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btausreview · 4 years ago

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"Bitcoin Revolution Australia"

“Bitcoin Revolution Australia” Click left to get started making $13000 in 24 hours with this secret bitcoin revolution australia system easily now!

According to bitcoin revolution australia website a man from Australia have earned $13,000 within 5 days through the trading platform bitcoin revolution australia. To do this, he made the minimum investment of $250 on the trading platform website and had a balance of $12,900 on the fifth day.

The following could be seen from the video on the website. The investor was able to multiply her credit even further. This enabled her to pay off her house and pay for her children’s education. In addition, she could quit her job without a guilty conscience.

Bitcoin revolution australia is software that executes Bitcoin trades using algorithms. An algorithm is a set of defined rules that run a specific process. This is where trends, prices and market conditions are checked, and based on these factors, Bitcoin is either bought or sold — in most cases profitably.

The hit rate or percentage of profitable trades for bitcoin revolution australia is 99.4%. That means: Out of 1000 trades executed by bitcoin revolution australia, there are only 6 trades with losses. The remaining 994 trades all make a profit.

The software of the trading platform bitcoin revolution australia should have a superior technology, which should achieve this high hit rate. This means that the platform is 0.01 seconds ahead of other retail markets. This lead in time gives a huge advantage.

This can generate returns of up to 88%. Some members are said to have earned their first million after 61 days. $100 a day seems to be a common earnings of bitcoin revolution australia.

The software is currently free of charge and has no hidden costs. However, registrations for new customers are strictly limited every day. bitcoin revolution australia is not meant to be a pyramid or MLM system.

The bitcoin revolution australia review explains that it works & is simple. A simple registration is necessary and the trading is carried out automatically by the software as soon as the trade button is clicked. Most users only need 20 minutes a day to control profits and trading.

However, there is a minimum investment of $250. However, the credit can be withdrawn at any time. You can even trade manually with bitcoin revolution australia, but this is not recommended by the platform owners.

Further success reports from users can be found on the bitcoin revolution australia website. Mark K. from Frankfurt am Main writes the following: “I have been a member of the Bitcoin lifestyle for just 47 days. But my life has changed! I not only made my first 10,000 euros, but also met some of the most incredible people. And thanks to the bitcoin revolution australia system ”

Mark was able to earn $12.853 with the platform. Ernest I. from Munich was even able to leave his job on Wall Street to earn his money full time with bitcoin revolution australia. He wrote in detail: “Surprisingly, I was once an investor on Wall Street. And I have never seen anything like this in my ten years with the company. My colleagues all thought I was crazy when I left the company to deal with bitcoin revolution australia software to go full-time. 38,459 euros profit later, all my colleagues are BEGINNING to let you in”

Trading bots are viewed critically by many users. However, they can simplify the life of small investors and traders. Because many trading experts always have to adapt and update their strategy or algorithm to the market conditions. Profitability is continuously checked through numerous tests.

Furthermore, many traders plunge into expenses by purchasing expensive trading courses and seminars and lose time by controlling and staring at Bitcoin charts and markets. For most traders there is hardly any time for a job and family.

Trading bots like bitcoin revolution australia can automate trading so that people with jobs and families can have enough time for other things.

Of course, investing in cryptocurrencies poses risks. The high volatility leads to high fluctuations in the value of investments. Many people got to know Bitcoin in late 2017. At that time there was an extreme boom and price increase of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Some long-term investors became millionaires during this period. Shortly thereafter, many traders tried their luck in the crypto market, but failed miserably because of a crash and long-standing bear market.

Meanwhile, many investors and traders have turned to the crypto market after suffering up to 95% losses. Only the most experienced and intelligent traders could make some profit from this market.

Indeed, it is difficult to survive as a small retail investor in this shark tank of large investors and market makers. The same game can also be seen on the stock exchange. Therefore, the use of trading bots and algorithms from experts can be useful.

#"Bitcoin Revolution Australia

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alipilling · 6 years ago

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How my son Sam bought his first investment property at age 18 The FOUNDATION OF BUILDING WEALTH STARTING FROM SCRATCH

Step 1 : PERSPECTIVE

‘PLANT THE SEED’

*RAISING children to have an Optimistic Vision of:-

1.) them self:

2.) their future and

3). the world

*Instilling the mindset that: ‘Money works for you, you don’t work for money’

*Three cores Values:

1). Value self

2). Value money

3). Value time

Step 2: PASSION FOR LEARNING: FINANCIAL EDUCATION

I took Sam along to his bank to deposit money that he had saved from doing chores around the house and working in the family business. We would ask the bank tellers for the best interest rate and the best deal for his savings account.

Reading Newspaper and internet Articles:

Sam was inspired by reading a few articles about successful youth who purchased their first house at young ages, 18 and 19 and knew that it was possible for him too.

Parents leading by good example:

As parents we were very conscious about leading by good example. It is commonly said that ‘Children are a product of their upbringing’. I tend to agree and I believe that parent’s are one of the most influential people in a child’s life. A parent’s work ethic is hugely important when teaching your children that ‘Work ethic is a direct reflection of your wealth and that wealth is stored work’.

Managing money wisely as parents: Earning, saving, investing and spending the rest was another message handed down to Sam. He had added confidence in following his own parent’s footsteps.

Meetings with Bank Lenders and Real Estate Agents:

SAM has a keen interest in real estate so prior to him buying his first investment property Sam and I both thoroughly enjoyed going along to seminars called “fast-track -How Houses Buy Houses.” Now Sam is over six feet tall, and he was sitting in the front row, slouching down, legs right out in front, and the speaker, Julio De Laffitte, who is featured in my pending book Live, Don’t Exist said to him, “Hey Sammy! How old are you now?”

“Sixteen,” Sam replied at the time.

“You do what I do, mate,” and Julio slapped his hands together, right in front of Sammy, and told him, “and you’ll be out by age thirty-five! If you do what I do, you’ll have your money working for you.”

Sammy enjoyed learning about “houses buying houses” so much that he took himself along to another full-day seminar with Julio, but this time he took his older sister Georgie along, without me even being there. This was when Sam started telling us he wanted to buy his first house by 18, because he could now visually see how it all works.

Step 3: EARN INCOME: WORK & PERSEVERANCE

From an early age Sam was given the opportunity to work along side his parents and siblings in the family business. Earning a ‘piece rate’ rather than an hourly rate taught Sam a valuable entrepreneurial lesson, that the more productive you are, the more financial reward you receive.

NEGOTIATING CHORES AROUND THE HOUSE?

Rather than paying an allowance which resembles a wage Sam mainly chose the jobs he enjoyed and the jobs he was good at. It was a fun learning experience negotiating the jobs and the renumeration for those jobs.

Step 4: PATIENCE: Working in the family business

‘Life rewards action’. From a very, young age, Sam and his siblings earned money working on weekends and school holidays in the family business, along with extra chores around the house. It’s amazing how that money earned and saved (when not spent) over time can represent a decent deposit for a house. It reinforces the notion that “wealth is stored work.” For a young child, working alongside their parents and siblings can be a huge learning experience and a lot of fun. An interest in either what they are doing or perhaps the feeling of earning money is a good enough incentive to want to work. And from the young age of eight Sam was offered a position working in the family nursery business, ePlants. There was always so much to do. Sam and his siblings began on a ‘piece rate’, as it was pretty difficult to determine what rate a young child is worth per hour, so we decided to teach the important lesson that the more productive you are, the more money you earn. Quite fair, really. It was impressive to see their determination, especially when there was an incentive offered to earn more money or a goal in mind, like when Bayley, Sam’s younger brother worked towards purchasing his first iPhone. As Sam grew older and gained more experience, his rate increased and therefore his income grew.

Of course, the bank was a big part of the funding Sam's investment property. In their determination whether to make the loan to Sam or not, the bank took into account character, capacity, and collateral, which I'll summarise below:

Character is essentially your credit history, the main thing that banks use in making their lending decisions. Banks, like all lenders, want to know about your credit history, whether there are any defaults or if you are bankrupt, or if you have a good borrowing history. In Sam's case, over a ten year period (from say 8 year’s old to 18 year’s old) he had a 10 percent deposit saved and his savings history was a good indicator of his character.

Capacity is your ability to pay the loan back, based on how much income you earn versus the loan repayment. Sam showed full-time income for more than twelve months. He had job security as he had been a long-term employee of the family business from the age of 15 as a school-based trainee. Sam also acquired a real estate rental appraisal that included a projected, rental return for the investment property that he was going to purchase, this added to his existing income (ie. $480 per week x 52 weeks = $ 24960). Keep in mind Sam was able to save a large portion of his income as he had a low cost of living —he was living at home.

Collateral is the security you provide for a loan. In Australia the bank lends up to 80 percent of the purchase price for residential, investment property, which means Sam would need to pay the remaining 20 percent deposit himself. There are various options if you don't have the 20 percent deposit, and in this case Sam didn't.

o Option 1 was called a Limited Family Guarantee, meaning my husband Rob and I could guarantee a percentage of his loan. The guarantee is limited to the amount of shortfall in the 20 percent deposit. For example, on a property purchase of $300,000 a bank would lend up to $240,000. If you were to borrow $270,000 a Family Guarantee of $30,000 would be required to cover this difference. In Sam’s case we offered a Limited Family Guarantee of 10%.

o Option 2 was called Lenders Mortgage Insurance. In this case, the bank uses mortgage insurance which insures the bank for the loan amount above 80 percent. To give you an example, on a property purchase of $300,000 with a Loan of $270,000 (90%) mortgage insurance is $3,862. This amount increases or decreases based on the loan amount and the percentage above 80 percent lending.

Step 5: Purpose: Parents helping out with a ‘Limited Family Guarantee’

Believing in Sam

Rob and I were in the fortunate position to help Sam and we decided we were more than comfortable providing a Limited Family Guarantee equal to the 10 percent deposit, being the 10 percent shortfall. This meant that Sam saved more than $5,000 on mortgage insurance, which made great sense to all three of us. Sam borrowed the whole loan amount in his own name. Rob and I secured the 10 percent shortfall of the purchase price. After 18 months from the date of purchase, I suggested to Sam to organise a bank valuation. It turned out that his property had increased in value substantially in the short-term ($80,000 in fact) and this was enough for the bank to release our Limited Family Guarantee. Sam was now standing on his own with his first investment property after just 18 months.

Sam has learned significant financial lessons in this experience, purchasing his first investment property. He has learned to budget for expenses such as: insurance, repairs and maintenance, water, and electricity, and now that Sam is managing his tenants himself, there will be many more valuable lessons to follow. These lessons are real-life lessons, experienced by the act of doing. These are lessons you don't learn at school.

Sam made a courageous decision at the young age of 18. He doesn't want to work for money, he wants his money working for him. “Now that you have purchased your own house at age 18,” I asked him, “could you imagine being an inspirational speaker and standing up on stage, encouraging youth to value money, to value themselves, to pay themselves first and to share your stories on how you've started your financial journey at such a young age? Because if you can do it at that age, others can too.”

“Yes,” he said. Sam can picture himself up on stage. Just by chatting with him, just by asking him questions, it helped him create a picture.

I don't mean to put pressure on my children. Whether he does, or whether he doesn't become a speaker is totally fine either way. I don't want him to think he's failed me if he doesn't want to follow through with the ideas I throw around. It's entirely up to him if he wants to run with any of them. Actually, Sam and his sister Georgie did get up on stage at their old high school, St. Teresa's, and they spoke to the year- 10 students. It was Q&A segment. The topic was “Life After School.” Sam got the chance to share with the year-10′s the importance of managing your money, and Georgie spoke on how important it was to follow your passion and do something that you love.

Sam’s Story:

I interviewed Sam for my book “Live, don’t exist and I love what he had to say:

I’m 21 now. In Australia, you have to be at least 18 to buy property, and when I was finally legal I was ready. I’ve been working for my parents in their nursery business as a source of income over the years. My brother, sister and I grew up with a family business so we’ve always had plenty of work opportunities and a chance to earn money. It gives me money to do the things I want to do, to invest in things that will go up in value over time. People are surprised, when you’re young as I was and you’re able to invest in property. But if you keep earning and put it away for all that time and don’t spend it, it’s there to use. I was pretty young when I started working in the nursery. I started out on a ‘piece rate’, earning as little as $2 per tray.

The property I bought when I was 18 only took a couple of weeks to get rented out, and it’s going very nicely. It’s only about ten minutes down the road. It was like a blank canvas. The house is a brick home, easy to take care of. It had no yard, just grass, when I bought it, so my family and I, being in the nursery business, on my days off we landscaped the yard, put borders for the flower beds, added fencing, added fake turf for the patio area, added some palms—and it looks great now.

My parents have been good role models. When we go food shopping, even though we’re what others might consider well-off, my mum is always looking for the bargains and if it’s too dear, we just do without. I’m that way now, too. In fact if it’s not on special, I often just won’t get it, at least until next week, when it does go on special. When I go clothes shopping, I always look for the 60 percent off sales and things like that. We spend so much money in life, you just have to look for all the ways to save that you can.

When I go out to clubs I watch my friends get on a roll and they can’t stop drinking. I can actually say ‘no’ when I have had enough—I can stop. I think, “Man! How much money are they wasting?” Every drink is sometimes another 10 dollars, and you have to think, you have to be conscious every time you go out, even if you’ve been drinking. You need to be aware of what you’re spending! But a lot of people don’t care, they just go out, have a good time, just ‘live for the now’. But I don’t. When I spend, I am conscious of every time I put my card down to pay for something, it’s like, “Oh, man!”

One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of people my age take out loans for cars and stuff like that. But I haven’t spent money on things that will go down in value—I believe we have the choice to spend on things that will go up in value. More of us need to make smart financial decisions because I do see people my own age who are already in debt about $40,000 or more, and on things that will go down in value. Now, I laid out $40,000 on a house which is the same money as on a car but mine’s going up and theirs is going down at a rapid rate.

But if I ever get money stolen or see it go unnecessarily it gets me really upset. I went to the beach once and got a speeding ticket for $276, just for doing a couple of k’s over the speed limit. I was driving on the beach not long after that, and got written up for irresponsible driving—on sand it’s easy to let the car drift a bit as you drive. I got caught doing that, and that was another $276. So that’s $552, and to think of all the things I could have done with that money, like pay it towards my house!

“I can’t sleep at night knowing I’ve got those fines to pay!” I told my mum.

“You’ve just got to learn from it, Sam,” she said.

And when your parents charge you for board, rent, life expenses, you get used to paying your own way. Some of my mates pay like $50 and some pay nothing, thinking, “What’s the point?” when here, I’m paying like $100, which I think is pretty good, actually. It makes you feel independent, because you are.

And I would like to buy more property as investments, but since I bought this first property my funds are down a bit. I’ve been saving since the purchase of my house and I’m on the way to having the next deposit for another one. I work five days a week, go to gym every afternoon, the beach on the weekends. I don’t yet know what I want to do with my future but I know I want to earn a good wage and have all of these houses underneath me. For now, that’s the dream, and to over time have them paid off, a bit like what my parents are doing, how they invest in properties. Invest and spend the rest.

Put every dollar away that you can. Just put it somewhere and leave it there. Most people, as soon as payday comes, they go and they spend it. Spend yours on things that will go up in value. It’s especially powerful at an early age.

Saving is putting aside part of your income to provide for your future

— Sam Pilling

images Sam signing his first contract, and working on his new investment property

#raisingfinanciallyindependentkids #parenting raisingfinanciallyindependentteens

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heart-of-the-sky-blog · 6 years ago

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Book List Building Made MSPeasy

The term list building is one that you regularly hear if you are in the online sales and advertising and marketing globe. With integrated, consumer relationship monitoring, lead management, email advertising, on the internet seminars and also education, safe and secure kinds, and also occasion organizing, Increase MD provides effective marketing and also sales attributes for solo, hospital, and also team medical techniques at a budget-friendly price. Considering that professionals in advertising and marketing have been pressing web content advertising and marketing for the last couple of years, it's not surprising that more business are seeking information on just how to drive sales and consumer involvement via web content advertising and marketing. With the white label Search Engine Optimization record, most of the involved prospects would certainly either be offering their collection of clients or looking to understand the state of how friendly their site is, according to Google's internet search engine criteria. So, that is why I still choose natural Search Engine Optimization when it involves internet marketing given that it is totally free to rank on the very first web page of Google's as well as various other online search engine results page, where you will certainly get huge site traffic for free and for a long-term, years and also years ahead without paying a solitary cent. Kevin: Yeah, definitely, and I would add to what Mark stated that along with the on the internet aspects which are very essential these days, there's a lot of offline advertising methods that are offered to regional organisations. Which things is a found diamond as a lead generation tool, as well as while you can not proactively necessarily advertise on those groups, people are speaking about the type of demands that your company solves out there as well as you have actually reached be willing to listen and also study that conversation. This problem came to light in 2016 when ProPublica reported that it was able to buy real estate ads that omitted African American, Asian American and also Hispanic people from viewing them, a practice that the Congressional Black Caucus explained to Facebook was a "direct offense of the Fair Real Estate Act of 1968." The social media sites titan later stated it would certainly disable settings that allow marketers promoting credit history, employment and housing to leave out ethnic and racial teams. The Concepts (in particular Principle 6 and also Principle 7) put on actions of a company managing a customer that has been described it through a lead generator For example, where a company acts upon a sales lead and also understands or should certainly understand that the lead generator is making use of misguiding information, advice or actions to get a client's individual data is likely to total up to a violation by the company of Concept 6 and also Principle 7. If you depend more on repeat organisation than preliminary sales, or if a lot of your revenues as well as sales happen when consumers repeat buy from you time and again, you must be doing whatever possible to inspire as numerous consumers as you can to make their initial purchasing decision as rapidly and also conveniently as feasible. Marketing Qualified Leads, generally referred to as MQLs are those people that have actually elevated their hands (metaphorically speaking) as well as recognized themselves as more deeply engaged, sales-ready contacts than your typical leads, however who have actually not yet come to be fully fledged possibilities. This understanding caused the idea that businesses would love to have the possibility to have their marketing needs met by an organization devoted to using the very best Online marketing Programs readily available at an affordable price with a high roi. Messaging your leads throughout your sales process entails more that simply an online conversation function on your web site, that's why Jumplead includes an onboard lead messaging system that takes care of as well as tracks e-mail conversations in a shared inbox. supplies you with online marketing leads such as SEO leads as well as Pay Per Click leads, yet likewise helps your organisation construct added regular monthly earnings by allowing you to offer leads back to us. By selling clients to, you can quickly make additional money for your service. If content marketing professionals don't know the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization, they stand to develop web content that isn't as successful as it could be. What's more, by handing these SEO standard tasks off to somebody else instead of doing these jobs as they are creating web content, it might set you back various other workers more time that they could be invested doing something extra effective.

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0bargains · 4 years ago

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“Bitcoin Evolution Review”

Bitcoin evolution review in details:

According to bitcoin evolution website a man from UK has earned $13,000 within 5 days through the trading platform bitcoin evolution. To do this, he made the minimum investment of $250 on the trading platform website and had a balance of $12,900 on the fifth day.

bitcoin evolution is software that executes Bitcoin trades using algorithms. An algorithm is a set of defined rules that run a specific process. This is where trends, prices and market conditions are checked, and based on these factors, Bitcoin is either bought or sold — in most cases profitably.

The hit rate or percentage of profitable trades for bitcoin evolution is 99.4%. That means: Out of 1000 trades executed by bitcoin evolution, there are only 6 trades with losses. The remaining 994 trades all make a profit.

The software of the trading platform bitcoin evolution should have a superior technology, which should achieve this high hit rate. This means that the platform is 0.01 seconds ahead of other retail markets. This lead in time gives a huge advantage.

This can generate returns of up to 88%. Some members are said to have earned their first million after 61 days. $100 a day seems to be a common earnings of bitcoin evolution.

The software is currently free of charge and has no hidden costs. However, registrations for new customers are strictly limited every day. bitcoin evolution is not meant to be a pyramid or MLM system.

The way bitcoin evolution review explains that it works & is simple. A simple registration is necessary and the trading is carried out automatically by the software as soon as the trade button is clicked. Most users only need 20 minutes a day to control profits and trading.

However, there is a minimum investment of $250. However, the credit can be withdrawn at any time. You can even trade manually with bitcoin evolution, but this is not recommended by the platform owners.

Further success reports from users can be found on the bitcoin evolution uk website. Mark K. from Frankfurt am Main writes the following: “I have been a member of the Bitcoin lifestyle for just 47 days. But my life has changed! I not only made my first 10,000 euros, but also met some of the most incredible people. And thanks to the bitcoin evolution system”

Mark was able to earn $12.853 with the platform. Ernest I. from Munich was even able to leave his job on Wall Street to earn his money full time with bitcoin evolution. He wrote in detail: “Surprisingly, I was once an investor on Wall Street. And I have never seen anything like this in my ten years with the company. My colleagues all thought I was crazy when I left the company to deal with bitcoin evolution software to go full-time. 38,459 euros profit later, all my colleagues are BEGINNING to let you in”

Trading bots like bitcoin system can automate trading so that people with jobs and families can have enough time for other things.

Meanwhile, many investors and traders have turned to the crypto market after suffering up to 95% losses. Only the most experienced and intelligent traders could make some profit from this market.

It is recommended to get an idea of the trading platform yourself. The bitcoin evolution website can be viewed at above site.

#bitcoinevolution

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xmarisolx · 8 years ago

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MotherJones

Peter’s Choice

I asked my student why he voted for Trump. The answer was thoughtful, smart, and terrifying.

RICK PERLSTEIN JAN/FEB 2017 ISSUE

Mike McQuade

This past October, I taught a weeklong seminar on the history of conservatism to honors students from around the state of Oklahoma. In five long days, my nine very engaged students and I got to know each other fairly well. Six were African American women. Then there was a middle-aged white single mother, a white kid who looked like any other corn-fed Oklahoma boy and identified himself as “queer,” and the one straight white male. I’ll call him Peter.

Peter is 21 and comes from a town of about 3,000 souls. It’s 85 percent white, according to the 2010 census, and 1.2 percent African American—which would make for about 34 black folks. “Most people live around the poverty line,” Peter told the class, and hunting is as much a sport as a way to put food on the table.

Peter was one of the brightest students in the class, and certainly the sweetest. He liked to wear overalls to school—and on the last day, in a gentle tweak of the instructor, a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. A devout evangelical, he’d preferred former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at the start of the primary season, but was now behind Donald Trump.

One day the students spent three hours drafting essays about the themes we’d talked about in class. I invited them to continue writing that night so the next morning we could discuss one of their pieces in detail. I picked Peter’s because it was extraordinary. In only eight hours he’d churned out eight pages, eloquent and sharp.

When I asked him if I could discuss his essay in this article, he replied, “That sounds fine with me. If any of my work can be used to help the country with its political turmoil, I say go for it!” Then he sent me a new version with typos corrected and a postelection postscript: “My wishful hope is that my compatriots will have their tempers settled by Trump’s election, and that maybe both sides can learn from the Obama and Trump administrations in order to understand how both sides feel. Then maybe we can start electing more moderate people, like John Kasich and Jim Webb, who can find reasonable commonality on both sides and make government work.” Did I mention he was sweet?

When he read the piece aloud in class that afternoon in October, the class was riveted. Several of the black women said it was the first time they’d heard a Trump supporter clearly set forth what he believed and why. (Though, defying stereotypes, one of these women—an aspiring cop—was also planning to vote for Trump.)

Peter’s essay took off from the main class reading, Corey Robin’s The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin. Its central argument is that conservative movements across history are united in their devotion to the maintenance of received social hierarchy. Peter, whose essay was titled “Plight of the Redneck,” had a hard time seeing how that applied to the people he knew. “These people are scraping the bottom of the barrel, and they, seemingly, have nothing to benefit from maintaining the system of order that keeps them at the bottom."

“We all live out in the wilderness, either in the middle of a forest or on a farm,” he wrote. “Some people cannot leave their homes during times of unfortunate weather. Many still dry clothes by hanging them on wires with clothespins outside. These people are nowhere near the top, or even the middle, of any hierarchy. These people are scraping the bottom of the barrel, and they, seemingly, have nothing to benefit from maintaining the system of order that keeps them at the bottom.” His county ended up going about 70 percent for Trump.

Concerning race, Peter wrote, “In Oklahoma, besides Native Americans, there have traditionally been very few minorities. Few blacks have ever lived near the town that I am from…Even in my generation, despite there being a little more diversity, there was no racism, nor was there a reason for racism to exist.” His town’s 34 or so black people might beg to differ, of course; white people’s blindness to racism in their midst is an American tradition. As one of the African American students in the class—I’ll call her Karen—put it, whites in her town see “racism as nonexistent unless they witness it firsthand. And then it almost has to be over the top—undeniable acts of violence like hate crimes or cross burnings on front lawns—before they would acknowledge it as such.” But it’s relevant to the story I’m telling that I’m certain Peter isn’t individually, deliberately racist, and that Karen agrees.

Still, Peter’s thinking might help us frame a central debate on the left about what to make of Trump’s victory. Is it, in the main, a recrudescence of bigotry on American soil—a reactionary scream against a nation less white by the year? Or is it more properly understood as an economically grounded response to the privations that neoliberalism has wracked upon the heartland?

Peter knows where he stands. He remembers multiple factories and small businesses “shutting down or laying off. Next thing you know, half of downtown” in the bigger city eight miles away “became vacant storefronts.” Given that experience, he has concluded, “for those people who have no political voice and come from states that do not matter, the best thing they can do is try to send in a wrecking ball to disrupt the system.” When Peter finished with that last line, there was a slight gasp from someone in the class—then silence, then applause. They felt like they got it.

I was also riveted by Peter’s account, convinced it might be useful as a counterbalance to glib liberal dismissals of the role of economic decline in building Trumpland. Then I did some research. According to the 2010 census, the median household income in Peter’s county is a little more than $45,000. By comparison, Detroit’s is about $27,000 and Chicago’s (with a higher cost of living) is just under $49,000. The poverty rate is 17.5 percent in the county and 7.6 percent in Peter’s little town, compared with Chicago’s 22.7 percent. The unemployment rate has hovered around 4 percent.

The town isn’t rich, to be sure. But it’s also not on the “bottom.” Oklahoma on the whole has been rather dynamic economically: Real GDP growth was 2.8 percent in 2014—down from 4.3 percent in 2013, but well above the 2.2 percent nationally. The same was true of other Trump bastions like Texas (5.2 percent growth) and West Virginia (5.1 percent).

Peter, though, perceives the region’s economic history as a simple tale of desolation and disappointment. “Everyone around was poor, including the churches,” he wrote, “and charities were nowhere near (this wasn’t a city, after all), so more people had to use some sort of government assistance. Taxes went up [as] the help became more widespread."

He was just calling it like he saw it. But it’s striking how much a bright, inquisitive, public-spirited guy can take for granted that just is not so. Oklahoma’s top marginal income tax rate was cut by a quarter point to 5 percent in 2016, the same year lawmakers hurt the working poor by slashing the earned-income tax credit. On the "tax burden” index used by the website WalletHub, Oklahoma’s is the 45th lowest, with rock-bottom property taxes and a mere 4.5 percent sales tax. (On Election Day, Oklahomans voted down a 1-point sales tax increase meant to raise teacher pay, which is 49th in the nation.).

As for government assistance, Oklahoma spends less than 10 percent of its welfare budget on cash assistance. The most a single-parent family of three can get is $292 a month—that’s 18 percent of the federal poverty line. Only 2,469 of the more than 370,000 Oklahomans aged 18 to 64 who live in poverty get this aid. And the state’s Medicaid eligibility is one of the stingiest in the nation, covering only adults with dependent children and incomes below 42 percent of the poverty level—around $8,500 for a family of three.

But while Peter’s analysis is at odds with much of the data, his overall story does fit a national pattern. Trump voters report experiencing greater-than-average levels of economic anxiety, even though they tend have better-than-average incomes. And they are inclined to blame economic instability on the federal government—even, sometimes, when it flows from private corporations. Peter wrote about the sense of salvation his neighbors felt when a Walmart came to town: “Now there were enough jobs, even part-time jobs…But Walmart constantly got attacked by unions nationally and with federal regulations; someone lost their job, or their job became part-time."

It’s worth noting that if the largest retail corporation in the world has been conspicuously harmed by unions and regulations of late, it doesn’t show in its profits, which were $121 billion in 2016. And of course, Walmart historically has had a far greater role in shuttering small-town Main Streets than in revitalizing them. But Peter’s neighbors see no reason to resent it for that. He writes, "The majority of the people do not blame the company for their loss because they realize that businesses [are about] making money, and that if they had a business of their own, they would do the same thing."

It’s not fair to beat up on a sweet 21-year-old for getting facts wrong—especially if, as is likely, these were the only facts he was told. Indeed, teaching the class, I was amazed how even the most liberal students took for granted certain dubious narratives in which they (and much of the rest of the country) were marinated all year long, like the notion that Hillary Clinton was extravagantly corrupt. "After continually losing on the economic side,” he wrote, “one of the few things that you can retain is your identity."

Feelings can’t be fact-checked, and in the end, feelings were what Peter’s eloquent essay came down to—what it feels like to belong, and what it feels like to be culturally dispossessed. "After continually losing on the economic side,” he wrote, “one of the few things that you can retain is your identity. What it means, to you, to be an American, your somewhat self-sufficient and isolated way of life, and your Christian faith and values. Your identity and heritage is the very last thing you can cling to…Abortion laws and gay marriage are the two most recent upsets. The vast majority of the state of Oklahoma has opposed both of the issues, and social values cannot be forced by the government."

On these facts he is correct: In a 2015 poll, 68 percent of Oklahomans called themselves "pro-life,” and only 30 percent supported marriage equality. Until 2016 there were only a handful of abortion providers in the entire state, and the first new clinic to open in 40 years guards its entrance with a metal detector.

Peter thinks he’s not a reactionary. Since that sounds like an insult, I’d like to think so, too. But in writing this piece, I did notice a line in his essay that I had glided over during my first two readings, maybe because I liked him too much to want to be scared by him. “One need only look to the Civil War and the lasting legacies of Reconstruction through to today’s current racism and race issues to see what happens when the federal government forces its morals on dissenting parts of the country.” The last time I read that, I shuddered. So I emailed Peter. “I say the intrusions were worth it to end slavery and turn blacks into full citizens,” I wrote. “A lot of liberals, even those most disposed to having an open mind to understanding the grievances of people like you and yours, will have a hard time with [your words]."

Peter’s answer was striking. He first objected (politely!) to what he saw as the damning implication behind my observation. Slavery and Reconstruction? "I was using it as an example of government intrusion and how violent and negative the results can be when the government tries to tell people how to think. I take it you saw it in terms of race in politics. The way we look at the same thing shows how big the difference is between our two groups."

To him, focusing on race was "an attention-grabbing tool that politicians use to their advantage,” one that “really just annoys and angers conservatives more than anything, because it is usually a straw man attack.” He compared it to what “has happened with this election: everyone who votes for Trump must be racist and sexist, and there’s no possible way that anyone could oppose Hillary unless it’s because they’re sexist. Accusing racism or sexism eliminates the possibility of an honest discussion about politics."

He asked me to imagine "being one of those rednecks under the poverty line, living in a camper trailer on your grandpa’s land, eating about one full meal a day, yet being accused by Black Lives Matter that you are benefiting from white privilege and your life is somehow much better than theirs."

And that’s when I wanted to meet him halfway: Maybe we could talk about the people in Chicago working for poverty wages and being told by Trump supporters that they were lazy. Or the guy with the tamale cart in front of my grocery store—always in front of my grocery store, morning, noon, and night—who with so much as a traffic violation might find himself among the millions whom Trump intends to immediately deport.

I wanted to meet him halfway, until he started talking about history.

"The reason I used the Civil War and Reconstruction is because it isn’t a secret that Reconstruction failed,” Peter wrote. “It failed and left the South in an extreme poverty that it still hasn’t recovered from.” And besides, “slavery was expensive and the Industrial Revolution was about to happen. Maybe if there had been no war, slavery would have faded peacefully."

As a historian, I found this remarkable, since it was precisely what all American schoolchildren learned about slavery and Reconstruction for much of the 20th century. Or rather, they did until the civil rights era, when serious scholarship dismantled this narrative, piece by piece. But not, apparently, in Peter’s world. "Until urban liberals move to the rural South and live there for probably a decade or more,” he concluded, “there’s no way to fully appreciate the view."

This was where he left me plumb at a loss. Liberals must listen to and understand Trump supporters. But what you end up understanding from even the sweetest among them still might chill you to the bone.

Read Peter’s full essay at motherjones.com/oklahoma.

#literally crying #this level of ignorance is actually terrifying #racism #trump supporters #million woman march #trump #donald trump

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mmsmusings · 4 years ago

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The Lure of Academia, and Why We Can’t Let it Go

I never truly learned what a love/hate relationship was like until I began my journey in academia.

Let me explain.

I would say that this journey truly began when I started working towards earning a master's degree in art history. While I was an undergraduate, I never questioned that I would get a master's degree; indeed, the only question was: where? After applying to a number of schools, I was thrilled to head off to the University of Edinburgh. It was there that I truly fell in love with academia while also discovering many things I disliked about it. Let me add this disclaimer: I had marvelous experiences at Edinburgh. The conclusions I have reached are entirely general and based on personal observations.

The Positive Side of Academia

What is it that keeps tempting me to return to academia? Why am I still browsing PhD programs? I've narrowed down my answer to the following points.

Conversations

I learned that I loved seminars. Having everyone read selected texts and then discuss those texts for hours was absolutely wonderful to me. I met some like-minded individuals with whom I became close academically, but I was also excited to be challenged by those with whom I disagreed. I highlighted and re-read the texts, thought of questions, and finally became the student I'd aspired to be for years: a talkative one. When asked about something of interest to me, I could (and still can) go on for hours and hours. Ask anyone I know! There are few things I love more than a good conversation!

Reading

Speaking of reading, I thrived in the text-heavy environment of the program of which I was a part. Not only did I read what was required, but I found related texts and perused those, as well. Additionally, researching was, to me, like solving mysteries by asking just the right questions and re-formulating the way in which I thought to produce a wide variety of resources on a given subject. I loved browsing the fascinating selection available to me at the library and checking books out. This was something I did almost every week. As a lover of reading, the concept of getting credit for reading was wonderful. Not only that, but having a built-in community of people with whom to discuss the texts was a magical experience for me. When I finished my master's degree, I even started a book club because this was a part of life as an academic that I never wanted to let go.

Community

Having people around who know what you're talking about (most of the time, anyway), or who are at least vaguely interested in similar things, is really what I found to be the greatest enticement to academia. This is something that I still miss every single day.

The Negative Side of Academia

Clearly, in many ways, I had a wonderful time in graduate school. However, there are some negative aspects to academia that apply to many schools, and I can say this with confidence, as I am in graduate school...again (I know, I'm hopeless).

Expense

First of all, it is so, so incredibly expensive. Even if you are lucky enough to secure great scholarships and/or grants, you probably won't have much time to work. If you do manage to find time to work, you'll be spreading yourself so thinly that you will get to the point that you won't even be able to function (ask me how I know). Scraping money together is no fun, and it is even less fun when it seems impossible to do so. Depending on the degree, you may have to make all sorts of time, money, mental, and emotional sacrifices for 1-7 years (yes, 7! No, I'm not referencing medical school - this is in reference to some doctoral programs for art history). This means that you will, inevitably face burnout in pretty much every possible way while trying to figure out how to live with limited funds.

Burnout

Let's talk a little bit more about burnout. I think it's important because it's difficult to know just what it's like, unless you experience it in the academic context.

Imagine you are tired in every possible way while also feeling like you are worthless and will never finish the work that is required of you. This is how I define and explain academic burnout.

The stress of trying to get work done when your heart is just not in it anymore is only exacerbated by the mental acuity that is not present that you had at the beginning of the semester or project.

When I was working on my thesis, I had a pile of books as tall as I was checked out from the library. I had so many PDFs downloaded onto my computer and so many tabs open on my browser that it felt like my head was spinning.

What is the cure? Quitting altogether or simply not caring anymore. In my experience, it is nearly impossible to just "not care."

Snobbery

Academia is, inherently, incredibly snobby. There, I said it. You've all been thinking it, I'm sure!

It's really frustrating to me that this is the case. In my opinion, learning should be for everyone. I am a teacher, after all.

People in academia think they're something special. I can say this because I've been there. I don't think I'm any better than the next person for having extensive knowledge about John Singer Sargent and art of Europe in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The same should be the case for any academic. To be fair, I've met some truly lovely people in academia. I've met an equal number of snobs, though. I'm sorry (well, no, I'm actually not), but being an academic does not give you the license to be rude to others. I will certainly treat you with respect, but you should return that respect with basic dignity.

Some of the e-mails I received from faculty at universities when considering a PhD a couple of years ago would make you fall out of your chair and then become very angry indeed.

One of my favorite TV shows, Endeavour, regularly tackles this aspect of academia. If you haven't seen the show, it is a mystery series that takes place in the late 1960s - early 1970s in Oxford, England. The protagonist for whom the show is named works in the police after dropping out of school at Oxford, but he stays in Oxford. Despite never finishing a degree in higher education, Endeavour Morse is one of the most intelligent characters that I have encountered in fiction, ever. Due to his position in the police force, however, he is treated as though he is not only unintelligent, but also of lesser status than those either in school or on staff in Oxford. I love his witty comebacks, of which there are many. I also thoroughly appreciate how he continues to educate himself and enjoy intellectual pursuits, all apart from an academic context. If you want to see more clearly what I mean in this point, watch the show. You should just watch the show, anyway. It's just so good!

Results

What do we do all of this work for? I asked myself this pretty regularly towards the end of my degree. Later, as I searched and searched and searched some more for a job, I continuously asked myself this same question. Why?

There's one obvious reason: employment. I really wanted to become a professor. I did become one. That being said, I still don't teach as a professor full-time. Finding a job in academia would be daunting to anyone, I assure you. Sadly, getting a master's degree isn't always helpful when looking for a good job - or any job, for that matter.

Apart from employment, though, why?

Answering the question isn't a simple task - it's such a nuanced issue. It really depends on the person. I think a lot of it has to do with a love of learning that is difficult to satiate. Anyway, that's what I've found. Missing a built-in community is another reason.

At the end of the day (I can never say or write that without thinking of Les Mis...), I have recognized something important. My favorite parts of academia are not restricted to the university setting. Sure, it may be easier to find community, have conversations, and focus on purposeful reading there, but - and I can't stress this enough - it isn't necessary.

Over the past few years, I've really learned a lot about how I can connect with others and continue learning, all on my own. Not only has it been extremely rewarding, but I haven't faced burnout, haven't had to pay exorbitant fees, and I rarely encounter snobbery.

I did go back to graduate school last year for entirely practical reasons. To be entirely honest, I find my other learning endeavors and outlets to be far more fulfilling.

Maybe, one day, I will work towards a PhD. I don't feel the need to now, though.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you don't need brick and mortar schools to experience and enjoy the perks of academia. You can have the good without the bad!

I'm not trying to talk you out of pursuing higher education. I am all for it! I just think it's important to pursue it for the right reasons, and it's even more important to be aware of the pros and cons before you commit.

If you, too, have thoughts about academia, I'd love to know!

I'll end my thoughts on academia with this zinger from one of my favorite books, Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers (whom I adore). If you know, you know:

“A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.”

This long, long initial post on my new blog is my roundabout way of saying that this blog is a place where I hope to write about my intellectual pursuits. Please join me in the conversation and help me make a fun learning community!

#education #academia

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bettydgunter90 · 5 years ago

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5 Subtle-But-Deadly Real Estate Investing Mistakes

I love learning about the kinds of mistakes real estate investors are prone to make.

Why? Because when I started my real estate investing career as an accidental landlord, I made every mistake in the book.

Now that I’m more seasoned (ugh, seasoned … that makes me sound kind of old), anyway, now that I’m more experienced, I still make mistakes sometimes. For example, I’m probably too conservative in my investing style (see mistake No. 1).

So without further ado, here are 5 common real estate investing mistakes that you might be making, which can be costing you.

1. Over-Leveraging (or Under-Leveraging)

If you put down 20% on a house, you’re using 20% of your own money, and 80% is leverage.

Well, you do the same thing when you’re buying a rental property—unless you buy a property and pay 100% for it upfront… but most people don’t do that. They get funding for their investment properties through their bank, an online mortgage lender or a hard money lender.

Here’s an example of how leverage can work for you. Let’s say you buy an investment property for $200,000, and you pay in cash. After factoring in your set expenses, such as property taxes, landlord insurance and HOA dues, you’ll have cash flow of $1,000 a month, or $12,000 a year. That’s a 6% return on investment. Not bad, but not stellar either.

But what if you were to use the same $200,000 and get five properties with it? If you put down 20% on each or $40,000 per property, now your cash flow might be only $300 a month when you figure in the mortgage payment, but that’s $300 per house, making your total cash flow $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year. That’s a 9% return on investment – quite a bit better, right?

That’s how leverage can work for you, and if cash flow is your primary concern, it’s not difficult to see how not leveraging can be a mistake.

But don’t forget, over-leveraging can be a mistake too.

Why? One word: risk.

When the average investor borrows money to buy a property, they do it with the assumption that their property will appreciate in value. And it often does. But what if it doesn’t? What if there’s a market crash? If that happens, your investment properties could suddenly depreciate in value and you might find yourself underwater (owing more than the property is worth).

Of course, if you have steady renters who continue to pay your rental price, you should be okay… but if your renters are affected by a local economic recession or want their rent lowered, you might have a problem. With a market crash, rents often decrease, sending many landlords in a downward spiral and at risk of losing their properties.

The key is to find your right balance so that you won’t lose everything in a crash and can ride it out. I do this by analyzing my budget and understanding what I can handle if bad things were to happen. I ask myself,

“What if I can’t find tenants? Will I be able to make the mortgage payments until I can, and if so, for how long?”

It’s more difficult, for example, to find renters in my area between September and February, so I need to time my deals correctly or be able to ride out the tough months.

“What if real estate prices decline in my area? Will I be over-leveraged to the point of being underwater? Would I then need to give up my investments through short sale or foreclosure?”

I prepare for that by buying houses in a certain price range and putting down at least 40% on a home because that is my comfort level. And I only buy in areas I know well and are likely to appreciate (or at least hold their value).

Take time to think about what you’re comfortable with. The key is to find the right balance between over-leveraging and using enough leverage that works for you.

2. Not Delegating (or Delegating Poorly)

When you’re starting out as a real estate investor, there’s a fair case to be made for doing as much as you can yourself, because you’ll be able to hold onto more of your money that way.

There are a lot of tasks involved in the day-to-day of a real estate investor.

Identifying properties

Crunching the numbers

Inspecting properties

Closing on purchases

Repairing and maintaining each unit

Screening tenants

Managing tenants

Collecting rent

Keeping financial records

Submitting taxes

With that said, trying to do everything on your own is probably not the best use of your time. While you probably can do many of these things yourself, at some point it only makes sense to bring on some help for some of these tasks.

I like to tell the story of my first rental property. It was on the west coast, but I had moved to the east coast. It was simply too hard to manage on my own, so I hired a property manager. That was the right move. Unfortunately, I didn’t properly screen the property manager and I ended up doing more work than they were doing. This company was so unresponsive to my tenant that my tenant actually needed to contact me to order and put in a new oven. So, please screen your property management company before hiring one. Read reviews and interview them to determine whether they would be a good fit for you.

RELATED: Finding the Right Property Management Company

The same goes for any professional you hire to help you with your real estate business, and that is how to think of real estate investing. It’s your business, so you want to hire only people you vet first.

My properties are now local to where I live, and I enjoy managing them myself. But I do outsource a housing inspector before I ever buy a property, a handyman for both preventive maintenance and repairs, and an accountant to do my taxes. I also use an online screening tool to run background and credit checks on tenants.

3. Being Suckered by Weekend Seminars

Have you heard the TV or radio ads that offer a “free real estate seminar” in your area? They often promise to teach you how you can earn real money flipping houses for little to no money down. You might be able to learn something from some real estate seminars, but many are just ploys to get you to spend real money, often thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, on more training and coaching, which usually turns out to be a huge waste of money.

The key to actually learning something from a real estate school or program is to have a great mentor, someone who is experienced in the real estate investing niche you’re interested in and knows your local area well.

Realize that there are many ways to learn about real estate investing that won’t require you to spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. You have many resources online (such as this one!) or books from Amazon that go in-depth on many different specialties of real estate investing.

4. Being Overly Cautious (or Not Cautious Enough)

Most new real estate investors start out with a lot of excitement. It’s not unusual for a beginner to fall in love with a house and want to buy. The problem is – they’re thinking emotionally and this is not how successful investors make decisions. If you find yourself feeling really excited about your first purchase, just stop. Take a deep breath. Analyze the deal and run the numbers. Get all the facts, verify those facts and make sure the investment actually makes sense.

Have you accounted for all the expenses (property taxes, insurance, mortgage payments, maintenance reserves, property management and the like)? Do you have an accurate idea of how much rent the property is likely to generate (and have you verified these numbers with a local property manager to make sure it’s an accurate estimate)?

Note: It’s better that you don’t buy an investment property with the sole idea that it will appreciate in value. Why? Because real estate doesn’t always appreciate. If it does appreciate, consider that a bonus, but not the sole reason to invest in it.

On the other hand, some people over analyze and never pull the trigger. They tell themselves that interest rates could go down if they wait, that prices are high now and are bound to go down soon, or that if they buy this property, another better one might come up and they will lose out.

Thinking things through is good, but overthinking and never acting is not. Once you have analyzed a deal, you’ve verified the numbers with a third party and the numbers work, you should probably go for it. Real estate is a great way to build wealth.

5. Buying in the Wrong Neighborhood

You probably know that location in real estate is huge. You need to buy in places where people want to be, and this is especially true for an investment property.

Where do people want to be? Probably the same kinds of places where you’d want to be: where there are jobs, good schools, and things to do. So it’s important to buy in an area that is either thriving economically now or, even better, is up-and-coming (that’s where the real deals can be). You want people to be able to afford the rent, however, so getting a “great deal” in an economically depressed area might not turn out to be so great.

Note that you can probably get a better deal on a property that is further out from the city center, but there will be less demand the further out you go. But trying for that prime spot in midtown might not be the best choice either if the cost is sky-high. So study the neighborhood to see if it has the important features you think people will want, and run the numbers before you buy.

As you can see, most of these mistakes are only mistakes if you fall on one end of the spectrum or the other. The good news is that there are remedies for all of them. Now that you know some of the top real estate investing mistakes, you are better prepared to get in the game and to start making money in real estate investing.

The post 5 Subtle-But-Deadly Real Estate Investing Mistakes appeared first on REtipster.

from Real Estate Tips https://retipster.com/subtle-but-deadly-real-estate-investing-mistakes/

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gabriellakirtonblog · 5 years ago

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Money Management for Personal Trainers

I was ecstatic when I got my first job as a personal trainer. It was a successful big-box gym in Boston, and I would be joining an experienced, supportive team.

The contract I signed promised me a good income. For someone who’d been living on a few dollars a day just two years before, it seemed like a mountain of money.

Until I got my first paycheck.

Within 12 months, I’d put $20,000 on my credit cards—a debt it took me two years to pay off. In the process, I learned the money-management skills they don’t teach in our certifications.

Take it from me: How you handle money, especially when you’re starting out, can make or break your career as a personal trainer. Without a solid grasp of your personal finances, you may not last long enough in the fitness industry to make a contribution.

I hope the following eight lessons help you profit from my mistakes.

READ ALSO: What I Learned from 15,000 Training Sessions in a Commercial Gym

1. Prepare for tiny paychecks

A bit about my background:

I came to the U.S. from Belarus in 2010. By 2014, when I started full-time at the gym, my English was still limited. Friends from back then joke about how they thought I was shy; once my language skills caught up with my personality, they discovered my not-so-shy self. (And we remained friends, I’m happy to report.)

That helps explain why I didn’t fully understand the contract I signed. But you can bet I figured it out when I got my first check and realized my pay was barely above minimum wage—before taxes.

The fortune I expected was based on a full roster of clients paying me for at least 27 hours of personal training a week.

You can draw two lessons from the reality of my first check:

Unless you start out on a fixed salary, you have to understand that the big bucks in your contract won’t come right away, and may not come at all.

No matter what you agreed to or expect, you should know how much your take-home pay will be so you can plan accordingly. A simple calculator like this one will give you a pretty good estimate.

Once you know what you’re going to bring home, you have to figure out how to live on it. Which leads to my next point.

READ ALSO: Personal Trainer Salary Survey: Who Earns the Most?

2. You’ll make more by spending less

I now think of myself as a financial minimalist. But it wasn’t always that way. My first few months as a trainer, when I opened the gym at 5 a.m., I started every morning with a Starbucks coffee, and usually bought another pick-me-up in the afternoon so I could power through my schoolwork. (I was studying for a degree in exercise science.)

Soon enough, I realized I was spending a whopping $400 a month on coffee. Coffee I could’ve made at home for 20 cents a cup, instead of dropping $4 at Starbucks.

That, combined with takeout lunches and dinners when I was too tired to cook, are a big reason I piled up so much debt my first year as a trainer.

My mistake—and it’s a common one—is that I didn’t understand the difference between needs and wants.

Here’s what you need:

Shelter

This includes heat, electricity, water, and Wi-Fi.

Food

Most of us train hard. And if you train hard, you need a lot of food, along with water and, of course, caffeine. What you don’t need is food in or from restaurants. Not if you can’t afford it on your take-home pay.

Transportation

You probably think your car is essential. And if you live in a medium city or small town, it probably is.

But if you live in a big city, a car can be more trouble than it’s worth. Insurance is expensive, and parking is not only a headache, it can cost a fortune (especially if the police budget depends on revenue from parking tickets).

In a city with good public transportation, you may not need a car at all, especially if you can walk or ride a bike to work.

Clean clothes for work

No one needs to go into debt to fill a closet with clothes to impress people. You only need to look professional at work. If your gym provides shirts, the only clothes your clients will see are your pants and shoes.

For everything else, what you already have is probably good enough for now. Get brutally honest with yourself about what you truly need, and what you can put off until it fits into your budget.

READ ALSO: Are You Making Yourself Rich, or Poor? Here’s Why Every Choice You Make Today Matters

3. Poor money management makes you a bad trainer

Like many new trainers, I had a quota to hit. My income depended on it, and my manager reminded me of it every week. The pressure to hit that quota and make more money stressed me out. The stress, in turn, made me a bad trainer.

Making another sale was the only thing on my mind, and you’d better believe my clients and prospects noticed. They could sense my desperation, which got worse every time I heard “I need to think about it.”

The more I thought about money, the lower my conversion rate. The lower my conversion rate, the more it carried over into my performance with the clients who were already paying me.

Unfortunately, it took me a long time to figure all this out.

But a light bulb came on about a year into my personal training career. This PTDC article on how to sell training was part of it, along with other articles on how to establish rapport with prospects and turn them into clients.

The moment I put my prospects’ and clients’ goals first, and made sessions more fun, I nearly doubled my training hours in just a month.

Happy clients who reach their goals are the key to a successful personal training career, one that gives you a comfortable income, and perhaps even more.

READ ALSO: How to Make $100,000-Plus Per Year as a Personal Trainer

4. The money isn’t yours until you’ve paid your taxes

A few years ago, when I decided to leave the gym, I asked every successful self-employed fitness pro I knew the same question: “What do you wish you’d done differently, based on what you know now?”

Everyone had the same answer: “Be sure to set aside money for taxes.”

This isn’t an issue when you work for a gym that collects your clients’ fees and deducts taxes from your paychecks. But when you’re an independent trainer, you’ll need to handle all that yourself by making quarterly payments to federal, state, and local tax collectors, and then squaring up when you file your annual returns.

As a rule, I set aside 30 percent of every fee. Yes, it’s a lot, but I’d rather save too much now than try to come up with thousands in April.

READ ALSO: Master Your Taxes in 10 Easy Steps

5. Continuing education is your second-best investment

I also set aside 2 percent of every client’s fee for continuing education. If that’s too much to keep track of, you can try Alwyn Cosgrove’s approach: Set aside the income from one client each week. At $50 a week, that’s $2,500 a year—enough to pay for several books and a seminar or two.

I think seminars are essential, especially the ones that combine theory-based information with hands-on practice. The more you know and use, the more ways you have to help your clients reach their goals.

And you know how I feel about happy clients who reach their goals.

READ ALSO: These Are the Best Advanced Certifications, According to Personal Trainers

6. Saving for retirement is your best investment

The parent company of the gym I worked for offered a 401(k) savings plan, with matching contributions.

So for every dollar an employee put into their retirement account, the employer added a dollar. You won’t find another investment that instantly doubles in value.

Unfortunately, I never took advantage of it. With my limited English, it just seemed bewildering to me, and I didn’t know where to turn for more information. Which means, for four years, I saved nothing. My employer matched nothing. I had no money invested in the booming stock market, which would’ve multiplied my savings.

I’m trying to make up for it now that I’m self-employed, but there’s no getting around the fact I left a lot of money on the table at the beginning of my career.

Setting aside money for retirement isn’t sexy, especially when you’re still living from paycheck to paycheck. But you know what else isn’t sexy? Being a 60-year-old personal trainer who’ll never be able to retire because he didn’t start saving soon enough.

7. You need a basic guide to personal finance

If what I just described seems as foreign to you as English was to me, you’re not alone. Few of us learn the basics of personal finance in school.

But nobody instinctively understands kinesiology, either. We learn it from textbooks. That’s also the best way to start your financial education—with a guide to the nuts and bolts of money management.

Which one? My editor asked for recommendations on Facebook, and ended up with a lot of suggestions. These were the ones most often mentioned.

For basic financial literacy

I Will Teach You to Be Rich, by Ramit Sethi. This is the first one I read, and also recommended by Tony Gentilcore and Mark Fisher.

The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey, got the most mentions, especially for those who need to pay down debts. But like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, another popular title with personal trainers, it has some detractors.

Your Money or Your Life, by Vicki Robin, gets a thumbs up from Dan John.

The Wealthy Barber, by David Chilton, is popular with Canadian fitness pros.

For gym owners

Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz. Gentilcore says it helped him “make sense of everything and utilize a system that’s easy and works.”

For entry-level investors

The Truth About Money, by Ric Edelman.

The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, by John Bogle

READ ALSO: The Best Books for Personal Trainers

8. You’d better be ready for the next recession

Nobody knows when the next recession will hit, or how severe it will be. All we know is that there will be one.

And when it comes, as Pete Dupuis points out in this post, it’s going to hit personal trainers hard. Clients who fear for their jobs aren’t going to keep paying you.

Dupuis offers three ways to prepare:

Cut the fat from your personal and professional budgets. Don’t wait for a recession to realize how many things you don’t need but pay for anyway.

Make your services indispensable to your clients.

Most important of all, differentiate yourself. Clients who see you as the only person who can help them solve their specific problems will be reluctant to let you go.

READ ALSO: How to Find the Right Fitness Niche for You

Final thoughts

At the beginning of my career, I just wanted to learn as much as I could about exercise science and the psychology of training. I regret absolutely nothing I did in my eagerness to become the best trainer I could be.

What I didn’t know is that my lack of financial knowledge would prevent me from taking full advantage of my fitness knowledge.

Believe me when I say you need both. The better you manage your money, the less pressure you’ll feel to make the next sale, and the more you can focus on your clients’ success.

Make them happy, and they’ll make you rich.

Ready to Take Your Personal Training Career to the Next Level?

Starting your career isn’t complicated. All you need is for someone to pay you to train them.

But how do you get that first client? What do you need to know? Where do you want to work, and how do you get hired?

If your answer to any of those questions is “I don’t know,” you need The Wealthy Fit Pro’s Guide to Starting Your Career, the ultimate launching pad for ambitious personal trainers.

Jonathan Goodman will show you how to …

Land the perfect job for you (pg. 17)

Attract more clients (pg. 95)

Keep more clients (pg. 55)

Get even more clients through a foolproof referral system (pg. 115)

Learn the no-fail secret to motivating clients (pg. 61)

Set yourself apart with programs your clients will brag about (pg. 71)

Master marketing skills that open up new income opportunities (pg. 152)

Become the best trainer you can be (pg. 46)

If you’re just beginning your journey in the fitness industry (or know someone who is), you won’t find a more authoritative or comprehensive resource.

Order this book in paperback today and get the audiobook and ebook 100% free (a $40 value).

It all starts by clicking here: The Wealthy Fit Pro’s Guide to Starting Your Career

The post Money Management for Personal Trainers appeared first on The PTDC.

Money Management for Personal Trainers published first on https://onezeroonesarms.tumblr.com/

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leodottavioleandrodottavio-blog · 6 years ago

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Leo Dottavio | Leandro Dottavio | So - You Intend to Be a Star?

I've been in the entertainment company enough time to see every little thing from legitimate projects to scams, reputable spreading’s to frauds, and also reputable courses and seminars to, well, you understand.

Typically I'm come close to on a collection or project and also asked how I obtained my begin, or even more generally, "just how can I do what you do?"

Education.

I inform people the very same thing. I have actually been an actor and stuntman for a long enough time to absolutely be thought about specialist (over 20 years). My history is classic and music theatre. I took advantage of the old school approach of finding out feats, by being taken under a professional stuntman's wing and also showed the fundamentals, a foundation to which I continue to enhance with even more training as well as tutoring. This applies to both my performing and also stunt abilities, as educator and trainee.

Education and learning can take lots of kinds.

If you stay in or near one of the significant metropolitan areas where there is a lot of theater or film job, enroll in courses in the previous, and get yourself registered with an additionals casting firm for the last. At the minimum, obtain associated with area theatre.

Leo Dottavio

In the theater atmosphere, you will find out obstructing and also activity choreography, in addition to established building and also a host of various other skills.

On a movie established you'll learn more about all these things and even more, like what all those divisions detailed in the credit ratings do, and also the self-control that goes into making an activity image. Look at it by doing this: you're earning money to find out.

If you have an interest in the stunt side of points, spend time learning acrobatics, dancing, or establishing skills that will certainly help you tune right into your body's athletic ability. This can be anything from sporting activities to treking.

Often I see classified listings and promotions providing jobs as an extra, as well as various other talent-based tasks typically touting remarkable amounts of settlement.

On a non-union job (Something NOT controlled by the Screen Star's Guild -DROOP, or American Federation of Television and Radio Artists - AFTRA) pay scales differ extremely. Even on a signatory job, in particular states, if you're not a participant of among these guilds pay can be substantially much less than is advertised in among these "work deals."

Leandro Dottavio

The most vital thing to keep in mind is this: You must not pay to be detailed with an agency, or sign up with one of these task listing companies.

There are exceptions, such as an additionals firm that could bill you 25.00 to 50.00 bucks a year to keep you in their database but don't bill you a penny in commission.

And also there are a lot of web sites that bill for website organizing. Most of the times, you can find a talent or home entertainment concentrated site that will allow you post your details completely free.

If you are going to enroll in a class, do the research study. Ask to examine a class, as well as talk to existing and former students. If the facility is legitimate, they typically will not have an issue with either. Use the net to find out about the company.

The crucial key is this: if they're encouraging you work, as well as desire something, like money, up front, after that recommend to them if they're so confident in your capability to obtain work that probably they should take a payment from your PAY.

Be Smart, be Practical. A lot of online (not all, but the majority of) are not marketed and do not service the market. When somebody join, their information and also vitals languish. The majority of spreading directors who do use on the internet resources make use of legit on the internet sources, like IActor (The SAG site for talent).

Take the time as well as ask people in the business. Usage common sense. And also when you're speaking with anybody in the industry, be well-mannered and expert, as well as ask questions, yet don't let down your guard. In this, as in any undertaking, education and learning is your key to understanding. This puts on everything from headshots to just how to layout a cover letter to a coordinator.

#Leo Dottavio #Leandro Dottavio #athlete #hollywood stuntman #comedian

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enetproperty-blog · 6 years ago

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Will House Prices Keep Rising?

Will House Prices Keep Rising? A very interesting article appeared in a recent edition of the “Financial Times” says David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com. In the article, Merryn Somerset Webb asked, “Will house prices will ever rise again?” A fair question. Her view was that it was nearly impossible to answer this question if you do not have a good understanding of population trends, political priorities and things like income levels, interest and exchange rates. According to her, we are victims of having our experience slanted by the times we grew up in, which Somerset Webb argues is probably not at all typical. For evidence, she quotes the latest Deutsche Bank Long Term Asset Return Study by Jim Reid and others which looks at a much longer term period. Will House Prices Keep Rising? It seems from this study that fast rising house prices are in fact a relatively recent phenomenon. Since the start of World War Two, house prices have risen by three per cent a year after taking account of inflation. But it seems, before that date, they mostly fell, by 50 per cent in total, after the effects of inflation, in the long period from then late thirteenth century to 1939. Wow, that is quite a long period – and the authors of the study admit that the data from “way back” in previous centuries was calculated using quite a host of assumptions. I’ll bet it was! So what was it that changed in the mid twentieth century to make house prices rise so fast? And could it change again? Will house prices will ever rise again? Demographic Trends Somerset Webb points out that a major part of the answer lies in demographics. She cites the discovery of advances like the smallpox vaccine in 1796 as big factors as they hugely increased life expectancy. This meant that global population growth, which had sauntered at a growth rate of 0.17 per cent a year until 1820, shot up to 0.98 per cent a year from 1820 until the year 2000. Looking at the more recent 50 years from 1950 to 2000, the global population more than doubled – leading to major consequences for a whole host of economic measures. For example, both inflation and unemployment rose fast in the 1970s as the baby boomers chased down a limited supply of jobs and at the same time began to consume on a much bigger scale. Later on, according to Somerset Webb, when these same baby boomers moved into their thirties and forties, this led to a stock market boom as people invested their earnings to help provide for their retirements. They also bought bigger and better houses than their parents could afford. This cohort was a very large and active voting block whom politicians of those times were keen to keep happy. Many measures were passed to suit them – for example tax relief on mortgage interest on one’s own home and no CGT on sale of your main home either. Naturally, this stoked up demand for housing – which has always ran ahead of supply in land-constrained Britain – and assisted fast rising prices of houses from the mid-70s to 2008 (apart from a short sharp shock from 1989 to 1995 due to a credit crisis at that time). The links from money supply to gold had long been abandoned, so money supply could be easily expanded, leading eventually, to lower interest rates. Low interest rates are good for housing prices too, of course. House Prices and Buy to Let Housing was now getting good posts as always being a great investment which has helped the entry of the buy to let investors from the late 1980s, (which was also facilitated by changes to housing law, which made it easier to recover your property from a tenant, without needing to prove a default on rent). For many of us, the principal reason for investing in property was because it was a sort of pseudo-pension, which was more reliable and less costly than a stock market funds-based pension. Since the financial crisis in 2008, low interest rates have meant that the actual cost of buying a home has been flat, because the ultra- low interest rates have compensated for rising house prices. So, what of the future, according to Merryn Somerset Webb? Will House Prices Keep Rising? The Future Her view is that the world will be very different. She points out that world population growth peaked in 1968 at two percent. Today it is closer to one per cent – removing a key driver to house price growth, she says. She is not convinced that post-Brexit, the UK will be as attractive as it once was to migrants from overseas or investors from abroad – thus curtailing demand from overseas for UK residential property. She thinks that interest rates are more likely to rise than fall, in the next few years, taking another plank from under house prices. Finally, she shows how much harder life has got, especially for the buy to let landlord, as a result of tax and regulatory changes – reductions in the scope of tax relief on loans, tighter affordability rules on loans, new energy efficiency rules and licensing changes, to name but four! And all that before we even come to changes on capital gains tax – where landlords have to pay 28%, (whereas for everything else it is 20%), the effective elimination of Letting Relief and possible future big increases in council tax / wealth taxes for more expensive properties. Finally, there are proposed surcharges for non-UK residents buying UK property too. Ouch! Mark Carney’s latest claim that house prices could be pole-axed in the event of a no-deal Brexit could further hit house prices too. It is a great piece of work by Somerset Webb, but I don’t share her fears. Here’s why…. Will House Prices Keep Rising? Yes, We Think So! Whilst, I agree it’s possible that house prices could be flat in real terms over the next ten years, that will still mean good gains in absolute terms. The fact is that as people get richer they will spend a higher percentage of their cash on luxuries and the goodies in life. Having a nice home is just one of these – but the biggest expenditure by far. It’s not unusual to see that housing and rents from a higher percentage of people’s disposable income over time. People moan about this, but that is just how it is. As we get richer, this is just what people do. If landlords continue to exit the private rented sector, market, this will lead to a lack of supply of rented accommodation. In this scenario, rents will surely increase well ahead of inflation. There will also be areas where strong regeneration stories will lead to house prices and rents that far outpace inflation. At LettingFocus, we can help you find those areas. Also, I think that the continued rapid technological changes will inevitably lead to low inflation or even negative inflation and hence low wage increases, (it has always done this historically), and this will tend to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future too. These low interest rates will keep a full head of steam under real asset prices such as the price of housing. Finally, lots of recent data shows that foreign buyers are still very active, taking full advantage of the weak pound. They are clearly not that bothered about Brexit. So, in conclusion, IMHO, there are still many reasons to be cheerful. The link to the full article in the Financial Times is here: https://www.ft.com/content/e115268e-e35e-11e8-a6e5-792428919cee ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS Services for Private Landlords We help landlords and property investors by showing them how to make money in the private rented sector using ways which are fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk. Our advice is completely independent. We take don’t commission payments or fees from anyone, ever. Services to Businesses and the Public Sector We advise a range of organisations too to help them develop and improve their services and products for private landlords. David Lawrenson, founder of LettingFocus, also writes for property portals, speaks at property events and is regularly quoted by the media. HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG: Blog THE HOME PAGE OF THE MAIN SITE: http://www.LettingFocus.com For general information on our CONSULTING SERVICES: Consultancy and Seminars For ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS: Property Advice CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – from both organisations and private landlords: Testimonials IN THE MEDIA: Recent Press Coverage BOOKS: “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING”: Our book is the highest selling personal finance and property book in the UK. Click here to Find Out More and Buy it. And if you are from an organisation and would like to bulk buy, please ask us for special rates. “BUY TO LET LANDLORDS GUIDE TO FINDING GREAT TENANTS”: Also, get this great new guide here, which covers everything you’ll ever need to know to avoid either you or your letting agent getting anyone other than the perfect tenant. Click Here to Buy It. BOOK FOR TENANTS: Kids going off and renting for the first time? My Book for Tenants is also Available TO JOIN OUR FREE NEWSLETTER MAILER which goes to over 3,990 people (as at Oct 2018) just send an email to [email protected] We do not send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers, though we occasionally mail landlords about good products from third parties. Please put us on your “white list” to ensure you receive our emails. OFFERS ON PRODUCTS FOR LANDLORDS and TO ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCTS to LANDLORDS: Landlords Resources PERUSE LAST TEN BLOGS BY GETTING THE RSS FEED: Click Here NEXT ANNUAL SEMINAR EVENT FOR LANDLORDS: Landlord and Property Letting Seminar TWITTER PAGE My thoughts on property, personal finance, plus a lot of other random things: Twitter Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2018. Please link to us here or quote us. We actively pursue copyright infringements. The blog is updated roughly every two weeks. The post Will House Prices Keep Rising? appeared first on Letting Focus.

http://www.lettingfocus.com/blogs/2018/12/will-house-prices-keep-rising/

#House Price Bubble #House Price Forecasts #house price predictions #House Price Trends #House Prices #House prices and population #Will House Prices Keep Rising?

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sarahburness · 7 years ago

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A Detailed Guide On How To Manage Money Effectively

Are you struggling with your finances regardless of how much money you earn? Are you having a hard time knowing how to manage money effectively?

Whether you earn $2,000, $4,000 or $8,000 a month or more, you struggle to pay for your bills and barely have enough money to save. Sometimes, you even think about asking for a raise, getting a second job or an extra freelance work so you could make ends meet. Then you realize there are people earning less than you that are doing much better with their finances than you are.

How could that be?

The reality is that it doesn’t really matter how much you earn. Managing money is a responsibility and if you can’t manage $1,000 effectively, you can’t expect to manage $1,000,000, either. You have to be able to handle the small ones first before you can take on bigger, more challenging tasks.

Why is it important to learn how to manage your money?

Think of money as a person.

If you treat someone poorly, you don’t give them the respect they deserve and you take them for granted, would that person stay? Chances are they won’t.

On the other hand, if you value a person, you take care of them. You do absolutely everything necessary to make them stay and keep them from leaving you.

I am not suggesting that you value money over friends or family. What I am saying is that it deserves your attention, time, and effort so you can improve your financial situation.

If you badly want to get out of debt or if you want to build a fortune and provide a better life for your family, you have to learn how to use money to your advantage instead of letting money take control over you.

How do millionaires handle their money?

According to T. Harv Eker, one thing that’s similar between all millionaires (and billionaires for that matter) is that they all manage their money very well.

With enough practice, anyone can master how to manage money effectively. I find that a simple yet valuable concept shared by T. Harv Eker in his book (The secrets of the Millionaire mind) is pretty helpful when it comes to keeping your finances in order. It’s called the jars concept and here’s how it works:

Whatever amount of money you earn (net, minus the tax), divide it into 6 jars or bank accounts if you like. I personally like using envelopes.

10% of your money goes to your FFA (financial freedom account)

10% to LTSS (long-term savings for spending)

10% to your educational account

55% to your utilities

10% to your fun account

5% to your give account

So, let’s say you earned $3,000 net for the month. This is how you should divide your money:

FFA – $300

Education – $300

LTSS – $300

Utilities – $1,650

Fun – $300

Give – $150

If you are married and you have a common bank account, you can combine your money and divide the total amount into the jars.

It doesn’t matter if one person is earning more than the other. Keep in mind that in a relationship, money is just one aspect.

The amount of money you’re budgeting is not important, too. What matters is that you get into the habit of managing your money. This way, as your capacity to earn money grows, so does the money that you put in the jars.

See Also: 5 Women Entrepreneurs Who Failed Before Becoming Millionaires

How do the jars work?

FFA (Financial Freedom Account)

People like to call this a savings account, but we like to call it the FFA. Why? This is not just your savings. It’s actually your golden goose.

This is the first account you should put money in because this will set you up for financial freedom.

The money that goes into this account will only be used if you’re going to spend it on something that’s going to make you money.

And since this is your golden goose, you don’t want to kill it. If you are going to invest money from this account, make sure not to use it all up.

Long-Term Savings for Spending (LTSS)

This jar works in a variety of ways.

We use the money in this jar to pay for things we want to buy but might need to save for first. It can be a house, vacation or new car.

In case you are in debt, use the money in this jar to pay it off.

If you want to get over your debt, shift your mindset into thinking of ways to make money and your debt will be paid off.

You can also use this account if an unexpected expense arises. Let’s say you got invited to a birthday and need to buy a gift, you can take money from this jar.

Education account

The most successful people are the ones who continue learning so it is important that you invest in your continued education, too.

For context, Warren Buffet claims to read 500 pages a day. It’s not a coincidence that he’s one of the richest men in the world.

If you want to learn a new skill, go ahead and attend that seminar you always wanted to go to. Buy that book that might help you improve your mindset. Use this money if you want to go back to school.

The money from this account is for the purpose of improving your skills and knowledge.

Utilities jar

This is also known as your budget. This is where you get money to pay for your rent, house mortgage, car loans, and other bills.

Now, sticking to the example salary above, let’s say you’re on a $3000 paycheck and are supposed to allocate $1650 to pay for your utilities. You might be saying, “That’s too little” or ” It’s not enough”. This is the part where you have to learn to be creative and think of ways to save money or think of the bills that have to go.

For example, if you’re paying for a monthly gym membership of $50 which you don’t frequently go to, it’s a good idea to cancel that membership. Find an alternative activity that might not cost as much. This can be biking, yoga or hiking.

If you’re paying for Netflix but are not watching anyway, cancel it.

Fun account

The key to living a happy life is balance in everything.

So, if you are saving all this money to invest in the future, it’s just fair that you enjoy your money as well. Use the money in this account to go to that really nice restaurant or get a massage.

Blow the money and leave nothing. If you want, you can save the money in your fun account for up to 3 months if the treat you’re thinking for yourself costs more.

However, if this account is already empty and you still want to have a good time or there are still things you want to buy, do not take money from the other accounts just to satisfy your urge.

Don’t borrow money and don’t take our your credit card. It only means that you cannot afford it anymore. You either have to save for it first or you can think of ways to make more money.

Give account

I believe that giving back, especially to the people who won’t be able to repay you, is a magnet for positive karma.

It also sends a signal to your brain and the universe that there is an abundance of money in this world, that there is more than enough for you. When you send signals like that to the universe, I guarantee you that the universe will send more money your way.

If you want to take it a step further, give something that is more important than money. You can choose to give your time as well. Giving money is great but giving your time is just as valuable.

I read about this guy who gives free haircuts to homeless people. It doesn’t take much money to do what he does but by giving his time to cut their hair, he’s able to give back their self-respect and confidence which can help them find new jobs.

What do I do from here?

Managing your money takes effort, patience, practice, and trusting the process.

The first month I tried the jars method, I was absolutely shocked to discover that I spent too much money footing restaurant bills for my friends, treating them to lunch, dinner, and the movies.

By learning the boundaries as to what I can spend and on what, I managed to control my spending.

It was uncomfortable at first but after the next few months, I saw how much my savings has grown. I felt more motivated to manage my money.

So, give it a shot. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The post A Detailed Guide On How To Manage Money Effectively appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

from Dumb Little Man https://www.dumblittleman.com/how-to-manage-money-effectively/

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sportsandfitnessinfo · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://fitnessandhealthpros.com/health/the-secret-side-effects-of-caring-for-your-body/

The Secret Side Effects Of Caring For Your Body

Sitting on a bench outside the coffee shop, Coach Dan and I had just wrapped up a successful Unbreakable Body workshop weekend, and the conversation turned to what we get out of our own fitness practice – the learning, the workshops, the coaching, that we pursue for our own practice – beyond the “usual” results of ‘get stronger’ or ‘be more mobile’. It became such a far-reaching conversation that I asked Dan, who is a friend, a client of mine, and my Assistant Coach in The Unbreakable Body, to share more on this topic with you. As you read, ask yourself, “what are my returns on this investment I’m making into my body, besides the ‘obvious’ stuff?” Over to Coach Dan…

My wife and I recently started ordering food from a meal kit service. You probably know the drill with these. Every couple of days, a large freezer box shows up at our door. When I open the box I find clearly labeled ingredients and an easy to follow recipe. There is no guess work, no grocery list, no trip to the store, and no researching new recipes. The meal kit service does all of that for us, we just need to follow the directions.

Now, our family is far from ignorant in the kitchen. My wife went to culinary school and I’ve been cooking my entire life. We have more than enough grocery stores near our house and though we’re busy with full-time jobs and two kids, we definitely could schedule time to shop once or twice a week.

The reason we decided to order meal kits is because of the tremendous upside.

It has freed up our evening schedule. We’re preparing meals we wouldn’t have thought of on our own. And I’m learning new skills in the kitchen that I wouldn’t have if I was relying on the same recipes I’ve been cycling through for years.

Yes, meal kits cost a bit more than if we did all of the work on our own, but we value the return on investment more.

My experience with fitness has been similar to my experience with meal kits. Like the kitchen, I know my way around a gym. I’ve been a card-carrying certified personal trainer for a long time. I have the ability to write programming for myself and I look forward to my workouts.

My list of “go to” programs is like my list of “go to” recipes – they work, but the lack of variety leaves a lot to be desired.

Because of that, I’ve pursued coaches, attended workshops, and earned certifications, so I can learn new things and expand my horizons…just like I’ve been doing with the meal kit services. The upside of pursuing more guidance and knowledge in fitness has been even higher than letting someone else plan what I’m going to make for dinner!

Here are a few of my secret side effects I’ve found from pursuing knowledge about how to be a better caretaker of my body. Which of these resonate with you? What else would you add to this list if you were making it?

Secret Side Effect: Discovering what I didn’t know that I didn’t know

Imagine you bump into a friend you haven’t seen in a few months. Upon noticing them you can’t believe how fit and healthy they look. Out of curiosity, you ask what they’ve been doing to get into such great shape. Their response is, “Oh, I’ve been attending _____ classes. “

You’d like to be fit and healthy too, and since those classes worked for your friend, you decide it will also work for you.

The problem lies in that most of people don’t know what they don’t know regarding how prepared their body needs to be before starting a new type of physical activity. Even fitness coaches, when entering a new realm, like powerlifting or Mobility Training, don’t know what they don’t know.

Having a coach to ask question about your preparedness that you didn’t even know you needed to be asking, and helping you to determine where you need to prepare your body more, is worth it.

Doing so can save you a potential plateau, pain, or maybe even an injury in the future. Even if you’ve never had aches or pains from being active, improving your understanding of what you really need to make your body do what you want it to do, is invaluable.

Secret Side Effect: Improved personal accountability

Working out is something I look forward to, but even though I enjoy training, I can lose motivation from time to time. Every coach I’ve worked with has checked in on how my workouts are going.

Whether that check-in is once a week or once a month, I’m always motivated by knowing I’ll have to provide feedback to my teacher. Remembering that gives me the energy to start my workout. And once I get started, the ball tends to keep rolling forward until ‘all of a sudden’, the workout is done.

More importantly, accountability transcends paying someone to make sure I’m working hard. The coach/client relationship tends to become more personal than that. I have my fair share of insecurities – I don’t often see in myself what others perceive clearly.

Most of the coaches I’ve worked with have uncovered potential in me I didn’t know I had.

Letting someone help you tap into your true potential requires more vulnerability than simply opening your wallet and swiping a credit card, but you can’t place a dollar value on allowing others to shed light on how incredible you really are.

Secret Side Effect: Making new friends and connections

I have made and maintained a lot of friends by going to workshops and seminars put on by coaches. Attending these events places a bunch of people who are on a similar journey in the same room, and with social media to support, it’s easy to stay in touch with the like minded people you’ve met. Those friendships can lead to encouragement on Instagram and the sharing of resources on Facebook. You might not get to see these people live and in-person very often, but corresponding online is very beneficial, both in terms of support and in furthering your education even more.

An old adage goes like this “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I’d go a step further and say, your world is colored by the five things you connect with online most.

Meaning, if I can make my social media feeds chock full of people I know, like, support, and who support me – even if it’s only through a comment on my most recent video – I’ll take that over the awful noise that would otherwise fill my feed.

Secret Side Effect: Evolving My Self

Most people have a detailed list of exercises they despise. I’m no different. Often, the exercises I don’t like are the same ones that would be of most benefit to me. And doing these drills and noticing what bubbles up inside me is as I do these annoying but beneficial exercises is hugely beneficial for more than just my biceps or my gluteus medius.

Those exercises teach lessons about work ethic, patience, abundance-mindset thinking, and how to apply them to other areas of life.

When I notice an aversion to a particular exercise in my program, I can either avoid it, and skip over all the feelings and thoughts that come up for me. Or, I can march forward, do the exercise, and notice what I’m thinking, feeling, and sensing, as I do it. I always choose to march forward because this territory is prime ‘personal development landscape’ for me to cultivate.

For example, the very act of writing this article for publication where I know thousands of people will read it wouldn’t have gotten done if it weren’t for the personal development I’ve done through my workouts. You see, I’ve had the same doubts about my writing ability as I’ve had about what I can achieve my body. But what I’ve been taught by coaches – “show up daily”, “trust the process”, and “set the bar high” has paved the road to this being the second article I’ve written for Fit For Real Life.

How To Get More Secret Side Effects Out Of Your Fitness Practice

Expand yourself. Dive in further. Purchase a new book on a subject that you think might help you be a better care taker of your body. Find a workshop that looks interesting. Hire a coach to assist you on one of your goals you haven’t yet reached.

The investment you make of your attention, your time, and your money, into caring for your body will never be wasted.

As Kate always says, “even if you try something and it turns out to not be the Thing that gets you the result you wanted…that wasn’t time wasted because now you have a new piece of data”. Those ‘pieces of data’ are what end up guiding you to the ultimate Thing that is going to get you where you want to go.

So consider taking a step today to invest further in yourself and your fitness practice. More secret side effects are waiting for you as you walk your journey toward feeling great and moving well!

photo credit: FotoGrazio Prelude to Cybernetic Circuits via photopin (license)

Dan Chmura lives in Holland, MI with his wife and two children. Exploring the holistic function of humans is his passion. A few of his interests include hiking the North Country Scenic Trail, swimming in Lake Michigan, and conversations laden with analogies.

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Originally at :Fit For Real Life Written By : Kate Galliett

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