It seems that nearly every day we’re inundated with stories of the decline of retail chains, and of the destruction that will be left in their wake. But is it also possible that somewhere in the decline of retail chains could create hidden opportunities for the rest of us? The conventional … Continue Reading

One of the major themes here at OutOfYourRut is helping readers find ways to earn money. Sometimes that involves business ventures, sometimes careers, and sometimes ways to earn extra money to supplement other activities. In this post I'd like to explore the potential to earn extra money with Uber, … Continue Reading

My friend Jay and I were talking about jobs this past weekend and he pointed out something that I hadn’t thought about: There are no astronauts any more! That may not mean too much if you’re under 30, but when he and I were growing up being an astronaut was the ultimate “hero career”. Bac… Continue Reading

The vast majority of people in America have access to the internet now. Unfortunately, most of them are using it mostly as a toy. But the internet could be used to do a lot more in your life, and you can make it happen. You just have to figure out how to convert the internet from a playground to an … Continue Reading

I don’t know about you, but I’m something of a YouTube junkie. Since I work at home, I often have music videos playing while I work. And anytime I need to get information on how to do something, YouTube is my first stop. It’s something like a giant information and entertainment TV, but one tha… Continue Reading

In the past I've written about the often negative consequences of various jobs and income situations. Today's post is on a related topic, but it centers on my own personal experience with a job I probably would have been better off if I'd never taken. And it taught me - going forward - that some job… Continue Reading

You may be employed at the moment - in fact you may even be well-employed. But look at many others around you and what do you see? With millions unemployed, millions more under-employed, and hundreds of thousands of jobs being outsourced to lower wage countries, what does the future of employment ho… Continue Reading

A news story on CNN a while back caught my interest. "Backyard Chickens". You just have to stop and watch a segment like that, if only to answer the nagging question, what’s up with that? Now in typical TV news fashion, the segment moved quickly, from one bullet point to another, spending not a… Continue Reading

If you’ve spent any time on this site at all, you know that I’ve advocated in favor of multiple income streams as a strategy for dealing with everything from increasing your income to setting up a retirement Plan B. The world that we live in today is just not as simple as it once was, and the o… Continue Reading

Are you thinking about starting your own business? If so, you have a lot of company. According to the Department of Labor, more than one million new businesses are formed each year. But most new businesses fail. Depending on the source quoted, somewhere between 50% and 90% will fail, usually in the … Continue Reading