Money math you need to know

Now, that you have been learning, working hard, and reading about thoughts on life and etc... I figured now is the time to learn how to save some money so that you can enjoy your hard working income a bit longer.


Disclaimer: I found this article on MSN Money website and you can read more of the author - Liz Pulliam Weston articles under Personal Finance section. The inflation she talks about in the article is for USA base on the historical data. I hope you will enjoy it.
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None of these tricks requires more than simple arithmetic (addition, subtraction, division and multiplication), and some of them you can do in your head. Some are so simple they can be explained in a few sentences; if it takes longer and you're in a hurry, you can read the last paragraph of each section to get the rule of thumb.

The rule of 72

Need a quick way to estimate how long it will take for your money to double at a given rate of return?

Divide the return into 72. So if you're averaging an 8% annual return, it will take you nine years to double your money (72 divided by 8 equals 9).

The rule of 70

Inflation erodes the buying power of a dollar, so that eventually it will buy only half of what it used to.

Want to know how quickly your money will lose half its buying power? Divide 70 by the expected inflation rate. If it's 3.5%, your dollar will be worth 50 cents in 20 years (70 divided by 3.5 equals 20). If inflation soars to 10%, your money's value is halved in seven years.

Understand the value of compounding

It's been called the Eighth Wonder of the World, but many people still don't grasp how amazingly investment returns can add up over time.

One way to dramatically illustrate the point is to use the example of the doubling penny. If I give you a penny at the start of the month and promise to double it every day, you'll have $10.7 million after 30 days.

Of course, you're not going to double your money every day or even every year. But 8% or 9% is a reasonable rate of return to expect over the long run on a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and cash, so doubling your money every eight or nine years (remember the rule of 72) is well within the range of possibility.

The following chart demonstrates how quickly a $100 investment can grow given different interest rates and time periods.

How $100 can grow
After:	6%	8%	10%
10 years	$179	$216	$259
20 years	$320	$466	$673
30 years	$574	$1,006	$1,745
40 years	$1,028	$2,172	$4,525

This chart can be used the other way around to illustrate future gains you lose when you aren't invested. If you withdraw $100 from a retirement account at age 25, for example, you're giving up more than $2,000 of future retirement money, assuming 8% average annual returns over the next 40 years.

Here's a way to further boil it down: Every dollar you invest can grow to $2 in 10 years, $5 in 20 years, $10 in 30 years and $20 in 40 years, assuming an 8% average annual return.

Calculating 'Take this job . . .' money

How much money would you have to save, inherit or win to say goodbye to work?

You'll find plenty of retirement planners around the Web, including MSN Money's Retirement Planner, which I find particularly easy to use. Personal-finance software like Money and Quicken includes more sophisticated calculators that are also worth a look.

But if you want to ballpark a figure for what you'd need to save to stop work tomorrow, simply multiply your living expenses by 25.

Why 25? Because financial planners generally agree that 4% is a "sustainable" withdrawal rate from a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and cash. That means you can take out 4% of the total in the first year, adjust the withdrawal every year afterward by the inflation rate, and face relatively little risk of running out of money.

So to get the lump sum you'd need, you divide your annual living expenses by 0.04 -- which is the same as multiplying the same expenses by 25. If you need $30,000 to live on, you'd need $750,000. If you want to be more conservative and reduce the chances of running dry to virtually zero, multiply by 33 instead. That approximates an initial withdrawal rate of slightly more than 3%.

Columns by Liz Pulliam Weston, the Web's most-read personal finance writer and winner of the 2007 Clarion Award for online journalism, appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.

How to be a success in your life

From ::: http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics

Some people seem to be always happy and successful, while others seem sad, lonely and struggling along from one day to the next.

Look around at people who seem really happy and you will notice that if you go through the following list, they would be able to tick most of the points.

What Successful People Do

1. They work out the kind of person they are

Have you ever had thoughts like, "Why are we here?", "Why is life like this?", " Why do bad things happen to some people?" or "Why are some people so lucky and others so unlucky?" These are really difficult questions to find answers to. If you find out the answers please let me know!

But there are some simpler questions you can ask yourself about what kind of person you are.

Would you like to be someone who:

• tries hard all the time
• wants to learn new things every day
• wants to help others
• wants to be happy and help make others feel happy
• wants to be a positive person and help others to be more positive
• enjoys life and the natural beauty of the world
• wants to make a difference to the lives of others?

There are lots more that I'm sure you will think of once you get down to it.

Grab a piece of paper or start a new page on your computer and start getting your ideas down. If you work these out, then you have taken the first steps to success.

2. They respect themselves and others

• They have good habits, and change their bad habits.
• They look after their bodies by eating healthy food and exercising every day.
• They don't listen to gossip or gossip about others.
• They follow the rules and respect people in authority.
• They are truthful and honest.
• They know that good manners and behaviour are more important than good clothes and 'looking cool'.
• They show other people that they love and care for them.
• They live their word, which means they do what they say they are going to do.
• They really listen to others and show that they are listening.

3. They set goals, and work to get the life they want

• They try to improve themselves.
• They don't give up easily and they are always ready to keep on trying.
• They are all set to work for what they want.
• They concentrate on what they are doing at the time and don't let themselves be distracted.
• They stick to their decisions and don't keep changing their minds.

4. They enjoy life

• They learn things they are interested in.
• They have a positive attitude and always look for the good in life.
• They learn how to save money for what they really want.
• They get excited and feel passionate about the things they are doing.
• They do what they feel is right and don't take notice of what others say.

Evaluate you Assets

The most important asset you have is yourself, rather than what you have got or what you own.

• What are you good at?
• What are you very good at?

Look in the areas of:

• Your character
  • What are you like as a person?
  • What are all your good qualities? Are you kind, a good listener, confident, happy, patient, affectionate, ambitious?
• Your personal assets. This is about your body, eg. good eyesight and hearing, having a nice smile.
• Your skills and talents - all the things you can do, eg. cook, run, draw, swim, play ball sports, play an instrument, read well, help your parents.

You don't have to be world class in anything, just be honest and positive.

There's Success and .... Success

Magazines, newspapers and TV are full of 'successful' people. We read about them or see them all the time.

• Some are shown as successful because they have a lot of money. So does having money mean that your whole life is a success?
• Some are shown as successful because they have become a star or even superstar! Does stardom mean that your whole life is a success?
• Some people are really clever at passing exams? Does passing exams mean that your whole life is a success?

Many of these stories seem to suggest that if you are rich enough, or clever enough or thin enough, everything will be great. But really! None of these will lead to someone's whole life being a success.

If your whole life is to be a success then the first thing to realise is that life has a lot of different parts:

• relationships with family, friends and authority figures like teachers, police and your boss
• learning and building skills for what you want or need to do
• learning to know, like and respect yourself so that you can learn to do the same for others
• caring for and contributing to your community
• caring for and helping to look after the environment you live in
• caring for your physical and spiritual health and well-being
• getting the most out of your life.

Once you have identified all the areas of your life you want to change, then it's time to start targeting the two or three which you want to work on first.

To do this you need to set some goals and then work out how you are going to reach them.

Memories of Sai Htee Saing

How to Communicate Your Weaknesses

From : http://www.wikihow.com/Communicate-Your-Weaknesses

There will come a time in everyone’s career (or life in general) when a person is asked to identify their primary weakness (or weaknesses). It is also a very common interview question. If you are not ready for this question, it can be very awkward and the answer may not come across in a good way.

Everyone has both strengths and weaknesses – it’s simply a part of being human... accept that and you’ll be way ahead of the game. Because of that fact, ignoring them, avoiding them or pretending you don’t have them is by far the worst thing you can do. Hiding a problem doesn’t make the problem go away. Learn how to identify and understand your weaknesses and how to properly communicate them to others.

Steps

1. Understand the question. When you’re asked this, especially in an interview, it’s not the weakness that’s the most important thing; it’s whether you are aware of your weaknesses and what you do about them. If the answer is “I don’t have any” then it becomes obvious that the primary weakness is a lack of self-awareness.
2. Be prepared. You should regularly examine yourself to identify your primary weaknesses. If you don’t know what they are, you can’t communicate them to others. If you already know the answer, you won’t have to fumble and you will have considerably greater esteem in the eyes of the interviewer.
3. Avoid the most common mistake. “My greatest weakness is that I’m too much of a perfectionist and I hold myself to a higher standard than I expect from others.” Uh huh. That frankly irritates the interviewer. It also shows, very clearly, that you live in denial of yourself. Ok, maybe you are too much of a perfectionist and that can be a very valid weakness. State it differently. “I sometimes over analyze my work products which can cause me to fall behind in other tasks.” That really means the same thing but it is an honest weakness. Instead of saying, “People are intimidated by me because I’m such a strong leader” try “When I’m in a leadership role, I sometimes come across as being overbearing.” Twisting your answer to make it seem like your primary weakness is that you’re already perfect will always fail. The interviewer will actually recognize what you’re doing and you won’t be fooling anybody (except perhaps yourself).
4. Be clear and concise. Don’t overstate things. Don’t ramble. Don’t repeat yourself. Don’t explain too much. If someone asks you the time, that’s not asking you to explain the inner workings of an atomic clock. The interviewer is looking for something very specific and if you focus too much on the initial part of the answer you’ll miss the opportunity to really shine in the second part of the answer.
5. Immediately follow with good news. Okay, you’ve clearly identified your weakness, you’ve stated it concisely and shown that you have good awareness of your personal issues. So now what? Just knowing your weakness is good, but what are you doing about it? That is the crux of the question and must be the focus of your answer. “I sometimes over analyze my work products which can cause me to fall behind in other tasks. To avoid that, I set aside a specific amount of time for review. When that time is up, I move to the next task on my list of priorities.” Yay! You’ve just proven that you can analyze yourself, identify your weaknesses, and develop useful methods to overcome them. That is what the interviewer wants to know. Develop a list of compensatory techniques associated with each weakness.
6. Continue to be clear and concise. When you state your compensatory technique, it really needs to be focused on the issue at hand. It must not be vague or imprecise at all. The method you use to overcome your weakness must be as well composed as the weakness itself – both have to be very solidly identified and communicated with lucidity.
7. Stop and wait. After you answer the question, stop talking. Wait for the interviewer to speak next. You’re done. You’ve given them what they asked for so wait for a response. You might have to wait an uncomfortable amount of time. The interviewer might very well insert (on purpose) a lengthy pause to see what you’ll do. Look them in the eye (no, don’t “stare them down”) with a comfortable expression on your face and wait for them to give you feedback. Be prepared for them to ask you if there are any more!
8. Don’t be a one-hit-wonder. You should have three weaknesses and compensatory techniques at your fingertips. The interviewer is quite likely to ask you a second time and often a third time. “What else?”, “Any more?” - if you get asked a fourth time (oh how exasperating that is) there’s a good way to handle that. “When I do this exercise, maybe once a quarter or so, the list might change from time to time. I limit my focus to three current weaknesses so I don’t become overwhelmed. If you ask me again in June, I might have a different answer for you then.”
9. Follow-up with a strength. Once you’ve gotten feedback and you’ve passed the initial test, be ready to expand the conversation to strengths. When you do your self-examination, don’t limit it to your weaknesses… also identify your primary strengths. For each strength you should identify how it benefits you. Knowing that you have strengths is useless unless you know how to use them. It is every bit as important to know where you’re strong as to know where you’re weak.
10. Analyze regularly. As indicated above, this is not a one-time shot. You should do this exercise on a regular basis (but don’t become obsessed). More often than once a quarter is not enough time for any substantial changes to occur. If you wait more than a year, you’re missing opportunities to improve and the self-assessment skills will be rusty. Start with a 3-month recurring event and if that’s too often, drop it down to once every 6 months.

Tips

• Communicating your weaknesses also plays an important role in having a healthy relationship.
• You may be able to use this exercise to augment your annual performance reviews by identifying areas in which you can improve and helping to identify specific goals.
• If you have staff, having them become proficient at this will give you a great indicator of how to play to their strengths and assign less critical efforts that would make use their weak areas.
• Make notes from time-to-time about how well your compensatory techniques are working (or how they’re not) so you can tweak them to your best advantage.
• You can extract from the “strengths” portion of the exercise to improve a cover letter. Your strengths are things you bring to the table for a potential employer and it’s much more impressive if you know, definitively, what those are.

Warnings

• Make sure your final analysis is not unwieldy. It’s easy to become so involved with this exercise that one weakness and associated technique can be very, very long. These need to be concise and easily stated: Think “elevator speech” when you’re putting things in final form (what can you tell someone in an elevator going up ten floors)
• Be honest in your appraisal. Do not try to twist words to make your weaknesses sound like strengths. That demonstrates a very high degree of arrogance and it will have negative consequences.
• Don’t ignore things you can’t fix. Just because you have a weakness and don’t know what to do about it doesn’t mean you should pretend it doesn’t exist. Go ahead and write it down and start thinking about it. You might not want to elaborate on that in an interview, though, until you’ve developed a compensatory technique for it.

How to Be Honest With Yourself

I believe that all the ACEs want to read Saya UTO's speech in the Blog.
Saya, Please share your idea or thought how to get happy life.
(I don't think you will say that to go massage polour to get happy mood...just joking...)

From : http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Honest-With-Yourself

Due to circumstances beyond my control I am master of my fate and captain of my soul. — Ashleigh Brilliant

Today, at this very moment, what is your life like? Do you have a life plan, or are you, like most of us, simply flying by the seat of your pants? Time waits for no man - or woman. Figure out what is truly important in your life. It is the first step towards taking charge.

Steps

1. Choose a focus for your introspection. Good ones include goals, career, money, family, spirituality, and love.
2. Set some time aside for yourself. Get up earlier or later than your family, or find a quiet space where you can sit and think. Some people think better while doing some other simple task (such as laundry) or while walking. Find out what works for you.
3. Take stock. What is your life all about? What is your purpose in it? What are you good at? What could you improve?
4. Be objective. Self-reflection and assessment can be a very emotional matter, but try to be detached.
5. Be specific. What have you accomplished? What would you like to accomplish? What bothers you? What do you like about yourself?
6. Keep things in perspective. So you haven't won your Nobel Peace Prize yet. Neither have most of the rest of us. You're only human, and nobody, including yourself, should expect perfection of you.
7. Write things down. Putting something in words helps you to be specific. You can write in whatever way you feel comfortable expressing yourself, be it lists, notes, cartoons, drawings, or maps. If you're not a writer, consider talking into a tape recorder or recording your thoughts some other way.
8. Consider the good and the bad, both. One way businesses do this is with a "SWOT" diagram. Take four pages or sections of a page and write in them the following
• Strengths. What are you best at? What do you love doing and do just for the passion of it? What do others compliment you on or tell you you're good at? Once you have these listed, consider how you can make them even better, or use them to your advantage.
• Weaknesses. What do you dislike? What doesn't work too well for you? Focusing on the negative can put things into perspective. Once you have listed your weaknesses, you can choose whether to try to improve upon these areas or let them go. If it matters that you're not a strong swimmer, make plans to improve. If not, at least you know your limitations and can stay in the shallow end of the pool.
• Opportunities. These may go hand in hand with your strengths. At a personal level, an opportunity isn't just the potential to make money. Rather, consider where you could make a difference, satisfy your own needs (for instance, to create), or simply improve yourself. Opportunities could be based on how you could use your strengths or how you could improve upon your weaknesses.
• Threats. What could undermine those opportunities, derail your hopes or sidetrack your success, whatever you define those to be? The purpose for listing these is twofold. First, identifying them allows you to see them more clearly. The known is less threatening than the unknown. Second, it allows you to address those risks. Some risks are beyond our control, but many can be lessened or at least planned for.
9. Have an audience, if you are comfortable doing so. Find somebody to talk to. You'll feel really silly saying things that are not true out loud. If you're not yet comfortable talking to a person, choose a pet or stuffed animal, instead.
10. Ask friends whom you trust how they see you. Seeing yourself honestly is not always easy, and an honest assessment by somebody outside can help you to know if your personal assessment of yourself is reasonable.
11. Write a list of all the things you would like to do in the next five years, ten years, or before you die. Don't filter things out yet, just write as fast as you can think of things. If you prefer, write the list focusing on a particular aspect or question in your life.
12. Ask yourself questions, and answer them in lists, essays, or however you see fit. Here are some examples:
• What is important in my life and what is simply dragging me down?
• What would I change about my life?
• Which individuals contribute to my happiness and which do not?
13. Commit to making a change. Tell yourself, it's my life, and if I am to remain happy and healthy, I alone must decide what stays and what goes.
14. Don't beat around the bush. Tell yourself the truth, even if the truth is bad. Remember that saying things that are true will help you fix them. Although sometimes it's hard to self analyze, admitting to yourself that you are jealous of someone is better than trying to deny it. The truth may make you miserable at first, but later it will set you free.
15. Set goals.
16. Take action. Put your plan in motion, confident that you are moving toward what you really want. Actions speak louder than words, so acting upon what you discover about yourself is a big part of being honest.

Tips

• Being honest does not mean being brutal. Everybody has shortcomings and difficulties. The best athlete or singer in the world could be a terrible writer. See an honest identification and evaluation of problems as a stepping stone to solving them, not as a reason to berate yourself.
• If you have enough objectivity and insight into yourself, and are honest with yourself, you might have to admit that your life is ordinary, and is only about living and getting by. There is nothing wrong with that, since this is simply a part of the human condition.
• Remember, there is no harm in writing something down. You can choose not to share it, destroy it, edit it, or simply keep it a secret.
• If you don't know where to begin, try taking a personality test (see external links). They cannot discover you by themselves, but they can lend some insight about your nature to help get you started.