Financial Management tips

If you’re finding yourself stressed about money, the following steps can lead you to a greater sense of peace.

• Get organized: Gather all important financially-related documents to a central location that is equally accessible.
• Track your spending and pay yourself first: Write down where you are spending your money.  Re-route some of your spending to a savings account: pay yourself first for a secure financial future.
• Plan to save: Start a savings account to cover expenses like clothes, holidays, and insurance.  Plan for future expenses throughout the year. Have retirement planning.
• Build an emergency fund: You never know when you will need additional cash so try to have two to three months of living expenses in a readily accessible savings account or money market account.
• Don’t Go Into Debt, and if you are, Get out of debt: Avoid Credit CARDS.  If you must use them, control your credit card spending and try to pay off any debts you have (e.g., car, credit card, student loan, etc.).  Pay more than the minimum monthly payment.  Once you have paid off your debts/credit cards, take the money and put it towards savings or some other debt.  If possible, the goal is to simultaneously pay off your debt while still putting some amount into savings.  Remember, you are loaned money so that you will pay interest and late charges and make other people money.
• Set goals: Decide what you want to do with your money.  Do you want to pay off debts/student loans/Buy a house/Save for a new car or additional education.  Write down your goals and your strategy for achieving these goals.  Write a budget.
• Review your insurance coverage: Every year, review your health, life, disability, renter/homeowners, auto, and personal liability policies to make sure you are both adequately covered. To learn more about insurance go to the National Association of Insurance commissioners Insure U web page.
• How much should you save and/or invest? Save at least 15% of every dime you earn beginning with your first job.  The older you are the higher the percentage has to go unless you think you can work forever?

SOME MORE TIPS:

• Get Paid What You're Worth and Spend Less Than You Earn
• Stick to a Budget
• Have a Savings Plan
• Invest
• Keep Good Records.

Top Saving Mistakes

• Not modifying your spending habits and committing to save money.
• Not appropriately/correctly allocating your assets to meet a specific goal or time horizon (diversification is important).
• Not setting a specific RUPEES target or financial goal.
• Not knowing how much you have, where you are spending your money, and how much you need to save for the future (failure to plan for retirement).
• Cashing out your retirement plan

What is Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy:The ability to effectively evaluate and manage one’s finances in order to make prudent decisions toward reaching life’s goals

The understanding of:

• Money
• Cash flow
• Basic economic/financial concepts
• Debt/risk management.

Achieving financial literacy: Five Key Areas of Personal Finance:

• Money and income
• Money management
• Spending and debt
• Savings and investments
• Risk management

Money and income:Its important to take care of the following:

• Time is money
• Money management
• Budgeting
• Prioritizing

Stress due to Finance

The proportion of people stressed about money is only going up. While money is a relatively common cause of stress and marital tension, the serious global economic downturn we’re currently seeing has many people concerned about losing their home or their savings -- or both!

This kind of stress can result in many problems, including health, relationship and career problems. Stress is intricately linked to ill-health and statistics show that up to 90% of all visits to the doctor are for stressrelated ailments and complaints.

Statistics show that almost 40% of relationships break-ups are a result of financial difficulty. Are you under financial stress? Financial difficulties are categorised in the highest category of stress along with death of a family member, divorce and moving, and is described as severe, chronic, long-term stress.

This kind of stress can result in many problems, including health, relationship and career problems. Stress is intricately linked to ill-health and statistics show that up to 90% of all visits to the doctor are for stressrelated ailments and complaints.

What is Finance?
The general areas of finance are business finance, personal finance, and public finance. Finance includes saving money and often includes lending money.

Importance of Finance Literacy.

Knowing What You Need To Know To Achieve Your Financial Goals

What is Financial Health?

It is a description of the state of a person or company's finances. Someone with good financial health usually deals well with their finances, makes their payments on time, and knows how to manage their money. Someone in poor financial health usually owes a lot of money and isn't making their payments on time.

What is Financial Planning?
Financial Planning is the process of meeting your life goals through the proper management of your finances. It involves the process of assessing your financial situation, determining your objectives and formulating a plan to achieve them.

What is Debt?
 Borrowing money from others for interest. Definition of debt: Debt is a form of loan issued to the indovidual/organisation/company by public or the bank.An amount owed to another party.An obligation resulting from borrowing money.

What is Debt Management Plan
A Debt Management Plan (DMP) is a repayment scheme which helps make unsecured debt repayments more affordable. ...In debt management the counselors offer confidential debt management advice designed to help you with unfinancial situation.  This is will help you get back on your feet.  Your expenses should never be more than your income.  Good debt management, you will find yourself enjoying more financial freedom.

What is credit?    It is a source of provision.
 Definition of Credit:  Credit is the provision of resources (such as granting a loan) by one party to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately, thereby generating a debt, and instead arranges either to repay or return those resources.

THE STRESS CAUSED BY FINANCE IMPROPER FINACE PLANNING CAUSES FINANCIAL STRESS..

Managing Job Stress

• First, identify what's creating stress at work. Maybe it’s lack of control over your job. Or maybe it's worry about losing your job or how you are doing at work. You might feel stress because you're unable to express your thoughts and ideas to your boss and coworkers.
• Think about why you want to reduce stress at work. You might want to protect your heart and your health by reducing stress. Or maybe you simply want to enjoy your life more and not let work stress control how you feel. Your reason for wanting to change is important. If your reason comes from you-and not someone else-it will be easier for you to make a healthy change for good.
• Next, set a goal for yourself that involves reducing your stress level. Think about both a long-term and a short-term goal.
• After setting your goals, think about what might get in your way. Write down your goals, the possible barriers, and your ideas for getting past them. By thinking about these barriers now, you can plan ahead for how to deal with them if they happen.
• Most important, make sure you get support from friends and family in your efforts to reduce job stress. Or talk to someone who can help you set goals and provide support in dealing with setbacks

    You and your job

• Get organized. Keep track of your projects and deadlines by making a list of what's urgent. Decide what matters most and what can wait.
• Don't put things off. Use a schedule planner to plan your day or week. Just seeing on paper that there is time to get each task done can help you get to work. Break a large project into small steps, and set a deadline for each one.
• Learn to say "no." Don't overcommit yourself. If you take on too much, you're creating stress.
• Focus. Do one thing at a time. In some cases, you can do two things at a time. But if you start to feel stressed, go back to doing one thing at a time.
• Concentrate. Try to limit distractions and interruptions. Ask others to give you a block of time when you are not disturbed.
• Delegate. Ask someone else to take on a task. It's not always important to have all the control.

Take care of yourself

• Make time for you. Leave your job at the office, even if your office is a room in your home. Use time  you've set aside for you and your family. Stay positive. Remember that everyone has good days and bad days at work.
• Reward yourself. When you finish a difficult task, celebrate. Enjoy a snack at your desk, or-if your job permits-take a short walk or visit with a coworker.
• Schedule time for fun. If you spend every second of your day getting things done, you may resent never having time for yourself.
•  Go into work earlier and take a longer break at lunch to make time for a  walk.
• Practice breathing and relaxation techniques. You can do these at home or in a quiet place at work

Individual Differences in Coping

• Social Support helps to reduce stress.
• Job Skill – the more skilled at job, the less stress
• Physical Health – good health leads to reduced impact of stress
• Type A/Type B Personality – Type A personality reflected by competitiveness, inflated sense of time urgency, hostility.  Hostility component of Type A personality is linked to heart disease, Type A individuals, in essence, create more stress for themselves. Type B individuals rarely have heart attacks before the age of 70.
• Job Complexity – increased complexity leads to heart disease in Type A individuals.  But, complexity also is linked to job satisfaction!!
• Locus of Control – internal locus of control is linked to reduced impact of stress
• Negative Affectivity –A tendency to focus on the negative aspects of life.  Linked to high levels of stress
• Individual Differences Hardiness: Reflects a resistance to stress: elements include :Sense of commitment to family and work, A perceived sense of control, A view of change as normal and challenging.
• Organization-based Self Esteem – our assessment of our adequacy and worth with regard to our place in the employing organization (job specific self esteem)
• Gender Differences – female managers face more stressors than do male managers (e.g., role conflict, discrimination, harassment)
• Stress and Type of Occupation: Clerical and blue collar workers suffer the most stress due to a relative lack of control. Most stressful professions include: laborer, secretary, clinical lab. technician, nurse, first-line supervisor, restaurant server, machine operator, farm worker, miner. One of the least stressful professions is college professor.
• Work-Family Conflicts : Greater role conflict for women – primary responsibility for family life falls on woman. Family with 3 kids, average work week for females is 90 hours, for males it is 70 hours. Bad work days tend to carry over into family life – tendency is stronger for women.  Sadly, positive states do not carry over. Despite these problems, women with paying jobs are psychological and physically healthier than full-time homemakers

  

Stress at Workplace

In todays world, the work places have become a cause of stress. What actually is Stress?   Stress  is a physiological and psychological responses to events in the environment. However there are 2 types of stress:

Eustress: good stress

Distress: bad stress

What's Job Stress?

Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job stress can lead to poor health and even injury.

Where does stress come from?

1. Major life events?
2. Daily hassles: frequency, intensity, duration
3. Job satisfaction and stress – those who enjoy work suffer less impact from stressful events.

Causes of Stress in the Workplace

• Work overload
• Quantitative: too much to do in too short a time
• Qualitative: work that is too difficult
• Quantitative has increased in recent years due to downsizing
• Work underload – work that is too simple or insufficient to fill one’s time
• Both of these impact stress and health, appears that a moderate amount of stress is optimal
• Organizational Change – if not hardy, change causes stress in individuals.  Can be reduced by including employees in planning.
• Role Ambiguity – unstructured or poorly defined job responsibilities (expected standards, methods, schedules)
• Role Conflict – conflict between job demands and employee’s personal standards
• Management Style. Lack of participation by workers in decision making, Poor communication in the organization, lack of family friendly policies.Example: Their needs to get the boss’s approval for everything, and the company is insensitive to her family needs.
• Interpersonal Relationships. Poor social environment and lack of support or help from coworkers and supervisors.
• Career Concerns. Job insecurity and lack of opportunity for growth, advancement, or promotion; rapid changes for which workers are unprepared.
• Environmental Conditions. Unpleasant or dangerous physical conditions such as crowding, noise, air pollution, or ergonomic problems.

Prevention of Suicidal Death

Suicide is the act of intentionally or deliberately terminating one's own life. The World Health Organization Report estimates that each year approximately 1 million people commit suicide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death between both sexes aged 15-44 years. Prevention of Suicidal Deaths has become a major public health issue.

Suicidal behavior is any deliberate action with potentially life-threatening consequences. Suicide is a complex problem for which there is no one explanation. There is no single reason why a person commits suicide. Suicide results due to a complex interaction of biological, genetic, psychological, social, cultural, and environmental factors. No single factor has gained acceptance as a universal cause of suicide. Suicide often is a choice that people make, as they see no other alternatives.

Most people who make this choice of committing suicide or try to attempt it do that as they see no alternative at that moment and feel helpless. Most people don't do it with the intention of killing oneself.  The impact of this act is that it can be sudden and often an unexpected-hence if death occurs it devastates the victims --families, friends and the near and dear ones. 

Suicide has been well researched and International experience shows that timely interventions can reduce death or injury due to suicide or attempt to suicide.  A suicidal person may not ask for help, but that doesn't mean that help isn't wanted. Most people who commit suicide don't want to die - they commit or try to attempt suicide, as at that moment they feel helpless, or see no other alternative. Timely intervention can prevent suicide. 

In order to provide timely help to a person in need of emotional support and prevent suicide Makro Foundation has initiated the Suicide Prevention Helpline. 

 If any one is considering suicide, or knows any other person who is thinking on the same lines you can just approach us by calling our suicidal prevention helpline and seek help and save yourself or a life. It’s just a phone call away.  Makro Foundation has initiated this easy to access Suicide Prevention Helpline with an aim to: 

• Understand and prevent suicide
• Reach out to those whose lives have been impacted by suicide and connecting them to available resources.
• Reaching out to people with mood disorders.
• Increasing awareness and education and strengthening of social support and community networks.
• Increasing public awareness of mental health issues and improving both quality and quantity of mental health services.
• Empowering professionals by training them on the issue of emotional health.

 Please note: Talking openly about suicidal thoughts and feelings can save a life--- We are just a call away! DIAL 040-4600 4600 for talking to us! For further details log on to: www.suicidehelpdesk.org

TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE CONCENTRATION

1.Intend to Concentrate: Humans tend to do what they tell themselves to do. Therefore, it’s easier to concentrate if you set a specific length of time to study and consciously tell yourself that “I will concentrate” for that length of time

 2. Ready to Concentrate : Have everything you will need before you begin to study: pencils, pens, paper, notes, textbooks, reference books, etc.

3. Use Concentrating Promoting Activities: Study with a pen or pencil in hand and condense what you read into organized notes.  Rewrite and better organize lecture notes. If you study by rereading and suffer from poor concentration and poor recall, you are normal.

4.Vary your study activities: If your study style is not to focus on one subject for long periods of time, then vary what you do.  Read and take notes for awhile, formulate questions and answers for a time,
Recite and review to break the monotony. Another example is to do math problems for awhile, then read another subject, review that subject, and then go back to math.

5.Find a Non Distracting Study Environment: Study in the same place and use that place only for studying.  Remove potential sources of visual and auditory distractions or remove yourself to a less distracting study environment.

6.Set Up a Specific System of Studying and Learning: An effective step-by-step plan for studying and learning makes concentration easier. For example, take main ideas and turn them into questions and place them on one side of a notecard.  On the other side, use the details that clarify and explain each main idea as answers for your questions. Frequently and regularly look at the questions and practice reciting answers aloud from memory. Then, turn the notecard over to check your answer. If right, move on to the next notecard. If wrong, don’t move on until you read the answer aloud and quiz yourself again until you get it right.

7. Eat Regular and Well balanced Meals: Research suggests those with healthy diets earn higher grades.  Avoid quick uppers such as sugary snacks because quickly rising and falling blood sugar levels negatively affect concentration. High fat foods cause sluggishness and drowsiness. Snack on fresh fruits and vegetables.

8. Get Plenty of Night Time Sleep: Fighting sleepiness lowers concentration

9.Set Daily, Weekly, Monthly,Year Goals: It is easier to concentrate and feel motivation when you have goals and can see yourself progressing toward those goals.

10.Take Regular Study Breaks: It is normal for concentration time to vary individually from 5 minutes on up. Take a short 5-minute break when concentration wanders

11.Deep Breath When Tired
Relax for a minute and inhale & exhale.  Do this for 4 to 5 times. Now once again start to count the numbers as guided here 1…, 1…. 2…, 1…. 2…..3….., (One, one two, one two three, one two three four, like that) Do this up to 100 & then vice versa i.e., in descending order (hundred…..ninety nine….ninety eight….) like that.

OTHER TECHNIQUES

• Practice time management
• Learn relaxation exercises.  
• Rehearse and practice situations.
• LAUGH A LOT
• Learn practical coping skills.
• Decrease negative self talk.  
• Learn to feel good with a workable result – Don’t be a perfectionist.
• Build a network of friends. 

If one starts to speak on a topic and if we like it our mind starts ficusing on this and concentration starts developing. So one can say that the areas or topics or situations which we have interest or like it he or she can concentrate.  Hence  interest is the foundation of concentration.  If we’ve interest we can concentrate, if we can concentrate we can listen/observe. If we can listen/observe we can remember/recollect easily.
The environment of study should be soothing, the seating posture should be right, relaxed, comfortable,  and there should not be  disturbance with bright light.

Things that Affect Concentration

Now a days we can hear a common complaint that one can’t so easily remember names,faces, even other important information.  When, they have not at all heard the matter, how can they remember or recollect?   Can anyone remember or  recollect anything which he/she has not heard known?  Certainly not....When  the reason for poor/not listening,  was examined the first answer which we  got iwas  poor attention  due to lack of concentration.As concentration is the backbone of all other success skills like memory, observation and listening skills, one should strengthen his/her power of concentration.

It is important to understand the difficulties that prevent concentration before we attempt to improve it. Each individual is different; some things may hinder one person's ability to concentrate but not bother another. Nonetheless, concentration can be seriously reduced by the wide variety of distractions caused by both internal and external sources
Internal Causes of Concentration Problems

1) Physical Factors:

• Exhaustion
• Irregular sleep patterns
• Unbalanced diet and hunger
• Lack of exercise
• Stress
• Medications
• Alcohol or drug abuse

2) Medical conditions

Physical illness

Anxiety

Depression,

Attention Deficit Disorder

Bipolar disorder

Learning disorders such as dyslexia can also affect your concentration.

3) Psychological Factors:

• Boredom
• Daydreaming
• Overload
• Fear
• Guilt
• Mental Burnout
• Avoidance
• Intimidation
• Lack of motivation

External Causes of Concentration Problems

1) Environmental Factors:

• Noise /Distractions
• Television
• Telephone, internet, and email
• Poor lighting
• Temperature
• Visual stimulation
• Pollutants
• Activity

3)  Personal Factors:

Personal issues and interruption from other people such as family, spouse, friends, or colleagues Person's sustainable level of concentration is dependent on a combination of the following factors:

• Dedication or commitment to the task at hand
• Interest in the task
• Skill and ability to perform the task
• A content emotional and physical state
• An appropriate environment with few distractions
• Anxiety
• Fear
•  Boredom

Once a these factors are carefully balanced, it becomes easier for the mind to focus its attention on a select few stimuli and block out unwanted or irrelevant thoughts. While this process may not last very long at first, it can be possible to improve concentration problems. With practice and focusing techniques, concentration (like any other skill) can be enhanced.

Understanding Concentration

One day Sumukh was asked by his mother to bring 6 types of cereals, 5 kinds of fruits and cooking colours, after buying some cereals he called his mom.  Till finishing the purchase he kept on calling his mother almost 4 times.

Rakesh was gifted a wristwatch by his father.  He was looking the watch for more 3 minutes that was observed by his father, and he asked the time.  Rakesh again looked the watch & then he told the time.

Sumukh introduced his friend Karthik to Rakesh, telling “ this is Karthik, my friend…”, At the end of the conversation Rakesh asks Karthik, “ May I know your name”?

 

This is not only the problem of Sumukh, Rakesh. Even we have also faced the similar situation and it’s due to lack of concentration. So, now we have to find all the possible ways to strengthen the ability of concentration. Before that, we should know what’s concentration and its  significance.

What is concentration?

Concentration means focus of mind.  In simple words concentration is nothing but being alert and without any diversion in mind.Concentration also means keeping one’s mind & thoughts on one thing with focused attention on the same thing/aspect.

Importance of Concentration

• Necessary to complete many tasks
• Inability to concentrate results in frustration and stress
• Good concentration will enable you to remember more
• Concentration is one of the major tools to achieve success in any area. 
• Remembering & recollecting ability, which is nothing but so called memory