There comes a time when it’s too late to tell people how you feel.
There will come a day when the person you mean to talk to won’t be there. Don’t wait for that day.
“There’s always tomorrow” isn’t always true.
Overworked and Underappreciated
I once worked for a company that was so confused that, not only did I not meet my last immediate supervisor for 6 months, but he didn’t know what I did or who I supported. He was my supervisor on paper for payroll and organizational purposes only.
Does your boss know what you do?
More recently, I was called into my current boss’s office to get scolded for low productivity since I don’t produce as much as the other programmers.
That’s not my favorite thing to do in the afternoon. I’d rather spend the afternoon playing Angry Birds improving our software.
In response, I spent the week logging my time. Before I left on Friday, I sent my boss an email that started out with:
When we spoke on Monday, you compared my productivity unfavorably to the other developers. I don’t think that’s a fair comparison as I do more categories of tasks than the others. I don’t think you realize how many additional responsibilities I’ve taken on over the years.
I continued from there with a summary of each day’s work last week. The short version is that, while being productive, I spend less than half of my time on my primary job function because I’ve slowly taken on a managerial role.
I’m on vacation this week, so it will be a few days before I find out if my email will make a difference.
Now, this scolding was my fault. I know I spend my day doing much more than just writing code. I’ve told my boss that before, but I’ve never made sure he understands the scale of the extra work, and I’ve never proven it with a detailed log.
This was poor personal marketing.
In the future, I have to make sure that I keep him in the loop with a summary of the extra work I do, like the training, product demos, sales calls, and estimates I’m involved in.
We’ll see how well that works.
How would you handle a situation like this? Daily emails? Whining? Kicking a garbage can across the room?
What Is Your Binary Options Strategy?
When you are just entering the world of binary options trading or investing, you may be on the receiving end of a lot of advice. It is not uncommon to hear people tell you to implement different gambling strategies because binary options are based on chance more than anything else. You will also hear a lot of advice from those who say there are many good ways to develop an effective strategy using indicators and market signals. Some will insist that with proper analysis of market data, a solid strategy can be developed too.
Are they all correct? Interestingly enough, the answer is yes. The reason for this is simple, and as one expert writes, “there is no such thing as a perfect strategy for every trader. There is only a best strategy for each individual trader.” Thus, your strategy has to be shaped around a few things:
- Your willingness and ability to follow your chosen strategy.
- Your personality. For instance, are you restless if you are taking the safe route or a higher risk strategy?
- Your budget and goals,
Identifying the answers to these questions is the first step to formulating a strategy. You should also understand that the winning percentage of most strategies will be somewhat constant, but the total number of successful trades varies on an individual basis and is based entirely on the strategies used.
For instance, some investors want a high percentage of winning trades and are more comfortable with risk averse trading. Others are ready to take more risk and are entirely comfortable winning fewer trades if the returns on winning trades are dramatically higher. This enables them to implement higher risk trades. The interesting thing about strategies and the kinds of trades they generate is that they are all built from the same data.
The Data of Strategy
For example, almost all strategies will look at issues like market trends, trading trends, highs and lows, reversals, and various kinds of indicators. The reason that high and low trends pay off in strategy development is simple: binary options trading applies to whether or not an asset rises above a strike price or doesn’t. It is the proverbial “yes or no” part of the proposition and analysis for either outcome pays off.
As an example, a lot of risk-averse investors will look for breakouts. They use these for trend line investing, which can be as brief as sixty seconds to a day, but can be used to coordinate investing in the direction of a short trend. Although this seems complex, it really is not. The key is that analysis cannot be broad and across all available markets. Instead, focused analysis on a specific area will allow even a novice investor to analyze for a breakout and then invest in binary options accordingly.
Just being able to detect a reversal or a downward trend over the course of a day can yield a very rewarding investment. The key is to understand your strategy based on your budget, personality, and your ability to stick with the strategy, even if it does not yield immediate success. When you do this, and use the right tools for analysis, you can create an effective strategy that brings you closer to your goals.
This is a guest post.
Sunday Roundup: Vacation!
Friday was the start of my vacation. I’m terribly excited. After a couple of months of long hours, launching a side business, and trying to keep up with my kids, I need a break, from at least my day job.
We’ll be spending a long weekend with my parents, followed by 6 days at home, doing all of the fun things there are to do around Minneapolis. Brat #1’s vision therapy ate into the vacation fund a bit, so we’re staying cheap and close to home.
Best Posts
Did you know that preventing global warming will keep ET from wiping us out for our own good?
Birth control has come down in price, if you have a cell phone.
When you making a will, did you think to provide instructions for your online life?
How about deciding where to put your spawn?
Carnivals I’ve Rocked
4 Ways to Change Your Life for the Better was included in the Carnival of Financial Planning.
Playing For Blood was included in the Totally Money Carnival.
Zombie Wheels: How to Own a Car that Just Won’t Die was included in the Festival of Frugality.
Thank you! If I missed anyone, please let me know.
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Have a great week!
Automatic Oopsie
When I found myself doing an abrupt unemployment tour this month, the first thing I did was dig into my budget. I did it so I could see how long it would be before our finances got scary and to see what could be eliminated.
Gah! So much could be eliminated.
There were things that I’d set up on automatic payments, added to my budget, then ignored.
There were things that I’d signed up for and used, but didn’t get as much enjoyment out of any more.
Example Number 1: Netflix
We love Netflix. It gets used every single day. But the DVDs often sit on the kitchen counter for a month before we get around to watching them. We clearly don’t need the DVD plan any more.
Example Number 2: Software Subscription
I use some software to track the Google rank of several of my websites. There is an addon that makes the software work much better. The addon costs $20 per quarter. The problem is that I’m not looking at the rankings of these sites any more. Some of the sites have been shut down, or I’m no longer involved with the clients. That makes the paid addon a total waste. I canceled it and told the tracking software to run slower so it would give Google a fit.
Example Number 3: Extra Domains
Hello, my name is Jason and I’m a domain addict. Seriously, for a while, I was buying domains every time I had a good idea for a website. Some of them were developed, and some were sketched out and put on hold. I also bought domains to help with the search engine rankings of the developed websites. I topped out at about 120 domains. All of them were on auto-renew. I’ve been letting them expire, but some didn’t have the auto-renew settings changed, so they (surprise!) renewed automatically.
These are just three examples of several years of development, exploration, and automation of my complicated financial life, and they add up to more than $100 a month essentially wasted.
Here’s what I want you to do.
Right now.
Not “tomorrow”, not “when you get around to it”.
Now.
Pull up your bank statement, your Paypal account and your credit card statements.
Is there anything in there that’s happening every month that you forgot about, don’t need, or don’t even want?
Ax that crap. Kill it with fire. Nuke it from orbit. Stop wasting your money.
I’d be willing to bet 99% of everyone has something they are paying for every month that they don’t even want, but either forgot was happening or have just let inertia keep paying the bills.
Be the 1%.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-08
- The Festival of Frugality #278 The Pure Peer Pressure Edition is up. All of your friends are reading it. http://bit.ly/aqkn4K #
- RT @princewally: Happy StarWars Day!: princewally's world http://goo.gl/fb/rLWAA #
- Money Hacks Carnival #114 – Hollywood Edition http://bit.ly/dxU86w (via @nerdwallet) #
- I am the #1 google hit for "charisma weee". Awesome. #
