Monthly Budgeting as a Long Term Strategy

Filed under:Finance Online, Self Improvement — posted on November 21, 2009 @ 11:40 pm

If you are reading this, you are probably interested in searching for ways to control your finances. Developing and committing to a monthly budget has always been one of the ideal methods to do this. Having a solid budget is important for managing your finances, one that has allowed me to survive even on limited funds. One of the most critical things that I do every month is organise my monthly budget, this has allowed me to consistently meet all expenditures, grow my savings, and reduce debt.

I map out my budget for the coming month on about the 20th of the current month. That gives me a heads up about what’s down the road. It’s not a good idea to develop a budget after getting paid because, too often, that flush feeling of getting a paycheck leads to unessential and impulsive spending before the paycheck ever reaches the bank.

I start my personal budget by outlining all the disbursements that must be paid on time like, mortgage repayments, utility bills, insurance payments and car loans. These are the things I must pay to keep a adequate roof over my head and continue earning money. I like to pad these essentials to produce “money back” after paying the bills and, if costs increase out of the blue, I’m always covered.

Next, my budget is subjected to a list of discretionary things I need to cover but could live without if absolutely needed. For example, donations, credit card repayments and monthly sving deposits. These things are also needed, but in instance of emergency I could put them off for a short time. By paying credit card companies the maximum instead of the minimum, I keep my credit score high and my debt low.

My budget will not include the cost of food, clothing, or entertainment. These expenses get covered by what’s left over and that’s that. Some months involve lots of beans and rice, slow-cooker meals, free or cheap entertainment, and only one inexpensive piece of clothing . This strategy of managing my monthly budget has worked out very well over the long term as long as I observe it religiously.

My Hair Loss Journey

Filed under:Beauty, Health Management, Self Improvement — posted on October 9, 2009 @ 3:38 am

My hair loss treatment journey commenced the day I started to notice my receding hair line and my bald spot getting bigger. The most apparent thing to do was to find ways to comb my hair to hide my bald spot. I noticed myself wearing more hats on the weekends as I went out with my wife, acquaintances or family. Walking in to work every morning was a difficult experience without my hat on. You change the way you think when you are experiencing hair loss. It is so true that you never know what you have until you lose it. That can be true about your hair loss.

As I looked in the mirror I began to appreciate every one of the hair strands I had left. It was as if with each individual hair I lost, so was a small part of my self-confidence gone as well. A mate of mine had been experiencing the same problem as me. I observed recently that he seemed so much more relaxed and it looks as though his hair was growing back. I never wanted to bring it up but after a while I decided to ask. It was then that he recommended to me Advanced Hair Studio. My friend Josh told me that he had only had a few treatments and has already started to see some results, he not only regrown his hair, but his confidence as well. After speaking to Josh and understanding what Advanced Hair has done for him, I took the courage to make an appointment for a free hair check.

I was a little cynical at first. But within a few weeks the effects were evident. Not only on my scalp, but in my behaviour. I began feeling better about myself and started to lose the hats on the weekends. My wife has also pointed out a change in my day to day behavior as well. It is amazing how just a few treatments to the Advanced Hair Studio had begun to change my life as a whole. I always felt as if the first thing people observed about me was my bald spot. Now, I am not frightened to look people in the eyes again as I have my full set of self esteem back.

Advance Hair Studio has not only given me back my hair little by little, but a big part of my confidence as well. If you are suffering from hair loss I highly recommend them as it has done so much for me in just a few months of treatments. Don’t let your self-confidence continue to be lost with your hair.

How I Got My Budget under Control

Filed under:Finance Online, Self Improvement — posted on August 15, 2009 @ 10:56 pm

Between regular monthly bills and unexpected expenses, it seemed I was constantly off on my budget. As soon as I got my pay, it was already spent. I got a stack of bills every month and put them off to the last minute, then did them all in a hurry. As a result I ended up taking over money from the next paycheck just to make it through. The problem was not related to how much money I made, it’s that I didn’t know how to manage my budget. In the case of any emergency, landed me even further in debt.

I am positive most of us have been in this position. We try to be cautious with our money, but long before month-end, the money is spent. Paying bills is a juggling act that most of us don’t have the time or energy to handle. There’s always one bill that was unnoticed or delayed, one more expenditure we weren’t organized for. With school supplies and fees for the kids, groceries, new tyres for the car, and the rising cost of petrol, just making it from paycheck to paycheck is hard enough; saving money is out of the question. Meantime, debt is quietly jamming up. I asked myself how I can get my budget under control?

Fortunately for me, I discovered a service which will help me budget my money more sagely and take away the tension of paying off monthly bills, allowing me to concentrate on the things that really matter to my family. No more worrying over where the money will come from; I can finally relax, knowing that my finances are in good hands.

The financial planning process:
Usually during your initial consultation, your budget specialist will look at all of your present debts and monthly payments to come up with a program that works for you. They will oversee your money, setting aside money for savings, emergencies, and long-term investment, ensuring your family’s financial security. If you are planning a major purchase, this will be factored into your budget so that when you are ready to buy, the money will be there for you.

Your paychecks are usually deposited with your financial planner, and a separate account is set up for your living expenses. Bills and repayments are diverted to your budgeting specialist for payment. There is a chance that your consultant can lower your monthly payments and reduce your outstanding debt by negotiating with creditors. A affordable monthly fee is assessed for all these services.

For me, the most important monthly service my budget consultant provides is peace of mind. I don’t have to worry about paying any bills; I know my bills will be paid on time, and that I’ll have money in reservation for life’s little emergencies. My budget is finally under control, thanks to my financial planning service.

Is Being Bald the Current Leading Trend?

Filed under:Self Improvement — posted on June 7, 2009 @ 2:58 pm

Men have constantly been self sensitive about being bald, however, these days being bald is fast becoming a fashion craze. Many of today’s male movie stars are also sporting bald heads. People will probably get many of the trendiest up & coming celebs with bald heads, by decision. There are additionally various older movie stars that are not hiding up the fact that they are becoming bald. These looks are great for men, that do not need to worry about being bald. The other incredible news for men that are losing their hair, is that there are currently many advanced hair remedies, then ever before.

If one need confidence that being bald is accepted simply look at Vin Diesel, Howie Mandel, Bruce Willis & Andre Agassi. These men are some of the most attractive men in the US, and they are all bald. Whether bald by decision or by nature, baldness will often make you look astonishingly distinguished & trendy. When men are bald & bold, they are very appealing. Just like any fashion, being bald is all about attitude. When people are bald you need to own a positive attitude, then you may have no doubt engaging girls.

If you are going bald, but you are not yet hopeful with your latest feature, there are numerous cures on offer. Countless hair loss remedies, aid you grow back your own natural hair. When you grow back your own hair, it will look & feel completely natural. Growing back one’s own hair can aid you look and feel younger, & can often aid you feel more confidant. Growing back your own hair is a great option, for the reason that you will continue to look like yourself, only younger.

Should growing one’s own hair back is not an option, there are also countless advanced hair remedy that will help you get a full head of hair back. No matter what sort of baldness problems you are having, rest assured that there is a hair loss therapy that will work for you. Some of the advanced hair remedies are more elaborate, and it can be a longer period before you own a full head of hair. Numerous men worry, about their hair looking natural after they use these advanced hair treatments. Be sure to speak to a doctor or the person doing the hair remedies, to make sure you absolutely understand the results.

The most fundamental thing regarding hair loss, is that you feel natural and comfortable. If you feel handsome bald, don’t care about acquiring hair loss remedies. If you are self conscious about your thinning hair, you are not alone. If you do your research, & get the very best hair loss treatment for you, you’re sure to feel great with your hair. Click here for hair advanced hair loss treatments and advice.

Motivational Training- Success Secret to the Size of Your Success Game- Got Game?

Filed under:Self Improvement — posted on June 8, 2008 @ 4:07 pm

” It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog…..”
Doug’s Mentor

Question.

How bad do you really want to succeed in life and how much are you motivated to do so??

Think about it.

How bad? A little? A lot? No motivation?

Another question:

Are you willing to fight for it?

Are you willing to go the distance like you never have before, and bring out that fight in you
that has been beaten down for so long? Are you motivated to fight against mediocrity and failure?

Do you realize the only fight you have with being motivated for Success is yourself? That’s it.

Remember this:

ALL Defeat comes from within.

Period.

No exceptions.

The only person who can stop you from becoming successful is YOU.

Motivational Success Secret:

YOU FIGHT YOU all day long with untruths about yourself that came from others, and attracts failure and mediocrity like a magnet on steroids.

The words you say. The thoughts you think. The words others say and you believe. Your Past which you cling to, and the excuses you have embraced.

But yet you want more out of life.

you know what the word FIGHT stands for?

Forcing Inside Garbage (to) Honor Truth.

The truth about you. The truth about what your Creator wants for your life. The truth about
the greatness inside of you and the Fight that is starving and motivated to Pummell mediocrity and failure to
smithereens.

It’s there. You know it is. It’s just dormant.

Increase the size of the fight in you and face the Success truth about yourself. There is a Bigger YOU inside that can create a destiny and future that’s staggering if you let it, and let the Motivated Fighting Spirit in you refuse to give up or be denied.

He did.

He came home, slammed the books down on the table, ran upstairs, slammed the door and broke down and cried. It was his 9th grade year.

His mother came in, and said, “Son, what’s wrong?”

Through a 15 year’s old broken heart, he said-” I got cut…I didn’t make the team. Coach said I was too small”

With incredible wisdom, the mother said..” Son, always remember this — it’s not the size of the person in the game, it’s the size of the game — in the person.”

She left.

It clicked. In a huge way. Like nothing had ever before.

The next morning:

It started.

He got up at 4:30 am and started practicing every morning, every evening, every day.

Every week, every month. Relentless. Nonstop.

His Fight had Ignited. He would not be denied.

Through the snow — rain — sleet — ice — wind –hail. He kept practicing. He gave up movies
and things that he did before. The Success Fight kept getting bigger. And bigger. And Bigger.

And he kept saying to himself, “It’s not the size of the player in the game, but the size of the game in the player.”

Over,and Over,and Over.

And then it came around again.

The Season.

He tried out. With a focus so strong and motivated, that it intimidated even the coach. His Fight was at Peak Force. And he made the team.

The next year he made the team.

And he went on to Explode the fight in him to where noone dared to stop him, and no one could.

He set record, after record, after record, from that point forward.

His name?

Michael Jordan.

What’s the size of your game?

(c) 2006/ all rights reserved- Wealth Transformation Systems.

Doug Firebaugh is one of the top Success
Trainers in the world. Over a million people a month
read his training ezine. He spent the last 7 years
traveling the world speaking and training on Success.
He lives in Birmingham Michigan, and you can receive a
FREE subscription to his training ezine- The MLM
Success HEAT- at:
http://www.passionfire.com/pf_heat_9.html

http://www.passionfire.com

When Nothing Seems to be Going Right

Filed under:Self Improvement — posted on May 1, 2008 @ 7:45 pm

It’s more then just a bad hair day. Truth is, you don’t even
care how your hair looks because everything that can go wrong is
going wrong. It’s not like you created the problems yourself and
are having to fix your own mess. That’s easy enough to deal
with. No, this is about those days when nobody takes you
seriously, every light turns red when you’re on a tight schedule
as it is, and your spouse is in one of their darker moods. You
drop your lunch in your lap and there’s no way you can sneak
back home to freshen up, the tax man just chose you for his next
audit, and your sister calls to say she has a lump in her breast
and is terrified to go in for a check up. Your boss tells you
that you are doing an awesome job and deserve the pay raise
you’ve asked for, but the company can’t afford to give it to
you…. and you love your job too much to quit. You can’t seem
to get through the red tape of a bureaucracy that holds some
sort of power over your ability to succeed at your dreams. The
computer system goes down at work and you can’t finalize a very
lucrative time sensitive deal that you were trying to close. No
matter what you do, everything around you just seems to be going
wrong and you are continually finding doors slammed in your
face, brick walls in your path, and glass ceilings above you.
How do you cope? How do you get out of the crazy maze that has
you feeling trapped, alone, and helpless?

Yes, it’s true that we often subconsciously create our own
problems, but there is also another fact of life and that is…
sometimes bad things happen to good people for no apparent
reason. Unfortunately, sometimes a whole bunch of bad things
happen all at once. The result can be very overwhelming. It’s
natural to want to give up and quit. Quit your job, quit your
marriage, and quit your battle with the bureaucracy that’s
holding you back. It’s also natural to want to punch something
or someone and to simply force your way through the problems.
Start bullying everyone while demanding that ‘heads are gonna
roll!’ to anyone within earshot. Neither extreme really works in
the long run.

The most important thing to do is to take a moment and catch
your breath. So often people will keep on keeping on without
really focusing on the big picture. They can’t see the forest
for the trees and are just thrashing around trying to stomp out
one fire after another without really analyzing the entire
situation from an outside perspective. Take a step back and
simply look at the whole thing as one great big problem with
lots of little pieces. Remind yourself that if these problems
were all spaced out so they happened one at a time, that you
would be able to maneuver through each one without falling apart
emotionally. It’s the sheer number of events that come at you
all at once that is the real problem.

Take a moment to organize your thoughts and to come up with a
loose plan of action. By reminding yourself that you are
technically capable of handling each one of these problems if it
stood alone, you can begin to tap into your self-confidence
which may be buried somewhere under all of the stress you’re
feeling in the moment. Square your shoulders and take a deep
breath to gear up, telling yourself that you are capable of
fixing all of these problems even if you hate having to do so.
Don’t waste your time on self-pity asking the ‘why me’
question… the answer will always be ‘why not you? what makes
you so special that you aren’t allowed to have really bad days?’
so just let go of that whole concept. It’s your turn to have a
bad day, so let’s just pull it together and start moving into a
more comfortable, more positive direction.

Now, prioritize your problems, issues, and roadblocks. Only you
can juggle in your mind which tasks need to be attended to first
and which ones can wait. I might tell you to ignore your lunch
stained outfit without knowing that later today you are going to
make a multimillion-dollar presentation to a very important
client who has flown half way around the world to hear your
speech. I might tell you to drop everything and help your sister
because family is so very very important in the long run, not
knowing that your sister is a hypochondriac who is constantly
crying wolf and really just wants your attention. Look at time
sensitive issues, which issues create the most long-term
effects, which ones can you delegate to someone else, and which
ones will work themselves out given enough time. Don’t spend all
day analyzing what needs done and what really doesn’t need done.
Just make a quick reality check while you’re squaring your
shoulders and mentally run through the list of problems.

Then take out a sheet of paper and write down a loose game plan
as to how you want to go about fixing, changing, and dealing
with all of the various elements that will need to be handled.
Write it down even if you normally don’t use to-do lists because
you have so many things to monitor and keep an eye on. Later
when life is more stable and normal again, you can go back to
keeping everything in your head. The reason you have to stay
loose with your planning is that you will need to remain
flexible and open to whatever domino effects, wild cards, and
surprises might fall into place as the various dynamics unfold.
This is not the time to be rigid, demanding that everything and
everyone go along with your master plan. All that will do is
alienate you from those who could maybe offer some assistance.

Finally, look over your plan, see that solving all of these
problems and surviving this bad day is quite do-able. Realize
that you have all of the skills you need and that it’s simply a
matter of time management, focus, and raw grit. Roll up your
sleeves and get to work. Don’t waste valuable problem solving
energy on worrying and fretting over the things that are not at
the top of the list. Monitor their status if you must, but keep
moving through each item on your list until you start crossing
them off. As more and more items are resolved, you should feel
your self-esteem increase and your spirits will lift. What
started out as a bad day, could very well turn out to be an
incredible day of accomplishments and brainstorming. You could
find yourself bragging by the end of the day about all the
trials and tribulations you managed to weave through. You didn’t
simply survive the day, you conquered it. There is nothing more
powerful then a strong sense of self that comes from solving
real life problems with a bit of moxy and tenacity.

Copyright 2005, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow’s Edge

Free Advice From Albert Einstein

Filed under:Self Improvement — posted on April 7, 2008 @ 10:57 pm

What If You Could Ask Anyone For Help?

Have you ever noticed how sometimes you are at your most creative when you are interacting with another person? You and your friend or acquaintance feed off of each other’s ideas and help each other clarify things. Well what about those times when you are alone, or you have no one you wish to share your ideas with? What can you do then to stimulate creative thought and to find elegant solutions to your problems? You could try talking to Albert Einstein.

Okay, you might want to talk to Andrew Carnegie or Lee Iacocca if your problem has to do with making a factory more productive. A question about love might be better addressed to the Dalai Lama. The point is to have a conversation in your head with a historical person or expert who can help with your particular problem. Why would you want to do this?

Your Imagination Needs Form To Function

Whether you realize it or not, you have a powerful imagination. What you may not have, however, is a powerful way to use it. That is what you get with a conversation in your head; a way to access the creative power of your mind. You will be surprized how often your imaginary Einstein comes up with an interesting idea, or asks you a question that produces something useful.

Try it in this way: Use the image of someone who you respect and know something about. This is so you can easily imagine what they might say. It can be a fictional character - in fact, this may be even better. Explain the situation to this person, and listen to what they have to say.

Remember those WWJD pins and stickers? WWJD stands for “What Would Jesus Do?” Young christians wore these pins (still do, I believe) as a source of guidance. Whether you are a christian or not, you can understand how in a time of confusion, this simple question can immediately clarify the situation and allow a right decision.

Think about this for a moment. All the information necessary to make a right decision might be there in a young man’s head already, and yet there is confusion. Imagining what Jesus would do or say is all it takes to “see” the answer.

So start talking with your imaginary friends (in your head please). Ask for help with personal, business, moral and any other problems. This is a powerful way of drawing on the power of your unconscious mind, and it will work for you if you give it a chance.

Steve Gillman has been studying brain improvement, concentration, creative problem solving, and related topics for years. You can visit his website, and subscribe for free to his Brain Power Newsletter at: http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/newsletter.html