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What Can Families Do To Supplement Their Income When Mortgage Payments Increase? April 25, 2017 |
Weekly Newsletter for FreelancersWhat Can Families Do To Supplement Their Income When Mortgage Payments Increase?
Everyone knows that interest rates are at a 5,000 year low. It's true! In case you have not noticed, here is a link to the article that shows the Bank of England's research. What does this mean for Moms and Dads with a variable rate mortgage and a tight family budget?
Firstly, it means that they should have professional advice from their lender.
Secondly, they should start to
look at ways and means of increasing the family income.
For many families that are not advised correctly, this can be a disaster. Increasing the family income is a smart idea. If one partner stays home to look after the children during their early years, there is the potential to have home-based employment.
There is a vast number of home-based employment opportunities now, but there are also a lot of scams and downright fraud. I have been catching myself by one particular clever scam. Sorting the legitimate ideas from the false ones is not easy. A good rule of thumb is getting paid for your skills, rather than relying on passive income e.g. affiliate commissions.
Susan Ward has written an article for The Balance Blog entitled The Best
Business Ideas for Stay at Home Moms & Dads. You can read Susan's article here.
Motivate Yourself! “You don't write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say.” — F. SCOTT FITZGERALD.
“No!” Is a Very Powerful Word to Negative Thoughts That Say You Can't Write.
Tucked away in the back of your mind, do you have a Pandora's Box of negative thoughts that keeps popping open? I have, and so do many other creative people that are trying to bring a vision
to reality. It would be great if you could put some nails in the lid of your Pandora's Box and nail it shut. Not many people can do this, including me. You simply have to ignore negative thoughts and get on with creating what you have in mind.
It may be writing a pitch for a gig, writing a short story or starting a new website. I had great trouble starting my website on cyber security and identity theft because of negative thoughts. I kept thinking to myself that people would not be interested in a dry topic like cyber security and identity theft. Finally, I decided to ignore the doubts and press ahead. You can see the website here.
Laura Tong of Write to Done Blog has a similar story about
negative thoughts which she put in an article How I Went from Scared Witless to Being a Published Author. I can relate to her story very well. I am sure you will too. You can read Laura's article here.
Productivity Tip Of The WeekIn Australia We Refer to Being Authentic As Being “Fair Dinkum” and It Matters Online Too!
Everyone wants to be viewed as being “fair dinkum” whether it is in real life or in one's digital life. The reason is that it builds trust and that is the number one marketing strategy, both online and in marketing generally. The question is how you build trust from your fellow human beings. I have many quotes, posts and articles about building trust, but nothing that I have read transcends this quote from Mahatma Gandhi:
“Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they will become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they will become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny.” Ilise Benum has written an article in the
MNBlog entitled Finally, a way to present yourself authentically online. You can read Ilise's article here.
Work-Life Balance Tip Of The WeekWhat Is Your Work-Life Balance Reset Activity?
Work-life balance can be tricky if are you a freelancer with one eye on your profits and the other eye watching your work-life balance. If you get it wrong, you can have a case of burnout and your productivity will drop like a rock along with your income. It does not matter what your reset process is to get you back to being cool calm and productive. What does matter is that you have identified what your process is and when to use it.
I have found that walking with the dog in the morning or going for a bike ride is a good reset method. It does not mean that my mind switches off work entirely. Some of my best creative ideas have come to me while walking Zack, our Jack Russell dog. I don't know why this occurs, but it clearly does. Have you noticed that your creativity increases while you are taking time out from the daily work routine?
Dan Scalco, a guest writer, for Entrepreneur.Com has written an article entitled 6 Practical Ways to Reset Your Work-Life Balance. You can read his article here.
Financial Tip Of The WeekHave You Ever Taken Out a Hardship Loan From Your Retirement Savings?
There is a robust public debate occurring in Australia at the moment about taking money from your retirement savings to make a house deposit. This debate is caused by the global housing affordability crisis. In fact, in some cities the escalation of the prices is amazing. In Vancouver house prices went up 12% in March 2017. You can read about it here.
Housing affordability for freelancers is a critical issue because we are like everyone else; we want to own our own home. For some of us, this housing affordability crisis will likely close the door on buying a home in the short to medium term.
However, we are in the fortunate position of
being our own bosses and if we want to work longer and retire part time later in life we can do so. Not many people can do this.
Wes Moss has written an article for The Balance Blog entitled 3 Common Retirement Planning Mistakes. You can read Wes's article here.
Freelancers And Cyber SecurityWe have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant. He also gives self defense and personal safety seminars. Robert provides safety and identity theft fraud prevention tips and advice on multimedia channels in the United States. We have his approval to bring you weekly extracts from his books:
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