You've got to be active -- both physically and mentally -- to be at your best, expert says.

(CNN) When Martin P.* was laid off from his job as a marketing vice president, he embarked on a two-year job search and still came up short.

Brian Smith recently experienced a 51-week lapse between steady employments. Lisa Wetherby was out of work 17 long months before finding full-time work and Domenick DeMarco has been unemployed for 10 months to date.

That’s a long time to be out of work. So what exactly does one do during that time off?

“Do something, anything, especially something new or something [you've] not had time to do in the past,” urges Laura George, author of “Excuse Me, Your Job is Waiting.” “Doing something enjoyable gets brain cells firing, creates a new paradigm, brings in new people and improves morale and overall well-being.”

What you don’t do is treat your unemployment as a vacation.

“In the big picture, it’s critical that you don’t utilize your flexible time circumstances to procure a coach potato license,” says Nicholas Nigro, author of “No Job? No Prob!” “You’ve got to be active — both physically and mentally — to apply your ample free time to the best of your advantage.”

It’s hard, however, for job seekers to use anything to their advantage, especially when the bleak economy makes them feel like they’re up against the world — or at least millions of other people.

Competition in the work force is fiercer than ever before, with 9.5 million jobless people in the United States and only 3.3 million job openings at the end of August 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite these grim facts, there is light at the end of the proverbial unemployment tunnel.

“No one can dispute that the absence of a job and a corresponding income stream is a potentially alarming scenario,” Nigro says. “If you firmly believe that your current joblessness is merely a glitch in your abiding life expedition, your new outlook will noticeably brighten.”

So desolate job seekers, the good news is that even with these tough times, things will get better and you will survive. Here’s how you can make the most of your unemployment:

Step No. 1: Take care of logistics. When you’re laid off, there are several unpleasant — albeit necessary — issues to tackle. Before anything else, apply for unemployment benefits, resolve severance concerns, figure out your health-care coverage and assess your financial situation.

Step No. 2: Mourn. Job loss is devastating. In fact, after the death of someone close to you and divorce, it’s one of the biggest losses you suffer. Not only have you lost your job; you’ve lost routine, money, pride and perhaps most importantly, a sense of purpose.

Understandably, a little moping is allowed, says Jodi R. R. Smith, president of Mannersmith, an etiquette consulting firm. A week of bad daytime TV and junk food is about right; then it’s time to dust off and find some balance, she says.

Step No. 3: Make good use of your time. With eight extra hours in your day and not much coming up in your job search, there are countless things you can do to improve yourself, personally and professionally. Here are some ideas:

• Create your own jobs. Suddenly being jobless throws a lot of people into a schedule-free day, says Lynette Radio. As consultants who are sometimes between assignments, she and her husband tackle projects around the house like painting or putting in new floors.

“It keeps us busy and on a schedule,” she says. “Structure is what you need most at this point to not only feel professional, but not fall into a cycle of self-pity.”

• Don’t limit yourself. If you can’t get a job in the industry you want, find a creative way to be a provider — not just a worker — in the industry you’re interested in, says Vicki Kunkel, author of “Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success.”

“Don’t limit yourself to finding a job in the industry you’ve worked in for the past 15 or 20 years. A layoff is a good time to look at what really matters to you, what you love to do or what you’ve always wanted to try.”

• Reassess your life. Joblessness allows you to reconsider your work situation, as well as other aspects of your life.

“Ironically, unemployment also provides time to truly get it right in terms of work/life balance,” says Paula Santonocito, a business journalist specializing in employment issues. “There are no more excuses for avoiding an exercise routine or getting enough sleep.”

Such positive lifestyle habits have a positive impact on your job search, she says.

• Learn a new language. Spend 30 minutes every day learning a foreign language, suggests Jill Keto, author of “Don’t Get Caught with Your Skirt Down: A Practical Girl’s Recession Guide.”

“Job skills of people with U.S. experience are in high demand in emerging economies around the world,” Keto says. With a foreign language under your belt, you’ll be in an excellent position to climb the ranks when the U.S. economy rebounds.

• Look for an internship. If you’re interested in a career transition, an internship allows you to learn from a company in a different industry.

“Make yourself available for a learning opportunity, at a cut rate to the employer,” says Lauren Milligan, founder of consulting firm ResuMAYDAY.com. “Seeking out this nontraditional type of situation will show initiative and confidence.” And, if you do a great job, you’ll be on the short list for a full-time position.

• Network, network, network. Always look for new ways to expand your network and utilize the one you already have. You can do so by getting involved with relevant professional associations, says Colette Ellis, a career and stress management coach for InStep Consulting.

“Find opportunities to take on leadership roles to increase your visibility within the industry,” she says. You can also join committees that are working on strategic projects for the association.

• Re-invent yourself. Reinvention is simply re-examining yourself, taking what you’ve learned over time and evaluating what makes you tick, says Sean Simpson, communications director for Express Employment Professionals.

“Reconnect with what gets you excited,” he says. “Once you have figured out what your passions are, match them to your skills and experience you have gained over the years. This will help you determine what jobs best utilize your strengths and which choices are most suitable for you.”

• Set up a buddy system. “Find a friend, former colleague or a neighbor-someone with a positive attitude that you can chat with regularly to keep you going,” says Cheri Paulson, senior vice president and director of operations with Keystone Associates, a career management company. “Set up small groups for support but make sure that it is an encouraging tone because you don’t need to be around negative people.”

• Take a class. Is there a skill that you lack or that might have previously held you back from advancement opportunities? In your free time, take a class that leads to professional credentials or technical proficiencies, Milligan says. It’s an easy way to beef up your résumé and make yourself more marketable.

• Volunteer. Eighty-one percent of employers view volunteering as relevant work experience, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey. Roxanne Ravenel, a job-search coach, says volunteering gives people a sense of purpose and empowerment, which is critical to the self-esteem of job hunters who feel powerless after weeks or months of a fruitless job search.

“Volunteering gives job hunters the opportunity to meet decision-makers in their community to which they wouldn’t otherwise have access,” Ravenel says. Decision-makers get to see the job seeker in action, which helps them envision working with that person full time.

Happy Hour

LONDON (AP) – Britain is considering a ban on “happy hour” discounts at bars and restaurants to curb drinking, a spokesman said Saturday, as health advocates warned that a rise in liver-related deaths among young people may signal a future epidemic.

Health officials will decide on whether to ban the happy hours – designated times for discount drinks – once an independent policy review is published in coming weeks, a health department spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.

The proposal was one of several aimed at stemming a trend in binge drinking in recent years, particularly among teenagers and young adults. The government also plans to spend 10 million pounds ($15 million) on a new public awareness campaign, and wants to improve enforcement of laws against underage drinking.

A health advocacy group said some of those young people were now showing signs of liver-related damage usually seen in older people.

Given that it can take 15 to 20 years for liver disease to develop, the British Liver Trust warned that the figures suggested the problem would only get worse.

“We’re seeing a steep increase of deaths in people in their 20s and 30s,” Trust spokeswoman Imogen Shillito said. “This indicates a big problem for many years to come.”

National statistics show a steady rise in the number of alcohol-related deaths that typically fell heavy drinkers in their 40s and 50s who have abused alcohol for decades. From 1991 to 2006, the number of such deaths more than doubled to 8,758.

Alcohol-related deaths among people aged 25 to 29 were 40 percent higher in 2006 than the year before, Shillito said, citing national statistics.

Shillito said low prices for alcohol had helped encourage drinking among British youths, noting “they can buy alcohol with their pocket money.”

The government plans to base its new alcohol policies, including possible new programs to help people reduce consumption, on the upcoming review by the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield.

Officials say the report should clarify whether retail practices lead to excessive drinking. They are considering a ban on a number of practices, including drinking games and speed-drinking events popular at some British pubs.

Financial paper - Credit: iStockPhoto.com

(AskMen.com) A couple of weeks back, the news was flooded with reports of Warren Buffet’s investments in General Electric and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Buffet is undoubtedly one of the greatest investors to walk the face of the planet, so how wrong can you go by just blindly following his lead? Well, if you do not share Warren’s investment strategy or have his time horizon, you can find yourself in a chaotic world where you are feeling out of control of your investments, and potentially falling into a bad decision that can cost you a lot of money.

For example, if you are looking to save for retirement over the next 30 years (long-term, value investing), you will need a totally different investing style than if you are looking to put some extra money in your pocket each week by trading (momentum or short-term day trader).

To be a successful (read: profitable) investor, you first must go in with a game plan that fits the mold of your life goals, personality, risk tolerance, and financial situation. Here are some items to ponder when developing your own personal investing style.

Set your goals

A sound investment strategy first begins with setting a goal to attain via investing. A goal is a tangible item, such as saving a fixed amount for a home or car purchase or perhaps boosting your income by a certain amount each month. If you go in saying you want to buy a home or have extra cash to party on the weekends, your investments will likely be fruitless unless you have actual numbers to tie them to.

More importantly, if you need $50,000 for a down payment on a home in five years, you will need to employ a different approach to investing than if you were looking for an extra $500 each month to supplement your income. Setting your goal will determine the tone of your investing future. For instance, if you have a 30-year time horizon for your retirement account, it may make sense to stick to larger cap companies that have strong histories of paying and raising their dividends. If you have a one-year time horizon, you may have to find high-growth companies that choose to retain their cash to fund future expansion (rather than paying dividends). Although sticking to one approach is more effective, if you choose to have different goals, you should have different accounts and strategies for each so you can keep them separate.

Work within your limits

When developing your own investing style, your personality plays a tremendous role in how you can most successfully invest. For example, you may be adverse to strong intestinal fortitude to take big bets on speculative investments or to go against the investing grain. If that is the case, you are likely better suited for investing in mutual funds and automatically adding funds each month to your investments. You would not want the high intensity of trading or taking risky bets to cloud your judgment. Especially if you are a novice investor, stepping outside the box puts you more in fight-or-flight mode rather than objective, decision-making mode.

When you are in control and work within your personality boundaries, you can make excellent decisions and feel confident in your strategy. Eventually, you can learn to step outside your comfort zone, but that takes practice. In the mean time, stick to your guns and you will avoid emotionally charged decisions such as selling to early — or even worse, never.

Stick to what you know

Some may argue that investing is not gambling. Sports betting or poker is not gambling either — but only to those that have such extensive knowledge of the situation that they can make the best decisions. When developing your investing style, take stock of your business skills and the industry that you work in. It may seem like the day-to-day grind to you, but that first-hand experience provides you with an edge over everyone else who does not have a clue about the business you work in. If you venture outside your sphere of knowledge, you can be hit by events that you do not fully understand.

A simple rule to follow is: If you do not understand what a company does, it is probably not wise to throw money at it. Additionally, from an investing style standpoint, if you are a value investor (where you look for undervalued companies based on earnings and financials), investing in momentum or technical analysis trades is probably not the way to go.

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(Asylum.com) Going to work unshaven, wearing jeans and sneakers, is pretty much ideal, as far as we’re concerned. Alas, dress tends to reflect character, and this look pretty much signals loud and clear, “I don’t give a s**t.”

“The U.K.’s #1 Personal Branding Authority” Lesley Everett would like to help in this department. Her book “Drop Dead Brilliant” is basically a style guide for how to present yourself at work. The main message is that if you are aware of how you are presenting yourself, you can use your appearance to project a stylish confidence that will get you a promotion over some other guy who buys his suits at K-Mart.

A lot of the stuff that Everett suggests is fairly intuitive. “Your messages of personal values, standards and abilities — what you stand for — will be strongly projected through your personal image and how you present yourself,” she starts one chapter. “Just as companies spend millions of dollars on packaging and marketing to attract us to a product and make us want to buy, you must invest effort in your own personal presentation to ‘sell’ yourself.”

Those sorts of sentiments, combined with a surprising amount of space devoted to stuff like the intricacies of cufflinks, posture, nostril grooming, getting rid of a unibrow, overcoming bad breath and the importance of a firm handshake, left us feeling like she was trying to create a corporate robot army. But, to be sure, there were some gems of guidance worth relaying. Click here to check them out.

Even if your office is “casual,” that isn’t an invitation to look unkempt. Clearly you should never wear anything on a “dress-down” day that would make you feel embarrassed if you have a surprise meeting with a client or the boss. If you work with older people, they will likely frown upon the ragged death-metal T-shirt you’ve had since college. Put on a button-down shirt and a hole-free pair of pants. That’s just the way it’s done. A sports jacket is not such a bad idea, either.

Smile, even if you don’t feel like it. A lot of us hate smiling, or feeling like we’re being fake, but that’s often what a business environment demands. “A smile dominates your face and gives an indication to the other person of how you are feeling, and everybody likes to deal with happy, confident people,” writes Everett. Of course, you don’t want to go overboard and look like your in some kind of cult.

Speak loudly and clearly. Don Draper doesn’t whisper, and his voice doesn’t trip up and down the scale or betray that he’s tense. His tone is even and forceful, like he knows he’s right. In speeches and presentations, Everett notes that, “Breathing more deeply will help you to have more strength in the voice,” and that part of holding an audience’s attention involves varying pace, modulation and volume. Then again, if you have a tendency to yell, you might want to take it down a notch.

Do you have any suggestions on dress or personal presentation that have worked for you? Let us know in the comments section, slick.

AFP/Getty Images/File – Characters perform on stage at "The Simpsons" Panel during the 2008 Comic Con in San Diego

LONDON (AFP) – “Meh”, a word which indicates a lack of interest or enthusiasm, became the latest addition to the Collins English Dictionary on Monday.

The word, which beat hundreds of other suggestions from members of the public, will feature in the 30th anniversary edition of the dictionary, which is to be published next year.

Though the word apparently originates from North America, Collins said it was now widely used on the Internet, and was increasingly seen in British spoken English.

The dictionary entry for “meh” will say it can be used as an interjection to indicate indifference or boredom, as an adjective to describe something as boring or mediocre, or to show an individual is apathetic or unimpressed.

The word was popularised by the US comedy animation series “The Simpsons”, where characters Bart and Lisa use it to express indifference when their father Homer suggests a day trip.

It was submitted by Erin Whyte from Nottingham, central England, and a panel of Collins language experts singled it out from the hundreds of other submissions because of its frequency of use in modern English.

“This is a new interjection from the US that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here,” said Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries.

“It shows people are increasingly writing in a register somewhere in between spoken and written English.”

Other words submitted to Collins’s campaign — which was launched in June and called on members of the public to suggest words they used in everyday English — were jargonaut (a fan of jargon); frenemy (an enemy disguised as a friend) and huggles (a hybrid of hugs and snuggles).

Fat Cat

LONDON (Reuters) – Eight of Britain’s fattest pets are to embark on a 100-day diet and fitness regime in a bid to crowned this year’s pet fit club champion.

The seven dogs and one cat, who are all more than 30 percent overweight and weigh a combined total of 191 kg (30 stones), were picked by veterinary charity PDSA who are running the slimming contest.

The animals, who need to lose a total of 74 kg to reach their ideal weight, will be put on specially tailored diet and exercise programs.

The pet who achieves the biggest percentage weight loss and best follows their new regime will be crowned champion, winning their owner a pet-friendly holiday.

PDSA statistics show around 30 percent of Britain’s dogs are overweight or obese, amounting to around 1.95 million fat dogs.

“Alongside their daily portions of pet food, owners often show their affection by giving unhealthy human treats such as cheese, buttered toast and biscuits. They don’t realize they are actually killing their pets with kindness,” said Sean Wensley, a veterinary surgeon at PDSA.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan)

Citigroup Cuts

US bank Citigroup has announced plans for about 52,000 new job cuts, on top of 23,000 cuts already made this year.

Citigroup said the 75,000 job cuts represented a reduction of about 20% of its staff, leaving it with 300,000 jobs worldwide “in the near term”.

The cuts will come from redundancies, the sale of units and natural wastage, the bank said.

Citigroup has lost more than $20bn (£13.6bn) in the past year because of the global financial crisis.

It has reported four straight quarterly losses and some analysts believe the bank will not make a profit again until 2010.

Turnaround plan

“Underlying business remains strong and revenues have been stable,” the bank said.

Citigroup also said its capital position was “very strong”.

The bank expects its expenses to be down 20% from peak levels, to about $50bn in 2009, after the job cuts have taken effect.

“Certainly [the job cuts] will fall particularly heavily on London and New York,” Citigroup chairman Win Bischoff said at a business forum in Dubai.

Citigroup’s chief executive Vikram Pandit has come under pressure from critics who have doubted his ability to turn around the company and weather the financial crisis.

Shares in Citigroup dropped 4.4% to $9.10 in early trading. They are down almost 70% this year.

Economy in trouble

Citigroup, one of the largest US banks, is one of nine financial institutions benefiting from the US government’s bail-out programme.

The Treasury announced last month that it would be providing cash injections worth $125bn to be shared between Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street and Merrill Lynch.

“The news of job cuts is one more indication that the economy is in a very difficult shape right now,” said Ernie Ankrim, chief investment strategist for Russell Investment Group.

Portfolio manager Walter Todd at Greenwood Capital Associates said: “If the past is any guide, Wall Street overshoots in terms of hiring and then overshoots when it’s time to cut jobs.

“But it’s not clear if the past is any guide here. It’s a moving target, because the markets and the economy are in flux,” he added.

Condoms

NEW DELHI (AFP) – A media campaign featuring a mobile phone ringtone that sings “condom condom” has pushed up sale of the contraceptive by 85 million in six months, India’s AIDS control body said Friday.

The campaign, which included television and radio advertisements, reached 150 million men, especially migrant workers who frequent sex workers.

“There are still huge problems in promoting condom usage. Sex workers tell us that men would rather pay more than use a condom,” Sujatha Rao, the chief of National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), told reporters.

India has an estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV, according to the United Nations.

Health officials are targeting sales of three billion condoms annually by 2010 from the current 1.7 billion as well as the use of female condoms by improving the retail network.

“Our biggest barrier is the lack of a proper marketing network,” NACO’s Rao said.

A mass media campaign produced by the BBC World Service Trust and featuring a dog called Condom was launched on Friday.

“Our previous campaign has encouraged people to start talking about the condom,” said Yvonne MacPherson, India director of the BBC’s charity.

The condom ringtone was launched in August and has been downloaded by 660,000 people, the BBC charity said.

Pharmacists have an annual mean income of more than $88,000.

(CNN) Who hasn’t looked at his or her paycheck and imagined how much better life would be with a lot more numbers after that dollar sign?

Inevitably, a wise soul — usually a parent — tells you that no amount of money will solve your problems.

Of course, you respond, “Let me find out for myself.”

If your annual income hovers around the national median of $40,690, you’re in the company of millions of Americans. As gas prices, housing costs and other everyday expenses continue to creep up, earning more money isn’t just some daydream you harbor in vain. It’s a reasonable solution to financial woes and a good way to plan for your future.

To assist your search for financial bliss, we’ve put together the following list of jobs that earn twice as much as the national median income.

With salaries that fall anywhere between $80,000 and $89,999, here are some possible career opportunities for you as well as their expected growth rate.

1. Associate actuary

What they do: Most often employed by insurance agencies, actuaries use data to calculate the likelihood and expense of an event, such as death or illness, and help formulate an insurance policy based on their findings.
Annual mean income: $81,924*
Projected employment in 2016: 22,000**
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 24 percent

2. Attorney

What they do: Attorneys can choose to concentrate on a variety of specializations, which include tax law, criminal law, civil law, bankruptcy, environmental law and more.
Annual mean income: $88,235
Projected employment in 2016: 844,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 11 percent

3. Compensation and benefits manager

What they do: Compensation and benefits managers are human resources specialists who oversee compensation, insurance programs, performance reviews and hiring for their employers.
Annual mean income: $80,011
Projected employment in 2016: 55,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 12 percent

4. Economist

What they do: Economists study, analyze and project how individual people, firms, industries and governments spend money and use resources.
Annual mean income: $80,817
Projected employment in 2016: 16,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 7 percent

5. Floor broker

What they do: Floor brokers bargain with other brokers over the price of stocks. A sales agent then sells the securities or commodities to an investor for the negotiated price.
Annual mean income: $83,608
Projected employment in 2016: 399,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 25 percent

6. Marketing manager

What they do: Marketing managers calculate a need for their company’s services in order to stay competitive with other businesses and satisfy customer demand.
Annual mean income: $86,283
Projected employment in 2016: 192,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 14 percent

7. Petroleum engineer

What they do: Petroleum engineers work with scientists and other specialists to drill for oil and natural gas using the most efficient methods possible. Their research helps them develop new procedures for drilling and find new locations of oil and gas reservoirs.
Annual mean income: $86,899
Projected employment in 2016: 18,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 5 percent

8. Pharmacist

What they do: Based on a doctor’s prescription or a patient’s needs, pharmacists dispense medication. Physicians and patients rely on pharmacists to answer questions about the necessary dosages and side effects of a medication.
Annual mean income: $88,786
Projected employment in 2016: 296,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 22 percent

9. Risk management supervisor

What they do: Organizations employ risk management supervisors to create and monitor insurance programs that address potential financial loss, property damage and legal issues that could arise.
Annual mean income: $85,655
Projected employment in 2016: 570,000***
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 13 percent

10. Veterinarian

What they do: Veterinarians provide health care for family pets, livestock and zoo animals. They provide check-ups, treat diseases and advise caretakers on how to best raise their animals.
Annual mean income: $80,069
Projected employment in 2016: 84,000
Increase between 2006 and 2016: 35 percent

* Annual mean income from CBSalary.com.
** Employment projections based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
***Based on BLS projections for all financial managers.