Thompson’s Upholstery, a business built on workmanship and pride

by Mike Tierney
Reporter--The Marshall TImes

Phillip Thompson, owner of Thompson Upholstery, with over 45 years in business serving the public with their upholstery needs, continues to provide quality and superb workmanship which is second to none.
Phillip is a self taught craftsman of the upholstery trade. Back in 1965 he began learning the trade under the supervision of another master upholsterer, and after nine years he started his own business in a old chicken house building.Over the years as his business grew, Phillip added several buildings to house his business and now he has over 3000 square feet of buildings. (more)

Phillip Thompson inspects a classic car seat he has just upholstered.                                        photo by Mike Tierney

Crane is permanently mounted to the floating dock.
                                                        photos by Alison Davis

Creative Printing, LLC filling niche and experiencing rapid growth

By Tommy Kimbro
Editor, Carlisle County News

Just a little over a year and a half ago Jane Hobbs and Jeff Breedlove set out on a venture that truly has filled a niche, in Hickman County and the surrounding area, when the pair decided on establishing Creative Printing, LLC at 102 North Jefferson Street in Clinton. In November 2006, the business opened offering quality printing at affordable prices.
Creative Printing also offers any type of sign you need. They do complete graphics and banners. If you are in need of vehicle lettering, let them design a professional design scheme that will definitely be pleasing and eye-catching. (more)

James Marine Wickliffe is open for business

by Teri Davis
Editor - Advance Yeoman

James Marine Wickliffe has been in the works for 3 years and as of mid April has been deep into phase one of their operation on the Mississippi river, just down from the fork that is the Ohio. This centralized location is the optimal place for river traffic. At any given time there are barges going up and down the river at this point. Most loads are heading south toward New Orleans. All traffic from the Missouri, upper Mississippi and the Ohio must pass by here. A typical barge tow is 54’ wide and 200’ long and may consist of up to 36 barges.
Tom Rogers, superintendent, has been in the business since 1980, with a 10 year stint in the quarry trade. He loves the river and is glad to be working on it again, even though “the temperatures on the river are extreme. Extremely hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter.”
Even though there is more work to do on the facility, they are up and running now with a dockyard full of tug boats in different stages of repair. There is a crane dock, 3 floating docks, a full service machine shop and a nice office building. At this time there are 55 employees and they are expected to employee 140 before completion.
James Marine Wickliffe offers full service repairs and maintenance on tugs and boats and even retrieve a stranded boat/tug or repair it where it is. Tugs that are repaired at the facility sometimes need to be placed on the docks. To do this, they fill the dock walls with water, lowering it and drive the boat/tug onto it. Once in place, 18 pumps remove the water and the dock rises again. The newest dock is The Mississippi and was build at James Marine in Paducah just for this location, the other dock is named The Kentucky.

Ways to help lower driving expenses

$140 is about the average cost to own and maintain a car and that's about how much a barrel of oil currently costs.
Here are some way sto help lower your driving expenses:

Smaller Size, Smaller Expense

The size of a car has a big impact on how much it costs to finance, own and maintain. And generally speaking, the smaller the car is, the less it will cost owners.

Gassing Up

Four-wheel-drive SUVs still have the highest fuel expense, costing owners a projected 17.05 cents per mile in 2008, up from 12.6 cents in 2007, according to AAA data. Minivans do slightly better on fuel: 14.01 cents per mile this year, versus 10.6 cents last year.
On average, owners of small sedans like the Volvo S40, for instance, will pay the least in fuel expenses: 9.39 cents per mile this year, up from 7.4 cents in 2007. Medium sedans will cost owners 12.34 cents per mile for fuel, up from 9.4 cents; and large sedans 13.38 cents, up from 10 cents.

Protracted Fuel Frenzy

High gas prices are the main culprit for rising ownership costs for automobiles.
The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that Americans drove 3.6 percent fewer miles last year than the year before - a total of 3.003 trillion miles in 2007 compared to 3.014 trillion miles in 2006, according to preliminary measurements.
That would make 2007 one of the few years - if not the only year - in U.S. history during which total traffic volume decreased. (More)

Four things to never do with a credit card

Try not to make only the minimum payment
This stretches out your payments and, thanks to the interest, significantly increases your overall cost.

Limit your amount of credit cards
Multiple cards make it easier to rack up debt because it's harder to keep track of your spending. Having lots of cards isn't necessarily bad for your credit, but misusing them is.

Make your payments on time
Not only will you be hit with a late fee — as high as $39 on some cards — but your interest rate could also jump. Sign up for online banking or pay over the phone if you're up against the deadline.

Cash advances are bad news
These advances generally come with sky-high interest rates and service fees, making them a far too expensive way to get cash. Your best bet is to call your monthly bill holders and ask for extra days to pay your bill.

Finally, sit down and make a budget and slash extra expenses so you don't have a short-term cash crisis.

Article source: Redbook.com

Seven steps to improve your money habits

Does any of the following apply to you?

* You'd like to get your money under control.
* Want to be more financially aware
* Just getting by from day to day.
* Not be able to afford the things you need.
* Up to your limit on your credit cards.

The Seven-Step Approach
If you follow the steps outlined below, you will significantly improve your money habits and increase your financial well-being. You will be less stressed and therefore improve your physical and emotional well-being too.
Learn how to take control of your finances and get a clear understanding of where you are financially.

* Step 1 - What Are Your Money Habits? What money habits do you currently have? What is your spending pattern? Take stock of where you are now and you will start to understand what being in control means to you.
How does money or the lack of it affect your life? It's your decision as to how you spend your money. If you are spending more than you earn - you have a choice, carry on and get into debt or stop. Spend money for short-term gain and gratification or spend your money on longer-term financial stability and for your future goals. Every time you're tempted to spend money on a new pair of shoes, a meal out or a new outfit - think! How much more could that money be worth to you in the longer-term? (More)

Financial tips can help new college graduates

It is crucial to avoid
monetary mistakes that will need to be fixed later

by Eileen Alt Powell
Associated Press

After Sandra Hanna graduated from college, she moved back to her parents' home so she could save some money. A year later, she moved out with a stash of $8,000 to help pay for her new life.
But within months, she had burned through the cash and started to pile on credit card debt.
"It was my first apartment, and I felt I needed to furnish it so it looked like I was successful," Hanna remembers. "And, of course, I needed a lot of nice clothes to project my new image."
Thousands of recent graduates will face challenges like Hanna did, but they'll have an easier time of it if they learn early to live within their means, avoid excessive debt and save for the things they want, experts say.
Hanna, 26, a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, found her financial bearings by forming a "money club" called Smart Cookies with four other friends in Vancouver, British Columbia.
They'd meet weekly, initially following the "debt diet" espoused by TV's Oprah Winfrey, then later setting their own goals for spending and saving. Now they've written a book: "The Smart Cookies' Guide to Making More Dough," to be published in September.
Hanna's biggest piece of advice to those graduating this year is to overcome the tendency to keep money matters totally private.
"Stop trying to fake it, and have a serious money discussion with your friends," she said. "Everyone will breathe a sigh of relief, because you'll find that you're not alone, that everyone is facing the same money pressures you are."
Nancy Flint-Budde, a certified financial planner in Salem, N.Y., said one of the first things new graduates need to do after starting that first job is to figure out just how much money is coming in and where it's being spent.
She suggests they use personal finance software to track their money for six months or so, then print out a report by category.
"It can be kind of a wake-up call for them," Flint-Budde said. "Then they can make spending adjustments, if necessary."
Flint-Budde also advises new graduates to try to keep at least $500 in checking accounts; that makes it harder to overdraw and trigger high fees, and provides a cushion for emergencies.
Dara Duguay, director of the Citi office of financial education and author of "Please Send Money! A Financial Survival Guide for Young Adults on Their Own," said a big challenge new graduates face is controlling spending.
"This generation's expectations of their startup lifestyle are very high," she said. "They want their first apartment to look like the parents' house they just left."
Easy access to credit can make that possible -- and also lead a new graduate to pile up debt.
"Being careful with spending from the start means you won't be making mistakes you have to fix later," Duguay said.
Learning to live on less than you earn also means the young graduate can begin saving sooner, including setting up a retirement account such as an employer-sponsored 401(k). Duguay suggests new workers save the amount needed to get a full company matching contribution in their accounts. If that's not possible, start with 2 percent of salary and increase it with every raise.
"They're going to argue, 'I'm young, I need to buy business suits, a car,'?" she said. "There's a different excuse for not saving for every decade of life."
Young adults increasingly are graduating with heavy student loan debt, and while some new graduates may aim to pay the debt down as fast as possible, Flint-Budde urges them to go slow in the first year after graduation.
"Start saving so you get used to saving, as well as paying debt," she said. "After that, if you want to increase payments to prepay a bit, that's OK. But build those savings; otherwise, everything will go onto the credit card."