My friend and mentor, Betsy Cohen, Vice President and Futurist at Nestle Purina recently sent me the book “On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Personal Finance.” The book, written by two Harvard MBAs (don’t remind me that I’m still registered for an MBA program that I haven’t yet attended), has really empowered me to take the reigns for my financial future. Other than attempting to build up my savings, I just invested a nice chunk of change into my Roth IRA. Even though it’s 2010, my investment can still count on my 2009 tax return. Especially as an independent consultant, my investment has some serious tax advantages (it brings down the amount I owe the government); basically by investing in my retirement, I don’t have to pay the government as much in taxes.

A great explanation of why it’s wise for young people like me to invest in a retirement fund comes from Erin Burt, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger.com” The idea of saving on your taxes may seem a tad obscure, but it really can pay off big. If a 25-year-old contributes $5,000 each year until she retires and makes an average annual return of 8% on her investment, she’ll have $1.4 million saved by the time she retires at age 65. And the money is all hers — she won’t have to give the IRS a cent of it if she waits until retirement to withdraw the money.”

Cool – investing young and investing early will hopefully pay off. Now … to figure out how to retire before I’m old and grey.

One of my December projects was a fun one referred to me by one of my great former colleagues, Tammy: I worked with the local authors of Cold Feet Press on their digital communications strategies and skills surrounding the launch of their new (Random House-imprinted!) book, “How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy” which will be available for sale in May. I’ve requested that when they become rich and famous and get a movie deal that they get me a job on set.

Imagine a book in the vein of “He’s Just Not That Into You” but written for women who are getting married or engaged, or who are “looking for Mr. Right.” I had a lot of fun working with the two female authors; and feel that I learned more from this client than they learned from me! While I can’t imagine getting married any time soon, it was interesting to learn about women who “were staying in mediocre or bad relationships for all the wrong reasons. Women who felt they’d already ‘put in too much time to quit now,’ or that if they got married, ‘he’d change.’” The book really validated my philosophies on not rushing into things and never settling.

It also doesn’t hurt that they Tweeted this after they paid their invoice:

At the Match® Vegan Meats Production Facility. Pictured with Match® Executive Chef Freddie Holland., originally uploaded by SusanIsk.

For the last several months, I’ve been the consultant helping Match® Vegan Meats with their digital efforts. Today, I spent the day observing this awesome company prepare their Vegan Stuffed Holiday Roast that is sold at Whole Foods.

I never realized how strict the regulations are when within a food production facility. I was basically covered from head-to-toe!

This was my first (and probably last) experience wearing a hair net, but it was a great time.

Earlier today, I was on LinkedIn, and I saw that one of my connections just wrote a loving recommendation for one of her colleagues (we’ll call her “Rae”) whose job is what many would consider a totally normal, every-day office job. Millions of people now, just like millions of people before Rae, have done jobs like hers.

The job for which Rae has been recommended is nothing truly remarkable from the outside. Perhaps for Rae, her career and her life is remarkable enough. Perhaps her dream career is the job she has. She has a steady income. Perhaps she’s giving their kids’ better lives than what she grew up with, perhaps she’ll have a nice pension and be able to retire and get a condo in Florida. Maybe she’s involved with her church or temple and helps the needy. It doesn’t really matter that the outside doesn’t find her career or life remarkable, only that she does.

I know that in theory your job doesn’t make YOU, and that by having pride and by doing the best job of anyone who has held your job, is the most important thing. But you see, I’m not Rae. I have something inside me that’s telling me that, despite my marketing clients that I LOVE working with, what I’m doing now isn’t what I should be doing. I don’t feel like what I’m doing is remarkable enough and I do not want to settle.

Also, in the back of my mind, I constantly think, “Do I want to be like Rae? Do I want to go down in history being a twice LinkedIn-recommended, office worker who might make a difference with her family or small network? Or do I want to take some big risks, and have the possibility to do something great (perhaps something that lands me an IMBD listing) and have the recommendation (more like respect) of a larger population?”

(I realize this post doesn’t really establish what that great thing is that I want to do, but trust me, I have ideas. I have grand, grand ideas.)

Yesterday I had the privilege of sitting on a panel at the St. Louis Interactive Festival titled “Applying Your New Media Skill Set to the Workforce.” Along with two wonderful men, Jim B. and Brad H., I discussed “what companies are looking for as well as how to tweak that resume and parlay your new media skill set into an offer you won’t want to refuse,” (that’s what the panel description read).

I took a measured approach, only chiming in when I had (what I thought were) thoughtful responses to audience questions. Some of the points I raised included:

• Everyone can read a Wikipedia entry about Twitter
• Simply knowing how to use social media technologies is not what impresses; it’s being able to show measurable results (an increase in sales, brand recognition, etc.)
• While showing measurable results may impress employers, personality impresses just as much. Individuals who are all “business” miss the opportunity to build relationships based on personal interests and life philosophies
• As much as social media rocks, most career leads come from people you know in person who can truly vouch for your abilities. For example, a business woman who I know in person also knew of my reputation online and therefore felt comfortable referring me to my largest consulting project