10 Most Read Articles in October 2012

1.      10 Positive Words to Motivate You (Part 1)

Here are ten simple and yet powerful words to provide the spark and keep the fire in you burning:

2.      10 Psychological Secrets about Human Relationships

There are many ways to apply psychology for better human relationships. Here are the top secrets:

3.      12 Tips to Take Care of Your Digestive System

A healthy body needs to be nourished by nutrients. A healthy digestive system will digest and absorb nutrients effectively. How do you take care of your digestive system? Here are the top tips:

4.      7 Psychological Needs of Children

A healthy growth of your child needs to be satisfied with certain psychological needs. To understand and promote the growth of your child you need to understand his psychological needs:

5.      10 Bad Habits of the Ugly Malaysians to Avoid

According to an article, http://www.readersdigest.ca/health/relationships/how-polite-are-we  HOW POLITE ARE WE, published by Reader’s Digest about a recent survey of 36 cities in the world, New Yorkers are the most courteous people in the world with a score of 80% and the people of Kuala Lumpur are among the least courteous people in the world scoring 37% and occupying position 34 out of   36 cities. Singapore may be one of the richest countries in the world. Its people are also among the least courteous people in the world posting 42% and occupying position No.32.

6.      Why Working Overtime is Bad for You 

You try to impress your boss that you are hard working by working late all the time. It does not work that way because overtime has a negative connotation and it is working against you in many ways:

7.      What do you value in life? 

What are the things that you treasure the most in life? I find the following essential to live a fulfilling life:

8.      The 3 Pillars of Success – IQ, EQ and AQ

Every day we need to make wise decisions and solve complicated problems. We also have to manage our self well so that we can deal with others in order to get things done. In addition, we have to face the challenges of ups and downs in life. We need the three pillars of IQ, EQ and AQ to excel.

9.      5 Areas to Develop Your Career Successfully

Today, many companies are reporting that their number one constraint on growth is the inability to hire workers with the necessary skills. ~ William J. Clinton  

10.  15 Energetic Quotes to Start a New Day

Here are 15 powerful quotes to kick start your day enthusiastically:

Related post:
Top 30 All-Time Happiness Posts (Part 2)

Have you taken your vacation yet?

Vacation

 Have you cleared your annual leave? Are you not going to take time off from work? Leaving your place of work even for a couple of days is beneficial for your well-being. Here are some reasons why a vacation is good for you:

·         Rest and relax: You don’t have to travel, just do what you like going to a movie,  baking or spending time with family and friends. Such activities are able to neutralize the impact of burnout and stress.

·         Healthier: According to Karen Matthews of the University of Pittsburgh's Mind-Body Center, leisure, including vacation, contributed to more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions and depression. It is important to engage in leisure activities, as a way to enjoy life more, and to potentially have good health benefits. Taking your annual leave is such a healthy choice.

·         Inspire creativity: Getting away from work gives you an opportunity to look at things from a new perspective. You get better ideas and more productive when you resume work. You react to problems with energy and resolve.

·         Learn to delegate in your absence: Someone has to do the work for you. It is the best time to hand over your workload and train someone to act on your behalf.

·         You deserve it or you work for nothing: You are entitled to it or else you will not be compensated. Take your well-earned rest.

·         Time to ponder: It is also a good time to appraise your direction in life.  Are you getting what you want in life?  How can you do things differently to achieve the desired results?

According to a Chinese saying, the purpose of taking a rest is to allow you to travel a longer distance.  

Why You Need to Do a Personal Cash Flow Forecast

In the 2012 Global Finance Who’s Who in Treasury & Cash Management Survey, it is stated that more than 60% of the organizations formally assess or monitor their cash flows daily to meet operating requirements. While you do not need to do it daily it is wise to do it once a month for the next three months to be on top of your personal finance. A cash flow forecast, as its name implies, is to estimate your future cash flow situation. The whole purpose is to manage early in case of a shortfall in the near future.

Here is a simple cash flow forecast statement. For simplicity, it is assumed that you are not using credit cards. You are now at the end of October 2012 and you have prepared for a three-month forecast for the next three months:

November 2012

Cash Inflows

Where are your sources of income in the form of cash? It can be your salary, income from part-time work and dividends from stocks and shares. In this example, your take-home pay is your only cash inflow which is $6000.     

  

Cash Outflows

It is a good budget because there is no overspending and there is also an amount of $600 set aside for savings.    Other expenses vary from month to month and they include such items like eating out, gifts, clothing, minor car repairs and donations.

Net Cash Flow

In the month of November income equals Expenses, so it is zero balance.   

Balance B/F

It is assumed that in the current month, your actual income ties with total cash outlay so there is no surplus fund to bring forward to November 2012, so the balance brought forward is zero.

Balance C/F                 

There is no money to bring forward to the month of December.   

     

December 2012

There is a special item in December. You are going for a Christmas holiday and you have budgeted for an amount of   $2000. Your cash flow forecast clearly shows that you are short of exactly 2000 in the month of December. You will have to decide now if you are going ahead with your holiday you will need additional funding.

January 2013

There is another shortfall of $1500 in January 2013 because your car insurance is due in January. If you have set aside $125 per month every month you would have ready cash of $1500 by January 2012. Since it is not done, you will have to look for additional cash of $1500.    

 Now

The forecast tells you that you need an additional fund of $3500 to meet expected expenses in the next three months. For those who have included savings as an expense item in their monthly budget, there is no problem; all you need to do is to draw from your savings.  Without savings, you can either draw from your emergency fund or liquidate part of your investment. When you do not have other sources of ready cash you will need to borrow or apply for a personal loan now and get into debt. You do what you need to do now and avoid getting into a panic situation later.

Related post:
Do You Know Your Bank Balance?

Are You Productive?

Be More Productive

The activities that you do every day determine your productivity. The key is to manage time effectively and efficiently. What can you do daily to achieve optimum productivity? Consider the following productive ways:

1.    Planning and organizing: Planning and organizing are only fruitful when you are working towards your goals. Activities will then be purposeful because there is a direction to go forward in life. You also need to plan and organize your daily activities to maximize your output. A daily to-do list is a helpful tool to be productive. 

2.     Learning: Reading and learning are productive. Learning new things is a joy and you should embrace changes and keep abreast with technology to work effectively and efficiently.  

3.     Balancing life: Do not just work because working long hours is counterproductive.  The key is to strike a balance between work and family. Both activities are important in your life.   

4.      Creative: There is time to be alone. A time to think and reflect. A time to conceive new ideas.  A time to think of solutions and solve problems.

5.     Taking action: When you have decided on an issue, do not be afraid to act. It is a waste of time to delay or procrastinate. Standing still will not yield results. You can try a different way when it does not work out.  

6.     One task at a time: Multitasking is not productive. You work under stress and you are prone to make mistakes.

7.    Active lifestyle: Allocate time to work out every day such as jogging. Enjoy the great outdoors. Fresh air and sunshine are good for your health.

8.    Manage personal finance: It is productive to spend time and do personal budgeting.  Living within your means is the way to avoid getting into debt and getting peace of mind.  

9.      Getting connected: Spend time with those who care for you. Exchange ideas from those who share the same vision. Hang around with positive people.  

10.  Water and nutrition: Don’t skip your breakfast. It is to fuel your productivity for the day.  Always stop work to drink water throughout the day. These are the healthy habit to follow. Take your time to enjoy your food and eat slowly to help digestion.  Avoid fast food outlets and eating in a hurry. Eat more at home for a healthier diet.  

Do what is productive and make progress in life.

Related post:

How to be More Productive

5 Productive Reasons to Use a Simple Cell Phone

I own a Nokia 1208. It is the most simple and basic model of all cell phones. I have used it for many years and I am happy with it for several reasons including frugality:

1.      It is just as productive: A simple model is able to serve the essential requirements of telecommunications: calling and receiving calls, sending and receiving text messages. What more do you want from a cell phone?

2.       No need all the extra features of a smartphone: There is a time and place to surf the Net; there is no need to get connected online all the time. We are already connected in the office and at home. Playing games is a waste of time. There is no need to use Bluetooth, camera or Wi-Fi.

3.      Stay connected: It serves me well doing my daily job because I can be contacted any time anywhere. Things get done just as effectively and efficiently with a simple cell phone.   

4.      A simple and productive life: A basic cell phone allows you to focus on doing what needs to do now instead of being distracted by a smartphone like checking emails and going online every now and then.

5.      A simple and cheap postpaid plan: I can get a cost-effective plan and my cell phone bill is about RM30 or US$10 per month. I use the phone only when necessary.

   

  I must admit that using a smartphone has its advantages like free messaging applications and free phone calls especially overseas calls, but you have to pay more for it.

Related  posts:
5 Ways Cell-Phone is a Stressor
Why I Like My Flip Phone: The 5 Smartphone Effects
7 Reasons Why Cell Phone is Bad for Your Child

20 Confidence Quotes to Live By

Read and get inspired by these confidence quotes in the morning and start a new day with energy and enthusiasm: 

1.      Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

            Norman Vincent Peale

2.      The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do. 

            Author Unknown

3.      If you are prepared, you will be confident, and will do the job.

           Tom Landry

4.      You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

            Eleanor Roosevelt,

5.      Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

                                              Mahatma Gandhi

6.      Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.

                   Henry David Thoreau

7.      One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self- confidence is preparation.

       Arthur Ashe

8.      Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have.

        Brian Tracy

9.       If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.

        Henry Ford

10.   Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

        Anais Nin

11.  If you doubt yourself, then indeed you stand on shaky ground.

                   Henrik Ibsen

12.  Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

                   Helen Keller

13.  Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

                    Marie Curie

14.  A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.

                    Mahatma Gandhi

15.  Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.

Robert Collier 

16.  Life is based on your self-confidence. When you trust yourself that means you know you can do things. If you don't have that trust that means you're always going to have doubts in your mind.

           Sandy Alomar

17.  To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.

      Mark Twain

18.  If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.

Marcus Garvey

19.  A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.

Brian Tracy

20.  Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

Og Mandino

5 P’s of Blogging that I have Learnt in 5 Years

I have blogged consistently for 5 years part time and today is the fifth anniversary of my blog. I have found out that the 5 P’s are the important elements of blogging:  

1.       Products: The most important thing about blogging is your content. Your articles are the reason for readers to come to your blog. How good you can write depends on how well you can satisfy the needs of your readers. Catchy headlines are essential to capture the attention of the readers. A suitable image can spice up your content.  Write in simple words and short paragraph and make it scanable. There is always room to improve your  writing skills    

2.       Packaging: This is about the set-up of your blog. Is it easy to look for things such as the RSS feed and email subscription form? How about your About Page?  How to contact you or share your articles?  How to connect you at Facebook and Twitter? Do not plaster ads everywhere and allow readers to locate and read your articles easily.

3.       Promotion: Writing killer articles is not good enough to get people to visit your blog. You need to network and connect with others and attract them to your site. Such places are Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn. You also need to work in tandem with search engines by employing keywords in your articles that searchers use to look for things online.  Go to Google Adwords Keyword TTool and find out words used by searchers.

4.       Popularity: The way you package and present your products will determine how your readers will react and perceive you. The way you interact with others through comments, forums and guest posting will also decide how popular you will be.

5.       Patient: Blogging takes time. It is a long term process. Are you passionate about it? Can you write meaningfully on a regular basis? Do you find happiness in blogging?  

I am delighted to be a member of the personal finance communities such as Wise Bread, Money Crushers   and Money Index. However, I am still struggling to be admitted to the Yakezie Network because my blog is not in the Alexa top 200000 yet after more than a year. Thanks to AllTop that my articles are featured under the heading Interests/life.

 Blogging, like living, is to enjoy the journey no matter what has happened to your PageRank or Alexa Rank. It is fun, exciting and there is always something new to learn. There is also money to earn, though not much, from AdSense and selling eBooks.

 In conjunction with my blog’s 5^th anniversary you can download my eBooks for 5 days from October 24, 2012 to October 28, 2012 for free:

 7 Effective Ways to Live a Happy and Successful Life  (coupon code tn83z)

 All About Happiness (coupon code nf89x)

Thanks for your support of my blog all these years.