Personal Finance Goals

• Increase my net worth by $60,000 - This is a pretty aggressive goal based on my savings rate. I say “based on my savings rate” because I don’t think setting a goal based on earning a positive return on my investments is all that useful. I can’t control what the market does, but I can control how much money I save. If my business does well over the next year and I hit at least 100% of my bonus at work, I just might be able to hit this target. Of course, if the market crashes it probably won’t matter how much I save. On the other hand, if the market shoots up 20% next year, I will hit this goal easily. But I’m not going to worry about that either way. I won’t feel bad if I miss my goal solely because of an uncooperative stock market.
• Fully fund both my 401k and SEP IRA next year - I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to max out my company’s 401k plan both of the last two years and expect to be able to do so in 2012 as well. I will only be able to defer 20% of my self-employment income into my recently-opened SEP IRA, which will put me absolutely nowhere near the maximum contribution for that type of account. So when I say “fully fund my SEP IRA” I mean defer 20% of my self-employment income. This should be a gimme barring any unforeseen disaster I would need to funnel my secondary income towards.
• Fix up the ol’ homestead to prepare it for sale or rental - I want to move. I don’t necessarily see myself being able to sell my condo for a reasonable amount in this market, but I’d like it at least to be in saleable (or rentable) shape by the end of the year. Best case scenario would be to lease it sometime in 2013 while I move to my favorite part of town.

Personal Goals

• Spend at a very minimum 2 weeks this year on another continent – Preferably Asia or South America, but I’m not going to be picky. In reality, I’d rather spend more like an entire month abroad. We’ll see how this goes.
• Do some sort of exercise at least 5 days per week – I’m already doing pretty well on the personal fitness front. I work out at least 2-3 days per week and sometimes hit 4 or even 5. But I’d like to get to the point where I’m working out 5 days per week consistently. This isn’t really a particularly aggressive goal, because even something as quick as an intense 10 minute interval session would count. The point is to do something every day. Walking doesn’t count, but things like playing soccer or basketball after work do.
• Eat better – I already eat a ton of fruits and vegetables, so overall macro nutrition isn’t a problem for me. But I also eat far more junk food than I should, and often after a long day at work I’ll just order a pizza for dinner. I have to cut back on that significantly.

Business Goals

• Break 1,000 RSS subscribers – I’ve been hovering around the 600 RSS subscriber count for almost 6 months now. Most of this is due to the fact that I didn’t aggressively pursue RSS readers in 2011 coupled with not doing any guest posts on larger blogs, which in my experience is one of the best way to build loyal readership. Wanna help me out? Subscribe to my RSS feed!
• Consistently post about 3 times per week – My posting slowed down considerably in the second half of 2011 due to some personal things I won’t get into. But that’s really no excuse. I’m going to post more regularly in 2012. You guys deserve it.
• Write at least 1 quality guest post per month for a popular blog in my niche – Guest posts can be a time sink, but they are still the most effective way I know of to build domain authority, search traffic, and most importantly readership.
• Start a mailing list – Everybody else does this. Why don’t I? Because I’ve been lazy.
• Increase business income by 50% – There’s absolutely no way this is going to happen without creating my own product. I’ve had a few ideas for an ebook I’ve been kicking around in my head for a while now. Speaking of which…
• Write an ebook – I’m just going to do it this year. I may even decide to give it away for free to loyal readers instead of selling it. But I can worry about that after I’ve actually written the damn thing.

Our Brains Are Not Wired To Multitask

Our brains are wired to work much like a computer processor. That is, we can consciously focus on one and only one thing at a time. To prove it to yourself, try to carry on a phone conversation and compose an email at the same time. You can’t do it! You have to constantly switch between focusing your attention on the phone conversation and writing an email. Otherwise, you will end up with gibberish coming out on both tasks.

“So what?” you may ask. “So long as the penalty for switching between tasks isn’t large, I can get more of the important things I want to get done in a given period of time.” Unfortunately, the penalty for context switching is very large: about 40% according to most research. That is, when you multitask between two or more tasks, you will be about 40% less efficient with your time than if you focused on just one task at a time.

Do This Instead

The reason we all feel the need to multitask is that we feel like we have way too much on our plates to accomplish it all. Better to do a half-assed job on a few of the less-important tasks while getting them all “done” than accomplish just one or two of the most important exceptionally well, the theory goes. This is comparing apples to oranges, though. Generally what will happens is that you will become overwhelmed and begin to cut corners on all of the tasks, even the most important ones, instead of just the less-important tasks. Due to the huge penalties involved in context switching, you can generally get a lot more output from your efforts if you focus on the highest-value tasks first.

Generally, not all tasks on your list will be equally-important. One or two of the tasks will likely be absolutely vital, a few more may be very important but perhaps not urgent, and the rest probably fall into the “nice to have” category. To maximize efficiency, start with the highest-value task and focus only on that task. Do not switch back and forth between the two or three highest-value tasks, since the costs of context switching will kill you. Focus on one and only one task until it is completed with an acceptable level of quality. Then, move on to the next most-important task. This one simple change alone will boost your productivity by between 30-40%, if the research is to be trusted. How big of a raise do you think you could ask for if you got 40% more work done every week?

It may seem that switching between many different tasks can give you the best short of getting all your tasks finished, but the research shows that’s not the case. Over the coming weeks, I’m going to write about a few of my favorite productivity tips, most of which involve not multitasking.

For more on the research about multitasking and context switching, check out the American Psychological Association’s page on Switching Costs.

Having your own business also brings with it legal risks. With that being said, it is logical that a small business insurance package is advised. This is a straightforward approach to providing coverage against the risks involved and therefore the insurance also provides peace of mind.

All types of insurance come with their own set of terminology. The types typically associated with small businesses include public liability, employers’ liability, and tool and equipment insurance. But not every small firm will need each of these protections. Fortunately, insurance policies can be mixed and matched or customized to meet the particular needs of any given client. Whether a small business needs a comprehensive package that includes several types of coverage or just a single type of coverage, most insurance companies can tailor the protection to include what is needed and desired.

Public liability insurance provides protection for a business if there is an act of negligence on its part that results in injury or death of a ‘member of the public’ or damaged property. This coverage comes into play should there be a legal challenge following the incident. The insurance will pick up the cost of defending the claim and even pay any awards of compensation or costs up to pre-determined limits.

Any business that employs others should consider purchasing employers’ liability. This type of insurance provides protection should the business/business owner face a claim due to the death or injury of a worker because of an act of negligence on the part of the employer. Additionally, this type of insurance protects businesses from claims from employees that become ill because of their work/job or whose property becomes damaged because of their work.

Businesses that use specific equipment and tools critical to running the operation can gain protection against loss or damage with tools and related equipment insurance. This type of coverage can also include protection for the business if a client sues following a mistake, omission, or act of negligence that result in a financial injury.

Small business protection is also available for such things as business interruption, unforeseen circumstances that result in the standstill of business. Other types of business insurance options include stock insurance and personal accident coverage.

Under each type of small business coverage there are many options and terms available. It is therefore wise to do your homework before making final decisions about what coverage to purchase.

Debbie Allen of The Things Women Want has written several books, ebooks and thousands of articles and reports. Her background in Psychiatric Nursing, Nurse Education and Organizational Development provides Debbie with a solid foundation that allows for the development of several areas of specialty.

In effect, self employed retirement plans allow a small business owner to shelter a higher percentage of his or her income from taxation. The law raised contribution limits and allows a person to roll over money from existing IRA or other retirement accounts. Money put away in these 401ks can be pre or post tax. Money that a self-employed person feeds into one of these accounts will be less-taxed, thereby increasing the amount of money they will be able to access upon retirement.

A self employed 401k plan is intended for businesses with a single employee or co-owners and perhaps their spouses. Even taking on a single employee may cause a person to become ineligible. Freelancers, independent contractors, sole proprietors, or co-owners in a partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC) or corporation (FREE QuickBooks Simple Start with your LLC or Incorporation filing), if they have no employees, are best served by these plans.

Self employed 401k contribution limits change each tax year based on inflation. In 2009, the maximum contribution amount for a sole proprietor was $49,000, $54,500 if they are age 50 or above. Participants can choose to donate pre-tax, post tax, or a combination of the two. The advantage to making after-tax contributions, otherwise known as tax once and done, is that neither the principal not the growth will be taxed when withdrawn. It can also be beneficial to make a before-tax, or tax-deferred contribution. These will be tax deductible in the year in which you put the money aside and will grow without your having to pay taxes, though you will have to pay taxes upon withdrawal when you retire. The advantage of one over the other depends on the amount you are putting away and your overall financial picture. Specific contribution amounts, limits, and regulations are based on net earned income.

Another interesting change made to some individual 401k plans is that often, a business can take out a tax-free loan from a solo 401k. This can be helpful in many situations, but must be approached carefully, as a misstep in repayment can mean costly penalties.

Self-employed 401k plans are a great option for many people. As always, it is best to consult with a professional in order to determine which plan is right for you and your situation. These plans are intended to help a small business owner plan for retirement and can be very effective if appropriately used.

Not to say that all of us are greedy but money does make the world go round. Everything you do now needs money. From the moment you wake up, everything that you lay your eyes upon was bought using money. Even if that thing was donated to you, the original owner bought it using money.

The question in every one’s mind is, just where do you get these extra income from? Who is foolish enough to give you money? Well, first don’t think that you need to beg from someone their money . Think about what you can offer to people and how much do you think people would pay you. You will be surprised just how helpless some people are. If your vision was that you can make money by doing nothing, then I will say you will always have this vision while you lay sleeping. In other words, keep on dreaming.

Reality bites and the bite marks says that nothing comes for free. They say that the only way you can get money by doing nothing is to inherit it or marry into it. Actually marrying into wealth still count as doing something. So if you don’t have a super rich relative who does not have any children then I would suggest you to change your mentality.

However don’t start beating on the hopeless drum yet as there are ways to make money easily. The word easily here would mean using something that you already have and enjoy doing it for some extra money. Everyone is good at something and you are good at something.

With the aid of the internet, anyone in the society can connect to anyone else. What this means is that it is now easier for anyone, including you to find someone who would be interested in whatever it is that you can offer. It could be as simple as house sitting or as hard as landscaping. If you don’t feel like meeting people face to face and would like to make money just by doing something in front of the computer then don’t despair. There’s hope!

One of the proven mechanism for getting money online is through writing articles. If you enjoy writing and like to share experiences, then writing articles is the way. You just need the aid of publishing sites.

There are a few sites which offer publishing tools for you, as an article writer to write articles and publish them on their websites. In return, any advertising revenue generated from that page is then shared with you. If your article is rated highly among the site’s visitors, then your article views will increase which in turn will increase the views for the advertisement. That could only mean higher earnings for you.

You can also write more than one article and these articles can be related to each other. That is why it is easier if you write something that interests you. It could be about gardening, or your favourite TV show.

This method is popular with the masses as it allows anyone who knows how to type and click the mouse to become article writers and make extra money online. You don’t have to upload anything or learn any new computer jargon. As long as you know how to edit a document then you’re good to go!

Just try it. You have nothing to lose.

If you’re looking to improve your business’s cashflow, here are 10 tips that could help you keep the taps of liquidity flowing.

1. Invoicing: Ensuring that you are on top of your invoicing can mean you are receiving prompt payments and help keep the cashflow moving. While speed is often essential to receiving quick payment, the accuracy of the invoice you send can also help avoid delays.

2. Accounts Receivables: Once the invoices are sent, this isn’t an excuse to just forget about them. You must stay focused on outstanding accounts to ensure they don’t avoid payment. A friendly call a week after sending the invoice to ensure a customer has received it or has any questions can be a great way to jog memories regarding payment. Keeping a record of future calls, complete with times, dates, messages, people with whom you spoke, and responses, can help you keep your collections efforts organized and more efficient.

3. Customer Relations: While customer relations might seem an odd addition to a list of how to keep up cashflow, having good relationships with these people can help you work with and receive payment quicker than if they don’t really care for you or your company.

4. Work With Customers: Maintaining good customer relations can help you when times are tough and a customer might be having problems paying you for goods or services. When you’re willing to work with a customer, you might be able to at least receive a partial payment on an outstanding invoice as opposed to getting nothing at all.

5. Credit Checks: Performing credit checks on potential customers with whom you expect to do large amounts of business can be a great way to protect yourself and your company from being left hanging out to dry on large accounts.

6. Shrinkage: The loss of products before they get to the point of sale, whether it be by poor production techniques, accidents, theft or whatever can leave your company wallowing in inefficiency and extra costs. The waste of supplies or products might not seem significant in the overall scheme of your cashflow issues, however; over a year or period of years, it could cost your business an immense amount of money.

7. Petty Cash and Expense Accounts: Petty cash and expense account costs, similar to shrinkage, might seem more minor aspects of cashflow, but areas such as petty cash and expense accounts can be taken advantage of by employees, sucking up extra cash that could be used for more important areas of your business’s expenses.

8. Loss Prevention: Keeping an eye on loss prevention through better security techniques and audits can help protect your business from costly accidents and losses, allowing more cash to be put toward other areas. A camera, lock system or security guard might be costly initially, but could save you on insurance costs or reduced theft in the long run.

9. Proper Payables: When it comes to paying bills, courtesy goes both ways. Prompt payment by you can keep creditors in your good graces and may help keep you from getting hit with costly late fees. This can also help you keep suppliers happy and confident in your ability to pay, which can be pertinent to ensuring your business and cashflow run smoothly.

10. Backup Plans: It might also be a good idea to ensuring good cashflow that you have backup sources of cash available. Whether it is through credit cards, extra cash accounts, credit lines, or just a good credit standing, you never know when you might be forced to utilize a bit of extra credit to ensure you cashflow remains stable.

Knowing your business and business cycles is often the best way to ensure good cashflow. Understanding and being prepared for slow periods during the year, customers who take extra time to pay, and other quirks that may be particular to your business or industry, are often critical to ensuring a proper cashflow in your business.

David writes about personal finances for an Australian credit card comparison website where you can find the best credit cards for Ozzies. Subscribe to our the Credit Letter blog.

Fortunately, the solution to the problem lies in “e-signature software,” a means by which digital contracts are generated with legally binding virtual signatures.

Here are five ways your business can benefit on a day-to-day basis from the implementation of digital signature software.

1. Create Legally Enforceable Contracts Digitally

Since digital signatures can be authenticated and traced directly to your clients, your contracts will be uncontested as legal and mutually binding.

2. Close More Clients Quicker

While faxing and snail mail can take days or weeks to execute contracts, creating critical time gaps for potential clients to change terms or back out of deals, with digital signature software you can seal a deal in minutes.

3. Increase Productivity

Eliminating laborious contract procedures allows more time for the things that matter most, like servicing your customers and growing your business.

4. Decrease Office Costs

Since digital contracts eliminate the need for costly machines and supplies such as paper, toner, packaging and postage, the savings can be substantial. And as an added benefit, your business just got greener.

5. Attract New Clients

As prospective clients become more aware of the benefits and convenience of digital signature technology, companies that offer this value added service will be perceived as more desirable to do business with than their paper pushing competitors.

About the Author: Dan Wesley is the CEO of Credit Loan. Creditloan.com provides the help you need with any consumer finance issue. From auto loans to payday loans, there are so many articles for you to choose from.

One of the most challenging aspects of managing employees is persuading them to share your vision for the company. Without substantial employee “buy in”, it is exceedingly difficult to run your business the way you see fit. In fact, unless employees are at least minimally on board with your business plan, the entire business planning process can become an utter waste of time. Fortunately, steps can be taken to frame your business plan in ways that appeal to and resonate with your employees. Properly executed, these steps will ensure the employees are as motivated and enthusiastic about the plan as management is.

Don’t Endlessly Roll Out Plan After Plan

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In his book A Sense of Urgency, Harvard Business professor John Kotter explains that employees are quickly disillusioned by managers who roll out one half-baked plan after another. The employees soon sense that each “plan” is little more than a momentary fad which will likely fade into irrelevance as quickly as it arrived. Nor is this necessarily irrational from their perspective. After all, employees have their own responsibilities at work without the boss also cramming new business plans down their throat each month. The capacity of even a genuinely committed employee to invest himself in a broad, over-arching plan is limited.

Believe in The Plan Yourself

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Thus, it is important that you authentically believe in and think through any business plans that employees come into contact with. People can tell the difference between real enthusiasm and hype-ridden “management speak.” It is therefore the job of the manager to communicate business plans in plainspoken, credible language that employees can personally relate to and find meaning in. Resist the temptation to use buzzwords and overly broad language. Instead, speak plainly and honestly about what the plan is intended to achieve.

Be Specific

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Make business plans as specific and actionable as possible so that everyone knows what is individually expected of them and how it fits with the overall vision. Let’s say, for instance, that part of the new plan is for all employees to complete status reports once a week stating their most recent accomplishments. Do not phrase this plan as “a new paradigm to ensure regimented awareness of corporate progress at known intervals.” Instead, simply tell employees that the company has had a tough time staying on top of what everyone is doing and that therefore they must now fill out a small weekly report.

Periodically Seek Employee Input

(ICMA Photos)

Another tip John Kotter offers in A Sense of Urgency is giving employees some input into shaping the plan. Employees might resent or distrust a plan that was concocted sight unseen in the manager’s office and foisted upon them after the fact. Should the plain fail, they can later point to their lack of involvement or approval as a reason. Conversely, employees who had a say in the plan automatically feel more invested in it and accountable for seeing it succeed. So while business plans must ultimately be approved by managers, it might pay to include key employees in the decision making progress (especially as regards their own role in carrying the plan out.)

Have Timelines & Dated Milestones

(Joe Lanman)

Once a business plan has been described in broad outline, immediately lay out timelines and dated milestones for its implementation. More often than not, these are what will make the program “real” in the minds of employees. Strive to lay out a short-term goal dated for completion no later than two weeks after the business plan is announced. Moreover, lay out regularly scheduled deliverables in connection with the plan that each employee is required to meet. This could be a status report, meeting, or anything else which demonstrates an employee’s compliance with the business plan.

Take Enforcement Seriously

(niyam bhushan)

In his book Ruthless Management of People & Profits, Dan Kennedy laments how some managers try to cultivate an “ownership mentality” in their employees, out of hope that this will make them automatically comply with new initiatives. This often fails because, as Kennedy bluntly states, employees are not owners. Owners and managers have undeniable personal stakes in whether business plans work out, whereas employees generally do not. Therefore, managing employees often comes down to enforcement. Employees must see that the business plan is not some transient fad, but rather is here to stay and that you are watching to ensure it gets carried out.

Demonstrate Positive Outcomes From The Plan

(Alex E. Proimos)

Above all, what motivates employees to buy into and stick with business plans is seeing positive outcomes. Employees are so accustomed to failed “initiatives” and “plans” that did nothing but waste time that genuinely successful strategies stand out. Few will oppose a plan that demonstrably does what management promised it would. To this end, strive mightily to produce a few “small victories” early on which can be held up as evidence of the business plan working.

About the Author: Robert Steere is a staff writer at Business Owner’s Toolkit. Business Owner’s Toolkit provides information on how to start a business. They also provide useful tools for small business owners such as a sample balance sheet.

If you are starting up a small business, or even if you’ve been running your business for a while, you may be considering a business credit card. There’s certainly nothing wrong with having a credit card for your business and using it as a revolving account to help you manage cash flow issues. Or simply to earn rewards. However, you should definitely think twice before you carry a balance on your business credit card and go into debt. Here are 4 good reasons not to use credit cards to prop up your business:

1. Better Options to Finance Your Small Business

When you start up your business, don’t use debt to finance it. Use your own equity. Personal savings is the best way to start up a business. So if you’re considering your own small business, start saving and be ready to fund your project with your own dollars until you are able to cash flow it. If the business doesn’t work, you’re not left with a bunch of debt. Easier said than done though, right?

Another way to fund your business is to take advantage of small business loan or line of credit. Interest rates are much more favorable than business credit cards. And you’ll likely get a nice discount if it’s with the bank that you do your checking with. To find out more about small business loans, see the Small Business Administration’s financial assistance page.

2. Increases Your Small Business Expenses

When you bring on debt, you bring on interest payments. Interest charges increase your expenses and hurt your overall profitability. Credit cards have some of the highest interest charges. You’ll likely be paying 15% or more interest for borrowing money using a business credit card. This is an expense your growing business shouldn’t have to take on. Skip the credit card debt, and use the extra money to fund a SEP IRA.

3. Business Cards Not Covered Under the CARD Act

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act that just came into effect didn’t apply to business credit cards. Therefore, the credit card company can still play the same games with your business credit card as they did prior to the act. They can raise your rates without notice, apply payments to whatever balance type they want (i.e. credit card cash advance vs. purchase), and switch up due dates on you. When you stick to other forms of debt, or your own cash, you don’t have to deal with these games.

4. Makes You Less Attractive to Future Investment

Finally, having a bunch of business credit card debt makes you less attractive to any future partners or investors. It might even affect which suppliers want to work with you. They don’t want to send you product if they know they can’t count on payment from you because you’re having to pay credit card debts. Stay away from the credit card debt and know that you look strong and flexible to anyone who views your business.

This post was provided by PT of PT Money. Visit PT Money: Personal Finance to learn more about credit cards and investing. See his reviews of the best online stock brokers.

The idea is based on the idea of arbitrage, which is the practice of using the differences in valuation between markets to your advantage. It’s just the same way that the stock market or the currency markets work: you buy low and sell high. In this case, you will be using the power of the internet markets to leverage the low prices available on the internet into your local market.

Begin by looking at your local classified ads to find the most common items that people in your area are purchasing used from one another. Good places to start are Craigslist, Facebook, and your local newspapers. Pay careful attention to prices, and take note of the frequency with which these items are being sold. Make some phone calls to the sellers, posing as a potential buyer, to gauge the level of actual response their ads are getting and the price points they are willing to offer a random potential buyer.

Next, price out these items on the internet to find the lowest price available. Since used will tend to be cheaper than new, pay careful attention to eBay and to the Amazon marketplace. Once you have found a product that you can easily buy low and sell high, simply take out an ad of your own and purchase the item. Buy low, sell high. This is easy money that you can make in a short period of time, and it is totally repeatable. That’s one of my top easy money making tips; it really doesn’t get much easier than this.