“Click” & “Accept”- Congrats, you just sold your most precious valuables to the world!

While you are sleeping comfortable in your bedroom at night, all of your digital footprints are traveling silently without your consent on the internet world (FYI-There is nothing you can do to stop it! )

Lets talk about the most common social media platform which is “Facebook” or “Instagram”. Did you ever care to read its privacy and data policy ? I believe the answer will be “NO”. None of us ever read the privacy and data policy for anything we sign up. Forget about social media platforms, we almost never read any policies either when we upgrade a software or download a software, we tend to give out our email ids for cheap 15% discounts at grocery, clothing or restaurants and much more. Don’t forget about giving out your birth dates for a free treat or a goodie bag at a cosmetic or an ice cream store.

I was no different from other users, almost for last 5 years, I use to happily sign up for freebies, discounts and manufacture coupons sent via emails or by sending a simple empty envelope with return address to get coupons from major retailers. But everything changed just before five months when when I care to start reading more into data analytic, data collections and data brokers conducted by manufactures or sellers.

According to a study, mostly 80% of users have no idea about the “data brokers”. It was terrifying to read what happens behind our backs to our personal information including our pictures. Have you ever wonder, when you open your mailbox ( physical at home), you find those envelopes from banks with low interest rates offers, realtors companies, lending companies or just coupons from nearby restaurants. You might scratch your head and think, I have never been there or never visited their website to sign up for a credit card or look up menus, I wonder how did they get my information. Well the answer is, data has been collected on you, has been shared to other potential marketing companies to sell their products or managed the current trends in the market.

https://www.privacyrights.org/content/data-brokers-and-your-privacy#What%20are%20data%20brokers

Some companies collect the data and sell it to small companies for marketing companies. What happens when there is a leak within the lines, our personal information will fall into wrong hands of online predators- do you remember the “Target Data breach which spilled information for 70 million customers” and many more… The reality is, our information falls into hands of online predators several times a day, it just we dont know it or not informed about it.

Now the real question is what should we do about it and where are the risks?
In my opinion, The young millennials are mostly at risk of sharing their information to the online predators, marketing data analytic and data collections centers.Young millennials are constantly putting their online activities on social media such as check ins, sharing posts with pictures and locations, sign up for cheap college discounts and much more.
How can we save young millennials and each of us from evil predators ?

Protect your search

Parents, young millennials and every body else should remember to constantly educate each other about digital foot prints we leave behind by sign ups, online shopping and social media platforms.
Suggestion: when searching anything online, please use www.startpage.com to protect your online identity. You can read the full privacy policy here. or just click the link https://startpage.com/eng/privacy-policy.html?hmb=1

Suggestion: Install “Ghostery.com” in your browser to track and deactivate the activity of all the marketing agencies from which ever website you are visiting. https://www.ghostery.com/

Other search engines I would recommend will be DuckDuckGo.com which follows the same rules to protect your online search and does not track any logs or activities.

Don’t fall for discounts offers

Whenever you go online to shop for clothes, grocery, books, kitchen items or anything. Simply dont sign up at all. The retailers might give you $5 off but I am sure your $5 or $10 are not worth to sell your personal information to other marketing predators.
Also by simply unsubscribing from their mailing list will be enough to delete my information. I was absolutely naive about this too, the data once collected cannot be erased. Your information will be stored in the database forever and never goes away.

Don’t fall for Mall tricks

I am surely you must have encounter those tricks in mall with a glass bowl and a chance to win a free tablet, a phone or a car. I almost encounter every time I visit a mall, people ask few information like email, phone numbers and full name so that they can contact us if we have won. I bet you no one every really wins a car or a phone. The only thing anybody wins is your free personal information to distribute for marketing or data analytic. Dont fall for this trick to win free stuff. Freebies comes with a price.

Don’t fall for Android or Iphone free games or apps

There are no free lunches in this world, any free stuff you get comes with a string of items that internet snatch away from you. Have you played angry birds, those chess games or any free games on ipad or android platforms. Do you really think company cares to give away free games because they like you and cares about customers ! Absolutely not !

Direct quote from CBS 60 minutes show: And if you’re one of the billion people who have downloaded the popular game app Angry Birds to your smart phone, or you were one of the 50 million people who downloaded “Brightest Flashlight Free” app, you didn’t realize that the companies that gave them to you for free were using the apps to track your every movement and pass it along to other companies.

Read rest of the article here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-data-brokers-selling-your-personal-information/

Protect your search, pictures, information and location by simply resetting your privacy locations, your security settings, dont falling prey to free stuff, coupons or any other source where you might have to give your phone number, email or home address in return.
By saving $500 a year wont be worth when you have to give away your personal information to tons of Data Brokers online and other malicious predators.
Watch what you say, write, post or enter into online world

Tips:

Use www.Startpage.com instead of google
Don’t download free apps for games
Don’t sign up for free coupons or discounts
Don’t post unlimited and all the information on Instagram, facebook or twitter with location and other personal details about kids school, work or an event at home
Educate young millennials and other members of the family about Data brokers
Don’t log into Free Public Wi-fi until absolutely necessary to check anything on phone, Facebook and Instagram posts can wait
Read online privacy policies and data sharing policies of Facebook, twitter, Instagram, credit cards, apps or websites in details. there is no going back after you click sign up to the online portal

If you like my post or have some suggestions please email me at smartliving24x7@gmail.com or visit my website www.smartliving24x7.com

Break that Bubble

While I was graduating from my master’s program, I lived in a sort of a bubble that having a degree, technical skills and polished writing skills will be enough to sail through any job in this corporate world. Well Obviously I was wrong and the bubble burst more quickly than anticipated! As I started climbing the steps in my career, I stumbled upon several conversations with my seniors during meetings, conferences, happy hour and so on.. More I met my coworkers or seniors during work events, I got more and more secluded in my cubicle. Did I become anti-social ? Did I hate my job ? Well none of this was true. The issue was I used so much technology as a medium to interact with other people that I almost lost my soft skills on professional level.

This issue was absolutely not uncommon. Mostly everybody at workplace, uses one or other tech medium to interact with their bosses or coworkers. Emails are the most common tool used in every organization to share, interact or delegate any content,information or an order. To be precise, workplace is losing human touch and interaction. We are almost droned by tech gadgets and tools at work, restaurant and home. Can you recall, the advertisement from “Chili’s” where you can order as well as pay your food via Ipad. No human interactions at all. Even at work, communicating with a fellow coworker over an email or a chat has become more easier and comfortable instead of spending 15 minutes in lunchroom or over a coffee or at his/her cubicle.

So how is all this affecting us ? We have the most advanced version of communication tools- email, Skype, chat, conference, newsletter and social media to pass on the message but what is exactly missing here?

Well, we all are aware- We are losing our emotional and interpersonal skills to connect with another human being.

Photo credit- Google

Especially for young millennials, they are so heavily relied on technology and social media that instead of interacting with a human, they chose social media to express their happiness, boredom and frustration. The same young millennials bring the same ethics to work, they consider professional emails as texting. There writing skills are highly abbreviated and unprofessional sometimes. In today’s highly educated world, it is very easy to find technical knowledge but it is hard to identify a candidate with mix of both technical and interpersonal skills.

How I fixed work ?

Although I am tech-savvy, I have personally started practicing to pick up phone once in a while, and make a conversation with my coworkers or catch up for a lunch.

When you talk to a person face to face, there are three major benefits

1) Improve your vocab- you will realize how much filler words you stuff between those lines. In emails it easy to correct or delete your sentences but during a live conversation with your boss or immediate manageyou wont be able to delete or auto correct. In this way, your brain will be active all times to avoid gibberish language and use of filler words.

2) You will learn to make eye contact- there are times when I forget to look into person eyes or my attention get diverted. Don’t look down or stare at a wall and practice hard to look into people’s eye it helps you to build inner confidence.

3) Body posture- stop putting hands in the pockets, making a fist or playing with fingers or jewelry. Doing any of those things displays nervousness, uncaring attitude and unprofessional behavior.

Lets say, If you work from a remote location or from home, once in a while pick up that phone and improve team-building opportunities with other members of the team and if your schedule permits, invite your coworker over a coffee or on lunch.

Tip: Even if you still prefer to write an email instead of face to face conversation, demonstrate a happy attitude while writing an email- instead of demonstrating stilted thank you over the success of the project- try to personalize that email and make it more genuine.

How I fixed my confidence at work & home

Anybody can hide behind the walls of Internet and post bold statements via social media. Instead use that bold attitude learn to display confidence while you are in an interview or in a meeting or causal lunch catch up with a coworker or a family member.

You and I wont be able to display soft skills on a resume but we can surely grab an opportunity during a interview, meeting or over a casual meeting to display your soft skills.

Tip: Read “Pitch Perfect” by Bill McGowan- it will be worth $20 investment for your career , social and personal life.

Tips & Tricks

Team up with a team member at work or home to develop speaking skills.

Start analyzing conversation or point out mistakes to improvise your daily interactions.

Attend free public seminars, watch Ted Talks, participate in community public speaking, or pick a project to present at work.

Technology should be used to ease the work instead of replacing the human connections.

Check out my page www.smartliving24x7.com or email me with any suggestions you might have at smartliving24x7@gmail.com.

How LinkedIn saved my career in 2014

LinkedIn has a powerful presence in professional work force. Almost 99% of work force has either a partial or a fully completed LinkedIn profile. People use this platform to post current jobs, blogs, contacts, networking events and much more on. Almost 2 years ago, I was in complete denial of all the above opportunities LinkedIn had to offer. In 2014, I kept on posting resume round the clock, revised them, formatted, ran resume through online tools and much more. After facing multiple failures to even get recognized by a recruiter, I absolutely gave up my hope to find a decent job or even expect a call from recruiter.I had exhausted all my resources to find a decent job. Period, felt like it was over. Nor my previous experience or minted graduate degree from private school is going to get me anywhere.

During that time I could not sit at home, I had to absolutely make a living between the job hunt. One morning I walked to a nearby grocery store to get a cashier job, I knew they would pay well and I will get a pretty good discount on groceries that will balance my budget. For that moment, I wanted to stick to that plan for working as a cashier, till I find something I really wanted.

I receive a call next day from nearby grocery store; they didn’t find my application to be a good match as I was over qualified. Frustrated with myself, I start back to my old routine of filling out application again and again received no response. That was the time, I desperately wanted to try any new method to find a perfect job. One evening, I wanted to take a break from everything including my boring routine of finding job. While I was scrolling through YouTube; I stumbled upon this guy Ramit Sethi- he spoke about achieving “dream job” and the program he had designed and training which can help job seekers to accomplish their goals. Obviously his program looked effective, but I was not ready to spend 100s of dollars. I still wanted to find any medium to dig into his free content available on Google. I was lucky to get some tips and I used other suggestions available on internet to find a job using LinkedIn.

Here’s how I did it and few simple steps to follow on LinkedIn if you want to try this platform.

1) Develop sharp “Archery Skills”

Top rule of practicing archery is to “Focus”. In the same way, prepare a list of target companies, you want to work for. In my case I was only targeting two companies. Second rule of archery is “Strength”, get a rough idea about your strength and weakness related to your professional skills, which type of job you would like to be in or which job will excite you to explore. Lets say, you are in healthcare- look for a specific area, do you want to be in management, healthcare finance, budgeting or in an operations project manager. Keep a specific target in mind- dont aim for all positions.

2) Follow and Catch

Follow your target company’s page on LinkedIn. The trick here is to find right professional who can help you to get the job or at least a phone conversation, which can lead to a substantial meeting or Skype invite. Prepare list of recruiters or specific department professionals, you can find them on companies page. Don’t try to catch marketing department head when you trying to target an IT job.

3) Develop detective skills

After you have list of target companies and target jobs you would like to hunt for. Your next steps is to contact a recruiter or department member to introduce yourself. For this step, you can definitely buy a business plan if you can afford but I didn’t. I am going to give you a pretty simple trick,to identify a business address of any professional member. If you can get hand on one business email id, figuring out the emails for rest of the members within the same company is a piece of cake. Let say for example my name is John Doe and my company email could be Johndoe@companyname.com or John.Doe@companyname.org or DoeJ@companyname.edu. There are several members on LinkedIn who are kind enough to leave email correspondence for visitors or new contacts. But if you cannot find the email, then follow the above trick.

4) Going on a date rule

After you have follow first three steps of above rules. Your time has come to impress your “Date” which means your professional contact in this case. Whenever you approach a professional contact on LinkedIn, always assume you are going out on a date or asking out a girl/boy for first meeting. Simple rules- don’t be creepy, don’t sound like a rouge or a nervous. Our goal is to not to over say things which can ruin your chance for an opportunity. Writing a professional email wont come that easy. You will need to practice to write, re-write and re-write the draft before you send out that email. That email can either make or break your career opportunity or put your name in do not contact list forever. I am going to attach few sample email draft at the end of this article for you to refer.

5) Dont act like a unregistered “Drone”

There are few no-no’s when you contact a professional on LinkedIn. Rule 1: never send out mass invitations without addressing a specific person. Take time to prepare and format each email carefully and dont make mistake while writing name or any grammatical mistake. Rule no 2: Never send email on Monday or Sunday evening or Friday afternoon. For everyone, Monday is the most busiest day of a week and nobody is interested to take over any new work when they are swampped with other emails sent between Friday and Sunday. The trick is to send out email or LinkedIn request with an introduction on “Wednesday”. Moreover, don’t send any emails on Friday as people are more focused to rush home and get weekend started, they might forget about that your email and you will never get any response.

6) Stop stalking

 After you have successfully completed all the above steps. Now is your time to practice Meditation and patiently wait for one of the professional to contact you back. I must have sent over 400 invitation with an introduction and over 700 emails- my success rate was 0.05% but 1 out of 700 proved to be hit. The reason for a LinkedIn request or a professional email is to introduce yourself. You don’t need to beg for a job right away, LinkedIn should be used a professional platform to network which can generate tons of opportunity for you. Don’t sound obnoxious job seeker and brag about your previous experience or your minted graduate degree. Be considerate about opposite person, clearly state why you are looking for a job, why did you leave or got fired from a previous job.

Closing Statement: Remember don’t stalk professionals, Don’t sound creepy , Improve your draft or LinkedIn request message, use professional picture not a selfie taken in a bathroom.
I wish you all the best and I promise you there are several professional out there who are willing to help and become trailblazers for new graduates and current experienced professionals.

Connect Deeper with me!

If you like my article- please take a look at my website- www.smartliving24x7.com. I am a new blog writer only looking for motivation and positive criticism. All the suggestion or any opportunities are welcome at smartliving24x7@gmail.com

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“Um”…”Uh”…”do you know what I mean”.... Kill your filler words now !

Very often you will hear, people forcefully plugging filler phrases or words like “do you know what I mean”, “Uh”, “Ummm” or many more, when they cannot figure out right content to shape the conversation. Even if you are not the most observant person, you will still notice it is a clear communication barrier which is weakening the credibility of a speaker and its content.

At dinner table with your friends, no one is concerned about how much you ramble or how effective your speak. It will struck you hard, when you are on a business conference call or on a presentation. Let's say at work, when you and one of the team member decides to jump into a debate over a project’s progress and to support your argument, you start stating facts but every additional minute you speak without organized content and with filler words, you are losing the attention of your audience. Your message has lost is essence and it sounds weak because the your thought were not organized or content was not communicated effectively.

Not everybody has skills to be speak effectively in a calm state of mind and definitely it does not come easy to all. Do you remember the 48 minutes stretched speech by Bill Clinton in 2012 vs. the epic 270 words effective address by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in November 1863? Which one made more impact? Certainly, Abraham Lincoln gave a powerful delivery with fewer words and created history while although Bill Clinton had an effective content to pass along, he lost attention of half of audience when he rambled for over 30 minutes.
When you write a business proposal, a research paper or a simple email at work, you have an opportunity to correct, delete or format your content. But when you need to make a phone conversation, or a presentation or conduct a virtual meeting, you are more than likely to make a mistake of using filler words and rambling the same content over and over again.
Communication skills should not be taken for granted, it requires practice and no one is a born with perfect skills- everybody learns a bit of everything everyday from professional and personal experiences.

Here are some pointers to follow if you are considering to improve your communication skills..

Charity begins at home… Practice…Practice…Practice…

If you want to be successful at work, you need to start at home. The first step is to remain calm, when you get hyper or become excited, you tend to speak fast, use sloppy language and ramble the same message. The trick here is to pause, think and act.
In this book “Pitch Perfect” by Bill McCowan, he says “Think about your brain and mouth as two cars,” Your brain is the lead car and your mouth is the car behind it. “Keep a safe verbal distance. Pause when you need to. Don’t tailgate.” Follow this simple rule and you will notice a terrific change in your speech over the time. The best example to support Bill's theory is to watch Julia Child’s cooking videos. Julia Child had a distinct quality explaining techniques about cooking. She had an organized mindset; she would go in depth to explain the techniques but she had practiced an art to hold her audiences attention by speaking in a calm mind and with an organized content.

Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time

Go on Diet

In workplace, it is very common that mostly in every team, we might have one John Doe during presentations, who usually eats everybody else time during those full packed agenda meetings. Then rest of them are desperately looking at their watch and eventually have to rush through rest of the presentation. The first primary clear signal is, that John Doe haven’t practiced or recorded their presentation minutes.
If you are one of the John Doe at your work, then consider to go on a crash words diet, it is very simple concept, Imagine yourself walking through a grocery isle, closely watching all the ingredients and calorie count printed on the box  or the way you count calories, while picking up a sandwich or yogurt at a café. In the similar way, you will need to carefully organized the content of your presentation which covers the points but it also concise enough so that you can leave some time for your audience to ask questions.

I would also suggest Watch the Ted Talks by Regina Hartley, she is one of the best example, how to speak on a public podium. She was able to create an impact on the audience by carefully carving her words in exactly 10 minutes.

Boil down the message: over-talking does not make you smart
The way over-eating can leave your stomach bloated and in suffering, in the same way- rambling non-stop during presentation or even in a simple phone conference, can give a serious headache to your listeners. There are several ways to improve 1) Decide- what do you want to exactly convey to your listener 2) Support- Do you have supporting content to prepare your presentation or agenda 3) Review- review the content and try to eliminate unwanted information 4) Practice- Practice Practice and more Practice.

In the end, don’t get stressed or frustrated over this, communication skills cannot be changed over the night. It is more like fermenting the best wine in the vineyard, slow and steady should be your approach.

Stop Helicopter Parenting- Teach your college kids 3 ground rules to follow at work

So we all have witness stories about helicopter parents hovering over their child’s entire life. Some parents have also made media headlines by walking to college campuses to changes roommates, course schedules and even change the grades.

For those parents, whose kids are approaching graduation in May 2016, they would be worried and nervous as their kids will be moving from a college dorm room’s comfortable environment to real world office chaos. In college, they were around people who of the same age but at work, those new grads will be surrounded by co-workers, who have different age groups, culture backgrounds and even diverse social environment.
So if you fall in the category of worried and anxious so called helicopter parents, who are currently feeling helpless, because they wont be able to monitor their kid's career once they step into real world. Then you might want to teach your kid these three ground rules before they start their first job. These suggestion can help you to shift your attitude from being a helicopter mom or dad to more like submarine parents, who are willing to give suggestions but don't direct kids which path to follow.
Here are some points to consider as a survival kit for your kids at their first job, so you can stop hovering over them.

Act Professional- Follow “A-M-M-R” rule
In your new job, you will have multiple opportunities to leave an impression on your co-workers. Your main goal should be to create a positive image of yourself, so that people want to learn more about you. There are few essential keys to act professional in addition to grooming, working on your appearance and your clothes, which is to follow  “A-M-M-R” rule.
Attitude- you may be topper in your school and have secured straight A’s in the class but that does not mean the your coworkers will grade you same. Try not to display over-confidence at work, it can get in the way of building the good working relationships for future. Display can-do attitude when any task is assigned, don’t criticize or burn the bridges with your co-workers. At last, don’t be cynical and deal with criticism positively.
Manners- You are no more in the college dorm room- keep your volume down while making conversation or laughing over a joke in your cubicle. Workplace is changing, you will be working with a diverse culture, your co-workers can be from different countries, and follow different religions or English could not be their first language. Please remember, not to make any racial jokes during any conversation.
Maturity-You will make several mistakes at work, the key is to accept the mistakes, admit the faults-learn and move on. Avoid using foul language if you are frustrated over a process, decision or on your co-worker behavior.
Respect- Remember to appreciate your coworker for their time, it is very important to say “Thank you”- it creates a good will between two employees. Don’t be Judgmental-Diverse culture in an office can steer up stereotypical judgments- at all cost, remember not to be judgmental about your managers, co-workers and other based on their religion, upbringings and culture.

Effective Communication
The four-letter word “S E N D” can actually take your first job or any job away in just matters of hours. There are 100s of disaster stories on Internet when an employee has accidentally hit “REPLY ALL”, reveal the project’s incompetency to the client, “CC” higher up without measuring the consequences.
Trust me, there will be times when you cannot use your best judgement while responding to any email because your associate just ran you over in the meeting, you got blamed for being unproductive for a project or your presentation was not up to the game.
If you want to avoid all this mistakes while writing an email, you can follow this few simple techniques to send perfect emails- Have emotional control while responding to any situation via 1) Always open a word document to type the content of your response. By using word document, you will be able to correct grammar, format the content and wont hit send accidentally. 2) If you have type a short response then you can type in the body of your outlook or Google mail body but try to avoid and practice using word document. 3) Anybody can write 2 pages response, the key to successful email is to write short, precise and effective content 4) Triple check your response, your email should not look defensive,  inappropriate or abusive.
Brownie point: If you like a response from your associates or your manager- remember to keep a copy of that email, so you can follow the same format in future.

      Effective writing is an art ! Practice makes it perfect 

I would suggest reading Cherie Kerr’s Book: Click the link below

The Bliss or "Diss" Connection?: Email Etiquette for the Business Professional

Brownie point: 15 Tips for Writing Effective Email by Tina Su

 Business Acumen
Business acumen is very dry and invisible subject and not many organization or managers are willing to teach that subject to their employees.
If you are new grad at first job, you have an advantage to prepare a personal goal to learn about the business acumen of your department as well as organization. Business acumen is to understands how your organization manages resources, makes decisions, generate revenue, manage upcoming future projects and collaborations. Your position may not be directly involved in making decisions but you can start building up your rationale by understanding your organization’s source of revenue for your future positions.

All the major companies like Apple, Microsoft, Wegmans, Wholefoods etc work on a common driver which 1) Cash 2) Profits 3) Assets 4) Growth 5) Employees.

It is very easy to start understanding the business acumen of any organization. All you need to do is to pick each week to learn about your organization:
First two weeks: Learn about your company?
Following week: About your industry as a whole?
Know who are your company’s competitors?
Know your company’s customers or clients as a group?
Compare the technology used by your organization vs. your competitor?
Brownie points: Follow your organization social media accounts as well as your competitors to know upcoming news or projects, read business journals, ask your executives or managers, pay attention to your organizations newsletters.Organization newsletters are must- they will give all the news about upcoming projects.

Top books I recommend for new grads

Getting from College to Career Rev Ed: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World

Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time

Keitai culture ? Nomophobia, eh? do you have it or not ?

In September of 2015, BBC published a fantastic article on the growing popularity of Smartphones in Asia. Nearly 2.5 billion smartphones have effectively integrated into the cultures of Asian lives. Addicted Asian users have also reported a series of mishap news such as the tourist who had to be rescued after she walked off a pier while checking Facebook on her phone. Or the woman from China was rescued by fire fighters after falling into a drain while looking at her phone.

While I was reading the article and other related case studies, I knew that I was no different from this users, several years ago, Facebook was center of my life, every little detail had to be documented , every pictures, places had to be checked in and my entire life was on a public platform.

I know this for a fact that I am not the only one, people around me are similarly attached or you can say obsessed to Facebook, taking selfies, texting on dinner table, multi-tasking in theaters and in today’s date; nearly 64% of Americans have a Smartphone vs. 35% in 2011. Instead of investing time on creative project, we are exhausting our mind and resources to what Kim Kardashian is up to, our hours are occupied to read twitter feeds about Kate Middleton, is she going to deliver a baby BOY or a GIRL..how many of us are really concerned about a friend or a family member in the same way we are curious about Kim Kardashian or concerned about Kate Middleton's baby.

Read rest of the article here:

http://www.smartliving24x7.com/healthy-survival/2016/1/14/nomophobia-eh-do-you-have-it-or-not-

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Brown bag vs. Eating out ! Are you making a smart decision ?

According to visa survey 2015, an American spends $53 a week and a total of $2746 a year on meals bought from cafeteria or fast food joints. We all have started relying on pre-made meals, pre cut vegetables and restaurant take outs rather than following old school habit of brown bags,carrying lunch from home or buying whole vegetables. Mostly a good percentage of population spends close to 3k each year to get closer to the goal of getting sick and becoming a brand ambassador for a newly break out diseases in our country .

Food is the most integral part of our lives; we spend more than 10% of our income on buying groceries and dining out. I agree to the idea of dining out or buying lunch occasionally. But the issue of dinning out is more common than rare-the "unconscious spending" habit is creating rift with our pockets, budgets and with also our health.

Read rest of the article by clicking here.

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Got a smart phone ? My Top 3 money saving apps for 2016!

I am giving out a little secret, want to make save some money- than this apps should really help you to achieve your goal. Budget does not mean you cant have fun ! I am going straight to the point.

www.raise.com

Before you shop online or in stores, check out the Raise marketplace to find discounted gift cards to your favorite brands such as Target, The Home Depot, and Macy’s. Search by brand, category, or value, and simply add to your shopping cart.
I literally don’t step out of the house for shopping until I have a discounted card in my wallet. Those of you who are on budget like me; this will be your go to app.

Read rest of the article: http://www.smartliving24x7.com/goals-for-2016/2016/1/4/my-top-3-money-saving-apps-for-2016

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Top Financial skills new graduates must know in their 20s!

You have a graduated from college and have managed to get your first full-time job, this job will be your one step closer towards your financial freedom- you think you will be able to achieve your short as well as long term financial goals to have a stable and happy future.

For the first time you will be making independent adult decisions, solely responsible for paying your rent, car insurance, utility bills and other necessary bills with out any financial assistance from your parents. Before starting any of it, you should take a pause and consider what kind of lifestyle you would like to lead when you grow old. If you decide to lead a stable and debt free life, then time is on your side- Plan in your 20s to lead a life with more wealth, financial debt freedom and a happy retirement. Making afew smart decisions and having a discipline to your spending habit can give you upper hand to control your financial situation.

Read the full article here: http://www.smartliving24x7.com/goals-for-2016/2016/1/3/top-financial-skills-new-graduates-must-know-in-their-20s

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