If you have been out of work for an extended period of time, you may wonder if you’d be better off moving somewhere else. After all, the cost of living may be cheaper, or the job market might look better.

During the height of the housing bubble, house prices and mortgage rates only seemed to move in one direction for everyone – up. The bursting of the housing bubble caused both housing prices and mortgage rates to tumble for everyone who could afford to buy.

On September 9, Apple made its big reveal for this year’s iGadgets: the iPhone6 and iPhone6 Plus, the $350 iWatch and something called Apple Pay, a mobile wallet system. If mobile wallets already seem familiar, it may be because you’re one of the relatively few people using Google Wallet or Softcard (originally called Isis), both of which have been around for years.

Many people view telemarketers as pests. They always seem to call right when you’re sitting down for a meal or watching a really absorbing show on TV. But telemarketing is a legitimate sales technique, and genuine telemarketers are simply doing their jobs.

So, you’re out with your crew and everyone is having a great time. The food and libations are tasty and the atmosphere is chill. That is, until the check arrives. It’s one thing when everyone is splitting a pizza and a pitcher of beer, pop or sangria. But what if each person orders a separate dish? And there’s always that one glutton who orders way more stuff than everyone else – and expects everyone else to subsidize his or her indulgences.

The days when you were expected to take a job with a company and stay with that company for life, or at least for several years, are long gone. The term “job hopper” carries a little stigma in the 21st Century labor force. Nonetheless, making a job change or a career move remains one of the more serious decisions that you make during your career.

You have champagne tastes but a beer budget. Or maybe your budget doesn’t even hold water. You may wonder why you are always struggling financially while other people are making good money and achieving their financial goals. Sure, some rich folks were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths, but others were not. Instead, the differences between you and them were a matter of action – yours and theirs.

You’re sitting behind the wheel, stuck in standstill “rush hour” traffic – again. Or maybe you’re packed into an overstuffed subway car with several dozen of your new best friends, with no chance at all of being able to score a seat. The routine is stress inducing, but you figure it’s just the price you pay for being able to afford a detached house with a real yard. Or perhaps you know how tough the job market is, so you just feel fortunate to have somewhere to commute at all.

One day you push the button on your laptop and – nothing happens. After hours of pleading, cursing, calling everyone you know for advice, reality begins to sink in. Your computer is dead. May it rest in peace.