What about money? Part 3

In negotiation with your potential employer, he or she may do either of two things. Suggest a compromise and offer you fifty percent of the amount in question. Remember that he is a businessman and is apt to feel sore if he does not win even a semblance of areal bargain. It is up to you decide.

Since yo are very raw, I suggest you say YES. After all, if you get to be the hotshot that you think you would eventually be, you would have all the grand time negotiation and re-negotiating with very interested parties. Or your interviewer may say he would think about it and then turn around and hire a second choice for much less. You lose your chance but think about it this way, you have been saved for much a cheap thinker and cheap thinkers are usually dull, unimaginative, style-less employers. There's a better world for a bright, really keyed-up girl like you.

Now if your personal assessment form leaves a bit to be desired, think of you first job as a real training and testing ground. Settle for the opportunity to gain some experience. Then try to polish yourself on the job. When you have gained some polish, you can mer-negotiate. If you find yourself in a place where growth and development are ignored, start looking for a better deal. Give the job a year or two, enough for you to sharpen skills an then voe. However, try to find a place where you can stay a bit longer and form roots. Remember that the fun in having a career is in being able to chart out your working life and it is easier to trace your growth if you are not busy hopping around.

What about money? Part 2

Let say that you have a degree and you have decided to be a copywriter. You find an opening somewhere, no previous experience needed. How nice, you think, it must have been set for you. Please do not rush out and tell the guys tat since you do not have any job experience, it is up to them to decided how much to give you. In most places they ave made up their minds anyway and it is usually less tan what they should honestly pay.

How do you bargain for the extra hundred dollars? Before the interview, make an actual list of the things you can enumerate as your "plus points." For instance,
well-read degree or certificate (if any)typing speed - better than your neighbor's who has a secretarial certificate knowledge of a foreign language (other than English)spelling bee (never gets confused by words like accumulate, commitment, accommodation, omission, etc)If you have examined your plus points honestly and have come up with a high rating, be prepared to bargain. never forget that your interviewers are veterans int eh game (of bargaining) and must have seen a massive turn-over of employees in their time. Show your enthusiasm but do not be overeager that 'spoiling the employer too soon and he is bound to stick to his strict budget. Expect two things, your interviewer will harp on your inexperience negotiating after your probation period hinting that you would get a salary adjustment if you pass the test.

Are you confident about passing the test? Are you out to really do well? Then you can afford to gamble. This is the point where a throw-away line might just win you the day. You can say "Let's us agree on my price which is a hundred dollars more and if you think I'm not shaping up to your standards, you can fire me after the first month or even earlier." Say it only if you are the type who can pull it off casually. Said nervously, a throw away line sounds very painful.

Your money for your life?

You dress your age and act your age but are you as 'with it' when it comes to handling your cash? Money is money is money. The more you earn and the more you save, the better, right? Not really, money is more like a toolbox and if you don't use the right tool at the right time, you can be sure all kinds of expensive breakdowns, accidents and leaks will happen along your journey through life and when you least expect it. Well recession is here.

The only thing that's constant in life is change. So with the different situations that arise at every stage in our life, how then can we prepare for these. How do we handle our money smartly so that we might be able to fulfill that dream of retiring at the grand young age of 45 and able to spend lazy days at cafes, working on the first novel and sipping lattes.

No matter what your age, you should be prepared to take the proverbial stock market 'Bull' by its horns and 'Bear' in mind what you need to do whether you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond. Society's development has a lot of do with the necessity for money smarts. Recent statistics show that more females than males were widowed due to women's longer life expectancy rates. While divorce rates have doubled, women are less likely than men to get re-married and more likely to be single parents (imagine running a household on your own income and bringing up kids at the same time). What's more, one in five females above age 30 is single, so don't wait for Prince Charming to come waving his Platinum card.

The trick lies in learning how to plug the holes that could drain the contents of your wallet, so to speak. Or as they say (about things unrelated to finance, but which, funnily enough, also applies to money), "It's not the size or age that matters, it's how you use it".