Investing,Yourself,Normal,fals DIY Investing in Yourself

When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE If you are interested in personal development it isimportant you commit to investing in yourself. No matter what it is you want to improve, no matter what you want toachieve, it will almost certainly require an investment or will be much betterand be achieved much quicker with the right investment.Start by listing the areas of improvement to which you wishto commit.  This can be in a very widearea, and I am not limiting myself at all to one particular niche.  Have a look at my article in my blog aboutthe TopTen New Year Resolutions.  Allten are perfectly acceptable self improvement goals, and you can probably addquite a few more to this list.Take a look around and see what products and services areout there which could help you make serious inroads on those improvements yourdesire.  Examine them carefully.  There are a lot of scams out there, but thereare also a lot of diamonds if you look carefully enough.  Try to find at least one for each of theareas on your list.  Don’t worry at thisstage about how much money they may cost.  All that should concern you right now iswhether you believe they will help you achieve your goals better or faster, orboth.Once you have come up with the list of investments you wantto make in yourself and are reasonably comfortable that, at least for now, thisis a fairly complete list, the next step isto work out how you will pay for them.One problem many people have, though, is that after theyhave paid all their monthly bills there is no money left to invest in themselves. What may surprise you, though, is that no matter how muchyou earn you will almost certainly still find there is no money left afterpaying the bills.  How can this be?          Parkinson’s Second LawThe answer lies in Parkinson’s Second Law.  You have probably heard his First Law – “workexpands to fill the available time”.  Butperhaps you missed the Second Law – “expenditure rises to meet the availableincome”.  Parkinson’s Second Law is oftenapplied to bureaucracies and they way they can needlessly spend our money.  But it is equally applicable to personalexpenditure.The corollary of Parkinson’s Second Law is that if you lookcarefully at your spending you will always find cuts you can make withoutimpacting noticeably on your overall lifestyle.Your first step should therefore be to examine your budgetvery carefully.  Pretend you are abusiness which is not making profit. Step back and look at that business as if you were the finance director(or maybe the bank manager!).  I thinkyou will be surprised by some of the cuts you could make and still continue toenjoy life just as much.Pay Yourself FirstOnce you have done this, regard yourself as your own primarycreditor.  You owe yourself a lot of money, so start paying it back.Pay yourself first. Before you pay anyone else.  Donot feel guilty about doing this.  Everyday of your adult life up to now you have paid everyone except yourself.  Now it is yourturn!How much should you pay yourself?  Well, that depends, of course.  It depends on many factors.  Not least of which is how much you managed tosave off your budget – make sure at least half of this goes to you.  Some coaches suggest it should be a minimumof 10% of your gross earnings.  But againI stress this depends on your own circumstances and budget.  Just don’t allow it to be whittled down toalmost nothing!Put it in savings and investments that you resolve not totouch except when investing in yourself.Invest in YourselfOnce you have started this habit of paying yourself first,start to invest with the money you have saved. Not in company shares.  Not inbricks and mortar.  You are going toinvest in something far more valuable than that.  You are going to invest in yourself! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;mso-para-margin-top:0cm;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}