Most people are fearful of investing in bonds when interest rates rise because that means the price of bonds will be dropping...significantly.
Most people can't take that heat. However, I think it's actually a great time to invest because the interest payments will allow you to buy the next batch of bonds for cheaper at a higher yield.
That means that every year your yield goes up with certainty instead of like the stock market where...hang on I have a phone call...no, for the second time I am not interested in a business opportunity with Amway!
Okay, back to stocks. Stocks are hard to predict so you never know what you are going to get and you are always looking for better returns. With bonds you can just sit back and watch the 7% roll it. Yes, that is correct, 7% yield is easy to find in investment grade bonds. You just have to look for it. And, as I mentioned before, with a little help from the Fed that yield will only increase.
So while bonds are boring and misunderstood. I think it's a great time to get in, so that's what I'm going to do.
7.21.2015
7.10.2015
How to Spot a Lazy Incompetent Business Person Using E-mail
Using cc in e-mail drives me crazy. It has caused quite a bit of mistrust of me and my communication. However, upon closer examination I noticed something. CC'ing people on e-mails is not and should not be my problem.
Requesting that someone cc people on e-mails is the equivalent to saying, "I'm too lazy to communicate with my people...so you should do it for me."
CC's cause all kinds of confusion especially when the e-mail is to someone outside of your organization:
1) Sometimes you cc someone and you shouldn't. How are you supposed to know that?
2) Sometimes you don't cc someone and you should. How are you supposed to know that?
3) Sometimes the conversation morphs and cc'd people should be dropped or added. How are you supposed to know that?
4) CC'ing people give's the impression that the e-mail is not as important for the cc'd people or they would have been in the To field. Then they don't make a mental note of the communication.
5) CC is used as a weapon by toxic (i.e. lazy) people, "What do you mean you didn't get it, I cc'd you? Now I can't trust you."
6) Important information gets stuffed at the bottom of important e-mails and cc'd parties are expected to root it out and remember it.
7) CC fills up people's inboxes. Enough said.
8) Everybody has different, sometimes competing views of e-mail etiquette. CC etiquette for one person violates etiquette for someone else.
9) Remembering who to CC for all the organizations your business deals with is simply impossible. There are too many scenarios and nuances and preferences to keep straight. This guarantees miscommunications, accidental communications, and overtly political situations.
10) It allows supervisors to spy on and micromanage subordinates, which creates distrust. This spills through to customers. "Why am I cc'd the boss on everything? Is my contact incompetent?"
11) If I cc 3 people plus the "To" person, that team has now spent 4x the time reading that e-mail even if it was erroneously send to 2 of the people. If time is money, then cc is a massive waste. What if your entire company cut the time reading e-mails by 50% like in my example above?
The more I write and think about it the more I believe that CC is bad for business and relationships. If I e-mail a business contact with a question or important information, I expect them to deal with it internally and get back to me. If cc'ing is so important to their team, then they can set up a filter to forward e-mails from me automatically, or have daily meetings to enhance communication. That eliminates a lot of friction, tension, erroneous e-mails, politics (why didn't you cc me?) etc...
The best solution, let each person manage their communication to their team instead of requesting outsiders do it for them. Under this scenario only the most important information makes it to the right people and time is not wasted over communicating to the wrong people.
I'm done with cc.
Requesting that someone cc people on e-mails is the equivalent to saying, "I'm too lazy to communicate with my people...so you should do it for me."
CC's cause all kinds of confusion especially when the e-mail is to someone outside of your organization:
1) Sometimes you cc someone and you shouldn't. How are you supposed to know that?
2) Sometimes you don't cc someone and you should. How are you supposed to know that?
3) Sometimes the conversation morphs and cc'd people should be dropped or added. How are you supposed to know that?
4) CC'ing people give's the impression that the e-mail is not as important for the cc'd people or they would have been in the To field. Then they don't make a mental note of the communication.
5) CC is used as a weapon by toxic (i.e. lazy) people, "What do you mean you didn't get it, I cc'd you? Now I can't trust you."
6) Important information gets stuffed at the bottom of important e-mails and cc'd parties are expected to root it out and remember it.
7) CC fills up people's inboxes. Enough said.
8) Everybody has different, sometimes competing views of e-mail etiquette. CC etiquette for one person violates etiquette for someone else.
9) Remembering who to CC for all the organizations your business deals with is simply impossible. There are too many scenarios and nuances and preferences to keep straight. This guarantees miscommunications, accidental communications, and overtly political situations.
10) It allows supervisors to spy on and micromanage subordinates, which creates distrust. This spills through to customers. "Why am I cc'd the boss on everything? Is my contact incompetent?"
11) If I cc 3 people plus the "To" person, that team has now spent 4x the time reading that e-mail even if it was erroneously send to 2 of the people. If time is money, then cc is a massive waste. What if your entire company cut the time reading e-mails by 50% like in my example above?
The more I write and think about it the more I believe that CC is bad for business and relationships. If I e-mail a business contact with a question or important information, I expect them to deal with it internally and get back to me. If cc'ing is so important to their team, then they can set up a filter to forward e-mails from me automatically, or have daily meetings to enhance communication. That eliminates a lot of friction, tension, erroneous e-mails, politics (why didn't you cc me?) etc...
The best solution, let each person manage their communication to their team instead of requesting outsiders do it for them. Under this scenario only the most important information makes it to the right people and time is not wasted over communicating to the wrong people.
I'm done with cc.
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