How to Manage Your Monthly Salary Better

Do you find yourself struggling to stretch your salary to the end of the month? Living from pay cheque to pay cheque can't be much fun. But often it's not the money we earn but rather how we handle it that makes all the difference. Here are 10 ways to manage your monthly salary more effectively.

Check your salary statement.

The first thing you should do when your salary is credited into your account is go through your salary statement. Check all amounts ie basic salary, travel allowance, medical allowance and other reimbursements to see if you have got your dues. In case of any incorrect amounts, notify your HR/finance department immediately about the discrepancy. This way you can ensure the arrears are credited with your next month's salary.

Pay off all your bills.

Activate an Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) facility for the payment of your credit card, phone, electricity and other bills so that they are paid on time every month. This will help you to avoid late payment fees which can eat into your savings. If ECS is not the way you want to go, write out your cheques at the start of the month and simply add amounts when the bills are generated.

Plan your tax-saving strategy.

Often people find themselves facing a cash crunch at the year-end thanks to bad financial planning the whole year through. You could opt for a tax-saving scheme that allows for monthly payment or simply save a certain amount each month for a lump sum investment at the year end. You could even put this amount in a recurring deposit or a liquid plus fund to earn some money on it.

Save that bonus!

If you received a bonus around Diwali time, we hope you didn't just splurge. You can spend a little of your yearly bonus (say 20 per cent). The rest should be saved. You never know when you might want to go on a spontaneous vacation or just throw a fancy cocktail party for your friends.

Budget for the month.

List out your standard monthly expenses like groceries, building outgoings, tuition fees, car fuel etc and make a rough budget for each of them. Don't forget to include amounts that go towards savings, investments and of course, your contingency fund. This way you know how much money is left at your disposal.

Save and invest.

Salaries ensure a regular flow of income which makes Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) a great investment avenue. In about five years, you will reap rich dividends. Liquid plus funds make for great short-term avenues.

Give to charity.

Some of the richest people in the world make it a point to give a part of their earnings to charity. Now we're not saying give with the motive of receiving, but be generous. Donate to charity, give to beggars (food or money) and you won't find yourself crying poverty every month. It's the law of sowing and reaping!

(Source: idiva.com)

How to Measure Your Social Media Return On Investment

Most business follow a simple rule when it comes to adopting new technologies or paradigms – If it boosts my business’ Return of Investments (ROI), it’s worth the investment. Social Media is no exception to this rule. Unless, businesses see value addition from social media, they are not going to take the plunge.

Therefore, as a social media activist, one of my primary responsibilities is to educate businesses on how they can measure their social media ROI. This helps them understand and appreciate the impact of social media on their business. This post explains the various aspects of Social media ROI from a business’ perspective.

Is Social Media ROI Measurable?

Of course, it is. Otherwise the social media world won’t be full of millions of success stories for boosting ROI using innovative social networking tools. Now, that the “If” hurdle has been cleared, comes the all important question of “How”.

How to measure Social Media ROI?

I’ve come across many social media marketers who claim that it’s a challenging task to measure social media ROI because there are no rules/ guidelines to do so. I beg to differ. Though I admit that there are a number of variables and qualitative factors in the equation, measuring the ROI is a critical part of the social media adoption policy for any business.

Simply put, ROI is (Revenue – Investment)/ Investment. Social Media helps boost an ROI because it

1)    Helps in boosting a business revenue therefore increasing the numerator

2)    Requires minimal investment therefore decreasing the denominator

Define Goals & Create a baseline

It may sound difficult to believe but a majority of businesses find it difficult to come up with clear and concise goals for social media adoption. It is crucial to create a baseline with the current status-quo as it helps to quantitatively access the gains from social media.

Jot down your current numbers and your goals. It is equally important to know where you stand now as it is to know where you want to get. No ROI calculation is complete without a concrete baseline.

From a social media perspective, a baseline may involve the following numbers

* Twitter Followers

* Facebook Fans

* Retweets

* Unique Impressions from Twitter & Facebook etc.

Is it just revenue?

While in financial terms, ROI usually relates to revenue and profits, it’s a different proposition when it comes to social media. The gains from Twitter, Facebook and any other social network may not always be measurable in financial terms. They may help boost traffic on your business website or simply spread brand awareness or improve your goodwill in the customer community. Of course, one of social media’s ROI contributors to boosting ROI is the enormous amount of savings. A well-planned social media strategy can help a business drastically reduce its advertising and marketing budgets.

Periodically monitor and Act

Most businesses join the social media bandwagon and are so awe-struck by its sheer powers that they are happy with whatever returns they get. In fact, a majority of businesses end up underutilizing social media when compared with its true benefits.

It is important to periodically assess and review your business’ progress by matching it with the baseline. If your business is not achieving the set targets, there’s time for retrospection and action. If your social media strategy achieved the desired results, do not sit back and relax. It is time you take your social media efforts to the next level.

(Source: Smedio )

Fashion: 10 Pieces of Clothing Worth the Investment

Ladies, if you're looking for investment that match with your passion, fashion branded items are win-win solution. You will get beauty and money-saving although those prices are expensive. However, you can keep them, and could sell it when the mode trends became perfect match for your old items. So it's really worth to give it an exception for buying expensive stuff. Beside, Fashion branded items are hype, right?

1. The (Not So Little) Black Dress

Staying on top of current-season fashion trends can be costly. Today's hot maxi dress is tomorrow's back-of-the-closet military jacket -- so spring 2011. If you're a dedicated follower of fashion, bank on these eternally in-style pieces. You'll know what a good investment you've made 10 years from now -- when you're still wearing them.

If you're going to splurge on just one item, make it the simple black dress in a style that suits your body type. For slender or evenly proportioned figures, choose a sheath or A-line. An empire waist works for apple, pear and rectangle shapes while a V-neck flatters full figures or large busts. Avoid trendy looks, lace and embellishments. Think of your dress as a blank canvas; use jewelry, scarves and accessories to add color and texture, and to stay current with changing fashions.

2. The Tailored White Dress Shirt

Classic, chic, polished and appropriate for any situation, the crisp white button-front dress shirt is a wardrobe essential that many women overlook. Yet no other item can go from the boardroom to the beach. Choose a 100-percent cotton shirt with a single seam down the sides and under the arms rather than double stitching -- this indicates a better-quality shirt. Other necklines come and go, but the standard pointed collar is tried-and-true. When it's not about business but pleasure, wear it unbuttoned over a T-shirt and jeans.

3. The Cashmere Sweater

If you've never worn cashmere, you don't know what you're missing. The essence of understated elegance, cashmere sweaters can run the gamut of cable knit, crew neck, V-neck, cardigan, mock turtleneck and sleeveless shell. Classic colors include grey, oatmeal, camel, ivory, and pale pink. Two-ply yarn and long fibers indicate better quality while short fibers will pill. Expect to pay hundreds for a new high-quality cashmere sweater.

4. The 10-Mile Heels

Are good shoes worth it? Yes, but only if you resist current trends. The black pump in a medium heel is your best option. Expensive shoes feel better and wear longer due to quality construction and materials. When you put them on, you should be unafraid to walk 10 miles in them -- that's how comfortable they should be. No matter how drop-dead gorgeous they are, if they hurt within seconds they're not worth the price.

5. The Pencil Skirt

You can't go wrong spending money on a good pencil skirt; it's the most useful item of clothing in any woman's closet. It fits well when it hugs your hips and tapers inward, ending at knee length or up to an inch above. Black, navy, brown, grey or beige are versatile neutrals that you can mix and match for years with other essential wardrobe items to dress up or down.

6. The Leather Jacket

Jennifer Aniston shelled out $12,000 for James Dean's leather jacket, but you can do better for a fraction of the price. Although a motorcycle jacket is hip and timeless, a mid-length fitted jacket is more enduring. For the softest, most supple leather, look for a jacket made of lambskin. Don't waste your money on inferior pieced-together patchwork leather.

7. The Perfect Pair of Jeans

Jeans may not seem like an extravagant purchase, but some brands cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Why spend so much? High-end manufacturers use a finer weave of denim and some wearers claim certain cuts make them look thinner. If you do invest in a pair, mid-rise dark jeans with a boot cut or straight leg never go out of style, while those with 1 percent or 2 percent spandex have a more flattering fit and hold their shape better after repeated washings.

8. The Lightweight Wool Blazer

If you want to impress but a suit feels too formal, a high-quality blazer of lightweight wool paired with pants or a skirt communicates style and sophistication. A well-made blazer will have lapels that lie flat, seams that don't pucker, and a lining that doesn't bunch. Buy one that fits you in the shoulders -- slight alterations can always be done on the sleeves and the torso.

9. The Tailored Trouser

There are pants...and then there are tailored trousers. Mimicking menswear but with a decidedly feminine shape, an elegant pair of trousers that fit perfectly can make your rear appear firmer and your belly flatter. Fabrics like wool crepe have a luxurious drape and resist wrinkles. Choose a mid-rise straight leg trouser that fits just below the waist, and opt for solids such as black, grey or brown, or a small herringbone pattern or fine stripes. 

10. The Belted Trench Coat

The November 1918 issue of Harper's Bazaar recommended the trench coat as a gift "For the Woman in Service at Home and Abroad." Price tag: $65. Almost a century later, the classic trench is still fashionable, but today Burberry's traditional cotton gabardine coat begins at $1,295. Yet if you wore yours twice a week for 50 years, your cost per wear would be 25 cents -- an unbeatable investment. Imagine the savings if your great-grandmother had bought one back in 1918 and passed it down to you.

(Source: msn-life.com)

The beginner's guide to investment: Are you ready to invest?

Taking the decision to begin investing your money is a big step. Many of you are doing so in order to increase the capital value of your money or to get an income and maintain the level of your savings. 

Investment means introducing risk to your money. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as increased risk can help you grow your cash. But, conversely, there is the possibility that you could lose some, or all, of your money.

There are four key activities that you must undertake before considering investing your money:

1) Sort out your debt

It's imperative to ensure that your debts are under control before considering investment. Debt is generally much more expensive to service than the returns you'll get from investments and large debt repayments may stop you from reaching your financial goals. 

Additionally, if you do lose money by investing, you risk defaulting on your debt repayments. Focus on reducing debt to levels that you're comfortable to manage or, ideally, pay off all debt before investing. Readour guide to dealing with debt for more information. 

2) Get protected

Make sure your finances are protected if you cannot work due to illness for an extended period of time. Check your sick pay scheme at work to see how long you would be covered for and consider taking out income protection insurance if you are self employed. 

Other insurance, like critical illness cover if you become seriously ill, could also be an option if you have a mortgage or dependents, although this can be expensive.

In addition to this, life insurance is an essential item you need to take out before thinking of investment, especially if you have a family. Your work may offer a death in service benefit, but consider an additional policy, in case you change jobs or are out of work. 

Find out more in our guide How to buy life insurance. 

3) Think about retirement

One of the biggest problems in the UK is that people are not saving enough for their retirement. Relying on the state to provide a pension for you in older age may not be enough to maintain the lifestyle you have now or leave you comfortable in retirement. 

It's vital that you start saving for your later years as early as possible. Make sure you're contributing to youremployee pension scheme or a private pension before investing any spare cash – pension savers benefit from employer contributions and generous tax breaks. 

4) Make sure you’ve got savings

Have you got spare cash to fall back on? Before introducing risk to your money, you need some core savingsas an emergency fund for those unseen events. 

The generally accepted rule is to have three months' salary in savings before you invest. And make sure that these savings are in a high-rate savings account.

Source: http://www.which.co.uk

Dua Ransel: tips about cheap long-term traveling

We have special tips about cheap-travelling from famous travelers, Dua Ransel. They have been traveling around the world for long time. This article is taken from their website.

Traveling long term would require the preparation of a more mature compared to a short holiday. Two questions that often arise from the comrades are:

How to fund your long-term traveling? Are we rich? No, we're not rich. In fact we had broken when I was in college, and had to take a student loan. Like many other young people, we also started from scratch! Working, and saving. And another thing, we do prioritize our nomadic way of life.

Keep going, how we can finance our long-term traveling? Here’s our way:

Preparation and sacrifice before leaving

Clever to reduce costs while on the road

Work on the road

Here I want to share 10 tips for traveling a long-term fund based on our own experience:

1. Frugal, hard-working and diligent saving. It’s like elementary school lesson, but it’s so right!
2. Lay off rent. Before the traveling, we lived in an apartment. Because we will not occupy the apartment for more than a year, why we still pay the rent / mortgage which not cheap? Double pay to stay in our hometown and in the traveling is a waste of money. So our empty apartment and stopped the rent. We now have no fixed address!
3. Sell ​​stuff. We do not know how long we’re going to travel, and after traveling we will stay in our destination. There are so many things that we are not likely to need again. So we gave up most of our stuff. We sell what can be sold, such as, TVs, computers, furniture. Sizable increase funding for travel. We donate things that can’t be sold, for example, most of our clothes, kitchen appliances, and  groceries. We save things whose sentimental value, for example, a variety of personal items such as jewelry, documents, photographs, and gifts.
4. Low budget traveling. Choose cheap accommodation such as hostels and inns, rather than an expensive hotel. Buy food from the supermarket or street food, instead of an expensive restaurant. For transportation within the city: walking, riding the bus or subway if necessary, rather than an expensive taxi ride.
5. Design routes places by our self, rather than take an expensive tour. For transportation between cities/countries, always compare the price of buses, trains, and planes. Consider alternate routes.The price of clothes washing would be expensive, so we wash our own clothes in the sink.
6. Clever to use promotions price. If you are observant, sometimes luxuries can be obtained at budget prices, so keep looking for promo price, for example via the Internet. Here are some examples: Prices rose cruise ship from the U.S. to Europe in March to May can be cheaper than the price of the cheapest flights. With boating excursion, you get 14 days on a luxury boat with a nice meal, a show every night, and stop-stop at various exotic locations such as islands in the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. So, if you want to move from America to Europe, why take airplane? Why not just take the crucible, and see the exotic places? In Amsterdam and Copenhagen, we slept in a 4-star hotel because the price is cheaper than the cheapest hostel (via priceline.com). Climbing routes, don’t commute to back home. Return to home is expensive, especially if you are in the end of the Earth. If you would like to visit several countries, that should be done, because it is usually available cheap transport between adjacent states. For example: If you wish to go to Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and German, do not commute places to Indonesia. Travel from one country to another is cheaper. And maybe you'll have time to visit other countries adjacent well.
7. Always looking for the cheapest route and flexible in determining the country of destination.We are not stuck on a particular route or destination country. We determine the next destination and route based on price. For example: When we were ready to leave Copenhagen and Denmark, the price rather than the cheapest transport to neighboring countries such as Germany, but to the island of Crete (Greece) in the Mediterranean Sea, which is about 30-40 euro. The second lowest price we have found is a bus ticket to Berlin. So we flew to the island of Crete! When we were flying from Sydney to Los Angeles, our plane has transit in Fiji. Apparently like transit 4 hours or 4 days, the price is the same. Yes why not take a short vacation together in Fiji.
8. Souvenirs? Think twice! Expensive souvenir and spent a lot of places in the backpack. So very rarely we bought it, and is limited to small objects. We do not insist on buying a souvenir from every city or even country we passed. In Digital era like this, take lots of photos. Make it personal and memorable souvenir.
9. Bring a laptop or a mobile phone that can be Wi-Fi internet. Free W-iFi is widely available in many public places such as restaurants, hotels, malls, etc.. With this, you can do many things for free: Call through Skype. Oh yes, before you leave, do not forget to install Skype on computers your loved ones such as parents, siblings, girlfriend, and his pal, so you can call them with Skype. Stay in touch with friends via messenger, texting, chatting, FB, twitter, etc. Browse the internet. For those of us who do not carry the travel guidebook Lonely Planet which kind of heavy and expensive, we use the Internet to browse about local sites. Search travel promo price and booking it. Upload photos on the internet.
10. Working while traveling This is one of the keys to our long-term funding of traveling! We are still working while we are on the road, the work can be done through a laptop and internet.

Tips: Choosing Life Insurance

Life insurance can be useful instrument to face life risk. You and your lovely ones also can get help in financial if problems come.

But you must be careful to choose life insurance for maximum security of your life. Here are some important things that you need to pay attention:

1. Buy based on your needs
2. Insurance is primary needs to protect someone’s economic values in productive ages.
3. Productive ages from 20-55 years old when people have constant and growing income
4. When you are in productive ages and realize about protection needs, so it would be perfect time to take priority, by using term insurance or whole life insurance.
5. The claim could get bigger than subscription if in term insurance/whole life you take long time payment about 20 years
6. Usually, You can save about 5% - 10% of your income per year
7. The amount of claim money are variable depend on total dependents and comfort level of insurance.
8. If you could fulfill life insurance then you may think about other insurance i.e. health insurance, modern insurance like unitlinked, scholarship, endowment (which has saving values), etc.

(Source: Bisnis Indonesia)

How to Play Stocks for Beginner

Buying and selling shares? Maybe it hasn't crossed your mind considering the young age. However, if there are excess funds, still single, and don't have a lot of needs, why don't you learn to play stocks?

Play the stock you can do while in College are being or becoming the free practice economics beyond the campus. In addition, this can also be done while you wait for a call. The most exciting thing from playing in the stock market is high enough upside. In fact, the advantages of the stock market could be greater than that of deposits or investments in bonds. However, on the other hand, the risk of any loss can be very large.

The stock is one of the financial products including capital markets. These shares be proof of ownership to the company stock certificate issuer. People could lose out when investing in the stock market because planning trade less ripe, consideration of the level of risk and profit are still weak, and too quick a decision.

Lonika (31) an employee of a private who had been in the stock exchange, said the losses could occur if the person is not careful in choosing stocks and less monitoring his movements.

In addition, people would rather buy shares regardless of the value of the stock. Therefore, here are the things you need to consider before playing stocks.

1. Learn the economy globally to see a picture of the stock market. In addition, note also the characteristics of the stock exchange and the rate of the economy. When the economy is good, it's time you invest. If that happens the opposite, you should get out of the stock market.

2. It's not too soon to believe in financial data. Moreover, the data has not been validated by Bapepam or unedited.

3. Be careful in choosing the industry and know his track record. It's good for you to choose the type of industry that is frowned upon and study in depth.

4. For beginners, it is best to choose one or two stocks. It's just that, you need to make sure that the stocks did have a good track record.

5. Try it in small quantities such as Rp 10 million or $ 20 million.

6. If you already know the trick, increase the value of the invested money gradually.

7. Don't just remember the good thing, but be aware that the value of your money could run out if the loss.

8. Makes a good relationship with the broker.

9. Continue to deepen your knowledge and meticulous in carrying out your stock.

Source: Kompas newspaper (February 4th, 2013)