Yasim's Blog

If you're not saving 10% of your salary, you aren't saving enough. The earlier you start saving, the less you'll need to set aside every year to meet your goals. That's because you allow your money more time to grow -- the gains on your invested savings will build on the prior year's gains. That's the power of compounding, and it's the best way to accumulate wealth. Saving at least 10% of your annual salary for retirement is recommended, but the older you start saving, the more you'll need to save. If you start at 50, you may need to put away 30% a year and still postpone retirement by a few years. Keep three months' worth of living expenses in a bank savings account or a high-yield money-market fund for emergencies. If you have kids or rely on one income, make it six months'. An emergency fund is a hassle to build, but you'll be glad you did next time your transmission sputters or your boss hands you a pink slip. Besides curbing s...

The 10 Biggest Business Plan Mistakes Former venture capitalist and angel investor Christine Comaford-Lynch has reviewed hundreds of business plans. She explains where many entrepreneurs go wrong By Christine Comaford-Lynch It's a crime to work so hard on writing a business plan only to sabotage your chances of getting funded by omitting or shortchanging the key components. When a financier, board member, or key executive assesses your plan, they want to see the 10 topics listed below. The problem is, many businesses plans I've read make the same mistakes. Getting it right conveys that you know where your business is going, and you know how to get there. The following advice applies to a traditional business plan: 1. Company Overview The Goal: A few concise and compelling sentences describing your company's purpose/goal. The Mistake: More often than not, the company's purpose/objective is vague, common, not compelling. I stop reading here. 2. Pain The...

The secret of success is constancy to purpose. -Be jamin Disrael Perception is another key to never giving up. “Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. - Shakespeare Visualize what the result of your decision will be before making a decision One of the ways we can affect where we end up is, when making a decision, try to see the outcome of the decision before going into action. Visualize what the result of your decision will be. It’s an amazing tool. I think most of us would act so differently if we took the time to play out the decision in our mind, in reverse; if we see the result and play it backwards in our minds from result to decision. Do this while listening to your inner voice, and not lying to yourself. Imagine if a married person with kids would play that moment before choosing infidelity in his mind at that critical decision-making moment. Imagine if you could see you...

Excerpts from "Tools To Life" Life is not forever, and the time you have can end at any moment. Wouldn’t life be more fun if you could be happy every day? You can have fun and smile every day. You can grow and get married, have kids, buy a house, get a job, earn money. All these things just add to you, and you are happy every day as it goes along. You see, when happiness is a goal, you never achieve it and end up chasing it like the donkey with a carrot on a stick leading the way. Happy is something you deserve every day. You can enjoy your dinner, a television show, a conversation with a friend, a book, and all that life has to offer you every day. I once read a story about time. It went something like this. What if you had a bank account with a million dollars in it, but there’s a catch. This bank account starts every day with a million but whatever you don’t spend that day you lose forever. But this is a magic bank account, so each day you start your day with a new ...

Excerpts from baby center Living with a toddler can be like sharing a house with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If your child is "spirited," the toddler years can be especially trying. What defines a spirited child? "All toddlers are busy: They're climbing and jumping and throwing things," says Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, author of the popular books Raising Your Spirited Child and Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles: Winning for a Lifetime. "But the high-energy kid is the one who can get to the top of the refrigerator. All toddlers say 'no,' too, but a spirited child's 'no's!' are louder and more frequent, his tantrums longer lasting and more intense. You gradually realize that as a parent you're working harder than your neighbor, whose child is simply not as intense, persistent, and emphatic as yours. Your child is still normal, he's just more of everything." Spirited kids are definitely a challenge, but there are ways to defuse dai...