Fortune Watch

Generally, time management refers to the development of processes and tools that increase efficiency and productivity. You can improve your time management skills by doing nothing. Sounds impossible? Okay you’re right; you have to do something but not very much. The skill of time management is about knowing what to do and when.

Does it ever feel like there is never enough time in the day? Are you always rushing? Do you feel stressed at the end of the day? Do you believe that you are not accomplishing what you hoped? Better time management may be the answer.

We must “protect, organize and prioritize our time”. If you are having any of the above listed difficulties, then my guess is you are missing at least one of those elements.

Protecting our time is important. Your time is your gift to spend, as you will. You can spend it wisely or you can waste it. It’s your choice. However, one thing you can’t do is get it back to do over again.

Sometimes we all do things that we don’t really want to be doing but when we do, it should be in furtherance of a bigger goal that we have. Maybe we don’t want to be going to work today but we want to collect our paycheck at the end of the week, so it’s something we choose to do to get to the bigger payoff. However, there are things that we do that just aren’t important, don’t lead to anything and waste our time. Can you think of any activities that fall into that category for you?

I have three general categories for which I like to protect my time. One is for making progress toward my work/life goals. These are the things I do to move me forward in life. These are generally geared toward helping people in some way, generating more clientèle, and increasing my revenue streams.

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If you are thinking of buying your first home, your first big decision is..to buy, or not to buy. Sounds simple? It’s not. While the notion of owning a home may appeal to you, actually making that decision is tough. There’s the intellectual component, but also a very emotional one.

Buying a home is one of the greatest investments you will ever make. The best — and least stressful — way to purchase a home is to be well educated throughout the process.

Before you even start looking for a house to buy, you need to review your financial situation. This will let you know how much of a down payment you can afford and how large a monthly mortgage payment you can handle. Lenders will look at the ration of how much you make to how much you owe.

But you should look at what fits into your budget, not what the lender says you can afford. If you are currently making a rent payment of $1200 a month and barely getting by, how could you expect a mortgage of that size with the added insurance and maintenance costs of owning a home? You have to go with what works for your budget and finances. Remember, you can always work your way up to a larger home over time.

Once you have determined how much home you can afford, you need to check on your credit report and score. Lenders will rely heavily on your credit score when deciding whether or not to lend to you. It will also help decide how much interest you will pay. Your credit score is determined by the information in your credit file. If something is incorrect, your score will be affected.

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For many people, the closer they get to retirement, the more concerned they get about whether they have saved enough or not. And it’s understandable. With life expectancy climbing and the ability to not only live longer but to do so with a higher quality of life growing as well, it stands to reason that some people will be a little uneasy when their last pay check gets ever closer. Are you one of those people?

The first thing you should do if you find yourself close to retirement with no savings is to calculate the amount of money you will need during retirement as well as what age you plan on retiring. You will find many resources online that will help you come up with this number such as retirement calculators.

Identify Needs: There are many financial needs to think about when getting close to retirement, from wondering what your Old Age Security benefit will look like. You may even think about what it will be like to live on a fixed income for the rest of your life.

But before you do anything, just relax. Don’t try to think about everything at once. Just because you’re close to retirement doesn’t mean you stop planning. As a matter of fact, it’s a great time to refine your plan, or even put one in place for your golden years.
Now that you know how much money you will need on average you can set some savings goals for yourself. There are plenty of ways you can save money from shopping with coupons to taking your lunch to work with you to not buying a new car every year. Wherever you are spending money and can scale back, do. It will mean the difference between a happy retirement and a stressful one.

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Gone are the days of mid 50’s and 60’s when a family could survive upon a single income. Today the inflation and economic factors are such that survival on two incomes has become hand to mouth. Going by this trend we can very well imagine what the future holds for us. Two incomes certainly will not be enough. It’s best to prepare for the worst and expect the best instead of vice versa. Its best then to have multiple incomes flows into your finances than to have an insecure future. The concept and importance of extra income becomes all the more apparent.

People who have been well-to-do have always known and taken care of this. If one income dries up, one can always fall back upon the other streams of income, and if all go well you can only get richer, no harm in that. Ordinary and average living people have always been in a dilemma regarding this. Loss of one income really affects them adversely and it would take years of hard work before any normalcy returns. Not to mention, the rippling effects of financial distress that could cause a lot of heartburn and unwanted emotional disturbances.

Having diverse sources of income or extra income gives you a backup to fall back upon. If one source vanishes, you should not feel the difference. One should have enough time to reorganize and regroup, that’s it, and you are back on the happiness highway, safe and sound. The importance of extra income and extra sources of incomes is not lost on anyone today, therefore the want and rush.

Extra Income can be of two kinds – Linear and Residual.

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If you are like most people, you do not feel that you “deserve money”. The simple fact is that most people are broke. Most people are broke because they do not feel that they deserve money.

To be financially successful you must: save prodigiously, invest wisely, and act like an entrepreneur. If you don’t believe you are capable of financial success, figure out why.

OK, maybe now you are thinking, “I deserve money…right?” Well, here is the thing, if you have the thought that “It takes money to make money”, or “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”, or “Money is the root to all evil”, then you do not deserve money…well, maybe not yet, but there is hope for you.

There are two sides to every coin, people can look at money as good or bad and often at times people look at money as bad to justify why they do not have any. I dont know, maybe someone with money or someone that was thinking of making money was with someone that did not have any and did not have any plans to make any. What they thought about having lots of money and they gave off one of the lame excuses as suggested in the previous paragraph.

Why do you deserve money? The answer is simple…because you deserve money! Look, making money is simply the result of exchanging your efforts or ideas for money.

There are a many ways to make a million dollars and most of them are quite fun ways to make money and thats the key! If you are willing to learn how to have fun, make money and teach others to do the same, then it should end up being easy to make the money for you.

Start with this; how much money would you like to have, then ask yourself how much money do I currently deserve doing what I am doing now? If the answer is not 10-20 times more, then you are not doing the right thing to attain the amount that you would like to have. Time to change…

Change…is the word “change” scary to you? If it is, then you do not deserve money! Broke people are afraid of change. Change is natural and should be embraced by everyone. If we do not embrace change in our life then we are accepting where we are and probably will stay where we are. If you are happy with what you are making and like where you work, then go out and buy your boss a gift basket, sit down, be quiet and stop complaining about your finances.

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You will need to make a clear plan of how to get where you want to. The financial plan needs to be broken down into realistic achievable goals with a clear deadline. The plan needs to include how much you are currently using to pay off debts, how much you are currently using to cover all living expenses and how much you are currently saving.

When you have that clear you need to look at where you are going to cut costs.
What can you live without?
Do you subscribe to magazines or newspapers you do not need?
Do you have memberships you do not need?
Is your rent or mortgage very expensive?
Are you spending a lot of money on driving where you do not need to go?
Do you rather eat out then cook yourself?
Do you pay too much for electricity, telephone, Internet connection and TV?
Do you have the best credit card, insurance, rent or mortgage and bank account deals you can get?

The meaning of these questions is that you should not settle with what you have now. Then your situation will stay the same.

Always shop around for better deals and always look at how you can cut costs.
Maybe you find out you need to move to another place where it is less expensive.
Maybe you need to eat more canned beans.
Maybe you need to use your bike, or your feet instead of the car.
Maybe you need to read magazines only when you go to the dentist or to the hairdresser.

Whatever it takes to improve your financial situation; decide to do it.

Write down both the longer term goals, medium term goals and the short term goals and what you will do to achieve them.

You need to set time limits for when you want to achieve the goals you worked out in the previous step.

Write down exactly what you are going to do to achieve them.

There are many blogs and websites about “Financial Freedom”. I’ve come to notice that each site author has a slightly different definition of what Financial Freedom really is. So, my goal here is to just lay out in plain sight what my own idea for Financial Freedom is, so I might have a better chance of getting there myself.

My idea of Financial Freedom is the ability to choose to do what you wish with your life, without the need to think about if there is enough money to do what you want. In order to break down what this really means, you’ve got to really understand what money itself is.

Money is basically what makes the world go round.

If you had enough income piling into your bank account to meet your basic necessities, such as food, a place to live and clothes, how would life be different?

Now, you may be saying “but I do have enough money to provide for the necessities.” And you may be correct. But, the real question I want to ask is, “How do you get that money?” Is the income you earn each month Linear (i.e., from working in a job or a self-employed business type setting), or is it non-linear, leveraged, and passive?

My friend Jonathan from SmartWealthyRich recently wrote a post Gotta Get Goals which I really liked.

My entire goal is to create a lifestyle that does not require my presence.

How beautiful an idea is that?

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If you could reach just one goal in 2007, which one would it be? How much of a difference in your life would it make if you reached it?
Will 2007 be just another ho-hum year that started with good intentions? Or will it be YOUR Year! Your year to lose that weight you’re tired of carrying…start that business you’ve been talking about…get out of debt for good. Are you tired of being stuck in the same gear?

It’s a well known fact that the biggest reason most people fail to achieve any real success in their life is….they never plan to. They want to. They dream about it and fantasize about it. They talk about success. Maybe they even read success books, listen to success tapes and attend success seminars.

However, the sad fact is that unless a person has some incredible luck (like winning the lottery), their chances of succeeding without a plan are almost nil. But suppose you could spend a few hours over the next few weeks and easily and totally plan the kind of year you’re going to have in 2007.

What kind of year would you plan? Would you:Double or even triple your income. Start your own business. Build the dream home you’ve always talked about. Eliminate all your consumer debt. Marry the person of your dreams. Get in the best shape of your life. Take the vacation of a lifetime.

Sound too good to be true? Well, it is if you don’t have the right plan. Think about it. 2007 will be the best year ever for some people. They will achieve at levels they never thought possible just a few years ago. First, they will have a good plan built on solid principles. But they’ll also have something else. The critical difference. They’ll have a system of follow up and accountability that will help them put their plan into action (and keep taking action).

I hear you are planning to have a baby…

If you considered only the financial implications of having children, you might end up childless. There’s no two ways about it: having a child is very expensive. Financial experts say a home is the biggest investment most people will ever make, but they’re forgetting about the cost of raising children, which far exceeds the average home price in many parts of the world.

Fortunately, most people don’t base this important decision on financial issues alone, but as with any other decision that will impact your financial situation, it’s smart to go into it with your eyes wide open and to be prepared. The changes that accompany adding a new little member to your family can be stressful, but you can reduce the stress greatly by minimizing the financial factor.

First, have you considered how you’ll manage on the reduced income caused by time off for the pregnancy and birth? Check with your employer to see if you’re covered by short-term disability insurance, which covers pregnancy.

In planning your personal finances for the baby’s arrival, there are several issues you need to consider. It’s time to get out a pen and paper and work out a budget that you can use once you’ve brought the baby home. Remember, these figures are in addition to your regular weekly and monthly bills.

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