Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Women Making Money

The holiday season can be marked by excess and consumerism. However, it can also be a time of giving back. Here are some ideas for doing your Christmas shopping and benefitting the lives of others in need at the same time.

31 Bits Jewelry is made out of 100% recycled paper, posters, and magazines by internally displaced women in Northern Uganda. Each piece of jewelry is unique and hand-crafted by a woman in the community of Gulu, Uganda.

Punjammies are adorable sari-inspired pajamas. Each Punjammies are created in an after-care facility for women who have been rescued, released or escaped from a life of forced prostitution. Holistic aftercare involves quality medical care, emotional safety, education and the tools to create a new way of life for herself.

Krochet Kids offers 3 year programs to women living in poverty. In this program, the women learn to krochet hats to earn an income and be able to fully support themselves for the first time in their lives. Based in Uganda, the hats are sold in the US, on their website andat most Nordstroms.

Buying Christmas Cards this year? Consider the fresh, modern designs at Paper Culture, all done in a beautiful recycled cardstock. For every order, they plant a tree in your name, and if you enter the code ”CA10″ at check out 20%will go directly to the Somaly Mam Foundation to help end human trafficking and slavery worldwide.

The bags and purses from Haitian Creations are handmade by women in Haiti, who are a part of a sewing program that is giving these impoverished women lifelong skills. The ability to earn money gives these women the ability to be self-sufficient, to support their families, and to have the independence they need in a society where this is often difficult.

isanctuary is an organization working to help victims of the sex trade recover and rebuild their lives. They work with young survivors – 12 to 19 year olds, making sure they receive all the elements necessary for restoration, including education, counseling, vocational training, and mental, emotional and spiritual healing. The girls create stunning jewelry that is sold online and in retail stores. You can shop at their retail site.

Nuru International – be apart of ending extreme poverty throughout the world. You can give a one time gift, or sponsor a family for a year.

Kauzbots is a line of 10 plush toy robots – each one with its own “kauze.” 10% of the retail price from each adorable bot is donated directly to the non-profit that is noted on the hang tag. With a wide variety of charities to choose from (including AIDS Walk, Arbor Day Foundation, Lifewater International, and 7 others), you’re sure to find one that touches your heart. Kauzbots are designed to inspire kids to change the world!

Continued on the next page

On the outskirts of Rio lies Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where over 7,000 thousand tons of garbage are dumped 24 hours a day. Amongst this trash work 3,000-5,000 catadores (pickers), men and women who sift through the garbage to collect recyclables. While the work pays approximately double Brazil's minimum wage, allows the pickers to help the environment, and keeps them from falling into the traps of drug trafficking or prostitution, the life of a picker is one with no future.

Amidst this world of discarded objects and people, documentarian Lucy Walker (the Devil's Playground, Countdown to Zero) and Brazilian-born artist Vik Muniz partnered on a unique project. Muniz, a native of Sao Paulo who has become known for making art pieces out of unconventional materials, traveled to Gramacho with a plan to photograph the pickers, create large-scale portraits of them made out of recyclable materials collected from the dump, and give all the money raised from the sale of the pieces back to the pickers so they could improve their lives. Walker, over a three-year period, captured the process in the new documentary, Waste Land.

Waste Land -- which won the World Cinema Audience Documentary Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, the Human Rights Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and has earned rave reviews -- is a testament to the transformative power of art, as well as a call for all of us to take a closer look at what we have, what we discard, and the lives of those pushed to the fringes of society.

See my ReThink Review of Waste Land on the Young Turks, as well as my discussion with guest host Ben Mankiewicz about how Muniz's project changed the lives of the pickers, as well as the challenges of making food in a dump.

To find out more about Waste Land and if it is playing near you, visit WasteLandMovie.com. For more ReThink Reviews, visit ReThinkReviews.net To subscribe to ReThink Reviews on YouTube, go here.

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Ann Marlowe, not known for optimistic reporting and commentary on our efforts in Afghanistan, takes a different tone in her Weekly Standard piece entitled Good News, for a Change. BLUF: "… Zabul seems to be on an upward path. ...

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Nuru International – be apart of ending extreme poverty throughout the world. You can give a one time gift, or sponsor a family for a year.

Continued on the next page

To find out more about Waste Land and if it is playing near you, visit WasteLandMovie.com. For more ReThink Reviews, visit ReThinkReviews.net To subscribe to ReThink Reviews on YouTube, go here.

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Nuru International – be apart of ending extreme poverty throughout the world. You can give a one time gift, or sponsor a family for a year.

Continued on the next page

To find out more about Waste Land and if it is playing near you, visit WasteLandMovie.com. For more ReThink Reviews, visit ReThinkReviews.net To subscribe to ReThink Reviews on YouTube, go here.

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Good News, for a Change (SWJ Blog)

Small Business News: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.

Scripting News: My JSON River of News

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Making Money on the Internet

Bing Gordon, a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, says that his venture capital firm has to gear up for the coming tech boom. That’s one reason that his company hired famous Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker as a new partner on Monday.

Meeker’s investing focus at the firm will be on the Internet and how the shift to mobile will create huge new opportunities, Gordon said in an interview.

Gordon is sitting pretty himself as the backer of Kleiner’s investments in mobile gaming firm Ngmoco, which was bought by DeNA for $403 million, and Zynga, the hot social gaming company that is valued at $5.6 billion.

“She thinks big and thinks global,” Gordon (pictured right) said. “Among the analysts, she is my favorite personality. She makes fearless macro bets and is right most of the time.”

Gordon said he sees a big boom coming, not a bubble, much like Kleiner’s managing partner John Doerr, who said that we’re in the midst of yet another boom for internet investments at the recent Web 2.0 Summit. The reason is that he sees a lot of technologies that are changing the way we live.

“The world of digital media is being transformed,” Gordon said. “A bunch of new businesses can be reinvented, thanks to social graphs, the mobile internet, and the new shopping habits of the young. Those are going to create a whole generation of cool new companies. Mary has the right stuff to help people take advantage of the opportunities.”

As for his own focus, Gordon said he is fascinated how users are dealing with the information overload from the social internet and how users are building their own social capital. He is also interested in the “new algorithms, data structures and network topologies of the social web.” He is looking at the intersection of mobile operating systems, the social web, and entertainment. He is also interested in gamification, or making non-game applications more fun and engaging by making them more game-like.

Beyond spotting trends, Meeker will now have to pick the right companies and entrepreneurs that are riding those trends. Meeker will focus on Kleiner’s digital investments, which largely means the social and mobile Internet. But Gordon said that renewed emphasis on internet companies doesn’t mean that the company is backing off completely on big cleantech investments.

“If you look at our cleantech and life science press releases, you can see there are other partner recruitments happening there too,” he said.

Kleiner has a new fund, the sFund, to invest in social Internet companies. But Gordon said it isn’t easy to predict whether Kleiner will invest more money in 2011 than it will in 2010.

[photo credit: SF Business Journal]

Next Story: LinkedIn joins the article-sharing party Previous Story: NewsBasis: Death to the bad PR pitch!

Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.

There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.

The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.

The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.

Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.

And they're going abroad in search of customers.

Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.

So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.

But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.

Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.

Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.

Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.

One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.

And that means the bills aren't getting paid.

According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.

Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.

Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.

And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.

And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.

Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.

Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.

But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

As Peter Kafka at MediaMemo reports, Hulu is currently casting for a presenter for the show which will be published daily, taking a 'Daily Show'-style satirical approach to the latest entertainment news. Hulu (backed by US TV giants NBC ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

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Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

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Hulu sus planes de propio entretenimiento de noticias muestran, pero a nadie ver? Como Peter Kafka en informes MediaMemo, Hulu es actualmente el casting para un presentador de la serie que se publica todos los días, teniendo una 'Daily Show' al estilo de enfoque satírico de las últimas noticias de entretenimiento. Hulu (respaldado por EE.UU. gigantes de televisión NBC ...

Lujiazui habitaciones: Noticias & puntos de vista sobre las existencias de China (06 de diciembre ... Inversores y los comerciantes en el principal distrito financiero de China se trata de lo siguiente antes de que comience el comercio de hoy: Con las expectativas sobre la inflación y la política monetaria cada vez más claro, los inversores están tomando las señales desde el extranjero ...

Película Noticias Rápida Hits: Emma Stone ' ' s Spider-Man Mira ', Annie Asiente ... Publicado 06 de diciembre 2010 15:05 Archivado en:. Remolques . y clips, películas Noticias, Festival de Cine Sundance, Cinematical email - Emma Stone estrenó su look de Spider-Man por primera vez a Trevor vivo en Hollywood el fin de semana ....

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

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Meeker’s investing focus at the firm will be on the Internet and how the shift to mobile will create huge new opportunities, Gordon said in an interview.

“She thinks big and thinks global,” Gordon (pictured right) said. “Among the analysts, she is my favorite personality. She makes fearless macro bets and is right most of the time.”

“If you look at our cleantech and life science press releases, you can see there are other partner recruitments happening there too,” he said.

Kleiner has a new fund, the sFund, to invest in social Internet companies. But Gordon said it isn’t easy to predict whether Kleiner will invest more money in 2011 than it will in 2010.

[photo credit: SF Business Journal]

Next Story: LinkedIn joins the article-sharing party Previous Story: NewsBasis: Death to the bad PR pitch!

Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.

There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.

The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.

And they're going abroad in search of customers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.

But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.

Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.

And that means the bills aren't getting paid.

Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.

And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.

Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.

But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

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Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

bench craft company rip off

Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

bench craft company rip off

Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

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Meeker’s investing focus at the firm will be on the Internet and how the shift to mobile will create huge new opportunities, Gordon said in an interview.

“She thinks big and thinks global,” Gordon (pictured right) said. “Among the analysts, she is my favorite personality. She makes fearless macro bets and is right most of the time.”

“If you look at our cleantech and life science press releases, you can see there are other partner recruitments happening there too,” he said.

Kleiner has a new fund, the sFund, to invest in social Internet companies. But Gordon said it isn’t easy to predict whether Kleiner will invest more money in 2011 than it will in 2010.

[photo credit: SF Business Journal]

Next Story: LinkedIn joins the article-sharing party Previous Story: NewsBasis: Death to the bad PR pitch!

Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.

There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.

The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.

And they're going abroad in search of customers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.

But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.

Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.

And that means the bills aren't getting paid.

Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.

And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.

Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.

But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

bench craft company rip off

Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

bench craft company rip off

Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

bench craft company rip off

Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

bench craft company rip off

Hulu plans its own entertainment news show, but will anyone watch?

Lujiazui Breakfast: News & Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 ...

Movie News Quick Hits: Emma Stone's 'Spider-Man' Look, Annie Nods ...

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

personal finance budgeting

moBudget will help you organize your personal income and outcome. By doing it, moBudget can also help you in identifying budgeting and saving opportunities. Its main screen presents a dashboard with a set of intelligent indicators which will tell you how is your personal finance doing. Forget about grabbing a calculator to get the numbers you need, the dashboard will say it all; it will inform, alert and advice you when needed so you can make the best budgeting and spending decisions. By allowing stepping through months back and forth, allows you to whether see how you did on previous months and how you will be doing in the upcoming months and adjust your budgets to the optimal. Take it with you, stick to its rules and you will see how money won’t cause a you a headache any more.

Key features

Main dashboard with intelligent indicators

Upcoming and overdue payments, incomes, bills

Color-based and snapshot styled budget bar graphs for easy reading

Budget adjusting helper

Actual balance and budget balance adhoc

Accounts and credit cards usage recording

Cash flow bar graphs and out of funds predictions

Easy input for registering expenses, incomes and transfers

Can create future operations and recurrent operations

Multi currency support

Easy month back and forth navigation

more… see it yourself!

Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts

Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.

As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.

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