Category — Money

No  matter what you do or where you live , having a good health is the foundation for living a wonderful life. If you don’t have good health, you will not be able to enjoy anything including the rewards of your own hard work. So, taking care of your health should be an integral part of your daily routine.

People lose their health for earning wealth. Later, they lose all their wealth for regaining their health

Especially, in this modern world where people are getting busier by each passing day, it has become really critical to listen to your body and give attention to your health.

It's fun time folks !!

Fortunately, by adopting few really simple healthy habits, you can maintain good health, provided these habits  form a part of your daily life routine.

In this article, I am sharing few healthy habits for life which can make profound positive effect on your health and keep you fit and fine. Needless to say, to form any habit, you need to repeat them on a constant basis until your actions turn into habit. I am also tips/tools for forming the habit.

1. Drink right amount of water

This point comes on top for sure. Most of us work and live in air conditioned environment. With less physical movements and because of teh effect of air conditioning, you won’t make feel thirsty even though your body might be craving for water. So , don’t wait until you feel thirsty. Just make sure you drink water in frequent intervals.

Benefits of drinking water:

• Water does wonders. For more details, read this.

How to form this habit:

• Keep a water bottle handy near your desk or workplace and sip water regularly.
• Put up paper notice on your desk’s board reminding you to drink water.
• Set up an alert in your mobile reminding you to drink water every 2 hours.
• Use Microsoft outlook to schedule automatic alert every 2 hours reminding you to sip water periodically.

2. Take a walk

An easy to miss habit. Thanks to lifts and elevators which are easing your trouble of walking. But in reality, they are snatching away an easy opportunity of walking from you.

Never mind. It’s up to you, how much you use/adopt to technology. Try to walk whenever you get an opportunity. Don’t sit for long time continuously.

Benefits:

• Walking improves your blood circulation.
• It brings flexibility to your body muscles.

How to form this habit:

• Avoid lifts/elevators when possible. Walk.
• Take an evening walk/morning walk.
• Walk with your kid.
• Take a walking break for every 2 hours in your working routine.
• Walk for no reason. They all yield same benefits

3. Smile

Smile increases your face value.

Smile makes you feel good. And you work well when you feel good. Not only that, your feel good factor has indirect soothing effect on your surroundings as well So, smile. Be friendly.

Benefits:

• Soothing effect on your inner self.
• Makes you a better human being.

How to form this habit:

Just smile. That’s all

4. Wake up early

This one seems easy, but little difficult to implement (ask me). But, it has compound benefits. Waking up early can benefit you in multiple ways.

Benefits:

• You can do your creative work in the early morning.
• Reach office early by avoiding traffic. Experience the stress free driving.
• Plan for the day well ahead of time.
• Do exercises/yoga.
• Study. I have always observed that, morning time study was more effective for me.

Time for early waking up varies from person to person , but if you would like to enjoy as much as benefits , then I feel 5am looks good time to wake up.

How to form this habit:

Look at this article which helps you to wake up early.

5. Get enough sleep

This is again a very important. Get 6-8 hours of quality sleep daily.

Benefits of healthy sleep habits:

• Refreshed you,every morning.  Ready to face the world with better energy.
• More focus.
• Less fatigue.

How to achieve this habit :

• Set up a deadline for gong to bed.
• Switch off internet/TV early.
• Listen to soothing music before you go to bed. This will allow you to sleep peacefully relieving you from stress.

6. Blink eyes

People who work on computers on daily basis, it’s especially important to take care of your eyes since you are continuously exposed to monitors. Blinking  your eyes frequently helps your eyes keep moist and lubricated. Your eyes will be less stressed and you can avoid lots of issues related to eyes like burning or itching etc. Believe me, no eye drop is equivalent to tears. Nature rules.

7. Eat right

Eat at proper time. Don’t let your digestive juices go waste and attack your own stomach. Stick to an eating schedule and adhere to it. Improper food habits and starving often results in digestive issues such as acidity, gas and even more serious health complications. Just eat at proper time. Listen to your body.

Benefits of healthy food habits:

• You will maintain good health and make less trips to doctors.
• Prevention is better than cure. This is so true when it comes to diseases. Healthy food habits makes you real strong and immune to diseases.

8. Reduce stress

Stress has been a biggest challenge/threat to modern day life. It’s an unpleasant side effect of ‘busy’ ness.

Most of the people face some kind of stress in their work/home/environment. However, what makes a difference is how we respond to stress. Luckily, stress can be managed.

Benefits of reducing stress:

• Reducing stress from your life has amazing effect on your mind, body and on people surrounding you.
• Being stress free makes you a healthier person. When you are healthy and cheerful, you are in a better position to take care of your loved one and respond in positive manner to your surroundings.
• Reducing stress adds years to your life.

How to form this habit:

• Try to minimize debt/loans. This will help you becoming financially stress free.
• Have effective communication in work/life. This will help you to bridge the gap and build healthy relationships
• Wake up early. Become stress free from traffic and chaos.
• Try adopting minimalist lifestyle. This will free you from unnecessary commitments. Be simple. Live simple.
• See the things, as they are. Take things in practical way.
• Never assume. Instead take decisions based on facts and analyzing pattern trends. Decisions taken under emotional circumstances often result in emotional stress.
• Cultivate hobbies and increase your happiness quotient. Life is not all about work. It’s about work/life balance.

I hope, I have shared some practical ways to develop and nourish few really needed healthy habits for the modern day you. Have I missed anything? Please feel free to add in the comments. Let us all benefit

Looking forward to your comments.

Photo credit : evilerin

This is a guest post by  John. To guest post on this blog, please check our guest  post page.

Money is like sand, the more you try to keep it in your hand, the more it slips away. Hence it is quite pertinent for your personal finance management that you find ways to keep money in hand. Here are 7 money saving tips you can follow to save money and stay out of debt.

• Budget your expenses – One of the foremost requirements of saving money is living on a budget. You should not have the misconception that living on a budget means giving up on your luxuries altogether. It just means that using luxuries judiciously and living within your means.
• Buy during sale – You should buy products, especially clothing and other accessories during sale. Different shops in the mall give sale at different times. Hence if there is just one color of jacket that you feel you have to buy, you can wait till sales to see if it is there. Taking into consideration probability, you are bound to find it in one shop or the other.
• Use coupons- This is another way of saving money. You can collect coupons from magazines or even download them from different websites. There are websites which are only meant for downloading coupons. While there are also websites of brands that gives you coupons to download from time to time. These coupons provide you discount when you go for shopping.
• Use generic products – For things that you don’t need a brand such as many grocery items and household products, you can use generic products. Most often you won’t even feel the difference.
• Buy non-perishable items in bulk – When you are buying non-perishable grocery products you can buy them in bulk. This will help you to get discount in all shops.
• Minimize the use of credit cards – Credit cards are the main culprit behind you living beyond your means. They help you to satiate your immediate wants, thereby darkening your future with debt. Use credit cards as little as possible.
• Save on utilities – Save on utilities such as electricity and telephone bills. Also try to use public transport as much as you can to save on gas. You will be surprised at how much you can save by doing these.

I hope above tips help you for saving and keeping money in hand.

In this post, I am listing 10 best personal development blogs on the internet. These blogs have awesome articles about personal growth, productivity and things getting done. Some blogs offer free e-Books and have personally read those books and found them really informative.

Why don’t you check these and benefit from these blogs then?

Let me know if I am missing any other blogs. You can always bring them to my notice in the comment section. Here I go.

LifeOptimizer.com

Key Areas: Personal effectiveness, productivity, time management and innovation

Author: Donald Latumahina

PositivityBlog.com

Key Areas: Motivation, Optimism, Self Discipline, Relationships

Author: Henrick Edberg

Free e-Book: 7 Timeless Habits of Happiness

EndingTheGrind.com

Key Areas: Change your life, Live Your Passion, Online income business

Author: Steve

ZenHabits.net

Key Areas: Simplicity, Getting Things Done, Life Enrichment

Author: Leo Babauta and Guest Writers

Free e-Book: Focus

StevePavlina.com

Key Areas: Productivity, Getting Things Done, Finding Life Purpose, Motivation

Author: Steve Pavlina

CelestineChua.com

Key Areas: Personal Excellence, Inspiring quotes and Wallpapers, Brainstorming techniques

Author: Celestine Chua

DumbLittleMan.com

Key Areas: Tips for Life, Money Management, Personal Development, Management, Life hacks

Author: Jay White and Guest writers

LifeHack.org

Key Areas: Productivity, Communication, Money, Technology, Management

Authors: Tucker Cummings, Julie McCormick, Debbie Bowle, Craig Harper, Leon Ho and guest writers

PickTheBrain.com

Key Areas: Personal productivity, Motivation, Self Education, Psychology and Philosophy

Authors: Erin Falconer, Ali Nuke, Mr. Self Development and guest writers

Free e-Book: 90 Days Confidence Booster

2KnowMyself.com

Key Areas: Behavior and personality development, Career and interview skills, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Motivation, Neuro Linguistic Programming

Authors: M.Farouk Radwan

I hope you enjoyed this resource of best personal development blogs. Let me know if you have come across any other awesome personal achievement blogs. Share it in the comment section so that others will benefit from it

This is a point particularly applicable to young generation. I feel that having a credit card is actually biggest problem than not having a job itself. With compound interest rolling in your bills, you will turn poorer by each passing month. You will be forced to work just for paying credit card bills. Ask yourself. Is this you always wanted from life? What went wrong? Same applies to various forms of loans. Any kind of credit is dangerous. Resort to them only if it is absolutely necessary, otherwise manage your expense in the money what you have earned.

I am not saying that getting trapped in debt is entirely your fault. It’s very easy to get carried away when you see a fancy advertisement about a new gadget or a new offer on TV or internet. It’s called as aggressive marketing. But before pressing the buy button, ask a question to yourself, whether buying this thing is absolutely necessary? Are you buying this because your friend or relative has it? Is it wise to pile up debt in your credit card? Is there a solution to this?

Here is the solution. Controlling your temptation is the solution. If you feel controlling your temptation is difficult, cut the source of temptation itself from your life. Watch less TV, read less gadget reviews or even minimize visiting malls. By isolating yourself from the source of temptation, you are putting yourself in safe zone and you will be able to build a better financial position because you will be buying the things only which are essential.

Message is clear. Buy what you can afford. Spend what you have earned. Save money. Here is an in-depth article on how to improve your financial situation and avoid getting trapped in debt.

When I was young, I thought that money was most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know it is – Oscar Wilde

With this article I am going to show where your hard earned money is getting wasted (or poorly spent) and why you are not able to save money even though you earn a decent monthly income. If you feel that you manage your money very well, then you can ignore this article

To start with, what we need to realize is, its not important how much we earn, it is important how much you save (keep) and how you manage your money. Below are 5 areas in the modern eras where you are spending your hard earned money and you were clueless so far about these. Not because you did not know these but you did not notice them.

So controlling your temptation is the key. Haven’t you heard about a Kite? If you want it to fly well, you need to have control over the thread. What happens if you lose the thread? Kite will slap the ground soon. Money is like Kite. You need to hold the thread to make it fly.

Let me share a humor with you. I heard this from a friend. There was a person who was using credit card and has maintaining it so well that he never had to pay any penalty or overdue charges. He always paid his dues on time. One day he was going to pay his dues to credit card office as usual on time. Then credit card officials whispered amongst themselves “Hey Look, our worst customer is at the door”!!! I think you got my point.

Coming to the telephone bills, shut down unwanted phones. If you travel frequently then try avoiding roaming charges by taking a local number or SIM cards. There is a golden word. Talk Less, Say More. Talking in phone is not same as talking in person.You will see considerable amount of savings after implementing point number 3.

4) You are not tracking your money: Start maintaining a spreadsheet to record your monthly outgoing and incoming money flow. It need not be complicated formula based spreadsheet but a simple one would do. It will serve the purpose of your money tracking. It is difficult in the beginning to note down everything but once you make it a habit, it’s actually an exciting and fulfilling exercise.After all its your money. If you don’t track your money then who will?

So folks, this long article, I tried to show you some practical ways to save money. It takes little sacrifices such as giving up your temptations, limiting your phone calls but this comes at a very good reward. After all it’s your hard earned money. A penny saved, is a penny gained.

I suggest you to read a fantastic book called Rich Dad Poor Dad which is about managing your money. Author Robert T. Kiyosaki explains difference between an Asset and liability. He also teaches financial literacy which is very different from our education. This book is a international bestseller. Check it out at Amazon where you get it for very small price.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!