Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it
often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and
increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or
abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to think and learn will
deteriorate. Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more
productivity out of the old gray matter.
1. Minimize Television Watching - This is a
hard sell. People love vegetating in front of the television, myself
included more often than I’d like. The problem is watching television
doesn’t use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like
having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health benefits of
exercise.
Don’t you feel drained after a couple hours of TV? Your eyes
are sore and tired from being focused on the light box for so long. You
don’t even have the energy to read a book.
When you feel like relaxing, try reading a book instead. If
you’re too tired, listen to some music. When you’re with your friends or
family, leave the tube off and have a conversation. All of these things
use your mind more than television and allow you to relax.
2. Exercise - I used to think that I’d learn
more by not exercising and using the time to read a book instead. But I
realized that time spent exercising always leads to greater learning
because it improves productivity during the time afterwards. Using your
body clears your head and creates a wave of energy. Afterwards, you feel
invigorated and can concentrate more easily.
3. Read Challenging Books - Many people like
to read popular suspense fiction, but generally these books aren’t
mentally stimulating. If you want to improve your thinking and writing
ability you should read books that make you focus. Reading a classic
novel can change your view of the world and will make you think in more
precise, elegant English. Don’t be afraid to look up a word if you don’t
know it, and don’t be afraid of dense passages. Take your time, re-read
when necessary, and you’ll soon grow accustomed to the author’s style.
Once you get used to reading challenging books, I think you’ll
find that you aren’t tempted to go back to page-turners. The challenge
of learning new ideas is far more exciting than any tacky
suspense-thriller.
4. Early to Bed, Early to Rise - Nothing makes
it harder to concentrate than sleep deprivation. You’ll be most
rejuvenated if you go to bed early and don’t sleep more than 8 hours. If
you stay up late and compensate by sleeping late, you’ll wake up
lethargic and have trouble focusing. In my experience the early morning
hours are the most tranquil and productive. Waking up early gives you
more productive hours and maximizes your mental acuity all day.
If you have the opportunity, take 10-20 minute naps when you
are hit with a wave of drowsiness. Anything longer will make you
lethargic, but a short nap will refresh you.
5. Take Time to Reflect - Often our lives get
so hectic that we become overwhelmed without even realizing it. It
becomes difficult to concentrate because nagging thoughts keep
interrupting. Spending some time alone in reflection gives you a chance
organize your thoughts and prioritize your responsibilities. Afterwards,
you’ll have a better understanding of what’s important and what isn’t.
The unimportant stuff won’t bother you anymore and your mind will feel
less encumbered.
I’m not saying you need to sit on the floor cross-legged and
chant ‘ommm’. Anything that allows a bit of prolonged solitude will do.
One of my personal favorites is taking a solitary walk. Someone famous
said, “All the best ideas occur while walking.” I think he was on to
something. Experiment to find the activity that works best for you.
Conclusion - I hope you aren’t disappointed
that none of the techniques I’ve proposed are revolutionary. But simple,
unexciting answers are often the most valid. The challenge is having
the will to adhere to them. If you succeed in following these 5 tips,
you’ll be rewarded with increased mental acuity and retention of
knowledge.
Thursday, 10 March 2016
Boost Your Time Management Skills With These 9 Techniques
Having problems fitting it all in? Is a 24 hour day no longer enough?
If this is the case, here are 9 useful techniques that you can use to boost your time management skills:
1. Be Clear about Goals and Objectives
A sure way to delay in getting started or to make a job last longer than it needs to is being unsure about the objectives. You will often waste time doing work that doesn’t need to be done or spend too much time on other work. Before you set out get clarity on your goals and objectives.
2. Schedule your Time
If you want to have good time management skills, the first thing you will need is a calendar. Stuff has to get scheduled. If you don’t use a calendar then the dreaded jobs — like doing your taxes and cleaning the bathroom — will never get done. Start by scheduling the essential jobs, the appointments, meetings and any other responsibilities you are committed to. Then you will see how much time you have left over to populate.
3. Delegate When Possible
If you find after doing up your schedule that there isn’t much time left over, then think about delegating work. If you work alone, get a virtual assistant. Remember what David Allen says:
“Only do what only you can do.”
4. Monitor How you Spend Your Time
If getting a virtual assistant or anybody else to assist you isn’t an option, then you should start to monitor your time and see how you are spending it daily. You can use a monitoring program for this like Officemetrics or RescueTime. These programs can monitor all that you do on your computer and give you reports to show you how much time you spend on social media, email, Internet or any other work files. You may not like what you see…but it is always better to know.
5. Avoid Multitasking
Human beings can’t multitask (no, not even women). Our brains have become good at task switching, but cannot actually focus on two things at once. If we try to do more than one thing at the same time we lose time refocusing on the new task. If at all possible, focus on one job at a time and complete it before moving on to something else.
6. Do a Regular Mind Sweep
Do a regular mind sweep where you get a piece of paper and write down everything you need to do. Don’t categorize it. Just dump it all onto a piece of paper. Don’t separate work and home; they don’t have different compartments in the brain. Once you have done this schedule, work on any jobs that need to get done and put the rest into your task management system.
7. Exercise
Remember if Branson thinks it’s important – you don’t argue. Branson reckons working out every day gives him 4 extra hours of productivity a day. Get regular exercise to give you energy, reduce your stress and help you to focus.
8. Eat Healthily
Nutrition is also very important. During the day it is important to eat the right foods to keep you energized and focused. Regular small bites rather than a large meal will keep your brain more alert during the day. Don’t go large periods of time without eating. This will result in fatigue and poor mental abilities. Drinking water will also keep dehydration at bay and keep your body and mind happy.
9. Slow Down and Breathe
Lastly, don’t forget to slow down and breathe deeply as often as possible. Lack of oxygen will make you slow and sluggish, which will affect your performance. The more you rush about from task to task the less you will achieve.
Take your time, focus on the right things, and your time management skills will be top of the class before you know it.
If this is the case, here are 9 useful techniques that you can use to boost your time management skills:
1. Be Clear about Goals and Objectives
A sure way to delay in getting started or to make a job last longer than it needs to is being unsure about the objectives. You will often waste time doing work that doesn’t need to be done or spend too much time on other work. Before you set out get clarity on your goals and objectives.
2. Schedule your Time
If you want to have good time management skills, the first thing you will need is a calendar. Stuff has to get scheduled. If you don’t use a calendar then the dreaded jobs — like doing your taxes and cleaning the bathroom — will never get done. Start by scheduling the essential jobs, the appointments, meetings and any other responsibilities you are committed to. Then you will see how much time you have left over to populate.
3. Delegate When Possible
If you find after doing up your schedule that there isn’t much time left over, then think about delegating work. If you work alone, get a virtual assistant. Remember what David Allen says:
“Only do what only you can do.”
4. Monitor How you Spend Your Time
If getting a virtual assistant or anybody else to assist you isn’t an option, then you should start to monitor your time and see how you are spending it daily. You can use a monitoring program for this like Officemetrics or RescueTime. These programs can monitor all that you do on your computer and give you reports to show you how much time you spend on social media, email, Internet or any other work files. You may not like what you see…but it is always better to know.
5. Avoid Multitasking
Human beings can’t multitask (no, not even women). Our brains have become good at task switching, but cannot actually focus on two things at once. If we try to do more than one thing at the same time we lose time refocusing on the new task. If at all possible, focus on one job at a time and complete it before moving on to something else.
6. Do a Regular Mind Sweep
Do a regular mind sweep where you get a piece of paper and write down everything you need to do. Don’t categorize it. Just dump it all onto a piece of paper. Don’t separate work and home; they don’t have different compartments in the brain. Once you have done this schedule, work on any jobs that need to get done and put the rest into your task management system.
7. Exercise
Remember if Branson thinks it’s important – you don’t argue. Branson reckons working out every day gives him 4 extra hours of productivity a day. Get regular exercise to give you energy, reduce your stress and help you to focus.
8. Eat Healthily
Nutrition is also very important. During the day it is important to eat the right foods to keep you energized and focused. Regular small bites rather than a large meal will keep your brain more alert during the day. Don’t go large periods of time without eating. This will result in fatigue and poor mental abilities. Drinking water will also keep dehydration at bay and keep your body and mind happy.
9. Slow Down and Breathe
Lastly, don’t forget to slow down and breathe deeply as often as possible. Lack of oxygen will make you slow and sluggish, which will affect your performance. The more you rush about from task to task the less you will achieve.
Take your time, focus on the right things, and your time management skills will be top of the class before you know it.
causes of stress and how to get rid of stress
There isn’t a working person among us who doesn’t deal with stress — whether you’re an entrepreneur, a freelancer, working for a struggling startup, or clocking in working for a company, work stress is inevitable.
But where does this stress originate, and how do we deal with it?
Most guides to stress will give you some actions to take: exercise, sleep well, eat right, meditate, and do some yoga at your desk. These are all amazing, and you should do them.
However, I’m more interested in getting at the root of stress. Dig down, ferret out the cause, and work with that directly, rather than treating the symptoms. Only once you deal with the cause of stress can you truly be a master of it.
Cause of stress
Let’s take a look at some things you might be stressed about at work:- Hard deadlines
- Difficult coworkers or boss
- Uncertainty about your job
- Uncertainty about whether you can succeed at this project
- Competition, office politics, interpersonal conflicts
- Not having enough time for family or personal life
- Being overwhelmed by too much to do
We are attached to how we want things to be. We have an ideal about how each of these situations should be, and our clinging to this ideal is causing the stress.
Let’s take the uncertainty about the job. Of course, that’s not ideal, we would rather have a stable job that we don’t have to worry about. So reality is not matching our ideal (a stable job), and that causes us stress. We don’t like the present situation, and this not wanting uncertainty is causing us to stress out.
The same is true of each of the above examples — when a coworker is not meeting our ideal, when we have an ideal that we won’t have too much to do, when our ideal of having easy-to-meet deadlines isn’t being met … we get stressed.
Unfortunately, this happens all day long, every day. Our ideals about reality are constantly not being met, and so we stress out. It builds up. It becomes a health problem.
So what’s the way to deal with this? Let’s take a look.
Dealing with the cause of stress
If our attachment to an ideal is the cause of our stress, then can we just not have ideals? Well, that would be ideal, perhaps, but no, I’ve found it impossible to not have ideals. The ideals come up, unbidden, in our active and ever hopeful minds.The way to deal with the cause of stress is to:
- Notice that you’re feeling stress or frustration
- Mindfully notice your attachment to an ideal, and
- Loosen the attachment, finding love for the actual reality of the present moment
First, you have to notice the stress. Learn to see your frustration or worry about something as a signpost, a flag that tells you what’s going on. In this way, stress becomes a positive thing, because it’s letting you know that something is going on. It’s like a notification system on your phone — instead of ignoring the notifications, as we usually do (we don’t like to think about stress), we can mindfully drop into ourselves and deal with it.
Next, you have to mindfully notice your attachment to the ideal. That means dropping in and saying, "Hey, things are meeting my ideal and it’s stressing me out — what’s my ideal?" It’s probably something that is more secure, stable, comfortable, controlled than what you’re currently experiencing.
For example, if you’re overwhelmed by too much work, your ideal is probably that you have a very controlled, comfortable amount of work, and that you’re on top of it all. That would feel much more secure, stable, comfortable to you.
Unfortunately, comfort and control and security aren’t what life provides us. It mostly provides us the very opposite — something chaotic, unpredictable, uncomfortable, unstable. And we can be upset by this, or we can embrace it. We can hate all of this about life, or we can love it. This is a choice.
Finally, we can loosen our attachment to this expectation or ideal. We can say, "This ideal is not helping me. Clinging to wanting things this way is actually harming me. I hereby open my heart to many more possibilities."
That means we can be open to a less-than-ideal coworker, who isn’t perfect and is struggling with his issues. We can be open to loving having too much work, more than we can possibly do, and having to prioritize and just focus on the important stuff for now. We can be open to the possibility that we’ll do poorly, or lose our jobs, because even then we’ll figure something out and life will be just fine.
Loosening our attachments is about realizing that life doesn’t have to be one way, our way, that we can be open to life’s way. It’s about learning to love everything, s--- and all. It’s about being curious about life, about others, instead of judging life and other people as bad.
And then it’s about working from this place of peace and love. Have too much to do? Pick one task, and do your best with it. Have an annoying coworker? Find compassion for her struggles, and be curious about what she’s going through, and talk to her compassionately and empathetically about your conflict with her. Worried about losing your job? Focus on doing your best, while preparing yourself for the possibility that you might need to find another job.
Many people won’t like this solution, because it means that they don’t get the ideals they want. Most of us want to control life to be the way we want. And that’s fine, if it works for you.
What I’m suggesting is being open to the many other possibilities, opening your heart to what life offers instead of what you want it to offer, being curious about what’s really in front of you rather than judgmental, and learning to love everything as it is.
Rags To Riches 2016: Wealthiest Self-Made Billionaires
It takes money to make money, but nearly two-thirds of the 1810
entrants on Forbes’ 2016 World’s Billionaires list are self-made
entrepreneurs who started with little more than a vision and some
savings. Today their empires range from fashion and entertainment to
real estate and telecom. These moguls are responsible for creating
household names such as Google GOOGL +1.68% and Zara .
Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world for the 17th time, revolutionized computing with his idea of “a computer on every desk.” Along with fellow billionaire Paul Allen, the Harvard dropout founded Microsoft MSFT +2.30% in 1975 (originally “Micro-Soft,” the name is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software). The company’s big break came five years later, when Gates managed to broker a deal with IBM to couple its PCs with Microsoft’s operating system. Yet the fledgling software firm had no operating system of its own at the time of the agreement. Allen reportedly bought a license from a Seattle business, and they scrambled to reprogram the system. Shortly after, Microsoft was shipping on IBM’s new personal computers, and the rest is history. Gates, who now focuses most of his energy on philanthropy, has a $75 billion fortune.
Other tech titans also dominate the top of the list. The year’s biggest gainer, Mark Zuckerberg, saw his wealth jump $11.2 billion as Facebook’s share price rose to record highs. The social media giant counts 1.6 billion active monthly users while its prized acquisition, Instagram, has surpassed Twitter in popularity. The hoodies-and-jeans kid genius is now a proud father of a baby girl, and has committed to giving away 99 percent of his Facebook stock — almost all of his $44.6 billion wealth — to celebrate the milestone.
Another big winner is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose fortune climbed $10.4 billion to $45.2 billion as the online retailer surpassed 300 million customers and $100 billion in annual sales for the first time in 2015. Bezos, one of the youngest senior vice presidents at hedge fund D.E. Shaw, decided to switch paths at age 30 after coming across a report that projected annual web growth at 2300 percent. The Princeton grad left his job in 1994 and drove across the country to Seattle with his wife, reportedly writing Amazon’s business plan along the way. Initially functioning as an online bookstore, Bezos took packages ordered to the post office himself and worked out of a garage with his first employees. Now, the Amazon chairman is setting his sights higher — his space travel startup, Blue Origin, has successfully launched a rocket into orbit before re-landing it just four and a half feet away from the original launch pad.
Plenty of self-made billionaires built their fortunes in more traditional industries. Warren Buffett, the world’s most famous investor, remains near the top of the list with $60.8 billion. The famously frugal chairman of Berkshire Hathaway bought his first stock at age 11 and started a pinball machine business in high school. He still lives in the Omaha, Nebraska home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest man, hails from even humbler beginnings: he worked at a shirt-maker shop as a teenager before starting a quilted bathrobe business where he organized thousands of women into sewing cooperatives. In 1975, he opened the first Zara store in his native Spain and quickly became one of the pioneers of fast fashion, which aimed to get the garments from runways to store shelves as quickly as possible. Today, Zara stores reportedly order new clothes twice a week, and Ortega’s Inditex Group owns other popular brands such as Massimo Dutti and Bershka, giving him a fortune of $67 billion.
One of the most famous rags to riches stories in Asia, Li Ka-shing
fled to Hong Kong with his family in 1940 after Japanese invasion of
China in World War II. The reigning richest man in the former British
territory quit school at age 15 to work at a plastics factory after his
father died of tuberculosis. Li, now one of Asia’s top philanthropists,
once pawned his late father’s clothes to help buy food for a poor
relative. He eventually opened his own plastics factory, expanded to
real estate, then bought Hutchison Whampoa, a conglomerate with
interests in container ports around the world. Today, his empire spans
from retail to tech, earning him a net worth of $27.1 billion.
Richest Self-Made Billionaires
Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world for the 17th time, revolutionized computing with his idea of “a computer on every desk.” Along with fellow billionaire Paul Allen, the Harvard dropout founded Microsoft MSFT +2.30% in 1975 (originally “Micro-Soft,” the name is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software). The company’s big break came five years later, when Gates managed to broker a deal with IBM to couple its PCs with Microsoft’s operating system. Yet the fledgling software firm had no operating system of its own at the time of the agreement. Allen reportedly bought a license from a Seattle business, and they scrambled to reprogram the system. Shortly after, Microsoft was shipping on IBM’s new personal computers, and the rest is history. Gates, who now focuses most of his energy on philanthropy, has a $75 billion fortune.
Other tech titans also dominate the top of the list. The year’s biggest gainer, Mark Zuckerberg, saw his wealth jump $11.2 billion as Facebook’s share price rose to record highs. The social media giant counts 1.6 billion active monthly users while its prized acquisition, Instagram, has surpassed Twitter in popularity. The hoodies-and-jeans kid genius is now a proud father of a baby girl, and has committed to giving away 99 percent of his Facebook stock — almost all of his $44.6 billion wealth — to celebrate the milestone.
Another big winner is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose fortune climbed $10.4 billion to $45.2 billion as the online retailer surpassed 300 million customers and $100 billion in annual sales for the first time in 2015. Bezos, one of the youngest senior vice presidents at hedge fund D.E. Shaw, decided to switch paths at age 30 after coming across a report that projected annual web growth at 2300 percent. The Princeton grad left his job in 1994 and drove across the country to Seattle with his wife, reportedly writing Amazon’s business plan along the way. Initially functioning as an online bookstore, Bezos took packages ordered to the post office himself and worked out of a garage with his first employees. Now, the Amazon chairman is setting his sights higher — his space travel startup, Blue Origin, has successfully launched a rocket into orbit before re-landing it just four and a half feet away from the original launch pad.
Plenty of self-made billionaires built their fortunes in more traditional industries. Warren Buffett, the world’s most famous investor, remains near the top of the list with $60.8 billion. The famously frugal chairman of Berkshire Hathaway bought his first stock at age 11 and started a pinball machine business in high school. He still lives in the Omaha, Nebraska home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest man, hails from even humbler beginnings: he worked at a shirt-maker shop as a teenager before starting a quilted bathrobe business where he organized thousands of women into sewing cooperatives. In 1975, he opened the first Zara store in his native Spain and quickly became one of the pioneers of fast fashion, which aimed to get the garments from runways to store shelves as quickly as possible. Today, Zara stores reportedly order new clothes twice a week, and Ortega’s Inditex Group owns other popular brands such as Massimo Dutti and Bershka, giving him a fortune of $67 billion.
Richest Self-Made Billionaires
| Rank | Name | Net Worth |
| 1 | Bill Gates | $75 billion |
| 2 | Amancio Ortega | $67 billion |
| 3 | Warren Buffett | $60.8 billion |
| 4 | Carlos Slim Helu | $50 billion |
| 5 | Jeff Bezos | $45.2 billion |
| 6 | Mark Zuckerberg | $44.6 billion |
| 7 | Larry Ellison | $43.6 billion |
| 8 | Michael Bloomberg | $40 billion |
| 12 | Larry Page | $35.2 billion |
| 13 | Sergey Brin | $34.4 billion |
| 18 | Wang Jianlin | $28.7 billion |
| 19 | Jorge Paulo Lemann | $27.8 billion |
| 20 | Li Ka-shing | $27.1 billion |
| 22 | Sheldon Adelson | $25.2 billion |
| 23 | George Soros | $24.9 billion |
| 24 | Phil Knight | $24.4 billion |
| 26 | Steve Ballmer | $23.5 billion |
| 31 | Lee Shau Kee | $21.5 billion |
| 33 | Jack Ma | $20.5 billion |
| 35 | Michael Dell | $19.8 billion |
| 37 | Leonardo Del Vecchio | $18.7 billion |
| 40 | Paul Allen | $17.5 billion |
| 41 | Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud | $17.3 billion |
| 42 | Joseph Safra | $17.2 billion |
| 43 | Carl Icahn | $17 billion |
Eliminate the unnecessary !!!
Imagine
the difference it would make if you could easily eliminate the things
that get in the way of the life and results you really want.
Imagine if you were able to create more time for yourself and feel less busy and less overwhelmed.
Wouldn't that be great? What possibilities and opportunites would that open up for all areas of your life ands results?
Well,
to help you achieve those things, today I am sharing with you 4
powerful ways to eliminate the things that get in the way of the life
and results you really want. They will help you create more
time for yourself and reduce being over busy and feeling overwhelmed:
Clcik the link below to read the four tips:
Once
you have read the article and the four tips, have a think about which
one you would benefit most from right now and start taking action to
implement it so that the can reap the benefits.
If you have any questions about this article and the tips hit reply and shoot them over. Happy to help if I can.
please comment !!!
Best Investments!!! How to Find Low Risk, High Return Investments
It’s the classic financial puzzle: how to balance risks and
returns. In a time of occasionally wrenching volatility and low interest
rates, ace financial advisor Jeff Rose, the founder of Alliance Wealth Management in Carbondale, Ill., and also the founder of the website Good Financial Cents, has some good ideas:
Risk lies at the core of all investments. This notion reminds me of the first time I stood at the top of the high dive at the rec center pool. I was a nervous wreck. I never realized how afraid of heights I was until that moment. Many who never invested before have this same apprehensive feeling.
With the rising cost of living, it’s imperative that we invest, preferably with the lowest risk possible, to generate the highest yielding returns we can.
High rates of return on your investments are wonderful because you don’t have to invest as much capital to reach your investing goals. Yet the higher return you want, the more risk you take to get it.
As you near retirement, or your high school senior is about to enter college, your appetite for risk drops precipitously. You simply cannot afford to see a huge drop in the market right before the time you need to begin withdrawing funds from the investment accounts for retirement or college bills.
Instead, you need to shift to low-risk investments. These types of investments generate a lower return because you aren’t taking as much risk, but you’re OK with that. As the time to draw down the investments arrives, capital preservation is more important that astronomical growth rates. You need to know your account won’t drop 25% in a year and thwart your investing plans.
With a certificate of deposit (CD) you trade depositing your money for a specific length of time to a financial institution.
In return, you get a set interest rate for that period and it does not change, no matter what happens to interest rates. You are locked in until maturity of the term length. You can withdraw from the CD early for a penalty that is usually equal to three months’ worth of interest.
Why are CDs at the top of our best low risk investment list? Because as long as you get a certificate of deposit with an FDIC-insured financial institution, you are guaranteed to get your principal back as long as your total deposits with that lender are less than $250,000. The government guarantees that you cannot have a loss, and the financial institution gives you interest on top of that.
How much interest you earn is dependent on the length of the CD term and interest rates in the economy. Interest rates are low, but if you lock in your money for many years you can get a little bit more interest.
You can open a CD with great interest rates with CIT Bank, Ally Bank and Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct). CIT, for instance, pays 1.15% annually for a two-year CD.
2. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS)
The U.S. Treasury has several types of bond investments for you to choose from. One of the lowest risk is called a Treasury Inflation Protection Security or TIPS. These bonds come with two methods of growth.
The first is a fixed interest rate that doesn’t change for the length of the bond. The second is built-in inflation protection that is guaranteed by the government. Whatever rate inflation grows during the time you hold the TIPS, your investment’s value rises with that rate.
For example, say you invest in a TIPS today that only comes with a 0.35% interest rate. That’s less than certificate of deposit rates and even basic online savings accounts. This isn’t very enticing until you realize that, if inflation grows a 2% per year for the length of the bond, then your investment value increases with that inflation, and gives you a much higher return on your investment.
TIPS can be purchased individually or you can invest in a mutual fund that owns in a basket of TIPS. The latter option makes managing your investments easier, while the former gives you the ability to pick and choose with specific TIPS you want.
3. Money Market Funds
A money market fund is a mutual fund with the main purpose of not losing any value of your investment. The fund also tries to pay out a little bit of interest as well to make parking your cash with the fund worthwhile. The fund’s goal is to maintain a net asset value (NAV) of $1 per share.
These funds aren’t foolproof, but do come with a strong pedigree in protecting the underlying value of your cash. It is possible for the NAV to drop below $1, but it is rare. The interest income is tiny, but your money is relatively secure.
What makes municipal bonds so safe? Not only do you avoid income tax (which means a higher return compared to an equally risky investment that is taxed) but the likelihood of the borrower defaulting is very low. There have been some enormous municipality bankruptcies in recent years, but these are very rare. Governments can always raise taxes or issue new debt to pay off old debt, which makes holding a municipal bond a pretty safe bet.
The average yield, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is 1.8%. For someone in the 28% federal tax bracket, that is equivalent to a 2.5% taxable bond.
Series I bonds consist of two components: a fixed interest rate return and an adjustable inflation-linked return, making them somewhat similar to TIPS. The fixed rate never changes, but the inflation return rate is adjusted every six months and can also be negative (which of course brings your total return down).
Series EE bonds just have a fixed rate of interest that is added to the bond automatically at the end of each months, so you don’t have to worry about reinvesting for compounding purposes. Rates are very low right now, but there is an interesting facet to EE bonds: the Treasury guarantees the bond will double in value if held to maturity, which is 20 years.
If you don’t hold to maturity you only get the stated interest rate of the bond minus any early withdrawal fees. Another bonus to look into: If you use EE bonds to pay for education, you might be able to exclude some or all of the interest earned from your taxes.
Looking to purchase some Series I or Series EE Bonds? You can do that directly through TreasuryDirect.gov.
But talk with a good financial advisor first: Annuities are very complex financial instruments with lots of catches built into the contract.
There are several types of annuities. But in all cases, when you purchase an annuity you make a trade with an insurance company. They take a lump sum of cash from you. In return they give you a stated rate of guaranteed return. Sometimes that return is fixed (with a fixed annuity), sometimes that return is variable (with a variable annuity) and sometimes your return is dictated in part by how the stock market does with guaranteed basic level that gives you downside protection (with an equity indexed annuity).
If you get a guaranteed return, your risk is a lot lower. Unlike the backing of the federal government, the insurance company backs your annuity (and perhaps another company that further insurers the annuity company). Nonetheless, your money is typically going to be very safe in these complicated products.
While term life insurance is by far a cheaper option, it only covers your death. One of the best perks of cash value life is you can borrow against the accrued investment value throughout your life, but isn’t hit with income tax. It is a clever way to pass some value onto your heirs without either side getting hit with income tax.
Of course, picking individual stocks isn’t easy. Use some of the trading tools at Scottrade or E*Trade to help you target dividend stocks. Stock-picking comes with risk that the company may falter and take your investment down with it. A safer bet is to invest money into a dividend stock mutual fund. With this fund type, the fund company targets stocks that pay nice dividends and does all of the work for you. You also get diversification so that one or two stocks can’t tank your entire investment.
9. Preferred Stock
This is a type of stock has both an equity (stock) portion and a debt portion (bond). In the credit hierarchy, governing which investors get paid first during a bankruptcy, preferred stock sits between bond payments, which come first, and common stock dividends, which come last.
Preferred stock is not traded nearly as heavily as common stock, but do have less risk than the common stock. It is just another way to own shares in a company while getting dividend payments.
You can track down preferred stock investments at Scottrade, E*Trade and Capital One ShareBuilder.
10. Peer to Peer Lending
P2P lending is a completely different type of investment. Instead of buying shares in a company and its future profits, you lending your money to someone else in hopes they will pay you back. This makes peer to peer lending risky if you screen poorly. If you fund a terrible loan, you might not get your money back.
On the other hand, having a solid borrower means you can earn some really nice returns. Thankfully, P2P lending companies have worked to offer screening tools and portfolio settings for your investment gain. Instead of going through every single loan, which you can still do, they allow you to target a certain rate of return, and the company takes care of lending out money to a group of borrowers.
Note that these companies, which lend money to strangers on the Internet, have a first-rate collection process. Lending Club in particular has done a great job in setting up its collection operation, thus protecting their investors.
Risk lies at the core of all investments. This notion reminds me of the first time I stood at the top of the high dive at the rec center pool. I was a nervous wreck. I never realized how afraid of heights I was until that moment. Many who never invested before have this same apprehensive feeling.
With the rising cost of living, it’s imperative that we invest, preferably with the lowest risk possible, to generate the highest yielding returns we can.
High rates of return on your investments are wonderful because you don’t have to invest as much capital to reach your investing goals. Yet the higher return you want, the more risk you take to get it.
As you near retirement, or your high school senior is about to enter college, your appetite for risk drops precipitously. You simply cannot afford to see a huge drop in the market right before the time you need to begin withdrawing funds from the investment accounts for retirement or college bills.
Instead, you need to shift to low-risk investments. These types of investments generate a lower return because you aren’t taking as much risk, but you’re OK with that. As the time to draw down the investments arrives, capital preservation is more important that astronomical growth rates. You need to know your account won’t drop 25% in a year and thwart your investing plans.
Best Low Risk Investments
Even those targeting low-risk, low-return investments face a wide array of options that can be confusing. Here are a few of your best low risk investment options for your portfolio.
Recommended by Forbes
1. Certificates of Deposit
There is nothing more boring than a certificate of deposit. You can get it through your bank, your credit union or even your investment broker.With a certificate of deposit (CD) you trade depositing your money for a specific length of time to a financial institution.
In return, you get a set interest rate for that period and it does not change, no matter what happens to interest rates. You are locked in until maturity of the term length. You can withdraw from the CD early for a penalty that is usually equal to three months’ worth of interest.
Why are CDs at the top of our best low risk investment list? Because as long as you get a certificate of deposit with an FDIC-insured financial institution, you are guaranteed to get your principal back as long as your total deposits with that lender are less than $250,000. The government guarantees that you cannot have a loss, and the financial institution gives you interest on top of that.
How much interest you earn is dependent on the length of the CD term and interest rates in the economy. Interest rates are low, but if you lock in your money for many years you can get a little bit more interest.
You can open a CD with great interest rates with CIT Bank, Ally Bank and Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct). CIT, for instance, pays 1.15% annually for a two-year CD.
2. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS)
The U.S. Treasury has several types of bond investments for you to choose from. One of the lowest risk is called a Treasury Inflation Protection Security or TIPS. These bonds come with two methods of growth.
The first is a fixed interest rate that doesn’t change for the length of the bond. The second is built-in inflation protection that is guaranteed by the government. Whatever rate inflation grows during the time you hold the TIPS, your investment’s value rises with that rate.
For example, say you invest in a TIPS today that only comes with a 0.35% interest rate. That’s less than certificate of deposit rates and even basic online savings accounts. This isn’t very enticing until you realize that, if inflation grows a 2% per year for the length of the bond, then your investment value increases with that inflation, and gives you a much higher return on your investment.
TIPS can be purchased individually or you can invest in a mutual fund that owns in a basket of TIPS. The latter option makes managing your investments easier, while the former gives you the ability to pick and choose with specific TIPS you want.
3. Money Market Funds
A money market fund is a mutual fund with the main purpose of not losing any value of your investment. The fund also tries to pay out a little bit of interest as well to make parking your cash with the fund worthwhile. The fund’s goal is to maintain a net asset value (NAV) of $1 per share.
These funds aren’t foolproof, but do come with a strong pedigree in protecting the underlying value of your cash. It is possible for the NAV to drop below $1, but it is rare. The interest income is tiny, but your money is relatively secure.
4. Municipal Bonds
When a state or local government needs to borrow money, it doesn’t use a credit card. Instead, the government entity issues a municipal bond. These bonds, also known as munis, are except from federal income tax at the very least. Most states and local municipalities also exempt income tax on munis for issuers in the state, but talk to your accountant before making any decisions.What makes municipal bonds so safe? Not only do you avoid income tax (which means a higher return compared to an equally risky investment that is taxed) but the likelihood of the borrower defaulting is very low. There have been some enormous municipality bankruptcies in recent years, but these are very rare. Governments can always raise taxes or issue new debt to pay off old debt, which makes holding a municipal bond a pretty safe bet.
The average yield, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is 1.8%. For someone in the 28% federal tax bracket, that is equivalent to a 2.5% taxable bond.
Recommended by Forbes
5. U.S. Savings Bonds
These are similar to TIPS because they are also backed by the federal government. The likelihood of default on this debt is microscopic, which makes them a very stable investment. There are two main types of US Savings Bonds: Series I and Series EE.Series I bonds consist of two components: a fixed interest rate return and an adjustable inflation-linked return, making them somewhat similar to TIPS. The fixed rate never changes, but the inflation return rate is adjusted every six months and can also be negative (which of course brings your total return down).
Series EE bonds just have a fixed rate of interest that is added to the bond automatically at the end of each months, so you don’t have to worry about reinvesting for compounding purposes. Rates are very low right now, but there is an interesting facet to EE bonds: the Treasury guarantees the bond will double in value if held to maturity, which is 20 years.
If you don’t hold to maturity you only get the stated interest rate of the bond minus any early withdrawal fees. Another bonus to look into: If you use EE bonds to pay for education, you might be able to exclude some or all of the interest earned from your taxes.
Looking to purchase some Series I or Series EE Bonds? You can do that directly through TreasuryDirect.gov.
6. Annuities
Annuities have a bad reputation with some investors because shady financial advisors over-promoted them to individuals where the annuity wasn’t the right product for their financial goals. Annuities don’t have to be scary things; they can help stabilize your portfolio over a long period.But talk with a good financial advisor first: Annuities are very complex financial instruments with lots of catches built into the contract.
There are several types of annuities. But in all cases, when you purchase an annuity you make a trade with an insurance company. They take a lump sum of cash from you. In return they give you a stated rate of guaranteed return. Sometimes that return is fixed (with a fixed annuity), sometimes that return is variable (with a variable annuity) and sometimes your return is dictated in part by how the stock market does with guaranteed basic level that gives you downside protection (with an equity indexed annuity).
If you get a guaranteed return, your risk is a lot lower. Unlike the backing of the federal government, the insurance company backs your annuity (and perhaps another company that further insurers the annuity company). Nonetheless, your money is typically going to be very safe in these complicated products.
7. Cash Value Life Insurance
Another controversial investment is cash value life insurance. First, this insurance pays out a death benefit to your beneficiaries when you die; a term life insurance policy gives you this. Other types, known as cash value policies, do that and also build up an investment account from your payments. Whole life insurance and universal life insurance are the chief cash value offerings.While term life insurance is by far a cheaper option, it only covers your death. One of the best perks of cash value life is you can borrow against the accrued investment value throughout your life, but isn’t hit with income tax. It is a clever way to pass some value onto your heirs without either side getting hit with income tax.
Middle Risk Investments
If you don’t want to go all in on the riskiest class of assets, you can still generate higher returns by taking a few steps in that direction. Here are a few investments that add a bit more risk to your portfolio.8. Dividend Paying Stocks and Mutual Funds
One of the easiest ways to squeeze a bit more return out of your stock investments is simply to target stocks or mutual funds that have nice dividend payouts. If two stocks perform exactly the same over a given time, one with no dividend and the other paying out 3% per year, then the latter stock is a better choice.Of course, picking individual stocks isn’t easy. Use some of the trading tools at Scottrade or E*Trade to help you target dividend stocks. Stock-picking comes with risk that the company may falter and take your investment down with it. A safer bet is to invest money into a dividend stock mutual fund. With this fund type, the fund company targets stocks that pay nice dividends and does all of the work for you. You also get diversification so that one or two stocks can’t tank your entire investment.
9. Preferred Stock
This is a type of stock has both an equity (stock) portion and a debt portion (bond). In the credit hierarchy, governing which investors get paid first during a bankruptcy, preferred stock sits between bond payments, which come first, and common stock dividends, which come last.
Preferred stock is not traded nearly as heavily as common stock, but do have less risk than the common stock. It is just another way to own shares in a company while getting dividend payments.
You can track down preferred stock investments at Scottrade, E*Trade and Capital One ShareBuilder.
10. Peer to Peer Lending
P2P lending is a completely different type of investment. Instead of buying shares in a company and its future profits, you lending your money to someone else in hopes they will pay you back. This makes peer to peer lending risky if you screen poorly. If you fund a terrible loan, you might not get your money back.
On the other hand, having a solid borrower means you can earn some really nice returns. Thankfully, P2P lending companies have worked to offer screening tools and portfolio settings for your investment gain. Instead of going through every single loan, which you can still do, they allow you to target a certain rate of return, and the company takes care of lending out money to a group of borrowers.
Note that these companies, which lend money to strangers on the Internet, have a first-rate collection process. Lending Club in particular has done a great job in setting up its collection operation, thus protecting their investors.
8 steps to set yourself up to achieve your goals - free training video
I know some people prefer video to workbooks so I have turned the free training on how to set
yourself up to succeed into a free training video for you.
Think
of it almost like doing a mini-workshop together. In the video I guide
you step by step through a process that will set you up to achieve the
goals and results you really want to create.
Click the link below to watch
the free training video:
If
you have any questions at all or want any help implementing this, shoot
me an email and let me know your questions. Happy to help if I can.
Enjoy the free training video.
Mark Zuckerberg Leads List Of 2016's Biggest Billionaire Gainers
Thanks to sinking oil prices and rocky
global stock markets, 2015 wasn’t the most lucrative year for
billionaires. Although the number of ten-digit fortunes fell from 1,826
to 1,810 and majority of the world’s richest saw their wealth decline or
stagnate, this year’s ten biggest dollar gainers added a collective
$62.5 billion to their fortunes. While the typical billionaire’s net
worth fell from $3.86 billion in 2015 to $3.58 billion in 2016, these
ten best-performers gained $6.25 billion each on average.
Mark Zuckerberg led the way, adding $11.2 billion to his net worth as Facebook shares rose 35%. The ubiquitous social network grew revenues 44% to $18 billion as it added 200 million new monthly active users. Zuckerberg, the world’s sixth-richest person with $44.6 billion, seems to be more active than ever, using his profile to share company news and family photos of his dog and newborn daughter, Max. This might be the last time Zuck is the biggest billionaire gainer though: In December he and his wife, Priscilla, announced plans to donate 99% of their Facebook stock — nearly all of their wealth — to charitable causes during their lives.
Zuckerberg beats out Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, whose net worth climbed the second most — $10.4 billion this year — as the online retailing giant saw Prime membership rise 51%. It’s enough to place Bezos among the top five richest people in the world for the first time ever. He’s fifth-richest with a net worth of $45.2 billion.
Google, a third so-called “FANG” company (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) also propelled its founders’ fortunes this year. Shares of Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, rose 24%, helping boost Larry Page and Sergey Brin by $5.5 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively. Page, now worth $35.2 billion, is the fourth-biggest gainer; Brin, who has $34.4 billion, is the seventh.
Being a tech titan is not a requirement for being a big gainer, though. Germany’s Heinz Hermann Thiele is the sixth-largest dollar gainer (up $5.3 billion to $11.7 billion) as his rail and commercial vehicle brake-maker, Knorr Bremse, boosted profits 53% to approximately $610 million. Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr., siblings who inherited a stake in German discount grocer Aldi in 2014, shared a $4.6 billion gain as revenues for Aldi Sued — which controls Aldi stores in southern Germany plus places like the U.S., U.K. and Australia — rose 14% to an estimated $52 billion.
China’s Wang Jianlin added $4.5
billion to his net worth. Shares of his movie theater chain, Wanda
Cinema Line, nearly doubled as profits increased almost 50% thanks in
part to booming Chinese ticket sales. He surged into world’s top 20 for
the first time with $28.7 billion. In January Wang agreed to purchase
fellow billionaire Thomas Tull’s film production company, Legendary
Entertainment, for $3.5 billion. It will be the first complete Chinese
buyout of an American movie studio.
Wang ties former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg for the ninth-largest gain. Bloomberg, whose data software and media conglomerate, Bloomberg LP, saw revenues hit an estimated $9.3 billion last year, continues to make headlines as he mulls an independent bid for the presidency. He’s the world’s eighth-wealthiest person, with $40 billion.
Some fortunes, including those of Nigerian telecom tycoon Mike Adenuga and real estate developer Stephen Ross, are up due to new information obtained by Forbes that has allowed us to revise our estimates.
Mark Zuckerberg led the way, adding $11.2 billion to his net worth as Facebook shares rose 35%. The ubiquitous social network grew revenues 44% to $18 billion as it added 200 million new monthly active users. Zuckerberg, the world’s sixth-richest person with $44.6 billion, seems to be more active than ever, using his profile to share company news and family photos of his dog and newborn daughter, Max. This might be the last time Zuck is the biggest billionaire gainer though: In December he and his wife, Priscilla, announced plans to donate 99% of their Facebook stock — nearly all of their wealth — to charitable causes during their lives.
Zuckerberg beats out Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, whose net worth climbed the second most — $10.4 billion this year — as the online retailing giant saw Prime membership rise 51%. It’s enough to place Bezos among the top five richest people in the world for the first time ever. He’s fifth-richest with a net worth of $45.2 billion.
Google, a third so-called “FANG” company (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) also propelled its founders’ fortunes this year. Shares of Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, rose 24%, helping boost Larry Page and Sergey Brin by $5.5 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively. Page, now worth $35.2 billion, is the fourth-biggest gainer; Brin, who has $34.4 billion, is the seventh.
Being a tech titan is not a requirement for being a big gainer, though. Germany’s Heinz Hermann Thiele is the sixth-largest dollar gainer (up $5.3 billion to $11.7 billion) as his rail and commercial vehicle brake-maker, Knorr Bremse, boosted profits 53% to approximately $610 million. Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr., siblings who inherited a stake in German discount grocer Aldi in 2014, shared a $4.6 billion gain as revenues for Aldi Sued — which controls Aldi stores in southern Germany plus places like the U.S., U.K. and Australia — rose 14% to an estimated $52 billion.
Recommended by Forbes
Wang ties former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg for the ninth-largest gain. Bloomberg, whose data software and media conglomerate, Bloomberg LP, saw revenues hit an estimated $9.3 billion last year, continues to make headlines as he mulls an independent bid for the presidency. He’s the world’s eighth-wealthiest person, with $40 billion.
Some fortunes, including those of Nigerian telecom tycoon Mike Adenuga and real estate developer Stephen Ross, are up due to new information obtained by Forbes that has allowed us to revise our estimates.
Clarity is the door tho success!!!
Here’s where it gets even better...
I just put up a new video for
you. It's a follow up from the first video where I share some more
incredible information about gaining clarity in your life.
Claim your new FREE video here.
Claim your new FREE video here.
Without having clarity, you can
easily go astray when it comes to planning your business, goal setting,
or creating a successful future.
I certainly don't want you to miss your chance to achieve your goals.
Developing clarity is one of the secrets to my success. Once I stopped spinning my wheels, I became a magnet for success.
My goals became laser-focused like a high powered telescope, and allowed me to envision my future success.
Because I've dedicated my life to helping people achieve their
biggest goals, it is my belief I can do the same for you, if you'll only
give me the chance.
Take a few minutes now to envision your success.
To your new found clarity in life,
Forbes Features America's Next Billionaire Business Ideas
- Seamless Collaboration: Helping businesses improve internal operations and boost productivity by making communication easier. Cloud productivity and storage firm Box, which has become the default for secured storage and shared workspace. The company has set the stage for an IPO that it hopes will raise in excess of $138 million.
- Customer Stalking: Enabling companies to track potential customers almost everywhere, even as they go from one device to another. Tapad generated $34 million in 2014 and allows advertisers to follow consumers from site to site and from device to device, stalking customers as they switch from their PC to smartphone.
- Extreme Service: Apply for a small-business loan in the middle of the night and see the cash in your PayPal account in 15 minutes. Great customer care is not a dying art. With a $2 billion valuation, Instacart, an app that picks up your groceries and delivers them to your door within an hour for a $5.99 fee, generated $100 million in revenue last year.
- Luxury Commodities: Garden-variety products are given a luxury makeover, with a substantial price increase. The good life doesn’t come cheap. Krave generated $36 million in 2014 with its creation of gourmet beef jerky. The meat is silky- soft due to extended marinating and moist cooking, and comes in flavors like basil citrus, chili lime and sweet chipotle.
- Transaction Transparency: By aggregating data and drawing on the famed “wisdom of crowds,” businesses offer consumers clear information. Seatgeek’srapidly growing mobile app helps customers find the best ticket deals for concerts, sporting events and other events. It generated $25 million in 2014.
- Niche Niches: Companies will help you find new ways to buy, sell and talk about obscure interests. Panjo is an online and mobile marketplace for car fans, sports fanatics and other niche communities and generated $42 million last year.
- ObamaCare Profiteering: A vast new law is a vast business opportunity for those who help doctors, patients and hospitals navigate America’s new health care landscape. Evolent Health, which generated $100 million in 2014, helps hospitals adapt to getting paid based on results instead of pure fee-for-service.
- The Sony Effect: Companies are protecting precious proprietary business e-mails from hackers. Crowdstrike protects against your enemies’ targeted attacks and generated $13.8 million last year.
- Empowering Underserved Communities: Opportunities exist for innovators willing to look for what’s right in front of them. Pangea Real Estate buys and manages affordable housing in Chicago, Indianapolis and Baltimore and generated $69 million in 2014.
- Reinventing Hiring: Companies facilitate precision standard hires for industries of all kinds. Hired is a website designed to connect tech and startup professionals with prospective employers. When users accept jobs, Hired sends them a gift box, a $2,000 bonus and a bottle of Dom Pérignon.
Recommended by Forbes
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)