) have three teenage children from previous marriages that they were raising together.In addition to the “he said, she said” controversy, Lawson and Saatchi will have to fight over $150 million in shared assets, including their $12 million Chelsea, West London home. Both brought substantial assets into the marriage. Charles Saatchi is worth $100 million from the high-profile, highly-successful New York advertising firm, Saatchi and Saatchi. Nigella Lawson is a celebrity chef, bestselling author and television star with a net worth of $15 million. By the time lawyers for both sides duke it out in court and attempt to untangle the shared assets, those net worths will be considerably less.But it’s not just a monetary cost to this celebrity divorce. Saatchi had grown increasingly resentful of his wife’s high-profile career that he helped established. It’s a common theme in celebrity couples; one partner becomes the higher earner or the more recognized celebrity and the other gets bit by that green-eyed monster, jealousy. In Nigella’s case, there is the public humiliation at the hands of someone she loves to endure. It seems that Saatchi is determined to do whatever he can to make her suffer in the media. And then there are the children; children always suffer in a divorce. It can be lessened when parents work together to keep it private and amicable. But it’s incredibly painful to have your lives dragged through the media. In this case, it is Nigella and Saatchi’s children that are paying the ultimate price.

What is a Mechanic’s Lien?

Finance

: Image via Wikipedia

When you hire someone to work on your property or provide material to build or improve it, they are entitled to get paid. A mechanic’s lien is the method of enforcing that payment.

Here is what you need to know about mechanic’s liens.

A contractor must usually give you written notice of intent to file a lien if the contract isn’t paid. He needs to do this within a short time of beginning the work. The notice will include text to the effect that subcontractors also have the right to file a lien if they are not paid. This notice gives you two methods of defense: You can pay the subcontractors directly and withhold that amount from the payment to the contractor, or you can withhold the final payment until you have received a lien waiver from each of the subcontractors.

If the notice isn’t given correctly, the contractor forfeits his right to file a lien. Also, in most places, if a contractor is supposed to be licensed to do the work, but isn’t, he’s not able to file a lien.

Subcontractors must also provide notice on intent within about 45 days–depending on the state–of the time they first provide services or material, or the lien is not enforceable.

Protecting Yourself

First, you only have to pay once. If you pay the contractor in full before getting the notice of intent from the subcontractors, you can’t be forced to pay again.

Next, make the contractor provide a list of all subcontractors and keep track of any notices of intent you get. Get lien waivers from everyone involved before you make the final payment to the contractor.

Finally, you have the rights defined in the notice of intent to file a lien. You can either pay the subcontractors directly, or you can withhold the final payment until you receive lien waivers from each subcontractor.

Resolution

The lien holder has 120 days to file the lien and 1 year to enforce it. Enforcing simply means that it a suit has been filed. Once that happens, you can either pay the contractor, attempt to settle with the contractor, or you can take the contractor to court to determine the “adverse claims” on your property. There aren’t too many choices at this point.

Do yourself a favor and get lien waivers before you make the final payment on any work done on your property.

Sunday Roundup

Misc

I just realized that I screwed up on Friday’s post and accidentally scheduled it for July 31 instead of July 1. Sorry about that.

I am pretty excited about tomorrow’s post. I’m going to…well, that should wait for tomorrow. It’ll be fun, though.

Best Posts

It’s a basic economic principle: If you want to sell less of something, charge more for it. That works for labor costs, too. Raising the minimum wage, especially when there is a recession, will only cause less employment.

This is a neat business idea. Sometimes, a small business wants a mailing address that isn’t the owner’s home address.

Foreign CDs seem tempting. You can make a decent return in India. Just make sure it’s a legit bank, instead of the “Cayman Island” banks that exist just to collect wire transfers from the US.

In a high-tax, high-regulation environment, the underground economy will thrive, every time. Working for cash and no paperwork can be tempting.

Here’s a sample email to help you buy a car.

Carnivals I’ve Rocked and Guest Posts I’ve Rolled

Shattering Taboos was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Thank you! If I missed anyone, please let me know. I’ve been slacking off on carnival submissions lately.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-24