A colleague and good friend of mine is about to embark on a new career. His timing probably could not be worse; but then he didn't get to choose. The company he works for is restructuring itself and people at his level and above in his company have fewer options than most.

His options are limited to finding a position which is at or above his current level. His company has a policy that displaced managers cannot take positions lower than their current management level. In times like these many solid performers are finding themselves unemployed with few prospects for directly replacing lost income.

In good times people are in demand. For good people this is especially true. When times are not so good - and they certainly aren't these days - people are cheap and easy to come by. Top talent is cheap, especially if it is desperate for work and the income that comes with it.

In my view, this is the risk you take on by not being a 100% fit for the job you're doing.

A friend of mine is what you'd most certainly call a serial entrepreneur. He's created lots of businesses - talk

His latest thing is creating franchises. I'm not talking about Taco Bells or McDonald's franchises. People who run franchise businesses like these are in a lot of ways not much different from employees of the company itself. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing. Large companies who do business this way have their process down to a nearly exact science. If you follow the recipe, you're virtually assured of business success. That's why it's so hard, and expensive, to land one of these franchises.

The kind of franchise I'm talking about go back to the meaning of the term franchise itself. According to Wikipedia, the term franchise generally means a right or privilege. Selling rights is exactly what my friend the serial entrepreneur is doing. Here's how it works:

There aren't many hard and fast rules about who gets paid how much; but there are a few realities. For instance, in general, outside sales people earn more than inside sales people. And inside sales people generally earn more than tele-sales people. Do you know why that is?

It's simple: A worker's value is determined by his or her replaceability. Good outside sales people are harder to find than people who can wait for customers to come to them. People who know how to deal with customers are harder to find than people who can read a script into a telephone. The harder to find people have less replaceable talents, or skills.

Your replaceability is determined by how much rare or unique capability you bring to your work. This uniqueness is what determines how much you earn. If you can't be replaced because of your unique talents, then your customers have no choice but to pay more for you.

I got an email from a reader a few days ago. The message was in response to my article, What to Invest in Now. It had to do with asset allocation and risk management, which my article touched on briefly. The reader pointed out that his company had helped him solve the allocation vs. risk problem in the most optimal way possible. His company had just contracted with a major mutual fund company to provide access to a family of professionally managed retirement date targeted mutual funds.

Did you get that? It's a mouthful. Here's what it means. He can now put some or all of his 401-k savings into a certain type of managed account structure within his 401-k. He then tells the manager what he wants his expected retirement date to be. Within the managed account structure, his funds are then apportioned among a number of mutual funds according to some optimal asset allocation formula known only to his 401-k management company.

May is graduation month. Millions of college grads are getting diplomas this month and starting life on their own.

I remember the last time I graduated. It was a great day, full of fun and celebration, smiles all around. It was a sad day, because I knew I might never see some of my great college friends again.

It was also a very frightening day. For the first time in my life I knew I would be completely responsible for my own existence. Student loan, car, room and board. They were all on my shoulders now. With only a few hundred dollars in the bank and no job, I was just a little bit terrified.

Fortunately I was able to get on my feet quickly. I'd learned a few basic personal financial management fundamentals somewhere along the line in school. They helped to get me off on the right foot.

Hopefully today's grads are smarter than I was and know these things cold. But just in case any needs a reminder, here are my three most important personal finance fundamentals for anyone starting out on their own.

Now I remember why I dropped my subscription to Money Magazine. So many times I'd open up my issue hoping to find a pearl of financial wisdom and I'd be disappointed at some of the inane articles and advice I'd read there.

Today they published an interview with economist Laurence Kotlikoff, who believes the financial planning software used by financial planners advises people to save too much for retirement.

What I am saying is that online calculators advise most people to save too much. The same is true with the software that planners use. They start with the assumption that you need 70 percent to 85 percent of your current income to maintain your lifestyle in retirement.

Isn't that a little like saying doctors advise smoking less because your chances of developing lung cancer may be low enough if you only smoke a little?

I've always had a thing about reading articles about achieving financial independence. I enjoy them. I especially enjoy the ones written by individuals who are working to achieve financial independence.

Uh, before I go any further, let me assure you I absolutely do not enjoy reading or advocate any of those "get rich quick" financial independence pitches out there. (Though truth be known, some of them are some of the best fiction you'll ever read.)

The stories by individuals, however; they're my favorite. Most of the time they're open and honest accounts of someone's journey to financial freedom. They're people like you and me expressing their dreams of being free from worries about their financial well-being.