Money Management 101 for Single Parents Going it Alone

1. Determine What You Owe

As the head of the household, it’s up to you to make sure that your entire family’s needs are being met. In order to do that, you need to be extremely diligent when it comes to money management basics. This is not something that will happen by accident. Instead, you must plan for it and work toward it.

The first step is to set up your “office.” Gather all of your bills, a calculator, a pencil, and your checkbook.

I would also recommend that you grab an old binder that you can use to keep track of your financial data and a shoebox for storing paid bills.

Now you’re ready to begin:

• Go through all of your bills, and pay anything that is due within the next week.
• If you have bills coming due that you cannot pay, notify the company and ask them to set up a payment plan with you.
• Print a copy of the chart “Paying Down My Debts” or make your own.
• On the chart, list all of your debts, including any car loans, student loans, and credit card debt.
• In addition, list the total balance left to be paid on all of these debts, and the percentage rate you are paying.
• For now, leave the fourth column of the chart blank, and store it in your “Financial Data” binder.

  

2. Eliminate Joint Debt

Before we create a plan for paying down your debt, it’s important to consider some special circumstances that may apply to you as a single parent. I asked LaToya Irby, Credit/Debt Management Expert, to share her expertise on handling joint debt:

Wolf: Let’s say a single mom still shares a credit card with her ex. What should she do?

Irby: Ideally, she would want her ex to transfer his portion of any joint balances onto his own credit card. That way, everyone is paying for their own debt.

Wolf: What about leaving both names on the account, and agreeing to pay part of the amount due? Is that ever advisable?

Irby: No. If you’ve made an agreement with your ex to split the debt payments on accounts that include your name, and your ex-misses a payment, it’s going to hurt your credit. If the ex-fails to pay altogether, the creditors and collectors will come after you. Not even a divorce decree can change the terms of a joint credit card agreement. In the credit card issuer’s eyes, you’re just as much responsible for post-divorce accounts as before.

Wolf: What about situations when a couple’s divorce decree mandates that one individual must pay off the joint credit card debt, but that person fails to do it?

Irby: You can always file contempt of court papers against him/her, but in the meantime, your credit score suffers. So I suggest paying off the debt to save your credit. If you can’t afford to pay the debt, at least make minimum payments to keep a positive payment history on your credit report.

Wolf: What about other accounts, such as utilities and cell phones?

Irby: The safest thing to do, if you have a service in your ex’s name, is to turn off the account and reestablish service in your name.

 

3. Find Money to Pay Down Debt

Another thing we have to do before creating a plan to pay down your existing debt is to find money in your budget each month. To assist in this step, I contacted Erin Huffstetler, Frugal Living Expert.

Wolf: How much money do you think the average person can uncover just by being more intentional about spending and budgeting?

Huffstetler: The average person could easily uncover an extra $250 a month—and probably much more.

Wolf: What are the top 5 areas that you think people should look to first when they’re trying to cut their expenses?

Huffstetler:

• Food spending (both groceries and eating out)
• TV-related expenses (cable/satellite services, certainly; but also movie subscriptions and rentals)
• Phone services (particularly extras like call waiting, caller id, long distance, and cell phones)
• Insurance premiums
• Miscellaneous spending (all those small amounts spent on coffee, vending machine snacks, and other indulgences)

Wolf: How can single parents, specifically, stretch their child support dollars and reduce child-related expenses?

Huffstetler: For single parents looking to stretch their child support dollars, creativity is the key. Look to children’s consignment shops and thrift stores to buy your kids’ clothes instead of department stores; sign them up for Parks and Rec-run activities instead of privately-run activities (which will always cost more); and don’t feel like you have to make up for being a single parent by buying them extra things—it’s you they need, not stuff.

 

4. Pay Off Your Debt

The next step is creating a schedule for paying down your debt:

1. Pay off the debts that charge you the highest interest first.Bob Hammond, author of Life Without Debt, recommends that you pay off the debts that are charging you the highest interest first since borrowing from those creditors is costing you the most money. “Concentrate on paying off the high-cost debts as soon as possible,” Hammond advises. LaToya Irby, Credit/Debt Management Expert, agrees. “Highest interest rate debts cost the most money, especially when those debts have high balances. So you’ll save money on interest charges when you pay off those high-interest rate debts first.”However, there are exceptions to this general rule. Irby notes, “If you’re likely to get discouraged because it’s taking a long time to pay off that high-interest rate debt, you can start with the lowest balance debt. Getting some small debts paid off will motivate you to keep going.”
2. Pay more than the minimum payment. Aim for paying more than the suggested minimum payment, in order to pay off your debts as quickly as possible.Miriam Caldwell, Money in Your 20’s Expert, shares this advice:
   • Choose one debt to focus on.
   • Increase your payment on that debt by as much as you can.
   • Once you have paid off that debt, move all that you are paying on it to the next debt you want to pay off.
   • You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can get out of debt with this plan!
3. Meanwhile, continue to pay the minimum balance due on all of your other debts.Record what you intend to pay toward each debt on the debt chart you made in Step 1.

 

5. Budget Your Monthly Expenses

Now that you know where you stand financially, and you’ve created a plan for paying down your debts, it’s time to make sure that you’re making any other necessary adjustments so that you can keep up with your plan. And this means creating a budget.

I know this can be intimidating, but I’m going to make a suggestion for you: Sign up for Mint.com. It’s a free financial software program available on the Internet, and it will basically do your budgeting for you. It will create a visual pie chart showing how much you’re spending each month on housing, gas, food, entertainment, and more. This way, if it turns out that you’re spending a lot more on food than you really should, you can begin to make the necessary adjustments to get your spending under control.

If you would prefer to create your budget the traditional way, allotting a certain amount of money to each spending category, I’ve created an online budget calculator you can use, which includes categories for child support and other details specific to your life as a single parent.

Finally, in taking a look at where your money really goes each month, it’s important to know approximately how much money you “should” be spending in each category. Generally speaking, your net spendable income (after taxes) should be allocated as follows^*:

• Housing: 30%
• Food: 12%
• Auto: 14%
• Insurance: 5%
• Debt: 5%
• Entertainment: 7%
• Clothing: 6%
• Savings: 5%
• Medical/Dental: 4%
• Miscellaneous: 7%
• Child Care: 5%
• Investments: 5%

 

6. Set Financial Goals

Now that you’ve worked out a plan to pay down your debt, and you’ve created a budget, it’s time to determine your needs moving forward.

Specifically, as a single parent, you need to ask yourself some questions, such as:

• Do you need to file for child support?
• Do you need to get a higher-paying job?
• Is it time to think about going back to school?
• Do you need to consider moving into a home/rental that would reduce your overall monthly payments?
• Are there alternatives, such as taking on another job or splitting expenses with another single parent family, that you need to consider at this point?

One of the things that I want you to know is that the ball is in your court. You determine where this goes from here on out. But unfortunately, you can’t do that if you’re ignoring your financial health, right?

So the fact that you’ve come this far in the process of getting a handle on your finances tells me that you’re determined to make the changes you need to make in order to provide for your family’s future.

So go ahead and ask yourself these questions. So much of single parenting is learning to roll with the punches and be creative in the face of adversity. If, indeed, you need to make some pretty major changes, now is the time to do it. Don’t incur any more debt where you are. Be resourceful, follow through, and do what you need to do to turn your financial situation around.

7. Increase Your Net Worth

The next step is to determine your net worth and begin adding to it.

Determine Your Net Worth:

Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. Programs such as Mint.com, Quicken, and Microsoft Money will calculate your net worth for you, automatically.

You can also determine your net worth simply by adding up all that you own, including all of your investments, the equity you may have paid into your home, the value of your car, and any other assets you possess; and subtracting what you owe in remaining debts.

Set Up a Savings Account:

Once you know where you stand, you’ll be ready to set up a savings account. You can do this through your regular bank, or begin investing in a mutual fund that pays interest.

Even if you can only afford to set aside $25 or $50 per month, it will begin to add up.

Before you know it, you’ll have an emergency savings plan in place, to protect you in the event that your car breaks down, or your home needs a major repair.

In addition, this regular savings will help you increase your net worth over time.

8. Become Even More Frugal

Unfortunately, all of the work you’ve already done in steps 1-7 will have little lasting value if you don’t change your attitude toward money. Now is the time to become even more frugal and learn to live within your means.

Practice Discipline:

Stop imagining that more money is going to pour in tomorrow—through finally collecting on unpaid child support, winning the lottery, or getting a promotion. If those things happen, great! You’ll be even better off. But living as if they’re going to happen is causing you to spend money you don’t have.

Instead, force yourself to make purchases with cash only. Do not continue to pay outrageous interest payments toward credit cards for purchases you don’t absolutely need. You can get by without that new furniture, right? What else could you skip, in the interest of spending only what you have right now in the bank?

Try These Ideas:

• Check Freecycle before you make another major purchase. Someone else may be giving away the very thing you’d like to buy!
• When you’re getting ready to buy something specific, look for it on eBay first. I buy a lot of my clothes, new-with-tags, through online auctions!
• Forget trying to keep up with “The Jones’s.” You already know your value; don’t get caught up trying to “prove” your worth to others by having “just the right” house, car, or appearance.
• Do not use shopping, ever, to appease your emotions.
• Finally, when you do go to make a big purchase, step back and give yourself a few days–or even a week–to think about it. There’s no reason to suffer through buyer’s remorse and try to justify to yourself purchases that you really can’t afford. Think it over carefully and make those purchases, when necessary, with cash.

9. Schedule Your Own Weekly Financial Check-In

Grab your calendar and schedule a weekly financial update meeting with yourself. This is an extremely important step in managing your personal finances, and it’s one that you need to continue each and every week. During your “meeting” time:

• Pay any bills that are due.
• If your bank statement has arrived, take the time to balance your checkbook.
• Check the balances of your checking and savings accounts.
• Update your debt list to incorporate any recent payments.
• This is also a good time to write out your grocery shopping list and check what’s on sale at your local grocery store this week (either using the store’s Web site or the sales circular that comes in the newspaper).
• Finally, also make note of any upcoming expenses you need to anticipate and plan for.

An attitude of gratitude and finances.

 

 

^{References:
Irby, LaToya. Email interview. 24 Oct. 2008, Huffstetler, Erin. Email interview. 24 Oct. 2008.} 

^{Sources:
Caldwell, Miriam. Email interview. 27 Oct. 2008, Hammond, Bob. “Debt Free Key: 10 Steps for Coping With Credit Problems.” Life Without Debt. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press, 1995. 31-32, Irby, LaToya. Email interview. 24 Oct. 2008. “Spending Plan Online Calculator.” Crown Financial Ministries. 11 Oct. 2008.}

Written By: Jennifer Wolf

Source: thebalance

 

 

 

7 Tips On How To Be More Productive from Elon Musk

Elon Musk gets a lot done.

The 46-year-old entrepreneur and CEO is revolutionizing the spaceflight industry with SpaceX, transforming the world of the electric car at Tesla, and pushing neuroscience and transportation forward at Neuralink and the Boring Company.

As SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said at the 2018 TED Conference, Musk’s goals are a lot to keep up with.

“When Elon says something, you have to pause and not blurt out ‘Well, that’s impossible,'” she said. “You zip it, you think about it, and you find ways to get it done.”

Recently, Musk reportedly announced to Tesla employees that he wants to adopt a 24/7 shift schedule to get production for Tesla’s Model 3 electric car on track. In an email obtained by Jalopnik, Musk explained a number of changes in the works for Tesla.

He’s asking for quite a lot, so at the end of that email, he offered employees a list of his own productivity recommendations. From those tips, it’s clear that Musk is clearly not a fan of meetings, bureaucracy, hierarchy, or any system that impedes immediate communication. He prefers people apply common sense to the task at hand.

He also told employees that if they had any ideas for making work at Tesla better and more efficient, they should let him know.

Here are the seven productivity tips Musk offered in the letter, in his own words.

1. Large-format meetings waste people’s time.

“Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get [rid] of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.”

2. Meetings should be infrequent unless a matter is urgent.

“Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.”

3. If you don’t need to be in a meeting, leave.

“Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.”

4. Avoid confusing jargon.

“Don’t use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software, or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don’t want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla.”

5. Don’t let hierarchical structures make things less efficient.

“Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the ‘chain of command’. Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.”

6. If you need to get in touch with someone, do so directly.

“A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.”

7. Don’t waste time following silly rules.

“In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a ‘company rule’ is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.”

 

 

 

Written By: Kevin Loria
Source: Business Insider

Nine Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

Have you ever thought about striking out on your own? After all, being your own boss can be an exciting prospect. However, owning a business isn’t for everyone. To be a successful entrepreneur, you must have — or develop — certain personality traits. Here are nine characteristics you should ideally possess to start and run your own business:

1. Motivation

Entrepreneurs are enthusiastic, optimistic and future-oriented. They believe they’ll be successful and are willing to risk their resources in pursuit of profit. They have high energy levels and are sometimes impatient. They are always thinking about their business and how to increase their market share. Are you self-motivated enough to do this, and can you stay motivated for extended periods of time? Can you bounce back in the face of challenges?

2. Creativity and Persuasiveness

Successful entrepreneurs have the creative capacity to recognize and pursue opportunities. They possess strong selling skills and are both persuasive and persistent. Are you willing to promote your business tirelessly and look for new ways to get the word out about your product or service?

3. Versatility 

Company workers can usually rely on a staff or colleagues to provide service or support. As an entrepreneur, you’ll typically start out as a “solopreneur,” meaning you will be on your own for a while. You may not have the luxury of hiring a support staff initially. Therefore, you will end up wearing several different hats, including secretary, bookkeeper and so on. You need to be mentally prepared to take on all these tasks at the beginning. Can you do that?

4. Superb Business Skills 

Entrepreneurs are naturally capable of setting up the internal systems, procedures and processes necessary to operate a business. They are focused on cash flow, sales and revenue at all times. Successful entrepreneurs rely on their business skills, know-how and contacts. Evaluate your current talents and professional network. Will your skills, contacts and experience readily transfer to the business idea you want to pursue?

5. Risk Tolerance

Launching any entrepreneurial venture is risky. Are you willing to assume that risk? You can reduce your risk by thoroughly researching your business concept, industry and market. You can also test your concept on a small scale. Can you get a letter of intent from prospective customers to purchase? If so, do you think customers would actually go through with their transaction?

6. Drive 

As an entrepreneur, you are in the driver’s seat, so you must be proactive in your approaches to everything. Are you a doer — someone willing to take the reins — or would you rather someone else do things for you?

7. Vision

One of your responsibilities as founder and head of your company is deciding where your business should go. That requires vision. Without it, your boat will be lost at sea. Are you the type of person who looks ahead and can see the big picture?

8. Flexibility and Open-Mindedness

While entrepreneurs need a steadfast vision and direction, they will face a lot of unknowns. You will need to be ready to tweak any initial plans and strategies. New and better ways of doing things may come along as well. Can you be open-minded and flexible in the face of change?

9. Decisiveness

As an entrepreneur, you won’t have room for procrastination or indecision. Not only will these traits stall progress, but they can also cause you to miss crucial opportunities that could move you toward success. Can you make decisions quickly and seize the moment?

 

 

 

Written By: Ruchira Agrawal
Source: Monster

14 Things Ridiculously Successful People Do Every Day

Having close access to ultra-successful people can yield some pretty incredible information about who they really are, what makes them tick, and, most importantly, what makes them so successful and productive.

“Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” – Vaibhav Shah

Kevin Kruse is one such person. He recently interviewed over 200 ultra-successful people, including 7 billionaires, 13 Olympians, and a host of accomplished entrepreneurs. One of his most revealing sources of information came from their answers to a simple open-ended question:

“What is your number one secret to productivity?”

In analyzing their responses, Kruse coded the answers to yield some fascinating suggestions. What follows are some of my favorites from Kevin’s findings.

1. They focus on minutes, not hours. Most people default to hour and half-hour blocks on their calendar; highly successful people know that there are 1,440 minutes in every day and that there is nothing more valuable than time. Money can be lost and made again, but time spent can never be reclaimed. As legendary Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller told Kevin, “To this day, I keep a schedule that is almost minute by minute.” You must master your minutes to master your life.

2. They focus on only one thing. Ultra-productive people know what their “Most Important Task” is and work on it for one to two hours each morning, without interruptions. What task will have the biggest impact on reaching your goals? What accomplishment will get you promoted at work? That’s what you should dedicate your mornings to every day.

3. They don’t use to-do lists. Throw away your to-do list; instead schedule everything on your calendar. It turns out that only 41% of items on to-do lists ever get done. All those undone items lead to stress and insomnia because of the Zeigarnik effect, which, in essence, means that uncompleted tasks will stay on your mind until you finish them. Highly productive people put everything on their calendar and then work and live by that calendar.

4. They beat procrastination with time travel. Your future self can’t be trusted. That’s because we are time inconsistent. We buy veggies today because we think we’ll eat healthy salads all week; then we throw out green rotting mush in the future. Successful people figure out what they can do now to make certain their future selves will do the right thing. Anticipate how you will self-sabotage in the future, and come up with a solution today to defeat your future self.

5. They make it home for dinner. Kevin first learned this one from Intel’s Andy Grove, who said, “There is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done.” Highly successful people know what they value in life. Yes, work, but also what else they value. There is no right answer, but for many, these other values include family time, exercise, and giving back. They consciously allocate their 1,440 minutes a day to each area they value (i.e., they put them on their calendar), and then they stick to that schedule.

6. They use a notebook. Richard Branson has said on more than one occasion that he wouldn’t have been able to build Virgin without a simple notebook, which he takes with him wherever he goes. In one interview, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis said, “Always carry a notebook. Write everything down. That is a million dollar lesson they don’t teach you in business school!” Ultra-productive people free their minds by writing everything down as the thoughts come to them.

7. They process e-mails only a few times a day. Ultra-productive people don’t “check” their e-mail throughout the day. They don’t respond to each vibration or ding to see who has intruded into their inbox. Instead, like everything else, they schedule time to process their e-mails quickly and efficiently. For some, that’s only once a day; for others, it’s morning, noon, and night.

8. They avoid meetings at all costs. When Kevin asked Mark Cuban to give his best productivity advice, he quickly responded, “Never take meetings unless someone is writing a check.” Meetings are notorious time killers. They start late, have the wrong people in them, meander around their topics, and run long. You should get out of meetings whenever you can and hold fewer of them yourself. If you do run a meeting, keep it short and to the point.

9. They say “no” to almost everything. Billionaire Warren Buffet once said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” And James Altucher colorfully gave Kevin this tip: “If something is not a ‘Hell Yeah!’ then it’s a no.” Remember, you only have 1,440 minutes in a day. Don’t give them away easily.

10. They follow the 80/20 rule. Known as the Pareto Principle, in most cases, 80% of results come from only 20% of activities. Ultra-productive people know which activities drive the greatest results. Focus on those and ignore the rest.

11. They delegate almost everything. Ultra-productive people don’t ask, “How can I do this task?” Instead, they ask, “How can this task get done?” They take the I out of it as much as possible. Ultra-productive people don’t have control issues, and they are not micro-managers. In many cases, good enough is, well, good enough.

12. They touch things only once. How many times have you opened a piece of regular mail–a bill perhaps–and then put it down, only to deal with it again later? How often do you read an e-mail and then close it and leave it in your inbox to deal with later? Highly successful people try to “touch it once.” If it takes less than five or ten minutes–whatever it is–they deal with it right then and there. It reduces stress, since it won’t be in the back of their minds, and it is more efficient, since they won’t have to re-read or re-evaluate the item again in the future.

13. They practice a consistent morning routine. Kevin’s single greatest surprise while interviewing over 200 highly successful people was how many of them wanted to share their morning ritual with him. While he heard about a wide variety of habits, most nurtured their bodies in the morning with water, a healthy breakfast, and light exercise, and they nurtured their minds with meditation or prayer, inspirational reading, or journaling.

14. Energy is everything. You can’t make more minutes in the day, but you can increase your energy to increase your attention, focus, and productivity. Highly successful people don’t skip meals, sleep, or breaks in the pursuit of more, more, more. Instead, they view food as fuel, sleep as recovery, and breaks as opportunities to recharge in order to get even more done.

Bringing It All Together

You might not be an entrepreneur, an Olympian, or a billionaire (or even want to be), but their secrets just might help you to get more done in less time and assist you to stop feeling so overworked and overwhelmed.

 

 

Written By: Travis Bradberry
Source: Inc.

Mark Cuban Says This Will Be the No.1 Job Skill in 10 Years

Study after study has shown that millions of jobs are at risk of becoming automated in the coming years.

And the U.S. is not prepared, says Mark Cuban, the billionaire software developer and owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

In a recent interview on Bloomberg TV, Cuban warned that even people with in-demand skills like computer coding could soon be displaced.

“That might have been a great job a few years ago, but you might be out of work in five years,” he said, citing what he called “the automation of automation,” where computers learn how to write software better than humans can.

“We’re going to have a lot of displaced workers — the nature of work is changing,” he said.

So a new skill will become more in-demand than it ever has been: creative thinking.

“I personally think there’s going to be a greater demand in 10 years for liberal arts majors than there were for programming majors and maybe even engineering,” he said. “When the data is all being spit out for you for you, options are being spit out for you, you need a different perspective in order to have a different view of the data.”

In particular, experts in philosophy or foreign languages will ultimately command the most interest from employers in the next decade, Cuban said.

Cuban went on to say that America should be investing in programs like Americorps, which leverages community-building and creative thinking to create social impact. But that type work isn’t always seen as valuable, Cuban said.

“Making it a real job…that’s what we’re going to need,” he said.

Written By: Rob Wile
Source: Money

10 Founders Share What Their Worst Boss Taught Them

We’ve all had bosses that make us crazy — whether it was a supervisor with a big temper, one that watched your every move or the one that never knew what he wanted. But even if at the time it was frustrating or demoralizing, there is an upside: You’ll never catch yourself being that kind of manager.

We caught up with 10 successful entrepreneurs who shared with us the lessons they learned from the worst bosses they’ve ever had.

 

1. COMMUNICATE CLEARLY

Name: Daniella Yacobovsky
Company: BaubleBar
Lesson: One of the things I have learned is to communicate openly and honestly with the folks you work with. Try to understand where their requests and feedback are coming from and be open to feedback. When you’re first starting and you’re a small company, it’s definitely easier to do. As you grow and have more people, it is a harder thing to scale but that doesn’t take away it’s importance.

 

2. FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE

Name: Gavin Armstrong
Company: Lucky Iron Fish
Lesson: People who are bullies act that way because they are insecure about something else. They are very demeaning and not appreciative.

You want to be very respectful of people working with you. Remember they work with you, not for you. Be complimentary of their work, because they are putting a lot of time and effort into it.

 

3. HAVE STRONG CONVICTIONS

Name: Merrill Stubbs
Company: Food52
Lesson: Being indirect about what you want or what you expect is a really terrible tactic for managing people. It makes them feel like the ground is shifting beneath them — that’s an impediment and distraction from people doing their best work.

 

4. BE A MENTOR

Name: Melissa Ben-Ishay
Company: Baked By Melissa
Lesson: The importance of open communication. When I think of the worst boss I ever hard, I don’t think of just one person.

I didn’t have a mentor. I didn’t have someone who wanted me to succeed. I didn’t have someone who took the time to sit down, have a conversation with me and help me be better at my job. So now, I really make the effort to be clear and honest with my employees and sit down with them and communicate.

 

5. FOLLOW THROUGH

Name: Oliver Kharraz
Company: Zocdoc
Lesson: I learned to only make promises that I can keep. I remember how upset I was when promises were made to me that were not kept, and I promised myself that I wouldn’t do that.

 

6. CONNECT WITH EVERY EMPLOYEE

Name: Jennie Ripps
Company: Owl’s Brew
Lesson: I learned how important it is to engage with my own team and also to ensure that there is buy-in across the board at an individual level.

 

7. LEAVE YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR

Name: Tim Chen
Company: Nerdwallet
Lesson: Ego gets in the way of success. I worked at a hedge fund that had a real “Lord of the Flies” feeling. It was pretty crazy. The problem with ego is the best ideas don’t win, because you have trouble facing the truth.

 

8. TREAT EVERYONE WITH RESPECT

Name: Kyle Hill
Company: HomeHero
Lesson: The worst boss I had was actually a soccer coach I had in high school. I wouldn’t say he was a bad coach, but he yelled at me a lot. I realized that was something I could not handle. So my dad ended up pulling me from the team. I didn’t understand it at the time. I thought it wasn’t a big deal, and I had a tough skin.

But my dad was adamant about this, he said, “I don’t want people talking down to you because it hurts your self confidence. I need you to have the highest self confidence going into in everything you do in life; otherwise you’re not going to want to do it.”

I think it lends itself to being treated with respect and dignity. My dad said, “You can be stern, you can bench my son, you can take him aside and tell him what he needs to improve on. But don’t publicly reprimand him.”

Even to this day, I tell people, “If you’re upset with me, whether it’s my co-founder or an employee, talk to me like an adult.”

 

9. DON’T STAND IN THE WAY OF INNOVATION

Name: Bastian Lehmann
Company: Postmates
Lesson: One thing I try to do is help the people that want to do more. I want to help them realize that when they are at Postmates.

The worst boss I ever had told me that I couldn’t do that. He was weak and afraid someone was more hungry than him. When I saw someone trying hard, and they gave it everything they had, that someone would not give them guidance and help them succeed.

 

10. HAVE A CLEAR VISION

Name: Heidi Zak
Company: Thirdlove
Lesson: The one thing I’ve noticed from having different types of bosses is that the best ones have a clearly articulated vision of what the team is working toward. You have to communicate it effectively and do it often. That’s what I try to do; you can’t say it too often.

 

 

 

Written by: Nina Zipkin

Source: Entrepreneur

Self-Employed? Here’s How to Save for Retirement

Zigy Kaluzny/Getty Images

Working for yourself comes with lots of perks: setting your own hours, your own dress code and your own workload. That’s probably part of the reason nearly a quarter of workers freelance, either full- or part-time. They make good money, too. Almost half earn six figures.

The downside is making up for all the benefits that employers typically provide. That means figuring out health care coverage (which at least is now easier — if not cheaper — than it was before Obamacare) and setting up retirement accounts.

“When you have a workplace 401(k), a lot of the heavy lifting for retirement planning is already done for you,” says Christine Benz, director of personal finance at Morningstar. “That makes it easier to overcome some of the barriers around getting started with retirement planning.”

That’s not the case for self-employed workers. More than three out of 10 freelancers said they were anxious about saving money for retirement, and more than half reported being behind, according to a November study by TD Ameritrade. By contrast, Americans with access to a workplace retirement plan were more than twice as likely to be very confident about having enough money to retire, according to a separate study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The good news is that saving for retirement is not impossible when you’re working on your own, though it may require more effort. Here’s what you need to know:

You’ll need to put away even more. Financialadvisers recommend that savers stash away at least 15 percent of their income for retirement, including their own money as well as any employer match. Freelancers have to sock away even more income to make up for not getting an employer match. That’s on top of building an emergency fund with at least six months’ worth of expenses that can help weather a dry spell.

It’s important for freelancers to factor the cost of those savings into their business budget, says Randi Merel, a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch. “You have to make sure that you’re earning enough money to cover your benefits,” she says.

You’ve got several options.There are several ways freelancers can save money for retirement. Here are three to consider:

1) A traditional or Roth IRA: If you already have one of these accounts and aren’t making a ton of money, you can just continue putting aside retirement income there. With a traditional IRA, any withdrawals will be taxed, but you can deduct your contributions.

With a Roth (you’re eligible if your income is less than $120,000), you pay taxes now on your contributions, but the money grows tax-free. You also can make tax-free withdrawals on the principal, so it can double as an emergency fund for new freelancers, although you’ll want to keep the investments fairly conservative. “Then when you start taking on more projects and making more money, you can have a dedicated retirement fund,” says Randall Greene, CEO of Greene Financial Management in Altadena, Calif.

Annual contribution limits for both accounts are $5,500 for younger savers and $6,500 for those over 65.

2) SEP IRA: The most common plan for freelancers and sole proprietors, SEP IRAs allow contributions up to about 20 percent of your compensation, or $53,000, that grow tax-free.  There’s a complex formula to determine your contribution based on your compensation as a self-employed person.

A nice benefit of SEP IRAs is that the deadline for contributions is either Tax Day or when you file your taxes. So, you could put away just 5 percent of your income all year, but decide in February to put another 20 percent in because you find that you have the extra income. That can help you make up for any leaner years when you couldn’t contribute as much. (The same benefit applies to IRAs and Roths, but at much lower limits.)

You can set up a SEP IRA with almost any bank or brokerage, and fees tend to be minimal. “It’s a very cost-effective option,” says Douglas Boneparth, a financial advisor and partner with Longwave Financial.

3) Solo 401(k): Also known as an individual 401(k), these accounts let you put away $18,000 as an employee. Additionally you can contribute about 20 percent of your compensation (again, use the above calculator to determine the exact amount) or $53,000, whichever is less, as your own boss. Those over age 50 can put in an extra $6,000, and spouses who work together can both put in $53,000.

A Solo 401(k) may cost more to set up and require additional paperwork at tax time, but its assets are protected from creditors under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Contributions must be made before the end of the calendar year.

Many Solo 401(k)s also offer the option to borrow against your retirement savings, although experts say that doing so is rarely the best financial move.

Skip automation. Most retirement accounts offer an auto-fund option allowing you to set aside a predetermined amount of money each month. That can be more difficult for freelancers, since your income fluctuates. Instead, consider making contributions a few times a year, recommends Gage DeYoung, a certified financial planner and founder of Prudent Wealthcare in Aurora, Colorado. “Plan on doing it at the same time that you pay your estimated quarterly taxes,” he says.

Plan to work longer. Since freelancers control their schedules and how much work they take on, they’re ideally situated to ease into retirement. If you plan to continue working (even if you’ve scaled back) to delay drawing down your retirement funds, then you can retire more securely on a relatively smaller nest egg.

Written by Beth Braverman of Fiscal Times

(Source: Fiscal Times)

Airbnb in Talks to Urge Hosts to Use $15/Hr Unionized Cleaners

Provided by USA Today

SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb is in final talks with the Services Employees International Union over an agreement to encourage the short-term rental company’s hosts to use unionized cleaners who are paid at least $15 an hour, the company said.

Under the agreement, Airbnb would endorse the SEIU’s national campaign for a $15 minimum wage. Airbnb would also urge its hosts to use union-backed cleaning services and would point hosts to such services on its website.

The agreement would allow the San Francisco-based company to “leverage the Airbnb platform to help create quality union jobs that pay a livable wage,” said Airbnb spokesman Christopher Nulty.

The agreement could give Airbnb much needed political goodwill as it faces efforts aimed against it in cities across the country. Opponents say it turns neighborhoods into hotel strips, takes much needed housing off the market and harms workers in the hotel industry.

UNITE HERE, a union that represents hotel workers among others, was “appalled” by news of the pending agreement and called upon the SEIU to reject any partnership with Airbnb, a company it says has “destroyed communities by driving up housing costs and killing good hotel jobs,” in the words of spokeswoman Annemarie Strassel.

She accused Airbnb of showing blatant disregard for city and state laws and refusing to cooperate with government agencies.

“A partnership with SEIU does little more than give political cover to Airbnb. It doesn’t strengthen workers, and in fact undercuts the standards we’ve fought so hard to build for housekeepers in the hospitality industry,” she said.

The Airbnb negotiations come as unions nationally are fighting for a $15 minimum wage, a campaign that has gained steam this spring under the banner of Fight for $15.

California became the largest state to enact a $15 minimum wage law, in January. The base earnings law will go into effect in six years, in 2022.

A SEIU spokesperson said no formal relationship or agreement between the Union and Airbnb currently exists, but that it was always looking for new ways to support working people and regularly talked with companies that were committed to doing right by their workers.

Written by Elizabeth Weise of USA Today

(Source: MSN)

 

Unions for 36,000 Verizon Workers Threaten to Strike

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Unions representing more than 36,000 Verizon landline phone and cable workers are threatening a strike starting Wednesday morning if the company doesn’t agree to a new contract.

The unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, say Verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier and rely more on contract workers. Verizon says there are health care issues that need to be addressed for both retirees and workers as medical costs have grown, and it wants “greater flexibility” to manage its employees.

The latest contract had expired last August. Both sides say negotiations have been unsuccessful.

Verizon Communications says it has trained thousands of nonunion employees to fill in if the strike takes place in nine Eastern states and Washington, D.C. The company had 178,000 employees as of December.

The last Verizon strike was in 2011 and lasted for two weeks.

Written by Tali Arbel of Associated Press

(Source: MSN)

What Does California’s New Minimum wage Buy? A Long Commute and a Room

Spending more than three hours in a car each day is not unusual for Daniel Gretz. Gretz works as a security guard in Milpitas, which is in the southern part of California’s Bay Area. Each morning, he gets in the car and drives about 97 miles up Route 101 from Greenfield where he lives with his brother’s family.

Gretz had grown up in nearby Cupertino and has over the years seen housing and rental prices sky rocket.

“There are more and more people moving outside the Bay and then commuting to work,” says Gretz. Five years ago, when he first moved to Greenfield, his commute was “an hour and 15 minutes max. Now, on a good day, it’s an hour 45 minutes. On Friday, I leave work at 4:30 and not get home until 7 o’clock.”

Trying to survive on hourly pay of $15 an hour, Gretz feels he has no choice but to make the daily trek up and down the 101. Moving closer to Milpitas and San Jose would mean renting a place that would swallow up majority of his monthly paycheck.

As California becomes the first state to approve a proposal for $15 minimum wage, the question becomes: Is $15 an hour enough?

On Monday, California governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that will gradually increase California’s minimum wage over the next six years until it reaches $15 an hour by 2022. Thanks to a 2014 ballot initiative, San Francisco will have a $15 minimum wage by July 2018. And while $15 an hour will benefit many of California’s low-wage workers, in the Bay Area it is barely enough to live on. Stagnant wages have not kept up with the rents, which have gone up by more than 10% each year.

In search of lower rents, Bay Area residents have moved further away from their jobs — often traveling from one Bay Area city to another for work. According to the U.S. census, for most workers in the Bay Area their commute to work is about 30 minutes long. For those earning $15 and less, however, it can sometimes be as long as one to two hours each way.

The Bay Area consists of 101 cities, nine counties and spans about 7,000 square miles. It is home to more than seven million people. To picture how sprawling the Bay Area is, consider this: New York City — home to more than eight million people — is just 304.6 square miles. The Bay Area is about 23 times as large.

‘Moving day sux’

Above a bar on Mission street in San Francisco, is an open space where the neighborhood youth gather most days. The space belongs to Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth (Homey), a community organization focused on helping at-risk youth. Near the staircase on the second floor is a whiteboard. On it, written in red marker is: “Moving day sux.”

The organization renting the space above Homey was recently evicted and had just moved out, says Carlos Gutierrez, director of operations of Homey, when asked about the note. Homey was able to extend its lease, but its rent has almost doubled. Most of the people working at Homey have grown up in the Mission, but in the recent years have had to move to places like Oakland and Stockton after being either evicted or having their rents hiked too far. A drive from Stockton to San Francisco is about two hours each way.

“People born in San Francisco can’t afford to live in San Francisco,” says Gutierrez, 36, who has moved to Oakland with his teenage son. As a result, he says, San Francisco has become a commuter city.

San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose — all cities in the Bay Area — are among the 10 most expensive cities to rent a one-bedroom apartment, according to Zumper, a startup that connects people with houses and apartments for rent. In December, median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was $3,500, highest in the nation. At $2,190, Oakland was the fourth most expensive city and San Jose was sixth, with median rents for one-bedroom apartments reaching $2,130.

In Oakland, where Gutierrez lives, the rent for one-bedroom apartments increased by 19% in 2015. Rent of two-bedroom apartments increased by 13.3%, reaching $2,550. In the U.S., affordable housing is defined as housing that costs about 30% of one’s monthly take home pay. For a $2,190 one-bedroom apartment to be affordable, one would have to make about $7,300 a month, which is equivalent to about $87,600. The annual salary for someone earning $15 an hour? A little more than $31,200.

Working at Homey, Gutierrez earns between $30,000 to $35,000 a year. His rent in Oakland is $1,200. After taxes, his rent is more than half of his take-home pay, he says. His daily train rides to and from work add up as well. He also has more than $40,000 in student loans. Despite all that, he can’t imagine leaving San Francisco area and the community that he has grown up in and cares about.

“We are here to stay. They can’t get rid of us. The lot of us, we are not going anywhere,” he says.

“We are the cockroach people,” jokes Robert Eligio Alfaro, executive director of Homey, who sits at a desk across from Gutierrez.

“We find a way to stay here, be here,” Gutierrez continues.

It was the ethnically diverse communities that made San Francisco what it is today, says Alfaro. “And in no way do these people feel that they are going to leave their communities or give it to up to someone who has more money,” he says.

Organizations like Homey have been working with other organizations that tackle issues like affordable and low-income housing. According to Alfaro and Gutierrez, the two objectives are closely related as homelessness, moving from place to place and feeling insecure about housing can contribute to a rise in at-risk youth.

Like some of Homey’s employees, Gretz did not always have such a long commute to work.

Back in 2011, during the recession, the security company Gretz worked for was acquired. Afterward, he was told that his pay would be reduced: from $24 to $14 an hour.

“They basically said: ‘Start putting your resume together.’ They didn’t think I was going to stay, but it was better to have a paycheck than nothing at all,” says Gretz. At the time, the U.S. unemployment rate was still between 8% to 9%. “Everybody was kind of feeling the pinch — it was not the best time to find something else.”

Back when he earned $24 an hour, Gretz rented a studio for $1,100 a month. When his rent went up and his pay was slashed, keeping a place on his own was not financially feasible.

“When you get the rug taken out from underneath you and are making $10 less an hour, you have to make some serious financial adjustments,” he says. In the months that followed, he refinanced his car, leaned on his credit cards too much and moved in with his disabled brother, who had just recently bought a house for his family. And while his brother’s house was 97 miles away from Gretz’s workplace, he says that if he were to accept jobs closer, the pay would be lower.

Gretz, who has been actively trying to unionize security guards in the Bay Area, has recently received a $1 raise and now makes $15 an hour. He says it is “mind boggling” to him how people earning minimum wage make ends meet. California’s current minimum wage is $10 an hour. In San Francisco, the minimum wage is $12.25.

“If I am struggling [on $15 an hour], what must they be going through?” he says.

‘Just one room. It’s all I can afford’

One of the people feeling the pinch is Ernestina “Tina” Sandoval, 40, who lives just outside of San Francisco in Richmond, California. Sandoval works overnight 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shifts at a McDonald’s and is paid $11.52 an hour.

Mother of two — a 17-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son — she often struggles to make ends meet. To save money, she often walks to and from work, which takes about 30 minutes each way.

“If it’s between my daughter and myself, I’d rather have my daughter have those $5. She is a teenager. Have some change for lunch,” says Sandoval.

For Sandoval, the difference between earning $11.52 an hour and $15 an hour would be continuing to rent a room for the three of them in a relative’s home and moving into a one-bedroom place of their own.

“At the moment, I rent a room in a house. Just one room. It’s all I can afford,” she says. Still, the one room is more than what her family had a few years ago, when they lost their home during the recession.

“I walked into the police department and said: ‘I am homeless and I don’t know what to do,'” says Sandoval. The police helped place her into a family shelter in Richmond — right across the street from the McDonald’s, where she applied for a job. For the next eight months, Sandoval continued to live in the shelter and work at the McDonald’s where she still works.

Today, she continues to fight for $15 an hour — a wage that she says McDonald’s, a multimillion dollar company, can afford.

“Those $15, it would make a big difference,” she says.

Written by Jana Kasperdevic of The Guardian

(Source: MSN)