#spending #saving #overspending #TrappedByLifestyle
“People … make $250,000, $500,000 a year and they don’t know where their money is going,” says financial adviser Lori Atwood.
How can this be?
Thomas Heath spoke to Atwood, and wrote an article for The Washington Post. It was also published in the April, 9, 2018, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“How does a family drop $500 in one month at McDonald’s?” Heath asks. “When you have a husband and wife with high-powered jobs working 10 or 12 hours a day, who feels like cooking?” Heath writes.
Atwood, Heath writes, calls the phenomenon, “trapped by the lifestyle.”
Yes, people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year – working, working, working – yet have no savings. “It’s true, but ridiculous, “: Heath quotes Atwood, founder of Fearless Finance financial software.
Speaking about folks who live in Northwest Washington, D.C., Heath quotes Atwood as saying many people have “over-housing. They don’t have to have the house they own,” she’s quoted as saying.
Over-housing, she says, is a savings killer, along with child care expenses, private school tuition, student loan payments etc.
“People say getting rid of x,y,z is not an option,” Heath quotes Atwood. “Groceries, electricity and heat are not options. Anything else is on the table.”
Does this sound familiar to you? Is your lifestyle killing your future? Are you living well above, instead of below, your means?
If so, you can do something about it. As Atwood suggests in the article, you can start by moving to more affordable, yet adequate, housing. There are plenty of places you can live in which the schools are perfectly fine, the neighborhood is safe and it’s relatively easy to get back and forth to work.
Lifestyle entrapment also generally leads to being time-broke. If you’re working that hard to make a good living, chances are you are missing out on some things you should be a part of, or present for, i.e. some of your children’s accomplishments.
No one should advocate that a parent should be around for EVERY activity for a child, but you should understand the difference between the important ones, and the lesser ones – the ones you can really skip if something important occurs in your job.
If you find yourself trapped in a certain lifestyle, as Atwood points out in the article, find out where your money is going, what is necessary spending and what is not, and prioritize.
If all this not only makes you financially broke, but time-broke as well, there are many vehicles out there that will let you, by spending a few non-working hours a week, augment your income. There’s even one that will allow you to find ways to spend less on essentials, as well as non-essentials. To learn more about that, message me.
The article illustrates that it isn’t just poor people who are broke. Others who are making good money are making poor decisions on how they spend it. They don’t realize they are, essentially, mortgaging their futures to have certain things now.
Certainly, there is nothing wrong with working hard, making good money, giving your kids perhaps something you didn’t have as a kid, etc. Just understand that the future will not take care of itself. You have to plan for your own future.
Besides, wouldn’t you like to have something to show for all your hard work, long after you stop working?
Peter
Monthly Archives: June 2018
LONLINESS IN THE WORKPLACE CAN BE QUANTIFIED
#LonelinessInTheWorkplace #loneliness #workplaces #SolitaryJobs
Some people are lonely at work.
So what? Who cares?
Well, loneliness has a cost to employers, according to an article by Danielle Paquette for the Washington Post. It was also published March 31, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“According to researchers who study the issue, the economic damage caused when employees suffer feelings of isolation could soon worsen as offices become increasingly automated and more people work remotely,” Paquette writes.
“Employers who tackle the issue now – rather than brush it off as a personal matter – will save money in (the) future,” Paquette quotes Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, a psychiatrist and chief innovation officer for BetterUp, a workplace consulting firm in San Francisco.
According to the article, Kellerman’s team crunched data from a survey of about 1,600workers across the country to better understand the risk by profession. The results, published in the Harvard Business Review, alarmed Kellerman: “Sixty-one percent of the lawyers in her sample ranked ‘above average’ on the loneliness scale from UCLA,” Paquette quotes Kellerman.
“Generally, the happiest – and most productive – workers feel like valued team members,” Paquette quotes Kellerman.
So, are you feeling lonely at work? Do you often – or always – work by yourself? Do you get to talk to anyone during your work time? Does your employer ONLY care about what you do, rather than who you are?
What if someone could show you a way to make money that would essentially REQUIRE you to interact with people. What if someone could show you a way that could not just potentially put extra money in your pocket, but also potentially exceed your current income? And, what if someone could show you a system in which advancement depended on how many people you helped succeed? To learn about such a vehicle, message me.
The article quotes a Gallup poll that found 42 percent of working Americans said they did some of their job remotely, a four-percentage-point jump from 2012. It also quotes a recent study from the global consultancy firm McKinsey, which predicted that demand for office workers in the U.S. will drop by 20 percent over the next decade because of technological advances. That could mean smaller or more siloed teams, it said.
So if loneliness at work has a grip on you, get a grip. Look for a situation that will allow you more interpersonal interaction. Oh sure, dealing with people can be a pain. But, as the article says, the alternative not only takes a toll on workers, but is costly to employers in terms of productivity.
The proverbial water cooler, cafeteria or other workplace gathering spots may be going out of favor. Try making it a point of sticking your head into someone’s workplace every day, just to see whether they are receptive to people.
Who knows? Maybe you can find people with common interests that you never knew had the same interests as you. Perhaps you can become friends and socialize outside of work, if it’s not possible to socialize at work.
If you are an employer, you might look at ways to conduct team-building exercises, personal growth seminars etc., for the folks that have solitary jobs. You may get a lot more productivity from them by doing that.
Peter
TAKE TIME TO THINK
#TimeToThink #TakeTimeToThink #MakeTimeToThink
We’ve all seen a person sitting still, staring into space.
That person may tell you that he or she is taking time to think.
That’s not a bad thing. In fact, according to Napoleon Hill, it’s a good thing to do.
He discusses it in his book, “Lessons on Success: 17 Principles of Personal Achievement.”
“One of the ways to increase your flow of ideas is by developing the habit of taking study time, thinking time and planning time,” Hill writes.
“Be quiet and motionless, and listen for that small, still voice that speaks from within you. Contemplate the ways in which you can achieve your objectives,” he continues.
It’s best not to do this at work, lest your employer think you are, well, just staring into space.
Also, everyone has a time of day at which he or she thinks best. For some, it’s first thing in the morning. For others, it may be late in the evening. You know yourself, and the best time that good ideas seem to come to you.
For some, it may be in your sleep. If a good idea wakes you up, get up, write it down and go back to sleep if it’s the middle of the night.
So who in the world has time to think? Every minute of every day is filled with “life” – job, kids, home chores, hobbies etc. For many, there’s barely a quiet, solitary moment, let alone a few minutes.
It may require a life adjustment so that you can MAKE time to think.
Hill, who also wrote “Think and Grow Rich,” and other experts on leadership and success preach that no one can be truly successful unless he or she can THINK success.
Many believe their lives are so “full,” getting by without one crisis after another is considered a success. Most of us want to do more than just get by.
Still others revel in the chaos of life. You may know someone who isn’t happy unless he or she is miserable. Such a person also can’t stop talking about what’s wrong in life.
But experts on success encourage people to look for the positive. Appreciate the good in their lives. Embrace the thought that things are not only good, but will only get better.
If you are among those positive, optimistic thinkers, and are looking for a vehicle that will allow you not only to improve your situation, but allow you to help others improve theirs, many such vehicles exist. To check out one of the best, message me.
So take time to think. It’s best to do so in private, so people don’t presume you are just aimlessly gazing at nothing.
Think about not only where you are, but where you want to be. Cultivate the ability to dream, if you don’t have it already.
Think first about WHY you want to be successful at whatever you are doing, or want to do. Chances are, once you know why, the how will somehow present itself. When it does, you have to be looking for it.
Don’t just get by. Instead, to quote leadership expert John Addison, get after it.
“Life” will continue to consume you unless you make your own quiet time. When you do, think about what you want from life, not what life is taking from you.
Peter
ATTENTION GRADUATES: SIFT AND SORT THE ADVICE YOU GET
#graduation #GraduationMessages #GraduationSpeeches
Graduation speeches, at least to the graduates who are just looking to celebrate and party afterward, can often draw a groan.
It seems to many of them to be something they must sit through. Perhaps it’s good training for the next corporate meeting they will have to attend.
But they also may find a few nuggets of good advice among the long, drawn-out talks.
Jena McGregor, in a Washington Post article, highlighted some well-known speakers’ pearls of wisdom. The article was also published May 29, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Oprah Winfrey, for example, gave the typical “do what you love” advice when she spoke at the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, the article says. Then, she said:” You need to know this: Your job is not always going to fulfill you,” McGregor writes.
Yet, Oprah also advised the graduates to be so good at what they will do that “your talent cannot be dismissed,” the article quotes her.
Undoubtedly, some of those graduates will find out that even though they are very good at what they do, perhaps even winning awards etc., whoever they work for might not recognize it. And, they may also discover that even good people get laid off when each of the many reorganizations they will witness takes place.
Meanwhile, Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of the Chobani Greek yogurt company, told this to grads of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania: “It’s great that you are a Wharton MBA. But please, don’t act like it,” the article quotes him.
His point was the great training that Wharton has given the graduates shouldn’t make them think less of others who have not been so academically blessed.
“Don’t let (your degree) get in the way of seeing people as people and all they have to offer you, regardless of their title or position,” the article quotes him.
Certainly, graduates have their own ambitions. They have come this far and have put in the work and time – hopefully having some fun along the way. Some may come out of school not knowing exactly what they want to do. For some, it may be a craps shoot as to what opportunities their degrees will give them – or not.
Then, they face the issue of jobs not turning into what was expected or promised. Will they be able to roll with whatever happens? Make no mistake: the unexpected will happen.
If you are a new graduate in a period of indecision about your future, know that there are many ways out there to earn a potentially substantial income with a few part-time hours a week away from your W-2 job. To check out one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, sift and sort every piece of advice you get. Some advice, though well meaning, can stifle what you might want, or be destined, to do. Other advice can encourage you to shoot for the moon. Know that the moon can be there for the taking if you shoot properly and consistently over time.
See the good in everything you do, and everyone you encounter, as you endure some drudgery in each endeavor. Don’t ever be afraid of pursuing your dream. It, too, could be there for the taking with the right effort and strategy.
Peter