Fortune Watch

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I was tagged by Vivienne Quek, who I truly believe is an entrepreneur. OK first things first let us find what exactly an entrepreneur is? The online encyclopedia Wikipedia defines it as “someone who establishes a new entity, to offer a new or existing product or service into a new or existing market. Entrepreneurs often have strong beliefs about a market opportunity and are willing to accept a high level of personal, professional or financial risk to pursue that opportunity”.

There are two schools of thought about what makes an entrepreneur. The first is that anyone can do it if they really want to, provided they put in the effort. The second is that you have to be a certain type of person and, if you are not that type, you are wasting your time.

This theory that anyone can become an entrepreneur is absolute nonsense. The ‘born or made’ question appears to be the basic argument between nature and nurture. Certainly if one is born with certain personality traits, they will assist in entrepreneurship. It seems fairly obvious that entrepreneurs are both born and made. Perhaps they also evolve.

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There is inflation every year. You cannot stop an increasing in living expenses as prices of consumer goods increasing all the time. Saving money becomes an extremely difficult task to do. Here are some solutions for saving a little so that you can still meet your needs and still find ways to trim off a little for the future.

Budget – Get one and stick with it! And set aside at least a small portion for savings while you’re at it; savings for your future, your retirement, your education, your vacation, whatever. Head to your local office supply store for planning workbooks or budget sheets to use. Or head to your favorite search engine and type in, “budget planning” for hundreds of sites with articles, free downloads, tips, ebooks and other resources to help with your budget setup and follow up.

Plan Ahead – Make sure to plan for emergencies and the unexpected, like an appliance break down or garage door malfunction. Even if you can only set aside $100 or so each monthly, place it in an account and earmark it for this “Miscellaneous” fund. Then when things go wrong, and they will – nothing is perfect – you’ll be better prepared.

Monthly Items - Work out a monthly payment for items that you don’t pay monthly and set this up in your regular monthly budget. For example, for items like annual home owner or renter insurance, quarterly water bills and life insurance payments and annual trash bills, take the amounts and determine what they would be monthly. Then list the items on your budget log and pull these amounts aside, saving them in your account for those purposes. This way, when the bills hit, you won’t be caught off guard and have to scrounge for the payments.

What works well, instead of handling multiple savings accounts for each company owed, is to use index cards and one savings account. Create one index card for each bill. Then simply log the amount you’re setting aside on the card and deposit it into your savings account. Keep the index cards with your savings passbook to remind you what the balance covers. The total of all your index cards should equal the balance in your savings account. Make sure to create an index card for your regular funds that you are saving each month in step one above and a card for your Miscellaneous fund in step two above.

The initial exchange gave way to a group of merchants who banned together to form the New York Stock Exchange. This initial assembly of men met every day on Wall Street to trade their stocks and bonds – an outdoor ritual that lasted through to the early 1900s, when commerce moved indoors. Today, investment on this scale has come full circle – operating outside the bricks and mortar of traditional trading. Today’s investors operate en masse through the Internet, buying and selling stocks online with the click of a mouse.

Buying and selling stocks online has become the new way of investing. In this chaotic world of long work hours combined with the juggling of frenzied family schedules, the computer has taken an ever-increasing role – giving us a place to work, communicate, and be entertained any time of day from the comfort of our homes. The computer has also taken an ever-increasing role in investing, offering consumers the opportunity to trade online. Several reputable companies have pioneered the online investment arena where they have kept pace with the changing needs of today’s modern investors.

In accessing stocks online, investors have been given access to a bevy of services previously only obtained through visiting brokers in the brick and mortar world of finance. Online investment through reputable brokerage companies requires investors to set up an account through the website. They can then access their financial portfolio at the touch of a mouse. Additionally, these companies will offer up-to-the-minute stock quotes, historical performance and forecasts for each stock, as well as in-depth information about each of the companies.

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If you have your card stolen or you think you have been the victim of credit card fraud, then you need to sort the problem out as quickly as possible.

Credit card fraud is becoming more and more of a problem, and if you are not careful then you could lose money to fraudsters. If you are worried about fraud but are unsure how you can protect yourself and your credit cards, then this article could help you. Here are some useful tips and advice about how to protect yourself from credit card fraud:

The methods and types of fraud are increasing as criminals learn new techniques and get improved technology. The most common methods of fraud today include: Copying and ‘cloning’ of cards, ATM fraud, Internet card fraud,PIN number stealing.

All of these methods are used more commonly than ever before to effectively steal your money. Obviously, it is impossible to totally eliminate the problem of credit card fraud, but there are things you can do to greatly reduce the risks.

Keep cards close. Make sure that you never let your cards out of your sight. Never leave cards unattended, and certainly don’t lend your card to anyone. If you are paying in a restaurant or shop, make sure you pay attention as to where your card is. A common method used to copy your card is to get the details whilst you pay, so keep an eye on your card at all times.

Whenever you get a receipt or a credit card bill, check that all the items and amounts are correct. If there are any amounts that you are unsure about, contact your card issuer immediately. Any paperwork that you throw away should be disposed of properly. Shred documents so that people cannot go through your rubbish and discover your card details.

Look behind you. When withdrawing money from a cash machine, make sure no one is looking over your shoulder to read your PIN. The easiest way for someone to use your card illegally is to see your PIN and then steal the card. Also, make sure you never keep a written record of your PIN, especially near your cards.

Use reputable firms. When buying on the Internet, make sure that you only purchase items from large and well-established providers. Small or unknown providers should be avoided as even if they are genuine, their security and encryption may be poor and allow fraudsters to access your details.

Keep contact numbers. If you have your card stolen or you think you have been the victim of credit card fraud, then you need to sort the problem out as quickly as possible. Keep all the contact numbers for your card issuer in a safe place so that you can call them up and sort out problems immediately. If you are careful and act quickly, you can limit the damage of fraud or prevent it occurring at all.

Most working people dream of this thing called financial freedom. It certainly sounds like something we’d all want. But have you ever stopped to really think about what it means? It can mean different things to different people, so before you spend time looking for it, maybe it’s worthwhile to examine what the concept really means to you. After all, it’s hard to find something if you don’t know exactly what it is!

Time and money are inversely related. This means that in most cases, one can be traded for the other. And if you think of how that applies both to your everyday life and to the way business is conducted, it’s true. For example, you can spend your own time cleaning your house or mowing your lawn, or pay someone to do it for you, and free up the time for yourself. You can spend time researching on your own, or you can pay some money for someone else’s specialized knowledge in that same field.

With that idea in mind, financial freedom may be defined broadly as reaching the point where you no longer have to trade your time for money in order to provide for what you want in life. There are two key phrases in that idea - “no longer have to trade” and “what you want”. These are what you have to define for yourself, in order to determine what financial freedom means to you.

To many, financial freedom means just not having to work for a living. They dream of stepping off the treadmill of going to work everyday to pay the bills. Some may want to escape the stresses of the job itself, unpleasant working conditions, commuting, boredom, and so on. Others may just value more time to be with their families and pursue their own interests. For most people, it’s some combination of those.

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Obviously the answer lies somewhere in the middle– but where? We take pride in making responsible choices for the future instead of thinking only of today, but do you ever feel like you’re going too far? Not appreciating the present enough?

I hear that suggestion a lot regarding how much money frugalites and penny-pinchers spend: that we’re not enjoying life enough because we’re not willing to spend much money. The thing is, I don’t think that spending more money would make me noticeably more happy! I mean, certainly there are some things that I could spend more on and enjoy– probably more expensive vacations, maybe going out to eat more and/or at fancier places– but in general I’m very comfortable with the way things are. I find ways to enjoy myself that are just good values for the money… and if there’s something that comes up that’s expensive but would be really wonderful, I weigh it carefully but am pretty good about letting myself go for it if it’s worth it.

However, it’s the flip side that concerns me. The amount you save is a combination of how much you make and how much you spend, so it follows that to save the most for tomorrow you need to make as much money as you can today. A lot of personal finance bloggers like to stress the importance of increasing your income as much as possible.

For me personally, while I’m not earning as much as I could if income was my only priority but I’m still doing a job I like and one I feel is good for society. The thing is, I’ve never really envisioned myself following a standard “career path”. Yet most of the other options will likely pay substantially less, in some cases perhaps as little as half as much. So the question is, how long should I stay at a good-paying job that I’m fairly but not completely happy with? I definitely want to try other work, but don’t I have plenty of time for that later on?

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A huge debate arises when it comes to marriage and money about whether or not spouses should have a joint checking account or separate checking accounts. One popular thing that people do nowadays is they keep one joint account to pay the bills from and then they keep a separate account for each of them to spend money on “personal” things. This is a total cop-out when it comes to managing money with your spouse. A marriage is not a joint venture. You cannot pick and choose which things that you want to share as a couple and which things not to share. You must be handling money as a team.

My opinion is that there is only one way to handle your bank accounts. You keep one joint checking account and one joint savings account. You write a budget together, stick to that budget together, and talk to each about making purchases over $50 dollars, unless you are going to make 10 different $50 purchases in one day, then you talk it over with your spouse!

Common Arguments: “My spouse is worse at handling money than I am”. This is why you got married, to help each other, not avoid each others weaknesses. It is okay for one of you to be more financially savvy, but you both need to create a budget together, and not sharing your incomes will only bring more division. If your spouse had a problem with drinking, would you totally abandon them or try to help them? In the same way, why would you totally abandon your spouse if they had a problem with handling money?

“It is easier to keep track of the money”. No it’s not harder, it should be simpler because you are dealing with less bank accounts. What account do you use when you go out to dinner? I can hear it now “No, you pay this time; I have to pay for the dentist tomorrow”. If you are communicating about your purchases, and balancing your check book together each week, it should be easier to keep one joint account.

“I make more money than her, and I don’t want her spending all of it”. You make more money than her? Well, does she cook for you? Does she wash your dirty underwear? Yeah, exactly. You cannot put tabs on your salaries, or else resentment, jealousy, and division will destroy your marriage.

Handling money is extremely important in a marriage. And just like everything else important in a marriage, communication is key to keeping your money handling healthy. If one of you wants to spend all the time and the other wants to save all the time, come to an agreement. Set aside some “Blow” money to use for having fun and blowing it without any worries about what it gets spent on. Set aside money that will be saved for long term and short term. Also, remember to set aside money to pay off debts. Never settle for just paying the minimum payments on credit cards or paying off a car or house in 20 years.

If you ask children to choose between eating one ice cream immediately or two ice creams a day later, they’ll invariably choose to have just one right away. But if you give the child a choice between one ice cream the next day or two ice creams the day after that, almost all children will choose to wait the extra day and get two ice creams instead of one. I think all parents know this. I too figured this out almost as soon as my daughter was old enough to ask for things. Of course, children are pretty clever and often manage to outmaneuver parents. But whether it works or not, parents know that the trick is to try and avoid situations where a choice has to make between immediate gratification and some future pleasure.

Unlike parents, economists took a long time to figure this out and when they finally did, it was thought to be a great discovery. But then, applied to economic behavior, it probably is. What is true about the way our children make ice cream decisions is also true about the way we make decisions about savings, investments, and expenditures and probably about many non-financial matters like health and work too. Most of us, children or adults, are not good at making decisions that involve comparing the seductive present (and the immediate short-term) with the distant future.

Of course, this is not equally true of everyone. Some people, especially at a young age, have a severe form of this problem of not being able to think past the immediate gratification. These are the people who supply much of the profits of credit card issuers. At the other extreme are the kind of people who spend their lives accused of being misers- the ones who are unable to live the present without obsessively planning for the future. For a long time, the difference between the two kinds was considered to be a sort of moral gap with the former being the thrifty and careless no-goods and the latter being sensible and prudent.

But perhaps this is not the right way of looking at things. Over the last three decades or so, there has been a lot of research that suggests that some of these behavior patterns are fundamental to the way the human brain has evolved. For most of the period during which human beings were evolving, the immediate present really was very important - much more so than the distant future.

The problem is that this instinctive preference produces financial behavior that is detrimental to our economic well being. Conventionally, the solution to this would be education and self-awareness. If more people learn about patterns of risky economic actions then they wouldn’t take those actions, right? Well, actually, it doesn’t look like it. Only a small proportion of people will have the self-awareness to modify their economic behavior and pay more attention to the long-term than the immediate short-term. The only way that people can change their behavior is if they somehow get committed into a good choice.

I’ve always said that it was important for investments to be liquid so that one could withdraw from them when the need arises. However, it is a fact that for a large mass of people, the main investments tend to be the ones like long term retirement funds where they are forced to make and stick to for a long period of time. Perhaps there’s a lesson there.

Investing in the stock market sometimes boils down to one essential element, namely good choices.

No matter how well we do our research, how often we buy and sell, or how much we pay experts for their tips and advice, without choosing stocks that represent value, we won’t succeed.

Although some are good at predicting the direction of the market and timing the ups and downs, if they don’t purchase the right stocks, they will still meet with difficulties when trying to reap profits.

For that reason, some of the best paid people on Wall Street are known primarily for their talent at picking stocks. Financial advisors give talks and write books and newsletters about how to choose stocks that will outperform the market, and most experts echo the same sentiment and agree that one of the best ways to judge a stock is from the point of view of a consumer. By using instincts we have already honed as ordinary shoppers, we can often ferret out information that even the most skilled and software-savvy market watchers miss. While they study analytical charts, earnings reports, and the stock exchange ticker tape, folks just like you actually do business with the companies they invest in, because their experience as a customer speaks volumes about the value of the company and its products and services.

Here are the kinds of things to look for as indicators of a company’s worth.

How popular is their product or service? If everyone you know uses it, and is satisfied with such things as price, customer service, and reliability, the company is probably well situated among the competition. Are the employees satisfied? One of the best ways to judge a company is by talking to employees. Many companies put on a good façade, but underneath the fancy marketing is plenty of discontent. But if employees like a company – especially if they like it enough to buy stock in it – that’s a very good sign.

How well known are they? You may find a great startup company with all the trappings of success, but discover that it is lesser known. Many small or regional companies are popular in their own back yards, but the rest of the world may not yet know about them. Buying such unknowns can be a great way to invest in the next hot stock. If the fundamentals look good, sometimes being lesser known is a good thing for investors getting in on the ground floor.

If they went out of business, where would you go for similar products and services? If you can’t think of a convenient alternative, the company is probably in a niche market that enjoys customer loyalty and repeat business.

Shop around, and notice what you see and how each business makes you feel. Then trust your intuition. Make a list of companies that get your attention, and then call their shareholder relations department and ask for more details. By starting your list with companies you already have a first hand experience of, you raise the chances considerably that you will make smart choices.

We have all heard the old saying ‘health is wealth’ this I think is perhaps only about half right. If we think wealth is the key to health, then you know you’ve found good wealth to afford the comforts of life, and your worries would take a backseat. Much the opposite would happen if your finances are out of control.

I believe that the ultimate success is defined as staying alive. And the more I think about this, the more I believe it. After all, what do money, power, and good looks matter if you’re dead? For starters, smarter people are likely to have more money.

The first step towards a secure financial position starts with budgeting. You must have a budget to gauge your future positioning. A budget is nothing but an overview on how much you earn, spend, and save. This can be short-term as in case of daily or weekly budgets. It helps you to have an idea about where your money is or will be. Budgeting also helps in achieving long-term goals. For instance, if you fancy owning a Lexus after five years, you should plan to save some bucks from your pay every month and budget accordingly. If you stick to this practice, your desires won’t fail you.

Another must-do en route to financial health is to save. They say if you look after your pennies, the pounds will follow soon. So be penny-wise and start saving early in your career, but save to save future troubles/emergencies. However, this is not to say that you say good bye to fun-factors in life. Indulge in luxuries or occasional extravagances, but save consciously.Don’t remain tied in debt. The sooner you become debt-free, the healthier it is for you. And remember to start paying off the highest-interest loans first. Loan interests are known to break lives, so be aware of the dangers.

Yet another obstacle to a financially healthy future is your credit card. These are such items in your wallet that can drive you to bite off more than you can chew. If you cannot pay your card bills in full, say ‘no’ to credit cards and save yourself a perennial debt-trap.

Of course, we all like to pamper ourselves with a new dress, an expensive watch or a handsome car; but be sure to think before you spend. Do you really need it? If the answer is ‘no’, forget it.

Having said all that, it’s true at the same time, that no matter how much you organize or plan your finances, life throws up unexpected surprises and you’re caught unaware. Maybe you’ve forgotten to consider your emergency house paint or missed an important bill. It’s then that you’d need payday loan online to get the clog out of the wheel.

Wise men would say: keep this as your last option. To sustain your financial health, choose not to go for these high-interest loans.