Need a Budget? We’ve Got an App For You

Having money is great. It’s the reason we’re all so eager to get out there and get ourselves a job. Sometimes, especially early in our careers it’s easy to get carried away with our paychecks and spend beyond our means.

Buying now and paying later is easy to do on the spur of the moment, but unfortunately later always manages to show up, and if you’re not careful the bed of roses you bought today might be full of thorns by the time you lie down on it tomorrow.

If you have a job and are still having trouble making ends meet it’s probably time for a small budgeting intervention. Luckily help is available right at your fingertips. Here are our top three apps for budgeting.

Mint Budgeting

Mint brings everything together from balances and bills to your credit score and more. It’s your financial life in one place that’s easy to understand. Mint connects directly to your bank account and can help you figure out where you’re spending your money and where you need to cut back.

Mint was developed by the same team that worked on Turbotax, and as such is trusted by millions with sensitive data.

You Need A Budget

By syncing all your back accounts in one place, You Need a Budget helps you keep things up to date and stick with budgeting like never before. Through goal tracking technologies budgeting isn’t about restriction, it’s about setting and reaching goals. And then setting the bar even higher and doing it again.

GoodBudget

A budget tracker for the modern age, Good Budget is a virtual budget program that keeps you o track with family and friends with the time tested envelope budgeting method. This budgeting software helps you keep accountable to the goals you set, allowing you to live out a budget that truly reflects what’s import.

 

Learn From The Best of the Best

From J.K. Rowling to Henry Ford, these successfully recognized entrepreneurs have obviously done something right to pave their road to success. So it doesn’t hurt to take a few pointers from these 18 people and use it to direct your career path.

Advice From the World’s Wealthiest and Most Successful

Don’t Get Sucked Into Unhelpful Thinking Styles

Infinite Possibilities

Can You Make Yourself More Lucky?

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How many times have you heard that all it takes to get to the top is hard work and dedication? Sounds about right doesn’t it? Of course it takes hard work and dedication to reach your goals. Here’s something people rarely tell you. It also takes luck. It takes luck to run into someone who might be able to connect you to someone else. It takes luck to have the right idea at the right time.

 

Most people don’t want to hear that luck has anything to do with their success because that makes it seem like success is out of their control. The truth is, you can make your own luck, and if you do, you’ll find yourself getting more lucky.

Flexibility

Luck often comes in the form of opportunities and pathways not usually taken. If you adhere to a rigid schedule each and every day, there is less room for luck to find you. Flexibility in your schedule is one thing, flexibility in how you do things in another thing. If you’re stuck only doing things the way they’ve been done before, you’ll miss out on the opportunities and luck that can come from changing things up.

Take Risks

Sometimes you have to go looking for luck. Taking risks in your life and in your career will often lead to unexpected and exciting new experiences. If you stay in your comfort zone, there is less opportunity for things to surprise you. Luck often comes when unexpected.

Karma

Whether you believe in the old saying that what goes around comes around or not, the reality is that people remember who did what for them. Helping others will not only make them feel great, it’ll show them you’re a person who cares for and helps others. If there comes a time where they can return the favor, chances are they will.

Positivity

How you look at the world has a lot to do with how much luck you might find. When things happen do you automatically see the negative, or do you see the silver lining and chance to turn it into a positive? Luck can often look foreboding and challenging at first glance, but if you look deeper, you’ll see that there is something good waiting to be discovered.

Listening For Sales Success

Salespeople spend tons of time working out the perfect pitch for the perfect person. They can recite endless facts on command. They’ve got statistics and testimonials to back up everything we say.

 

The thing is, what you say isn’t going to be the only determining factor in your success. As a matter of fact what you don’t say may be equally important. That’s because while you’re not talking, you are listening. A salesperson who listens to his or her customers generally has an easier time making sales, which in turn lead to increased earnings and more job satisfaction.

 

Listen before speaking

Did you know that a great percentage of top sales people are introverts? That’s because introverts are naturally more centred on the other person rather than themselves. They prefer to listen than speak. Rather than dominating the conversation, they dominate the listening.

 

Help your customers feel secure

When they’re being listened to, customers feel comfortable and secure in your presence. They don’t feel pressured. Because of that, when you do speak they in turn listen to what you’re saying and are more apt to buy.

 

Clarify and paraphrase

It’s important the person in front of you knows they’re being listened to. Paraphrase what they say in your own words and that will encourage them to go deeper.

 

Slow down your own conversation

When it is your turn to speak don’t whip through the conversation. That can stress people out. You don’t need to go slowly, but you should take your time and pause to give them time to ask questions or clarify what you’re saying.

 

Check out this article from allbusienss.com to see how you rate as an effective listener.

Start The Week With A Productivity Plan

Better Personal Brands

Whether you are working freelance, looking for work or happy in your current position, your personal brand will have a lot to do with your success in your current role and in your future career.

With the importance of personal branding, it’s surprising to see so many people still making the same personal branding mistakes. When it comes to your personal branding, this is what you want to avoid.

All About Quantity

When it comes to your portfolio, work history and online presence, some people assume that the more stuff you have in there, the better. After all you want to display how much you’ve done and how much experience you have right? The truth is, when a recruiter, employer or client look at your portfolio or social media presence they’re not going to look through it all to find the good stuff. You want to present only your best work. Make it about quality.

No Promotion

Having a great portfolio or a personal website that displays your past work is great, but no one is going to see it if you don’t promote it. Write a guest blog for an industry website. Promote yourself on social media. You can have the best personal brand in the world, but if no one sees it or interacts with it, it won’t do you very much good.

No Personality

Your portfolio can be sleek and stylish and it can show good work, but if you have none of yourself in it, you’ll find it getting glossed over. You want to add little bits of your personality to it. So many companies hire based on culture fit nowadays that you want to show what kind of culture you’d fit into. Keep your personality in your brand.

Too Much Self Interest

Too many people only focus on themselves. After all it is a personal brand isn’t it? If you only show yourself and your work, and you don’t explain what you bring to your employers, they’ll leave without and incentive to get in touch.

Your personal brand should focus on your skills, and the way you use those skills to benefit those you work for.

 

Are You Satisfied With The Life Your Living?

Here’s a small question: What’s the meaning of life? No big deal right?

 

We’re kidding of course. Most of us, no matter our age, have thought about this question once or twice. It usually goes hand it hand with the question: How do I define success for myself?

 

Bob Marley’s quote asks a similar question. Are you happy with how things are going, and where they’re going? These aren’t simple questions to answer, but if you spend time thinking about them, you might find an answer.

 

In our world, it’s rare that we find the time to stop and think about ourselves and our lives. We’re told that we have to be busy all the time. We’re told that we have to be constantly on. Bob Marley had a very different idea about what we should be doing with our lives. He didn’t feel like he had to be busy all the time. He knew there was a benefit in taking time out of his day to contemplate larger things.

 

If you find that you are not satisfied with the life you are living, take time to find out why. You don’t need to make any crazy changes right away. Figure out what you aren’t satisfied with and work to make changes in your life that will address those things. You’ll find that the small act of looking inward could have a huge impact on your happiness.