Investing- Investment Strategies for First-Time Investors

If you are thinking about getting into investment, you are likely unsure of how to start and what you should be investing in. The world of investment can be very intimidating for the first-timer. In fact, it can often be confusing for those who are experienced. The following are 10 tips that will help you get started in the world of investment.

1. Set Investment Goals

Now it is time to decide what you want to get out of investing. Obviously, your ultimate goal is to make money, but everyone's needs are different. Things to consider include income, capital appreciation, and safety of capital. Also, consider your age, your personal circumstances, and your financial position.

2. Invest Early

The earlier you start investing, the better. For one thing, the sooner you start, the less money you will need every year to achieve your investing goals. Your earnings will compound over time, so don't be afraid to start investing, even if you are a college student- or better yet, in your last year of high school.

3. Make Investments Automatic

Set aside a certain amount of money to be automatically invested each month. You can set up automatic investment plans through various brokerage service firms and automated investment services like Wealthfront. By doing this, you will avoid stalling and consistently invest.

4. Look at Your Finances

Before you can begin investing, you need to look at how much money you have to invest. Be realistic about it. Make sure that you leave yourself with enough money to pay for your regular monthly bills, loan payments, etc. You don't need a lot of money to get started with investing- but there are risks. You don't want to leave yourself short of paying other important bills.

5. Learn About Investing

Once you have your finances in order, it is time to start learning about investing. Study basic terminology, so you know how to make coherent decisions. Learn about stocks, bonds, mutual funds and certificates of deposits (CD's). Don't forget about other details that include diversification, portfolio optimization and market efficiency.

6. Set up Retirement Accounts

There are many tax advantages to having retirement accounts. In some cases, initial investments are tax-deductible, such as IRA's and 401 K's. Others require you to pay taxes up front, but not when you withdraw funds during retirement; these include Roth IRA's (Individual Retirement Arrangement). Also, make sure to find out if your employer matches personal retirement contributions.

7. Be Wary of Commissions

Professionals will try to talk you into buying investments that give them high commissions. Don't do this without some serious research. Some so-called professionals are well known for selling products that pay them big commissions, but don't pay much to their buyers.

8. Diversify Your Investments

The market fluctuates constantly, and things always go up and down. To avoid losing too much money when stocks go down, make sure you have a diversified portfolio. That way, you will have some stocks that are rising, even when others are falling. Another option is to invest in overseas markets since they are notably different from the ones in the United States.

9. Study Your Portfolio

It is important that you always study your portfolio. What is right for your portfolio today may not be the best for it tomorrow. It is important to know what you have, and where you might need to make changes in the future. When the economic climate shifts, be prepared to make investment changes as well.

10. Keep Informed

It is a good idea to always study the markets. Read up on the things you have invested in, and look for resources that keep up with market trends, as well as the global economy.

10 Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions

The best way to prepare you for the interview is to know what questions may be coming and practice in advance. The following are some of the most difficult questions you will face in the course of your job interviews. Some questions may seem rather simple on the surface—such as "Tell me about yourself"—but these questions can have a variety of answers. The more open ended the question, the wider the variation in the answers. Once you have become practiced in your interviewing skills, you will find that you can use almost any question as a launching pad for a particular example or compelling story.

The following answers are provided to give you a new perspective on how to answer tough interview questions. They are not there for you to lift from the page and insert into your next interview. They are provided for you to use as the basic structure for formulating your own answers. While the specifics of each reply may not apply to you, try to follow the basic structure of the answer from the perspective of the interviewer. Answer the questions behaviourally, with specific examples that show that clear evidence of your competencies. Always provide information that shows you have the skills and experience necessary to become the very best employee for the company and that you have specifically prepared yourself to become exactly that. Interviewers want to be sold. They are waiting to be sold. Don't disappoint them!

1. Tell me about yourself.

It seems like an easy interview question. It's open ended. I can talk about whatever I want from the birth canal forward. Right?

Wrong. What the hiring manager really wants is a quick, two- to three-minute snapshot of who you are and why you're the best candidate for this position.

So as you answer this question, talk about what you've done to prepare yourself to be the very best candidate for the position. Use an example or two to back it up. Then ask if they would like more details. If they do, keep giving them example after example of your background and experience. Always point back to an example when you have the opportunity.

"Tell me about yourself" does not mean tell me everything. Just tell me what makes you the best.

2. Why should I hire you?

The easy answer is that you are the best person for the job. And don't be afraid to say so. But then back it up with what specifically differentiates you.

For example: "You should hire me because I'm the best person for the job. I realize that there are likely other candidates who also have the ability to do this job. Yet I bring an additional quality that makes me the best person for the job—my passion for excellence. I am passionately committed to producing truly world class results. For example…"

Are you the best person for the job? Show it by your passionate examples.

3. What is your long-range objective?

The key is to focus on your achievable objectives and what you are doing to reach those objectives.

For example: "Within five years, I would like to become the very best accountant your company has on staff. I want to work toward becoming the expert that others rely upon. And in doing so, I feel I'll be fully prepared to take on any greater responsibilities which might be presented in the long term. For example, here is what I'm presently doing to prepare myself…"

Then go on to show by your examples what you are doing to reach your goals and objectives.

4. How has your education prepared you for your career?

This is a broad question and you need to focus on the behavioral examples in your educational background which specifically align to the required competencies for the career.

An example: "My education has focused on not only the learning the fundamentals, but also on the practical application of the information learned within those classes. For example, I played a lead role in a class project where we gathered and analyzed best practice data from this industry. Let me tell you more about the results…"

Focus on behavioral examples supporting the key competencies for the career. Then ask if they would like to hear more examples.

5. Are you a team player?

Almost everyone says yes to this question. But it is not just a yes/no question. You need to provide behavioural examples to back up your answer.

A sample answer: "Yes, I'm very much a team player. In fact, I've had opportunities in my work, school and athletics to develop my skills as a team player. For example, on a recent project…"

Emphasize teamwork behavioural examples and focus on your openness to diversity of backgrounds. Talk about the strength of the team above the individual. And note that this question may be used as a lead in to questions around how you handle conflict within a team, so be prepared.

6. Have you ever had a conflict with a boss or professor? How was it resolved?

Note that if you say no, most interviewers will keep drilling deeper to find a conflict. The key is how you behaviourally reacted to conflict and what you did to resolve it.

For example: "Yes, I have had conflicts in the past. Never major ones, but there have been disagreements that needed to be resolved. I've found that when conflict occurs, it helps to fully understand the other persons perspective, so I take time to listen to their point of view, then I seek to work out a collaborative solution. For example…"

Focus your answer on the behavioural process for resolving the conflict and working collaboratively.

7. What is your greatest weakness?

Most career books tell you to select strength and present it as a weakness. Such as: "I work too much. I just work and work and work." Wrong. First of all, using strength and presenting it as a weakness is deceiving. Second, it misses the point of the question.

You should select a weakness that you have been actively working to overcome. For example: "I have had trouble in the past with planning and prioritization. However, I'm now taking steps to correct this. I just started a planner app on my mobile t better plan and prioritize…" then pull out your mobile to show how you are using the app.

Talk about a true weakness and show what you are doing to overcome it.

8. If I were to ask your professors (or your boss) to describe you, what would they say?

This is a threat of reference check question. Do not wait for the interview to know the answer. Ask any prior bosses or professors in advance. And if they're willing to provide a positive reference, ask them for a letter of recommendation.

Then you can answer the question like this:

"I believe she would say I'm a very energetic person, that I'm results oriented and one of the best people with whom she has ever worked. Actually, I know she would say that, because those are her very words. May I show you her letter of recommendation?"

So be prepared in advance with your letters of recommendation.

9. What qualities do you feel a successful manager should have?

Focus on two words: leadership and vision. Then tell of how that leadership and vision translated into your personal delivered results.

Here is a sample of how to respond: "The key quality in a successful manager should be leadership—the ability to be the visionary for the people who are working under them. The person who can set the course and direction for subordinates, keeping them focused on what is most important for delivering the highest priority results. The highest calling of a true leader is inspiring others to reach the highest of their abilities. I'd like to tell you about a person whom I consider to be a true leader…"

Then give an example of someone who has touched your life and how their impact has helped in your personal development.

10. If you had to live your life over again, what one thing would you change?

Focus on a key turning point in your life or missed opportunity. Yet also tie it forward to what you are doing to still seek to make that change.

For example: "Although I'm overall very happy with where I'm at in my life, the one aspect I likely would have changed would be focusing earlier on my chosen career. I had a great internship this past year and look forward to more experience in the field. I simply wish I would have focused here earlier. For example, I learned on my recent internship…" then provide examples.

Stays focused on positive direction in your life and back it up with examples.

7 Ways to Work Smarter and Be More Productive

You can accomplish anything with hard work, they say. You can make your business a success, earn a promotion, and master virtually any skill… if you just work hard.

Except working your butt off is not always enough. Need proof? You can't inflate a flat car tire by blowing into it as hard as you can, the same way you can't effectively mow a lawn with a pair of household scissors. No, you need the right tools, the right strategies, for the right tasks. You need to work smarter, not harder.

Here are seven tips to help you work more efficiently and more productively without expending any additional effort—aka here's how to work smarter, not harder:

1. Walk away.

Walking away from a complex task might seem counter intuitive, but breaks can actually make you more productive. Removing yourself from the work environment immediately reduces stress and gives your brain a chance to "catch up." If you're working on a hard problem, your subconscious mind will continue working on it even if your conscious mind is trying to relax—which is why sometimes, solutions magically pop into your mind when you aren't thinking about the problem. Either way, you'll come back refreshed and in a healthier, more focused mental state for work.

2. Recognize and eliminate distractions.

This should be obvious, but the most dangerous distractions are the ones you don't even realize are distracting. Maybe you're working on a new marketing plan with a couple tabs of research open, and a third tab that's, conveniently, open to Facebook. You get a new notification, so you click out of your Word doc to check it real quick. You spend 20 seconds looking at the post you were just tagged in (or the event you were just invited to or the "like" your status just got) before you minimize it again. Twenty seconds isn't a long time, but it breaks your focus and forces you to restart your last train of thought, possibly costing you a few minutes or more. Compound that happening several times an hour and you've instantly reduced your overall productivity.

3. Ignore low2-priority items.

Low-priority items sneak up on you, artificially increasing the length of your to-do list and distracting you from more important work. Say you're working on a big project when a co-worker emails you about a quick change you need to make on your company's website. Logging on and making the change won't take much time, but it will distract you from the project and stress you out if you have to postpone it until later. The best way to fight against these low-priority items is to ignore them altogether. Go into "do not disturb" mode by working offline if you can and don't write them down on your to-do list—they aren't worth your immediate concern, so you'll get to them when you get to them. (Just don't do the same for high-priority tasks.)

4. Create routine habits.

Habits happen naturally after they're formed—they become a ritual, something you can slip into automatically, something you don't even have to think about. For example, if you have to update an editorial calendar every day, make it an unconscious habit, sparing you the necessity of remembering it in a desperate scramble. Forming habits is the hard part—a good rule of thumb is to force you to commit the action every day, with no breaks from the routine, until it comes naturally (some people say it takes 30 days, but the evidence is iffy and subjective).

5. Work in chunks.

Instead of sitting down to complete an entire project, sit down to accomplish one goal element or work for a certain number of hours. Forcing yourself to complete the entirety of a project or complex task will stress you out and make you less productive. Instead, allow yourself to work in shorter "bursts" to keep your mind fresh and reduce your anxiety. That way, you can work to the very best of your ability.

6. "Multitask" (not in the traditional sense).

No matter how busy you are, there are always "negative spaces" in your day—and these gaps are when you should "multitask." Try to fill the empty spaces with productive work: On your lunch break, watch a tutorial video or catch up on your emails. On your drive into work, listen to audio books or podcasts. During your workouts, catch up on some voice mails or watch a TED Talk. The more you learn and work in these negative spaces, the more you'll get done overall.

7. Work around your strengths and weaknesses.

You know yourself better than anybody. You have strengths and weaknesses inherent to your being, and they're going to affect how you work. Navigate around these by taking on more tasks that you're good at and staying away from ones that slow you down; don't try to do them all yourself. Delegate or work together with others to shoulder the burden of your weakest tasks or skills, and spend more time doing what you do best.

An Anxious Mind Is a Focused Mind: Science Says

People who think too much may have little reason to worry. Recent studies have shown that there is a link between anxiety and intelligence and it is a positive one.

Scientists found that people who worry a lot do so because they experience "high levels of spontaneous activity" in the part of the brain that manages threat perception.

Fear allows you to react to a potential threat in good time. Being too happy all the time means that you don't think about potential problems.  It's hard to anticipate something you're not thinking about. Thus, the ultra-cheerful are at a disadvantage when they need to overcome adversity. This is especially true for rare or complex problems that are difficult to expect.

People with anxiety are sometimes responding to a threat that doesn't exist. But, the response means that their imagination is highly active. An active imagination keeps you safe from threats that other people might not pick up on.

The general belief about anxiety is that it's a negative thing. Because suffering from anxiety is not pleasant, most of the people who deal with it wish they didn't have to. But this does not necessarily need to be the case. Science is showing that a little bit of anxiety, while uncomfortable, is a good thing.

In 2012, Israeli psychologists ran a test on 80 students at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. The students were under the impression that they were there to assess artwork on a piece of software.

Instead, the researchers rigged the program. Instead of viewing art, the students triggered a computer virus. They were then encouraged to contact IT.

Finding IT presented new challenges. As the students left the room, they were accosted by various obstacles. Some students dropped papers as they walked by. Someone also stopped them to ask the participant to complete a survey.

The test found that the participants who really wanted to reach IT to fix the virus had the highest amount of anxiety.

The students who had less anxiety got distracted. They stopped to complete the survey, pick up the papers, etc.

Essentially, the anxious students had a greater sense of the threat and what was at stake. Thus, they stopped at little to accomplish their goal. This is where the correlation between IQ comes in because when anxious people want to relieve their anxiety not just by performing a task. They want to perform it well.

So anxiety can actually gives us higher chance to succeed!

5 Questions Every Candidate Should Ask During Job Interview

The landscape for job seekers today can be difficult. In other words, if you want a job today, the hard work starts when you prepare for the interview. That means not just nailing the interview questions you are asked, but actually asking the kinds of questions designed to make the interviewer sit up and take notice. It's no longer enough to be qualified. If you want a job in today's business environment, you have to shine, and there's no better way to show your excellence than by asking excellent questions.

Job Interviews

Asking the right questions during a job interview is one way to show capability and aptitude. There is evidence that an engaging and prepared candidate leaves a great impression and stands a greater chance of a second interview or getting the job outright. The truth is that asking question extends the interview conversations and provides the recruiter or interviewer the opportunity to know your capabilities and context.

While there are no ideal questions, there are certain questions that reveal one's degree of preparedness and the truth about asking question is that it extends the interview process and provides the recruiter or interviewer the opportunity to know you as a candidate in a broader context. Listed below are 5 questions to ask during a job interview.

1. Most valuable resource

Start by asking, "What do you call your employees?"

This question goes to the core of identity within the organization, as it seeks to clarify the premium placed on employees. In some organizations, employees are referred to as associates, or co-owners, or servant leaders or volunteers or simply employees. Whatever employees are called isn't necessarily the bigger issue, it is truly about understanding how leadership or management think about their most valuable resources – people.

2. Organizational reward

During your interview, your focus should be on recognition rather than compensation. Be aware that until an offer has been made and you've accepted, everything you say and do is under evaluation. It is very crucial that you do not send the wrong vibe or leave a negative impression with your interviewer(s).

So to ensure there are no surprises, here's a secret. Inquire about the organization's outlook on great work. You need to eliminate the ambiguity, so ask what it means to have done an amazing work. Follow up with these clarifying questions:

What does great work look like? What happens to those who have done great work in the past? Then ask why the organization rewards good work. Before long you are discussing rewards, money and compensation. Now isn't that what you wanted to find out? Exactly!

3. Failure and learning opportunities

Failure is natural and a critical part of the learning process. The "fail forward" philosophy is only as valid as the opportunities available to fail and learn. In many instances, organizations simply pay lip service to failure and often avoid these uncomfortable discussions.

But the truly great organizations and leaders do not hide from failures. They actually internalize and appropriately extract learnings from failures. They inevitably fail forward.

So ask how and why people fail, follow it up with what does the organization do with failures? The answers provide insights into an organization's risk appetite and approach. These are the amazing clues that must not be ignored.

4. Decision making and management

In some organizations, decisions are made promptly, in others haphazardly. It is important to understand the core from which decisions are made. Are organizational decisions made by a few, how and when are those decisions communicated to the others? The answers to this question reveal the dynamics of management as well as the salient attributes of leadership.

5. Leadership matters

There is a lot riding on and attributed to leaders. In particular, there is a direct correlation between leadership and individual success in organizations or corporations. So it is absolutely important to know the leadership style of your immediate boss as good as possible. The insights gleaned from this question are critical clues that must not be ignored.