Discipline Is Still Needed For Financial Success

Discipline and Money Management 

Many things have changed, but the basics of making money remain the same. Discipline is a skill you will need to create wealth and become successful financially. Winning the lottery or being born as a billionaire Saudi princess will not happen to most of the general population. And it even does not come to a percentage - when you look at people who are rich that way. So hoping for an unrealistic way to become wealthy will not do any good and that sort of thought should be avoided in the first place.

It is not hard to achieve your financial dreams. You only need to know a few simple, basic rules. And following those rules with discipline will make you accomplish your goals. Many personal finance websites are packed with these basics to explore for free. You only need the willingness to learn and apply towards reaching your financial goals - and you need discipline to accomplish that along the way.

If you are reading this article right now, it is highly likely that you already have a decent paying job or entrepreneurship. If you don’t, you will soon have it because you are a smart and educated person, and that’s what lead you to this website in the first place. Discipline can make the difference between two identical same level money earning individuals reaching financial goals and never reaching financial goals.

Let’s look at two imaginary individuals A and B. Both have good paying jobs. Both live in the same city. A spends all his money eating out at restaurants, taking expensive vacations on credit cards, buying the latest electronic gadgets, and living in expensive houses he can’t afford. He has lots of credit card balances and never disciplines himself to set aside money for the future. His logic is that life is too short not to enjoy - and he wont be able to enjoy these once he is old. So let’s enjoy as much possible right now and forget about the future.

Author/Copyright: Ahmed Dawn www.adawnjournal.com

B takes a different approach to life. He thinks life is too short to work for someone else - and he does not want to spend all his life working for a corporation only to pay off his credit card bills and things he would not have enjoyed in the first place. He aims to end working for someone else and wants to live on his own terms as early as possible - while he is still young. He disciplines himself saving and investing every penny he can get and so far he is doing pretty good. He was inspired after reading a few articles and books by financial author A. Dawn and reading more financial books and articles to enhance his personal finance knowledge since then. His favourite one is this: Ten Timeless Personal Finance Tip.

The obvious difference between A and B is that A will still have to work to pay of his credit cards bill when he will be required to get hip replacement surgery. A failed to realise that to enjoy his life now, he chose to work all his life to pay off his bills. He will never be free from his debts and will die one day working and worrying paying off his bills. B will accumulate enough savings early enough to retire and enjoy his life without working for someone else and without worrying about paying off his debts. He only needed the willingness to learn and the discipline to apply what he learned.

It is still not too late or early, regardless how old you are, to decide whether you would like to be A or B. I have chosen to be B and I have many tools to offer to help you reach your goals for free. Feel free to browse all my websites listed on the right panel of this page. And don’t forget - discipline cannot be replaced by anything else and has no substitute.

Auckland Airport – Qantas International Business Class Lounge Review

New Zealand Travel Blog: Part 16

Last Day in Auckland | Leaving New Zealand

After reaching the airport, I headed to the Qantas Business Class counter. I was done very fast and headed towards the security checkup. The queue was minimal and I passed security without any issues.

But finding the Qantas Business class lounge seemed to be a bit of trouble. After passing the maze of the duty-free shopping area, I found a set of escalators to take to go to the second floor. The Qantas Business class lounge was located directly in front of the Priority Pass Strata Lounge.

The Qantas International Auckland Airport Lounge was somewhat of a mediocre lounge, neither good nor bad. The furniture, including sofas, high chairs, and others, looked bit old but I wouldn’t say it’s a small lounge.

There were some magazines on the shelves and a charging station made of shelves for electronics. I doubt anyone would charge something there and sit somewhere else.

There were coat and luggage racks for storage and I saw a small business centre with computers and printers if you need to work or print something.

The bathroom section looked better and there were plenty of amenities and towels. Shower facilities existed, but you need to go to reception first to use them.

I found the lounge not well lit. It had large windows to bring in natural sunlight, but those frosted windows blocked views and the lighting was not that bright.

The food section was adequate, but nothing extraordinary. I had a coffee and a light snack. I didn’t want to eat too much because I was more interested in trying Qantas’s business class in-flight food later on.

I was early at the airport and my flight was at 6:30 PM, so I had a lot of time on hand and took my time finishing recording the lounge for my YouTube Channel and taking pictures. I also made some calls to Canada to catch up.

Mortgage Risk – What You Should Be Aware Of

Mortgage Risk Management

When taking out a mortgage it is important to be aware of the way that it will affect your future right from the start, in order to avoid messy situations later on. A mortgage is one of the most binding commitments you can make financially, as it ties you to a debt that will be with you for the foreseeable future, and maintaining payments to it is a non-negotiable part of your daily life for the period of the loan. Getting a mortgage that will suit your personal situation is essential because if you fail to make payments you risk losing your home and putting yourself in a situation where it will be impossible to get credit for the next several years.

It is genuinely of the utmost importance that you are aware from day one that these risks are real and serious. Although there are drawbacks to poor credit conduct on any kind of borrowing, the drawbacks on unsecured lending are considerably less. If you fail to meet the payments on a credit card then the card will be blocked and you will not be able to use it. This is not an ideal situation, but as long as you can make reduced payments for a specified period you will at least be able to maintain your way of life to a certain extent. The risks that come with a mortgage are proportionately increased by the fact that you have secured the loan against a property where you are living, and failure to meet those payments will see you evicted from your home if you cannot come to some kind of negotiated settlement.

In order to manage this risk, it is important to consider right from the start that a situation may arise where your income from work will be reduced. Do you have other sources of income that will allow you to at least maintain your mortgage payments? Will a claim on the insurance enable you to keep the account ticking over until your situation improves? Are you going to be eligible to claim on the insurance at all – this is dependent on what your current health and work situations are – or will you be turned down and need to rely on another source of income?

There are many questions that you need to ask yourself, and getting satisfactory answers in your mind for each of them is an absolute essential if you are going to successfully manage a mortgage account. If you are confident of living up to whatever is required of you, then you can be happy in the knowledge that one day, the house that currently belongs partly to the bank will be yours 100%. A mortgage is something that requires a lot of maturity and financial common sense to give you the best possible chance of owning your property and maybe one day realizing a profit on it. You don’t want to be paying off debt after you retire, so keep all of your most important questions in mind when looking for the right mortgage for you.

Productivity and Feeling Happy

Feeling Good Increases Productivity

 Feeling good has lot to do with how productive we are. When you feel good and happy, your energy level gets a boost and increases productivity. Difficult tasks seem less difficult and endless problems resolve faster than you thought it would take initially. Our body releases several hormones when we feel good, such as Oxytocin and Serotonin, and we feel calm, cheerful, and in control – helping us to concentrate better with an increased level of productivity.

However, due to stress, day-to-day distractions, and various other factors, it may not always be possible to feel good and happy. I will go over some simple things you can do to overcome the negatives that prohibit you from feeling good and being happy.

Empty Your Mind - It’s hard to feel good with a clogged mind. A tangled and overloaded mind can’t make you happy. Here is more on How to empty your mind. 

Confidence - Confidence is one of the most important things you will need to be happy. When you are confident, you can face and tackle any challenges – and that’s when you become happy. Accept your weakness and learn how to become confident.

Better Yourself - Your learning journey and efforts to make yourself better should never stop. Changing yourself to a better person is not easy. But once you start the journey, you will be self contained and filled with joy and happiness.

Embrace Simplicity - Find happiness in simple things, live with less, and help others. You don’t need money to live a rich life. A rich life is living with minimal possessions and helping those who are in need. The good feeling you will get from doing so is something that money will not be able to buy.

Feeling good depends on various factors and most of these factors can be learned and practised. As you learn and start practising these factors, you will notice your positivity and good feeling will go up, along with your productivity.

China and India In The Next 20 Years

China or India – Or China AND India?

There is an economic miracle of sorts taking place in today’s global economy, and it is coming as no shock to the people who have been watching the global picture develop these last ten years. However unsurprising it is in general, there will be people who, although they knew it was coming, may not have expected to see it happen in their lifetime. The economic miracle is taking place in Asia. That may not be terribly specific, given the size of the continent itself (the world’s largest continent), so to specify: Where the miracle is really happening is in two particular countries: China and India.

There was always the potential for this to happen, given the raw data that is available to anyone. China and India are two of the world’s largest countries by size, and easily the two largest by population with almost 40% of the world’s people living between them. This mix of landmass and population combined with the resultant ability to call on raw materials gives both China and India the opportunity to maximize any opportunity and become global powerhouses. But this dimensional magnitude has in both cases been both a blessing and a curse. The spread of both countries, allied to China’s historic insularity and India’s numerous dividing factors, has held both back from becoming quite as successful as they might have hoped.

As the 21st century really gets going, with its first decade almost inked into the history books, both China and India look ready to make their big impact on the world’s economy. Both countries are expected to have a big century, and by the middle of this one will, on any reading of the situation, have economies which outstrip the current largest in the world, that of America. China will get there first – by 2030 on a conservative estimate, followed by India within the next 20 years. Will America and others be able to catch up in the mean time and overturn the predictions? It’s hard to say, but the economy does sometimes throw up unexpected situations.

Another question which might arise is that of whether competition between India and China will be a stalling factor in either country’s growth. This is not expected to be the case, as the economic strengths of both countries complement each other quite well, and may in fact enable mutual growth in countries which are showing greater expansion in their economies than any other major nation.

China is endlessly improving on a mass-manufacturing front, and expanding its range of industrial plants in order to cement its role as a world leader in that respect. India is marking its territory as a master of precision manufacturing and software innovation. The two working together will be able to supply the world with much of what it wants without stepping on each other’s toes. It is impressive to see how quickly both have developed, and interesting to wait and see what is next from these two future superpowers.