Pursuit of Excellence

http://www.investopedia.com/advisor-network/articles/110316/7-ways-grow-your-account-balances/

One of the common top concerns that I hear from individuals is how they’re not able to save. A consistent savings plan helps you build a solid financial foundation. But where do you begin? Here are seven ways to help you grow your account balances. Your strategy starts with your spending plan. (For more, see: 3 Smart Ways to Update Your Investment Plan.) The seven ways are: create a budget, set up a savings plan, considering opening a CD, consider opening an online FDIC-insured savings account, maximize your contributions, consolidate your retirement accounts, and invest early and often. I believe creating a budget is the first and most important step in not just saving money, but money management period. How do you know how much you can save when you don’t know how much you have after all your bills are paid? Your budget should have enough room to save money. There are four steps in my process, and if you’d like to learn about it, you can reach me at the contact me section. The author states that a savings plan should include three to six months of expenses. In my opinion, you should set aside income instead of expenses. The reason is you are more likely to earn more than you spend. Setting aside three or six months’ worth of income will create an additional buffer for unforeseen large expenses. A CD will give you a higher yield vs your savings account, but it will often require a higher amount to open. In regards to savings accounts, your online savings accounts will have a higher annual percentage yield (APY) vs a standard savings account you’d get at your local bank. Personally, I use Ally Bank, but I recommend you use websites such as www.nerdwallet.com or www.bankrate.com to check your rates. Three ways you can maximize your 401K is by maximizing your contributions, consolidating retirement accounts if you’ve moved between jobs, and finally to invest as often as you can early in life. In my opinion, you should invest enough to ensure that your company is matching your contribution. Be sure to check with your HR department to find out how high they will match your contribution. I recommend that you increase your financial knowledge to invest in not just paper assets, but in assets that will produce income. One day you will retire, and it’s better to have multiple streams of income.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278848

Nearly all marketers agree on the importance of social media marketing for business growth. And considering that 33 percent of millennials today say social media is one of their preferred channels for communicating with businesses, I expect it will become even more important over time. That said, a lot of brands still don’t know how to use social media to engage audiences and help their own bottom line. There is, however, a right — and wrong — way businesses can share their content on social media. Since there is a lot of valuable content in this article there will be a lot of quotes, and I highly recommend that you read this article. The right way is having a business share its content on the platforms where its target audience spends the most time. The author recommends that the business do research into the demographics of different platforms. It’s best to have two focused social accounts to build your business vs. having multiple unused accounts. Even if you have the same end-goal for your content across social media, you should optimize it for each platform’s characteristics and strengths. For example: Videos tend to outperform images on Facebook. Twitter posts, while no more than 140 characters, should be even shorter if you’re including an image. (Luckily, that should be changing soon.) LinkedIn doesn’t support hashtags, so don’t use them. For Twitter and Instagram, hashtags are a necessity. Using visuals can help when you post on any platform, so be sure to use imagery. The author does also state that it is wrong to not vary your content. With the rise of paid social options, it’s no surprise that organic reach has become more difficult for brands. But you can still get the most out of your organic posts by sharing them at optimum times, which tend to vary by platform. Finally, the wrong thing to do when using social media is to spam newsfeeds. Keep in mind having an online presence doesn’t give you a presence in just your local community, with the right infrastructure you could have a global presence. Think differently, and think how you can create an income producing asset. Think about how to increase cash flow, and how to preserve assets. Always keep in mind wealth is a measure of how long your riches will last you. If your income from your assets is greater than your expenses, then you can quit your job and retire rich.

If you need a financial checkup you can reach me in the contact me section.

For this week, I’ve included How to be successful – the success cycle (Tony Robbins) from The Internet Marketer YouTube channel.

“If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure; real survivors learn wisdom from others.” Proverbs‬ 28:26‬ MSG‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬