Financial Literacy

Dreams, Goals, Vision, Action and Accomplishment

Hello,

In common with many people, I usually have a lot of different actions I need to pack into a day. Some are major tasks that take up a significant amount of time; others are minor, maybe just “housekeeping” actions. So I can maintain order, I use a schedule to organize how the tasks fit into the day.  

During most days, I am up against an enemy that many of you are aware of. It has the potential to completely ruin all my plans. The enemy is procrastination.

You see, even if I put stuff in the schedule, it does not automatically get done. I have to take the action. If it is something I enjoy doing, then I usually have no difficulty executing the task at the scheduled time. However, if it is something I do not enjoy or that I may have difficulty with, there is a very large temptation to “do it later”. My experience is if I re-schedule a task because I have procrastinated, it gets re-scheduled again and again. Many just “fall off the map” after a couple of iterations!

Sound familiar?

So, how do we handle this?

The real secret is to have a very powerful reason to get all the tasks completed. Making them all stepping stones towards a big dream or goal can generate a lot of momentum. The bigger the dream or goal, the bigger to momentum created. Because procrastination is much lower on the mood scale than the momentum and energy created by a huge, powerful vision, no task seems difficult.

Take your first step today in creating that huge, powerful vision of what you want your life to be. The bigger the dream and vision, the bigger the game and the more powerful actions you will need to take. You are definitely on the right track if your mood starts to rise as build the vision. By the time you have the vision set firmly in your mind, the steps to create it will become more clear. Setting task to accomplish those steps should fall right into place and as hey are so relevant, there will be no procrastination.

Have a great week

Malcolm

How She Really Does It

Hello,

This week I am simply posting a link to a great website put together by Koren Motekaitis, who at 21 decided  she was going to be financially independent. At the time she was a swim coach working two jobs, doing volunteer coaching and finishing up her university degree.

Ignoring all who said it was not possible, including her future husband, she worked diligently increasing her financial literacy and building her wealth.

Now with a weekly radio show steamed live on the internet, where Koren interviews inspirational guests, she has grown to truly achieve her dream.

Do check out her website: http://howshereallydoesit.com

To your continued success,

Malcolm

 

"Stack" your way out of debt!

Hello,

If you are interested in reducing your debt load but are having difficulty juggling several conflicting payments, the technique of “debt stacking” may be just what you need.

Debt stacking is not a new idea, but is potentially very powerful. It works like this:

Say you currently have five payments to make and have already decided to completely eradicate the debt connected to them. For debt stacking to work, there are two simple pre-cursors.

1) You must not increase any of the debt amounts.2) You must always make the minimum payment on every debt every month.

Let’s outline some example payments:

a)      Store card payment - $100

b)      Credit card payment - $220

c)      Student loans - $250

d)      Car loan - $350

e)      Mortgage - $1400

With me so far?

Now, you take a little some of your disposable income, say $100, and add this to the payment for the store card. This makes the store card payment $200 per month. If you can afford more on a consistent basis, pay more. The more you pay the quicker all your debts will vanish.

Once the store card has been paid off, you add the payment amount to the credit card payment, making it $420.

When the store card balance is zero, you add the payment amount to the student loan payment, a total of $670

Again, when the student loan balance is zero, you do the same thing to the car loan ($1020).

When only the mortgage remains, the payment will then be $2420. The mortgage will reduce at a very accelerated rate with that payment being made.

Even if you have no extra money to apply to the first debt, the principle of debt stacking will still work, it will just take a little longer..

As you can see, this idea is simple but potentially very powerful. So powerful, in fact, that several companies offer products to help manage the process. One of company that just introduced a very attractive debt stacking package is Primerica (www.my.primerica.com). it is well worth checking it out if you are at all interested in learning how debt stacking may work for you.

Have a great week

Malcolm

Processing the Positive

Hello,

How many times when something does not go as well as we intended do we concentrated on what went  wrong and how it could have been avoided?

This is a very usual reaction and the "normal" thing to do.

However, it very definitely puts one at the effect of any area and situation. It also has the added effect of making the problem seem much bigger than it actually is. Not a very positive outcome.

What about taking the completely opposite approach?

Consider this. What would happen if one looked at what parts went well and how they could be improved? Would that approach not put one at cause rather than at effect? From that more powerful position it is far easier to go forward with a positive attitude!

By simply asking "what went right?" one immediately puts themself in control and from that position are in a much better place to take the necessary steps to create an overall optimum outcome.

I asked this very same three word question in an email reply to a friend today who told me lots of things had been going wrong for them in the past week. The person replied that "those three words" had completely transformed their mood.

On that, I rest my case! 

Have a great week

Malcolm

 

Why Make Life Difficult?

Hello,

There is a saying:  "Life is unpredictable, eat your dessert first".

This has always amused me, not because it is actually what I believe is a good advice, but it parallels the actions of the majority.

This attitude is also the reason why those people are fundamentally unsuccessful. They put their future in the hands of others when they do the easy thing first. Those who tackle the difficult first get to be the top performers. I believe the ratio between the former and the latter is 90% to 10%.

What truly makes life difficult is swapping priorites: Putting what you most enjoy ahead of what you you actually need to do, but could put off doing. This is the salesman who knows he should make 20 calls to new prospects, but instead he spends the afternoon on the golf course with an existing customer or even a buddy.

Why not get the difficult stuff out of the way first? Concentrate on it and get it done. Put all the "tedious" stuff first in the calendar ahead of the fun stuff. This encourages one to focus on getting really good at it, thereby reducing the time spent doing it. Funny thing is that the more one does this, the more enjoyable it gets. Most of the time not enjoying doing something is because of lack of expertise, stemming from lack of practice doing it.

I myself love to wash dishes and iron shirts. Really exciting stuff, I know! This was not always the case. At one time I hated these activities. I just decided that the only way to handle it was to "get them out of the way"; to get so good at them that what was 30 minutes of drudgery now takes 5-6 minutes. The joy came as I learned to do them well. The better I get the more I enjoy it.

So, set up your day to tackle at least one or two of the more difficult tasks first. Do this on a gradient and work towards putting every difficult task ahead of the fun ones. One day you will run out of "challenging tasks". When that happens, you can start raising your game, looking to "kick it up a notch".

Have an awesome week

Malcolm

How can mobile home loans help you?

Mobile homes or manufactured homes are gaining popularity with every passing day and whether you are investing in a brick and mortar house or a factory made house, it is important for you to attend to details as investing in a house is often a lifetime investment. If you are planning to take out a mobile home loan, your credit rating is one of the factors that will be taken into account prior to approving a loan. Whether a loan will be extended to you or not depends on your repayment capacity.

With the help of mobile home loans you can buy a manufactured home or refinance it. They can also be availed for developing the plot of land on which the mobile home rests or for developing the plot of land as well as the home on the plot. However, in order to take out the loan the mobile has to be your primary residence.

As far as finding the right lender is concerned, you can shop around for the same online as well as offline. Mobile home loans usually attract fixed rate of interest. The loan term for mobile home loan ranges between 15 years and 25 years. The term of the loan is also determined by the purpose for which the loan is being taken out. Whether it is for the single section of the home, multiple sections or simply developing the plot of land determines the loan term.

It is important to abide by the norms of National Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards when you are planning to buy a mobile home. The lender approving the mobile home loan should also be licensed and the deal should not violate the regulations of the National Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standard. As a rule, the manufacturer is required to extend warranty for a year.

Since you will be required to make payments for the entire term of the loan, it is important that you have enough financial backup. Your income should be adequate so that you don’t fall behind on payments during the course of the loan term. Make sure you select a site for the mobile home that meets required standards of National Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standard and also has proper provision of water supply and waste disposal.

By Shelly

How to Handle Upsets

Hello,

I had a sudden realization over the weekend. It came after I was looking at a phenomenon I have noticed recently on Facebook. Some people post when they are happy, others post when they are upset, sometimes very upset!

This enticed me to look at the real reason behind upset, why does it occur? You can be going along in life very nicely and all of a sudden, flash, you are upset. What causes this to happen and why so suddenly?

I started to look behind this. It occurred to me that to have an upset, you must be expecting something to go one way and it does not follow your plan. So upsets are related to missed expectations. Ah Ha! I thought, (a quite big Ah Ha, in fact)

Taking this forward a bit, expectations are related to goals and aspirations. So for there to be an upset, there must have been a dream of goal that was denied in some way. This is the Setup, a vision of your desires projected out into the future containing all the steps necessary to make it happen. As happiness is the progressive realization of worthwhile dream or goal, following a great setup creates abundant happiness.

For example, you have your heart set on going to the first baseball game of the season with your son. Tickets purchased and everything planned. You are excited and really looking forward to is. The morning of the game, your boss calls you up and says, “A prospective customer with a very large account is coming in today and I need you to attend a dinner in his honor tonight. I know I can rely on you. I’ll see you at the LaBella restaurant at 7pm sharp tonight”. Your heart sinks, know you will have to give up the game and also tell your son the bad news. You agree with your boss to attend. Immediately you feel upset. Your dream is shattered. Your setup has been thwarted by an event outside your control.

Here is the sequence:

Setup - Your vision of what you desire projected into the future. A strong and vivid setup drives you forward. Great visions of you and your son enjoying a ball game together.

Targets - The stepping stones along the way to attaining that dream or goal. These steps are part of the complete plan. Set the date, buy the tickets, setup the time to leave for the game.

Distractions - Things that get in the way of you achieving those targets. They can also be referred to as disruptors. The call from your boss.

Upset - Distractions have caused a target to be missed. You are now off track and may miss the entire setup.Disappointment in missing the game.

Let’s take a deeper look at what happened in our example. Was the event truly out of your control? Well, not exactly. It wasn’t a hurricane or a flood, or any other unavoidable disaster. You could have held your position and explained to your boss that this was an important family event. Better still, you could have built an understanding with your boss from the time you took the position that for you, family comes first and work second. So, the real issue was the setup and your certainty of it, not the distraction and the resulting upset.    

The strange thing is that when upset, most people concentrate on trying to fix the upset, not correct the setup. And this is why concentrating on fixing the upset does not actually correct the situation. It only handles the effects, not the cause. By going back to the setup and examining exactly why the target was truly missed, optimum corrective action can be taken to realign the setup and happiness will reign once more.

Have an excellent week

Malcolm

Truly Living Inside What You Earn

Hello,

I know what you are thinking - "I don't need to hear all these arguments about sticking to a budget again; enough already". I promise this is not just another "don't spend more than you earn" dissertations!

Well, it does have something to do with budgeting, but it may be in the direction and area that not many give much thought to.

How old is your washing machine? Your range? Your furnace? The roof? Outside paintwork? Your mattress? What did you spend on annual maintenance over the last 5 years? OK, OK, I know, you would need to work all this out. This is exactly the point. Needing to work all this out means may not in full control of your long term financial commitments. All these items are a potential expense that will occur in time, and if you do not plan for them, they will catch you unawares.

I believe everyone should have this information built into their financial plan. It is also important to consider all these items when considering buying a home or upgrading. Even putting on a deck or doing a "makeover" may have long term financial implications that extend well past actually paying for the construction and finishing.

I suggest you make a list of all the items you own that require maintenance and estimate the cost over the long term, taking ito account as many aspects you can. You can then amortize the yearly and monthly costs and add them to your budget. The result may surprise you!

Have a great week

Malcolm

Enter a Fun Competition and Win a Prize!

Hello,

I am launching a brand new concept later this year and need some help with a particular aspect of the branding.

What I need is a reverse acronym for the word "Zest". I have some ideas of my own, but wanted to throw it open to everyone on this list and the social media I subscribe to..

The four words of the reverse acronym must have the same letters in the same order as ZEST, and parallel the meaning and spirit of the word.

To make this more interesting, I am offering a $50.00 department store (or equivalent) gift certificate to the winning entry.

You can make as many entries as you like, but the deadline is September 16th at 11:59pm
Please also include the department store you have selected.

Once I have chosen the winner, I will retain all rights to the specific reverse acronym.

I will announce the winner on this blog in three weeks time and forward your prize.

Good luck and have an awesome week!

Malcolm

The Three Golden C's

Hello,

This week I was reminded of a very powerful principle I first learned from the Dale Carnegie course back in 1989.

Dale Carnegie had a great way of presenting the principles he taught. He used a powerful story that illustrated just how important they are.

The Three Golden C's are "Don't Criticize, Condemn or Complain"  They are golden because one who follows them already puts him or herself ahead of those who ignore this sound advice. Who wants to listen to someone Criticizing, Condemning or Complaining? Even one of these on there own can ultimately destroy relationships.

After I was reminded of the power in the Three Golden C's, I did a personal inventory of my own behavior in the last three months. I was amazed how many instance I came up with that I had violated the "Three C's". Even if I did not say anything, I thought it, so it communicates on physic level.

Just realizing the errant behavior made me feel more positive. Now I am aware of it, I am now in a position to actually do something about it.

Have an awesome week

Malcolm