Think about Your Life !

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If you can not Live beautifully, 
Act to live it beautifully !

Life Changing Quotes

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1. Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better.
                                                                                                Unknown.
2. To accomplish Great things, we must not only ACT, but  also DREAM , not only PLAN, but also BELIEVE.
                                                                                                Anatole France
3. We first make our Habits , and then our Habits make us.  
                                                                                                John Dryden.

My personal favorite is the 3rd one, we must be very particular and specific about adopting any new Habit.
Good luck to you all , Enjoy the road to PERFECTION, although Perfection is a journey, it can not be termed as a Destination. Because, there is always a scope for improvement.                      

Power of LOVE !

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There is tremendous power in Love.

1. It changes hearts,

2. It renews spirits,

3. It gives hope to the despairing,

4. It lifts the weary, restores physical and mental health too.

5. And  most important effect is that it brings happiness where there was none.

I just read the mentioned lines from the Desk Calendar of an Executive and felt very touched and could not resist to share the wonderful effects of Love with you all.

So I would suggest to :

1. Do not limit your Love just to your family, share with others too.

2. Never hesitate to hug a person, it can boost his/her energy.

3. Do something every day to see a tinkle in the eyes of any sad or needy person.

4. Let Love happen to you... Let Life happen to you.

5. Spread Love all around... it is very precious, gets multiplied if you share. 

Love yourself , Love the Nature and Be in Love you would feel blessed and charged all the time .

Power of the Words

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Last week. One of my senior official at works , shared a sms with me. It was really remarkable.  If you can follow and apply the message in your life, Life would be very much easier :

• .       Forgive those persons   which are unforgettable.
• .       Forget  those persons  which  are beyond forgiveness .

Due to heavy workload at works (Nov to Mar), I could not contribute much to my Blog.. very soon by the end of this month , I will be back with my own pace to share my experience and experiments with LIFE again.

Enjoy and have a nice time with “Beloved Life” !. Check my hindi poems at www.belovedlife-santosh.blogspot.in

Quotes for Better L I F E.

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1.Your life is in your hands, to make of it what you choose. 

   John Kehoe.

2.Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not

  you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in

  someone else’s hands, but not you. 

  Jim Rohn.

3.I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of

  those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk. 

  Anthony Robbins.

4.We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence , then, is not an act, but a habit.  

  Aristotle.

5.People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do

  things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success. 

  Norman Vincent Peale.

6.There is just one life for each of us: our own. 

   Eurpides.

7.You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence,

  we are in the field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices. 

  Deepak Chopra.

I always believed in the magic of words, A good  QUOTE can change our life, it can boost our morale and charge up to lead a successful life.

I hope any one of the mentioned quote will sure inspire you to lead a better life.

Importance of Pocket Money For Kids & Parents (Part:1)

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Yeah.. I am talking about Money first time on My Blog . After 12^th std of my studies, once I started going colleges, I was always interested about understanding relation of our Life with Money and after finishing College study I was inclined to Financial planning. I started looking around and exploring the diversity of life and observed that People are running for money. If you ask people, why do they live ? Most of them would answer without hesitation that they live for Money, they live for money to fulfill the basic requirements of their family, after all money is needed by every person to live gracefully in society, although limits (how much money?) always differ.. person to person with age, place and necessity.

So dear readers, this blog is about POCKET MONEY.. the sweetest form of Money. This is sweetest because, we just start getting it from our lovely parents.. right there in our home. For rest all other forms of money, we have to work hard, we have to go out, we have to work under Boss , we have to make lots of compromises and blah..blah and blah.

Pocket Money is  an amount of money given to children every month to  fulfill their needs. It is small amount of money given by parents to meet the petty cash expenses of their kid.

It may be used by them for spending on :

-     --     Candies

-     --     School lunch / breakfast

-     --     Toys

-     --     Books

-     --     Gift

Children can spend their pocket money to  themselves, their friends or family members. Generally , pocket money is given on monthly basis, sometimes it is given on periodical  basis during special occasion and festivals also. Some families believe in paying pocket money to kids on adhoc basis too, as and when required and demanded by kids.

Pocket money may be needed to those kids specially , who used to go school by Bus. The amount may be useful while camping, picnic also. It may be used as an emergency / contingency fund during any accident or unseen event.

I personally feel that if we maintain a discipline about Pocket money, we can teach several important aspects of money and life using and setting some principles about it.  I would like to mention that Pocket Money  is the foremost and important stepping stone to Money-driven world. If we wish to secure the future of our Child financially, we can use this simple tool to teach the basics and importance of Money. Parents may differ with my ideas and perspectives to allow pocket money to kids or not, but I advocate for it. The child can feel responsible and important after this initiative.

When to Start :

Like other skills, Child learns attitude and get used to Money from home. The best time to start may differ for rural and urban areas, I think 3+ year Age is suitable to start. Children learn to identify coins and rupees by the age of 8+ year year and can buy chocolates , ice cream etc . They should be able to use basic mathematical skills as like Addition, subtraction also. Although, it is needed to monitor their money management till they grown up and start earning their pocket money / salary, specially till 12^th std.  Just gift them a “Gullak” or a  money box, you may mark this date in your Diary. This little event may change his life positively. Now, the child would start making choices, saving and waiting for the things they want. You can realize the development of sense of responsibility and independence about money after issuing Pocket Money first time.

How much  Pocket Money :

We can not devise or use a formulae. It depends upon family income, family budget, lifestyle, education standard and age of the child also. It depends upon residential area / locality. We should also  think about the pocket money given to their friends also. Take account of bus charges / auto charges to school, breakfast / lunch expenses estimation before fixing the pocket money. The pocket money should be reasonable and comparable. If it is less, it could lead to inferiority complex. The money may be increased with progressing age and need of the child.  You may start by as low as Rs. 100 per month, set the limits as 40 % for saving, 20 % for emergency needs, 20 % for chocolates and balance 20% for stationary needs. Monitor and review their requirement and expenses for first 3 months and then you can judge the reasonable amount yourself and the child would be satisfied also.

You can top up their pocket money by incentives , as and when required ( as per special occasion, festival , summer vacations or  special achievement). You can ask them to help in household activities as like – Gardening, house keeping, maintaining cleanliness, helping family and others.

You can increase their Pocket Money once in a year , increment date may be new session of study or birthday of your child.

Advantages

We can teach several important aspects of Money to our children using the Pocket Money technique. Some points may be :

•  The value of money,
•  Useful Spending : needs & habits,
•  Importance of earning money,
•  Why and How to save money,
•  Simple Interest, Compound Interest, Inflation
•  Borrowing and repaying
•  Basic Accounting and maintaining a Ledger
•  Basics of financial and money management.

We can teach them about Budgeting and Financial Planning basics too. This will help them to understand and practice the benefits of Planned expenditure and savings.

It is not necessary by child to spend all the Pocket Money for the given period. Motivate and train them about Saving. The child should write down the expenses date wise, head wise. They  should put a side  some % / fixed part of the pocket money for Saving. Ask them to prepare a Contingency Fund. Help them setting up their short term and Long term financial requirements, planning and meeting the goals. They may save their pocket money to buy a gift for their parents  or siblings too, if it is costlier one . If the saved money grows up to  a substantial amount, the same can be transferred to Bank A/c. It is also advised to open a Joint / Kids Advantage Bank A/c in the name of child. If the child grows up and particularly after the age of 10+, you should make him aware about banking practices also, i.e.

-          How to deposit money

-          How to withdraw money

-          What is Interest, how it is calculated and compounded

Risks

As we know that every good thing has bad aspects too if mishandled. So be cautious about the money spending habits of your child. Check his ledger / notebook (given to him for maintain and writing about expenses). Check if there is any pattern of expenses. Cross check about their spending habits if seems doubtful.

You must explain your kids about how to spend and when to spend . Advise them that they are independent to spend the money but as per set directions, principles and limits.

Although pocket money is often treated as casual fund in regular house hold budget, but it has importance and the concept can be used effectively by parents to develop understanding of money matters to child right from their early age and it would be very beneficial with age. Remember It is one of the first way to let them learn the basics of Managing Money ..the very important skill needed for life ahead. Do one thing for sure, encourage them for SAVING. They may start it by collecting coins and currency notes marked with images.

I hope for your valuable comments. Do wait and visit again if this topic sounds interesting to you, I have lot more to share about Tips on Financial planning..

Copyright@Santosh Kumar, 2011

Picture courtesy : Google Images

First Deserve Then Desire.

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Since my childhood days, My father used to say me. First deserve, then desire. It’s been very inspiring and motivating.

You can guess that a child has several desires and wishes, they can demand for anything they like, they just don’t bother about the time, place or cost of the selected object. Sometimes, it’s very hard for me also to convince my kids. Children desires used to be unlimited, not just children, we (adult persons) have also many such desires and wishes as like :

• I want to be Millionaire.
• I want a Big House.
• I want to travel the world.
• I want a personal Aeroplane.
• I want my own business.
• I wish to have fitness as like Salman khan.
• My ambition is  to be Doctor.
• I  want a promotion and hefty increment in my job.

……..and so on.

Just wishing or having desire of something is not enough. We must think, are we worth for…?

Now a days , the world is very much materialistic, Life is very competitive. If we do not posses a big house, a 4-wheeler, a good bank balance (not in swiss bank..ha..ha.), a five figure salary. We are not recognized as successful in society.

Our kids & family members , used to demand one thing or another. Their demands are guided by TV, Magazines and neighbors also. Sometimes, they demand because there’s friend have the same thing, their wish list increases with entries to maintain their lifestyle and reputation. Their wish list seems to be the icon of their ego and attitude. After all मानव की इच्छाएँ अनंत होती हैं, मनुष्य इच्छाओं और परिस्थिती का दास होता है.

I try to inspire them with the same quote by my father “First Deserve Then Desire”.

My father used to convince me repeatedly, first..prepare yourself, labor hard and be eligible for the award and win it. If you try to hard and run towards your destination with honest effort, destiny will add wings to your destination to fly  towards you. Do not fed up with the circumstances you face, you would learn to make a balance with your destiny and circumstances. 

I have followed my father saying. It had made me rough and tough to win under difficult situations. All my successes so far are devoted to My Father. If you adopt the quote, you will learn with time and then you would also experience that now your wish list have some meaningful wishes, un-appropriate dreams/wishes will be deducted from the list. You will be happier and successful than your earlier period. 

I would like to suggest everybody who is in pursuit of a Goal, we should move ahead with a plan and strategy , you may pick some of the mentioned points:

• Categorize your wishes
• Define priorities
• Research on the subject.
• Study some good books on the subject.
• Learn lessons from the pioneers of the related field.
• Gather your tools.
• Develop ..Never Say Die Spirit.
• Devise and stick to a PLAN (there is a saying.. If you fail to Plan, you Plan to fail).
• Believe in yourself.
• Step ahead with confidence and do not stop till Goal is achieved.

These are proven techniques, not just words.

May God strengthen your wings to fly high till you  kiss the sky of your Ambition.!! Good luck.