Understanding and Managing Money

It is important to know what to do with the money you make every month. Whether you put it in a retirement fund, or want to invest a little more aggressively, it is important to know how to manage your money. One book that we have come across recently does a really good job of that. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

In it, he advocates financial independence by means of investing, real estate, owning businesses, and the use of finance protection tactics. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is written in what is meant to be an entertaining anecdotal manner to make finances interesting. The most central element stressed by Kiyosaki is the advocacy of owning the system or means of production, rather than being an employee of someone else. In other words, making your money work for you instead or working for your money.

Whether from this book or another, it is important to understand how to manage your money and make it grow, rather than just letting it sit there in your checking account.....

Cost of Living

I found this interesting "Cost of Living Calculator" webpage. You can enter your salary and compare your cost of living in your current city to what would be more or less in another city. It's amazing how cost of living can vary so drastically from city to city. Is your salary sufficient in your city? Would it be enough in another city?

The site link is http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html

Principles of Management

Companies have attempted to institutionalize ethics in many ways. First they have a code of ethics which is a formal statement that acts as a guide for making decisions and acting within a organization. Then Managers can take the following steps to establish an ethical workplace:
1.) Create, distribute, and continually improve a company's code of ethics
2.) Create a special office or department with responsibility of ensuring ethical practices within the organization.
3.) Furnish organization members with appropriate training.
4.) Managers can feel confident that a potential action will be considered ethical by the general public if it is consistent with one or more of the following standards:
~The Golden Rule
~The utilitarian principle
~Kant's categorical imperative
~The professional ethic
~The T.V. test
~The legal test
~The four way test
5.) Managers can take responsibility for creating and sustaining conditions in which people are likely to behave ethically , and minimizing conditions in which people might be tempted to behave unethically.

Diversity is such an important contemporary management issue because diversity is the characteristics of individuals that shape their identities and experiences they have in society. Advantages of a diverse workforce include:
1.)Work group drawing on contributions from a multicultural workforce enhance the pool of information and approaches available to the group.
2.)Gaining and keeping market share
3.)Cost savings
4.)Increased productivity and innovation
5.)Better-Quality Management
6.)Diversity Spotlight

There are three aspects of international environment managers must be aware of. The three aspects are:
1.)Respecting Core Human Rights
2.)Respecting Local Traditions
3.)Determining Right from Wrong by Examining Context

IRA - Individual Retirement Account

Many people work in jobs that don’t offer a retirement program. But you can open your own IRA, at a bank or credit union near you, for little down and little per month. One I found offers that you can open an IRA with $100 down and a minimum $10 per month and there are no service fees (unless you withdraw) or set-up fees. All banks and credit unions may vary, so check around first to find the best rate.

There’s a lot of confusion as to which IRA is better. There are five types but only two are really for an employee trying to save towards retirement: the Roth and the Traditional. You can find information at www.ira.com/faq1.htm on the different types of IRA’s so that you can decide which is best for you.

Filing "Single"

It's Income Tax time again and I always feel that it is unfair the way the government discriminates against the single taxpayer. There always seems to be tax breaks for the married with children or unmarried with children, low income or high income, small business owner or large business owner. When does the "single" filer get a tax break?

Accountability

In addition to Congress being accountable, we need to look at our state and local leaders and make sure they are held accountable for their actions. If we "go up the legislative ladder", we won't have the professional politicians in Washington. In going up that "ladder", we need to look at ourselves and be accountable for our own actions and reactions. Everything we do is of our own choice and we are responsible for ourselves.

Find out what your local leaders, district supervisors, school supervisors, county managers etc are doing and choose to make a difference in that one area. Our children depend on us to show them how!

Make your choice today.

Online Tax Organizer

Taking into consideration that it is tax season, I thought I would share this bit of information with you. I found a website where you can go to download a free online tax organizer to prepare for filing your taxes. All you have to do is answer a few questions and they will supply you with a free tax preparation checklist based on the information you provide. Was very helpful for me. Especially helpful for salespeople.

Go to: https://organizit.hrblock.com/default.aspx?PID=2443