Tag Archives: opportunities

Money Mission: Embrace the Opportunities in Change

As we continue to look at strategies that can help you to accomplish the financial goals that you set for 2013, it is important to consider some major obstacles that could be hindering your progress. Goal achievement requires you to be honest about the issues that may be holding you back.

If you are working towards your goals, you must be proceeding in a forward motion. No one has ever achieved anything by standing still or looking back on the past. So, in order to succeed in your objectives, you must be willing to move from where you are today onto new pathways.

Whether you want to budget effectively, save more, get out of debt, increase your income, buy a home, or start investing for your retirement, it is necessary for you to adopt improved money attitudes and actions. Change is integral to the process of accomplishing your financial goals. Continue reading Money Mission: Embrace the Opportunities in Change

More Money: Finding Earning Opportunities

Most people will agree that having more money is essential, but many will admit that they don’t know where to find opportunities to earn from their own efforts. Our education system does not really put much emphasis on self-employment and entrepreneurship; so many graduates leave school with a dependence on external sources to generate an income.

Our columns for this month have been dedicated to helping you understand what you need to do to increase your earning potential by creating your own sources of income. If you are going to survive and succeed in these challenging economic times, you will need to focus a lot of your attention on making extra money in your spare time.

This week, let’s look at some simple strategies that can help you to identify and take advantage of various opportunities to create your own income. Continue reading More Money: Finding Earning Opportunities

Money Mission: Just Do It!

It’s the beginning of a new year, and like most people, you may have prepared a list of things that you want to accomplish for 2013. Whether you hope to get fit, lose weight, save more money, read a book each month or spend less time on Facebook, you probably have a strong desire to finally see your plans through to completion this time.

The reality is that the success rate for keeping New Year’s resolutions is usually very low for many persons. Despite our best wishes and firm declarations of change, somehow it is just easier to continue along the familiar highway of ‘same-old, same-old’ than to traverse the often challenging pathway that leads to progress.

If you are one of those faithful readers who have followed my column for almost seven years, you might have seen me confess my own limitations with following through on important tasks. In the past, there have been several missed opportunities and projects that have been left undone, because of my lack of courage, determination, or patience. Continue reading Money Mission: Just Do It!

Giving Thanks for 2011

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.”

This quote from the Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities eloquently expresses some of the conflicting realities of Jamaica in 2011.

As we approach the end of another year, it might be tempting for us to become cynical about our nation’s growth in the past and potential for the future. Politicians, psychologists, financial analysts, civil society groups and ordinary citizens all have varying opinions about the economic challenges that hinder our progress.

With ‘Brand Jamaica’ continuing to ride high, why is it that we couldn’t take advantage of our tremendous popularity and goodwill to reap financial benefits in 2011? Continue reading Giving Thanks for 2011

Developing Your Millionaire Mindset

Last week, we introduced a fascinating audio book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, in which author T Harv Eker explains how people’s thoughts can actually influence their financial results. This week, we explore some of Eker’s insightful suggestions about how you can create a mindset for wealth.

Acknowledge that you create your results

It’s important to understand that you have the ability to design the destiny that you desire. Eker insists that you are the “steering wheel of your financial life” as you have the power to create what you have or what you don’t have. Unfortunately, too many people never achieve their goals because they think that forces outside of their control are responsible for their success or failure.

Instead of taking responsibility for their future, Eker explains, people with poverty mindsets often blame other people and circumstances for their money problems. They also try to justify their financial lack with comments such as, “Money is not that important to me.”

Constant complaining is another form of negative energy that actually ensures that they only attract more problems. Continue reading Developing Your Millionaire Mindset

Is Network Marketing A Good Business Opportunity?

Earning additional money has become a necessity for most people in these tough financial times. Gone are the days when persons could feel comfortable with a single source of income – for some people, a nine-to-five job has almost become an endangered species.

As people look for ways to supplement or replace their salaries, one business opportunity has risen to the forefront as a viable option. Network marketing, also called multi-level marketing (MLM), is now being seriously considered by many people as a route to starting their own business.

According to Wikipedia.com, network marketing is a selling strategy that compensates promoters of direct selling companies for product sales they personally generate, and for the sales of others they introduced to the company. By using referrals and word-of-mouth promotion, independent business owners receive compensation for the volume of sales they and their down-line team can generate. Continue reading Is Network Marketing A Good Business Opportunity?

Making Money from your Bedroom

It’s been said that an entrepreneur is someone who sees opportunities where others see problems. Envisioning and creating a thriving business venture out of a simple concept is definitely a skill that can lead you into a great fortune. Unfortunately, many people lack this insight and miss out on profitable ways to earn income.

As a financial advisor, I am always on the lookout for new money-making ideas to share with budding entrepreneurs. Recently, Nuff Hope Limited, the business arm of Swallowfield Chapel, held an informative seminar which exposed dozens of business opportunities available in Jamaica.

Evadnie Sterling, chairman of Nuff Hope, explained that the church started looking at ways to mitigate the effects of the economic downturn on its ministries and community. “Nuff Hope was established to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurship,” Sterling noted. Continue reading Making Money from your Bedroom

The Secrets to Wealth

It has been said that only about one per cent of the world’s population ever achieves great wealth. No wonder the 99 per cent majority thinks that there are some hidden secrets to becoming wealthy that rich people won’t divulge!

Recently, First Global Financial Services (FGFS) revealed some of the mysteries to wealth at its Dollars and Sense Money Management seminar. Jason Dear, FGFS Equity Trading manager, explained that the act of wealth creation was not shrouded in secrecy.

Dear explained that making money came with understanding and following simple money principles.

“There are universal rules that govern wealth creation,” he clarified. “To get rich you need to learn and execute these principles.” Dear outlined his top 10 list of ‘secrets’ that could help ordinary people begin a successful journey to wealth: Continue reading The Secrets to Wealth

The 3 M’s of Money

“In a recent column you said that it was possible for persons to learn how to be financially literate. I am tired of always being low on funds and big in debt. What are some of the things that I should be doing in order to be successful with money?”

Being smart with money is not hard once you learn and start practising some basic financial principles. After many years of being financially clueless, I was able to completely turn around my money situation once I discovered the secrets of financially successful people.

These revelations came after years of reading books about money, searching the Internet, watching financial television shows and interviewing wealthy persons.

Based on my research and personal experience, there are three things you need to focus on: managing the money you already have, multiplying money for growth, and maintaining your money to last throughout your life and beyond. Continue reading The 3 M’s of Money

An Attitude of Gratitude

“When I’m worried and I can’t sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings.”
“Count your Blessings,” Bing Crosby

Over the last three months, we have covered many of your concerns – escalating energy costs, the international financial crisis, increasing mortgage rates and foreclosures, and fear of the financial future – and presented practical solutions to help you deal with these realities.

With the global economy apparently deteriorating before it gets any better, threats of recession and redundancy, and the shrinking net worth positions of the rich and not-so-rich alike, it might be easy to feel a sense of despair as the year draws to a close. For most people, 2008 will definitely not be remembered for bringing financial blessings. Continue reading An Attitude of Gratitude