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Thursday, March 20, 2014

You have just begun earning a salary. How do you make the best use of the money you are making?

Vivina Vishwanathan, writing in Mint this week,shows first-time wage-earners how to make the best use of their salaries. Here is her seven-point list:
  • Pay off education loan
  • Keep track of expenses
  • Study financial products
  • Save for small goals
  • Buy an insurance plan
  • Keep 10% for long term
  • Reward yourself 
Each point is explained in detail in the article. Check it out here: "Make the best use of your initial salaries".

PS: If I had had the luck to come upon such a list when I first began working in 1981, I wouldn't have had to wait till I got married in 1984 and my wife took our money matters in hand before I could begin pointing to a reasonable bank balance. Ultimately it is only because of her financial acumen that we were able to put together a decent nest egg.
  • HERE ARE SOME REACTIONS TO THE POST ON FACEBOOK:
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Infotainment at its best

In a short — 2 m 28 s — but very accomplished video clip we get to learn how "phubbing" came to be:


Ingenious, isn't it? I thought so too. And it also works so well as an ad for the dictionary concerned.
  • Thank you, Shreya Shetty (Class of 2010), for the alert.
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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

He is 25 — and in all his life he has read only one book

My Facebook status update today — and the reactions:
Ramesh Prabhu
For me, civilisation as I know it came to an end yesterday. I met a young man who seemed to be unperturbed about that fact that in all his life — he is 25 years old — he has read only one book, a biography of a Southern film star that he received as a gift.
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Monday, March 17, 2014

How to avoid struggling to make conversation

Have you noticed how people warm up to you when you are able to strike up an interesting conversation with them? I know some youngsters, though, who find it difficult to make the first move. "We don't know how to begin," they tell me. "And we don't know what to say."

GRETCHEN RUBIN
Gretchen Rubin understands your pain. And that is why the best-selling American author has compiled a menu of "small-talk" options for those who struggle to make conversation. Here are the points she makes:
1. Comment on a topic common to both of you at the moment.
2. Comment on a topic of general interest.
3. Ask a question that people can answer as they please.
4. Ask open questions that can’t be answered with a single word.
5. If you do ask a question that can be answered in a single word, instead of just supplying your own information in response, ask a follow-up question.
6. Ask getting-to-know-you questions.
7. React to what a person says in the spirit in which that that comment was offered.
8. Be slightly inappropriate.
9. Watch out for the Oppositional Conversational Style.
10. Follow someone’s conversational lead.

Rubin elaborates on each point, with examples, here: "Do You Struggle to Make Conversation? A Menu of Options for Small Talk".
UPDATE (April 24, 2014): "8 Networking Conversation Starters That Work (Every Time)" — thank you, Tia Raina (Class of 2015), for posting this on Facebook.
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