10 Financial tips for 22 year olds

1. Pay yourself first:

Put money away and invest in the future. Stores have found clever ways to entice the consumer to buy goods and services. Do not give in. By the time you are 25, it is a good idea to put up to 5,000 in savings a year.

2. Create a budget:

 Commitment on paper is a good practice — it benchmarks and indicates confidence with numbers. Apps including IReconcile, Expenditure, Moneybook, Toshl, Mint can help you do this. People who have a written budget end up with five times more money in the future than those who do not, according to a study done by Harvard.

3. Make a list of 25 ways to save money: 

This is one way to find the money you should be saving and investing. Consider starting the morning with drip coffee rather than a latte every day. It is much cheaper —where you work in the future will likely brew coffee for free, but not lattes or espresso drinks. Five 16 oz. lattes at Starbucks cost more than $15. Over a year, you will spend $806 on lattes. At least cut your latte intake in half.

4. Open up an IRA or 401(k):

Anyone who has earned income can start an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or a 401(k) retirement savings plan sponsored by an employer. Even if you can only afford to put down $100 over a couple of paychecks, the return will be much higher by the time you retire. To prepare for uncertainties in the economic future, finance workers suggest that young adults save 15 percent of pay rather than 10 percent.

5. Invest in 401(k) options that will match your investment:

Nearly every plan offers matching funds; the most popular is 3 percent of your salary, according to the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America. IBM, for example, will match employee contributions up to 6 percent of your income. 

6. Develop a plan to pay off your student debt: 

It is ok to make minimum payments on your student loans after graduating, but it will be productive to build investing in your 401(k) at this time too. 

7. Investing is simple: Diversify amongst many stocks. 

The less expensive the shares are now — the more you will make in the long term. More expensive shares are not guaranteed to have the same value in the future. Spend and hour a week reading an learning about investments. “Who you trust is one of the biggest decisions you make."

8. Find a mentor: 

Everyone should have a mentor to help them gain the expertise and confidence they need to manage their finances, Merriman said. If you cannot meet the right mentor in person, at least find a writer or expert online to build from. 

9. Don’t let the strong opinions of amateurs take you off course: 

Choose carefully whether you want to listen to the advice of Wall Street or ‘Main Street’ — friends, family and associates at work — or ‘University Street’ — highly respected Nobel Prize winning academics — who have created recommendations designed for the individual’s best interest. Opinions of amateur investors can point you in the wrong direction.

10. List 25 quotes that represent you’re investment beliefs: 

Merriman had a couple motivational quotes of his own to suggest: 

“Beware of expenses: A small leak will sink a great ship.” — Ben Franklin

“If you want to see the biggest threat to your financial future, go home and take a look in the mirror.” — Jonathan Clements

“In investing you get what you don’t pay for.” — John Bogle

Success is Simple

*puts on ACDC's Back to Black* click, click, click, click, DUNT, dadaDUNT, dadaDUNT, , , 

When you think of the band ACDC, you probably wouldn't call them a "sophisticated" band. With straight to the gut, no bullocks smash hits such as 'Dirty Deads Done Dirt Cheap', 'You Shook Me All Night Long', and 'Highway to Hell', ACDC might as well be an antonym for sophistication!

But this is where ACDC is Brilliant. This is how famous businessmen like Blake Mycoskie of Tom's shoes is brilliant, and this is how you too can become brilliant. It's that simple. 

Let's take a closer look one of ACDC's most famous songs, 'Back in Black.' The infections intro guitar riff slayed by guitarist Angus Young is by far one of the most widespread guitar riffs known across the globe. But did you know that arguably the most successful ACDC's songs only use 3 to 4 chords?? This is absurd, especially when you break down the numbers. The album Back in Black went 22x platnium, and is estimated to have sold over 50 million copies world wide. 50 freaking million sales, for only 4 chord songs... how is this possible?

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” 

― Leonardo da Vinci

In fact, ACDC is so simple that comedian Jim Bruer has no problems gaining laughs exploiting the bands simple formula

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” 

― Albert Einstein

If you take a look at some of the most successful businesses in the history of recorded business, there is an obvious trend that you won't find in any lesson offered at a college of business. That's because the answer is simple. No literally. that pattern of successful business all derives from the fact that each business was simple.



The moral of the story is to keep it simple. Whatever it is, a hobby, a date, a business, just keep it simple and you'll find success. 

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

For 21 years of living, I have always wondered where does "Mastery" comes from. First, growing up I thought it was a gift only for gods like Micheal Jordan, and owning mastery was like winning a lottery ticket. Then my eyes were open to the words and advice from Steve Jobs that echos through YouTube infinity...

"Growing up, you tend to get told the world is what it is... and you're life is just to live inside that world, get a job, save up some money, buy a home... That is a very limited life. Life can be much broader, and its simple once you learn one valuable fact. That this world was built by people no smarter than you."

After finding this quote, researching other successful idols was the next step. All of them had something in common, they all worked extremely hard to get to where they are today.

This video "The Last Lecture" has got me pumped to work hard sharping my business skills on a Friday night, and I live adjacent to one of the hottest bars in the city!

Watch, listen, learn. It may be an hour long, but this 1 hour now will pay off in thousands of hours you'll be stepping in the right direction; living your dreams... and its all thanks to this dying man's speech.

Need Inspiration?

Sometimes you can wake up not ready for the day. Don't waste away your day, instead watch these videos and go kick some ass!

Selling Happiness

It has been a while since I've even looked at BIZSPIRED, not alone thought about typing up a new post.... been WAY to busy with School n' stuff.

BUT IT'S TIME FOR A COME BACK BABY!!! (*pops open bottle*)

Well, if you are going to come back than you might as well come back STRONG, right? Thus, this post is dedicated to a skill set that 1. Every Bizspired individual should have, and 2. These skills are something yours truly is an absolute winner at.

This post is all about SELLING! And not only selling for a paycheck, but today I will share with you how to become a ferocious selling machine in a way that will change your life for the better. 

Your sales currently:                                                      Your sales after reading this:

WHAT THE COMMON PERSPECTIVE OF SELLING IS, 

AND WHY IT'S WRONG

If you have ever worked in retail before, I'm sure for a lot of you it may have been a struggle at first (at least for me it was). Your manager expects you to set a sales goal for the day, meet a certain quota, and to push as many god-damn pointless Macy Cards as possible (once again, how I felt about it at first).

Well the common perspective is that all you need is to be able to help the customer to find where the product is, answer any of their questions, and be able to work the cash register in a quick/friendly manner. 

THIS COULDN'T BE ANY. MORE. WRONG. (Well, maybe...)

Think about it, if this is what a customer expected from you then why would they have come to the store? All you are offering then as an employee is exactly what an E-commernce website can offer and is already better at doing that than you. 

Customers don't go to the store because they always NEED something, no. Typically if you are not in the Food, Water, or Shelter business then customers come to you because they WANT something. 

Well what is it that they want? You already guess it, HAPPINESS! A good time, a product that they can use that well either reduce their stress, eliminate boredom, or have fun with.

So, how do you sell happiness? In my experience it comes down to 3 easy-to-remember concepts that go a long, long way. 

SELLING HAPPINESS

1. Have an absolute in-depth knowledge of what you are selling.

You want to be able to know your products so that if you were a customer, you would know exactly what you needed to fulfill your wants. If you do this, then you will find that you can produce even more WANTS in the customer because you understand the value the product creates for them. Hello up sell city! Knowledge = Power = Happiness

2. Have fun with the customer. 

That's it. That is KEY to selling happiness, you need to show the customer that you can create it. If the customer is having a good time, they will trust you and once you are trusted then they subconsciously trust that your product will produce happiness. That the product will fulfill their wants and their new wants that you generated because of your knowledge of the product. Even if you didn't sell anything, psychology tells us that 

3. Forget meeting the sales quota, forget the goals, just sell. 

When you are under pressure to meet a deadline, how much fun is that? If you are not having fun, how are you suppose to create fun in others? When you don't care about the end-goal, you can focus on the now-goal. Van Wilder said it best:

Now of course their are a lot more philosophies to selling that are important. Ideals such as "Getting past no" and building a clientele. I still recommend studying these concepts and incorporating them into your sells game. However, the 3 skills that I have pointed out are the most important. Take them with you and watch those dollar bills stack up tall!

Scratch your own Itch

"It's not about how long you live, but rather how well you live it." 

- Tim Ferris

Hey Bizspired Minds! First gotta apologize for not blogging a whole lot lately,  but I've been busy having too much fun with the eggnog if ya know what I mean ;)

Today I stumbled across a really good interview with Tim Ferris, who is known through his books and the business community as "The Most Interesting Man in the World." 

Actually I have read a couple of chapters from Tim Ferris' Book "The 4-Hour Work Week," which I must admit makes me want to drop everything right then and there to go travel the world that very night. (Probably why I haven't even gotten close to finishing it, but I'll have a post about the book when I do read it completely). 

This guy is one of a kind! In this video Tim shares his fundamental processes that allows you to master any skill.

Check it out:

Now the video is around 50min long and is packed full of tons of information, and in it there is bits and pieces of great insight for just about everybody so I broke it down for you guys if you want to skip ahead to topics that interest you more:

Intro/Shooting-the-shit with Tim about his newest book and mastering new skills - 0:00 to 10min or so

Marketing - around the 13:30 mark

On writing - 22 min

Haters - 26 min

Constructive Criticism - 31:15

Broken-Window Theory - 32:10

Appreciating what you have - about 36min in

Defining your goals - 37min

Making choices/Being efficient - 39min

Start up company's and leaders - 41min

Who are you, and why should I care?

Who are you, and why should I care? - The question that really goes through every interviewer's mind when considering if you should be the candidate that they hire...

But right there brings me to my point of this post, which is to

ESTABLISH WHO YOU ARE, WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT, AND HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE CARE

Lately I have been trying to figure out ways to answer just that Mr. Bart, and that's all thanks to a book I am currently diving into called "The Brand Called You," by Peter Montoya and Timothy Vandehey. 

This books is truly changing my perspective of how to take control over how other see me, think of me, and why they should care about what I have to say. It is an absolute must read for anyone who wants to make a name for themselves.

Being able to control how other's see you, and get to know what you are about before even meeting you is a very powerful tool to have indeed. And Thanks to Amazon.com, you can get this book used for only 30  freakin' cents! That's right, take all my money Jeff Bezos, all 30 cents of it you inspirational bastard!

Bart's caption up there is a prime example of Personal Branding. Just by looking at him and reading his dialogue you can dictate 3 things. Who he is (a cocky kid based off his stance), what he is about (being a punk-ass kid who skateboards), and if we should care (unless there is a "doh!" resulting from his pranks, then probably not).

Knowing how to express and control how others see and interpret you is such a powerful tool, I encourage all of my readers to take 5 quick minutes and help establish the brand called YOU.

Here are some tools you can take advantage right now in order to establish how you want to brand yourself so that you can start taking some control:

The Personal Branding Brainstorm

1. Talk to colleagues, customers and staff about how they see you.

2. Make a list of your strongest professional traits and skills.

3. Compare your list with what others tell you. How do things differ?

4. List your main competitors and their personal images.

5. List the things that make you different from your competition.

6. Write down the values, interests or traits you share with your customers (if non-retail, than what you share with your peers).

7. Start asking referral clients what the person who referred them said about you

8. Start a "genius file": Collect the branding materials of the professionals in your area who have great personal brands (like doctors, real estate agents, financial advisers, ect.)

A REAL LIFE EXAMPLE OF PERSONAL BRANDING VIA MY OWN RESUME

Whenever I am at a business fair looking for potential opportunities to expand my horizons, I want the employers to know 3 things about me.

1. I am a professional. 2. I'm different, superior, but yet authentic. 3. I am the valuable asset your business is looking for.

Check it out, think my resume does my personal brand justice?

(Honestly though I love feedback and open to all criticism, so please feel free to have at it!)

This bad-boy landed me a top-10 internship fall quarter! Not too bad if I do say so myself ;)

Now that you have been introduced into the world of branding, 

GET OUT THERE and starting letting the people know about a BRAND CALLED YOU!