It’s Time For Millennials To Get Their Finances In Shape

Most millennials are now in there 20s and 30s, beginning a career climb and also the time when you are making major financial decisions. These financial decisions can include home ownership, investment strategies, and family planning. Certainly, you want to try and avoid some of the financial hazards that have transpired in the lives of previous generations.

Financial literacy is seldom taught in school, so if you didn’t learn it at home growing up, your first time in the “real world” may get you into some financial distress. Read below to learn some of the top financial tips that will help millennials make smart financial decisions.

Take online money management courses

Because most millennials excel at technology, I would suggest signing up for courses in basic economics, accounting and budgeting. These types of courses can be very affordable and very well delivered by the online professor. I feel this is a very efficient way to update yourself on financial topics that may simplify and improve your financial life.

Build up your retirement savings

Did you know that Wells Fargo revealed that almost 50% of millennials weren’t planning for retirement? Make sure you participate in your employer’s 401(k) plan, even if you can only afford to contribute the minimum every month.

Make a list of your whole financial picture

I recommend you make a list of everything that is spent each month. After you have digested this information, ask yourself this question. How am I going to pay for all of this? There are also four essential things everyone should know about their finances: income, expenses, assets and liabilities. Having a firm comprehension of these items will help you make sense of your finances. There are many online tools that can help you connect all your accounts – Mint, Quicken just to name a few. I believe this is your first step in improving your finances.

Research passive income opportunities

Most of us work for money all our lives and never really put it to work for us. It is possible to use your job income for passive income from your investments. For example, the IRS says passive income can come from two sources: rental property or a business in which you do not actively participate. Make no mistake; passive income is not about getting something for nothing. It involves a lot of work and is definitely not a “get rich quick” scheme.

Start a savings account

Open up a share account at your credit union even if you can’t make regular deposits. You can use this account to put extra money aside for your short term and even long-term goals. This can also be used as your emergency fund. Shoot for 3-12 months of expenses, put aside for emergencies.

Pay yourself first

Once you have money in your hand from your paycheck, IRS refund, etc. always pay yourself first. Arrange for automatic transfers from your checking account directly to your share account every payday or on a monthly basis.

Do you know the impact of your credit score?

Everyone, but especially entrepreneurial millennials need to understand that their personal credit can be the defining factor in getting working capital in the future. Getting approved for a loan can be very challenging when your credit score is low. Learn how to read your credit report and check it frequently.

Reduce your debt faster

Pay off small debts first and gradually tackle the larger ones. This will allow you to see results and stay motivated.

Enlist the assistance of a trusted mentor

There is an overabundance of information online regarding financial literacy. However, picking the brain of someone you know and trust is better. Their insights are often tailor-made to your specific needs.

Remove extra costs

It is a proven fact that millennials have expensive habits ($5 lattes every day, eating out on a regular basis, designer fashions, etc.). Keep a close eye on your expenses and trim them where you can.

Raise your children to be financially savvy

At this point you may already have young children or planning to start a family. Teach them that saving money is essential. When they are old enough take them to your credit union and help them open up their own accounts. This will hopefully excite them to continue saving their own money.

Why You Should Be Using Direct Mail

Yeah, I know the drill all too well. “I tried direct mail and it don’t work and it’s expensive.”

To be honest, I bombed and hit hard the first time I used direct mail too! It was ugly.

But I stayed with it and learned how to make it work from a select few pros in the industry. And it paid off in spades.

In this short article I’m going to give you some reasons why you should put direct mail to work in your business. If you don’t, you’re leaving money on the table.

In another article I’ll show you how to make it profitable. But for now, I’m suggesting that you to at least consider using direct mail to grow your business.

I believe that you’ll soon be surprised at how efficient and profitable direct mail really is.

Let’s get to it.

Some of the largest and most profitable companies use Direct Mail to sustain and grow their business. It’s true, Apple, AT&T, Wells Fargo, Pfizer and Wal-Mart and numerous business use direct mail to get fresh leads and increase their sales.

And in case you’re wondering, internet companies such as Google rely on this marketing channel to get businesses to advertise with them.

Sending out direct mail works like crazy for nearly any type of business… medical clinics, plumbers, auto repair shops, publishers, sales organizations… and nearly any other business you can think of. And it will work for your business too!

Here’s Just A Few Reasons To Use Direct Mail

First, you won’t find a more reliable and robust system to get your message out to your clients and prospects.

While there’s no perfect methodology, the US Postal Service is hard to beat.

The Postal Service delivers to 146 million households and business each day, six days a week. Sure, UPS and FedEx compete but UPS delivers only 8 million and FedEx less.

Rest assured, the Postal Service is NOT Going Away! So, you have extremely reliable system right at your fingertips to get the word out affordably.

According to DM News, a recent study showed that 98% of consumers get their mail from the mailbox the day it’s delivered, and 77% go through it immediately.

Now, think about YOUR email. Do you think it’s treated with as much urgency?

According the DMA Statistical Fact Book, 12 Billion (with a B) Catalogs were mailed last year. Do you really think catalog companies go to the trouble and expense to send out 12 BILLION catalogs if they weren’t successful?

What’s more is that this method of advertising in the US is expected to rise to over $48 Billion.

So, what this all adds up to is a dependable, economical and profitable system to sustain and grow your business.

Stay tuned. Next, I’ll be talking about how to make your mailing profitable.

Bringing Your Sales Potential To Far Greater Heights

If we pushed hard enough to actually reach, sustain and pull into a far higher level – we might actually find that our perception and vision for our lives changes significantly.

It’s almost as if we do not care that our lives and worlds as a whole completely and totally rely on good manners and just having a good heart – though our minds in general aren’t too bad whatsoever.

I am not talking about making reality and this world better through our products, goods and services – but it can certainly help to twist and shift our minds and personal close up lives into a very obviously different direction in general.

If we really truly want to change and that desire and deeply seated want to become the best of ourselves very soon and over time, then we merely need to focus and enhance our mental image of what we truly want out of this life – and for far too many people this simply gets lost in the hustle and bustle of what intense emotion and very narrow but raw buying decisions means for us all.

Few can say why they make the thought noises that they do, or even the buying actions that leave them breathless in very curiously different ways.

Nothing gets worst – nor even better, than to say that we have what we own in our lives, only because mass media influence got to us, and mistakes happened which led us to buy certain things.

That will lead us certainly into madness and sadness of a very different variety, and a lot of the world won’t like or enjoy where we are headed and why things feel the way that they do in general.

It is a general vision and perceptual change overall that we must sustain higher level of vision based goals in order to push and pull into ourselves deeper.

That might actually produce goals that are incredibly and intensely better and deeper than what we have ever fully and technically reached for – so we have to focus very curiously and ravenously deeper, but it’s not about depth at this point.

We have to accept that our money based decisions come from something far simpler and more subtler, but still psychological and default kind of regular – almost plain and bland, which is not a bad thing.