|
Financial:
Every expenditure should be to improve your personal wealth.
- One of the biggest fault people have is to buy the cheapest item that will
not fulfill the need. Ultimately it will not fill the need or need to be
replaced well before it should have.
- Don't go shopping often because every time you go shopping you are likely
to buy at least one unnecessary item. Consequently the more often you go the
more money wasted.
- Just because it only cost a couple of bucks is not a good reason to buy
something, especially for the kids. This is a weak point for many because
they believe they are being nice to the the kids, when it is better to wait
for a reason such as Christmas or a birthday to buy them something.
Then get them something substantial that they will appreciate and
remember all their life. Sure it will cost more but is still likely to
be only a fraction of the money that would have gone to cheap little toys
that are really not memorable.
- Buy items that will go up in value. If you must have an impressive boat or
a car, buy something that will fulfill the need, and is a classic and will
appreciate . This not only adds to your bottom line but also will give you
great pleasure to own. Understandably you may not want to drive a classic
car as your work car and that can be an economical yet dependable vehicle
that gets you from point A to point B, but your evening car should be the
classic. In other words, don't run out and buy a run of the mill new car
every two years just to keep up with the Jones.
- Buy rather than rent. Homes purchased at a fair price will always go up in
value providing you buy in a neighborhood that is not on the decline and you
maintain the home. See living comfortably
- Never carry cash. This is not just so you can't gat jacked and lose
your money but if you put your entire paycheck in an interest bearing
account and only use a debit card then you won't make a lot of purchases
that you would be inclined to if you had cash,
- Test new purchases by checking to see if it will benefit you in the long
run. Can it save you money by not needing an outside service come in and do
what the new purchase can do for you many times over. Will it improve your
ability to succeed.
- Postpone your purchase for a few days and see if you still feel the same
way about the item as many purchases are impulse purchases
- Getting married can be a financial boon providing both parties have a
similar income and an expenditure plan is conceived and followed. However
once you enter children in the equation then being married may actually be
detrimental to your financial aspirations. (per Andrew Oswald, an
economist at the University of Warwick in England, an expert on the
intersection of money and happiness)
Living Comfortably
- A cluttered home is a cluttered life. Redo your entire home, garage and
yard and get rid of the clutter. Living amongst clutter is depressing and
pulls down your self respect. Look around and see if anything is out of
place or out of balance. Do you really need as many items as you have?
Probably not. People tend to hoard for reasons that they may not even
realize. Sometimes it is the fear of not having the necessities, the
belief that they "need" it when they really need to get rid of it.
But the greatest reason is that it gives them a false sense of worth. False
because having what you don't need prevents you from appreciating what is
important.
- Simplicity and organization is paramount. Feng Shui, while being a
bit mystique to most of us is not about some spiritual awaking but about
being comfortable. This is achieved by eliminating clutter and everything
being placed where it serves a purpose even if it is to aesthetically
balance another object.
- Cleaning should go without saying but it needs to be said. You can't be
truly happy in your personal environment if you always have to ward off the
inner nagging that come from not thoroughly cleaning out the refrigerator or
washing the windows or vacuuming the the dust of the walls. You know how to
do these things and are aware that it needs to get done, but unless it is
done frequently you will never have the satisfaction of knowing that you are
not sluffing off.
- Painting and making repairs goes a long way to making a home
comfortable and prevent decay. Decay of not just the building but of your
image in the community and perhaps may even encourage others in the
community to to follow suit thereby keeping the neighborhood from from
deteriorating. Fixing the little things are as important as the larger
items. As long as you keep saying "I need to get around to
it", things like a squeaky door or stuck window will erode at
your level of contentment.
- Along the same lines is the need to get your finances in line. (review financial) As long as
you are financially overextended you will forever dread the mail and phone
calls, plus you will know that it is basically your fault that you are in
the pickle that you are in. This can cause inner turmoil and defeats other
efforts to become comfortable with your life. It may be that you are
addictive in nature when it comes to spending,. If so then recognize this
and either stop on your own or get help (free help is available through
social services). You may find that you can negotiate to have your bills
reduced especially if you contact your creditors before they have to
turn them over to collections. Once they go to collections they are often
under an agreement to receive ony 30 to 50 % of the collected money after
expenses are taken out, which usually leaves very little for the creditor.
Often time it will require that your either make a payment in full of the
adjusted amount or at least a sizable payment. If you do not pay it off in
full and receive a payment plan then do not default on it as there are
usually dire consequences. You may be asked to secure the debt, thisis not
advisable because in a secured debt if you fail to make s payment
on time you can lose the item/s that you put up for security
IMMEDIATELY, with no court hearing or anything. The help you see on TV
from debt services always cost in some way or another.
Unfortunately many of the problems may not be only of your own doing but
also
of a mate. If this is the case then you have to discuss your concerns and
explain how their actions or a combination of the actions of the two of you is interfering with
your being content with your life. Be prepared to make some concessions to help
them also achieve personal contentment. Approach this conversation with a
well thought out plan and don't try to make it a blame game.
Live to succeed
Looking successful will help you to be successful. This is not to say that you
have to go in hawk to to maintain an appearance but rather it is much simpler
than that:
 |
Always be well-groomed. Pay attention to your hair, nails and shoes. |
|
Be gracious to everyone. Speak calmly and kindly. Being rude is a sign of
poor social skills. |
|
Don’t throw out dollar amounts. This is a sure sign that you aren't
seasoned and are looking for attention. |
|
Stay real. Becoming a phony will be your undoing. |
Volunteering
Major venues and charity events always need volunteers. By volunteering
to be an associate host you will often be attending the gala events
that the the rich or aspiring are paying hundred, even thousands to
attend.
Travel Wisely:
When you are financially comfortable you may want to travel but do not allow it
to pull you back a number of steps. You can travel but you can often find the
same quality of travel and accommodations in exotic locations for no more than
it would take to go to the lake for a week, which isn't a bad idea either. There
are several onine discount travel service that but blocks of time for reduced
rates and then pass them n to your or that fill in the slack in either travel or
hotels. You may have to take a package such as fly on a particular airline on
certain days and stay at on of a choice of hotels for a minimum number of
nights. We are not being paid for promoting these services but enter
"discount travel" and a location in a search engine and you should
pull up a multitude of them. You can always consider swapping out your home
with someone from a region you would like to visit or use one of the house
swapping services that have sprouted up. Normally house swapping is for at least
a month or much longer.
|
|
