Posted on by Max Herrera

Short-term Goals to Enhance your Leadership

As a leader, honing your skills and continually striving for improvement is essential. Previously I explained the 7 Attributes of Leadership. Now here are some practical suggestions and short-term goals you can set to enhance your leadership traits:

  1. Effective Communication: Practice active listening, ask for feedback, and clearly articulate your vision and expectations. Remember that, in essence, effective communication for a leader encompasses the ability to convey messages clearly and unambiguously, actively listen to others, show empathy towards team members’ perspectives, align non-verbal cues with verbal messages to convey sincerity and confidence (this is very important and oftenly overlooked), offer and receive feedback constructively, adapt communication styles to suit different audiences, maintain transparency to build trust and credibility, ensure consistency in messages to avoid confusion, encourage dialogue for open communication and idea sharing, resolve conflicts calmly and constructively, and create a positive work environment that fosters collaboration and productivity through honest, open, and respectful communication practices (you may want to set a goal to hold regular check-ins with your team to foster open communication).
  2. Lead by Example: In short: be a role model for your team by demonstrating the behavior and work ethic you expect from them. Leading by example means showing others how to act and behave by doing those things yourself. Leaders who lead by example are like superheroes who always do the right thing first, so others can see and follow them. Leaders will set a good path for others to follow by doing good things themselves. Thereby make a goal to showcase your values through your actions every day.
  3. Embrace Diversity: Encourage diverse perspectives within your team by actively seeking out input from different team members. This means welcoming and appreciating people from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. It’s like having a big box of crayons with many colors, and each color is unique and special. Leaders who embrace diversity understand that everyone brings something different and valuable to the team, just like how each color makes a beautiful picture. They listen to different ideas, respect everyone’s differences, and make sure that everyone feels included and heard. By embracing diversity, leaders create a team where everyone feels accepted, respected, and valued for who they are, making the group stronger and more successful together. In essence, a great leader will create an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued.
  4. Develop Emotional Intelligence: Work on understanding your emotions and those of others, and learn to handle conflicts with emotional intelligence. Developing emotional intelligence involves understanding and managing your own emotions as well as being aware of and empathetic towards others’ emotions. One way to work on this is by practicing active listening, where you focus on what someone is saying without interrupting and try to understand their feelings. For example, when a friend is sad, you can listen to them and offer support without judging. Another way is to reflect on your own emotions and reactions to different situations. For instance, when you feel angry, take a moment to think about why you’re feeling that way and how you can respond calmly. By being mindful of both your own emotions and those of others, you can improve your emotional intelligence over time.
  5. Delegate Responsibilities: Trust your team members with tasks and empower them to make decisions. You should delegate more effectively by matching tasks to team members’ strengths: effective delegation as a leader involves assigning tasks to team members based on their strengths, skills, and interests while providing clear guidelines and expectations. For example, if you have a team member who excels at graphic design, you could delegate a project requiring those skills to them. Communication is key – clearly outline the task, deadlines, and desired outcome. Check in periodically to offer support and guidance but also allow autonomy and trust in your team’s abilities. By delegating responsibilities effectively, you empower team members, increase productivity, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability within the team.
  6. Continuous Learning: Commit to lifelong learning and stay updated on industry trends and developments. Attend leadership workshops, read leadership books, or take online courses. For a leader, continuous learning involves seeking knowledge and insights from various sources to enhance their skills and decision-making abilities. Studying classics like “The Art of War” allows leaders to gain timeless wisdom and strategic thinking applicable to modern-day challenges. By delving into such seminal works, leaders can extract valuable lessons on leadership, conflict resolution, and decision-making that can be adapted and applied in their own roles. For example, Sun Tzu’s principles in “The Art of War” can offer insights on strategic planning, understanding competition, and the importance of adaptability in leadership scenarios. Wisdom is your goal.
  7. Build Relationships: Invest time in building strong relationships with your team members. You might need to schedule one-on-one meetings to get to know each team member better. It’s also very important to build a powerful network of contacts.
  8. Encourage Innovation: Support creativity and innovation within your team by creating a safe space for sharing new ideas and experimenting with different approaches. As a leader, you can boost innovation in your organization by creating a culture that values creativity, experimentation, and collaboration. Encourage open communication channels where ideas are welcomed and employees feel empowered to share their thoughts. Provide resources and support for innovation initiatives, such as dedicated time for research and development projects, training programs, and access to technology. Inspire your team to think outside the box and drive innovation across the organization.
  9. Provide Recognition: Acknowledge and appreciate your team’s hard work and achievements. Learn to give specific, timely feedback and recognize individual and team accomplishments. Specially, and related to the previous goal, recognize and reward innovative thinking to motivate employees and reinforce a culture of continuous improvement.
  10. Time Management: Improve your time management skills to prioritize tasks effectively and avoid burnout. Set a goal to create a daily schedule that allows time for strategic planning and personal development.
  11. Conflict Resolution: Develop strategies for resolving conflicts within your team. As a leader, developing effective conflict resolution strategies involves several key steps. First, create an open and supportive environment: cultivate open communication within your team to encourage members to express concerns and issues freely. Then listen actively to all parties involved in the conflict to understand their perspectives and feelings. At this point, you’ll have to identify the root cause of the problem: get to the core of the conflict by understanding the underlying issues causing tension or disagreements. An effective approach to solve organizational conflicts is encouraging collaboration, allowing team members to work together to find a mutually agreeable solution. Facilitate discussions and brainstorming sessions to resolve conflicts. A truly great leader acts as a mediator to help guide the resolution process. Encourage team members to focus on problem-solving rather than blame. It’s also important to set clear expectations: clearly outline team goals, roles, and responsibilities to prevent future conflicts arising from misunderstandings. Finally, check in with team members after the conflict has been resolved to ensure that the solution is working effectively. Provide support and guidance if needed.
  12. Lead with Integrity: Uphold ethical standards and be transparent in your decision-making. Consistently act with honesty and integrity, even in challenging situations, in order to build trust. Demonstrating honesty and integrity fosters trust among team members and stakeholders. Trust is essential for effective communication, collaboration, and overall team performance. It also sets a positive example, as leaders serve as role models for their teams. By upholding ethical values even in difficult times, you’ll inspire others to follow suit and maintain high standards of behavior. Acting with honesty and integrity will also enhance your credibility. It ensures that your decisions and actions are respected and trusted by others, even in challenging or uncertain circumstances. Besides, being honest and acting with integrity promotes transparency and truth within the organization. This helps in building a culture of openness and accountability, which leads to better problem-solving and decision-making. Don’t forget that a consistent adherence to ethical principles builds a foundation for long-term success. It helps in creating a positive work environment, retaining top talent, and fostering a strong organizational reputation. Remember, reputation is key and once it’s lost it’s hard or impossible to regain.
  13. Seek Mentorship: Find a mentor who can provide guidance and support in your leadership journey. Seek advice from experienced leaders and learn from their insights. This is related to the sixth goal, Continuous Learning.
  14. Flexibility and Adaptability: Be open to change and ready to adapt to new circumstances. Embrace uncertainty and lead your team through transitions with resilience. Randomness is a fact of an organization’s life. Navigating uncertainty in organizational decision-making involves gathering pertinent information, employing scenario planning to prepare for various outcomes, conducting risk assessments, embracing flexibility to adapt swiftly, engaging stakeholders for diverse perspectives, developing a resilient culture, and emphasizing continuous learning to refine strategies.
  15. Self-Care: Prioritize self-care to maintain your well-being and lead effectively. Practice mindfulness, exercise regularly, and take breaks to recharge.

Finally, as a bonus, learn to visualize goals.

Posted on by Max Herrera

At the core of Leadership

Being a leader and enacting the virtues of leadership implies, mandatorily, that we have achieved success. The converse, however, is not necessarily true: reaching success does not mean we are leaders. Success is tantamount to conquering our goals. In other words, success means we have crossed the goal line.

Leadership can be defined as the will to control processes and events, to understand what is required to focus all of the involved activities in a specific direction, and to yield the power to complete tasks and distribute resources, properly harnessing and directing the abilities of each person involved in the project. Summarizing, leadership is about control, focus, and also about effective management of people and resources.

There are two kinds of leaders:

  1. Nominal Leaders: The main goal of nominal leaders is to establish, between her organization and its environment, a set of relations which allow the perfect execution of a project’s tasks. A nominal leader defines such tasks and monitors them to verify they are carried out entirely.
  2. Concrete Leaders: This kind of leader expresses and represents the perspectives of her group. It might happen that the nominal leader will not properly represent or understand the emotions of her people, and under such circumstances, a concrete leader could emerge and oppose the inpetitude of the nominal leader (and even replacing her.)

This tell us a very important fact: groups follow the person which is able to quickly and clearly connect with their emotions. Leadership is, then, also an emotional journey.

Some leaders are more effective managing small groups, instead of huge organizations. Other leaders are able to inspire great masses, but are little respected by their immediate collaborators. And there is a third group of leaders, the best leaders, whose followers are everyone: masses and close collaborators.

Regardless of the cognoscitive field a leader adresses, they have several interesting characteristic which distinguish them from everybody else. The 3 most visible characteristics of leaders are:

  1. They have achieved incredible success in their work and in their private lives; it’s often said about them that they have the Midas touch.
  2. They seem to own an unlimited luck.
  3. They are rich, and they are getting richer (even right now).

There exists a wrong belief about leadership being a hereditary, genetic issue. And some people think being a successful, real leader is a matter of luck. Nothing further from the truth. Leadership has to be built, has to be shaped, and (very important) has to be mantained. And there’s always room for improvement.

All of we are able to achieve professional success. But we have to study, we have to observe, we have to learn which are the traits of leaders and the keys for success. Obviously, success can be achieved, taught and learnt: we have to reshape a set of our behaviors, and suit them to the profile of a successful person. We have previously touched upon 3 visible traits of leaders. Now it’s time to delve into this point. And now we’ll discuss the two key traits of leaders:

Motivation

Leaders are like tireless motivation machines. Leaders are continuosly motivating themselves, and they renew their motivations easily, almost effortlessly. Leaders communicate and convey their motivation to the people around them. Leader are always motivated, and always motivating their people.

Perseverance

And motivation is the fuel for the kernel of success: perseverance. They are entrepeneurs and innovators. Generally, successful people have faced harsh beginnings. What distinguishes them is their faith in what they are doing, in what they are pursuing. Leaders believe. Leaders insist in their projects, goals and tasks. They set realistic tasks, and they fight over and over until fully completing each one of such tasks. How many times do common people abandon their startups at the first view of difficulties? How many projects are never realized just because of plain laziness? It’s in that initial moment of doubt when leaders raise above the crowd. Leaders keep going forward, because they are relentless fighters. Note that leaders are perseverant in work and effective use of their resources. Perseverance without a rational application of forces and use of resource will only lead to an utter failure.

And what’s life but a struggle against the chaotic forces of the universe? Leaders are the warriors who are able to tame those chaotic trends 😉 If you want to understand more about Leadership, you may also like reading our classic post, The 7 Attributes of Leadership.

Posted on by Max Herrera

More on The Art of Saving

Saving money is a crucial skill that everyone should master in order to secure their financial future. In a world where inflation is high and the economy is unpredictable, having a robust savings account can be a lifesaver when unexpected expenses arise. This post will complement our previous article The Art of Saving. Saving not only provides a safety net for emergencies, but it also allows individuals to achieve their long-term financial goals. In this blog post, we’ll overview the importance of saving and provide some practical tips to help you kickstart your savings journey.

Art of saving

One of the main reasons why saving is so important is its ability to buffer individuals against unforeseen events. Whether it be a sudden job loss, a medical emergency, or a global pandemic like we witnessed with COVID-19, having savings can give you the peace of mind that you can weather the storm. In times of uncertainty, having a financial cushion can make all the difference in how you navigate through tough times. Even if inflation is high, saving is not a futile effort. While it may feel like your money is losing value due to the decreasing purchasing power, saving is still crucial for handling black swan-type events. In fact, saving during times of high inflation is even more important as it helps you stay financially resilient in the face of rising costs and economic instability. By consistently saving a portion of your income, you are building a foundation for financial stability and security.

Now, let’s talk about some practical advice to help you save more effectively. One of the best ways to start saving is to create a budget and stick to it. By tracking your income and expenses, you can identify areas where you can cut back and redirect those funds towards your savings account. Additionally, setting specific savings goals can provide you with motivation and a sense of purpose for saving. Whether it’s saving for a down payment on a house, a dream vacation, or an emergency fund, having a clear goal in mind can help you stay on track. Another tip for saving is to automate your savings. Setting up automatic transfers from your checking account to your savings account can remove the temptation to spend that money elsewhere. By treating your savings like a recurring expense, you can ensure that you prioritize saving each month. Finally, consider cutting unnecessary expenses and finding ways to increase your income. Whether it’s canceling subscriptions you don’t use, cooking at home more often, or picking up a side hustle, there are plenty of ways to free up extra cash to put towards your savings goals. In conclusion, the art of saving is a valuable skill that everyone should cultivate. Even in the face of high inflation and economic uncertainty, saving money is essential for handling unexpected events and achieving long-term financial security. By following these tips and making saving a priority in your financial plan, you can build a strong financial foundation that will serve you well in the years to come. Remember, every penny saved today is an investment in your future financial well-being.

Here are more tips for saving money effectively:

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Posted on by Max Herrera

Building a Network of Contacts

There are plenty of available jobs in the market, and there also are a lot companies recruiting right now, but it is possible that those job openings are never advertised or published in newspapers or on the Internet. Further, important or high-rank job openings are rarely advertised. How to approach this hidden job market? Certainly, it’s not enough to investigate listings of job openings. The key is word-of-mouth or networking.

Networking means building a list of contacts. Contacts are people you’ve met during your business or social activities. More often than not, such friends and acquaintances will provide you information about job openings, companies and industry leads. Moreover, they’ll introduce you to other so that you can grow your network. Therefore, it is important not only to inform them about your job search, but also give them some résumés.

This list will provide some hints about the people and organizations we should include in our network:

  • Relatives
  • Friends
  • Recruiters
  • Former Employers
  • Neighbors
  • Professional Organizations
  • Other Job Seekers
  • Academic Contacts (School, University)
  • Business Associations
  • Merchants

Organizing your Network of Contacts

Please, organize your network. Save information about your contacts in a spreadsheet or a database. Include their names, titles, company, address, phone and fax numbers, and email. It’s also important to register a few notes about the way in which any of your contacts is valuable, for instance, what do they know?, who can they refer you to?, and so on. Further, organize their business cards.

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Posted on by Max Herrera

Visualizing your Goals

A goal is a very specific result that we want to achieve in a precise, future time. It’s an experience not yet lived, although firmly wished. Let’s recall from our first post about goals, that an objective or goal is a personal or perhaps organizational desired end point in development. It is usually endeavored to be reached in finite time by setting deadlines. Albeit goals, dreams and expectations are related concepts, there are important differences that will be discussed further on. As it often occurs with dreams, there are virtually no limits on the number of goals we may set, since goals represent, in essence, states or things that we wish to achieve in the future. Unlike dreams, though, goals require that we define them precisely, and we have to work for them in the present time, right now. Thereby, goals are nearer, within reach.

visualizing goals

Goals and Expectations

We should not confuse goals and expectations. Goals are the concrete and positive result of a fulfilled wish, and they provide satisfaction and success. On its side, expectations are focused on the behavior that we expect from other people. Setting a goal also means directing all our efforts towards achieving the goal, combining several tasks in order to attain it. However, to have an expectation reduces to delegating our wishes to the lucky concurrence of external factors.

Therefore, setting goals helps us to empower strategies, to create effectivity and to dominate the process of achieving whatever thing we wish. Besides, our goals create new opportunities, and improve our capacity for overcoming obstacles and conquering unexpected hurdles. As we move forward and reach the little goals that we had set, we also have the feeling of walking our paths faster, with a boosted self-confidence and a diminishing desire to return to the past. By the way, when we feel little or no desire to return to the past, we can be sure that we have improved as human beings.

Goals and Dreams

As aforesaid, a difference between goals and dreams lies in the time required for reaching them. Goals are closer. Besides, motivation also establishes a notorious difference between goals and dreams. We have more immediate and realistic motivations for reaching goals. On the contrary, dreams’ motivation is typically diffuse, sometimes very unclear.

However, dreams are the ultimate fuel of life, no matter how fuzzy they may be. As life moves on, we will feel the dream, approach the dream, dream the dream… we will be continuously reshaping the dream. Dreams are, after all, made of a very malleable matter. In life, we walk towards the sun, and our sun is composed of just dreams. Every step toward such sun kills a doubt. And each of such steps is a goal.

Organizing our Goals

We have to prepare a few lists for visualizing our goals and, in general, our action and thinking paths. When we write down our goals in a list, we are defining and outlining a plan to reach the goals. We are committing ourselves to fulfilling them based on practical aspects. On the contrary, the list of dreams contains relatively remote possibilities, excepting perhaps the first or second dream. In order to reach the first dream of the list, we have to conquer a chain of goals. In short, goals are the intermediate steps required for achieving the ultimate objective of your life.

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Posted on by Max Herrera

A Shining Job Interview: How to Succeed

Typically, the first prerequisite for a shining job interview is a well-redacted and organized Résumé. A shining Résumé can move you to the first places of a list comprising perhaps hundreds of prospects. Therefore, your Résumé should list your best germane abilities for the job you are applying to… those abilities that would guarantee a star performance in the job. Remember that you are the ultimate responsible for highlighting your attributes to constitute a valid option to integrate the new team that the company is forming. In order to determine which of your abilities are the most suited for the job…

you have to research your potential employer beforehand

…that will give you a very important lead. Get as much information as you can about the business, and also about the potential interviewers (you should research their style and attitude… that’s very important). If you know someone who has previously taken an interview in that company, talk with them about their experiences in the interview. Try to extract pure information, i.e., don’t let them to influence you (specially about the job being impossible or, on the contrary, being too easy).

1. First Approach

Remember that you have to dress with a professional look, according to the nature of the job. You are a professional… thereby each and every aspect of you must communicate that fact. Now, during the interview, take into account that Interviewers will ask questions related to their company, for example, why would you like to work for us? They may ask you about your opinion on the company’s products or history. Typically, this information is available on the company’s website, and by knowing it you demonstrate a genuine interest for the job.

2. Virtues and Limitations

Talk about your virtues, but not excessively. In this regards apply balance and good sense. Answer this question presenting your virtues in the context of the requirements of the job you’re applying to, with a clear and concise language. However, other almost granted question they will do is about your defects, thereby you must also be prepared to answer that. Furthermore, the interviewer may ask about your abilities and limitations: prepare an answer beforehand in order to allow you to present your defects as a new opportunity for keep improving.

3. Expect the Unexpected

You have to be ready for anything… a group interview, a forum about some specific problem of the company, a written exam, and so on. Carry any material you think you may need: think of the interview as your first day of work.

Job Interview
Confidence

When entering to the interview, greet to your interviewer with a smile. Visual contact must also be direct and firm (but not exceedingly). Remember that, no matter the circumstances, you have to act formally instead of dared or zany (refer to your interviewer using his title… Dr., Mr., Engineer, etc.), unless they demand you to treat them informally (but that’s relatively rare; read point 6. Be on the alert). Listen to your interviewer very carefully. Sometimes the applicants are so focused in the things they want to say that forget what they are really being asked about. No answer is good if it does not truly answer the matter asked about.

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Posted on by Max Herrera

On Credit Card Points

After the season of parties, when you might find yourself feeling financially depleted and despondent, there is a tantalizing prospect that awaits – the opportunity to earn free international travel and indulge in luxurious hotel stays. This alluring possibility is made possible through credit card points, which can be exchanged for a range of travel perks and enticing goodies. As January brings forth attractive deals, you might be enticed to apply for a credit card that offers such rewards.

However, let’s consider the reality. I like credit cards, but credit card rewards may not be worth it for most individuals, unless they possess certain qualities:

  • Firstly, financial stability is crucial. If you are wealthy and have a firm grasp on your finances, the potential payback from these rewards could be more significant.
  • Secondly, self-discipline plays a vital role. It’s essential to have the discipline to manage credit card spending wisely, ensuring that you don’t fall into the trap of accumulating debt.
  • Lastly, being attentive to your financial situation is imperative. Keeping a close eye on your expenses, payments, and rewards redemption options will enable you to maximize the benefits.
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Posted on by Max Herrera

What I like about Credit Cards

Yummy… a pizza with onion, green pepper, mushrooms, olives, plenty of tofu and a bit of minced fresh garlic. Tasty! Oh, and I have to buy my new laptop. Well, for all these things and little pleasures there’s the credit card. I prefer to pay with my credit cards as I dislike the notion of acting like an ambulant cash dispenser 🙂 However, using credit cards requires control and knowing well the “policies behind the card” (the rates, the limits, how the credit reporting system works, etc.) Managing and using credit cards is just a matter of applying good sense. 

Credit cards

That said, I have some friends that abuse their credit cards usage. They charge a lot! They go nuts because they feel like they work pretty hard and should be able to do that sometimes. The problem is not that they cannot afford the payment or cannot pay it off. The problem is that most of their purchases are frivolous things they really don’t need. Surely, they work hard and they deserve to enjoy the fruits of their work. But they are not enjoying anything by acquiring a bunch of unneeded objects. On the contrary, they’re wasting their money. The only thing that such frantic credit card usage satisfies is the desire of material possession. Do we indeed work so hard only to crumble under such lame desire? When we are going to use our credit card we always should examine the actual reason behind the purchase. Review carefully your financial state… are you paying a house, a car, a small loan? Then try not to acquire more debt. Moreover, if we have a short or troubled credit histories we must try to do things right. Pressure of extreme debt is what leads to desperate and dangerous measures such as payday loans, for example. Really dangerous. Calm. Relax. Think. Good sense, remember? Life is beautiful.

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Posted on by Max Herrera

Looking for True Happiness

It is very difficult, although not impossible, to win a race if we have to start down in a hole. However, this is the precise handicap which a lot of people face during their search for happiness. Because of such handicap, climbing out of the hole and arriving to at least the starting line represents an exhausting endeavor. Apparently, this is not logical… this is not how life should be. But truth be told, we can only start from the position we are right now, and we can only use the resources available to us right now. In order to achieve happiness we have to shut off perturbing messages, such as “I cannot”, “I’m going to lose”, “Maybe tomorrow is a better day”, and so further. We have to put all these miscreant ideas aside from our mind, to remove these slimy sentences which do not contribute to our goals. It’s easier for us to attribute the responsibility of our failures and defeats to others… those who taught us, for instance. Some people like to attribute to their parents and teachers an alleged fraud… everything bad has been their fault, not ours. They hold on to the past. They are losers. On the contrary, winners focus on overcoming each obstacle that rises until accomplishing their goals. Winners want to be happy and to bring happiness to all the people around them, sharing the love, their views on life, and perhaps, their goals.

True Happiness
True Happiness

 Some serious studies demonstrate that people from developed countries are not necessarily the happiest ones. A lot of nationals and residents of such countries manifest to feel unhappier than those of some developing or poorer countries. In this sense, let’s recall the Easterlin paradox, based on a study by professor and economist Richard Easterlin: Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? published in 1974, while he was with the University of Pennsylvania. Basically, the paradox states that economic growth does not necessarily lead to more satisfaction. It’s obvious that people in poor countries become happier once they can afford basic necessities. But the important idea behind Easterlin paradox is that absolute income does not matter as much as relative income does. In other words, how much you make compared with others around you is what really matters. To put it in today’s terms, owning an iPad doesn’t make you happier, because you then want an iPad Pro 🙂

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Posted on by Max Herrera

The Art of Saving

Saving refers to the preservation of money for future use. Such future use might include capital and goods purchase (house, transport, vacations, etc.), emergencies, and miscellaneous expenses. Strictly speaking, saving is the difference between our income and our consumption expenditure. Besides, saving is our main tool to cope with mortgages, credit card debt, extraordinary bills, and other loans. Without savings, such debt and expenditures may sharply erode our personal finances. Saving also allows for harnessing sudden investment opportunities and to gain access to quality services. All in all, saving is a fundamental aspect of personal finance.

Money has to be tightly controlled. We must know where money comes from, and where it goes to. We must strive to know the way our money flows, the paths it travels, and the drains taking most of our income. By closely watching our money’s nature, we’ll learn to control it. Control is a keyword of personal finance. Control refers to checking the errors we are incurring with our money’s management, and to take the corrective action to rectify any deviation from our desired goals. Setting goals is other important requirement for saving, and it answers the question what are we saving for ?

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