#greetings #messages #DifferentMessages
So how was your weekend?
Robert Lentz of Business Management Daily took on this greeting and phrased it in different ways.
“Good weekend?” says you don’t care about details. You are just being nice, Lentz wrote in an article published Aug. 7, 2016, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Did you have a good weekend?” That conveys more courtesy, Lentz writes.
“Did you do anything interesting this weekend?” commits you to a conversation, writes Lentz.
“What did you do this weekend” demonstrates actual interest in someone’s life, according to Lentz.
We greet each other in different ways for different reasons. Sometimes, we really don’t want to know how someone is, or what they have done, but ask anyway, just to be nice.
Other times, we genuinely want to know how someone is doing, or what cool things they have done, and really want to talk to them.
It’s not just how one greets people. It’s how one responds to a greeting.
If someone asks how you are, do you respond positively and with enthusiasm?
If someone asks you what you did over the weekend, do you proceed to tell them in great detail, whether you think they want to know or not?
Greetings, and responses to them, don’t just have different meanings, they say a lot about people.
If things aren’t going well in your life, do you want to dump your problems onto others, or do you want others to think all is well with you?
It’s best to have an attitude of gratitude. It’s best not only to be positive and enthusiastic around others, but to actually feel that way.
Sometimes, when you are going through a rough patch, it takes work to remain positive. A rule of thumb here is to always think about the GOOD things in your life, to get you through those rough patches. It may be easier said than done, but it can be done.
If you ask someone how he or she is doing, or how his or her weekend was, take a genuine interest in what they say, and invite conversation. Sometimes, that one conversation could uplift you, especially if you have hit a rough patch.
If you’ve hit a financial rough patch, there are many solutions out there. Message me if you want to know about one of the best. You’ll learn about lots of happy people who’ve built great relationships and solved their financial issues.
Happiness can take work, but it is well worth it. The next time someone asks how your weekend was, respond with enthusiasm and be curious about how that person’s was.
That may not only brighten your day, but it might enhance your life.
Peter
Monthly Archives: September 2016
WOMEN EARN LESS THAN MEN IN RETIREMENT
#WomenInRetirement #EarningsOfWomenVs.Men #jobs #layoffs
During their working years, women tend to earn less than men.
When they retire, women are more likely to live in poverty.
So says an article by Adam Allington of the Associated Press, published in the July 11, 2016, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Women who raised children and cared for the sick and elderly family members often take what savings and income they have and spend it on something other than their own retirement security, Allington writes.
He quotes the National Institute on Retirement Security, which reports that women are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 and older. Women 75 to 79 are three times more likely, Allington writes.
“I’ve had jobs that included a 401(k) and I was able to put some money aside every month,” Allington quotes Marsha Hall, 60. “But then I would get laid off and have to cash out the 401(k) to have money to live on,” he quotes Hall, who was born and raised in Detroit, is divorced and has no children.
Hall works part time as a file clerk, and she and her siblings chip in to care for their 75-year-old mother, Allington writes.
“If it wasn’t for Section 8 (a housing subsidy), I don’t know where I’d be living,” Allington quotes Hall.
Many men also have undergone a layoff in the last few years. Many families have lost their homes and have had to liquidate some, if not all, of their retirement savings.
Some see themselves scraping together a living via Social Security, part-time or even full-time jobs well into their golden years – presuming they can find those. For many, trying to reproduce the income they had in a job they lost is nearly impossible, as they see it.
Fortunately, there are solutions out there that can produce an income – even a better income than one has ever had – that don’t involve subsidies, or working at a traditional W-2 job in your golden years, and allow a person to help others do the same. For one of the best, message me.
Traditionally, women have borne the brunt of caregiving. They have also, in many cases, had to take off some work time to have children.
Much research has shown that, in general, they have also earned cents on the dollar vs. men.
These phenomena may have put women behind in earnings, thereby putting them behind in terms of retirement savings.
But both men and women are facing what Hall has faced in recent years: layoffs and not being able to replace a lost job with one that yields as good or better income than what was lost.
It’s important for everyone to have a Plan B in case the worst happens. If you have a good job, stay with it and save as much of your income as you can. Invest those savings well, with the help of a trusted adviser. If life forces you to take a break from work, try not to deplete those savings, though that may be easier said than done.
Most of all, make a secure retirement a priority in your life by spending less and saving more.
Peter
BOOMERS VS. MILLENNIALS IN THE WORK FORCE
#BabyBoomers #millennials #GenerationsInTheWorkForce
“Managing multigenerational workforces is an art in itself,” says a quote from Harvard Business School.
“Young workers want to make a quick impact, the middle generation needs to believe in the mission and the older employees don’t like ambivalence. Your move,” the quote continues.
Eric Harvey and Silvana Clark have compiled a book titled “Boomers vs. Millennials: Listen, Learn and Succeed Together.” Half the book is written from the viewpoint of the millennials. The second half is written from the viewpoint of the boomers.
There is no right or wrong on either side, the authors argue. It’s just a matter of how different age groups see the world.
Millennials are tech whizzes. Boomers? Not so much. Millennials want things to happen quickly. They want to get immediately recognized for everything they do. They need constant feedback, the book says.
Boomers are a little more patient. They can be left alone without much feedback to get their jobs done.
Millennials look for a good work-life balance. Boomers can, and have, put their jobs first in many cases.
Regardless of your age group, we all want work to be rewarding. We all want to be paid fairly for what we do. We all want the time to have a full life and we all want to have enough in our elder years to feel comfortable about retirement.
Too often, jobs lack some of those provisions. Chances are, if you are paid well, you are working long hours. You are putting the rest of your life on hold to keep those paychecks flowing.
If you are not paid well, unless you have a certain degree of personal satisfaction from your work, chances are you are not happy.
It’s always good to find something good in any job, lest you do something rash and quit.
Boomers, and workers who are even older, have grown up with some degree of job security. Generally, if one worked hard and stayed out of trouble, he or she advanced at work. Millennials probably will not have that. They will go from job to job — sometimes by their own choosing, sometimes not — looking for the ideal situation.
Employers have to understand this phenomenon if they want to keep good people. The Harvey and Silvana book provides some insight to employers, as well as employees, to understand those from different generations.
If you are a millennial, and you bounce from job to job looking for the ideal, wouldn’t it be nice to have an income that is not dependent on a traditional, W-2 job? If you are a boomer, and approaching retirement age, wouldn’t it be nice to have an income that will augment what you will get when you retire? Wouldn’t each generation like to leave a legacy of helping others? In any case, you may find an answer at www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
We all have different needs. We may not always understand the folks from our children’s or our parents’ generation. But we all must work and live in the same world. It’s best if we try to empathize with each other, rather than criticize each other.
No one is right or wrong, the authors contend. So let’s accept each other for who we are, and try to understand where each is coming from. All will be more productive in that case.
Peter
TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE NOT ALWAYS GOOD, BUT …
It may not have been as devastating as the Great Depression, but the recession of 2008 changed a lot of lives, in many cases, not for the better.
As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, after such a change, “a certain number of people are dispossessed. They lose identity, self-respect and hope.
“They begin to base their sense of self-worth on their tribe, not their behavior,” he continues.
“They become mired in their resentments, spiraling deeper into the addiction of their own victimology,” he adds.
Brooks discussed this in relation to national politics in a column published July 15, 2016, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
If you were dealt a blow sometime around 2008, or since, you probably can relate.
Perhaps you lost a job, and haven’t been able to find one that pays you anywhere close to the job you lost. Perhaps you lost your house.
You keep hearing that things are getting better. The economy is picking up, say the experts. Yet, you don’t feel it.
You tend to blame people, or things, that really are not to blame. Even the employer who canned you, if that happened to you, probably was forced to.
Bear this in mind: blaming takes valuable energy away from solving the problem at hand.
Blaming is also easy. Solving the problem may be more difficult.
You may also hear that employers WANT to hire more people now. Yet, you are not among those they are looking for.
An example might be that police forces and the military are looking for new recruits. But you might not be the best candidate for that because, for example, you are too old. Even if you are the right age, perhaps you are not in the kind of physical shape to deal with the rigors of the job.
Perhaps you’ve just graduated college, with a good bit of debt, but employers want something more than just your raw brain to train. They want built-in expertise that you don’t have.
Therefore, you feel you have nowhere to turn. The natural instinct is to blame.
However, there are many ways out there to take your problem into your own hands, and help others do the same. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
The economy is going through a transition to the information age. As Brooks points out, it went through something similar in the 1880s, when it transitioned from an agriculture base to an industrial base.
“America still has great resources at the local and social level,” Brooks writes. He believes local is more powerful.
When a natural disaster befalls us, we must decide to rebuild or move. The choice is clearly in our hands. In this era, we have choices. The choice to be a victim is not healthy. The choice to take matters into our own hands, perhaps with the help of great local resources, is preferable.
Doing so may mean changing what you did, and how you did it, or getting used to something new, different and, at least at first, uncomfortable. But it can be done if you just look for the right vehicle for you.
If you have the urge to blame, remember this: You can’t embrace what is gone forever. But it can help you embrace what comes next.
Peter