The Hindu Business Line : Painless spending cuts

The mantra for trimming your costs is FIT, says Gregory Karp in Living Rich by Spending Smart: How to Get More of What you Really Want ( www.landmarkonthenet.com ).

The acronym stands for food, insurance, and telecommunications. Reviewing these areas of spending will send you on your way to become financially FIT, Karp recommends.

“Weekly grocery shopping can be a major headache, but it’s also a major source of painless spending cuts,” he suggests. “The first part of the strategy is keeping a price list, a simple notebook of prices on items you buy regularly. Then you’ll know when something is truly on sale.” And the second part of the strategy is to go and buy weekly what’s on sale, rather than go shopping every week to buy what you want.

Another advice is about putting a little bit of planning into dining out. Also, “inviting friends over for a home-cooked meal accomplishes the same social interaction and enjoyment as going out to dinner but without the restaurant prices.”

Just the right read for these meltdown times.
Alphabet soup of shares

After the Second Opium War ended in the 1860s, Westerners brought the concept of stock market to China, narrates Burton G. Malkiel in From Wall Street to the Great Wall: How Investors can Profit from China’s Booming Economy ( www.wwnorton.com ).

“In June 1866, an informal foreign shares brokers’ association opened in Shanghai to facilitate the exchange of shares; the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was among the original companies whose shares were traded. In 1881, the arrangements became more formal with the establishment of China’s first equity exchange in Shanghai – one limited to foreign corporations.”

Fast-forward to now, and what do you see? “An alphabet soup of different kinds of shares, the national government’s controlling hand in the release of shares, and the constant tinkering in devising new programmes,” as the author frets.

China’s markets are far from problem-free, and there is still far too much reliance on the state, he adds.

Engaging account.
Play it cool under pressure

Excellence in any field involves finding and replicating the strategies of those who show the highest expertise in their area, says L. Michael Hall in Winning Business Games ( www.jaicobooks.com ). Though at the surface level it may seem as a focus on the content of what the expert does, there’s more to excellence, explains Hall. “Excellence involves attitude, the right kind of attitude – spirit.”

It may help, for instance, to ask questions, such as: “What is the expert’s attitude about the boring details that are involved in the process? How does the expert think or feel when experiencing failure, rejection, frustration, etc?”

Business experts play it cool under pressure, Hall observes, in a chapter titled ‘when the game of business gets tough,’ where he discusses ‘the calm eustress games.’ The experts know that by managing their states and transforming stress and pressure into excitement, fun, and adventure, they become much more successful, the author finds.

Helpful guidance for self-improvement.
Mojo management

Many successful business and sports people, and even actors, visualise an event or situation occurring before it actually happens in order for them to get into the right state of mind, writes Gary Bertwistle in Who Stole My Mojo? ( www.vivagroupindia.com ).

“It’s a tool that each of us can use, and you need no props. You just need to be able to relax and imagine what the future will look like. You need to imagine yourself with Mojo.”

But, what’s Mojo? It is your magic, voodoo, charm, or your energy, vitality, zest, drive, zip, zing, spirit, verve, pizzazz, punch, passion, oomph, power, get up and go, vigour and feistiness, the author defines.
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D Murali

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