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.

There was a time when I believed in clipping coupons and making the rounds to all the low price retail outlets. I'd watch the ads in the paper and keep track of the sales and promotions. I considered myself a smart shopper.

How many times have you heard a story told by a friend or neighbor or family member where he or she saved significantly on a purchase by driving all over town checking prices and negotiating between sales people? Did you ever get the impression there might have been a little obsession going on at the time? That used to be me, the obsessed shopper.

Somewhere along the line it dawned on me I was investing a lot of time in the process getting ready to buy and that time had real value. Once the value of my time entered into the equation, clipping coupons and driving to 3 different stores for groceries didn't make much sense any more.

When was the last time your weekend was a little bit too long?

A man I met while he was doing some work for a neighbor of mine some years ago is now a great friend of mine. When we met, I needed some similar work. I liked what I saw he was doing and told him so. I told him about the work I needed doing. He gave me a fair price and I hired him on the spot. He respected my appreciation for fine work and willingness to pay a fair price for it.

I work at home, and during the time he worked for me so did he. We had plenty of chances to get to know each other better. We discovered that even though the work we do is as different as night and day, we approach it in very much the same way. We both realize the work we do has little to do with how much time and effort we put into it.

We know that the true value of a job is in the results produced. He combines raw materials with skill and knowledge and time to produce his results. I combine information and ideas with skill and knowledge. The products we produce are far more valuable to those we produce them for than the prices we ask them to pay. That's why our services are in constant demand. It's why we both work hard at working as fast as we can, but not so fast that quality suffers.

Just the other day I wrote about the kinds of things I choose not to invest in. Here we are only a few days later and I have a nice follow up story to it.

Remember a few months ago I wrote and article about a fellow who builds bicycles as works of art? He wrote me a note yesterday to say how well one of his investments have paid off lately.

I liked your piece on things you wouldn't invest in. I think you should say shouldn't invest in. (emphasis added) My bike hobby paid off big time a couple of weeks ago. I sold an old but nicely restored track bike for almost 15 times what I put into it. ...

Our city, like many others, struggles with growth in population. Economic prosperity is a double edged sword. The good is easy to see and well worth the costs. But the costs can be significant and painful to bear. Our city and the surrounding area are struggling to keep up with rapid expansion in population. We're faced with having to not only build new infrastructure to accommodate geographic expansion but also wit the rebuilding of old infrastructure. Old roads and highways which were built to convey a much smaller population from point A to point B can't contain the crush of traffic demanded today.

I think people aren't so inconvenienced by the building of new infrastructure. Every new lane change and detour or delay is only temporary. It's just another step on the way to a fresh new highway which will soon cut commute times significantly. Replacing old roads and highways is a lot harder to deal with. Tearing out old roads greatly reduces capacity in the near term. The pain of renewal is much more acute than that of new building.

Who knew there would be a sliver lining to the dark cloud of rising gas prices? Charles Courtemanchey of Washington University in St. Louis thinks there may be a link between the price of gas and the size of Americans' waistlines (PDF file link). He wants to prove that higher gas prices will mean less obesity over time.

A causal relationship between gasoline prices and obesity is possible through mechanisms of increased exercise and decreased eating in restaurants. I use a fixed effects model to explore whether this theory has empirical support, finding that an additional $1 in real gasoline prices would reduce obesity in the U.S. by 15% after five years, and that 13% of the rise in obesity between 1979 and 2004 can be attributed to falling real gas prices during this period.

I haven't written much lately at all about my weight loss progress, so I thought today would be a good day to catch you up on it. The reason I haven't written much about my weight loss lately is because I have not lost any weight lately.

Why haven't I lost any weight lately? Did my pound a week plan fizzle out? Did I give up? Is my weight once again climbing?

I can hardly believe it's May already. It's true. The older you get the faster life seems to go by. Here we are about 18 weeks into the year - over a third of the way done already - and it seems like it was only yesterday I was making the decision to live a healthier life.

You might recall my first post on this topic, the one in which I declared I would try to get this old body back nearer it's old college weight by losing a pound a week. If I were to actually count up the weeks I'd see we're about 18 weeks into 2007 already. Have I lost 18 pounds?

It's been a long week. I'm tired. Worn out. I'm looking forward to the weekend. But before I sign off for the weekend I thought about having a little bit of educational fun on a Friday morning.

Regular readers know I'm something of a quant. I like to run the numbers, do the analysis. One kind of analysis I'm particularly fond of is the Monte Carlo simulation. The Monte Carlo simulation is just about the best way, short of a reliable crystal ball, to foretell the future. I enjoy running these simulations on various portfolio decisions to see how they will affect my retirement.

The thing about retirement and Monte Carlo simulations, however, is you need to tell it how far into the future to project. That's where the fun starts today. Northwestern Mutual has a Longevity Game on their site. Think you're living a healthy life? Go use their longevity calculator to find out.

It's been a while since I updated you on my quest to lose weight, to become the lean mean investing machine I once was. OK, back then, when I once was I was hardly a mean investing machine. I was fairly lean though.

In both January and February I posted a message here updating you on my progress toward my goal of losing a pound a week. I nearly let March get away without weight loss update.

The news is good. We're 12 weeks into the new year, 2007, and as of this morning I'm slightly ahead of my weight loss goal. As of this morning I'm officially down 14 pounds from the beginning of the year.

In case you can't tell, I'm practically bursting with pride at my accomplishment so far. I'm particularly proud of my newfound ability to pass up dessert. I've always been a sweets hound. I realized, however, that if I were serious about reaching my weight loss goal I would need to have the ability to pass up some (many) of those post-meal gratuitous calories.