Money Management: Learn Ways To Make and Save Money

In our day and time, it is always good to know how to save your money, and make even more money. To help you along, we have put together a list of suggestions to help you do just that. It requires a little time, and effort, but the benefits will be well worth it. So continue reading to learn how you can better your current financial situation.

Money Management: Learn To Save Your Money

A very important step in managing your money is to first learn the importance of saving money. This can be done by learning to budget your day to day cash flow. Over time you will begin to see how much you spend, and it will help you to save more money. A budget is critical for properly managing your finances, so make it a top priority for your household.

Next, you may want to begin using an online savings account. By using this kind of account, you will be less likely to use it on a daily basis. When you have a savings, it will give you more confidence in the future. For example, should an emergency situation arise, you can always fall back on your savings, instead of your credit cards.

Money Management: How To Make Money

You can also learn the advantage of how to make money online. This can be done any number of ways. The great thing about making money online, is the simple fact that you can make money from the comfort of your home. The important thing is to find an outlet that you truly enjoy. So take your time, and review your options.

A few examples of how you can make money online is learning to build web sites, and web graphics. You can also get paid you blog for companies, and other resources. Another great option is to fill out paid surveys regarding products that you have used in the past. These are all excellent resources for you to earn an extra income.

Money Management: Final Thoughts

Learn to take these steps one at a time, and before you know it you will reap the many rewards of a well managed financial future.  If you have found that making money is secondary to getting out of debt, or maybe you are just in over your head, then you may want to consider a non-profit credit counseling service.  They will work with you to help you get on the right financial path for you and help with basic money management skills.

Christ-Centered Money Management

If you are a Christian, you most likely strive daily to live a Christ-centered life. Hopefully, this spills into all aspects of your life. If you are married, you may even discuss with your spouse the ways to make your home a Christ-centered one. It is impossible to truly live a Christ-centered life without having Him be a part of your finances. The book The First Five Years of Marriage by the group at Focus on the Family discusses five ways to know if a household is Christ-centered. I am going to adapt these to be ways to know if your money management is truly Christ-centered.

1. A Christian home is (mostly) happy. This should be true for your financial life as well. If you are constantly stressing out and arguing over money, you are not doing something right. Most likely, you do not have an agreed upon, on purpose cash flow plan (budget) before the month begins. Once you get that in place, dealing with your finances should mostly be a happy experience. You will see that you are working together towards a plan and that should make you feel good. It won't solve all of your money problems, but it will give you a better sense of control.

2. A Christian home is gracious. Have you ever made a mistake in your life? Have you ever made a mistake with money? Chances are you answered yes to both of these questions. Your spouse should be able to make a mistake without having to get screamed at by you. For example, if they came into the marriage with $20,000 in debt, it does no good to constantly criticize, complain, or remind them of their past mismanagement of money.

3. A Christian home is a place of service. First of all, you should be seeking to serve your spouse with your money management. Every financial decision should not be about what you want. If you wanted to do whatever you felt like with your money then you should not have gotten married. Instead, work with your spouse as a team to accomplish your financial goals together. Once this spirit of service is established in your home, then you can serve others outside the home financially. There is nothing more satisfying to do with your money than to give it to others in need.

4. A Christian home practices spiritual direction. Explore what the Bible has to say about money. Read books by Christian money experts such as Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett. Talk to your pastor about your church's view on managing money. You must explore, study, and learn how to do it, it won't just come naturally.

5. A Christian home is based on God's purposes for you. This is where producing the income you need in your home comes into play. Are you doing what God's purpose is for you as a career? If you are doing what God has designed you to do, chances are you will be extremely passionate about it. If you are extremely passionate about it, chances are the income will reflect your enthusiasm. A great book to read about doing work you were designed for is 48 Days To The Work You Love by Dan Miller.

It is sometimes easy to think of money as a bad thing when you are Christian. Money and sex tend to be two topics that can get us Christians all worked up. Turns out both can be used for terrible things, but both can also be great. If you use your money for God's glory, then you are on the right track. If the only reason you pursue money is to pad your wallet and live as lavish a lifestyle as possible, then Christ is not at the center of your financial life. You are called to be a good steward of God's money (after all, he owns it). If you manage it well, you will be in the position to give your money to those in need. That is the ultimate way to have Christ-centered money management: by blessing others. For a great read, check out The First Five Years of Marriage.

Money Management

What is perhaps the single most factor that separates long-term winners from eventual losers? If you gave one of the common answers, like luck or game knowledge, you are incorrect. The answer is money management. Sure, luck helps and knowledge of the game you are playing is a must. However, unless you learn to manage your money properly, you are destined to fail. Money management is not simply playing within your limits. It goes way beyond that. Today we talk about one aspect of money management-the daily bankroll.

A simple way for most people to get started is to create a bankroll for your night out or whatever. For instance, let's say you will play Blackjack today. Decide what is the most money you are willing to lose. For our example, let's say we are setting our daily bankroll at £100. Now we could rush off to the £25 table and try to stake our claim to fame, but that would be foolish. To win over the long run it's important to be able to withstand losing streaks.

One good way to do this is to divide your daily bankroll by 20. This will give you 20 bets to start with. It also helps those new to money management figure out how much to wager. In our example, we have a £100 bankroll. After we divide it by 20, we end up with £5 units. The ideal situation is to find a table where we can bet £5 hands. It might be tempting to run off to a £5 table, but £1-£2 would be much better. This will allow you to fluctuate your bet downward if desired.

Keeping a general idea of what your current bankroll divided by 20 will allow you to raise your bets. For example, if your bankroll grows to £200, you can now start laying out those £10 wagers. If you hate math, just stick around your original figure and have fun.

Business Cash Management

Business cash management concerns cash collections, controlling disbursements, covering shortfalls forecasting cash needs, investing idle funds and compensating the banks that support these activities.

Since overall cash flow involve tax and finance it is best for staff in tax and accounting department work closely together. Cash flow management require close coordination between the treasury and operations. Use of technology that captures accurate information on cash flow management is important in effectively managing today's volatile market.

Effective cash flow management ensures every coin is at work either covering payment of cheques or producing income. The following are some of the best practices to manage cash flow:

1.Keep few bank partners

Leading companies consolidated their financial accounts, using fewer banks. Through this they can depend on a few banks for the services and not a single bank so that should one bank have problems their operations are not affected.

Consolidating bank accounts may bring in process efficiency. The company treasurer is able to keep tab line by line of banks transactions and can negotiate bank fees and procure preferential services. When shopping for bank keep cash management needs at heart by gathering inputs from all departments that will be affected by the choice of bank selected.

Leading companies appoint a team of financial experts including bank relationship manager to determine how best a bank meets the company's needs and create detailed service level agreements with chosen banks.

2.Develop accurate cash forecasting methods

Cash flows are uncertain and companies use forecasts to predict it by comparing receipts and disbursements. Best practice companies use models that give accurate figures.

Sources of available quantitative and qualitative business intelligence range from shipping data and sales orders to buying patterns.

Forecasts are based on seasonal, monthly, daily and cyclic patterns and trends. Forecasts can be explained as short term, medium term and long-term. Short term can track how a business unit fares, medium term aid in managing trends and seasonal price fluctuations, long-term forecasts help a company reach far reaching goals.

Integrating information into the forecast as soon as it is available and using a rolling format helps the company to time disbursements to be funded by incoming receipts. Further, use of a rolling forecast, simulation techniques, and web-based treasury software can improve forecasting accuracy and see the company through cash-critical periods.

3.Increase investment yield at lowest risk and cost

Companies develop investment guidelines on what is considered acceptable investments. A common understanding should be kept by the top managers on a portfolio of investment opportunities which can be exploited when opportunities become available.

Alternatively a company may outsource an investment manager to carry out this exercise. Some companies find this more cost effective especially for a small portfolio.

In addition leading companies avoid funds sitting idle in non-interesting bearing accounts by making use of sweep account and zero balance accounts. Sweep accounts allow companies to move idle cash into overnight investments at the end of each end of business day.

4.Evaluate cash management structure regularly

Frequent review routine management structure need to be conducted to identify process that require to be improved, provide a tracking measure and provides assurance that the company data is reliable. Reviews check how bank manage the bank cash, their charges and yields on investment.

To gather this information the company puts together a combine questionnaire and visit on site the bank partner. It is best to prepare the questionnaires before site visit.

5.Create a centralized cash management structure that serves global needs.

Cash flow management is made complex for entities with operations n more than one country. Overall cash management operates on two levels. To begin with each country's cash management system, addressing standard treasury functions like collections within national borders.

The second is a network that connects the domestic systems and various currencies while integrating cash management with functions such as purchasing, sales and accounting.

Centralizing cross-border treasury operations activities is best done gradually. Companies can centralize within each country before centralizing cross-border activities or vice versa, again, based on the specific needs of each company. Physical cross-border transfers of funds are kept to a minimum to reduce funds movement.

Instead, many companies use multicurrency accounts, netting, and pooling.

Traditionally, companies purchase international cash netting services from banks to lower transaction fees and reduce foreign exchange expenses. Netting reduces the transfer of funds between subsidiaries to a net amount.

Leading companies also establish in-house payment factories to manage accounts payable for their subsidiaries. Payment factories allow companies to net and bundle payments, lowering the number of transactions and transaction costs.

6.Automate financial reporting to drive efficiencies

Companies are quickly realizing the benefits of automating financial reporting processes. Reasons include process efficiencies that are integral to many treasury systems, and the high risk involved with spreadsheet accounting--both of which contribute to a lack of internal financial controls.

These problems can invite budget shortfalls, audit exposure, loss of stakeholder trust, and even government intervention. The innovative technological alternatives now available to generate accurate, complex financial deliverables include web-enabled treasury systems for global cash management and international reporting taxonomies such as extensible business reporting language (XBRL).

XBRL is a standards-based method that allows users to exchange and compile financial information across all technologies. These solutions can facilitate collaboration and data sharing, resulting in faster and more accurate financial reporting, more effective reporting controls, and cost savings in every area of cash management.

Financial managers are better able to focus on relationships with banks, trading partners and customers, and users have real-time access to accurate business unit transaction activity. These benefits promote better overall financial decision making and help a company gain or maintain a competitive edge.

Three Steps to Better Money Management

It's an old song but it is oh so true -- "money makes the world go 'round." And if you're like most of us you've got questions about money. Not just the big question of whether you'll have enough to retire some day.

But the every day questions of where your money is going, how to save enough for that big ticket item you have in mind, and whether you could be doing something to earn more on a regular basis.

At one point or another most of us spend time trying to understand how to make more money, and how to keep more of the money we make.

Fortunately, over time, all of us can improve our money management skills.

Use these five strategies as a starting point.

Step One: Start Saving

A cornerstone of smart money management is spending less than you earn.

Savings habits are crucial to developing reserves for retirement and to provide stability in times of crisis. They're also central to amassing funds for discretionary spending such as vacations. Many people fall into the habit of spending all that they earn early, rationalizing that they will start saving when they earn more and have "extra."

Not surprisingly, for many, the extra never materializes and they never begin to save.

To get on the track to smart money management start saving something. Plan to set aside between 5 and 10% of your income. As you get used to saving at that level save a little more, until you're saving between 10-30% of your income on a regular basis. How do you save when all your money is committed to ongoing expenses such as rent, food, and transportation?

You have to choose to spend less.

You can do this by canceling one optional purchase and setting that money aside.

Skip a meal at a restaurant.

Rein in your daily Starbucks habit and save the few dollars per day that costs.

Pick whatever expense you want to experiment with and then skip the expense altogether and pay yourself the difference.

Do this again and again until it becomes a habit. You'll be on your way to the savings discipline that good money management requires.

Step Two: Follow the Dollars

Do you wonder where your money goes on a regular basis?

A second element of good money management involves getting a handle on your spending habits. Knowing the cost of your daily expenses and your lifestyle habits such as dining out, entertainment and the like can be very enlightening.

The best way to get this data is to keep a spending diary for a week. Write down every dollar that you spend so you have a record of the amount and the reason for each outflow.

At the end of the week add up the amount you spent on different categories. For an even better understanding work with a months worth of data. Get the data by tracking your actual outlays for a full 30 days. If keeping a diary for a month feels like too much effort track your spending for two weeks and double the totals in each category.

Frequently, the totals in each category, on a weekly and monthly basis, will include some big surprises.

Larger totals in some discretionary areas than you realized can show opportunities to save. Or you can look at how changing some expensive habits means money is available for other items that you haven't thought you could afford to this point such as a gym membership or a weekly date night.

The more you know about where your money goes the more you can be in control, achieving the goals that are important to you. Isn't getting that control the reason you became interested in better money management in the first place.

Step Three: Hunt Down and Eliminate Financial Surprises

Good money management also means that in most cases you are ready for big expenses that would otherwise feel like a crisis.

A large category of expenses are infrequent but not really unexpected. The self-employed, for example, have to file tax returns quarterly. This large outlay is irregular but hardly a surprise since it corresponds to the income they have generated in the past 3 months. Other expenses you pay annually or semi-annually such as homeowners or life insurance premiums, or property taxes are similar.

Because they involve a change from their every day routine many people struggle with these outlays. But sound money management suggests they should prepare instead, by looking ahead at what large expenses can be anticipated and then making a plan to fund them when they're due.

Tackling the financial calendar this way can eliminate many ups and downs, substantially stabilizing your cash flow. Once again, you wind up in control.

The Commercial Real Estate Investor Team Member That Makes YOU the Most Money- The Property Manager

The right Property Manager can dramatically boost your profits and is key to your success. The wrong one can make you wish you never bought a property in the first place. Property Management Companies play a BIG part of any commercial real estate investor's business plan.

So, how do you find the right Property Manager and what should a Property Management Company focus on to make YOU the most money?

Rental property can be an extremely profitable investment when managed correctly.

The best management comes from an experienced professional Property Manager. Find the best local Property Manager before you start buying, meet them in person and interview them. Once you make a choice establish good rapport and make sure they have a good reporting system and use industry standard management software. Please don't manage your own properties. You are almost certainly not good at it and Property Management is NOT the best use of your time as the head of your Investment Business.

Experience is one of the defining qualities of a Certified Property Manager. (CPM)

Candidates for the designation CPM must have a minimum of five years of effective full-time decision making activity in real estate management before earning the designation. Ongoing training is also an important piece of the right management balancing act that makes sure your manager keeps up with both the urgent daily tasks AND your long term business plan for the property.

Great Property Managers greatly reduce your risks at the same time they increase your profits.

They keep your tenants happy, focus on increasing rents and decreasing vacancies. They take care of maintenance issues promptly without you needing to get involved in repairs. They stay up to date on the latest changes in Landlord-Tenant and Fair Housing laws so you always operate in compliance with the rules.

Your Property Management Company cost is not an area where you want to shave the budget.

You get what you pay for so make sure your dollars are spent wisely. Look for Property Management companies that contain the following key traits and your profits will grow, while you simultaneously reduce monthly and annual expenses, and maintain or grow your tenant lists.

A great Property Management Company stays focused on three main areas to maximize return on investment.

1. The Investor - by increasing profits

2. Your Customers or Tenants - by providing a positive experience that results in their continued tenancy

3. Other Professional Associates - their support network that insures operating policy and procedure are adhered to.

You can not serve the needs of one of these groups at the expense of another. Ultimately, the right Property Management Company is adept at balancing all divisions and relationships that contribute to successful management and Return On Investment from a property.

Property Management success should be a shared experience within the company.

By this I mean every employee should exhibit a good attitude whether they are new to the business or have years of experience. Every employee in the management company should be willing to grow and learn. Periodic training through coaching or education should be available to maintain and upgrade service delivery. All these efforts transfer to increased customer satisfaction and tenant retention.

The right management company will also be networking with the immediate community. Chambers of Commerce membership and various community organizations and should be able to provide a minimum of five references to you from properties they manage. They should have a track record and strong management portfolio, and have experience working with multiple investors on a single property. They should be strong communicators and be willing to work with you and your investment strategy. If your management company treats the property like they own it directly, and are spending investors money like it belongs to them they become a valued resource that contributes to both the tenant experience and the investor's bottom line.

Property managers have to understand how to increase returns within an owner's specified time frame, and know how to add value by enhancing income and cutting expenses. They will conduct due diligence for you and provide you with reports as well as know how to take over a property after acquisition. The right property manager is also a financial manager and will understand how to analyze financial statements and utilize yield management technology that provides monthly updated rent rolls, income expense reports as well as annual operating budgets and income forecasts.

Choose a Property Management Company with proven abilities, integrity, reliability, industry knowledge, and management expertise needed to enhance the value of your commercial real estate assets. Investors own property for one reason - as a financial investment. The RIGHT Property Manager is the one team member that can improve your investment by positioning your property to achieve its highest and best use and make you the most money.

Learn more from a proven Investor Education Resource:

Investor Tours University is a dedicated resource helping investors build wealth and achieve their defined level of success. We offer state-of-the-art commercial real estate investing education, tailored to meet the needs of investors with varied backgrounds and experience levels. Our faculty consists of a network of national experts in legal, tax, investment strategy, property management, acquisition and sales professionals who practice what they teach investors, which is how to achieve generational wealth using commercial real estate.

How Leadership Training Develops Strong Business Leadership Skills

Leadership training must evolve beyond programs of improving basic business leadership skills. While discussing the fundamentals of delegation, running meetings, "motivating" employees and public speaking may be OK for newly minted supervisors, it's really inadequate for the majority of professionals who rely on executive management training to survive in their leadership positions.

If you do not think we need to change our leadership training strategies, here are a few reasons why we should. Our world enjoys a level playing field which empowers billions of people to attain greater prosperity. At the same time, more people are acquiring and improving their business leadership skills through formal educational programs or their own informal development efforts.

The many advances made in computing, communications and other commercialization technologies offer everybody opportunities to quickly develop and sell their ideas. As improvements in the physical technology arenas continue to capture media attention, most business leadership skills courses and leadership training endeavors fail to improve our expertise in applying social technology.

Some people call this period of human history, the Age of Knowledge, yet still others, like me, say it is the Imagination Age. Indeed, we even find ourselves questioning deeply-held priorities, like our use of natural, human and man-made resources, in response to ever-increasing social pressures.

However, leadership training programs, especially in today's competitive economy, should prepare executives, management candidates and entrepreneurs to energize their business leadership skills in such areas as:

=> Innovation strategy development

=> Talent management and human capital enrichment

=> Technology portfolio designs and analysis

=> Business systems requirements and analysis

=> Coaching, facilitation and consulting techniques

=> Value-oriented analytics and engineering principles

All these subjects and others can help you boost growth and improve your performance on the "bottom-line". But more importantly, directors, executives and managers who work in non profits, a governmental agency or a service organization simply do not understand the contributions of those same subjects to their future success.

When selecting your next leadership training, business leadership skills or executive management training program use the following three tips.

Tip-1 - What Philosophy Is Being Promoted?

Any leadership training program attempts to help you discover the nature, causes and principles associated with the reality of leading, applying the knowledge base of leadership and the reasoning used by leaders.

That statement defines the philosophy of most leadership development programs. However, it's up to you to assess, measure and comprehend the scope, depth and intensity of your leadership training courses. You do have to evaluate when the needs of your business leadership skills are not being served by your executive management training program.

Tip-2 - How Does This Leadership Training Strategy Work for You?

These days there quite a few numbers of effective, efficient and efficacious educational techniques, delivery systems and program support strategies available to you.

Obviously, you will want to use your schedule, your learning style preferences and your personal as well as your professional requirements to gauge your leadership training options.

Your business leadership skills will be strengthened, sharpened and stimulated if you employ a long-term (6-12 months or longer) executive management training regimen.

Tip-3 - Why Will These Activities Energize Your Business Leadership Skills?

An excellent leadership training program will include classroom or instructor-led, self-directed or home-study and in-service learning activities. Involving this variety of learning situations increases the energy levels of your business leadership skills.

In other words, the doing, dissecting and developing of your leadership performances enables you to more effectively absorb your 'lessons' physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and psychologically. That's why world-class organizations give their promising performers executive management training for 2, 3 or more years.

Finally, the last and most critical "Tips" I will share with you are these -

Search for an executive management training program that adds richness, texture, luster, power and scope to the depth, capacity, value, quality and competency of your business leadership skills and experiences on a daily basis!

Invest in leadership training that will help you realize the ideals, opportunities and goals described in these Tips and you will make outstanding contributions to your organization, to your community and to our world.

Copyright © 2008, Mustard Seed Investments Inc., All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Forex: Money Management Principles

Trade With Sufficient Captial

One of the worst blunders that forex traders can make is attempting to trade without sufficient capital.

The trader with limited capital not only will be a worried trader, always looking to minimize losses beyond the point of realistic trading, but he will also frequently be taken out of the trading game before he can realize any sense of success trading the method(s) or patterns.

Exercise Discipline

Discipline is probably one of the most overused words in forex trading education. However, despite the cliché, discipline continues to be the most important behaviour one can master to become a profitable trader. Discipline is the ability to plan your work and work your plan.

It's the ability to give your trade the time to develop without hastily taking yourself out of the market simply because you are uncomfortable with risk. Discipline is also the ability to continue to trade the methods and patterns even after you've suffered losses. Do your best to cultivate the degree of discipline required to be a world-class trader.

Employ Risk-to-Reward Ratios

The following shows you possible risk-to reward ratios, and the win ratios required to break even in a trading system.

Risk-to-Reward Ratio (in pips)and Win Ratio Required to Break Even(%)

40/20 (2 to 1) = 67%, 40/40 (1 to1) = 50%, 40/60 (1 to 1.5) = 40%,

40/80 (1 to 2) = 33.5%,

60/20 (3 to 1) = 75%,

60/60 (1 to 1) = 50%,

60 /90 (1 to 1.5) = 40%,

60/120 (1 to 2) = 33.5%

Important Note

Never risk more pips on a trade then you plan to make. It doesn't make sense to risk 100 pips in order to make only 10. Why? See below example.

Profit taking level (pips): 10

Stop used or pips at risk: 100

You win 10 times which makes 100 winning pips.

You ONLY lose once and have to give back all profits!!!

This type of trading makes no sense and you will lose on the long term guaranteed!

A Strong Management Team is the Key to Success

A key element to entrepreneurial success is choosing the right people to be part of your management team. In fact, angel investors and venture capitalists both view strength of the management team as the major determining factor in whether they are willing to make an investment in the company. But it is also important for an entrepreneur to have outside advisers he or she can trust and rely on, an accountant being one of these. Even a start-up company with little or no revenues needs to have a good accountant available, as well as an attorney who has experience with young businesses.

Accountants are important members of a company's team. If you're a start-up or small business you may not have the resources to hire an accountant full time. There are software programs that can do most of the data entry but it's still a good idea to hire an accounting firm on a consulting basis to oversee your accounting systems, processing, and tax returns.

Attorneys are just as important, perhaps more so than accountants. An attorney can guide you to select the most appropriate way to set up your business. The best time to retain an attorney is before you need one. It's worth the money to know that if something comes up you have a legal expert who is familiar with your company. Attorneys have valuable contacts with venture capital firms and private investors. They know what is reasonable in a private offering , what isn't, and what must be included.

An attorney can also help you protect your intellectual property, trademarks, trade names and trade secrets. While it may seem expensive to have an experienced attorney on your management team it will avoid problems later.

Business Appraisers can tell you how much your business is worth and why. If you're considering refinancing, that business appraisal can help you determine how much debt the company can carry.

If you're considering selling your business the business appraiser can provide a ball park valuation. Of course the buyer will want to conduct their own due diligence and may even hire their own independent business appraiser, that's to be expected. The appraisal you have completed gives you a bench mark to start negotiations.

A Business Plan Consultant can expedite the business planning process. If you're looking for investors a well thought out concise business plan is critical. If you're considering starting a company, a business plan will help you improve your chances for success and avoid making serious mistakes. You may be the only one who reads this plan, although you should have input from a number of other people with business experience. A business plan is an important ingredient to the success of a start-up business.

Using Consultants to provide services you need on an outsourcing basis can be much less expensive in the long run than hiring someone as an employee. The consultant probably will cost more on an hourly basis but you only need their services on a project basis. Consultants can provide programming, technical assistance, and communications expertise, just to name a few areas.

When hiring a consultant, or consulting firm, ask for references and check those references. A good place to start the search for a consulting firm is to ask your attorney and accountant for recommendations.

Church Accounting Software - Money Management Made Easy

Even as a religious institution, a church manages its own finances-a fact that people usually find a bit awkward. It is because of the widely held belief that religion and money must never go together. But it is hard to imagine how any organization-religious or secular-survives its daily operation without money. Ask any priest or pastor: he would tell you that money is important in practically every activity, project, or event initiated by a church. Managing the funds of a church is quite complicated because money is used in many aspects such as monthly salaries of employees, water and electricity bills, and daily collections. Sometimes, huge donations from generous parish members need to be handled efficiently as well.

Handling the finances of a church should be no different from that of a business. Churches can take advantage of modern technology to aid their daily operations just as businesses can. Aware of the money management needs of religious organizations, software providers have come up with various church accounting software programs.

Improving the accounting system of any church is the main goal of using a church accounting software. Because this software is automated, it makes handling the income and expenses of a church much more convenient. A good accounting software allows users to easily record cash inflows like daily collections, pledges, accounts receivables, donations, and profits gained from church-related events or projects. Aside from income, the software can also easily track down release of church funds for expenses such as electricity and water bills, building and equipment maintenance, salaries of employees, insurance, and charitable programs.

A church accounting software can also address transparency issues that rise from running the finances of a church. Parishes typically have no external auditing in place to check how their funds are being managed. Most accounting software programs are easy to use and accessible to multiple users. These software programs also allow recording of any change in the entries. Such features make audit trail possible, allowing church officers to regularly audit the accounting system of their church. That way, the accounting officer or treasurer of a church would not be tempted to mismanage the funds or be accused of such practice.

In addition, using an accounting software makes the administration of a church more efficient. This means financial data can be recorded, stored, and retrieved without any hassle. With the help of an accounting software, different reports can be created and church budget can be prepared in just a matter of hours. Parishioners also stand to benefit from an accounting software during tax payments since money used for church activities are tax-exempt. Church members can request for reports that show the tithes or donations that they gave to the church. Such reports can be accessed and printed easily.

A number of software programs can aid in the non-financial aspects of church management. For example, an accounting software program can be used to monitor church attendance and church activities such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals.

To conclude, the financial aspect of a church should not be separated from its religious aspect. A church can serve its parishioners better if it has an efficient system for managing its finances.

Money Management 101

Whether you are in a deep financial hole or would like to get the most out of your money there are some things that you should know to accomplish these goals. Money management can help educate you on the inner workings of money, help you avoid the many financial pitfalls that exist and show you how to make money work hard for you. If you would like to get out of a difficult financial situation and achieve financial serenity, here are some money management tips that are extremely helpful.

In order to truly succeed, you must first understand how money works. This includes learning how to create a budget, save, how to be responsible with credit and how to choose lending products that fit your means and lifestyle.

Create a Budget

Creating a budget can help one understand their unique financial situation. It is extremely easy to create a budget. On one side of the paper, put all of your revenue including your income from your job, and any money you receive from investment, etc. On the other side of the paper list your expenses. Expenses include your mortgage, your car payment, gas, tolls, daily coffee, everything you can think of. If your income exceeds your expenses then you are in a good position to save your extra earnings. If your expenses exceed your income then you are in big trouble and you must cut back your expenses to cover your spending.

Savings

In order to manage your money, you should start building a savings. It is important to pay yourself first once you cash your check. Whether it is $20 per week or $200 per week make sure you save something each month. This savings can be helped later on to invest and make your money work for you.

Be Responsible with Credit Cards

Credit cards are not free money, they are unsecured loans and they can wreak havoc on irresponsible spenders. Many people fall deep in debt by spending carelessly with credit cards. Credit cards should only be used in an emergency or when you have the money to cover your purchase. Credit cards are not as convenient as most people think. In fact, if you pay the minimum payment the credit card company asks of you each month, you may find that an item that cost you $100 really cost over $200 by the time your credit card debt was paid off.

Choose Loans Wisely

Most people require a mortgage or car loan to purchase high priced items. While these lending products have helped millions it is important to choose the right ones that fit your means and lifestyle or else you may find yourself in financial difficulty. Before taking out a loan, do some research and educate yourself on the many types of loans available. Make sure the loan you choose has low risk. For instance, while banks may try to sell you products such as Adjustable Rate Mortgages or Interest Only Mortgages, you may want to stick with the Fixed Rate Mortgage. At least with this mortgage the interest rate will never change and you will know how much each month's payment will be for the life of the mortgage.

Money Management Software

Managing your money becomes much easier if you have a software program to record and analyze all of your financial data. These money management software programs can do anything from download daily transactions from your checking account and other investment accounts, help you budget and save toward long term and short term goals, as well as working toward eliminating debt. Here are several recommendations for money management software and what they can do for you.

The first money management tool which is offered online for a small monthly fee is the service called Mvelopes. This software is specifically designed as a personal home budgeting tool. Mvelopes works similarly to the old fashioned budgeting tool of placing cash in different envelopes to be used for different expenses. The only differences is that Mvelopes offers virtual envelopes. Similar to Quicken, Mvelopes downloads transactions from all of your financial accounts daily and allows you to classify each transaction into specific spending categories.

When comparing Mvelopes with Quicken or Microsoft money it is easy to see the differences between the two. Unlike Quicken, Mvelopes allows you to access your personal budget from any computer with Internet access. It also tracks all your credit card purchases and sets aside money from each of your envelopes to pay it off each month. This feature allows you to reduce your debt in a matter of months. With Mvelopes you can also pay up to 15 bills per month online for free. They also provide personal budgeting coaching to keep you on track to reach your goals. The monthly cost for Mvelopes is $7.90. They offer a 30 free trial offer.

Another online money management software is GnuCash. This service is free and uses professional accounting principles to organize your finances. Similar to other money management software programs, GnuCash downloads all of your financial information from all of your bank accounts and investment accounts. It then offers an analysis of your spending and saving habits complete with graphs and pie charts. This money management software is simple to use and understand, it's much like using your checkbook register. Another benefit of GnuCash is that you can track both personal and business finances so you don't have to have separate programs for each entity. This software also makes it is to organize your taxes.

If you are looking for money management software that will allow you to make educated stock trades and to track your investments, then you should look into ManusRisco software. This software is easy to use and allows you to make informed and wise investment decisions based on your trading style. The software analyzes various trade possibilities and plays a positive/negative expectation game in order to give you the best possible trading decision. Following the analysis stage ManusRisco will provide a full report to help you maximize your profits. This software is designed for businesses.

The one thing that all of these money management software programs have in common is that they are all available online. You no longer have to worry about backing up your computer every time you update your financial software. These money management tools will allow you to make wise decisions regarding your finances and help you get out of debt.

Learn to Turn Both Negative and Positive Events Into Success

It is not possible or even desirable to live a one sided life, where everything just goes smoothly, without any challenge. The early Chinese cultures recognised that it was impossible to experience anything from only one perspective, many thousands of years ago and introduced the concept of Yin and Yang to help people understand and utilise this concept to their advantage. If we lived only one sided, positive lives as depicted in a popular movie a few years ago, there would be little incentive to expand and grow. It is very often the very challenges that cross our paths that highlight new possibility or force us to stretch ourselves onto new planes of development and growth.

After accepting this universal law and understanding that most of the stress we face in our lives, is a direct result of our unrealistic expectation that everything should just go smoothly and that nothing should cross our path to challenge or stretch us. We have discovered a tool that will allow us to live a life that is filled with far less stress and we are able to explore any challenges far sooner, discover the opportunity they hold or unlock the learning they bring. I have asked many people that have attended one of my presentations, whether they are better or worse off after facing any challenge. After sufficient time has passed and they have learnt all they can learn from the process of overcoming any challenge, they have become more and in every case they have attracted more into their lives. Everyone I have asked this question, has unanimously stated that challenges were always one of the best things that happened to them.

So what are you waiting for, expect challenges, plan for them and search and discover the opportunities that each challenge holds, as quickly as possible. You always get to choose how you respond to any challenge that crosses your path, so the sooner you choose to learn from any challenge and to discover how to turn them into an opportunity for you to become more, as a result of the challenge, the faster you will attract the success you desire and deserve.

After accepting this universal law and embracing all the benefits that this new understanding will bring, it is time to add one additional tool into the mix. Find a way to bring a little more Yin or a softer approach into your life. Stop expecting to be able to outsmart, outwit and outdo everyone around you. Accept that we are all part of the same whole and the more we learn to co-operate and work together the better the results we will enjoy.

Work to build great personal relationships, become an effective connector and build as many support structures around you as possible. This softer approach in which you are always looking for ways to help others get what they want, supporting as many people as possible, will see you have exactly the same reflected back to you. Take sincere interest in other people's lives and strive to connect with people on a deep level, where there is always mutual benefit to be had by all parties.

It is time to get out of your head and to begin to trust your gut. As you learn to trust your intuition, you connect and support people the right people, who will support and assist you in return, you have discovered a pathway to master your life. It is time to accept that we cannot live a one-sided positive life only and that if we cultivate and demonstrate more yin energy, compassion, sensitivity, insightfulness and connection, with everyone around us, we have created a solid foundation for building the future we desire.

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

How to Make Employee Management Training Work

It is vitally important for you to have leaders that are able to lead their teams to achieve organizational goals. As people move into leadership positions, they often lack the necessary skills, attitudes, and habits that their new position demands. Therefore, almost all organizations, big and small, invest in some form of leadership skills training and development for their people. However, why do the same ineffective behaviors that were exhibited before the training continue to show up?

Too often, even in the best designed training programs the learning that takes place in the classroom is not transferred back into the organization in the form of changed behaviors or improved results. It seems like there is a gap between the training conducted in the classroom, to the actual day to day, on the court implementation of the new skills learned in the training. Consider that training is only one of the elements needed to have leaders use the management skills learned in training. In addition to training, organizations have to look at ways to reinforce the new behaviors. Organizations need to have the following three elements in place before implementing employee management training programs:

• Organizational culture that is consistent with the training• System to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals going through the training• A coaching or mentoring process to reinforce the new skills and behaviors learned

If an organization is training for X and the culture is Y, the employee management training is not going to yield the desired results. For example, let's say you are training managers to resolve conflict through open and candid communication. Your training objective is to have the manager listen actively to the concerns and opinions of others and to keep these discussions confidential. However, the culture of the organization is one where managers talk openly about conversations they have had with employees and complain that their employees are whiners! No matter how great the training is the culture is not in alignment with the desired behavior. That is why it is vital for the leadership of an organization to first determine the culture it wants to have. That culture must be communicated and the leadership has to set the example on a daily basis. When the culture and training are in alignment, behaviors can change.

Another important element for employee management training to be successful is to assess the manager's strengths and limitations before the training. This evaluation prior to training will allow the manager to get the most out of the training. It is optimal if you can develop the training around the specific needs of each individual. Often this is not possible due to budgets, time, and resources. However, an evaluation of strengths and weaknesses, using 360 Degree Surveys or other assessment tools allow the manager to go into the training with a focus of what they need to work on in the training. The manager's supervisor should play a key role in this evaluation process.

The last element in having successful, long-lasting results from employee management training is to have an ongoing coaching and mentoring program. After the training, the manager should have someone in the organization that helps reinforce the new skills learned in the training. Preferably, this coach/mentor should not be the manager's direct supervisor, although it could be. The purpose is to set goals for progress and periodically measure progress against the goals. The coach/mentor should be someone available for the manager to go to and be able to "run things by them" to help the manager develop their management skills. In addition, the coach/mentor should have regular meetings (monthly at a minimum) to review what has happened since they last met. These meetings need to be where both the coach and the manager have time to openly discuss the problems and challenges the manager is facing. The coach/mentor should also recognize and reinforce the positive behaviors that have been exhibited.

Businesses today can ill afford to waste time and money. That's why organizations that want to maximize the return on their training dollars will ensure the three elements discussed in this article are well in place.

Money Management for Futures and Commodity Traders, Part II

A number of qualities are necessary in order to become a successful futures trader. These characteristics can be your keys to success. Some are more crucial than others, but together they form an unbeatable -- and winning -- combination.

The Discipline of Excellence

Discipline is the primary key to successful futures trading. You must have the discipline to learn your system, study it daily and tweak it to perfection. You must have the discipline to keep a trading log that records your trades, as well as the market conditions, thought processes and external influences that affected each trade. Without such a log, you are doomed to repeat your mistakes, rather than learning from them. You must have the discipline to do your homework, to study and keep up with the market, and to keep your system current.

The Profit of Patience

You must be patient if your trading system is to be effective. By trading too soon, you negate the value of your trading system. You must exercise patience and give your system time to work. More than a virtue, patience for the futures trader is sheer profit.

Learning to Deal With Loss

Loss is simply part of the trading game. You must be able to take losses in stride and get right back in the game. When your system dictates that a loss be taken, you must have the discipline to follow your system, take the loss quickly, minimize the damage and move on.

Perseverance

There are no overnight success stories in futures trading. Success is a matter of building experience, working and perfecting your system, minimizing losses, and capitalizing on small gains. Success, particularly at the beginning, is more often a series of small steps than giant leaps.

Confidence

Above all, a futures trader must have confidence in him or herself. You must have confidence in your system and your ability to work your system -- to "pull the trigger". Futures trading is a game of risk. You can't be afraid to act. You must have confidence in your ability to read your system and act. Those who hesitate or who second-guess themselves on every trade are doomed to lose in the futures trading game.

Flexibility

The market and market forces are ever changing. You must have the flexibility to change with the times, and to make changes to your system so it remains viable and in tune with current market conditions.

Each individual component of futures trading -- from timing, to entry, money management, and exit -- is directly affected by the person calling the shots: the trader. For this reason, personal traits and characteristics of the trader must be continually examined and developed, in order that optimal performance be accomplished and maintained.

Surviving Product Management

The best lessons learned come from actual experience. Having been a product manager for products as diverse as hosted applications to printers, these are the lessons I've learned and I hope they are useful to you. With a healthy dose of humility from lessons learned, here are my recommendations for surviving and excelling at product management:

Essentials of Product Management

o Passion for your products and their success matters more than organizational power. The role of a product manager is full of opportunities to find passion for the product today, its future roadmap, sales strategies, finding and growing a sales champion, and working with and supporting service. In short the best product managers I've worked with have a passion for their products and their success. They rarely coerce cooperation through formal power by invoking a VP or C-level executives' name or position, but their passion and intensity earn them respect. Passion is the fuel of the best product managers; it propels them past doing "just enough" to get by to delivering exceptional work, projects and results.

o Manage expectations aggressively. In some companies product managers are considered the final authority on future product enhancements, current and future pricing, launch dates, PR and lead generation efforts, even which analyst firms are subscribed to. With this much authority, sales, channel management, operations, production - in short every affected group in a company - looks to product management to make commitments on products to respond to competitive pressure or capitalize on market opportunities. If your company has an Intranet post the product roadmap and product management plans, in detail by product, there for everyone to view. Deviating from product roadmap for special orders needs to be communicated aggressively, as do pricing moves and product direction.

o Resolve to know your competitors better than industry analysts do. Get to know your competitors and become an expert in every aspect of their business. If you haven't already, get 10Qs and other filings from the SEC for publicly available companies, and for all competitors run a D&B report every three months to see how their business is going. Take the hardest-hitting competitive points and publish it to your direct sales force including inside sales. Take the trending data and publish it for your indirect partners and keep the best competitive analysis for your direct sales force. Publish how-to-sell-against papers on each competitor every six months to capture the current knowledge you have of them for both direct and indirect channels.

o Pricing competitive analysis deserves its own effort. When managing high-volume products like PCs, laptops or accessories, having a constant view of how your pricing measures up relative to competitors is easily accomplished by checking competitors' and their channel partners' websites. Tracking your competitor's price relative to your own on a daily basis delivers the data necessary to fight for price moves and lower per unit costs from purchasing, procurement or operations. Consider hiring a couple of interns from a local university to do the daily analysis and establishing trending graphs and presentations. Hiring them for twenty hours a week, working the first half of each day of the week, works well. Pricing from competitors is typically re-vamped nightly with website refreshes, so having interns capture this data during the first hours of the day gives you visibility into pricing moves immediately.

o The first 90 days in a product management role is critical. This is the time the best product managers I've seen get their reputations established, start delivering on projects, show their strengths and weaknesses, develop alliances, and set expectations for the next year or two. It's critical during this time to avoid being isolated and getting buried quickly in e-mails and distractions. The best product managers are those that get out to the departments they will need to work with in the future, building alliances, starting to earn trust, and getting to know where product management is positioned in the company and what its true role is. During interview cycles you get the org chart view, it's time to get the real view now.

Reaching out to departments you will work with includes Sales, Marketing, Service, Engineering, Production, Operations and the customer base. Get out and see at least three to five customers if you can, coordinating this with Sales, and also spend time with the internal "customers" you will have, going as far as to publish your project list for everyone who is relying on you. Work to deliver projects before their deadline and ask frequently for feedback. The goal during this first 90 days is to become part of the fabric of the company and spend much time learning the organization and where its' most pressing needs are before going after huge projects.

o Grow sales champions, even if it means you have to do pre-sales support. Sales and product management often have a cordial yet distant relationship in companies because on the one hand product management needs Sales to run up the most critical metrics there are, and Sales needs product management for product information and support. Pre-sales support is avoided by many product management staffs because it becomes all-consuming. But structuring pre-sales support in terms of escalation of the best opportunities coming to product management for face-time with product experts is critical to grow links with Sales and eventually grow a sales champion. Just manage your time to make sure this doesn't become an all-consuming job.

Making Cross-Functional Teams Work

o Credibility is the capital you trade with, start with humility. Passion and credibility go hand-in-hand. Building credibility has to start with a focus on earning respect from engineering, product marketing, sales and other departments you regularly interact with. Building credibility starts by building trust. Trust comes from being transparent. Building credibility takes time, and so often product managers feel they must be the "instant" expert for their products, when building credibility is much better accomplished by admitting what you don't know and asking for help. Humility and honesty gain respect, as does asking for help and being reciprocal about sharing thanks for getting it. Be sure to serve up plenty of recognition to those that help you too, copying their managers on thank you e-mails when members of other departments go out of their way to help you get to your goals. Start laying the foundation for positive relationships where you get the reputation for sharing credit and thank you early and often.

o Replace the frequency of cross-functional meetings with an Intranet site. Respect the time of cross-functional team members by distributing marketing, sales and business plans, specifications, and documents via an Intranet site. Distribute links and ask for feedback, and only have cross-functional meetings when there is enough to discuss and it warrants everyone's time. You can also use an Intranet site for managing the approval cycles for documents as well, and if you have an organization that is comprised of team members across a wide geographic region use meetings and conference calls for exceptions and have the workflows on the Intranet site handle the routine tasks.

o Create a buzz around new product introductions by creating Champion Awards. In one PC company that had to rely on engineering resources from another project to get its product line built, tested and ready for launch, product management created Champion Awards signed by the Directors of Engineering, Marketing, General Manager for the Division and CEO. These were personalized by product managers and framed, then presented the same week a member of engineering completed a task above and beyond their primary job in support of the product launch. These were presented at cross-functional meetings by Directors of Engineering and Marketing.

o Under-commit on launch dates and over-deliver on them. Product introductions are when companies signal to the outside world how coordinated they are internally or not. There's major pressure to move launch dates up from Sales, Channel Management, Marketing, and at times from Operations and Production as well. As much pressure there is to move up a launch date, keep schedules full of at least 20% extra time because the inevitable delays occur.

Lessons Learned From Working with Engineering

o Share product ownership with your products' engineers. Partner and team with engineering, and specifically spend much time understanding engineering's' perspective on your products. Share ownership for the product and its future, and work to create a cooperative environment with engineering.

o Relentlessly pursue product expertise. Becoming a product expert starts by realizing that there is no such thing as an "instant expert" and that by working with engineering to appreciate which decisions they have made on your product and why goes a long way towards giving you a solid foundation to manage your products as effectively as possible.

o Be a de facto leader of development via customer and competitive intelligence. This takes much effort, and it is worth it for any product manager to establish their role as delivering in-depth customer and competitive intelligence. Often when the next generation of a product is being developed, engineering needs input on what customers are looking for. By committing to be the leader in terms of customer and competitive intelligence, you can that much more effectively guide product development.

Lessons Learned From Working with Product Marketing

o Get on top of lead generation performance for your products. Marketing may not have this data, but go after getting it for all product managers so you can start building out what the sales funnel looks like for your products and how many leads are needed at the wide end of the funnel to result in closed sales.

o Work with Marketing to understand the sales funnel for your products. See if you can create the sales funnel for your products using Marketing data, and see why some leads drop out of the pipeline.

o Get going on a Google AdWords strategy for your products. This is very economical as a lead generation strategy, and push to get AdWords going for your products. Define the specific keywords to include competitors and their products as well. The cost per click can be well under $1.00 and the leads finely tuned.

o Have a constant stream of white papers and knowledge going to prospects. This is doubly true in emerging markets where prospects are looking for guidance and insight into what new technologies are working reliably. Prospects want to understand what new technologies mean to them, they don't want messages slammed at them. Educate and be the trusted advisor in new markets, and you'll sell more.

o Use industry analysts often. In certain software segments, industry analysts are relied on by IT buyers for their guidance, and as a result they have insights into what is being purchased and why. Get industry analysts to visit your company and present competitive updates once every three to six months. Also get their insights into your product roadmap and direction, making sure an NDA is in place as part of your company's overall relationship with them.

Summary & Wrap-Up

The bottom line is that product managers have great potential to make a lasting impact on companies and entire industries through their efforts. Exceptional product managers are marked by a passion to make their products, engineering staffs, and sales persons the stars of their companies, content to be the enablers of accomplishment, the "backstops" of products so to speak. A great product manager is like a great coach; they orchestrate people, resources, and strategies to make their teams successful first and always.

How to Make Money Selling Cars - Auto Sales Training

The car salesman's salary is always a topic of interest. For the car salesperson, the money you make can be determined by the company you work for and their standards. Some give bonus incentives to going above the sales goals set for you, while others offer commission only positions. Depending on the type of work you do, commission or hourly, you want to make as much money as possible. Here are a few automotive training sales tips for you to use.

Set a Goal for Yourself

Setting goals for your sales will help you to have something to work towards. Keep track of your sales daily, and then at the end of the week see if you exceeded your own sales goal. When you set goals for yourself, you are more apt to pay more attention to the customers and their needs to get the sale. You are your own worst critic, and if you think you will not make your goals, you will push yourself harder to try to exceed them.

Qualify Your Customers

When you initiate a conversation with your customers to begin building a relationship, you ask many questions to get an idea of what they are looking for. Use this information wisely, and ask questions accordingly. Look at every customer as if they have a credit score of 850, and they can afford any type of vehicle you suggest. As an auto salesman, your job is to sell the vehicles and give the customer what they want. Remember that almost 75% of the people who walk on your lot are ready to buy that day. Don't let the opportunity pass you by because you think they are only looking. Don't pre-qualify your customers, but take the time through your questioning to make sure you not only avoid wasting their time, but avoid downsizing your paycheck.

Get Out of Your Own Way

Most use car lots or new car lots have a group of salespersons standing around talking when a customer approaches. This is definitely not helping your paycheck. When your customer walks onto the lot, they are already thinking about which salesperson is going to help them. Be available to your customer, and stay away from the other salespersons. This not only makes you ready to help, but will make the customer think you are more businesslike than your associates. You will make more money being available to your customer when they arrive, than you will if they have to seek you out for help.

Atten: Car salespeople. Mak has many more tips and strategies. Get his free 5 part mini e-course on automotive sales training. It's a must read car sales training course to help you sell more vehicle in the car business.

Five Golden Rules of Daily Money Management

Is there a way to get a handle on how much money we spend and how much money we earn every month? The answer is, yes!

Below is a list of 5 golden rules of daily money management. These are the rules some of us wished we were taught in school because of how stressful it can be when we let debt accumulate or live paycheck to paycheck with no change in sight.

The five golden rules of daily money management:

Rule #1. Pay yourself first! The best way to do this is to designate a certain amount of money to be deducted from each paycheck. If you don't see the money in your checking account hopefully it will be out of reach and you will be less inclined to spend it.

Rule # 2. Create a spending plan and stick to it! When you don't plan you will always be taking a rearview mirror approach to managing your finances. There is little you can do to recover money once it has been spent.

Rule #3. Maintain a checkbook balance! Periodically compare your balance to what the bank says you have. Your checkbook balance is your true bottom-line because you will have deducted all outstanding payments and checks.

Rule #4. Maintain a cash register! This looks like a checkbook register but instead you are adding and deducting all your cash transactions. It is easy to stop by the ATM for cash. In a day or two you find your wallet empty again and are back at the ATM for more cash. Chances are you have little recollection of where the money was spent. Small purchases add up whether you spend the money on food or other discretionary items - multiples of $50's or $100's several times a week over the year add up to a significant sum of money.

Rule #5. Avoid using "plastic"! Although a card (debit or credit) swipe is convenient, it is habit forming. There is little if any consciousness or connection with a transaction. Have you ever grabbed a receipt from a debit or credit card transaction, unconsciously stuck it somewhere never to be looked at again? Sometimes we are in such a rush we will sign a credit card receipt and not even look at the total.

Even when you pay off your credit card every month it has been proven you will spend 15% to 30% more. If you pay with cash you can only spend the money you have with you. Reward credit cards are enticing, but if you spend less when you use cash you will save money in the long run which is probably worth more than the value of the reward offered by the credit card company.

The bottom-line is to avoid spending more that you earn. As you know, this may sound simple but is not always easy; however, if you follow the five golden rules of daily money management overcoming your personal financial challenges may become easier than you think. The purpose of these five rules is you help you stay in touch with reality. When you know what is 'real' this is when you become empowered to make stronger financial decisions.

The closer you come to implementing all 5 of these rules the greater your chances of financial stability and success. However, don't give up if you cannot get on board with all five. Changing from old habits to new ones is a process. Start with one rule or one step at a time. When you start to notice results you will be motivated to apply all five rules.

Money Matters When Choosing an LMS

Now that you've narrowed down your Learning Management System choices, it's easy to embark on a honeymoon of sorts. After all, you've put quite a bit of work into choosing a system and vendor that work for your organization - a perfect match. But there are problems that can occur at this stage, and the first set of problems can be financial. When you've chosen your LMS or are close to choosing it, remember that money matters.

One of the first mistakes you can make is paying too much money at the outset or implementation of your LMS. Simply put, it's a good idea to be aware of the charges you'll receive for each feature or implementation milestone. This is why we've already discussed the importance of reading and understanding the contract and charges, and having your selection team do the same. Also, know how much money you'll have to put into training for your team, such as daily training charges, instructor expenses, and even location charges. Don't get surprised by the amount of money you'll have to feed into the system at the beginning, and don't pay too much.

On the other side of spending too much money is not spending enough, so don't scrimp and save on the front end if you can avoid it. The old saying, "you get what you pay for" rings very true when you select an LMS. For example, if certain features are part of the initial rollout, take them even if you don't plan to use them right away. A customization, which we will discuss in a moment, can cost a great deal of time and money. In another example, don't skip training because it's too expensive. Your LMS vendor most likely has a training team that specializes in helping organizations implement their systems, so take advantage of the service. If you skip initial training because of the expense, you'll end up losing in the long run by either having to fix your mistakes or having the vendor come in to fix them for you.

As we've mentioned, customizations almost inevitably come with a Learning Management System. But beware of making customizations that you should have discovered in your front-end assessment. If you skipped the initial analysis, you may end up being forced to customize to fit certain organizational requirements into the LMS. The customization process, which bears repeating, can be costly in both time and money. Now that you're a client, your vendor will put developers, business analysts, and even implementation consultants on your customization, depending on how big it is. Plus, charges for developers and analysts may be hourly and only estimated to start with. So if you customize, be aware of the cost and time involved, and then make a decision about the customization. Plus, if you keep your IT team involved, they may be able to help you come up with a workaround.

Finally, if you are offering off-the-shelf training, especially from a vendor in addition to the LMS vendor, be aware of any per-head costs that may be assessed for the training - and don't get caught without enough course accesses for your learners. As part of your initial assessment, you should accurately count how many people may need the off-the-shelf courses. On the other hand, be aware of how much your LMS vendor may charge for its library at the outset, as well as any additional learner fees above the number you've already discussed.

The point here is to assess each vendor for the charges that may come at the outset, during the implementation, or later in your relationship with them. Although it is impossible to know when a change or customization may have to be made, you can at least be aware of the possibility and of the charges that may be associated.

Next, we will look at the administration of your LMS after it has been selected.

First Line Managers: Show Me the Money

First line managers can learn the details of their business by the Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruse) "Show me the money" process.

I managed several businesses without training or background in the business. Tracking the costs helped me learn the business. I began by breaking down the costs from the financial reports to the individual purchases and salaries. This process surprised me, I learned so much about the details of managing the business. Here are examples of how I tracked cost to learn a business.

My first management job was the restaurant Manager of the Ramada Inn South in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I graduated from the University of Alabama; and now, I was managing a business for the first time.. My performance target was to keep the food and Labor cost below 65% of the restaurant's monthly sales. The previous manager never got the costs below 72%, most times she was closer to 80%. She had been in the restaurant business for years. The restaurant's labor cost was within budget. Labor cost was easy to control by use of proper work schedules.

The lunch and dinner menus prices were"OK". Wasting food is a major part of the food cost over run in the budget. The weekly daily special lunch menu was the problem. There was no consistency. I devised a 16 day menu cycle with different selections on each day (3 weeks and one day). For instance, one day the menu had roast beef, the next day we had beef stew. This process worked food leftovers from one day into the next day's menu. This rotating menu allowed me to plan purchases and manage inventory more effectively. I tracked the cost of each item on menus. The high cost entries I limited over the span of the menu cycle. I tracked the cost of each food item; thus, I could predict my food cost over the cycle. After a couple of months, I had the restaurant's food and labor cost below 65 % of the restaurant revenue. I accomplished my budget without sacrificing customer satisfaction.

As General Manager of the Admiral Benbow Inn in Birmingham, I required my housekeeping manager to give me the number of rooms each employee cleaned daily and the hours the employee worked. I took this information and entered it into a spread sheet. On a daily basis, I calculated the cost for each employee to clean a room. I tracked this information over time. This information is an effective performance measure. I informed the housekeeping manager on employee performance. If an employee's cost per room was low, I wanted to know if she was following our rules for cleaning a room. When an employee's cost per room was too high, did we need to follow-up on her performance? This data allowed the housekeeping manager to schedule the most efficient employees when she had to work employees on week-ends or overtime. Tracking the cost in this way let her control the labor cost and keep our quality of service high.

Sometimes, I did not have a budget for my department. I still managed key components of the my department's cost: labor and material. I established key measures, such as orders worked per day, hours of overtime, and material usage records. We reviewed the usage rules of our primary materials. I determined the time required to do a certain job; I tracked this over time. I knew when an employee did not do a task in a timely manner. I documented the service orders worked daily by each worker and tracked this over time. This document gave me the number of orders I could expect each worker to work daily. The information is great performance management check on a worker's performance. This information is critical to planning the departments personnel levels; whether to cut or add employees.

Each activity performed by my department has an associated cost. By the "Show me the Money" process, I found the high cost activities to control. This process was a path to the expenditures I must to control to stay within my department's budget. Most importantly, by tracking costs, I learned that I could manage most any business and be successful. If you can manage the details of the business, others will not manage it for you.

First line manager your key responsibilities are to manage the cost and quality of work in your department. You can do this best if you track the key costs as they occur and flow through your department. This tracking will also lead you to a better understanding of the business you are managing.

Money Management - Proper Position Sizing For Penny Stocks

How large or how small should your position be in any given trade? Before I get into the answer to that, there is one prerequisite that supersedes everything, the liquidity of what you're looking to trade. You need to keep your position size to as small of a percentage as the average daily money volume. You can estimate the average money volume by taking the price and multiplying it by the average amount of shares traded daily. If a stock that is trading at $1 averages in between 100,000 and 300,000 shares, the average money volume is probably in the ballpark of $200,000. How much of the average money volume do you want to be? The less the better, but there is no official threshold to stay under. I'd say staying under 2% is pretty safe, but if you know what you're doing you can push that somewhat. There have been plenty of trades where I've gone well over 2%, but in those cases if I didn't get buying momentum to sell into, I paid the price.

As long as you have the liquidity issue covered, here is how I determine my position size. To start with, I need to know a few things to figure out what my position size should be. Those are; How much I'm willing to lose on this trade, where my entry is, and where my stop loss is at. For example, say I'm watching a stock that is an uptrend, but it's currently falling back to support at $1. Since the longer term trend is up, I'm looking to buy into the support at $1, but if that support fails to hold, I'm going to bail. The most I want to risk losing on the trade is $200. That doesn't mean my position size will be $200 worth of shares, that means that should my stop loss get triggered I only want to lose $200. So my entry is at $1, and my stop loss will be enough below that to allow for normal market fluctuations, we'll say at $.95. So now I know all the factors to determine my position size. My maximum risk is going to be $200, the entry is at $1, and the stop loss is at $.95. Based on that, my position size would be 4000 shares. 4000 shares multiplied by $1 is $4000, and 5% of that (which is what my stop loss is set at) is $200. An easy way to figure this out is by dividing your maximum risk amount by the percentage of the stop loss. In this case, it would be $200/ 5%, which would give the $4,000 figure. You then just need to factor how many shares you can buy with that amount.

If you always risked the same amount on every trade and kept an arbitrary percentage for your stop losses, your position size would always be the same (in dollars). My problem with this is that an arbitrary percentage doesn't make sense to me since all stocks and charts are different. The stock and the chart should dictate your stop loss. A 5% stop may work great on one stock, but on another much more volatile one it may get triggered way too easily. If you feel that on a certain trade you need a 10% - 20% stop loss because of either the volatility, where the closest, most relevant support/resistance is at, or both, then use that wider stop, but adjust your position size accordingly. That way, you're still allowing the proper amount of buffer room for price fluctuations, but you're still risking the same amount if your stop gets hit.

11 Steps to Managing Time and Becoming More Productive

Time is more valuable than money. Time is something you can never get back. All too often we put things off until another day, yet we never seem to catch that next day. We hear the term time management, but what does it really mean?

1) The term time management actually refers to managing ourselves rather than time, because no matter what you do to change, there will always be 24 hours in a day. It is how we budget our time which is controllable.

2) List everything you do in a course of day that takes your time away from being productive. Internet surfing or reading wants ads during the time when productive work should be performed steals time. Create a daily activity log to help define where your time is being spent.

3) Set time goals to help modify your behavior.

4) Take the next step and implement a reasonable time schedule. By doing this step you will increase productivity and reduce stress. As you analyze your progress you will begin to modify your behavior.

5) Use time management tools to help stay focused. Software programs are a great way to keep you on task moving forward. Adhere to the calendar, remind yourself in advance of tasks or events.

6) Get in the habit of prioritizing. decide what tasks are most important and need to be completed immediately.

7) Delegate or outsource to others. Never be afraid of saying no periodically.

8) Get yourself on a routine. The best rule of thumb, perform something for 30 days straight and it will become a habit.

9) Setting time limits for tasks will further help to keep you balanced.For instance, reading and answering email can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it.

10) Organization is key to time management. Not great at organizing hire a professional organizer who will create systems based on your needs, routine, and style. Make sure files are organized, desk tops, papers, etc.

11) Waiting is a time muncher. Waiting for a client, respond to emails while you are waiting. Eating lunch, write a grocery list, drinking your morning coffee, plan your day.

By using these 11 tips, you will improve your time by being more productive.

How to Implement and Teach Money Management Skills in the Classroom

We are all aware of the financial affects of having poor money management skills. These effects have been exposed to many of us after the 2008 Market crash. But many experts say, good money management skills, start at school, and should become an essential part of learning in the 21st Century.

The next generation will find borrowing and making money much harder than previous generations who experienced unprecedented economic growth between the late 1950s, and late 2008.

Most educators generally agree that students should have some form of money managing skills as part of their education, either at school or in college.

So how can we teach money- Management Skills in the Classroom?

1. Encourage students to have a "Market Day," where they can sell to other students they make or buy. This teaches important entrepreneurial skills, and also teaches the real value of money.

2. Incorporate practical lessons that discuss the way Credit Cards, and other loans work. Use practical examples that show "poor" money management, and recommended skill's.

3. Create projects that focus on 'Home Finances," get students to create an imaginary Home, give them an allowance, and challenge them with the daily task of paying bills. Winning and Losing, could be the difference between good home management skills and poor financial skills.

4. Get students to collect for a local or International charity. Focus on what the money raised could buy. Students could learn from their own experience how hard it is to raise money, and how little it often buys.

5. Create games around money management techniques. Make them fun, use "money" to show how students manage money well.

6. Encourage students to play online games that teach in a fun way how to manage money.

Schools or Colleges should teach essential life skills that could help students understand how to survive and thrive in a future society. Money management skills are an essential part of a 21st Century Education, and this would create a generation of citizens who are less likely to get into debt easily.

(This article is part of the authors 21st Century Education series)

Being a Brand New You by Following Tips in Time Management Training

Not all people could manage their time well. Learning more from the time management training will make you able to use your time well and make you be more discipline in doing your deadlines.

Not Learned Enough

The depressing truth is that we are not learned enough to be able to make schedules that aid us managing time efficiently. We may have enormous degrees as well as certificates. However, still we can be uncertain when it comes to ideal time management. Luckily, there are some easy techniques and explanations that will help us managing time more effectively.

Time Management Training - What Is It?

To begin with, we could get usefulness from trying that training. In that training the focus is on being able to make immediate and uncomplicated processes that are easy to implement so that work flow is made more efficiently and effectively. Some of the things that you will learn through that training are being able to schedule time in a better way.

Additionally, through tthat training you will also come to comprehend the significance of not stacking paper which can distract you and make you lose your focus. What you will learn through that training is how to make the appropriate decision. By following the orders from the time management training you will be able to determine your next steps well.

You can also get advantage from that training by learning how to make folders both at the physical file level and the email level. At last, you will also get usefulness from time that training by learning the suitable way to file your reference files.

At last, you have got to try applying tips in the time management training if you wish to change into a brand new better you.

Daily Stock Trading - Can You Really Make More More Money Day Trading?

If you think stock trading is only for the wealthy, you are wrong. These days, anyone can who has the ability to understand basic stock analysis can participate in daily stock trading. Even normal everyday people can earn millions of dollars in the stock market. If you review stock trading blogs and newsletter, you can read examples of people who have made their fortunes this way. Their stories can be great inspiration to take part in trading stocks. Whatever your financial situation, you can learn to purchase the right stocks, analyze the market, and make a profit.

If you choose daily stock trading as a career, you can actually earn a great deal of money. You will only be able to make money, if you truly understand the stock trading process. Don't think that you will be earning easy money right away.One strategy that you must master is stock analysis. Stock analysis is the way professional traders gauge the condition of the stock market. Being able to properly use stock analysis information will allow you to become an expert in daily stock trading.

There are many educational resources and tools which will help you to understand the stock market. There are trading blogs, newsletters, and training modules. All of these tools will improve your chances at success in day trading.

Another element of trading success is terminology. Like any profession, there is a specialized vocabulary that comes with the stock market. Knowing what certain terms mean will ensure your success in daily stock trading. You can also learn from financial experts who freely give their advice in online forums. Pay careful attention to these comments, as these professionals speak from experience.

Those who wish to become serious traders will need to learn how the stock market works. Building personal wealth with the stock market is attainable for anyone if you understand stock analysis.One way to increase your odds of success is to utilize reputable brokerage companies. A reputable brokerage company can help you navigate volatile market ups and downs. The ability to cope with market fluctuations can be the difference between winning big and losing it all.Try not to be tempted by easy money. There is no such thing as easy money. Any money you make daily stock trading will be the result of analysis and careful decision-making.

When you decide to enter the world of the stock market, you have to understand the risks versus the benefits. When you make an investment, you are making a gamble. The stock market is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You have to rely on professional advice and market analysis in order to make good choices.

When You require to Get a Daily Money Manager Trining

Jutamad has been wanting to contact her mom, whom lives in a different state, but gets a voice message that the collection has been disconnected.  She after discovers the telephone has been switched off because of non-payment.  Jutamad phone calls her mom's neighbour to check  on her and be sure she's okay.

Susan's mother has been sick and needs nursing help for part of the day.  On her coming see, Susan letters that the post has been piling up and never been opened up.  As she looks through a few of the bank statements, she updates many over-limit costs, along with checks for people Susan doesn't know.  She stresses that something is very incorrect, as her mother used to stay on top of all her financial affairs.

Martin's recently widowed mother is at a loss at how to deal with the checkbook and pay the monthly bills.  After all, she do not had to stress about it since her husband took care of almost all their financial matters.  She requires help getting her bills paid on time and balancing the checkbook every month.

Most of these people can use the help of a Daily Money Manager, or DMM.  Some of the services a DMM provides are:

o    Balancing the checkbook

o    Paying bills

o    Organizing tax records

o    Managing insurance claims

A DMM does not take the place of an accountant or attorney, and does not offer legal, tax or investment advice. However, they will work with the client's CPA or attorney to ensure that the client's personal financial matters are attended to.

And, because the DMM visits the client once or twice a month, other family members can be assured that their aging relative's financial affairs are being taken care of on a timely basis.

When you have an aging parent or relative that requires help with their paperwork, consider hiring a Daily Money Manager.  This could help you save time, as well as give you peace of mind knowing someone is taking care of your elderly members of the family.