HOW TO CONQUER POOR SAVING HABIT

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Our spending habits can either make or mar us. Some people are disciplined enough to possess good spending habits but the majority continue to grapple with poor spending habits. We would love to drive that new car model, wear the latest designer clothes, go binge eating or drinking or even buy the latest phone when the one we have is working perfectly. Our bad spending habits lead us to get these things even when we cannot afford them. These bad spending habits could spell doom for us if not properly controlled. If you are suffering from poor spending habits and are always in debt because of it, know that you are not alone. Although I am not promising a total elimination of poor spending habits, here are a few useful tips on how to fix that impulse to spend when you shouldn’t. save – spending habits Save: It is so important to always set aside some money for yourself as soon as you get your salary. For those of us with poor spending habits, it is better to create another account that has restricted access. You can discuss with your bank to take a certain amount (should not be less than 10 percent of salary) every month. This habit can help you save for the rainy day and also cut down on the money you could have used to fuel your poor spending habits.budget – spending habits Make a budget: Another way to tackle poor spending habits is to always create a budget. It could be a monthly or weekly budget. This will help prioritize your needs over your wants. Using a budget will help you plan effectively on how you spend your money thereby leaving little room for poor spending habits.impulse buying – spending habits Avoid impulse buying: Impulse buying is a classic example of poor spending. We all have that ‘guilty pleasure’- something we find difficult to resist. Therefore, it is advisable to always make a list for shopping and carry the exact amount needed or something close to it. So even if that spending habit comes calling, there will be no money to give to it.help from family – spending habits Get help from loved ones: Family and friends could serve as potent allies in your struggle against poor spending habits. If we let them know of our resolve to change our spending habits, they would gladly support us by bringing us back to our senses whenever we want to go astray.observe spending – spending habits Observe your spending patterns: We could also do a lot of soul searching. We should think carefully and observe reasons and circumstances behind our spending habits. We could think of those things we love to splurge on, make a list of why and when we spend so much on them. This could provide a clue or pattern about our spending habits and help us deal effectively with the bad spending. This ‘soul searching’ can also help us to come up with better alternatives that could replace the poor spending habits. For instance, instead of drinking a carton of beer because you are sad, you could talk to somebody about your problem. In addition, we should always try to delay and thoroughly think about any major purchase we make in order to determine if we really need it, or if it’s just one of those frivolous expenses. This can be a major saving grace when our bad spending habits tempt us. It is pretty obvious that poor spending habits have been the bane of many. Poor spending habits can lead to feelings of guilt, low self-esteem and most importantly bankruptcy. Therefore, it is necessary to tackle then head on. The tips outlined in this article will help you overcome your poor spending habits and make your finances better for it.

HOW TO GET INVESTMENT INFORMATION

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HOW TO GET INVESTMENT INFORMATION
Jarus | July 8, 2014 | Articles and Analyses, Columnists, INVESTMENT TALK | 1 Comment

 

Emmanuel Ewumi

(Over 20 years investing experience in Nigeria’s financial markets)

To be a successful investor, one needs to gather information that will aid our investment decisions. Investment in real estate, stocks and businesses require knowledge and information. Lack of adequate information can make an investor lose money. Listed below are some of the sources whereby an investor can get investment information.

1. Newspaper: Most newspapers have sections that are devoted for business and financial news, good investment decisions can be from the news derived from this section. News about plans to construct roads and other infrastructure in an area is good news to real estate investor; news about the ban of certain products is also good information for investors who are willing to produce the banned goods. Almost all the newspapers have columns where they give daily summary of transactions on the stock exchange. Beside quarterly financial reports of quoted companies are regularly published by newspapers.

2. Investment advisers: These include your stockbroker, lawyer, banker etc. The stockbrokers are the people that buy and sell shares of companies on behalf of their clients. Useful information can be obtained from an informed stockbroker. An experience lawyer can detect encumbrance in a business deal, this will save an investor both money and time. All businesses and investments are regulated by the laws of the land; this makes a lawyer with experience in business transactions a good source of investment information.

Your bank is not just there for one to deposit and with money. A banker should be a good source of information for financing options for investment and business deals.

3. Insider information: Useful information can be obtained from people working in the companies you intend to buy their shares, government officials in certain parastatals and ministries can also be a source of inside information.

 

A retired lawyer with about forty houses in choice areas of Lagos made good use the inside information he got during his working days from the officials of the Ministries of Land and Urban Planning. With this information, he was able to buy cheap plots of land which have turned to goldmine within thirty years.

4. Personal research: Apart from relying on the information from the newspaper, investment advisers and insiders, an investor also needs to do thorough personal research on the assets, companies and ventures they want to invest in.

The investor also needs to have an investor eye and the ability to make good use of the information at his disposal.

5. Internet: The resources that the big boys and Institutional investors were using to gather investment information and make investment decisions are now available for everyone via the internet. It is now very easy for every investor to get investment information, but it appears that the more information at the disposal of investors the more confused and helpless they become. Investors should equip themselves with the knowledge of how to make good use of the barrage of information at their disposal.

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Four Reasons Doctors Worry About Social Media –
I’m fortunate enough to spend a lot of time interacting with physicians, entrepreneurs, and investors on the bleeding edge of digital health – and it’s a consistently thrilling experience.
At the same time, the continuous exposure to the imaginative and the extraordinary can also be a bit deceptive.  Self-associating groups, as Sunstein has discussed, tend to adopt relatively extreme views, and it’s easy to envision this happening in Silicon Valley in general, and to digital health innovators in particular.
Consequently, it was probably healthy, and certainly arresting, to attend a breakout session on social media at recent a medical conference; the audience members were mostly practicing physicians, seemed passionate about patient care, and were explicitly interested in learning about social media.  Yet, most of the clinicians were not prepared to embrace it, and many were poignantly struggling to come to terms with a phenomenon they recognized as important, yet which viscerally troubled them.
Their concerns seem to fall into four categories, two involving patients, and two involving physicians.
1. Patients Receiving “Bad” Information
Many physicians described the challenges of dealing with patients who had retrieved wrong or incomplete information from the internet.  This turns out to be a remarkably common problem; doctors reported spending a lot of time undoing bad information.
The challenge was highlighted by the observation that 25% of Google searches for headache reportedly discuss brain tumors, even though such a diagnosis would be exceptionally uncommon.  The thought was that while physicians have learned during their training to appropriately weigh pre-test probabilities, patients have not, and are likely to fixate on extreme diagnoses rather than those that are most likely.
It seemed to me that “Dr. Google” upset many doctors not only because it complicated office visits, but also because it fundamentally altered the traditional doctor/patient relationship; as one physician said – verbatim – “I’ve lost my authority.”  It’s hard not to see this as a profound shift in perspective many experienced physicians understandably struggle to manage.
2. Patients Transmitting “Bad” Information
Many doctors in the audience were also visibly troubled by the ease with which patients could share “misleading” information, whether about medicine or the doctors themselves.
Despite the clear repudiation of a link between vaccines and autism, for instance, many patients continue to worry, a concern reportedly spurred on by an active internet anti-vaccine community.
Doctors were also fretting about the ease with which disgruntled patients could use the internet to besmirch reputations — one physician complained that when he Googled himself, the first links that came up were bad reviews he said represented a small number of extremely vocal patients.
3. Physicians Receiving Information Badly
While some senior physicians worried that young doctors might start to rely on tweets rather than peer-reviewed articles, it seemed that the most significant concern raised was the impact that the “internet culture” was having on the practice of medicine.  “We need to teach students that traditional values are still important,” one audience member said (again, verbatim), suggesting that students have become progressively less reflective.
The use of mobile devices – what consultants call “phone hygiene” – emerged as a particular source of physician aggravation.  Rounding residents would routinely look at the cell phones rather than pay attention to either the patients or the senior doctors, leading at least one doctor to prohibit the use of mobile devices on rounds – except for a 5’ phone break he built into the schedule, to accommodate what he described as the young doctors’ obvious addiction.
Another senior doctor, in a complaint evocative of this recent, much-discussed NYT article, noted that residents would routinely update her by text, rather than by phone.  She suggested this reflected a more general trend of young physician disengagement, evidently preferring to interact with devices rather than with other people.
4. Physicians Transmitting Information Badly
The ability afforded by social media to share information rapidly and broadly was another source of concern.  Many senior physicians worried young doctors might use social media in unprofessional ways – sharing things they shouldn’t, saying things they shouldn’t – potentially placing themselves and their institutions at risk.
In some cases, even seemingly innocent activities might be deemed inappropriate.  One young physician offered as an example a (medically-related) internet survey research project he wanted to do.  He said that while he could do this very easily, nearly instantly, and essentially for nothing using Google, he learned from his department this would violate institutional policy, and to conduct the research with the required protections in place would cost at least $25,000; naturally, the research has not progressed.
Predictably, medicine seems to be reacting to change the way it often does – by publishing (see Figure below) an ever-increasing number of journal articles (such as – not kidding – “Twitter for Neurosurgeons”), and by issuing well-intentioned (albeit largely unreadable) guidelines; this just-published position statement, from the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards, represents the genre well.

It could be that doctors have to go through familiar, well-established processes as a way of coping with things that seem so new.  At the same time, it’s hard not to get the feeling that organized medicine is effectively solemnizing the vitality out of social media.  From reading all of the dry documentation discussing social media, you’d struggle to come away with any real sense of why it’s so exciting and engaging.
To be sure, many of the critiques offered by senior physicians who offer the wisdom of their experience are spot on.  They’re right about the hazards of online diagnosis, and right to worry about the potential harm that can be associated with the disproportional amplification of voice the internet can offer.  They’re also right to urge young doctors to remember the value of professional behavior, and to celebrate reflection as a virtue.
But I also suspect many senior physicians are struggling – not always successfully — to envision a world that operates in a very different way, at a very different speed, and in a very different style than that to which they’ve grown accustomed.
I reject the view that the internet and social media are somehow degrading the culture of medicine, or causing it to change for the worse.  Instead, I see emerging modalities as offering the profession an urgently needed chance to radically update its approach, and interact with patients, data, and each otherin important new ways.  Care can evolve from episodic to continuous, and physicians, increasingly accountable, will appreciate the opportunity to partner with patients who are informed, empowered, and engaged.
Rather than isolating doctors, the new technology promises to be fundamentally enabling, allowing doctors to redefine and strengthen their relationships — with patients and with colleagues.

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Airtel fires the first shot, says it’s “the readiest network” as Nigeria launches mobile phone number portability

 

 

Two days ahead of the launch of mobile phone number portability in Nigeria, leading telecomm operator Airtel Nigeria this afternoon declared itself not only fully set but also “the readiest network” for the scheme.

 

Under the number portability scheme being introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), customers of the country’s four mobile companies are free to change network at no cost while still retaining their favourite existing number irrespective of the network from which they originally obtained the number.

 

“We are not just ready for mobile number portability; we are the readiest network for it,” declared Airtel Nigeria’s Vice President, Corporate Communications & CSR, Emeka Oparah, at a media briefing at Lagos Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Ikeja.

 

Airtel’s Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, did not only echo the claim but went ahead to back it up with facts.

 

“We are so excited about mobile number portability,” Ogunsanya said. “This is something we asked for. In 2010 when Airtel was launched in Abuja, we asked for number portability as we’re aware that most people are reluctant to change numbers even when they would like to change network, because the number is like their identity.”

 

Ogunsanya disclosed that Airtel Nigeria has invested $1.5 billion in infrastructure upgrade in readiness for the number portability era.

 

“We are the best-placed operator to implement number portability,” he said, adding: “We are the only network in this country with HD capability. We are the first to do field launch of 4G and we have the best network coverage as we cover many more local governments in the country.”

 

The Airtel Nigeria CEO saluted the NCC for midwifing the number portability regime, saying that it will reduce the burden of subscribers “because there is no need for anyone to carry two or three phones anymore.”

 

Ogunsanya disclosed that Airtel has enough capacity to absorb those who wish to change to the network and looks forward to “a level-playing field where the best network wins.” He predicted that with the new scheme, the industry is entering a new phase in which “you innovate or die” as a mobile telecomm operator.  

 

Speaking at the media briefing, Osondu Nwokoro, Airtel Nigeria’s Director, Regulatory Affairs and Special Projects, assured those who wish to migrate to Airtel from other networks that the process would be completed within 48 hours at no cost whatsoever to them.

 

Also speaking, Sawyat Rahaman, Airtel Nigeria’s Senior Manager, Business Excellence, gave an undertaking that all those who switch to Airtel under the new regime would be guaranteed the very best services.

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Governor OKOROCHA ESCAPES DEATH . . . injured in road accident

By News Express on 19/04/2013

Views: 146

Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, narrowly escaped death today in an auto crash which happened along the Owerri – Orlu Road of the state.

Briefing journalists at the Government House Owerri, Governor Okorocha said the accident occurred when a flat boot Mercedes Benz 200 ran into his convoy and had a head-on coalition with his own car, leading to his sustaining a minor cut on his scalp.

The governor who was bandaged on the head said he was stable and strong, but would seek further medical attention due to the level of impact of the accident on him.

Earlier the Imo State Commissioner of Police Mohammed Katsina had confirmed the accident. He disclosed that he had dispatched an investigation team to ascertain the cause of the accident and would give further information on the matter as soon as the investigation was concluded.

Also speaking, Okorocha’s personal physician, Dr. Sylvester Igwe, said that the governor had a minor laceration of his scalp and was very stable but needed further medical examination.