Personal Finance: Financial Bootcamp 2012

Hello folks! Now that you have had your fill of Holiday shopping and post-Holiday shopping deals, it's time to get serious about getting your finances in order! To help, I'll be providing a series of posts over the next several weeks aimed at helping you get your finances in shape in 2012.  Join me for these upcoming posts:

1. Assess the situation
2. Set financial goals
3. Decide what is essential, optional, and just plain waste
4. Create structure
5. Build an Emergency fund
6. Inform & Negotiate
7. Become Accountable

Here's to a prosperous 2012 and beyond.

~Will

Personal Finance: 3 Ways to Earn Extra Income

One of the main tenets of personal finance is "living below your means." While applying that principle is very much needed, since we all have a tendency to spend more than we should at times, only focusing on spending less creates an imbalance in your personal finance strategy. Why? Because you are only focusing on the first part of the statement - "living below"- so you ONLY focus on spending less, instead of also focusing on the second part of the statement - "your means." You can only live so low, but there is no limit to how much you can increase your means.

So let's focus on the latter today. While there are numerous ways in which you can increase your income, I'll only touch on 3 here.

#1 Ask for Overtime - The first place you should look for increasing your income is your own place of work. I believe a good business is always slightly understaffed. The reason is that employees are fixed costs (salaries) while the work available for them to do may be seaonal or variable. If companies hire staff based on peak times, the work may eventually decrease but the company will still have to pay the extra salaries which they've taken on to cover the work. Instead of risking overstaffing, companies can instead hire enough staff to handle most of the work volume and pay overtime as necessary to cover peak times. When the peak work volume stops, the overtime can stop. Your employer may or may not disclose to you when extra manpower is needed, but why not ask and see if they could use some extra help (for pay of course)? Your employer gets the extra manpower they need, and you've just gotten the increase in income that you need. Don't be shy, ask!

#2 Get paid for your talents - If Lebron can get paid for taking his talents to South Beach, why can't you (the getting paid part, not taking them to South Beach)? Everyone has at least one innate or acquired talent, whether it be cooking, writing, designing, or what have you. There are plenty of people who are willing to pay for good work, you just have to put yourself out there as someone whose talents are available. Let your friends and family know about your skills so that they can keep you in mind for their future needs. Also check out sites such as freelance.com, elance.com, and Odesk.com which help match those looking to offer their talents and services with those who need and are willing to pay for them.

#3 Turn your belongings into cash - Most of us don't realize how much extra stuff we have lying around. Do you have any extra clothes, shoes (ladies?), old phones, used books, or seldom used furniture which you could dispose of? Why not begin a "recycling" program in which you sell the old whenever you bring in something new to replace it? This may not drastically increase your income, but every little bit helps when you need it.

Do you have any other ways to earn extra income? Share them in the comments.

~Willie

Career: Being "teachable" - Your greatest career asset: Part II

So what are some the benefits of being teachable? Let's take a look:

You open the door for more knowledge - Managers who see that their employees are teachable will have a greater desire to pour out even more of their knowledge to them. Most managers are more than willing and ready to share what they've learned over the years. However, they will only pour out the true treasures of what they've learned to those who have willing and ready ears.

You gain the trust of your manager/employer - When your manager sees that you put the advice and feedback they give you into action, they'll trust that you have their best interest, and the company's best interest, in mind. They'll also trust that they have an employee who is willing to be shaped into the leader the company needs.

You accelerate the growth of your business acumen - Business acumen can be defined as the ability to judge well and make insightful decisions within a business context. As you allow yourself to be taught through mentorship and experiences, you will gain the ability to discern between a good business decision and bad business decision. The ability to correctly judge which decision is the wisest within the workplace is key to furthering your career. Companies are not only looking for good workers, but also good decision makers.

You'll be that much safer in the workplace - Good decisions lead to good outcomes. As you remain teachable, you'll begin to make decisions which further the mission of your company and goals of your manager, which will reflect favorably upon you. Managers want to keep around those employees who make them look good, which will equal job security for you.

Being teachable in the workplace is indeed humbling. However, the rewards of allowing yourself to be shaped and molded into a better worker and leader far outweigh being stuck in the same old mindset and career level for years, all because of a lack of respect for the opportunity to be taught through your own mistakes and the knowledge and insightful experiences of your manager.

Career: Being "teachable" - Your greatest career asset: Part I

Search around for career advice and you'll find much talk about bringing value to your company, being assertive, being a team player, and other popular career topics. To be sure, these are important topics to be familiar with as you progress professionally, but there is one aspect of career development that sadly often gets overlooked. That aspect, or better yet trait, is being teachable.

First, what do I mean by being teachable? My wordy take on it is the following:

Having an awareness of your own shortcomings and lack of knowledge, and the willingness to allow those in charge of you, as well as your experiences, to help strengthen those areas in which you are lacking.

Let me clean that up a bit by simply stating it as follows: Being teachable means that you know you don't have it all together, and because of this you are willing to receive help and learn from your experiences and mistakes. And herein lies the reason why we don't hear more about being teachable. First, you're admitting that you're not perfect. Who wants to admit that? Second, you're humbling yourself in order to receive criticism and face your mistakes. This can be painful.

So what does it look like to be a teachable person in the workplace? Like the following:

• You do not become defensive or make excuses when receiving correction or necessary guidance from your boss. Rather, you take in the correction and honestly assess how you need to change in order to become stronger in that particular area.
• You actively seek out feedback on how you are doing from your boss, with the purpose of seeing where you need to grow and taking steps towards that growth.
• You actively seek to learn more than you already know so that you can become even better at what you do than you are right now.

And how does an unteachable person behave in the workplace? Like the following:

• Constantly makes excuses regarding their performance, even when given clear evidence contrary to their excuses.
• Does not take action to correct bad habits leading to their shortcomings or mistakes, even after clearly being shown how to.
• Does not proactively attempt to increase their knowledge in order to do a better job, but rather is satisfied with what they already know.

Which do you want to be? Before you decide, we'll take a look at the benefits of being teachable in regards to furthering your career in Part II. Stay tuned.

~Will

Career: Six ways to build your credibility

If you're planning on positioning yourself for a promotion or increased responsibility, you'd better work on building your credibility. Why? Because those with whom and for whom you work will want to know that they can believe what you say, trust what you say, and depend on what you say. With that in mind, let's look at a few ways to build your credibility:

• Become an expert within your job function or industry. Questions within the workplace are routine throughout any given work day, and those with answers - the correct answers - are deemed as credible. The only way to provide correct answers to your colleagues, and show management that you are a credible source for information and solutions, is to beef up your job function or industry knowledge. The more consistently you provide the correct answers, the more credible of a source you will be deemed.

• Do what you say you are going to do. If you say you will complete a project by such and such a time, then meet that deadline. If you say that you will offer help to someone at an agreed upon time, then offer it at that time. Whatever you commit to, stick to it. Else, do not commit to it. Your colleagues and manager will see you as a credible person when you do what you said you were going to do...and when you don't make unreasonable promises.

• Admit when you don't know the correct answer.... In other words, do not fake it to make it. You may get away with faking knowledge a few times, but eventually you will be caught in your white lies. When you're caught trying to answer something, provide insight to something, or assist in an area in which you have no knowledge, you will be seen as inept. Faking the funk erodes your credibility.

• ...but when possible, seek to find the right answer. If you don't know the right answer to a given question or situation, it's okay to admit it. However, don't always stop there. Instead, offer to find out the right answer or solution. This will show that you're willing to go the extra mile, and will add to your credibility as a hard worker who goes above and beyond.

• Take ownership... If you drop the ball on a project or assignment, don't scoot around taking responsibility. Instead, own up to your mistake and state it plainly, without excuses. This shows integrity and a willingness to be honest, which adds to your credibility.

• ...then be sure not to make the same mistake again. Taking ownership not only means that you own up to your mistakes, but that you take steps to make sure that mistake does not happen again. Making the same mistake over and over again depletes your creditibility, even if you own up to it each time. Learning from your mistakes and showing that you have done so adds to your credibility.

These are just a few ways to build your credibility. Can you name additional ways to build your "cred"? Would love to hear them.

~Will