Thursday, November 28, 2019

Saturday, November 23, 2019

How to Find a Low-Stress Career

How to Find a Low-Stress Career How to Find a Low-Stress Career Sure, you still need to earn money, but you have much more choice in how you do that these days day.Climbing the corporate ladder elend for you? Feeling unfulfilled, burnt out, or overstressed? Maybe you should plan for a low-stress career.That being said, low-stress jobs do come at a price lower pay. There are very few high-paying jobs that arent stressful. Ifyou want a low stress career, you should prepare yurself to earn a little less than you otherwise could.High-Pay, Low-Stress Jobs Do Exist, But Are Not Easy to LandOn the bright side,locating a high-pay, low-stress job has been made easier today, thanks to the availability of big data analyses. One such analysis is featured in an article on Business Insider, which lists 17 high-paying jobs for people who dont like stress. The list includes orthodontists, mathematicians, and economists, among other roles.While its may be fairly easy to locate these high-pay,low-st ress jobs, its not easy to land them.Youll need a lot of patience, the willingness to study long and hard, and significant educational funds. It would be fair to say that the rare combination of low-stress and high-pay is not easily accessed.To Reduce Stress, Avoid Middle ManagementIf are you are prepared to sacrifice somepay, another way to lower the stress of yourcareer involves stepping down from your middle-management role or simply never stepping up in the first place.Middle managers suffer more stress than the people below and above them, and they are much more likely to suffer symptoms of depression and anxiety,according to research.If you want a low-stress career, youll want tofocus your career progression efforts on the acquisition of specialist knowledge andcertification. Thisnon-management route can lead to higher pay without the stress of climbing up the ranks.Go Freelance Youll Be HappierNot thatfreelance is a totally stress-free endeavor, but research suggests that f reelancers are more satisfied with their work, pay, and career progression potential than traditional, full-timeworkers. So,going freelance could be just theway tocut down on your stress while still earning enough to pay your bills.Find aCareer that Suits Your PersonalityIf you seem to always find yourself in rolesthat conflict with your values and personality preferences, that could be one of the primary causesof your high stress levels.For example, if you take a low-stress job as a mathematician, but you hate the isolation associated with this job, you might find it very stressful.One way to find a low-stress career is to find a role and company that suit your values and personality preferences.If youre not certain of what kind of role or company that may be, consider taking a career preference assessment of some sort.If You Can Afford It, Work a Low-Stress 30-Hour WeekYoull need to negotiate well to achieve a 30-hour workweek contract for what would normally be a full-time role, but plenty of high-flying employees have used this tactic to achieve some additional work-life balance.-We now have much more control over the amount of stress we subject ourselves to during our careers. We are not prisoners of the systemIf youwant to avoid stressful career paths from the outset, take a breather, or get out of the rat race entirely, there are now plenty of low-stress career optionsopen. Find the right one for you

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Stop spending so much money

Stop spending so much moneyStop spending so much moneyWere spending too much money (begone Amazon Prime, you evil immediate gratification enabler) and part of the reason is its just so incredibly easy.Where there was once only the vorkaufsrecht of making a day of heading to a store and ponying up your hard-earned cash for a well-researched or much-needed item, you can now scroll, click, and have something brand new and shiny delivered to your door in under an hour. In the recent book, Dollars and Sense How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter, behavioral economist Dan Ariely, and co-author Jeff Kreisler break down some of the reasons were just so stupid about spending.In an interview with CNN Money about trying to fix our spending, Ariely said, We can wait for someone to solve it for us, or you can try to do your own financial hacking yourself.Here are some spend less hacks worth thinking about1) Stop making it so easyIf buying that needless widget meant there was more of a pai n point involved in the process, we might notlage do it quite that often or quite that easily. But since its easier than ever to buy, we do. Try disconnecting auto pay from your accounts. Or give yourself a new accountability tool. What if you had to post every single spend on your Google calendar and highlight it in red? Spend shaming might really become a thing.2) Highlight your savings not spendingAriely mentions that while we share every detail of our shopping lives angeschlossen or with friends, we dont spend that much time talking about how much weve saved or invested. Maybe its time to seriously change that collective conversation.3) Stop going digitalBelieve it or not, while paying your bills automatically may seem like the best approach, you might be making it way too easy to overspend. In the CNN Money article, Ariely advises cutting down on digital spending and instead starting to pay attention to larger costs. Another tip he offers is using a pre-paid debit card and load ing it up on Mondays, so you can best prepare for the week ahead.But its not all bad news on the spending front. Personal finance expert KyleNakatsuji, CEO and founder of auto insurance startup Clearcover, said that not all of us have become less mindful of how we spend in fact, in some ways, were more mindful of how we spend.With advances in financial technology related to planning, budgeting and analysis, theres an increasing amount of information available to help us make better money-saving decisions, Nakatsuji says. But somehow, we dont seem to be making those smarter decisions.These same kinds of advances have also made it easier than ever to spend money, and continue to spend it. Online shopping is a great example of this, Nakatsuji said. The root cause, however, is the decrease in transaction friction - think of Amazons one-click buy - the increasing ease of setting up products and services is a double-edged sword.Less stupid spendingNakatsuji said that it isnt only the lu xuries that cause overspendingOne place thats typically overlooked is compulsory services, like insurance.Think of it as a different kind of stupid spending. Most things people think of as stupid are unnecessary purchases while we think its equally silly to overpay for things youre required to have like car insurance. In fact, saving money on things youre forced to purchase can create the financial freedom to rationally buy the other things you really want, meaning youll naturally make fewer bad decisions.Dont blame it on MillennialsThough it can be easy to blame digital natives for rampant online spending habits, it isnt quite that black or white (or lack of green). I think spending habits vary more by the person than by demographic because people are intrinsically motivated in similar ways despite their age, Nakatsuji said. For me, its more about the personality than the group. Youll find people across the different generations who place a high value on material goods or experienc es (and therefore may spend more freely), just as youll find a mixed range of people who value frugality.For that reason, its also wise to try to spend less based on your personality type and spending inclinations, rather than the generational labels.