100 Things You Need To Know About Money Before 35

 

I learned pretty quickly that it was far easier to spend money than it was to save money. Even living on ramen noodles and Diet Coke (the diet of college girls of my generation), I watched my bank account dwindle. I wasn’t alone. Figuring out how to balance financial assets with financial pressures turned out to be a challenge.
It’s even worse for millennials today. According to a report from Bank of America/USA TODAY, most millennials claim they weren’t on the receiving end of financial advice growing up. Nearly half (44%) of millennials claim their parents didn’t talk to them about how paying for college might affect their financial future. Nearly three-quarters of millennials say that they grew up without discussing good financial habits as children.

100 Things You Need To Know About Money Before 35: An eBook From Forbes
Most people will make a major mistake before their 30s. Use this guide and don’t be one of them.

Despite their concerns, millennials do care about managing money and taking control of their finances. Nearly 6 in 10 claim to earn more than they spend (58 percent) while more than half set money aside for savings (56 percent). Still, many believe that it will be more difficult to benefit financially compared to their parents at this age with more than two in five (43 percent) intending to rely on their loved ones for financial help in retirement.
It’s clear that many millennials are wading through financial waters without much in the way of direction – just like I did. With all there is to consider when it comes to finances, wouldn’t it be great if there really was a cheat sheet? What if there was a list of what you absolutely needed to know about money written by folks who have already been forced to make those tough calls? I called in the experts – all part of our Investment Team at Forbes – to offer their absolutely “must know” tips.
In January of 2016, the Investment Team put together a series of primers – from taxes to employee benefits to life insurance and everything in between – the 100 Things You Absolutely Need To Know About Money Before You’re 35. We were blown away by the reception and honored to be asked by readers to put the pieces together in a compilation. We listened. Today, we’re proud to launch our e-book, which includes all 100 things in one easy reference.

Is this the iPhone 7 Plus?

 


Apple is less than a week away from unveiling the iPhone SE, the company’s first new smartphone of 2016. Despite a questionable possible sighting in China that suggests otherwise, the phone is expected to look a great deal like the iPhone 5 but with more modern specs and newer features like Touch ID and Apple Pay.
But we’re already over it. Why? Because the rumor mill’s iPhone 7 leaks have already kicked into high gear, and we may have just gotten our first look at the upcoming iPhone 7 Plus.


Earlier this week, a leaked photo may have reveled the iPhone 7’s new design for the first time ever. It was pretty boring to be frank, but we explained why that’s not a problem.
According to that image, the iPhone 7 looked a lot like the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, but with redesigned antenna lines and a camera lens that sat more flush with the phone’s body. Now, a new photo may show an iPhone 7 Plus prototype — or at least, the housing and some components from Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7 Plus — for the first time. 

Apple Watch helps man survive potentially fatal heart attack

 

The Apple Watch is probably already on your must-have list, but a man in Canada was able to avoid a heart attack thanks to the Apple Watch he’d recently purchased.

Dennis Anselmo, a 62-year-old builder, was returning to work after lunch on August 18th last year when he began feeling unwell. Little did he know that what he suspected to be a flu or fever was actually a heart attack.

“I was building a fence placing posts in the ground. We finished lunch at 1.15 and was back to work,” Anselmo told The Sun. “I felt terrible – like I had a really bad flu. I worked for maybe ten minutes but said to my helper I need to sit down.

“So I sat on trailer for a couple of minutes and was planning to go home – I felt all over the place.”

As he sat down, he started playing with the Apple Watch he purchased two weeks beforehand. He noticed that his pulse was at 210 rather than a normal range.

“I turned to my helper and said: We need an ambulance,” the builder said. “They came out, figured out I was having a heart attack, and I was off to hospital. They cleared the blockages, so I didn’t have another attack.

“They told me that if I had gone home and gone to bed – as many people do – I would likely have had another, more serious bout in the middle of the night. Those second attacks are the ones that kill. That is a common problem.”

Anselmo bought the watch in spite of his wife’s wishes. He’s an avid collector, having 35 watches. “She complained but after the heart attack, she said ‘that watch has paid for itself.’ Since the incident, the other 35 are locked up and don’t see daylight.”

5 Ridiculous Health and Fitness Tips That You Shouldn't Listen To

1. Crunches can give you a six-pack

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Source: Glenn Asakawa/Getty Images

Crunches are a great core workout, but sit-ups alone won't give you the instant six-pack you want. "It's a monumental error to think that 1,000 reps of ab work a day will make your abs finally 'pop' when your diet is a disaster and that's leading to fat storage," trainer Tom Venuto wrote for MuscleandStrength.com. Cardio and diet changes have a better chance of giving you a six-pack than crunches alone.

2. You need sports drinks after a workout

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Source: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Sports drinks are heavily marketed toward athletes as a post-workout necessity, but how necessary are they really? It turns out that, for most people, water hydrates just fine, and without the unnecessary sugars. According to the Harvard Health blog, a publication of Harvard Medical School, some sports drinks can contain "the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar," about as much as a can of soda. 

The sodium in sports drinks may not even protect against hyponatremia, or over-hydration. According to Harvard Health, "A study of marathoners by Harvard-based researchers found that 13 percent had some degree of hyponatremia, and that it was just as likely to happen among those who guzzled sports drinks during the marathon as it was among those who stuck with water."

3. Shaving makes hair grow back thicker

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Source: Kansas City Star/Getty Images

No, shaving your beard/head/wherever doesn't actually make the hair grow back darker and thicker. But the hair that grows back after shaving has a blunt tip, which is why stubble can feel pricklier and more noticeable, according to the Mayo Clinic.

4. Cardio is pointless

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Source: Bryan Mitchell/AP

Cardio may not be as effective as weight lifting when it comes to getting big, defined muscles — but that doesn't mean it's useless. Cardio has a bunch of benefits, including strengthening your heart (it is a muscle, after all) and improving brain function. Combine cardio and strength training and you get the health benefits and the muscles. 

5. You can eat junk food and burn it off at the gym

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Source: Candice Choi/AP

Sorry everyone, you can't erase your fast food meals by hitting the gym. Experts almost all agree  that a combination of diet and exercise is necessary for healthy living. And, even if you're doing super intense workouts, the negative health effects of saturated fat, sugar and sodium are still there.

Building A Plan For Wealth In One Day

In a recent survey, 56.3% of Americans admitted to having less than $1,000 combined in their checking and savings account. Over half the country is living “paycheck to paycheck.” In an emergency, 56.3% of Americans would need to borrow in order to survive. Rather than focusing on building wealth, the primary focus of a majority of American families is to get through the month.
Every January, millions of Americans promise to fix the situation. One of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions is to spend less, save more and live a financially healthier life. However, most resolutions fail. Within a few weeks, people revert to previous habits.

Richer In 7 Hours: An eBook From Forbes
Cut your expenses, boost your net worth and secure your financial future in a day.

This January, I want to help people create, and automate, a plan to improve their financial situations in 2016. Far too many people make cosmetic sacrifices in January (like eliminating Starbucks from their daily routine), rather than create and automate a plan to build net worth over time. To help solve the problem, I have put together a schedule for a single day dedicated to your financial health. We spend so much time preparing for the holidays, buying gifts, decorating homes and attending parties. We spend even more time watching football, shopping or just watching television. Imagine if we all just spent one day, fully immersed in building a plan to improve our finances. In my new Forbes eBook, Richer in 7 Hours, I create the schedule for that day, and will help guide you through every step of the day.
If You Can Measure It, You Can Manage It
Early in my career, a mentor explained something very important to me. He said, “if you can measure it, you can manage it.” Even more importantly, if you look at it regularly, you will change it. Most Americans are managing the wrong number. Rather than focusing on building wealth, they focus on getting through the month. The “monthly payment” becomes our obsession. Instead, we should be focusing on four numbers:

1. Net worth: This is not just a number for the rich. Your net worth will be funding your retirement. Quite simply, your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. Many Americans are completely broke and don’t realize it, because they manage their monthly payments rather than their net worth.
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2. How much you add to (or take away from) your net worth every month: Otherwise known as a budget, this number tells you whether you are building wealth or going further into debt every month.
3. How much do you need when you retire? You should calculate this number. And you should understand if you are adding enough to your net worth every month to reach your goal. The earlier you start, the easier the task.
4. How much will your dependents receive if you die today? If you have dependents, you need to take care of them – even in death. If you don’t have any dependents, you don’t need to worry about this number.

Every person should understand these four numbers. And my new eBook is meant to help people put together a plan that can be automated to help grow your net worth enough for retirement, while ensuring your family will be protected if something happens to you today.

Just One Day
I think every person should take one day and fully dedicate themselves to their personal financial goals. Even better, I think employers should consider creating personal finance days, with people on hand to help employees enroll in retirement plans, download budgeting apps, refinance high rate debt and more. That single day could be the most lucrative day of the year for employees.
In my eBook, the day will focus on the following topics:

• Calculating your net worth.
• Reviewing how much you add, or subtract, from your net worth each month. This is an amazingly easy task given the proliferation of budgeting apps.
• Reviewing and understanding your credit score, credit reports and total debt.
• Building a plan to eliminate your debt quickly. And making sure you automate that plan.
• Understanding your retirement needs and determining if you are saving enough. Again, online calculators and tools make this remarkably easy to do.
• Assessing your insurance needs and finding low-cost ways to protect the ones you love.

Doing all of this would have taken a lot longer before personal finance tools and apps have proliferated. Sometimes people feel overwhelmed by the amount of information and the number of tools out there, and don’t know where to begin. That is why I wanted to write a concise, straight-forward book to help put structure around a plan for 2016.

Automate, Automate, Automate
In January, while you have good intentions, you should automate your decisions. Make sure you automatically fund your retirement account every month. Build a plan for becoming debt free, and automate the payments from your checking account. If you are saving for a goal, create a separate savings account and automate contributions. Countless studies show that automation dramatically increases the likelihood of success.
This is what makes controlling finances a lot easier than  many other goals. Unfortunately you can’t automate gym workouts. But if you automate your big financial goals, and only spend what remains in your checking account each month, you will start building wealth. Temptation to spend more will undoubtedly arise. Emergencies will visit at the worst possible time. But by setting a game plan early in the year, you have a much better chance of weathering the storms and becoming financially healthier this year, and into the future.

The Top 7 Ways I Make Money Online! Don't miss out!!!

it will come of no surprise to you that I make 100% of my income online.

Over that past 8 years I have made it my goal to stay at the forefront of internet marketing, constantly testing new marketing methods. 

In that time, marketing fads have come and gone, but the 7 main ways I make money have always stayed the same. 

I'm going to share them with you now, in order of how much money each makes me.

Let's begin.

6 Easy Tricks That Will Make You Way More Productive

When it comes to productivity, we all face the same challenge—there are only 24 hours in a day. Since even the best ideas are worthless until they’re executed, how efficiently you use your time is as important as anything else in business.
I’ve become fascinated by productivity secrets because some people seem to have twice the time, and there’s no better way to reach your goals than by finding ways to do more with the precious time you’ve been given.

15 Surprising Things Productive People Do Differently

It feels incredible when you leave the office after an ultra-productive day. It’s a workplace high that’s hard to beat. In my experience you don’t need to work longer or push yourself harder—you just need to work smarter.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” –William Penn

I’ve learned to rely on productivity hacks that make me far more efficient. I try to squeeze every drop out of every hour without expending any extra effort.
And my favorite hack also happens to be the easiest one to implement. It’s so easy and useful you can begin using it now.
1. Never Touch Things Twice

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That’s it. Never put anything in a holding pattern, because touching things twice is a huge time-waster. Don’t save an email or a phone call to deal with later. As soon as something gets your attention you should act on it, delegate it or delete it.
2. Eat Frogs
To pull this off you’re going to have to eat some frogs. “Eating a frog” is doing the least appetizing, most dreaded item on your to-do list. If you let your frogs sit, you waste your day dreading them. If you eat them right away, then you’re freed up to tackle the stuff that excites and inspires you.
3. Fight The Tyranny Of The Urgent
You’ll also need to master the tyranny of the urgent. The tyranny of the urgent refers to the tendency of little things that have to be done right now to get in the way of what really matters. This creates a huge problem as urgent actions often have little impact. The key here is to delete or delegate. Otherwise, you can find yourself going days, or even weeks, without touching the important stuff. You’ll need to get good at spotting when putting out fires is getting in the way of your performance, and you’ll need to delete or delegate the things that hinder real forward momentum.

4. Say No
No is a powerful word that you’re going to have to wield. When it’s time to say no, avoid phrases such as “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully and efficiently fulfill them. Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout and even depression. Learn to use no, and it will lift your mood, as well as your productivity.
5. Check Email On A Schedule
If you aren’t going to touch things twice, you can’t allow email to be a constant interruption. You should check email on a schedule, taking advantage of features that prioritize messages by sender. Set alerts for your most important vendors and best customers, and save the rest until the scheduled time. You could even set up an autoresponder that lets senders know when you’ll be checking your email again.
6. Avoid Multitasking
To make my system work, you’re also going to have to avoid multitasking. It’s a real productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford University confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.
Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. Never touching things twice means only touching one thing at a time.
Bringing It All Together
We’re all searching for ways to be more efficient and productive. I hope my productivity hack helps you to find that extra edge.