Do You Have An Emergency Fund

Life is full of surprises.  One day we are making ends meet with something left over and then a day comes when all of that can change.  With the unpredictability of day to day living, having an emergency fund saves worry over finances when you are already worried over other things.

What is an emergency fund?  Well, it is a certain amount of money that is set aside for situations that we cannot foresee.  It could be an illness in the family, an accident, car repairs, or a natural disaster.  Whatever it is, such tragedies can deplete a bank account and lead us into financial disaster.  

The thing about life is that unforeseen circumstances can happen to anyone and everyone.  No one is exempt from them.  The best we can do is to prepare in advance so that we are not focused on money.  An emergency fund is roughly equal to several months’ worth of income.  Ideally at least three months' worth of total household income is a good amount to have put away. 

That is a lot of money.  When you add up the income of everyone in the house who holds a job, we could be talking about $10,000 at least.  It is hard for most people to save a little, let alone that much money. 

Don’t let this stun you into doing nothing.  Starting anywhere is better than not starting at all.  If you can manage to save fifty dollars a pay check, then do it.  Sure, it will take a while to build up an appreciable fund, but you will still have money put aside in the event that something happens. 

The emergency fund is tapped when our regular finances can’t handle the strain of an incident.  Now this is not to be used because we are living above our means and overshooting our budget every month.  But, then again, if we are living beyond our means, we wouldn’t have any money to contribute to an emergency fund.

One way to build your emergency fund when money is low is to use bonuses, raises, and tax refunds.  Instead of buying extra goodies with that raise, take the extra money from the check and add it to what you are already putting away.  A tax refund will build up that emergency fund quickly. 

An emergency fund saves headache.  Costly car repairs can set you back several hundred dollars.  An emergency fund will keep you from having to choose between having your car back and having your lights on.  And when a loved one is ill, you can concentrate on them and not think about how you will pay the bills.

Start an emergency fund today.  Whatever you can contribute is good.  Encourage the entire family to help out.  While you are building a cushion for possible emergencies, you are also teaching them to save money.

Seven Steps To Make (or Break) A Habit

We all have habits, some good and some not so good. These are behaviors that we've learned and that occur almost automatically. And most of us have a habit we'd like to break, or one we'd like to develop.

For most people, it takes about four weeks for a new behavior to become routine, or habit. The following steps can make it easier to establish a new behavior pattern.

1. The first step is to set your goal. Especially when you are trying to stop or break a habit, you should try to phrase your goal as a positive statement. For example, instead of saying "I will quit snacking at night", say "I will practice healthy eating habits". You should also write down your goal. Committing it to paper helps you to commit. It can also help if you tell your goal to someone you trust.

2. Decide on a replacement behavior. (If your goal is to develop a new habit then your replacement behavior will be the goal itself.) This step is very important when you are trying to break a habit. If you want to stop a behavior, you must have a superior behavior to put in it's place. If you don't, the old behavior pattern will return.

3. Learn and be aware of your triggers. Behavior patterns don't exist independently. Often, one habit is associated with another part of your regular routine. For instance, in the snacking example the trigger may be late night television or reading. You automatically grab a bag of chips while you watch. Many people who smoke automatically light up after eating. Think about when and why you do the thing you want to quit.

4. Post reminders to yourself. You can do this by leaving yourself notes in the places where the behavior usually occurs. Or you can leave yourself a message on the mirror, refrigerator, computer monitor or some other place where you will see it regularly. You can also have a family member or co-worker use a particular phrase to remind you of your goal.

5. Get help and support from someone. This is kind of obvious. Any job is easier with help. It works even better if you can form a partnership with someone who shares the same goal.

6. Write daily affirmations. Write your phrase or sentence in the present tense (as if it were already happening), and write it ten times a day for twenty-one days. This process helps make your goal a part of your subconscious, which will not only remind you to practice the new behavior, but it also keeps you focused and motivated.

7. Reward yourself for making progress at set time intervals. Focus on your goal one day at a time, but give yourself a small treat at one, three and six months. The rewards don't have to be big or expensive, and you should try to make it something that's associated in some way with the goal. Doing this provides you with both incentive and extra motivation.

Following these steps is no guarantee of success of course. Depending on the habit it may take several tries to finally make the change. But if you stick with it, you can do it. Good Luck.

Survival Strategies to Combat Hopelessness

We all have moments of despair in our lives. It could be due to a loss that we can’t seem to get over. Our outlook on life takes a beating and we want to give up. So, what can you do to fight back against hopelessness?

Hope is all that keeps some people going sometimes. In a nutshell, it is the feeling that things will get better and the situation of your life won’t always be like it is now. When that hope turns sour, it can lead to more serious problems. People are tempted to hurt themselves or others when in a hopeless state.

Depression can result from feelings of hopelessness. If one situation can turn your life upside down, then depression can see it spinning out of control. Besides the mental aspect, depression can lead to physical pain and interrupt your life.

But, there is a brighter side. If you have teetered on the brink of hopelessness, here are a few strategies to get you going again.

* Talk to someone – It can be a friend, spouse, counselor or religious leader. The act of giving a voice to your problems can help you begin to confront and resolve them. In our minds, things can loom larger than they actually are. Speaking about them takes away the power they seem to have over us.

* Discover what you enjoy – We all have activities that we find pleasurable. It can be reading a book, going for a run, spending time with friends or even gazing at the moon. With busy schedules, it’s hard to take time for the simple joys of life. Make the time to enjoy yourself and improve your outlook.

* Seek medical attention – Sometimes we can’t handle it all alone. Maybe your outlook is steadily declining no matter what you do. A medical professional may be able to prescribe medication to treat an underlying condition. For example, if you always seem to be in despair, it could be the result of undiagnosed depression in your life. Medication can deal with the depression so you can find more constructive means to handle your problems and get back to living.

* Find time to be by yourself – Moments alone are beneficial for clearing out the cobwebs. If you like meditation or talk to God, in these moments you can reconnect and find peace. Ask your family to take up the slack around the home so that you can spend a weekend away at a spa or on a retreat to get yourself rested and focused again.

Are you feeling like things are taking a turn for the worse in your life? Have you felt hopelessness before? The above strategies can help you deal with your feelings in the early stages before it gets worse. You can find your reason for living again.

Six Simple Stress Busters For Moms

Are you stressed out? Could you use a break? If I gave you a nickel for every time you heard the word Mooommmmyyyy - would you be rich? Well, we have all been there! With babies, toddlers and older children to care for along with cooking meals, paying bills, cleaning and playing taxi, finding time for yourself may seem impossible and when you do find a few quiet minutes, many of us are at a loss for what to do.

Taking time out to recharge your batteries is just what you need. So, what's stopping you? Leave your chores behind, just for a little while, and give yourself permission to take a much needed time-out.

Here are just a few of my favorite Stress-Busters:

Put yourself in time out: Allow some alone time for yourself. Use this time to focus on you. Find a place in your home that you can go to and find privacy. You can ask your partner or a friend to take the family out for a few hours while you enjoy your alone time. Do nothing, sleep, read, watch a movie, and just enjoy your solitude.

Talk to a friend: When you are feeling stressed, lean on a good friend. Sit down and enjoy a good conversation, a cup of coffee or a girl’s day out pampering yourself. Moms find great comfort, support and love in the company of close friends.

Play: As adults, we sometimes forget the beneficial value of play. Play stimulates our imagination, encourages our creativity, boosts our energy, and best of all, it is fun. Try a game of tennis, a game of cards online or perhaps invite some friends over for an evening of adult board games.

Meditate: Meditation has been proven to reduce your blood pressure, and helps to dramatically reduce your stress level. Meditation and/or prayer will help you to keep in touch with your spiritual side. Meditation is a very effective method of relaxation. To meditate, quiet your mind and allow yourself to focus on one thing, such as your breath. Find a relaxed comfortable position where Try visualizing good health and peace as you inhale. While you are breathing out breathe out all of your stress. Set aside approximately 20 minutes for this exercise. Upon completion, you will see just how much more relaxed your mind and body is.

Take a nap: Find a quiet, comfortable spot and take a nap. Even a short power nap can leave you feeling refreshed, renewed, and more focused. Studies have shown that people who spent 30 minutes each day napping had one third less heart disease than those who didn't nap.

Eat: Not just anything but certain things. Studies show that certain foods can help reduce stress. Carbohydrates will actually soothe you. Good sources of carbohydrates include rice, pasta, potatoes, breads, air-popped popcorn and low-calorie cookies. Experts suggest that the carbohydrates present in just one baked potato or a cup of spaghetti or white rice is enough to relieve the anxiety of a stressful day.

29 Motivational Quotes for Business and other Work Environments

Some days a motivational quote can provide a quick pick-me-up for employees and even management. They can be a breath of fresh air when it comes to a drab afternoon.

Some days a motivational quote can provide a quick pick-me-up for employees and even management. They can be a breath of fresh air when it comes to a drab afternoon. These are also a great way to jazz up a newsletter or a memo or even to simply print and attach to a bulletin board. Using quotes like these are perfect ways to create a motivational and successful work environment. As Mr. Rick Pitino says "The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different." --Rick Pitino

Motivational Quotes:

1. Mahatma Gandhi: You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

2. Jim Stovall: You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.

3. Robert Frost: The only way around is through.

4. Warren Buffett: You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

5. Les Brown: You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.

6. Theodore Roosevelt Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

7. Charles F. Kettering: Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier

8. Henry Ford: Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right!

9. Jim Rohn: You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills.

10. William Hazlitt: Who likes not his business, his business likes not him.

11. Denis Waitley: Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.

12. Le Iacocca: Management is nothing more than motivating other people.

13. Dwight D.: Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

14. Drucker: The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question

15. Max Schmelling: Why did I want to win? Because I didn't want to lose!

16. J. Paul Getty: To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.

17. Pierre Corneille: To win without risk is to triumph without glory.

18. Tony Dorsett: To succeed... You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.

19. James Broughton: The only limits are, as always, those of vision.

20. George Kneller: To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.

21. Peter McWilliams: To the degree we're not living our dreams; our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves.

22. Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth: To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.

23. Tryon Edwards: To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.

24. Spanish Proverb: Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.

25. Lyndon B. Johnson: The noblest search is the search for excellence

26. Charles M. Schwab: The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to neither make money nor find much fun in life.

27. Chinese Proverb: The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water; but to walk on the earth.

28. John Naisbitt: The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the hands of many.

29. Henry Ford: The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

Many employers will add these quotes inside the employees’ paycheck envelope. Sometimes it may be a motivational quote, other times a silly antidote. Include employee birthdays or other important events to help your employees feel a part of the team.

Relationship Addictions

Ever heard of love addicts? Well, one may not have thought “love addiction” was possible, but it has been added to the mounting list of “addictions”. Yes, food addiction, drug addiction, and work addiction is somewhat acceptable, but being addict with love? It sounds so bizarre, yet so real. Being addicted to love is simply an added form of another obsession called “relationship addiction”.

Relationship addiction is the harmful dependency on others, which is frequently connected with feelings of “never having enough love” or “not being adequate for love” because most people don’t get their needs met in a logical manner. The call for sharing love is right, but because some aspects in life have instilled idealistic need for others, people become needy, anxious, parasitic, or addictive with love. And when they have it, they dislike it no matter how it comes out. The search for a partner or relationship that would fix the fear, distress, and pain, which results to tolerance or infliction of abusive behaviors during the course, becomes a relationship addiction that can be toxic and debilitating.

Relationship addiction can or cannot consist of romantic or sexual factors. The relationship addiction may be towards important people in their lives such as parents, child, a boss, a lover, or a spouse, which they unconsciously get fixated with. The key aspect is how the person feels when the people they have a relationship with, disagree with them, or disapproves them, or moves away from them. It triggers a feeling of “threat” and becomes a cause of their pain and frustration.

Relationship addiction should not be taken lightly as they can be very incapacitating and fatal at times. A lot of people who commit suicide every day are caused by the feelings of frustration, pain, and despair resulting from a love one who has left them, or has loved someone else, or does not love them anymore. The wrath of a relationship addiction can also cause a person to inflict violent physical harm to the other person who has made them feel so miserable to give relief to themselves.

Let’s face it, the very satisfying and good emotions that a person feels when he or she is in love can be very addictive, and when those feelings are taken away from them, they feel horrendous pain and that nothing can make that pain go away for good. People who are so in love and develop a relationship addiction, give away the control of their feelings completely to another, which becomes the reason for them to be dependent of how they feel on the other person, they feel happy and loved when given what they need, and they feel angry and discontented when they do not.

Relationship addiction is a very serious condition that should be dealt with once experienced, the only possibility of overcoming it is through effective therapy, medications, and other available professional assistance. The willingness and commitment to get over relationship addiction is an essential factor to recovery.

Beginning the Frugal Life

Most people think of being frugal as living without enjoyment.  Frugal people are seen as the scrooges of life – the ones who count every penny and refuse to part with one even for some heat in winter.  The truth is that frugal people live some of the most joyous lives of anyone.  They have money, little or no debt, and lots of freedom to enjoy it all.

The truth is that frugal people are not stingy, they are wise.  They have learned to spend their money in the best way possible.  The years have taught them to be thrifty and to look for the best deal or bargain.  Experience has shown them to be patient and wait for the sale or to purchase when the time is right.  Most importantly, frugal people have learned to save as many pennies as they spend.

There are many wonderful benefits to living a frugal lifestyle.  The first is security.  By choosing to hold off on purchases, trips, or other spending and putting that money into savings, you know that you have money if something should come up in the future. 

Frugal people often have more time to enjoy life than others.  Because they spend less, they need less to spend.  This monetary need translates into easier working hours or even working from home.  It’s a lot like retiring well before your time.

When it comes to making purchases, cash is still king and it gives you a great deal of power in negotiations.  Living a frugal lifestyle will help you accumulate the cash you need to buy the things that are important to you.  It will teach you to make calculated decisions with your money, not emotional ones.  And it will help you be in a position to almost name your own price.

It is not extremely difficult to become a frugal person.  It probably is a good idea to talk with your family (or anyone who lives with you) before you begin your quest.  It is easier to accomplish it together.  Start small by paying for what you need with cash and getting rid of your credit cards.  Cut your spending and begin to institute a 24 hour waiting period for purchases.  The more you wait and think, the less likely you are to purchase something you don’t need.

A frugal life can be a wonderful life.  You have security, freedom, and an appreciation for all that you have.

How Exercise & Stress Relief Are Related

If you're looking for some lasting stress relief, there is probably nothing better for you than exercise and physical activity.  This might come as bad news to some who immediately realize that you only get exercise and physical activity through effort and work on your part; you can't simply sit on the couch and "wish" stress relief upon yourself.  Rarely does this happen.

But how is exercise and stress relief related?  Why is it that physical activity, one of the last things anyone wants when they're stressed, is so healthy and healing when it comes to tension?  Let's look at that subject a bit closer here.

Exercise is a great means of stress relief because it helps to loosen tense and cramped muscles.  When you're under stress the muscles have a tendency to stiffen up, as if ready for action.  This is a very primal response to tension that you may not even be aware of.  However, when muscles are stiff and tense, blood cannot flow freely in those areas and blood is very necessary for the health and healing of muscles.  So it's a vicious circle - tension creates stiff muscles which in turn means they are often in pain, which creates more tension.  Some easy stretching and light exercise can provide stress relief by increasing blood circulation so that those muscles can loosen up and be healthy.  This means the body will be in less pain and will feel looser and healthier.

Physical activity also increases blood circulation to all areas of the body as well.  This can provide a measure of stress relief because blood is a healing agent; it carries nutrients as well as oxygen to all the body's cells.  This means the cells of the brain as well!  When you increase your blood circulation it's like you're actually feeding and healing your brain more often.  This means that you're better equipped to handle the stress that life throws at you.  You can achieve stress relief because you're thinking clearly and are able to address and solve problems you have rather than allowing them to multiply and overwhelm you.

Exercise also releases endorphins, those "feel good" chemicals and hormones that give you stress relief by making you feel calm and relaxed.  You might not realize this because of course exercising energizes you just as you're engaging in it, but once those endorphins are released you feel more at ease and can sleep better as well, which in turn can lead to stress relief the next day.  If you're still not too happy about needing to exercise to get relief from tension and stress, remember that this doesn't necessarily mean in a gym.  You can get plenty of physical activity just by playing with your kids, taking up a sport, or getting a dog that will need walking.  The key is to be active on a regular basis, even if it's twenty or thirty minutes every day, in order to get lasting stress relief.