How to Put Your Finances on Autopilot

In your quest for taking control of your own personal finances, it is important to remember that doing so is a means to an end. Ideally, you want to get your financial house in order so that you can lay the foundation for creating substantial wealth.

Laying that foundation can be accomplished in a number of ways. The most popular way, and least effective, is to let your bills come in, pay them if you can, and save later.

There is a far more effective way to lay this foundation: Automate your finances.

Today is your lucky day. I will show you how to completely automate your finances: Pay your bills, set up your savings and investments, and never write a check or lick a stamp again.

The key to all this is using the online services that are available to you now.

First, open a FREE online checking account. There is a plethora of them out there, so finding one should be super-easy. I use WaMu, but you can use Schwab, your local bank, or some other source.

Set up a FREE online savings account, too. In fact, open 3 or 4 (I’ll tell you why shortly). Make sure it’s a high-yield savings account. Link it to the checking account you just opened.

Here’s an optional tip for those of you rewards credit card fiends: For every regular bill you currently pay, set it up so that your rewards card is debited for the monthly amount. Do not confuse this with a debit credit card. No, use a true rewards credit card, either a points, airline miles, or cash back credit card. The benefit here is that you rack up a ton of rewards for things you would normally pay by check or debit card. This is as close to a free lunch as you’re going to get.

Now, set up your investment vehicles. If you have the option of investing in an employer-provided plan, like a 401k, set up whatever minimum there is to get the employer match. Then, attempt to invest at least another 10 percent in an IRA (Roth or traditional, and the choice is less important than the act of investing in either one). Finally, set up a taxable brokerage account.

Finally, set up direct deposit with your employer so that your entire paycheck is deposited in your online checking account.

The hub of this system is online checking account. For any bills that you could not set up to be paid by credit card, set up bill pays for them with your online checking account. If you did your homework, this feature will be free.

So you’ve set up all your bills to be paid by credit card or auto bill pays. The only manual bills you’ll have to pay are your credit card bill and any recurring, variable cost bills like cell phone (hint: buy a pay-as-you–go plan and you’ll eliminate this, too), water, and power (where I live, PG&E offers a “leveled” payment plan that sets your monthly bill at a constant rate for 4-6 months at a time).

Set up auto transfers from your online checking account to your online savings accounts (set up multiple savings accounts for things like your emergency fund, vacation fund, gift fund, and escrows like property taxes and insurance that come due every 6 to 12 months), your retirement accounts (IRAs), and your brokerage account (Zecco and TradeKing work great, as does Sharebuilder).

Take it one step further: Set up your investment accounts (IRA, 401k, and brokerage accounts) to take that auto-transferred money and invest it regularly in mutual funds and stocks in fixed dollar terms on at least a monthly basis (taking full advantage of dollar cost averaging).

The beauty of this system is that it’s infinitely flexible and you can adapt it to your particular needs and goals.

Remember, this system helps you lay your personal financial foundation. Using the time you save, and your newfound financial organization, layer other strategies on top of this foundation to totally stoke your financial future!

Strategic Advertising for Real Estate Agents

“99% of advertising doesn’t sell a thing.”Sounds like something a local real estate agent might say after paying for yet another ad that didn’t produce, right?You might be surprised to learn that the quote actually belongs to David Ogilvy, legendary founder of one of the world’s largest and most successful advertising agencies.Yikes – if a man regarded as a giant in the ad industry is so negative about advertising’s success rate, how should you feel?The Bad News is the Good News…There is an upside here. If so much of the advertising in your local market is ineffective, you can gain a significant edge on your competition by having a better local advertising strategy than other agents.Advertising vs. Advertising StrategyNotice that I said a better advertising STRATEGY, not simply better advertising. There’s a big difference.A better ad might get you a few more leads in the short term. A better advertising strategy can help you to have a consistent, meaningful message in your advertising, and will position you to get more business from your local market on an ongoing basis.With that in mind, here are three tips to help you define your advertising strategy, and put it into action:1) Have a Strategic Objective In Mind BEFORE you AdvertiseAdvertising for the sake of “building awareness” is probably the fastest way to flush your advertising dollars away.Before you even think about buying an ad, you must have a strategic objective in mind – after all, why should you pay for any type of ad unless it helps you to reach your objective.Here are just a few questions that you might ask yourself before placing an ad to help define what you want your advertising strategy to do for you:- If I could be known for just one thing in my local market, what would it be?- Which part of the local real estate market is not currently well serviced by other agents? Is there potential in this neighborhood/age group/demographic profile?- Which part of the local market is emerging and might be a driving force for sales in future years?- What’s changing in my market right now – immigration, aging population, young families moving in, etc – and how do I capitalize on the change more effectively than my competitors?If you can answer even some of these questions, you will probably be on your way to identifying the basis for an advertising strategy.For example, you may determine that based on trends and current prices, your market will become increasingly popular with first time homebuyers. As a result, your strategic objective may be to use your advertising to become recognized as the local expert in serving first time homebuyers.2) Have a Specific Objective for Each Ad you Place within your StrategyWith a clear objective as part of your advertising strategy, you can now think about investing in ads that support your objective.Here’s a tip – you can create advertising that generates an immediate response while also serving to build your brand in a particular market.Continuing with the above example, if you ran a series of ads in the local newspaper offering a free “First-Time Homebuyers Report” available from your website, you would actually be running a direct response ad (aimed at getting people to download the report) that also delivered a brand building message (the message being that you are the agent for first time homebuyers to call because you are the expert in that field).You can measure the success of the ad by looking at the number of downloads from your site while the ad was running – since generating downloads was the specific objective of the ad. If the ads don’t generate enough downloads to justify the cost, pull them or change them. Ads are only valuable if they get you closer to achieving your strategic objective.3) Be ConsistentAll of your advertising (online, print, directory, flyers, etc) should be similar in both style and substance within your advertising strategy.Yes, a consistent look and style for your ads is important to help you get recognized in a competitive market.But even more important is being consistent when it comes to the messages in your ads. You can’t buy a Yellow Pages ad that promotes you as the leader in client service, and then advertise your “low low price” in the local newspaper, and then distribute flyers that try to promote you as the family real estate expert.Your messages can’t conflict! Again, here’s where an advertising strategy comes in. With a strategic objective in mind for your advertising, you will be able to focus your advertising dollars on communicating a single, clear message to potential clients about why they should call you.An Advertising Strategy is Critical to your SuccessIf Mr. Ogilvy was right, then most of the advertisers out there in your real estate market are getting it wrong. This creates a huge opportunity for you to use an advertising strategy to drive business and outdo your competitors.- Have a Strategic Objective for all of your Advertising – Know what you want to say about your business, and who you want to say it to within your local market.- Have an Objective for Each Ad – Measure each ad’s results against the strategic objective you are trying to achieve – if you don’t, how will you know if the ads were successful or not?- Be Consistent – Make sure all of your ads are focused on helping you reach your strategic objective by communicating a clear message to the market.Advertising can be a tough game, but so can real estate. And in both cases, those with a well thought out strategy will almost always succeed over those that don’t have a plan.

Playing Online Poker For a Living – 4 Simple Tips That Can Help You Play Cards For a Living

Card game addicts can soon start dealing out cards no matter where they are, before you could even say “Indiana Jones”. These people love this game, and no matter what, they will always find a plain simple excuse to play it. Some play online for a livingIf you are quite in their league too, it is no wonder if your fingers itch all the time to try out your luck and fortune at the card games. Well, the solution to itching fingers is only a few clicks away. You can find many web sites where you can play poker online and also win money if you are a host to good fortune and tricky skills.Card players find it easy to play card games online, since here, the ambience is quite relaxed and quiet. You never know with whom you are playing. It could be an old man or woman, or a child as well! But one thing is for sure- here no one will be able to peep and have a look as to whether you have a winning hand or not. Here, no one is there to rush you, no one to call the shots but you. But even though this seems as if the rules here are quite easy and relaxed, actually, they are not. You have to abide by certain laws which if you neglect, will result in your disqualification.o Before you start to play, you must try to decide if you are willing to play poker for your entire income. To do this, you will have to look back at the games that you played in the past, and how you handled your bankroll after a big win. Did you jump into the stakes or invest your winnings?o Then again, if you had never the chance to see so much money while playing poker, but lost about ten tournaments in a row, you have to remember what your action was. Did you move down or up in stakes? These reactions of yours are necessary to judge whether you will be able to make a living on poker.o The main trick is not how much money you win, but how you win it. When you do not have a winning hand, you have to see that you lose very little of cash. But when you have the best hand, you have to try to call the right shots at the right time to milk in a lot of money out of your opponent’s pockets. To maneuver the game carefully you have to assess the situation accurately and rely on your gut instincts.o Another key skill that you need to hone is patience. You might be able to rely on your instincts, and make quite sharp decisions at the crucial moments in the game; you might be able to calculate thoroughly the result of every move of every player around the table; you might be able to tighten your purse strings when you have no winning hand, and get the best odds to win the most when you turn out to be the lucky one, but there is still a chance that someone might come about and upset your plan and shatter it to rubbles. During these times, it is necessary that you do not lose your head, but start to build another plan, so as to win back what you have lost.These rules will help you to get to the very peak where you can earn a lot of money, and there will be no stopping you as well. Remember, rules are important in a game, so that you do not get disqualified, and you can always use them to your advantage.

Your Child and Mental Health

While many adults believe that children live a life of ease, this is certainly not necessarily always true. Your child and mental health is a dynamic world unto it’s own.Children are not without their own emotional, mental, and physical troubles. Just as with older humans, children are capable of feeling all types of feelings. These include feelings of sadness, hurt, mistrust, anxiety, and anger. In addition, the way that children deal with these feelings can have a huge effect on their emotional health. Children and mental health often reflects greatly on the parental mental health that a child has when he or she become a parent themselves. Kids that grow up in a positive environment are much more likely to be positive adults than those that experience negative emotional mental health during their childhood.Infant and child mental health establishes a foundation of self-esteem for life.Children as young as infants are aware of trust and mistrust in others and in self. After a child is only a few months old, their emotional health begins to develop. It is important during infancy that a baby learns he or she can trust the caregiver. The baby needs to know that his or her needs are taken care of when a diaper should be changed or a feeding needs to take place. Infants that go long periods of time without the attention of the caregiver are much more likely not to trust.Once the infant passes through the stage of placing trust in others, a toddler encounters a stage of emotional mental health called autonomy vs. shame and doubt. During this period, the child needs to feel that he or she is capable of independence. While an infant needed others, toddlers are looking for space to obtain good mental health. When a toddler is not given the opportunity to find independence, he or she often grows up having a lacking self-esteem, feeling ashamed as well as a whole assortment of other mental health issues. Much independence during this stage of life is found through potty training with the toddler taking care of his or her own bathroom needs.Your child and mental health goes hand in hand with the circumstance of the family environment while growing up.Initiative verse guilt follows the toddler stage when a child reaches preschool and kindergarten. During this stage, the child emotionally needs to explore others and the world around him or her and begins to become interested in belonging to a group and role-playing within that group. During this stage of life, a person develops much of their background for social interaction. Children who are allowed to explore and interact with others are much more likely to carry over positive social skills into adulthood than those that are secluded from group activities. These others can end up on the opposite side of the spectrum in regards to their social and mental health becoming withdrawn from others.It is quite apparent that child and adult mental health become synonymous throughout life.Part of creating a solid foundation in children to carry over into adulthood is allowing children the opportunity to learn how to make choices. Children need to experience the effects that their choices have on their lives. Instead of continually giving a child direction, it is better to give a child options.When allowed to take some actions into their own hands helps create an emotional mental health framework for the future, Setting boundaries and preparing children for disappointments help children prepare for good mental health and avoidance of mental health issues as an adult. In some cases, children can make choices for themselves. However, children also need to learn that not everything will always be controlled by them. They need to learn to accept the things that they cannot control. A child that learns to cope with disappointment through a caregiver that sets boundaries will grow into an adult with a foundation of more positive emotional mental health than those children that never experience hearing the word “no”. All of this is very critical for child and adolescent development.While all research indicates that the environment in which a child grows greatly affects his or her emotional mental health, not all parents that fail to properly foster their child’s stages of health are neglectful or bad parents. In fact, many parents struggle with the proper methods they should carry out to help their child grow into a prosperous adult.Interaction is a great way to help your child’s emotional mental health bloom. Children need to be cuddled and feel the touch of others. In addition, they need communication. Even as an infant, babies respond to parents and others through coos. Responding to these babbles is an important part of the infant and child mental health development process (both mentally and emotionally). As the child grows older, let him or her know what he or she has to say is important by listening and responding in conversation.In addition to talking, your child and mental health is dependent upon nonverbal responses also. Be certain to make eye contact with the child. Share gestures and facial expressions during daily routines such as dinner, story time, and bath time.Be certain that you have expectations for your child and that they are appropriate for the child’s age level. Placing too much pressure or high expectations on your child can be harmful to his or her emotional mental health. Do not place expectations on the child that he or she is not mature enough to handle.When your child reaches a charged emotional situation, try to help the child understand the feelings and work through the problem. Let your child know that it is okay to express emotions if they are expressed in a proper manner.Raising or working with a child can be a large responsibility when it is realized that the things the child experiences now affects how he or she will respond to the world as an adult. The positive or negative environment that a kid encounters through childhood affects the ways that he or she handles situations independently when grown.Carefully considering the emotional health needs that help a child feel secure about him or herself and about the environment are important to his or her success in the future.

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