#link my savings and salary accounts so i can actually save from now on. place pending Amazon order.

[softprincesso]

✨HOW TO BECOME A WEALTHY MIDDLE-AGED MAN✨

PT.2: Overview to understanding different saving/retirement methods, investments, and forms of income

2.1 Savings and Retirement

Welcome lovelies to (what I hope will be) a helpful series on gaining wealth and becoming financially literate and independent!

*disclaimer: while this advice can generally apply to many it will not apply to all. Everyone is in a different situation and should do their own research before they take what ANYONE says as fact or law. This is also coming from the perspective of a young, biracial, first generation female business student following a hypergamous lifestyle and who does sw so some advice may be specific to my like-minded ladies, but for the most part I just love money and want to help others find joy in their wallets as well. I am also operating in the US so things regarding accounts, stocks, and certain laws will vary by your country. Also, this is just a fun thing I wanted to do because talking about leveling up and learning and growing and money are my favorite past times. None of these pictures are mine, however I am using some links which may compensate me in some way, but I only used links which were mutually beneficial and would help you gain something as well, they are still just actual sources I use for myself.

✨THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND✨

Financial independence is different than financial confidence.

Financial Independence: “The most common sense of the term is that someone has enough wealth to live as they wish for the rest of their life without having to work.” -Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/declare-your-own-financial-independence-day.aspx

Financial Confidence: “We define financial confidence as having three aspects,” says Miler. “The first is awareness of how money can be a tool for helping you reach your goals and dreams. The second is financial literacy and understanding economic factors. The third is trust and knowing where to turn for financial advice.” -Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleyzalis/2018/06/16/women-money-8-steps-for-growing-your-financial-confidence/?sh=2175b65e2468

While the ultimate goal is financial independence, financial confidence should be the main focus. I’ll give an example why. Imagine there are two people: Rhonda and Jill. Both of them like nice things, love to shop, and participate in the occasional splurge. Rhonda works a regular 9-5 and has a decent salary. She doesn’t have much financial knowledge (translation: financial confidence), but she has a savings account at her local bank and puts a couple hundred into retirement each year and she thinks that's enough. Suddenly, Rhonda wins the lottery. Overnight she has become a millionaire, so she quits her job, moves to LA, and goes on to live life to the fullest. She would now be considered financially independent. However, Rhonda has no idea how to manage all that money. She puts a small amount into that bank savings account and takes the rest to do what she will. One day she tries her luck at a casino, in less than five hours she has lost all of her money and has to start back at square one with no job, only a few thousand to get her through, and no-good way to explain to employers that she just wasted the last 5 years spending money on handbags she now has to sell at a depreciated value. (BTW you would not last not working with only a million dollars in LA for that long)

Now, let’s look at Jill. Jill is an independent contractor and has a relatively steady income. She knows very little about finances, but she actively learns how to manage what she has and keeps up to date on the latest money news. The day that Rhonda won the lottery was just another Thursday for Jill, the only unique point for her was that she opened a savings accounts with a high APY (we’ll say 1%) and put in $5000.00. A little later she also opened a Roth IRA and puts in the maximum yearly allowance of $6000.00. Along the way she opened a brokerage account of her own and started trading in the stock market along with investing in real estate which has given her some extra income to play with each year. Unfortunately, another housing crash occurs, and all of the money Jill invested into real estate is gone. However, since Jill learned the skills behind her choices early on, she is knowledgeable and understands the ups and downs of the market and how to invest her money in other places in the meantime. And, that High yield savings account accrued around $50 more without her doing anything and she has that to fall back on, or worst case she can take out part of her principal Roth IRA contribution. 10 years from now Jill should start to see a steady increase in her Roth IRA that by retirement will be a little over 1 million and she should be comfortable and invested enough into stocks that she gains around $200-1000 extra each month.

I think you understand why you want to be Jill.

✨HAVING ADEQUATE SAVINGS = BEING YOUR OWN LIFEGUARD✨

As discussed in Pt.1 the first goal you should achieve is securing an emergency fund that could sustain you for a couple of months if things were to ever hit the fan, and starting a retirement fund should be in your top 5 goals to complete. The saying, “the rich get richer” is popular for a reason. Wealthy people know how to make their money work for them instead of them having to work for money. An easy way anyone can do the same is by opening the right accounts for your savings and retirement.

Savings: 

All of your savings should be in a high yield saving account or split between different high yield accounts. This is an account which will reward you some interest every period for having money in your account with them. This is incredibly easy to do. You can either research/ask your bank about their high yield accounts or do some googling to find some other bank. Then transfer your money and there you go! When looking at banks understand that the highest Annual Percent Yields (APY), or the interest they will reward you, are going to be from online banks because they have less operational costs than a brick and mortar, but they will also come with their own disadvantages, like less ATMs to access or the inability to use when outside of your country so make sure to look into that. IMPORTANT: Make sure that whatever bank you choose is FDIC-insured so if the bank were to ever collapse or lose your money you have insurance up to $250,000.This won't generate a lot of extra cash, but an extra $20 every year is better than $0.

Retirement:

These accounts usually go by your current situation and what you see for your future.

401K: Probably the most known (I believe it’s only in the States but there might be something close to it in other countries) and that’s just because this is what employers usually offer if they offer anything. It is a retirement fund that your employer will set up and you can predefine how much of your paycheck you want to automatically go into it every time. Sometimes, the employers will also have a match program, and if they do you better max out the money they will contribute because that is FREE money! Most advice that I have seen has said to really only focus on this fund if your employer has that match program, otherwise I would focus on one of the accounts below. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/08/401k-info.asp

IRA: An IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account. There are three kinds…

                         Traditional: This IRA lets you put in pre-tax money and lets it grow tax-free until you make a withdrawal. Once you make the withdrawal that money is taxed at the current rate of your income at the time. Your contributions are tax deductible so you can write them off of your taxable income of that year. There are limits to how much you can contribute depending on your income, status, and whether you have another retirement fund as well.

                      ��   Roth: With this IRA your contributions are taxed, but when you withdrawal money later on it is tax free. For those of you in a lower tax bracket than you believe you will be in the future, this IRA makes the most sense as you will pay less taxes now than you will when you are 59 ½ (The official age of retirement in the States). There are limits to how much you can contribute depending on your income, status, and whether you have another retirement fund as well.

                           SEP: Simplified Employee Pension. This is also an employer-based plan and may also work better for my self-employed gals out there. I don’t really know a lot on this one so I’ll just leave a link you can look into if it interests you: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/102714/how-does-simplified-employee-pension-sep-ira-work.asp

You can have both a traditional and Roth IRA as long as you are eligible for both. Anyone with earned income (with a job or can prove a steady income) can contribute to a Traditional IRA, however with a Roth IRA, as a single you can earn up to $139,000 and contribute. Personally, if you are just getting started with all of this just set up one IRA and as you learn more you can take steps to get another or switch accounts.

https://www.investopedia.com/retirement/roth-vs-traditional-ira-which-is-right-for-you/

There are a plethora of other accounts, but they are more specialized and the top four should get you started on the right path to saving for retirement. I’m guessing that the majority of the audience reading these are women between the ages of 20-30. Trust me when I say that I love to spend money as much as the next girl, but I also would like to be completely comfortable should anything happen in my older years that screws up my marriage or job, and no one is going to secure that for you.

Also, I’m sorry this is so US-based, but once again it is all I know. I believe IRAs are more widespread than a 401K, but all that takes to find out is a Google search on your part.

Either way, make sure you have a plan going into 2021 for your savings and retirement because this economic whirlwind is far from over and there is always a chance for another recession, depression, or disaster. (Wow O, way to keep the mood light)

This was getting way too long with the investments added so look out for Pt.2.2 on the overview for investments (where the actual fun begins and I can stop being such a stick in the mud)…

VOCAB TO KNOW/RESEARCH:

Financial independence

Financial Confidence

APY

Roth IRA

brokerage account

High yield savings account

principal

401K

Traditional IRA

Once again… if in these posts I ever give bad advice, F- something up, or am just generally ignorant PLEASE call me out! Remember that just like you I am a young woman figuring everything out and while I am confident when talking about money, I am by no means a genius (only in spurts) so any chance to learn I appreciate. I hope you all learned something new today and as always…

With Love,

O

[quicksilversquared]

Superhero Salary

It all started with a joke. It ended with Ladybug and Chat Noir finally getting some of the compensation that they deserved.

After all, fame isn't going to pay the bills.

links in the reblog

It all started with a (mostly) joking comment from Chat Noir, blurted out in a moment of frustration.

"I hate it when that happens," he had grumbled after Ladybug knocked him free from the akuma's control. "Stupid, stupid mind-control akumas. Tell Hawkmoth that if he's going to insist on akumas like that, he's gonna have to pay for my therapy after this is all over!" he hollered after the akuma, who was clearly hopping mad about no longer having a superhero under his control. "A superhero salary doesn't exactly pay enough for it!"

He had been kidding, at least mostly. Kidding or not, though, the complaint was out there.

The moment had been picked up by the Ladyblog, of course, just as part of the bigger fight. But it wasn't long before it absolutely exploded over the internet.

Sure, maybe in comic books it was implied that superheroes always worked for free. But was that really fair? After all, Ladybug and Chat Noir were providing a service to the city. They were taking the time out of their normal lives to save Paris and put things back to rights, and they were doing it often. They had to come out whenever Hawkmoth sent out an akuma, not just when they had a spare bit of time that they could use to fight crime. Just like policemen and firefighters, they were putting themselves in danger by fighting on the front line. And if they were in jobs, or were in school- well, having to duck out regularly had to be affecting them, and not in a positive way.

If they had jobs, they could very well be on the edge of losing them because of all of the times they went missing. Even if they were self-employed- well, then they would still be losing out on some serious work time and having to work late into the night instead. And if they were in school...

Then they would be in danger of falling behind and need help to keep on top of their schoolwork. Tutors and online courses both cost money.

And on top of all of that, there was superhero merchandise being made using their colors and images, clothes and dolls and souvenirs and toys. Surely they should be getting a cut of the profit from that.

With only a few exceptions, Paris was soon in agreement: their superheroes needed to be earning a salary.

Marinette wasn't quite certain what to think of it all.

"Tikki, what do I say if the mayor decides to give us a salary?" she implored, slumping back in her chair. "I mean, even if it would be possible to safely get the money, I just don't know."

Part of her wanted to do the noble thing and say no to a salary. After all, she was Ladybug because she wanted to help! Plus, would public perception of them change if they were technically city employees? The mayor might think that he had the power to call them up on command, which would really stink.

But- well, Marinette was a teenager, and no sane teenager would turn down money, particularly when it was money for work that she had done. Even though she wasn't exactly struggling- she got an allowance, plus money from babysitting Manon and of course commission money, and besides she was a teenager and not an adult with a million living expenses- having more money in her account for fabric or design classes or her future career wasn't a bad thing.

"Well, Plagg and I could certainly set things up so that all of the money you get would be funneled through us and our magic," Tikki told her. "And we would be careful about not matching up the amounts or making them regular! There's ways that we can do it without attracting attention."

Marinette nodded. That was one question answered, but the other?

"As for if you should take the money..." Tikki considered that. "I mean, there's a lot to consider. But I'd like to point out that you don't know how long you'll be fighting Hawkmoth, or if there'll be any other threats after he's gone to deal with. That could interfere with you having a regular job. And if the akuma attacks keep disrupting your school day and you need to hire a tutor to help you keep up but you don't want your parents knowing, having the extra money could help. Or if you decide to sign up for an online school so that you can look up lessons that you missed in class, you could pay for that! But people might have strong opinions about superheroes taking money, too."

"That's a lot of positives and only one negative," Marinette pointed out. "I mean, it could be annoying to listen to people judging, but unless they're in the majority..."

Either way, it was going to be disheartening to hear people judging her for taking the money. But as long as they weren't in her face or spreading lies about her and Chat Noir now not being motivated to take down Hawkmoth because that would mean an end to the money or something ridiculous like that, she could probably ignore it. Maybe she could make some donations with the money she was getting to dispel those rumors.

Honestly, she'd probably do that anyway. There were so many organizations and people in need in Paris, and if Marinette was earning money then of course she would want to support them.

Of course, that all depended on if the officials even offered the salary in the first place, which was honestly looking really likely. It looked like public opinion was strongly in their favor, and the mayor was seriously easily waived by public opinion most of the time. And anything to do with the superheroes- well, it was publicity gold.

And in the end, it only took a week of deliberations- entirely about how much Ladybug and Chat Noir should be making, and puzzling out how much of the profit from sales of their merchandise they should be getting on top of their salary- before the announcement went out that the superheroes would be offered payment. A day after that, Ladybug and Chat Noir accepted their salary and gave the city's head payroll officer the information their kwamis had given them for the kwami bank accounts, so that they could get their paychecks without risking their secret identities.

"I didn't expect things to blow up like this when I said that, about not earning enough for therapy," Chat Noir admitted after they had left. He had seemed put-together and confident when they were in the office- which Ladybug had appreciated, because the sums that were being discussed were absolutely intimidating and having Chat Noir being so confident next to her helped her not get flustered. "I mean, yeah, down the road, I wouldn't be surprised if I get nightmares about fighting all the time and need to get help with that, but- well, I don't think I'd be able to, not unless I sign up as Chat Noir instead of my civilian self. And I don't know if I would necessarily want to do that, in case too much civilian stuff comes out."

Ladybug winced. Yeah, that was a real concern. And- well, she didn't ever admit it to anyone other than Tikki, but she sometimes had nightmares about the fights, too. And Chat Noir was right- a therapist could probably help.

But the identity concerns...

It was more than likely that some personal information would come out if they were talking to any sort of therapist, and that was dangerous. Maybe the chance of their therapists stumbling on their identities was low, but she still couldn't risk it.

Maybe they could go out of Paris to find someone, using the Horse to jump. Then their therapist would be even less likely to make the connection between Ladybug and Marinette, and with the distance from Paris, having the superheroes in their office might be less exciting than it would be for someone who saw the superheroes on a daily basis. But even that wouldn't really be a possibility until Hawkmoth was gone, when they actually got some semblance of free time back.

"I can't deny that the money could be helpful, though," Chat Noir added after a moment. "I mean, depending on how long the conflict drags on, or if we need anything that Tikki and Plagg can't provide to help us, or- well, when I get old enough to move out of my father's place, I want to. There's way too many people who think that they can just barge into my room without warning and poke around, and- well, it's not safe."

Ladybug glanced over at her partner again. He looked like he was her age- in fact, they had shared enough information inadvertently that she was positive that they were probably a year apart at most- which meant that he was facing years of people disregarding his privacy and potentially discovering his secret. "That's ages away, though."

"I know. I can't do much about it right now, though, besides just paying attention to where I'm detransforming." Chat Noir sighed. "I guess the money can't really help with that, not right now."

"Yeah. And that's not great." Ladybug tapped a rhythm against her leg, trying to come up with a solution and finding none. She just didn't have enough information about the situation to find places where they could do something. "I mean, the most I can come up with is a camera that you could connect to and move around to see if anyone is in there before going back in. And you could see if anyone is coming around and poking around that you don't know about. But- well, the problem is that cameras can be hard to hide, and if your father finds out and decides to review footage..."

"It could backfire on me, really fast." Chat Noir glanced around, then back at her. "Yeah, I know. I guess- well, for now, I won't change anything. Maybe something will come up in the future."

"Yeah, I'm not going to be changing much either, I think. But it's nice to have that money there in case I need it." It made her feel a little weird, honestly- after over a year of volunteer superheroing, accepting money for that was just strange- but maybe eventually, it would sink in that she was doing a job and deserved pay for it.

Chat Noir nodded. "Just in case. And, well- if we don't use it, it'll be a good start for my retirement account!"

Ladybug laughed at that, the awkwardness and concerns that she had had earlier flying away in an instant. "Teenagers with retirement accounts. Who would have thought?"

"Well, you can never be too prepared, right?"

Ladybug giggled again, imaging the looks on her parents' places if she sat down for dinner and started asking questions about retirement accounts and for their advice in setting one up. Maybe it wouldn't be completely out of left field- after all, unlike most of her classmates, Marinette did earn money with commissions, and enough that she would not be spending it all- but it was also a strange thing for a teenager to ask about.

Well. At least it wasn't a bad problem to have.

  A week later, Ladybug and Chat Noir officially received their first paychecks, with back payments pending. And by that time, the two of them had figured out where those payments were going.

Most of the money, of course, would be held in the kwami bank accounts until it could be trickled into their civilian bank accounts. How much, exactly, could be deposited without being noticed was still being decided- Ladybug could definitely get away with more than Chat Noir, though she figured that varying amounts and not at regular intervals would stick out less than regular payments. They were still trying to figure out how they might get retirement accounts going- even as much as they joked, it wasn't exactly a bad idea.

And then part of the money would go to charity. It was just a nice thing to do, after all, and since they had spare money- well, it would just be a good idea to help out a little bit more. They didn't want to make too big of a deal out of their donations, since it was very possible that people would judge where they were donating, how much they were donating, how often they were making their donations, and how their donations did or didn't change over time. There would no doubt be people petitioning the superheroes to support their favorite charities, which- well, maybe it would be a good way to learn about new causes, but it sounded like more stress than it would be worth. Besides, Ladybug and Chat Noir were private citizens behind the mask, and they deserved to have some privacy about their finances.

All they needed to tell the public was that they were donating anonymously and wouldn't be disclosing the places or amounts for those reasons. It was a simple answer, and should satisfy most of the population. There would no doubt be a few naysayers- there almost always were a few people who just had to be difficult- but it was a reasonable answer.

Thankfully, the person who had interviewed Ladybug and Chat Noir about what they were going to do with their first paychecks- a kind man from a mid-sized newspaper, who had earned the spot of first interview entirely because he hadn't been pushy about asking- had thought that their reasoning was plenty sound. They were hardly going to be millionaires, and so expecting them to donate large amounts on a regular (and frequent) basis was completely ridiculous. Keeping things private- well, that meant that people who were out of touch wouldn't be moaning about donations that they were perceiving as too small.

Just because Ladybug and Chat Noir were famous didn't mean that they were rich.

Marinette hummed quietly to herself as she skimmed the article that the reporter they had talked to had written. While the interview itself had taken place several days prior, the article had just been released that morning to coincide with both their first payment and the start of the month. It was very nicely written, and framed their reasoning in an even more clear and articulate light than they had managed themselves. She didn't doubt that it would get noticed soon, and then the speculation about whether or not Ladybug and Chat Noir would donate some of their earnings would be put to rest for once and for all-

"Wait, Ladybug and Chat Noir aren't donating any of their salary? That's so unlike them!"

-or maybe not.

"I was surprised too, they just completely brushed me off when I suggested that they donate part of their salaries," Lila told her audience as they swept into the room as a- well, as a flock, really, that was the only way to describe it. "It's what I would do if I was a superhero, of course, so I thought that they would feel the same! It's such a let-down, I really thought that they were better than that..."

"I would say that maybe it's because they've donated so much of their time to the city already, but I know I heard something at some point about backpayments to cover their time from the start," Alya commented, her eyebrows furrowed. "So that's not really donated time anymore, is it?"

"Maybe they have bills to pay," Rose piped up, clearly ever-hopeful. "And they need to get caught up with that first, of course. That would make sense!"

Of course, Lila was shaking her head as she headed up to her seat, with the rest of the group following not far behind to keep listening. "They're too young for bills. I met up with them again this morning and was trying to talk some sense into them because really, they could just do small donations, even a little bit helps- I would know, I've seen how far money can stretch and help in a charity! But even now that they have the money in their hands, they just want to keep it."

There were murmurs of disappointment all around the group gathered around Lila at that. Even though donations clearly weren't mandatory- well, they thought that the superheroes should be better role models than that! If they didn't have bills to pay, surely...

"And it's not like they're not getting enough to have both spending money and do a little charity," Lila said, shaking her head sadly. "Plenty of spending money, even! And I pointed that out, but they got really upset with me. I'd hate for our friendship to be destroyed over this really, but it's just- I feel like I don't know them at all now!"

Frankly, Marinette had heard enough. She wasn't going to let her reputation as Ladybug- or Chat Noir's reputation- get slandered by Lila's nonsense.

"Funny thing," Marinette commented in the most deadpan, disinterested voice that she could muster, not even taking her eyes off of her tablet as she talked. "You say that you met up with the superheroes this morning and they weren't interested in doing donations, and yet there's an article in La Trib this morning about an interview they did with the superheroes days ago that say otherwise. It says that donating was in their plan from the start."

The group in the back of the room went quiet.

"Marinette is correct," Markov commented after a moment, breaking the silence. "The article was posted one hour ago, though the paper copy presumably went out earlier. The superheroes stated that they have been looking at charities since they first heard that they might be getting money for their superhero work, as they wish to continue to help Paris. Their donations will be anonymous and private to protect their privacy and to prevent unwanted commentary on their choices."

Marinette glanced back. All eyes were slowly turning from Markov to Lila.

"There is also a video of the interview linked on the online version of the article," Markov added. "And the metadata confirms that it was filmed several days ago."

Several of the eyes pointed towards Lila were getting narrowed and suspicious.

"Oh, that- that's lovely!" Lila exclaimed, somewhat belatedly pressing her hand over her heart. "Maybe they were just trying to wind me up to tease me, then! And I misread the situation and took them seriously. Or they were trying to give me a pleasant surprise! It happens, sometimes- I'm not always great at catching sarcasm-"

This time, not everyone looked entirely convinced.

Smiling to herself, Marinette looked back at her tablet, closing out of the article and opening up their reading for Literature so that she could review it- or, well, finish reading it, because an akuma had interrupted her the previous night and it had been too late to pick it up again once the fight was over. If she hurried, she might be able to finish it before Ms. Bustier called for a start to class, and then she wouldn't get in trouble again for not doing her homework.

Honestly, if Lila's track record was anything to go by, she would probably wriggle her way out of the lie by the afternoon and the whole incident would be forgotten. But maybe this time would end up different- after all, Marinette had never seen that doubt before- and Lila's tower of lies would finally come toppling down. It was long overdue, really, but Marinette wasn't going to hold her breath.

If it happened...well, if their superhero salary was like a surprise cake, then a Lila downfall would be the cherry on top.

[capitalism-and-analytics]

Any tips on managing money/taxes for teens? No one ever seems to explain it in detail

Absolutely, so I’m going to separate this into two categories; the first being managing money and the second being managing taxes. Additionally, I want to make it clear that I am making the assumption that you are wanting tips for the average teenager facing typical financial/tax situations. Lastly, because one of my colleagues recently got sued about some advice he randomly commented on Facebook, I must make this legal disclaimer:

The information that I am providing is general guidance on matters of interest only. The application and impact of laws can vary widely based on the specific facts involved. Given the changing nature of laws, rules and regulations, there may be inaccuracies in information communicated. Accordingly, the information I am providing is with the understanding that I am not herein engaged in rendering legal, accounting, tax, or other professional advice and services. As such, it should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional accounting, tax, legal or other competent advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should seek a direct consultation.

Managing Money

So at my former job when I was in university, I worked at a non-profit organization in a department that focused on aiding individuals with low income or poverty seeking assistance with employment and their general livelihood. One of my fundamental first procedures that I would work with them to do is take inventory of their financials and although it may seem simple, you would be surprised how many people fail to do this or how many people don’t do this and it is the underlying reason why they fail in managing their money. What this essentially means is that you need to figure out every single transaction that causes money to come in and causes money to go out. After you have identified every single transaction, (i.e. all financial activity), you are ready to make a budget, which not only includes every transaction, but it should also include any perceived expected transaction. 

Now how do you make a budget you ask?

It’s fairly simple:

You start with your expected money coming in (i.e. your income), but here’s a small trick where most people fail. You make sure to put your post-taxed expected money coming in, which you can generally do by googling one of the many post-tax calculators available on the internet and answering a few basic questions (current salary/wage, state, # of dependents, etc.) for it to project your post-tax income. Next, you need to categorize any transactions in your inventory or expected transactions to cause money to go out into two categories:

They are mandatory, there is no way around it. You must pay these things. These include things like; rent, food, water, minimum debt payments, utilities, phone bill, insurance, etc. This is what most people consider their living costs.

They are discretionary and you have the opportunity to not pay them, but you still expect that you will choose/want to pay them, therefore money will be going out. These include things like; going out to dinner, new electronics, new recreational items, paying above minimum payments on debt, saving your money, new clothes, etc.

Now that you have all of your money going out categorized, you need to subtract all of the mandatory expenses (transactions going out) FIRST from your post-taxed money going out. Boom! We are officially at the point where you actually get to make decisions with the managing of your money, but there is no “right” way, there is merely differences with varying subjective consequences/benefits and risk levels.

If you want to save money, live with your parents as long as you can. Seriously! But there comes a time when you want to / have to leave, and you'll need to rent a place. Landlords will want to see that you have income, so try to keep payments below 30% of your take home pay. You may need a co-signer if you have minimal credit history. You'll need first month's rent and a security deposit up front, and even utility deposits sometimes. Read your lease before you sign it, and know your rights and responsibilities as a tenant, and what organizations can help you if you encounter issues.

Roommates are a popular way to save money on rent. Be aware of the issues that can come up with roommates though, since circumstances change, and you may be on the hook for their share. Have all roommates on the lease. You might even want a roommate agreement. Perhaps Sheldon Cooper has it right after all? Alternatively, consider renting a room from someone who owns their own house.

Aside from rent, cars are the biggest expenditure for many teenagers You can save a lot of money if you don't need to pay for one! It's not just the purchase cost. There's gas, repairs, and especially car insurance, which is very expensive for teenagers, typically at least $100/month, and can even be $200/month in some places, or if you have a tickets / accidents.

Your best bet if you do need a car is to save up $5000 or so for a reliable used car, then pay cash, so you can avoid finance charges and make your own insurance choices. If you do need to finance a car, be very careful of financing offers for teenagers. Double-digit interest rates are a Bad Thing. You do not want to "build credit" that way! The loan and the car are different things. You can't give back the car and be done with the loan, since you will typically be "underwater" and owe more than the car is worth.

Choose your spending wisely. Money spent is unavailable for anything else. Make sure it was your highest priority use of that money.

What I advise is that until you feel comfortable taking risks with your money you follow this flowchart (see link):

Next, I just want to go into the fact that although you absolutely have the most “control” over your expenses portion of your budget. The income section should still absolutely be part of your consideration because there will come a point that you can’t reduce your expenses anymore or you don’t want to reduce your expenses anymore.

You may find yourself working part-time or even full-time. This is a good time to learn about your rights and responsibilities as an employee, including how you are paid and taxed, as well as what your employer can legally do with your hours and even when you can be let go. Fortunately, taxes are low for most teenagers (if only because their income is low...), and you may even get a refund if you file taxes! While your lifetime income is the single biggest determinant in your personal finance situation, at this age, your priority is not on current income as much as preparing for the future, thus the focus on education.

Now let’s get into something that a lot of my followers will probably disagree with me about but...(FYI I copied some of the below from another post that I made on here, but several of the links from that post don’t work anymore, so I am removing them)

If you are currently attending high school or you recently graduated high school, then you should definitely be considering on attending college or working towards some type of certification as it is statistically proven that generally college graduates have a greater net income than non-college graduates. Though just to be clear, this is not 100% true in every case nor does it mean that all non-college graduates are unsuccessful, there are plenty of wealthy and/or successful non-college graduates, but if you took a random sample of 100 college graduates and compared them to 100 non-college graduates, then you would find the college graduates’ net income was greater (even after student loan payments).

So assuming you are attending a college; for the most cost-effective education, you will almost never go wrong with community colleges as they typically have very low fees compared to traditional universities and/or private colleges, despite commonly being transferred over to those same schools (verify before deciding). At the very least, if you try college and it doesn’t fit for you, then look into two-year degrees, so you can get out quicker. If you really do not want to attend a community college though, then you should really consider going to a four-year state school, but under zero circumstances should you go to a for-profit college as they are expensive, generally not well-respected, and credits are very difficult to transfer to an accredited four-year college. As a note, let me clarify by saying that “for profit” is not the same as “private” because there are some good non-profit private schools (though they are still typically expensive).

Ultimately though, make sure when you are selecting the college you choose that is accredited and has the following listed on their website:

Average starting salary of graduates in their chosen field

Percent of graduates that receive a job in their chosen field within the first 6 months

A great career center that will continually help you find jobs, along with a successful career fair

If you need money to continue your education, learn about student loans. This is a complicated topic with many options. Be careful what you do here, since these loans will be yours / your parents until they are paid off! People who find themselves in trouble later usually took out bigger loans (~$100,000) vs. smaller loans (~$20,000). Fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid by the end of June 30 of the year you plan to go to college so that you'll be eligible for grants and federally subsidized student loans. If you aren't quite ready for college, you can use FAFSA to estimate federal grants and loan approvals. Avoid taking on loans that exceed the future earning potential of the degree by too large of a factor. Use the debt/salary wizard on their website to determine the suggested maximum amount of debt you should incur based upon your projected salary or what salary you should be earning based upon your current debt.

Some people consider military enlistment or ROTC as a way to pay for college. That's a valid approach, but it is a big commitment. Talk to some people in the military or veterans other than your recruiter before you commit. Also note that dropping out of ROTC can be very expensive so you should probably not enter ROTC if you have any potential medical or mental health issues.

Ultimately, the point to be made is that you really need to have a plan for your education.

You ideally wouldn't go out and buy a car without doing a bit of research on what existing owners of that make and model had to say. Why would you get into five (or even six!) figures of debt without doing a similar amount of research? If you're at all on the fence about going to college, or your chosen major, it makes sense to find someone who's gone through your prospective degree program, take them to lunch, and get their feedback on how their path has treated them.

Did their degree path make sense for them?

If they could do it again, would they?

What advice would they have for someone considering following in their shoes?

Once you've done this, it would behoove you to gather additional data points. Don't just cherry-pick someone who's become a breakout success. Try to talk to people in the middle of the pack, or even some folks who went through the program and failed. Consider fallback options as well. If your career plan requires certain things that may not come to pass (such as being accepted into a top ten law school), and your plans are forced to change, what are your options? An undergraduate degree in business or engineering at that point may bear more fruit than a bachelor's in philosophy.

Think about your career

If you're headed to college, think long and hard about getting a degree that won't pay for itself. For any career, you should talk to several people who work in the field about your education plans and that career path to make sure your plan makes sense.

Next, I kinda want to return to more of the financial side of money management and that is banking...

Generally, if you're a minor, you will need to open a joint account with a parent or guardian. Note that joint bank accounts can be emptied by either account holder at any time so it is strongly recommended you open your own account after you turn 18. When you turn 18 (19 in Alabama), it's definitely time to get a bank account in your own own name (and transition away from joint accounts with your parents). You will no-monthly-fee checking account and a savings account. Credit unions, online banks, and small banks tend to have better customer service than large banks.You're not going to get rich off interest, sorry! But you can find better savings interest rates at online-only banks and credit unions. Put away savings as soon as you can, it's a good habit to get into, and start your emergency fund. Investments and retirement savings are covered more in the next several age-range articles. With limited or part-time income, savings are a better bet for now.

While we are on the subject of banking, we should probably also talk about credit to conclude...

Student loans and credit cards are the typical sources of building credit for most teenagers (18-19), but it's also when a lot of people start a long relationship with expensive debt. If you are responsible with money and have income, applying for a credit card can be a reasonable move for many people. This is different than the debit card your bank will provide with your account. It's a very good way to independently establish credit without paying interest. A secured or student card is probably your best option. Pay the balance in full every month! If you can't do that or you're not sure if you are ready, then you should not get a credit card. You can always build credit later when you have a more steady income and more experience handling money.

Managing Taxes

First and foremost, most teenagers are going to have minimal deductions, a low tax liability, and in most cases will qualify for a free file return.

To file a free return though, you should go here (see link), which has numerous free options for filing depending on your circumstances and many of which will hold your hand throughout the entire process.

As for how to best manage your taxes, you need to make sure that you keep documentation (receipts/evidence) for any number that goes on your taxes because if for the off chance you get audited and you are unable to provide supporting documentation, you will be fined or at worst charged with tax evasion. Furthermore, be aware that any document that someone gives you, most likely indicates that they are reporting those numbers based on you, therefore do not try to “lose documentation” to avoid paying taxes as that is not a valid excuse.

Additionally, it is fairly common for 18 year olds to try to classify themselves as a non-dependent when they are being classified by their parents and no it is not a personal choice. There are two types of dependent classifications; child dependent and qualifying relative dependent.

Generally, for teens to determine whether they can claim themselves, they just need to figure out how much of their support (costs) are covered by them vs the parent. If their parent pays most of their support (if you live with them, then they are supporting you via rent fyi), then the parent generally is able to claim them. There are other tests, but generally the support

Another common challenge is for teen parents who aren’t married having a child, but breaking up, then having a custody battle and both trying to claim the child on their taxes. Well it can get pretty dirty, but the same rules above apply to figure out who has the higher authority to claim, which is a major reason you better have documentation if you are trying to prove you are entitled to claim the child.

[swafena]

Why Start Shopping Online?: 5 Steps To Safe Shopping From Sketchy Social Media Stores

After Instagram added the Instagram Checkout payment tool these sketchy Instagram stores that pop up in my ads  became even more irresistible. Just while seeing my friend’s Insta story of him dancing like crazy last night these bags pop up in my ads . Am I crazy or I’ve just became in a  desperate need of a new bag?  If you don’t know what I’m talking about you are not using Instagram the right way. Then again, excuse my previous judgment, you might be a guy and the Instagram Bags store might not be targeting you! Anyhow, whatever Instagram stores are targeting you, aren’t these ads so seductive. I don’t even have money and they still lure me in to buying their things. Having said that, Instagram Stores sometimes can be somewhat untrusty. I don’t want to give out my banking details to someone in India that is just waiting for my stupid ass to purchase that fake bag. I know the bags are persuasive but I kind of don’t want to get robbed from stupidity. In this article you can find 

 But First, why you should start shopping on Instagram?

Let’s be honest,  21st century is all about standing out and Instagram stores are exactly the place where you can find those unique fits.

I personally have come across such exclusive brands through pop up ads. I am always am left shocked  by how I’ve never heard about their products previously. In particular my favorite discovery was the brand “Motel Rocks”. They offer exceptional designs that make your figure out of this world. I know that they’ve recently attracted quite a lot of attention but I’ve ordered some pieces from them even before the huge hype only due to pop up adds.  

Let the Algorithm work in your favor

If we forget for a moment of how every platform just waits for us to search for something so they can start bombarding us with adds, the algorithm can actually work in our favor. In reality, Instagram shows you only the adds that you’ll be 

interested in. Take advantage of that! How to do that? - you ask, well it’s pretty easy. For instance, this one time I wanted to buy myself some distinctive jewelry and I typed jewelry store in the search section of Instagram. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything that really appealed to my style. I kid you not, literally two minutes later some rings popped up in my suggested page. The more I deep dive in to the jeweler world of Instagram, the more jewelry adds started following me. After only few minutes I wasn’t the one looking for rings and necklaces but the brands were seeking me as a client. This really helped me find the perfect jewelry designs even though I was not even putting effort but was just paying attention to my suggested adds. 

 Read the Reviews, Please!!!

Instagram is such an accessible platform. Everyone has a profile and it’s easy to review something. It’s even easier to comment your opinion on one of the brand’s posts. Therefore, for us the clients, reading the reviews becomes even simpler. In particular, I was looking at this store that offered swimsuits.

 I loved the designs but I wasn’t sure about the legitness of the company because they didn’t have a big following. For the purpose of me getting the perfect summer fit I had to turn on detective mode which is why I started deep diving in to their comments section. That was useful to some extent, yet I would personally recommend going through their tagged photos. This is where you’ll see real people wearing the real products. Not only that but many vloggers will review small boutique products or make big clothing hauls for huge brands. Therefore, you might even see an actual rough video and an actual rough opinion of the thing that you want to purchase.

 Check Prices while scrolling through their feed.

Literally, having an Instagram store is equal to having a website these days. You can get access to all the information you need just while scrolling through photos. Isn’t that the best? I can spend so much money without even realizing. Putting aside the fact that I’m soon to be broke, I honestly enjoy the simplicity of using the platform. I don’t even have to go to the actual website and I can check the prices of fits that I desire. It’s convenient,  especially in the cases where brands are extremely overpriced and I can’t afford them. It takes me only one tap to feel the disappointment but it saves me so much time.  

  Secure your bank details by Using Virtual Cards 

Needless to say, one of the biggest cons of Instagram stores is that some of them are very untrustworthy. They might offer compelling products but at the same time you have no grantee that you will actually get your products. That’s why trusting them is not the easiest task. The number of data breaches around the world was up by 33% since last year and the total number of exposed reports have doubled. This has made everyone online be hesitant about giving their personal data to unreliable online store. I personally would never give my bank card details to any online store. The way I shop online is by using virtual cards. First and foremost, these cards could be linked to an alternative account than your primary and provide additional security features. I can top them up whenever I want to and I can freeze them as easily. My personal favorite thing is that I can distribute my budget better. For example, If I haven’t spent anything on clothes last month, I could top up the account that my virtual card draws money from. Thus, I’ll be able to have a specific portion of my budget for my online shopping. It’s perfect because this stops me sometimes from overspending too much on online shopping.  If you want to have a variety of Virtual cards like I do, you can use “iCard”. The app sadly operated only in Europe. I’ve tried similar applications but it never worked out in my favor. I like “iCard”  because I can actually distribute my budget in a more secure and proper way. On the other hand, I like their stylish products like the NFC Keychains - keychains through which you can make contactless payments. Amm, excuse me, if am going to spend my entire salary on pointless purchases at least I could do it with style.

 So, now that you know how to securely spend your money on the Internet, go and get something new to walk around your house in. The pandemic might have made us feel sad and lonely but you know what they say – “Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness, didn’t know where to go shopping!” Enjoy!!!

[savewithjarod]

Episode 8: Covid 19 Debt Relief Options in South Africa

Hi everyone and welcome back to Save with Jarod, Im Jarod and I’m going to show you what debt relief options are available to you during this lockdown period in SA!

This is a really unique position we’re encountering and something that has affected out economy and lives,financially, more than anything before.

This is actually a summarised version of my video on YouTube, check it out if you don’t want to read the whole post :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_W9nYi6rUY&t=299s

Also its available in Audio only as well:

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-fef5p-da5f7e

So let’s get into it!

I’m sure with the news of the lockdown being extended to the end of April 2020 this has thrown a lot of us into some form of mild panic.

What am I going to do? How am I going to pay for things? What can I afford?

These are some of the questions we’re all asking ourselves. It’s a scary time financially speaking especially if you haven’t prepared for it.

I’ve done a bit of research and I put together a few options that can help us lighten that load financially!

Please remember some of these options will have T’s & C’s attached to them from the institutions!

Number 1: Debt Relief for Individuals

So a couple of the banks have come onboard with helping their clients with relief options, Standard Bank  most notably has been very proactive during this time!

So whats available to you?

Well if you earn R7500pm or less they have provided you with a 3 month break on all credit instalments. So this includes access loan, credit card, home loan, personal loan, revolving credit plan, vehicle asset finance.

Please remember this is only available to clients who’s accounts were in good standing and paid up to date as at the 31st March. This is automatic and should already be activated on your account,

If you’re a student they’re waiving all repayments on student loan repayments from 1st April to 1st June, no interest, no fees and also its automatic.

If you’re a small business owner that has a business banking account provided your turnover is less than R20mill per annum the same credit relief options are available to you!

    Number 2: Check your policies to see if you qualify for premium holidays

So most insurers have really jumped on board with helping clients out during this time, most of the major insurers like Old Mutual and Sanlam have assisted clients by allowing them to take premium holidays on their  investments./

So if you have an investment you can skip up to 12 months and life policy up to 3 months, depending on the company of course. Obviously this is something I would personally advise against but if it’s a necessity the option is there!

This should help ease a lot of strain financially on monthly repayments.

Remember there are T’s and C’s that will be applied such as reducing your cover to 25% of the original amount during that time!

Chat to your financial adviser and they will be able to assist you during this time, please do not cancel your products or make any rash decisions during this period.  Especially Life policies, they are not a luxury at this moment it’s a necessity!

Number 3: Claiming from UIF

There are a number of companies specifically smaller ones that cannot afford to pay staff at this time, there are so many more companies surviving month to month than we know.

Some companies have implemented a no work no pay scenario or short pay. So what can you do? If you have been affected in this way?

Well provided you have been paying UIF you can claim from the UIF, please remember this works on a sliding scale and you will not get your full amount due to you.

The maximum salary they’re using is R17712 with a sliding scale of 38% applied, so the maximum you will get is roughly R6700pm.

If you are the owner of a small company and cant afford to pay salaries you’re going to have to contact the Temporary Employer Relief Scheme. I’ve linked an email address below that you can contact to help with that.

There are a number of requirements that will have to be made first.                        

Number 4: Debt Relief for businesses

So if you’re a small business owner there are a number of options available to you thankfully. If you have a turnover of less R20mill per year you will qualify for this.

Firstly from a banking perspective depending on which bank you are:

1)      3 month premium relief on Personal Loan instalments for business owners

2)      3 month business loan instalments relief

3)      Relief as an individual, this is a big one, if you are a business owner they will waive your personal loan, Vehicle Asset Finance and Home loan as well for 3 months provided they are with the institution!

4)      These are options available at Standard Bank but ABSA and Nedbank have similar assistance programmes for their clients. Unfortunately at the moment FNB does not have anything similar in place for its clients.

2) Options available for your staff and Business

There are a number of options available for you as a business owner to assist your staff during this time, here are some of the options:

UIF is the first option which will help with filling some of the Gap on reduced salaries for your staff.

You must have been registered for UIF before and also been contributing to the UIF fund.

This should help ease the load for you financially during this time

This falls under the Covid 19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme that has been implemented by the Government and created specifically for this time.

Ive put a link below to KZN Top business webpage where they have an amazing ebook by DRG outsourcing,

This details the entire process on how to apply and all the forms necessary.

It’s definitely the best booklet I have come across and very informative, really recommend checking it out!

2) General Debt Relief Finance Scheme

Now this is a government scheme that help with providing relief to business owners.

This will encompass all companies who’s business has been affected directly and indirectly through Covid 19!

Youl’ll have to register on the National SMME database first before you apply, remember you  will have to show proof of how your business has been affected and it’s a fully online based application.

It’s a lot of information and requirements to go through so I’ll link the PDF summary below.

It has everything you will need, all contact numbers as well as all the requirements you will need to be assessed!

Also I have put a link to YOCO’s website where they explore a number of different funding schemes, it’s a fantastic article and gives links and information on exactly how to go about applying for the funding!

Thanks so much for watching and I really feel with these options available to us during this time we can get through this.

I think this shows the importance of keeping reserve funds for ourselves, we might see it as a luxury but at this time we can see its definitely a necessity!

Chat to your financial adviser and start putting one together for yourselves, it really is something we all need to do! `

Hit that like button if you enjoyed this video and consider subscribing if you want to see more videos like this. Also please share this with anyone you think this will help! We all need it at this time!

Check out some of my other videos in the meanwhile to help reduce some of your expenses during this time!

See you guys soon! Remember keep saving!

 Links:

http://kzntopbusiness.co.za/site/businessfit/DRG-Outsourcing/page/9114

https://www.yoco.co.za/blog/article/covid-19-relief-funding/

Email address: covid19ters@labour.gov.za

Registration on the National SMME Database – https://smmesa.gov.za

PDF Summary: https://tinyurl.com/y9fzqcuf

[academicgangster]

.

[flydotnet]

Nemesis In Cerberus's Jaws

VRAINS Rarepair Weeks 2018 - Day 9: Favorite Card/Win or Lose

Summary: Ghost Girl goes to Queen's palace-like headquarters for two reasons: stop SOL from interfering in the Ignis Warfare and to avenge a fallen comrade now caught inside the monarch's claws. She knows this may very well be a trap, but may as well try saving the situation and stop a sociopath while she's at it.

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Ships: Hireshipping (Ema/Akira)

Wordcount: 3.6K words

Notes: Happy New Year, I wish you get nice things in life for 2019 while I beg for VRAINS to give us an Akira VS Queen duel. Or just Akira winning a duel with his "Eldritch abominations meet geometry" deck. Please.

This is the last fic of 2019, a year as such filled with way too many sickfics and a lot of fandoms suffering because of your truly's! Can't say I expcted to finish the year on a VRAINS fanfiction of all things, but I'm actually proud of this one. I took a weird approach at this prompt, because I'm a dumbass who doesn't know how words work, but I hope this stays in the theme enough. Anyway, Ema VS Queen would be very nice in canon with actual duel wriitng skills instead of this pathetic excuse of that lmao. I also hope Queen fans don't kill me for this lmao.

Y'all know tomorrow is gonna be Hanahaki AU, don't you? I am, in fact, very predictable.

Event hosted by @vrainsrarepairweeks​

AO3 version available here.

Link VRAINS’s SOL Headquarters, approximately time-has-stopped-ticking past I-forgot-what-time-it-was-anyway in the after-morning-noon. There is nobody around, footsteps resonating inside the empty white buildings filled with data diamonds and other unknown fancy digital effects. While the Ignis Warfare is taking place outside, Ema, or rather Ghost Girl, has her own side-mission to accomplish. This is why she is here and not by Aoi, or rather, Blue Maiden’s side. She trusts this girl and her partners, the ever-so-victorious Playmaker and Soulburner along with their pro-humanity Ignes, to win against the hardships waiting for them. She cannot really help them win against Lighting anyway.

She may not be able to do that, but she can do other things to shift the balance around. She has to do something to reverse the tide in the right direction.

 Ghost Girl finds herself anxiously walking around the premise, the echo of her footsteps being the only noise around her, white walls and ceiling almost blinding her by their sheer purity that just hides how shady SOL Technologies truly are. There is exactly one sane man in that building and she’s here to prevent his conversion to data by some lunatics with too much incompetence and free time on their hands. Converting him into data won’t be useful for any of them: is she throwing herself into the jaws of that company? Most certainly.

The question would rather be: why does she throw herself into said jaws? She knows they’re a trap waiting to vanquish her. On that the question changes: is it worth knowingly risking herself in an obvious trap? To that she would usually hesitate to answer, but there she was with a bold and confident “yes” to throw at it.

 Ghost Girl eventually meets a regal corridor leading to what she can only assume to be a throne room. The fancy palace aspects are quickly wearing down on her: the person waiting at the end, the one who caught her main hirer and ex-teammate, has to have an ego bigger than hers. In a way, that’s better: she’s always preferred crushing pretentious people than winning against fellas with a low self-esteem.

Instead of knocking on the wooden door with golden decorations she eventually finds herself meeting, the huntress kicks it wide open, emergency programs ready to be used against the eventual menace in case it’d get too dangerous. She, however, doesn’t plan on backing down until she has won: if she leaves, it’s to get backup, technical or human.

Plus, Akira would have preferred her to have these with her.

 The quite literal queen is sitting in her throne with a smug look Ghost Girl has an unforgettable need to remove from her face. Dressed like a business woman in a regal palace, she matches what little about his boss Akira would tell her: short blue-and-green hair, proud, cunning, fierce and merciless. If she wasn’t meant to smash Queen’s face onto the floor for being a terrible human being, she would have commented on her beauty. Instead, she gets mentally ready to duel her.

“If it isn’t Ghost Girl, Zaizen’s favourite bounty huntress…” Her voice resonates in the empty room as an eerie smile makes her onto her face.

“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why I’m here,” she simply and drily replies. She doesn’t wait to ask her main question. “What did you do to Zaizen?”

“Perhaps I should tell you would you win over me in a Master Duel, Ms Bessho.”

Goddammit. She still prepares out her Duel Disk and her spirit. This a duel she cannot lose.

“Then Duel it is.”

This may just be the duel of her life.

 Queen has a royal-themed deck, because of course she would have one. The issue is to judge what level she is at Duel Monsters: it’s safe to assume she isn’t the first newbie one ca come across in Link VRAINS. It relies on Spell and Trap cards to summon monsters, only to Link Summon what Ema assumes to be her aces. There doesn’t seem to be another summoning method to her deck, but that’s to be seen. Skills are out of the question: this is already something she can put on the side and not worry about. She is willing to trade not being able to use Secret Cure for taking off one factor to take in account.

Ema has to keep it at least a bit safe. Her Altergeists aren’t known for being the safest monsters to play on the field despite how easy her Hexstia and Dragvirion combo feels like to pull off. She needs to be careful and not waste a single opportunity. This may be a Duel with vital stakes at play: she cannot let herself get panicked or else it’ll end terribly for everyone involved, not just her. SOL needs to be slowed down if not stopped if they’re as unreasonable as that woman’s ends and ways to get there: there is always a point where one needs to stop throwing everyone under the bus.

 They don’t speak to each other during the duel. Queen seems to do so out of spite and a want not to leak anything out. Ema is doing so as to keep her focus: if she can win this, then she will have a chance at getting her answers and freeing Akira from wherever he’s kept in their real world. If he’s trapped here, then that’s even more of an opportunity not to mess up.

She doesn’t let the questions she could wonder about prevent her from summoning the right monsters and playing the right cards at the right time against the right targets. The situation is too risky and too narrow between them to allow her to do so, to taunt or to show too much pride. She sets her own ego on the side for once: if she wins this Duel, then she will pride herself in it and tease Akira about it for about forever.

 Ema gains a momentum by bypassing Queen’s ace Monster, a Link-4 luminous queen thing (doesn’t have the luxury to compliment that one either) and inflecting direct damage to her opponent. Queen herself is a mighty force to reckon with, of course, but she has watched Akira lose to her with all the frustration she could have felt from it. She has, technically, seen how her deck worked, but every duel is different for everyone, thus why she prefers to make sure she doesn’t forget about the cards she could have changed or the optional strategies she may have in store.

Altergeists have to win where Tindangles have lost.

 The sudden eerie smile on Queen’s face doesn’t reassure her in the slightest. There is a cold sweat running down her back as she waits in anticipation what is to come. A Flip card gets turned on by her own gestures, as an attempt to destroy it with Hexstia when the monstrous queen on the field can’t be attacked, and there comes the worst. Ema cannot decide herself whether or not this is humiliating or sadistic towards Akira, but in all cases, she doesn’t want to face that monster now.

She doesn’t want to be facing Tindangle Hound here and now.

It’s like fighting against Akira when he isn’t here to control the beast. How much has this “queen” stole from him, to use one of his cards like that?!

 “Is… Is this a sick joke of some sort…?” her voice is hesitant but asks anyway.

“I simply took the spolia opima that were to come back to me after my previous victory.”

“You have to know this monster is… This is twisted!”

Ema feels rage boiling in her entire body. This isn’t like her to get upset over a monster in a deck, but this can’t be all there is to it. The smile on Queen’s face, Akira’s unknown whereabouts after his defeat against her and the use of that stupid Latin term all make her rage beyond reason.

 Okay, she has to admit, Akira may be more than an ex-teammate for dirty jobs online and her main employer. There is quite obviously something more to it, more to her determination to win than to punish some asshole who put in so much danger someone as young and mentally fragile as Go Onizuka for fucking money, who vivisected and put inside a chip a living being made out of data but with a digital soul, who now uses a card of one of her subordinates to play a duel against someone who came here to, theoretically, save said subordinate.

What it is, she doesn’t have many words to put on, but these feelings are here, they are intense, and she isn’t backing down to determine what they are exactly. She owes him salary, potential blackmail material and maybe other stuff. She came too far to lose, she has her own side-mission and it’s just become uncomfortably personal between that pseudo-monarch corrupted by money and her.

 Ema switches perspectives for this duel. There isn’t time to screw around and try to predict what is going to happen next. She has to be careful about Tindangle Hound’s effect to lower her own Monsters’ ATK if they’re Link. A good thing Dragvirion isn’t affected, she thinks, because her methods are about to become stomp-down when her deck isn’t even made for that. She has to destroy that hellish dog before Queen can summon Tindangle Angel and rub salt into the wound on-top of enforcing these two’s lines of defense.

These feelings are very personal, and she won’t let them spill onto the floor for that very reason. She will win against that Queen without a shred of mercy, extract all the information from her even if she has to use her own non-log-out virus against her and then reunite with her fallen partner in crime. She won’t back down. She presses a button on her Duel Disk, hoping its stealthy sides will allow it to go unnoticed, and resumes her turn.

This ends now.

 Her plan somewhat works. Queen’s deck has never been made for the Tindangle archetype: her pride will be the loss of her, what an ironic turn of events she cannot not love witnessing. Bypassing a Trap card through Monster effects, using a Spell to break through another barrier, she manages to beat Tindangle Hound without meaning to. She quickly consoles herself by thinking Akira wouldn’t have wanted to see his Monster that way, in that deck, before finishing the duel off by destroying the light monarch on the field.

The palace starts to worsen as the holograms disappear and Ema walks to the fallen queen on the floor, her throne having been destroyed by Hexstia’s final strike. Her virus hasn’t worked, sadly, since all she gets from Queen is a glare and an instant logging-out. Oh well. There is, however, an ironically stereotypical character to how her prison seems to be the room whose door was hidden by the throne. Ema’s instincts never mistake her, but before she goes through the door, she must pick up the Tindangle Hound card which fell to the ground. There are Monsters who don’t deserve to be left behind in a graveyard, and this palace is already becoming one.

Strangely enough, she doesn’t find Acute Cerberus or Tindangle Angel near the Hound. This was, indeed, a twisted joke: separating the siblings figuratively was also rubbing salt into the wound.

 The prison part of the palace is as dark as one would expect it to be: the sharp change from overwhelming white to almost complete darkness with neon blue lines hurts her eyes, maybe in a last attempt to blind her and make her go back home, but Ghost Girl doesn’t back down. She never does. She’s so close to freeing her fallen partner in crime, if she was to walk back, she would hold a grudge against herself for the next eternity to come.

All the other “cages”, which look more like cocoons composed of geometrical pieces of metal, are empty. She would have at least expected there to be fallen bounty hunters or previous lovers with dirty on Queen to reveal to the world to be there, but there seems to only be one person and she exactly knows who because, as it stands, he is right in front of her, on the other side of the drawn-out corridor, stuck in a transparent cage. Humiliation really seems to be something Queen is into.

 As she arrives in front of it, she brushes her hand against the shell. There has to be a way to open it up, she thinks as she goes past it. It has to be remote-controlled just like everything else in Link VRAINS, probably by a program in Queen’s possession. Nothing she cannot hack: it seems to be less complex than Hanoi’s programming, so she proceeds to open a control panel on her own disk and checks the beast out.

The programming of this thing is far weaker than she could have expected: in minutes, she finds a fatal flaw in the code that allows her to break it from the inside by causing a fatal error, making it vanish in digital fairy powder and its prisoner fall to the ground with a noticeable lack of grace. If they weren’t in a virtual world, he’d have surely scratched his knees on the floor.

 Before she knows it Ema has knelt right next to him, deciding whether or not it’s time to truly be earnest and honest or if she should just be smug and mischievous as usual. Her heart, whom she always trusts, tells her not to be such a jackass. Her hands around his shoulders, he feels strangely fragile: he always been slender, perhaps because he has been used to eating little to survive before, but never has she had the feeling he was fragile, as though he was made of glass, before. Maybe it’s not about his frame, then, but if that’s the case, why does it feel that way?

He’s unconscious at first, when she picks him in her arms. She is at first tempted to get him out of that pseudo-palace, hack her avatar some strength to carry him like a bride (and then tease him about it), but she doesn’t have the time to do that: the building threatens to fall on them, breaking a breach at a time, and they need to get out of here fast. Wrapping his arm around her shoulder, an arm of hers around his torso right under the armpits and her other hand sustaining his arm in place where it should be. He’s a deadweight, but she’s not going to lose now.

 Walking Akira around on her shoulders when he isn’t able to walk is terribly slowing her down and she truly wishes she would have had the time to make herself stronger. On another hand, she can still wish for him to wake up and help himself up. If she isn’t wrong, his own avatar hasn’t been injured in any way: he’ll be fine when he’s going to log off too.

Remind her again why their relationship is “professional”?

The blinding white of the ceilings and walls is slowly fading into an ugly brown, mud covering the walls, moss climbing in every corner, rotting starting to infect the premise. They needed to make it out fast, before anything could break and block their way. Quick, Ghost Girl, run at the speed of sound and don’t look back!

 It’s breathless but immensely relieved for herself that Ema eventually makes it out of that place one room at a time, the one she just exited never failing to break right after she’s through with it. When the light of outside virtual sky finally appears in front of her eyes, through a door which isn’t technically far but feel too distant to her own tastes and pace, she secretly hopes very much to make it out alive at that point.

And she actually does: she wins against the clock, manages to get them both out of here with no scratch on their limbs and goes back on her D-Board, sitting on it still out of breath with a man on her lap, trying to recover from the sudden anxiety and pressure to find a safe spot. In theory, she would better off log out and try finding Akira in Den City instead, but she has no idea if he’s even able to log out. She hasn’t detected any external program that could make it so he couldn’t, but with an unconscious avatar, she can’t tell for sure.

 They eventually arrive in what she knows to be an empty, desert and hidden spot in New Link VRAINS. That’s only then than Akira chooses to wake up (hah, took him long enough), groggily sitting back up correctly even if his back was already sat against the wall courtesy of his saviour herself. He seems lost for a few minutes as she goes to sit next to him. She doesn’t feel like staying up and he looks too tired to do that. Maybe she can ask him a few questions while they’re here, alone together and sitting on the same level.

“Ema…? Where are we…?” He starts the interrogation station by looking around.

“In a discreet spot in Link VRAINS.”

“Ah, I… I think I see. I don’t remember much from before waking up, but I know I was in SOL’s headquarters and lost a duel against Queen. Wait,” he looks to her with astonishment all over his features but a slight smile nearing, “that means you’ve won against her, right?”

“You called it! I had to escape that crumbling place with your deadweight on my shoulders. You owe me a lot, Akira Zaizen!”

“Oh… I’m sorry for that, then. I’m not sure of what happened, but I’ll make sure to pay you back for this.”

“I trust you on that.”

 She then remembers something, and another cheeky smile appears on her lips as she gets it out of her Extra Deck space.

“Ah, right, I almost forgot about that,” she tells him as she gets it out of her disk.

His eyes land on the card in her hands.

“Tindangle Hound?” he wonders out loud as he picks it up again. “What was it doing in your deck?”

“Queen had stolen it from you after your defeat against her, I simply took it back when winning.” She never mentions how Queen also happened to have summoned it against her, maybe another day. “Thought I’d give it back to its rightful owner!”

“Why did she have it in her deck, though? That doesn’t make sense with the archetype and deck type she plays…”

“Well, huh… It really didn’t match her deck to begin with. That’s what caused her defeat against me in a duel where either could have won. I think it was to… intimidate me, or to remind everyone that you had lost against her. That’s pretty messed up if you ask me.”

“I owe you this too now… Thank you very much, Ema.”

 Usually, she’d have prided herself in her victory, teased him further, but they’re both tired of fighting for today. Maybe she can allow herself to be honest, just this once…

“I’m sure Aoi and the other two are fighting well as we’re speaking. You don’t have to worry for them.”

“You’re right.”

“By the way… would you happen to be free at some point in the following weeks? I know how you could repay me, and I need to tell you in person.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll make sure to have a free spot for this in my schedule.”

“You’re usually too busy to even tell me that, aren’t you?”

“Well, to be exact… With how damaging this will be to SOL, I don’t expect it to be for a few weeks. I can, however, promise you I’ll think it out, if this is any better.”

“I appreciate the consideration, Akira.”

 This doesn’t prevent her from muttering under her breath, “that’s why we never have dates…”; which in turn leads him to abruptly turn his head to her with zero subtlety and an awkward red flashing on his face.

“You said what I heard, right?”

“Yes…” Well, there goes her complete win over today.

“I… suppose we should consider that one day, if you think this is how I can repay you. You’ve done a lot for me these past months. I do, however, not really understand how this could be retribution…”

“…You owe me a date then.”

 She cannot tell if he’s either too embarrassed to tell her this is a stupid idea (and it, frankly, would be to her if she hadn’t realized that during her duel) or if he is too awkward to tell her he’s on board. All she’s basing herself from is the timid smile she sees creeping on his face and his suddenly very nervous gestures towards her. It’s as it he forgot he could look at her directly.

“Then so be it…” he eventually spits out, looking in the distance, both of them slipping into a silence which progressively becomes comfortable.

After all, as opposed to him, he has always been more of a thinker than a rusher (except when his sister is involved: in which case, he becomes a furious beast). He needs his time to think this through, to cool down, when she’s always on her feet. Oh wait, so be it. The Blue Oni he represents to her Red is a nice combination too.

 As such, she can consider this timid “and so be it” a win, right? This ends in a complete victory for the bounty huntress Ghost Girl, of course: it, however, goes far past this and duels. This is a personal win and nobody can take that back from her.

[thewealthysaver]

My First Post, A Little About Me and My Objective

New Post has been published on http://www.wealthysaver.com/my-first-post-a-little-about-me-and-my-objective/

My First Post, A Little About Me and My Objective

I’ve always wanted a blog with a decent following. It’s been on my to-do list for quite some time. I started a couple of them similar to this one and I end up writing a couple of posts then realize that life just takes over and it all falls off. I’ve created a large goal list that now totals over 165 goals I want to do in life and I find myself adding to it all the time. One of them was a financial plan for 2019 and as part of that plan includes blogging to hold myself accountable to help me accomplish my goals in 2019. Nothing better than having a group of likeminded people to help you achieve goals and hold you accountable – that’s where you come in!

A little about me

I’m a 30 year old young ‘yuppie’ living in Toronto and have a promising career in the business world. I work on average about 55-60 hours per week and my weekends are mostly spent reading and researching for investments or spending time outdoors in Northern Ontario. I take life as it comes, living each day with happiness and purpose. There isn’t much in the world that stresses me out and I have an abundance of hobbies that keep me busy.

I’ve always been interested in saving, investing and learning how to make money. As a young kid my dad taught me the in and outs of running your own business; even thought it was lawn cutting. He charged me rent on his lawn tractor and I had to buy my own gas and clean it every time I used it for ‘work’. He certainly got my head into the money management world at an early age and as I adult in life and as I get older I realize that this is a true interest of mine.  My career isn’t related to this at all. I have a sales job that keeps me busy so all of my knowledge in the field of saving and investing is self taught and on the side during evenings or weekends. Work is a pretty ‘always on’ type of job for me so I don’t get much time during the day to read or research.

I started investing in the market at the prime age of 25. I guess you could say I got started a little bit later and for a variety of reasons. I started out in downtown Toronto right out of university where I had about $10,000 of student debt. That was certainly my first priority on paying that off during my first two years after graduation and thanks to some family support with living arrangements I was able to have an affordable place to live during these first couple of years. Then once moving out on my own, the bills came fast and furious and found myself making $48,000 per year and living in one of the most expensive cities in Canada.

As my career grew, so did my salary and I’m thankful for that as it has provided me the ability to start investing and saving over and above my company pension plan. This is when my passion for investing and saving really came into play and I started reading many books, articles and getting a broader sense on how everything works. I’m still learning every day and I think that’s the best thing we can continue to do. I just purchased my first condo in 2018 which just further increased my passion for personal success and growth. I was able to make a significant down payment which took a lot of my savings out of investments and into real estate, so for some accounts I’m starting from scratch, with a renewed focus. I was able to keep my monthly payments in line to what I was paying for rent, so I am still able to save over 25% of my net income for investments.

My objective

This is going to be my final attempt at actually writing a blog. Like I mentioned before, I’ve tried it before and just haven’t been able to hang in there. I think that now that I’m using this as a method to hold myself accountable to delivering against my goals, while also cataloging my journey with you in the coming year that hopefully you will also be able to learn and grow as a young millennial and prosper with your savings and investments.

I’m confident that this will be a great learning ground for young investors like yourself. I remember when I first started out, and even up until this day there are many blogs that I follow that I enjoy reading that provide me a perspective of real life, rather than these bloggers that do it for the money and have advertised links littered throughout their posts, skewing the honesty and realism of the truth. I like the idea of the real deal of living vicariously through bloggers or picking up a tip or trick here and there that i can utilize in my savings or investment strategies. I really hope that I can also do that for you.

On top of the investment and savings posts, I look forward to sharing with you some of my adventures throughout the year. I think it’s important to live life and be present in the NOW but always having the long term outlook on life to ensure we can keep doing the things we love.

-Matt

[erkamrieblogs-blog]

INVEST: BLOG#1 - WHY I INVEST IN THE STOCK MARKET AND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO!

“Wow! You Invest in the Stock Market? How did you learn about it? When did you start?” -- these were questions from the people I know when I published my blog. It’s overwhelming how some people would take notice of everything you do and things you’re involved in and I was glad that some were actually interested and had ideas about the Stock Market! This blog entry would mostly be about the ADVANTAGES you’ll get inspiration for you to open your own account!

WHAT IS THE STOCK MARKET? The Stock Market is a place where we, ordinary people gets the opportunity to be a SHAREHOLDER of other large companies. “Wow, so do you mean I’d get to own Jollibee if I invest??” Well, you won’t own Jollibee, instead you could get shares from them, which is cool, right! Everytime you go to Jollibee, then you order, ask for a discount saying that you’re a shareholder of Jollibee so you should get some credits haha, kidding. You can’t say that, you have to pay BUT the money you pay there could be twice the money you’ll get from INVESTING in Jollibee, not just from you, but from other costumers and investors in the company too! What Jollibee gets, is shared with you. This is the beauty of the Stock Market, you’ll know where your money is going and the benefits you’ll be getting in the long run. 

Read further to be enlightened ✨

WHY INVEST? How much money do you get from your salary? How much money do you get from your allowance? I’m not saying that you have to invest ALL your money in the stock market, I was just asking to know If you would be willing to invest 10%-20% of that income/money of yours to the stock market and live on 70% of it? “WHAT?! 10%-20%?! I have bills to pay, children to feed, clothes to buy, food to eat and many more expenses! Now, You expect me to invest 10%-20% of my money on some investing?” (okay, so maybe I over exaggerated the reaction) This could be what some people would say if asked a question like that. Because why not? I’m telling you, sacrificing that percentage of money for investing is a foundation in building your wealth. If you continue to invest every month, you’ll see where your 20% went, it could cover MORE than your bills and expenses when time comes, you just have to be patient and be consistent. 

I started investing at 17, but my parents opened an account for me when I was 16. Like you, I wasn’t that interested in investing either, I wouldn’t get anything back from it when you need it anyway, your money is just kept in the stock broker, as you watch the price of the stock price go up and down. What changed my perspective? When I realized that, I couldn’t buy everything I needed and wanted with my own money now, how much more in the future? I couldn’t depend on my parents until my retirement! So, with the help of my parents, I am consistently investing and checking on my stocks every month, they would give me money for me to invest then I also get at least 10% from my allowance for me to save in a month then invest, buy stocks. (for example, I have an allowance of 1,000 per week in a month, I save at least 10%-20% which is 100-200 pesos, I do it every week which gives me 800 pesos savings a month) It has molded me to becoming practical and thinking of what is coming my way in the future, I’d never know, my dad might lose his job, where will we get money? our business will flunk, where will we get money? I’ll have my own family and my salary wouldn’t cover everything we need, where will I get money? and most importantly, my goal is to retire as young as 40 (because life starts at 40 haha), where I’d quit my job, continue with all the businesses I’ve built yet I still get to pay all my bills, buy my needs and wants. If I get to achieve all these, with God’s guidance, I’d get to help so many people in so many ways -- living the life I deemed to have. 

What I have now, the clothes, education, gadgets and all the things and food I can buy wouldn’t remain as it is forever, that’s why as young as I am, with my parents’ support, I will take action for my future and be an example to the youth like me to do the same and build a foundation in life.

A little reminder: Whatever your age is, is shouldn’t stop you from creating and chasing your dreams. As long as you start, go for it, be consistent and work hard.

I have an account in COL FINANCIAL as I invest in the Stock Market. This is the country’s top leading online stockbroker. They have wise, convenient, and secure investment practices. Be inspired to start investing wisely today!

Also, I am a member of The Truly Rich Club where I pay monthly and am privileged to get Bo Sanchez’ Power Talks, Wealth Strategies and StockUpdates which helps me in buying my stocks monthly! YOU HAVE TO BE A PART OF THIS because it will be your BEGINNER’S GUIDE in INVESTING and taking your financial experience to a whole new level! But wait, there’s more! TRC not only offers financial guide, but also spiritual enlightenment and inspiration, GOD WHISPERS, where you’d get to receive a daily dose of God’s word and get to share it with people! Is it worth it? YES, DEFINITELY. 

**********************click this link to join now!!!*******************************

http://becerrelerikamarie.trulyrichclub.com

************************click this link to join now!!!********************************

I will be explaining more and in depth specific topics with you about the Stock Market, I took this blog easy for you to understand and be an inspiration. I hope it helped give a spark in your heart to building your own dream.

Thank you for reading this far! may you be blessed and be a blessing to others! I will be back for more blogs full of inspiration and aspiration before expiration!

all the love,

erika marie 🌸

[iamcurtisray]

Pay yourself first: How you can overcome the challenge of saving

One of the oldest rules of personal finance is the simple admonition to pay yourself first. All the money books tell you to do it. All the personal finance blogs say it, too. Even your parents have given you the same advice.

But it’s hard. That money could be used someplace else. You could pay the phone bill, could pay down debt, could buy a new DVD player. You’ve tried once or twice in the past, but it’s so easy to forget. You don’t keep a budget, so when payday rolls around, the money just finds its way elsewhere.

And besides: What does “pay yourself first” even mean?

To pay yourself first means simply this: Before you pay your bills, before you buy groceries, before you do anything else, set aside a portion of your income to save. Put the money into your 401(k), your Roth IRA, or your savings account. The first bill you pay each month should be to yourself. This habit, developed early, can help you build tremendous wealth.

Website: www.SunCorFinancial.com

Link to Article: https://suncorfinancial.com/pay-yourself-first-how-you-can-overcome-the-challenge-of-saving/

Why Pay Yourself First?

If you’re just getting started in the Real World, saving may seem impossible. You have rent, a car payment, groceries, and maybe student loans. Sure, you’d like to save, but there’s just no money left at the end of the month. And that’s the problem: Most people save what’s left over — left over after bills and after discretionary spending.

But if you don’t develop the saving habit now, there are always going to be reasons to delay: you need dental work, you want to go to Mexico with your friends, you aren’t making enough to pay your bills. Here are three reasons to start saving now instead of waiting until next year (or the year after):

You’re Prioritizing Saving

When you pay yourself first, you’re mentally establishing saving as a priority. You’re telling yourself that you are more important than the electric company or the landlord. Building savings is a powerful motivator — it’s empowering.

You’re Developing Good Financial Habits

Paying yourself first encourages sound financial habits. Most people spend their money in the following order: bills, fun, saving. Unsurprisingly, there’s usually little left over to put in the bank. But if you bump saving to the front — saving, bills, fun — you’re able to set the money aside before you rationalize reasons to spend it.

You’re Prepared for Money Emergencies

By paying yourself first, you’re building a cash buffer with real-world applications. Regular steady contributions are an excellent way to build a nest egg. You can use the money to deal with emergencies. You can use it to purchase a house. You can use it to save for retirement. Paying yourself first gives you freedom — it opens a world of opportunity.

I’ve never met anyone who does not wish they had started saving earlier. Nobody tells themselves, “Saving was a mistake.” No matter what your age, begin saving now. And if you already save, consider boosting how much you set aside each month.

How to Pay Yourself First

The best way to develop a saving a habit is to make the process as painless as possible. Make it automatic. Make it invisible. If you arrange to have the money taken from your paycheck before you receive it, you’ll never know it’s missing.

Part of your savings plan will probably include retirement, but you should also save for intermediate goals too, such as buying a house, paying for a honeymoon, or purchasing a new car. Here are three easy ways to begin doing this yourself:

If your employer offers a retirement plan — such as a 401(k) — enroll as soon as possible, especially if the company matches your contributions. Matched contributions are like free money.

Starting a Roth IRA is one of the smartest moves a young adult can make. These accounts allow your investments to grow tax-free. Because of the extraordinary power of compound interest(and compound returns), regular investments in a Roth IRA from an early age can lead to enormous future wealth.

Open a high interest savings account at a bank like Capital One 360 or FNBO Direct. Set up automatic transfers into this account, either directly from your paycheck or from your regular bank account. Treat these transfers like you’d treat any other financial obligation. This should be your first and most important bill every month.

Putting “Pay Yourself First” into Practice

For many people, saving is tough. Between housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, credit-card debt, student loans, and other expenses, there never seems to be enough left to set aside for long-term savings. And that’s the problem. Most people try to save something out of what’s left over instead of saving first.

But what’s the best way to do it? What’s the most effective way to pay yourself first?

While I was writing Your Money: The Missing Manual, I benefited greatly from the advice of Dylan Ross, a Certified Financial Planner (from Swan Financial Planning) and a long-time GRS reader. One thing Dylan stressed over and over was that I was looking at savings wrong. I kept writing that you should take whatever money you have leftover in checking at the end of the month and move it to your savings account.

“There’s a better way,” he told me. “People often have more success if they put money into savings first, and then transfer what they need to checking.”

It took me a while to understand what he was trying to say; it seemed like he was splitting hairs. Now, however, I realize that Dylan was espousing the true spirit of “pay yourself first”.

Savings First

This probably seems a little vague to many of you. How would you actually go about following Dylan’s advice? Here’s a simple three-step process to make savings a priority instead of an afterthought:

Open a high-interest savings account. Although “high-interest” is something of a misnomer lately, eventually it’ll make a difference. I use ING Direct for my savings, but there are many other great options. (If you’re curious, you can read more than 1700 GRS reader reviews of high-yield savings accounts here.) I’m a fan of keeping my savings account at a different bank than my checking account — it just makes it that much harder for me to tap my savings on a whim.

Deposit your paycheck to your savings account. If possible, have your paycheck automatically deposited. (The more you can automate this process, the easier it will be to save.) This is the key to Dylan’s plan. By putting the money into savings instead of checking, you don’t have “extra” cash sitting in your bank account at the end of the month that can be mindlessly spent on other things. Plus, the money’s already in your savings account, so you don’t have to remember to move it.

Set up regular transfers from savings to checking. Based on whatever system you have — a detailed budget, a rough guess based on last year’s spending, whatever — schedule monthly (or weekly) transfers into your checking account to take care of routine expenses. The money left in savings stays in savings.

The difference between the checking-first and savings-first systems may seem trivial, but Dylan swears it works. As he reviewed the manuscript to my book, he flagged every every instance where I encouraged readers to save by moving money from checking to savings. “You have it backwards, J.D.!” he said.

Another Variation

I have my own method of paying myself first, and it’s similar to Dylan’s advice, but on a bigger scale. I don’t pay myself first with each paycheck; instead, I try to front-load my saving every year.

That is, for the first few months, I save as much as I can. I set money aside for retirement, taxes, and other goals. I’m more frugal during the first half of the year, and there isn’t much left over for indulgences.

Once I’ve set aside all the money I think I’ll need, I’m able to loosen up and spend more on the things I want. I still save more throughout the year, but after I’ve met my initial goals, all other savings are a “bonus”.

How to Overcome the Challenge of Saving

The real barrier to developing this habit is finding the money to save. Many people believe it’s impossible. But almost everyone can save at least 1% of their income. That’s only one penny out of every dollar. Some will argue that saving this little is meaningless. But if a skeptic will try to save just 1% of his income, he’ll usually discover the process is painless. Maybe next he’ll try to save 3%. Or 5%. As his saving rate increases, so his nest egg will grow.

If you’re struggling to find money to save, consider setting aside your next raise for the future. As your income increases, set your gains aside for retirement and savings. Once you’re contributing the maximums to your retirement (and you’ve built emergency savings), you can begin to use your raises for yourself again. Sure, this means your effective salary will stagnate for a year or three or five. But it also means you’ll force yourself to develop the saving habit.Example: My wife is a perfect case study. She started by having 8% of her pre-tax income set aside in her employer’s retirement plan. As her salary increased, she increased the amount she saved, routing it to various retirement accounts. Because she never saw the money in her paycheck, she never missed it. Now she saves 30% of her income, and she receives a 6% employer match! How did she do this? By paying herself first. (I should note that Kris just came to me the other night for advice on how to save even more. My wife is awesome.)

5 Ways to Pay Yourself First

If you are just starting to manage your money or you simply struggle when it comes to budgeting in the first place, paying yourself first may seem like one of those personal finance concepts that sounds good in theory but is difficult to put into practice in reality.

Fortunately, you can start small, get some good habits in place, and scale up from there. Here are five strategies to help get the ball rolling so you can start paying yourself first.

Strategy 1: Reduce Your Spending and Bank the Difference

The first step in implementing this strategy is similar to how you start to budget:

1. Figure out where your money is actually going. Using an app like Mint may help you identify and categorize your major expenses. (Full disclosure: Mint is at its best if you use a debit or credit card for all your transactions. Cash spending is a little trickier, though not impossible, to track.)

2. Figure out what to cut or reduce. Maybe you downgrade your cable package to a plan that doesn’t have the premium sports channels, switch to a no-contract cell phone plan, and increase the deductible on your auto insurance to lower your premium.

Now comes the trick:

3. Bank the difference. Add up your monthly savings from the changes and set up an automatic transfer to your online savings account for that amount. After all, what is the point of saving money if you don’t actually save it?

This can be addictive! If you channel your savings into one sub-account, then as you see it grow each month, you may be inspired to make even more cuts so you can increase the amount of your transfer and watch the savings grow.

Strategy 2: Start Small

But maybe that first strategy sounds intimidating though you aren’t sure you can actually save that much each month (especially if you’re currently spending more than you earn). If you really are starting from nothing, part of the problem may just be a matter of perspective. It’s unreasonable to think that you’ll go from zero to thousands of dollars in savings overnight.

Instead, try starting with $20 per month. Surely you have that much to spare, right? Set up an automatic transfer for that amount and see how it feels. This is actually how I started to save money, although it was for a different reason.

Back in the day when I opened my first savings account, an automatic transfer of at least $25 per month was required for the account fees to be waived. That’s no longer the case, but the transfer was already set up, so I never changed it. See? Laziness working in my favor!

Here’s the trick with this strategy:

Once you’ve been successful doing this for a month or so, bump that amount up. Can you save $40? $50? More? You’ll realize when you’ve hit your limit. And while the amount you are saving may not seem like much in the beginning, starting easy with something you can accomplish is kind of the point. Plus, the balance will grow quicker than you think!

Strategy 3: Bank Your Side-Gig Income

So you’ve got a side gig or second job. You’re in good company! Anyone can start a side business these days. But where does the money from your supplemental income go? If the answer is to your regular checking account and you’re still not saving any money, you may be able to put those funds to better use by funneling them directly to a savings account.

If it’s a second job, then go ahead and set up direct deposit to go straight to a high-yield online savings account. Out of sight, out of mind — until you log in and admire your new-found savings! If your side gig is your own business, then hopefully you’ve got a business checking and savings account set up so you’re not mixing those funds with your personal money.

Keeping personal and business funds separate can make tax time easier and help you determine whether your side gig is successful. It also makes it clear how often you are paying yourself and how much you’re earning. Better yet? When you cut yourself a paycheck from your business, deposit it into your savings account rather than your checking account. Bank it, baby!

Strategy 4: If You’re Coupled Up, Live Off One Income

This one’s simple too. If you’re a member of a dual-income couple, then try to live off only one of your incomes. In this scenario, one of you has their paychecks direct-deposited into checking, while the other (preferably the higher earner, but do what works for you) has their paychecks deposited into savings.

A true one-and-done, this strategy probably enables saving the most money, and doing so very quickly. But here’s a couple caveats to remember: Obviously, both parties should have access to both accounts, and you should both be on the same page when it comes to saving and spending goals. Communication is key here.

However, assuming that is the case, the sky’s the limit. This strategy is especially effective for those who are planning to go down to one income at some point anyway — for example, those who want one spouse to stay home with a future family. Even if you don’t have plans to become single-income in the works, an accident or illness may make the decision for you, so it’s best to be prepared.

Strategy 5: Participate in Your Employer’s Retirement Plan

OK, this one is kind of a gimme, but it bears repeating. If your employer offers a 401(k) or similar retirement plan, you should be contributing! Saving for retirement is the ultimate form of paying yourself first.

The benefits are numerous. You may reduce your taxes in the here and now. You allow compound interest to work its magic on your behalf. If your employer offers a match, you literally get free money! I’m not seeing any downsides here.

Plus, participating in a retirement plan through your employer is another one-and-done method of saving. Rather than having to remember to do something every single month, you fill out the forms, turn them into HR, and — boom! — you’re providing for your future self. What could be simpler?

No matter what your age, you should make it a priority to develop a regular saving plan. Establishing this habit early can lead to increased financial security later in life. But even those of us who got a late start should do our best to pay ourselves first. I didn’t begin doing this until just a few years ago. Better late than never.

Pay yourself first, my friends. It’s a habit that you will never regret.

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Original Source: Get Rich Slowly

Written by J.D. Roth — published 19 October 2009 (updated 28 May 2019)

[sadeq888-blog]

Is Affiliate Marketing Hard !!!??? My Story!!!

Well when i hear some one asks that question i instantly remembers how i started my journey back in 2014, and how hard was it for me to start an affiliate business, and trying to spam my affiliate links all over the place. i was looking for a quick way to make money in affiliate marketing industry.

So at late of 2013:

i was searching for opportunities to make money online so i can support myself and save more money, beside my day job wich was normal job at a Traveling agency with normal salary that was slightly more then enough for me. when i started looking for methods to make money, especially on youtube, i used to type something like: how to make 50$ per day, earn 30$ per hour etc. and i often get overwhelmed by this kind of videos wich requires you learn something before you can join, and start making money or testing apps websitesand paid surveys that provides you with 2 or 3 jobs per week, after a couple of weeks realized that working with them is unworthy for long-term business and easily will get me frustrated. Affiliate marketing decision so i went again to look for some legit opportunities,i went back to youtube google i read about affiliate marketing, dropshipping, blogging, Selling products on amazon etc, dropshipping was a good idea but to start i had to invest some money for my online shop and advertising so i can get my capital back as soon as possible without depending on google traffic that could take forever to generate results, beside that i could not afford the ads that time, ads is the first step to generate results faster. so after i did a proper research for the opportunities i decided to go with Affiliate Marketing Business because it was affordable for me and it has big future ahead of me if i did it the right way. and my story with affiliate makrketing starts here when i had chosen the affiliate marketing business, there were some reasons behind that 1st is the low cost wich the most important reason that time, also i thought that i can make some extra bucks in the next couple of weeks witch turned to be wrong, affiliate marketing will consume a ton of time and efforts to seeit generates results. amazon affiliate marketing program so i signed with amazon associates and got my link i installed my wordpress review site, i ripped some of the review i found online and pasted it in my site XD, and i started a page on facebook trying to attract traffic from facebook only, i kept doing this for a couple o months until i realized that this won't work, why it won't work ? Simply,building a review site for physical products won't work with traffic from social media and my niche was electronic products wich a really broad niche, and its nearly impossible to success with broad niche if you are just starting online. review sites must seek traffic mostly from google, no one will search social media for some product review, SEO is the number one you need to learn before starting a review site, and the second thing wrong i did is working with a broad niche like electronics, and the most important thing that i did wrong is copying other's reviews. even if i know SEO that time i just won't work with duplicated content because google hate that and will not rank your page, you need to get you own content. i posted 56 reviews about electronics in this project, like TVs, Phones Laptops etc, and i spent more then 2 months working but this project was already doomed. ReThinking so with this experience i learned that i need something that i can promote using social media and i will not need to SEO yet. so i searched about other affiliates program that i can use to promote using social media, and i found the holy program of Clickbank, clickbank it gave me a lot of options to promote using social media, there is a lot of niches in clickbank you can choose from . so i searched for methods to promote clickbank products, and i found out that i don't need a website to do it, at least while i am staring up. so i signed with clickbank and i started promoting with facebook groups, the thing with facebook that you can find a ton of groups for each topic or product, so i joined these groups and it was a success for me i made my first sales with facebook, but it wasn't what i hoped to make online. i mean facebook will generate sales, i am still using facebook untill today, so i thought about scaling up my affiliate business. i did a research, and i found that the best way for me is setting up a brand new website, but before setting up the website i had to research the market and analyze keyword for my website, basically i planed to target google traffic beside social media. so i learned SEO i watched a lot of videos explaining SEO and how it works, but nothing will teach you SEO like Trying To do SEO. so i researched the market so i can chose the niche and made some SEO research i Learned Keyword research, all from youtube videos, Youtube is one of the best places to learn SEO for free. don't waste your time on any soft wares, you must learn SEO basics So you will to know how to use them. Dating Niche Site success so my niche was dating niche, dating niche is the most profitable niches out there. i made a list of keyword to build content around them, i hosted my website i installed wordpress and i bought a domain name, so every thing is ready except the content, content is the spine for any website, but i did't want to write myself i wanted to make the content perfect for SEO so i hired an expert writer to do it for me i bought 20 pieces, of course i provided the keywords list for him and he wrote about this list. i Posted the article to my website and waited for google to reank my website, but google didn't rank them, simply because i am not an expert on SEO i had to practice it, and if you tried to write a SEO friendly Post you won't know if you did it correctly you have wait at least 3 months before determining is it correct SEO you did or not, the time actually depends in the Competition of your keyword.

2015 the year of my affiliate marketing business success But!!!

in the middle of 2015 i was generating sales but still not enough because all of my sales comes from social media platforms, and i barely get sales from search engine traffic. why is that ??? the answer is that i have found some mistakes with my SEO and Keyword research that i didn't do correctly, some of them has high competition, so i made a new list of keyword to my articles, honestly i did it again and again until ii knew the right measurements for keywords especially for starter like me. after one year Practicing SEO and attracting social media traffic to my website, finally i got a decent success, i had a good amount of traffic from search engines mostly from google, (google alone can be more then enough) i learned how to target the buyer keyword wich converts like crazy. scaling up the business 2016 2016 was the time for scaling up my business, so i added more posts to my website i made sure every thing is right. scaling up is the easiest part of affiliate marketing to be honest, finishing the learning curve is the hardest thing to do, not in affiliate marketing only, but in every business online or offline. so i started couple of new website in other niches (fitness and mental health) when i worked on these two website i learned a very important skill wich is multitasking. multitasking is a very important skill an any business online, it's also important in your life, i monetized my websites using digital products, and google adsense. in my opinion promoting digital products is much easier then physical products. with digital products you can monetize the traffic from social media, you don't need google traffic as a beginner Here my latest results with clickbank:

the results your'e seeing are from my first 3 websites combined, it took almost 6 years to generate such commissions the first 4 years i was only working on my first website practicing and learning. the second two websites took me 2 years to make them really work, now the fitness website is generating me almost 50-55% of the commissions because of the fitness niche wich is so profitable from my two other niches. i understand that you may think that affiliate marketing is so hard to do especially if you don't have some one to teach step by step, and i agree with you, you may waste a lot of time trying to promote your links by methods someone said on youtube, so later they appeared to be wrong or not worthy, but remember at the end you will find success, as long as you keep trying. 4 AFFILIATE MARKETING RESULTS AFTER 1 YEAR and if you can afford some investments i suggest you check WEALTHY AFFILIATE Platform wich is the best University for affiliate marketing online. in this university you will learn affiliate marketing from professional affiliates, they will teach you every thing from choosing you niche, keyword research, generating traffic, etc. they will provide with a live help 24/7. basically they will make your learning curve much easier and shorter. READ REVIEW Get Your Free Starter Account Now

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[howtocalculatecpi]

What is Inflation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), And What Does it Mean to My Portfolio-Investments?

First I want to define these topics and in the end give you my personal opinion on what will happen (and why) in the near term:

Inflation: The rise of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. In other words, think of any merchandise you purchase (iPod, books, camera, movie tickets) and places or people you pay such as a mechanic, an attorney, an accountant, and/or a Doctor. In time the prices always go up. Now when this happens, the currency (US Dollar, Euro, Peso, etc.) buys fewer of these goods which in short LOWERS your purchasing power (The ability to buy...anything). This is a loss of real value, which happens over time. To make this even simpler, for those that have been around in the 80's and earlier, what can a dollar USED to buy you? There was a time when the.99 cents store sold things that were actually.99cents. Now it is not the case.

This is part of the economic cycle. Yes, we have to go through a cycle in order for economics to perform correctly (in order not to side track, we will remain on this topic). Inflation is not positive or negative for the economy, it's both. Negative that your purchasing power goes down, which in turn makes people more reluctant to purchase goods, investments, and savings. In turn, it is positive in which the economy can recover from a recession and debt relief by reducing the level of debt. There is also Hyperinflation but I will speak of this later in the blog.

Now, after reading this, you should be thinking of the recent events and reports (if you know them) regarding how the national debt has been recently reduced and savings have gone up (more people are paying off debt and saving money). This is signs of beginning inflation. But what else are signs of inflation? Consumer Price Index that's what!

Consumer Price Index (CPI): Also known as the "True Cost of Living Index". This is simply a measurement of the average consumer (buyer) goods and services by household. Usually the goods are based on urban products that most households will need/want. Without getting too technical, it is also measured in weight (as in kilograms, LBS, etc). So weight+price=CPI. Now some countries report the CPI annually while some quarterly. As I mentioned before, the other name pretty much speaks for itself (True Cost of Living Index), in which CPI measures the rise and fall of cost of living. Why? CPI not only helps measure inflation but also wages, salaries, and pensions. In a nutshell, this index lets you know how much INCREASE you need to have PER YEAR in order to maintain the lifestyle you are currently living. For example: If CPI rose 2.4% for 2009, if you do not have an annual increase of that amount, you will (in a couple of years) not be able to maintain your current lifestyle because that dollar/peso/euro will not be able to buy you that same product that you normally purchase (because that price WILL go up eventually and yet you make the same leaving you with less money). *To see the numbers for yourself, I have included a link (located at the bottom of this article) from the Department of Labor that has a simple calculator.*

So this is a very important index! But how important is it to YOUR portfolio? If you only measure your investments and portfolio on the current stock market such as the Dow Jones, S&P, and/or Nasdaq, you are doing it wrong. As we have seen from the recent crash last year (Fall of 2008) the market drop to levels that set your portfolio back nearly, if not, 10 years (or more, depending on how NOT diversified you were) however CPI was at ZERO of 2008. So if you made 1% return AFTER TAXES then you did EXCELLENT for 2008. Please note that I said "after taxes" because a CD @ 2% for +12 months after taxes long term will not beat CPI, I will explain this on another blog in the near future. If you interview an adviser who wants to manage your money and says he measures your portfolio based on the markets and fails to mention CPI and YOUR expectations, run away!

What may happen in the near term (prediction for the USA): With talks of health reform, what we have already spent on companies not to fail, the stimulus packages, tax cuts that happened during the years of Bush, unemployment extensions, and everything else in between (such as the cash for clunkers), we have no choice but to make cuts and raise/add taxes. For example, congress may pass a law to tax EACH trader's transaction. Now I won't comment on this however you understand the idea. Tax increases will occur (but stated "in the future" which means it WILL happen). In addition, the City of New York's Governor Paterson is planning on raising taxes on film/television/theaters performed here in the great city of New York. At the same time, he has cut education and health care funding. I mention NYC because NYC is supposed to be one of the major benchmark cities in the United States, so if they are doing it, most likely your city might do the same! (with the exception of a few smaller cities)

This leads to what I believe will be a "Hyperinflation". This is, as the words "hyper" means, an out of control inflation which everything I have mentioned above but with extreme higher numbers of price increases and massive drop on currency value. In addition, history of "hyperinflation" is usually caused by the following: Aftermath of wars (We are withdrawing from Iraq by end of 2011), economic depressions (The major recession we are currently in that I feel will end by the end of 2009 or early 2010 THE LATEST), and political/social upheavals (Healthcare reform? Changes in Wall Street?).

The ONLY way to avoid this hyperinflation is if Bernanke (Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve), Geithner (US Secretary of the Treasury), and the President do not take pressure from the outside community and SLOWLY raise rates and taxes because face it, with the rates and taxes at these levels, we enjoyed are tax cuts and lowered credit card rates but it was bound to come to an end.

What to do with your money during inflation? Invest in HARD consumer products. What do I mean by "hard"? Products and goods that you can actually touch, that the price will rise such as precious metals (my favorite). Gold does exceptionally well when the dollar decreases. Now you know that inflation, value of the currency goes down, so precious metals like Gold will rise. Not to mention the prices on products that use gold, silver, bronze, etc. will rise due to inflation. So that's where I would put my money. Other places would be in is Blue-Chip stocks that pay a dividend (stock price may go up or stay the same but you receive an income from that dividend). Equities may very well outperform during the upcoming inflation (saving rates will stay the same but most likely drop due to many non-educated investors just putting everything in CD's and savings). But there is something for you non-equity traders/investors: TIPS (Treasury Inflation Protection Securities) which pays you a decent yield but also the price of the bond adjusts with inflation making sure you do not go under that CPI keeping you at par. Not to forget, it is backed by the full faith and credit (and taxing power) of the United States. Plus TIPS are exempt from Federal taxes (growth & income) but subject to state and local. Not a bad deal!

So instead of worrying about inflation, just prepare for it (what we in the industry call a "Hedging"). Best case scenario is we just have a regular inflation and I was overestimating...but isn't it better to be safe than sorry?

[intoanotherether]

Autobiographical Accounts of the Misplacement of Coherent Reality

The color of the sun is green. It glitches out into pixels every few minutes due to the slow processing capabilities of the sky’s hardware. A Ford Escape drives beside me on the highway with two men in the front. The one in the passenger side wears a black shirt, no. A red shirt, no. A purple shirt. No, it’s a white shirt. Actually, let me start over. It’s not a shirt; it’s a suit. I watch him pull a piece of paper and a feather quill out. He dips the tip of the quill into a bottle of motor oil and begins to write, taking a sip from the bottle every few seconds. He packs it all away into a briefcase and leans forward, staring straight at me through the driver’s side window. In a matter of seconds, he vanishes into nothing. The man who is driving begins to apply makeup in the rearview mirror. I notice the back left wheel is missing. I continue to drive myself to the Olympics. Oh, Wait. The Olympics aren’t this year. Thinking hard about a new destination, I crash my car in a head on collision with a hearse. I black out, but wake up unscathed minutes later inside of my totaled car. In front of me, the hearse is running and appears not to have taken any damage from the accident I caused. A salary man in a suit carrying a briefcase climbs out of the backseat window of the hearse and onto the roof, where he begins to raise a family of four. I watch his eldest son graduate high school with honors, and the younger son end world hunger. His wife has no eyes, mouth, or nose. Her face is a smooth surface. I watch the salary man tie a noose around his neck and hang himself from a cloud. My car door has been impacted, and now has taken on the shape of a gate. I unhinge the gate and roll out into the rubble where I find his suicide note. It reads “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for who you are.”

Something is off, and I feel different. But I cannot seem to place exactly what it is.  I blame the uneasiness on my lack of sleep due to a recent fear that was sparked by a terrifying documentary about aphids that I had watched last weekend. As a gardener, I was absolutely mortified. I donated some life savings to a charity foundation that seeks to promote the pesticide industry. The sun felt so much brighter after my donation. I’m still smiling.

I realize that I still need a new destination. I want to make friends, so I decide to walk to the police station. I greet the officer at the front gate, and start small talk about criminals. They’re all so pathetic, I say. Complete morons. Contribute nothing to society. Free loaders. I’ve only ever sworn once, I say. It was just a bad situation, I contest. It was on the day I lost my mind, but thank goodness that I found it under my right pointer’s fingernail. I must have left it there when I went grocery shopping last. I’m against using plastic bags, so I usually carry my groceries home under my fingernails. It’s so environmentally efficient.

After my confession, I am then immediately taken into custody. “That’s an act of sin,” the officer says. I am arrested for swearing. Inside the jail cell, I light a cigarette and put my phone on the charger. The cigarette is broken and a bright light is pouring out of the end as it burns. I don’t really smoke; I just enjoy the smell of what a fabulous Los Vegas nightlife might be like. In my heart, it’s what I really want. Sometimes when I’m alone, my mind wanders around the idea of flirting with suspicious men who are scared of commitment as I win big money on the penny slots on the strip, wearing sunglasses inside. This is my second biggest lustful thought, and I tend to repress it. My repressed thoughts usually manifest into anger. I become so angry that I yell at my garden. I’ll yell things like “squash, why is it that you never call me back!?” I just need something to yell about, even though I don’t really care too much. Squash is just very hard to stay in touch with sometimes. I always apologize after, and squash is so forgiving.

My cigarette goes out and I rip the filter in half to find Los Vegas. I shove the city into my pocket and make a mental note to dispose of it later. There is no trashcan in the jailcell, and I do not litter, never have. I throw away my dreams, just like any other respectable person would. Dreaming too much and suicide are very closely linked, and some even consider the idea that they may be completely the same thing. Everyone dreams though, as sad as that is. Sleep was invented so people could dream without it interfering with reality, and admittedly sometimes, I want to go to sleep early. Some want to sleep forever.

I am charged with two felonies at my hearing. What is the second one for? I ask. They say that I cut my bangs horribly, and will be forced to wear a plastic bag over my head. I insist for paper. I tell them to think about the environment. Global warming is a threat, endangering the lives of the glaciers enough already. Pedestrian litter like plastic bags could cause them to choke, and thus will affect the harvest of their meat for the ice industry. They agree. I use a 50% off coupon for my bail charge and I am sent home with a paper bag on my head. They say I must wear it for a total of twenty hours within the week. On the back of the bag printed in bold time new roman reads “We’re so sorry. We’re so sorry for who you are.”

There are no holes cut out on the bag for my eyes to see. As I put it on, I find a screen inside with a video on a constant loop. The loop playing is of a girl in my image wearing a white slip walking between the corners of a room with no windows or door in a 6x6 enclosure. I take the bag off so that I am able to watch a documentary about fiber optics installation. I put the bag back on and the loop has changed. The girl in my image is now laying down on the floor of the room, staring blank up at the ceiling. I find my physical body forced to the floor, unable sit back up. I say that I must water the garden. I manage to lift my arm so I can take the bag off. The zucchini is dying. I tend to the zucchini, nursing her with milk and sugar. I put the bag back on. The loop has changed again: the girl is now strapped down in a chair, and is having a knife pushed into her leg by an invisible force. I feel a sharp pain on the leg of my physical body, and I am deeply wounded. The wound heals at the beginning of each loop. As it plays over and over again, my body is in sync with every repeated puncture. I can’t take the pain, and shake my head until the bag falls off.  The bag hasn’t been on my head for even an hour.

I put the bag back on. The girl in my image is sitting in the 6x6 room dressed like an angel. She’s strapped tightly down into the chair from the previous loop. Her halo was only very recently spray painted gold; it’s still wet and dripping. There is a man behind her with a chainsaw. He is wearing a suit and has name tag on that reads “Hello, my name is Adam.” He runs the machine down on her shoulder, severing her arm. I panic, and shake my head so the bag falls off. My arm is on the other side of the room, and the man with the chainsaw is behind me. He switches the machine to “off” and pulls a briefcase out from the inside of his blazer. He opens it and retrieves a letter and reads what is written on it to me. I can’t understand what he is saying because his voice is censored. His mouth is moving but instead of speaking, different tones replace the fluctuation in his voice. In the middle of reading, he begins choking and falling to the ground slowly, his hand reaching into the back of his mouth as if something was lodged back there. He pulls a battery out and sets it on the counter. It’s a triple A battery, and it would just be a perfect replacement to the dead one in my sea salt heating lamp. If only this battery he pulled out wasn’t dead too. I was really close with my sea salt heating lamp, and we were even interested in each other at one point. All of a sudden, one day, it just wouldn’t turn on any more. I cried myself to sleep, thinking it was all my fault. I swear I never meant to take too much, and always gave back what I could in our relationship. And I could have bought a new battery for it, but even if it turned back on, I knew that it just wouldn’t be the same. What if one day it just so suddenly went out again, just like that? I wouldn’t be able to trust that it was going to stay lit for me. It is a painful thing to think about, but I did move on. I miss the gentle glow of its company on lonely nights. It’s been so much darker in my house since it died.

I stop reminiscing on those days and watch this man who is apparently named Adam begin to choke up gears and computer chips, making just the biggest mess. I run to the bathroom and dampen a towel, placing it on his forehead as he kneels over spitting up more wires and screws. As he recovers and stands up, he starts crying tears of oil. I fetch a bucket and start collecting them so that I am able to water my garden in the morning. He cleans up and takes a seat, where he pulls out a new arm from his pocket. There is a label above the elbow that reads “wash with like colors.” He motions me over, and glues it into my arm socket. It is fully functional, all except for the fact that I cannot hold my arm any higher than my head. He pulls out an electronic translator and shows it to me to read “will you please help me find a new battery?” Using the translator, I agree to help and in addition, invite him to a magic show happening inside of the five-star nuclear power plant a few blocks away from my apartment. He agrees and I show him to my car, a 2004 Dodge Neon. I’ve never really been on a date before, and never imaged that it would be with someone so incredibly handsome. I just can’t wait to sip on the finest nuclear waste as I watch a girl be sawed in half. The drinks are brewed right inside the very place itself, and served to you during shows. It’ll be just like the movies. I hope he doesn’t see me blushing.

After the wreck, my insurance company was happy to pay for all the damages. My car was delivered back to me in a package on my front step, and they had even filled the tank for me. Kind people work at my insurance company, and whenever I call, we have long conversations into the night. We often talk about unfulfilled fantasies, but sometimes we will have long drawn out arguments over how the weather really is. However, that’s rare, and we usually just agree to disagree. Clearly, it isn’t raining outside. I just can’t believe some people thrive off lies and deceit. I tell myself that I’m just too good for that, but then I remember that I have no one else that will care to listen to my lustful desire of someday becoming a grocery store clerk. It’s my number one most terrible thought. No one else knows how much I secretly love to run plastic bags through my fingers. It is such taboo, as I stand in solidarity with the glaciers. I try my hardest to keep true to my ethics, despite these forbidden, disgusting thoughts.

My car only has a driver side; there is only one row of seats, and can only fit two people. There are only two wheels, and the radio is only able to play static. I blast the static through the speakers on slow, quiet days. The trunk of my car is the size of a shoebox. In the trunk, I keep a gun loaded with my prescription sleeping pills. I shoot one into the back of my throat whenever I feel like dreaming.

We drive to the nearest drugstore for a new battery, which is located in the middle of a sulfur field off the side of the highway. It’s by where I had gotten into my crash. The hearse is still running where it was on the day of the accident. There is a small memorial on the roof for the salary man. His suit is folded up in front of the memorial on top of his briefcase, where I imagined he kept all of his most important documents. After observing the hearse situation, I see that the entire left side of the drug store is absent of a wall, and also functions as a drive-through window for those in a rush. The greeting card aisle is the first upon entry. I observe a middle aged man picking out an “I’m sorry” card. The man reaches his hand under his toupee, pulling out an ink pen to sign the card “To dearest Jeremy, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for who you are. Sincerely, Jeremy.” The battery section shares an aisle with the stained-glass section. Although it is beautiful, I am reluctant to buy the stained-glass piece that depicts two salary men fighting over whether or not the next investment should be in rosemary or basil. Personally, I would pick rosemary, as the rosemary industry as of recently has been successful, as opposed to the basil industry. Every basil store that I have passed lately has been under foreclosure. I’m a gardener, so I must pay attention to this kind of thing. The man with me who wears the nametag that reads “Adam” stares into the glass-stained piece with lust and jumps into the picture. He wants to start a business venture with them. The subject matter in the stained-glass piece changes to an image of Adam in my garden with the salary men. They are offering him a share of stock in their enterprise, and he becomes ecstatic. I know in my heart that it is what he truly has always aspired for. It was the dream he could never live. He just couldn’t pass it up. If I had jumped in too, I would have picked the share of stock right out of their hands. I know I was told not to by an omnipresent force, but I like to break the rules sometimes. Now that Adam has transcended, I am left alone in the drugstore. I feel grief and heartbreak. “We could have been something, Adam! I never told you, but I was in love with you! I have never before been so attracted to a man’s voice. I wanted you to censor out everything that I didn’t want to hear! You used me, Adam!” I shout into the stained-glass. I pick it up and throw it to the ground in tears. The shatter catches the attention of the cashier, who is applying his makeup in a mirror behind the beauty counter. He drags me into the backroom: a 6x6 enclosure with no windows or door, where he straps me down into an electric chair. I admire the tattoo on his neck of the Los Vegas strip. He takes a chainsaw out from the locker behind him. He revs up the machine, and runs it along his tongue. He begins to bleed out light from his tongue; it’s a blinding bright light that falls from his mouth and quickly floods the room. “This is what heaven looks like. And you, you look like an angel. Your time is up.” He presses a button on the wall and I am shocked by the electric chair until I am pronounced dead. My vision is black, and there is nothing. I take the bag off my head.

I hold the bag in my hands in my living room, and turn on the television to Local News Channel 5. There is breaking news. Just wonderful! I’ve been so bored sitting alone with this bag on my head. The newscaster announces that my twenty hours of wearing the paper bag are up, and displays an image of my gravestone. Congratulations, he says. You’ve made it to heaven. I sigh heavily with relief and wait for my letter of discharge from life in the mail.

Three days later, I find an envelope in my mailbox. The return address cannot be displayed here for the all intended purpose of protecting the safety of the sender. I excitedly open it up and take out the contents; it’s a postcard with an image of my own apartment on the back. It reads: “We’re so sorry. We’re so sorry for who you are.” I pin the letter up on the north wall of my room. I notice my gun is missing. I fall into my bed and beg for a dream.

[duaneodavila]

Don’t Make These Mistakes: The 3 Biggest Impediments To Associate Career Growth [Sponsored]

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Mainspring Legal’s team of expert contributors. Eamon Welch is based in Massachusetts where he oversees attorney placements and client services in the Boston and New York markets. Prior to joining Lateral Link, Eamon practiced law in Goodwin Procter’s Boston office and Greenberg Traurig’s Miami office. Eamon earned his J.D. magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from the University of Miami School of Law, and he also holds an M.A. from Duke University and a B.A. from Trinity College.

The start of the new year is an appropriate time to reflect on your career development. Take stock of what you’ve learned and accomplished over the past 12 months; deliberate about what you would like to achieve over the coming year. Decide what actions you will need to take to get there, and what pitfalls you will need to avoid to do so.

Biglaw associates faced an arduous road to get where they are today. Admission to a top law school, strong grades 1L year, navigating OCI and landing a 2L summer position, a successful 2L summer and receiving a permanent offer from your firm, and the oh-so-delightful bar examination. But the race hasn’t been fully run, and your work is far from done. You can’t sit idly by and blindly hope that the currents of your present situation will propel you to your professional goal. Career development is an ongoing process that you must proactively address every day. However, sometimes the mistakes that you don’t make are the most important factor for your professionally trajectory.

As a Biglaw associate, the three biggest impediments to your career growth are lack of knowledge, complacency, and fear. Avoid these roadblocks, and you are well on your way to maximizing your professional trajectory.

Lack of Knowledge

Lack of knowledge is the first biggest impediment to associate career growth. There’s an old truism that “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Simple enough, right? Well, it’s amazing the number of associates who fail to grasp this concept in an essential area. Don’t be one of them.

Undeniably, it’s important that you master your subject matter and hone your technical skillset. But that’s not enough. It’s critical that you understand the legal talent marketplace in order to position yourself for optimal career growth.

Like the medical residency matching program, the OCI and 2L Summer process is not an infallible process for pairing the right employees with the right employers. Firms and law students do an admirable job endeavoring to identify mutual fit. But the reality is, a couple of Fall weeks and a subsequent Summer is too short a period of time to get it right in every instance, particularly, if we’re talking about a permanent match. Moreover, even if you selected the right firm for your 2L Summer, what might have been the right firm at that stage of your (pre-)career is by no means necessarily still the right firm after practicing for a few years. For maybe 10% of you, yes, circumstances align and you happen upon the firm when you begin practicing that offers the right mix of ingredients for your unique skills, characteristics, and goals so as to warrant spending your entire career there. But for the remaining 90% of you, this just isn’t the case.

Much of the apathy demonstrated by some Biglaw associates toward educating themselves about the legal talent marketplace is likely attributable to the lock-step, market compensation structure for Biglaw Associates. If everyone is getting paid the same in a particular geographic area, cultural differences among firms couldn’t possibly be enough to justify investigating other options, right? But what about cost of living arbitrage? And is it true that everyone is getting paid the same? Take a 4th-Year associate in NYC/Boston/SF/LA who is on the Cravath-scale as an example. The all-in “market” compensation for this associate is $320K. But what if this associate is at a firm where it’s the norm to bill 3,000 hours in a year? Conversely, what if this associate is at a firm where it’s the norm to bill 2,000 hours in a year? At the 3,000-hour firm, the associate earns a billable hourly wage of $107; at the 2,000-hour firm, the associate earns a billable hourly wage of $160 per hour. This delta amounts to $53 per billable hour, a sum greater than many Americans make in total on an hourly basis! 

Beyond the relative pay differences, there are actual, material differences in compensation among firms (and also depending on whether you stay put or take advantage of the other possibilities that are out there). Firms have gotten creative in their incentive packages such that a “market” base salary and year-end bonus is not the Biglaw compensation ceiling, but merely the floor. Many top firms are now offering very sizeable signing bonuses to talented associates working in in-demand practice areas. What about above-market bonuses? How about Spring and Summer bonuses? Retention bonuses? Does your firm provide you with paid vacation? What about a technology stipend? When you tally the various bonuses and perks associated with moving to a firm that more aggressively incentivizes top associate talent, you could be talking about a $200-250K difference over just a few year period. That’s a meaningful sum: enough to pay off your student loans, finance a down payment on a residence, or fund your child’s college savings account. How about letting that $250K ride in investments? Over a 30-year period compounding at 7% per annum, that $250K turns into $1.9MM. Enough to retire by many people’s standards – all as a result of making the right lateral move!

And compensation isn’t the only differentiator. Does your firm or practice group have a formal training program, or are you left to your own devices to sink or swim? Is frequent, constructive feedback prioritized at your firm, or are you clueless about your performance until your year-end review? What’s the staffing system like? Do you receive consistent deal/case flow that allows you to progressively enhance your skillset, or are you pigeonholed in limiting roles on sporadic assignments? Are weekends, holidays, and vacations generally respected at your firm, or are they just another workday? Does your firm make it easy to find a mentor and/or sponsor, or do you lack more senior guidance? As you look down the road, how about your brand equity? Is your firm giving you the right platform to market yourself and develop client relationships and originate business? How is the culture at your firm – is it the right environment for you to succeed politically?

As you can tell, even firms adhering to a “market” salary/bonus structure are far from the same, in terms of compensation, hours, growth potential, culture, and quality of life. It’s incumbent upon you to learn what’s out there in the marketplace and familiarize yourself with the distinctions…and determine how your current firm measures up.

Complacency

Somewhat entwined with the first impediment, complacency is the second biggest impediment to associate career growth. Often, complacency is what causes lack of knowledge in the first place. You say to yourself: I’ve survived this long at my present firm with some of my hair still intact, the firm’s literature exalts our unparalleled culture, and my colleagues that I started with haven’t left yet, so this must be as good as it gets in Biglaw, right? Wrong. No matter how content that you think you are with your current situation, it’s imperative that you motivate yourself to learn about the marketplace.

Even associates who do educate themselves about other firms and learn that professional growth opportunities exist for them are still not immune to complacency in some sense. Despite recognizing that firm “x” offers you more compensation, reduced hours, increased partnership prospects, expanded in-house exit options, improved culture, and/or better work/life balance, you still fail to act. Yes, when you bill 10-11 hours per day for a prolonged period of time, things are busy and there’s not much free time. But unless you’re pulling consecutive all-nighters ahead of a major deal closing or trial, you can carve out ten minutes to speak with someone knowledgeable about the marketplace, five minutes to track down your law school transcript, an hour to update your resume, and a few hours to go in for an interview. You simply have to prioritize it and, if you do, you’ll engineer a way to make it happen.

Fear

You’ve learned about growth opportunities and acted upon that knowledge. But you can’t allow the third impediment to career growth to hold you back: fear. Fear can sabotage your professional development, and almost always the basis is unfounded.

Sometimes associates are afraid to pursue growth opportunities because of more general fears. Fear of the unknown, fear of change. Embrace these aspects of your transition and treat it as a positive. You’ve started fresh in law school, at your current firm, and on many other occasions in life. The process is the same. It also furnishes you with the ability to erase weaknesses or shortcomings in your current situation and build your internal profile anew with the benefit of hindsight. Moreover, existing associates are accustomed to new faces joining their practice group periodically, and it’s likely that other associates will be lateraling into your new firm within the same period so there’s a natural support group. Finally, your new firm has expended considerable resources on attracting you there; the firm has a vested interest in ensuring your success upon arrival. The firm will almost certainly employ both formal and informal integration measures to effectuate a smooth transition for you. 

Another dimension of fear that can affect associates is fear of how colleagues will react. You’re worried about how partners and other higher-ups at your firm will respond. Will they be disappointed? Angry? You’re worried about how your fellow associates will react. Will they feel rejected? Will they resent you for having to pick up the slack in your absence? First, you have to always remember that law is a business. As anyone who was around in 2009-10 can attest, the moment that you and your practice stop making financial sense on your firm’s balance sheet, there will no longer be a position for you. Partners might lament the fact, but don’t be mistaken, if there’s an economic downturn and you’re no longer profitable, the firm will let you go. Accordingly, you shouldn’t hold yourself to any different standard. If your current firm stops making sense for you financially or otherwise (i.e. there is a growth opportunity available to you), you can’t let considerations about your existing firm prevent you from moving on to a better situation. At the end of the day, if you give notice in a professional manner and transition out of the firm appropriately, no one—partners nor associates—should hold a grudge; if they do, then it’s telling about your current firm and it probably wasn’t the best environment to begin with.

Takeaway

You’ve done the hard work of gaining admission to Biglaw and mastering your craft. In 2019, don’t fall victim to the three biggest impediments to associate career growth. Wall Street bankers have long known that in order to maximize their professional trajectory in the finance landscape, they have to be prepared to switch positions every few years. As of late, Biglaw partners have caught onto this trend as well. As a Biglaw associate, you also have to be opportunistic about driving your career and willing to embrace periodic change; especially, if you’re part of the 90% of Biglaw associates who haven’t begun their careers at the ideal firm for maximizing their career development. For the 10% of you for whom the stars have aligned and you’ve started at your ideal firm – congratulations, and keep doing what you’re doing! But do you know what the biggest impediment of all to associate career growth is? Thinking you are part of that lucky 10% when you’re really a member of the remaining 90%.

If you’re interested in having a conversation with someone who can help you determine whether you’re part of the 90% for whom professional growth opportunities make sense or you’re otherwise interested in exploring the lateral market, reach out to me at ewelch@laterallink.com or on LinkedIn.

Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click here to find out more about us.

[babysleepmiracle0]

The 6 Essentials On Being A Stay At Home Parent: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How?

A typical conversation of parents at home:

Person X: So what do you do for a living? Parent at home: I am with my children, I do what I love all day long and I'm happy. Person X: Oh, uh, your work? (Implying that we are defined by our role, our work, when it's just a label, a role and we are more than that.) Parent at home: Uh, I'm a family manager (hey it's nice said like that!)... Person X: (Question marks in the eyes.) Parent at home:... a parent at home, I stay home to raise my children. Possible answers: Person X: ''A what? (You repeat) What's that? '' ''(...). (Questions himself, tells himself it must be because you're mormon(my note: no offense!) or have no money. Take pity on you, will not discuss the subject anymore...) The weather's nice eh!'' ''You have to be busy with your children... but what do you do all day? '' ''Are you bored being home all the time?'' ''When will you return to work? '' ''Oh lucky you! You got time, you're home!'' Parent at home: ''(Feels obliged to detail his life.) It's by choice, yes it's fun, yes it is work, no I do not think of returning to work, we're not always at home, I've got as much time as you in a day one we just have to manage it well! (Would like others to be happy for him and that they see it's great most of the time: there is no set schedule, you can enjoy the nice weather, you're there for your child, it is natural, yes you can be accomplished in this role, etc.).''

It's really after making the choice to stay at home that we realize the prejudices or lack of information on this function in our society. Yet it is the most practised job through time and it is still important around the globe! Fortunately, this role can really make us happy and we can stop these questions, both in the minds of others than in ours with those that present themselves which make us doubt that this is the right choice, by passing the information on what is actually being a parent at home.

A tour on being a blissful parent at home...

Who?

Parents at home nowadays are those of a new lifestyle. Through time, typically at least one parent would care for children at home, at least until they entered school when it existed. The baby boomers saw women leave the house but often after being housewives, when children are older. In our days, stay at home parents of generations X and Y are not so numerous, but they do it by choice, measuring the benefits of doing so. They are mostly mothers, but also fathers, about 100,000 in Canada who like to combine this role with a work from home and are equally competent (as related in an article by Jean-Franois Gazaille). Parents who decide to stay at home put on hold their careers, or do it part time from home spending most of their time with their children. In short, it is an alternative to the hectic life of two parents working away from home, a chosen way of life, and it is a return to cohesive and natural values that were forgotten by an individualistic and materialistic society.

We could advance that more and more of the new parents of Generation Y, born in about 1980 to 1995, will choose to stay home because for them work is not the most important, even if the influence of the family has diminished in favour of peers, and they seek an alternative to flourish, take care of their children and have a better quality of life:

Unlike their parents, young people of Generation Y do not put work first. They refuse to work during holidays and weekends (except student employment) and want time off to decompress, because the mental and physical health appears to be their priority. They seek a better quality of life, balancing work and personal interest. (French Wikipedia, Generation Y).

What?

You are now at stay at home mom or dad, you have many varied tasks. Being a parent at home is like running a small business with love. From pregnancy to support throughout the life of the child, the parent at home juggles with giving love and attention to the whole family, education and discipline, needs, inventory management such as food, clothing and necessary activities, being a life coach, being available almost 24 hours on 24, 7 / 7. Yes, sometimes it's demanding, but yes you can also take it easy at times. Everything depends on your one income salary, the quality of your management, your choices and your attitude in life.

It is often devalued when it should be seen as a profession, it is calculated that a parent working at home should have a salary of about 115 000 (salary.com)! It is important to make it recognized better. On recognition of parents at home nowadays, even if we see the benefits of being a parent at home, people who do may be stigmatized and devalued. Their pillar role in society does not seem to be taking seriously, because in our industrialized societies people are judged by the revenue they make and social programs do not particularly benefit them. For example, in Quebec we could pay them the amount that is given to those who place their child in daycare. The political party ADQ wants to establish a salary for the parent at home, but it's not done yet. It is therefore advantageous to publish information on the benefits for all for a parent to stay at home, break down prejudices and join together to have a good social recognition:

- Is it unrealistic to think that one day, stay at home fathers could form a strong network capable of forming a lobby to influence policies of governments and family companies? - As I reported in my book, most fathers I interviewed argue that they have never experienced job any harder than being a parent. Therefore, men come to see how parental work, though vital, is socially devalued. They add their voices to those women who, for generations, claimed the valuation of unpaid work. (Sociologist, author of Do Men Mother?, Andrea Doucet, interviewed by Jean-Franois Gazaille)

When?

You can prepare to stay at home before having children up to stay home for the rest of your life if it suits you well. For example, we bought our house so one of us would stay home (me, ye!), on a calculation of a single parent working. We were sure to live well on one income. If you want to be a parent at home, you can also put the salary for the parent who will stay at home aside in a savings account, it will be both a financial cushion and a way to see if your lifestyle must be adjusted. Then you'll see it's relatively easy with willingness and preparedness to take the plunge!

Given that the quality of life seems to always improve and that the planet in general improves their living conditions, one might think that being a parent at home will remain an important role for such benefits as flexible hours, less fatigue among parents, and close parental presence for children.

Where?

It is called ''stay at home parent'', but really a better term would be ''parent with his child'' because this role has the ability to be mobile. Being less taken by work you can travel more if desired and have time to prepare it. There are plenty of stories of parents who have toured the world with their children, including sailing. They are truly inspirational, also it is one of our personal projects to travel when my kids are older. They may be schooled on the road, and they learn a lot from this experience.

The activities are not confined at home, in general. With time but no fixed plans, parent and child ''at home'' explore the surroundings, are present in the communities, activities and committees, and interact with society in general, for children not only with their peers. Still, the residence is the nest where the basic material is and is generally well organized so the parent at home can make their tasks with her child nearby, or sets activity periods together.

In industrialized societies, there is a choice between living as a tenant or owner. Parents at home who have restricted expenses often opt for an apartment, because the cost may seem lower. One can also stay in town and get rid of the car and its costs. But staying in a condo or house has its advantages, although some costs, because the amount given on the mortgage is a capital. To reduce expenses, at-home parents can buy a house in the regions because the costs are lower. Another advantage of staying there is that communities have greater solidarity values and there can be a good local support network (in addition to the non-local stay at home parents communities on the web that make it easy to stay connected to each other). Besides the regions repopulate today. Whatever the choice made, it reflects the values and needs of the family in question.

Why?

It is personal to each family who chooses this lifestyle, but here are some advantages and benefits: - More time with good management of it; - A return to family values that have been proven; - Possibility of a better attachment link child-parent, which is essential for the proper development of the child, and a close relationship that can continue for all of your lives, because the link has been fed and not remote. - An opportunity to fully meet all the needs of the family, be it those of the child, partner and yourself. - Possibility of flexible hours and accomplishment for the parent and the child; - More happiness! Indeed, a study by Wilcox and Nock demonstrated that when the mother stays at home (but it might as well be the father) the family is happier with fewer hours of work for each and not spending money to work, even if the parent who stays at home does not have a''career''; - The opportunity to be the educator, the main influence for his child and share all stages of life and magical moments with him. - The possibility of raising a citizen who has good values, solidarity, and accomplished being helped to follow his path. - An increase to the overall quality of life.

How?

Firstly, for those who are on the labour market, for one parent to be at home you must leave work to care for your child. You can do this even before pregnancy, but for most it will be during pregnancy or childbirth. If we plan to stay home, we can arrange the details to be able to do it before, adjust our standard of living on the future income and even take advance to start a part-time business or project that will be paying, ideally from house.

Once home, you start more specific family managing and it is good to continue to have a schedule for your tasks, even if it is super flexible, for not to get caught in a routine of ''laziness''- it's understood that just taking care of your child is not lazy but you must pay special attention to not forget the other tasks and needs that you must attain to. It is also important to stay connected with others such as parents at home, for example, be accomplished, and take care of your wellbeing.

Regarding what to do in particular, the choice is left free to each family, who are the best judges. It is even possible to send your child to daycare part time for socializing if that's what he wants and give you more time to relax or do a project. My only advice is that you must have fun at home, it is important. For some it is natural - the freedom from work, the joy of their child, the little moments of happiness are easy to see and enjoy. For others less used to it, do things such as going outside for some fresh air and taking vitamin D in the sun, eating pizza for lunch and try out the games your children do for example, you might be surprised how fun there is in there! I've just been climbing with mine this morning and I rediscovered how much fun it is. Being at home is to enjoy the magical moments of life, so write them, enjoy them thoroughly - you will realize the happiness in your life and be proud of what you do.

In closing I applaud all parents who decide to stay at home. First, you do what has the potential to be best for your entire family, including you because you can really thrive at home. Give it a try to see, but beware, trying this lifestyle is adopting it. And it is guaranteed that you will not regret having lived all those moments of tenderness, surprises, and of support when your child had difficulties, even if you later decide to return to working away from home, because you were there for your child during important years of his life and you did all you could to give him the best.

Be proud of your choice of being a parent at home!

Oh, and don't forget to pass this article to people in your surrounding, who will know more about it... Also, who knows, there may someone looking for information to be one of the blissful stay at home parents that you could connect with.

By doing this 1 weird trick, can you really get your baby to sleep in less than one minute?  

[riichardwilson]

Smart Tips for Setting the Pace at Your New Job

You may not be the boss, but you are in charge of just how quickly you assimilate and how much work you take on in the early days of a new job. Find out how to do it right.

March 10, 2020 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The following excerpt is from Kanika Tolver’s book Career Rehab. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes

When you start a new job, it’s important to begin the career relationship the way you want it to be for as long as you plan to have that job. You’re in the driver’s seat, so don’t be afraid to set your work pace in the first 90 days. During this stage, you should be evaluating what you like and dislike about your job as you get to know the people, the culture, and your responsibilities.

The first 90 days is your career relationship trial period, and it may look something like this:

Related: Building Your Street Cred to Get the Salary You Deserve

First 30 days. When you start a new role, it’s important to really observe the culture of your new organization. Analyze when people come to work and when they leave to go home. This will tell you a lot about how to set your work schedule and whether your team values working from home and flexi­ble work schedules.

First 60 days. Clearly understand the expectations of your role. Ask your management team and co-workers what you should expect from your daily tasks and regular meetings. Also, try to shadow your teammates and management team before you’re fully thrown into a specific project.

First 90 days. At this point, you should be able to identify the subject matter experts on your team. These will be the go-to folks who can help when you’re stuck on a deliverable or don’t understand an organization policy or office politics. Make sure you’re creating a strong circle of trust so you can easily navigate work-related challenges.

To set expectations and boundaries for your new job, address the following four issues with your direct supervisor:

Have your supervisor clearly communicate your work schedule.

Find out the actual percentage of time you’ll be spending on specific tasks or projects.

Ask if you’ll be able to work from home a few times per week or per month.

Find out how your manager and supervisor will be rating your performance.

Don’t make the mistake of not addressing these issues early on, because once you’ve created bad working habits, you may never be able to change them.

Related: How to Work the Room Like a Network Hustler

Work faster with technology

Professionals spend a lot of time tracking conversations and information through email and manually keeping track of their calendars, which is a pain in the ass. Projects suffer because teams aren’t effectively collaborating or communicating ongoing changes. Organizations are working in silos, which is frustrating to professionals who are forced to stay late every day. Productivity starts with organization. If you fail to be organized, you won’t succeed.

These five tools can help you be more organized and productive:

Calendly. This is a super easy tool that allows you to automati­cally schedule meetings and appointments for your online cal­endar. This tool sends a notification to your email and places the scheduled meeting on your calendar and the requestor’s calendar.

Jira. A project management tool that teams use to gather project requirements and assign user stories and tasks to team members. It also tracks progress, assigns due dates, and allows you to attach documents.

Slack. An online tool that teams can use to communicate and collaborate on projects. This tool cuts down on emails because you can use the app to talk to the entire group or to individu­als. No more chasing down emails!

Google Drive. This free product allows you to create docu­ments and save them in the cloud, which can be linked to your email account. Google Drive is a great way to back up your computer files and share them with other contributors.

Zoom. A free online conferencing tool that allows you to conduct video meetings, record webinars, and host team meetings. It also includes a screen-sharing option.

Put yourself first

On average, you’ll spend more than 90,000 hours of your life at work, according to a 2018 article in Business Insider. (This number doesn’t include overtime.) When do professionals have time for their personal lives?

Growing up, I watched my parents work overtime and weekends during their entire careers, which lasted more than 32 years of my life. They were both considered “essential professionals,” who had to report to work even during snowstorms. Now retired, my mother has more time to herself and reflects on everything she missed out on while she was working. Your personal life, family, and health matter now. Don’t wait until you retire to focus on the things that matter today.

Related: Preparing for Showtime: The Job Interview

Your organization clearly knows what they expect of you for eight hours a day. What do you expect from yourself while you are at work? To have a healthy relationship with your job you first have to have a healthy relationship with yourself. So, make a conscious decision to put your wants and needs before the job.

Here are ten ways to focus on you:

Pray or meditate daily. It helps ease your mind before your day begins and promotes positivity in your life.

Work a hard eight hours and then go home. Working longer hours may only mean something to you. Once you’ve done all you can do in those eight hours, leave on time.

Turn your work mobile phone off once you’ve finished work. There’s no need to respond to every call or email that comes through after work hours. You can follow up with them the next business day.

Work out three to five times a week. It will help you feel and look better, as well as help you cope with work-related stress. It’s so important to take care of your car­diovascular health.

Eat healthy meals throughout the day to stay energized and keep yourself feeling great.

Take daily walks while at work; a change of scenery can help you feel better. Get outside and get a good dose of Vitamin D.

Make time for routine doctor appointments. So often we work so hard that we neglect our health. When you’re not feeling well, follow up with your doctor and get diagnosed early.

Schedule monthly massages for your body. For those who sit at computers daily and those who have labor-intensive jobs, deep tissue massages help ease the pain in your upper and lower back.

Sign up for non-work-related classes or online courses that interest you. This will help you learn new topics and skills outside your job duties.

Embrace your hobbies, talents, and gifts outside work. Too often we focus on our career-related skills and neglect our other abilities. Your hobbies and passions will help keep you sane.

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