Make The Most of Your 401k

You finish school and look ahead to grand future you’re planning for yourself. You get your first real job out of school and one of the first things you hear is, Time to start planning for your retirement! Whether you are about to receive your first paycheck or you’ve been in the working world for more years than you care to count, contributing to your 401k automatically helps you save for your retirement with barely any planning on your part.

 

A retirement account is essentially an investment account that you don’t withdraw from (ideally) until you retire. There are two main types of retirement accounts IRA Individual Retirement Accounts – which is what people who don’t have access to a 401k use, or the retirement creating wonder, 401k.

 

Money you don’t see in the first place turns into head turning money in the second place

About half of Americans have access to a 401K at work. Essentially what happens is, your employer deducts a percentage of your pay and puts it in an investment account for you. That investment grows over time with compound interest and by the time you’re ready to take it out and live off it, it’s become a whale compared to the small fries you started with.

 

The great things about it is, the money is deducted before you ever see it. Because you don’t have to physically withdraw anything the transaction is essentially invisible. You don’t miss money you never see.  Here’s the even better part. Most companies will match your contribution. Typically if you contribute 6% they will match that with 3%. (most employers offer a 50% match) That’s FREE money going directly into your retirement fund, building toward whale sized savings. Who doesn’t want free money? Apparently quite a lot of people.

 

According to the article Does the Average American Have a 401 (k) from the Motley Fool, “Of those 79% of Americans who get the choice to fund a 401 (k), only 41% opt to participate. As such, just 32% of the total workforce is saving in a 401 (k).”

 

Obviously if you have outstanding debt that must be attended to, that is your first priority, but once you’re beyond living paycheck to paycheck, contributing to your 401k should really be a no brainer.

 

Work your way to maximum contributions

How much you contribute to your 401k is up to you. Essentially you want to try and put in as much as you can afford while still maintaining the ability to pay your bills and meet the rest of your regular financial obligations.

 

If you are currently only contributing 2% because that’s all you can afford right now, and your employer is only matching that with 1% your goal is to work your way up to 4% with a 2% match and then finally 6% to get that maximum 3% match from your employer.

 

If you are 30 years old with an annual salary of 40,000 and you contribute 6%, which is matched by 3% from your employer, your total contributions of $42,000 over 35 years will have ballooned into $527,000 by the time you’re ready to retire. Use this 401k calculator to figure out how much you can save for your retirement if you start contributing today.

 

Planning for your retirement can be as simple as saying yes to a plan already in place to help you!

Creating Opportunities With Potential Employers

You’ve been researching companies in your field and you’ve found the one you really want to work for. You jive with the company culture, you believe your skills and experience would be a perfect fit. One problem. They aren’t currently hiring.

 

Create your own opportunities

You may not be able to snap your fingers and create a job out of your profound desire to be there, but you can certainly track down the contact information of someone who currently works there. Or a recruiter with a relationship with the organization.

 

Open a dialogue

Step one contact the person and ask them if they’d be willing to have a coffee with you to talk about the company. Let them know you are not specifically looking for a job (even if you are) but that you are simply looking for information. Most people are willing to give half an hour to an enthusiastic (not obtrusive) seeker. In general people like to help others, even strangers when they can.

 

Ask specific questions about the company. Inquire into their career trajectory. See if they have any advice regarding things you can do to expand your career potential in general and specifically within the context of this particular company. Have a list of questions ready before hand so you don’t waste the opportunity.

 

Thank them for their time

Following your discussion thank them for their time and leave. Follow it up with a thank you note and leave it at that. Don’t follow up or pester them. You got what you needed from them and left a good impression of your go-getting self.

 

If something comes up they will likely contact you to let you know. Your career search is all about connections and networking. Leave a likeable, professional impression. People want to work with people they like!

Don’t Let A Long Job Search Get You Down

Some people luck on their job search and land something in their field early on. For others the search can feel unending. When you’re met with difficulties and disappointments on a consistent basis it’s hard to stay motivated. But take heart, all job searches eventually come to an end. In the time between this time and that, here are a few tips to help keep your spirts up.

 

Get re-inspired

When our road is long sometimes we lose sight of why we set foot on it in the first place. A great way to get back in step with yourself is by talking with someone who has already accomplished the goal you’re after. Ask them if you can take them out for coffee. Pick their brain. Listen to their stories. Ask their advice.  Or if there’s no one you can talk with personally find a book about someone who has traversed a similar path and read about their journey.

 

Hearing someone else talk about how they accomplished their goals makes the whole prospect feel tangible. Remind yourself if they did it, you can too.

 

Accomplish other goals

Even if you haven’t been able to accomplish the get-a-job goal there are still plenty of other goals you CAN accomplish. Get to it. Make a list of things you want to get done and go about accomplishing them one by one. Accomplishment makes you feel good about yourself. Give yourself lots of reasons to feel good about yourself!

 

Give yourself a break

An unaccomplished goal staring you in the face every day feels like a starving monster demanding all your attention. You can feed it all day long, but it will never get its fill. That’s why no matter how much it roars, sometimes you just have walk away. Take breaks. Go for a coffee. Go for a walk. See your friends. Cook yourself a meal. Take time each day to do things you like.

It may feel like you’re wasting time, but in realty you’re taking care of yourself mentally and physically. The monster will be waiting for you when you get back. When you’re in a better place you’ll be more inclined to feed it better, more nutritious food – which will ultimately get it out of your life sooner!

 

Create a routine

Following a routine every day helps to free up brain space for things you actually want to be thinking about. Put the things you do every day on autopilot and tackle the things that require full brain power with a full brain.

 

Keep the Wrong Words Out of Your Job Interview

Everyone knows there are things you can say during a job interview that will get you all kinds of brownie points.  For example, a demonstrated knowledge of the company you’re applying with that includes noteworthy facts you gleaned during your research. A well thought out plan for how you plan to evolve with the company that weaves your experiences in with the trajectory the company is already on.

 

Then there are things you can say that will essentially end the interview well before that final handshake.

 

Undemonstrated motivation

When asked about your positive qualities you definitely want to convey how motivated you are. However how you express that motivation can either make the interviewer sit up in interest or send them off into a daydream about lunch. If you say “I’m highly motivated,” and leave it at that, you’re essentially not saying anything of note to the interviewer. A truly motivated person talks about achievements. They talk about skills. They convey exactly who they are going to change the world around them to the best of their abilities.

 

Empty words

If an interviewer asks you about your weaknesses and you say you are a perfectionist what are they supposed to take away from that? No matter what the question, dig deep and find an answer that shines a light on your potential. Approach it from the standpoint of measurable improvement. What you did in a given situation, what you learned from it, how you improved, how you approach a similar situation now.

 

Lack of interest

You know the interviewer is going to ask if you have any questions. Maybe the interview ends and you are totally satisfied with everything you heard. You feel great about what you said and you’re pretty sure you’re a shoe in for the job. So you answer, “No, I don’t have any questions,” and all your good work slams into a bad answer. Having no questions indicates a lack of interest in the job and the interviewer – whether that’s what you actually meant or not. Always have questions ready to ask. Raise the expectations and interest as you close off your interview. Don’t bring them to a grinding halt!

 

Discussing vacations at the wrong time

Obviously, benefits like vacation time are important considerations for any job, however there is a time for that discussion and it’s not during your initial interview. If you bring it up too soon you’re telling the interviewer that you’re more interested in what the job can do for them than what you can do for the job. If there’s a second interview that’s the time to discuss vacation time, otherwise save it for negotiations.

 

Create a Powerful Interview

There are all kinds of reasons that interviews don’t go well. Sometimes it’s as simple as you weren’t the best candidate for the position. However sometimes you were the best person for the job. You missed out because you were too nervous to present yourself in your best light. Or you weren’t able to convey just how perfect you were to the interviewer.

Let your power shine through

Let’s start with the nervous part. Most of us get nervous in competitive or stressful situations. But there are ways of tricking your body into actually feeling more confident. It’s all about creating a feeling of power and strength within yourself. You can do that with power poses. Striking a pose of power and holding it.

For example, before the interview, stand like Wonder Woman. Feet apart, hands on your hips, chin up. Take up space, breathe in and hold. You will start feeling more confident.

Or stand like a star athlete. Feet apart, arms above your head, fingers spread wide – like you just won the race of your life and hold.

Amy Cutty who has a Ted Talk online about how our body language shapes who we are talks about studies that have demonstrated the benefits of standing like a super hero. Testosterone increases significantly cortisol drops, people feel ready to take on more risks, their pain threshold his higher. They also think more abstractly and are more likely to do well in stressful situations – like job interviews.

Move from the general to the specific

While preparing for an interview people will often go online to research the sorts of questions they will be asked. Then they memorize the best way to answer them. The problem with that is they come off sounding rehearsed and mechanical in the interview.

The interviewer doesn’t want to hear the perfect answer to a question. They want to hear your answer to the question. That means read how you should answer the question then create an answer based on your experiences and qualifications.

Why are you perfect for the position?

You might not get asked this question specifically, but ultimately every question you are asked is working toward answering it. Think about your motivations, your strengths, your values, your personality. Bring those into every answer. Come up with examples from your life and your experiences. Make it personal. The more personal you make it the more confident you’ll sound.

You look confident, you sound confident. If you’re a perfect fit for the job, the interviewer will know it.

Interrupt The Interruptions Trying to Interrupt Your Day

You know when you get into that flow at work, where what needs to get done pours out of your like water from a tap? You’re in the zone and focused. You and the work inhabit a bubble of time and space without interruption.

 

When was the last time you were in that bubble? With so many internal and external interruptions coming at most of us all day long, it’s been a while. External interruptions are things like other people calling, texting, emailing or walking up to our desk. Internal ones include the compulsive need to check social media, or have a quick peek at the headlines, or whatever it is you fill your personal distraction glass with.

 

Small interruptions lead to extended production delays

When you are in the zone you are focusing all your energies and thoughts on the task at hand. When an interruption breaks the flow it’s like taking a pair of scissors and cutting all the threads of communication pouring into your head with a single snip.

 

The time dedicated to dealing with the interruption isn’t restricted to however long it takes to death with whatever Hans came in to ask you. The bigger problem is the break of flow. All the time it takes to gather all the threads of thought back together.

 

Of course, interruptions to your flow are inevitable. There will always be matters that must be dealt with immediately. However, a great majority of the things that stop our flow aren’t urgent enough to require our immediate attention. By setting boundaries with our co-workers and ourselves we can allow ourselves to get into the flow zone more often and stay there.

 

Let your coworkers know you don’t want to be interrupted

If people don’t know you want uninterrupted work time, there is nothing stopping them from coming in and interrupting with things that can wait. So, let them know. Set all your alerts to silent. Leave an outgoing message on your phone saying you are busy and will return calls when you are free again. Same thing for emails.

 

If you have an office with a door put a do not disturb sign on it, if not put a sign on your desk. The do not disturb sign (or whatever words you use) might feel weird the first time you put it up. But you’ll get over it, especially once you see how much you’re accomplishing.

 

Stop interrupting yourself

Most likely, a bigger interrupter to your flow than other people is yourself. Now that you’ve got your email alerts and your phone silenced, it’s up to you to stop yourself from compulsively checking them on your own every couple of minutes. Set yourself time boundaries. Say I will work on this project for one hour. And stick to it.

 

“If you focus on what you left behind you will never see what lies ahead.” Gusteau, Ratatouille

How much of your time do you spend looking back?

 

All of us have things in our lives we wish we had done differently. Times we should have turned right when we turned left. People we wish we’d spent more time with. Others we wish we had steered clear of altogether. Opportunities we believe we should have pursued. Chances we should have taken and ones we shouldn’t have. Sometimes we call them regrets. Other times learning experiences.

 

Learning experiences and just experiences

Other things are just experiences– either ones we could have done without or ones we embrace with our full hearts.

 

Every day we go forward adds more regrets and triumphs to the reservoir that makes up our past. As we’re trying to go ahead and create our future, the past is like a small child tugging at our shirt sleeve for attention. The regrets imploring us to be wary and pursue with caution or not at all. The triumphs crowing over their glory.

 

 

Those are a lot of demands for our attention. The thing is, the past has happened. There is absolutely no changing it, no matter how much we dwell on it. There is no re-living it, regardless of how much time we spend there. One of the most important things we can do in our lives is learn to stop giving the past attention it doesn’t deserve.

 

Leave the past where it is, In the past

 

In regards to regrets, remind yourself you did what you thought was right at the time. It simply didn’t work out. The real regret from today’s stand point is every moment wasted dwelling on what was. Pledge to never take those same steps again and move on.

 

The glories of our lives are great–in the moment they’re happening. The time spent remembering them or reliving them afterwards are just about as debilitating for our future selves as the time spent dwelling on regrets. Either you will beat out those glories with better ones or you won’t. Regardless, the most important moment is now because it’s your chance to do what you’re here to do. Live your life appreciating each moment for what it is while striving towards the great ones.