How to Remember Names: 7 Easy Tips and Techniques to Help You Recall a Person’s Name

“If I could remember your name, I’d ask you where I left my keys.”
Bumper Sticker

“If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment; you indicate that I have made an impression on you. Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance.”
Dale Carnegie

I could always remember a person’s face, but never his name. Does that sound familiar or what?

Then there are those awkward moments.

“I know we’ve been on a few dates already, but what’s your name again?”

Or…

“Peter, thanks for staying at work late today.” ——> “My name is Bill…”

Your name is one of the most important things to remember. It is the simplest representation of your identity. In fact, your name is so important that it’s on every single legal document and record of your existence.

At the same time, while remembering a person’s name is so important neither you nor I can seem to remember someone’s name even if our lives were at stake.

With high hopes to solve this problem, here are 5 tips and techniques I’ve found helpful.
in remembering someone’s name.

1. Use the person’s name immediately after introducing yourselves

When a person says, “I’m Kelly, what’s your name?”

You could say, “Nice to meet you Kelly, I’m SpongeBob,” though you might substitute your real name instead, like Aaron or something.

This will help to secure the person’s name in your memory.

2. Say the person’s name frequently throughout the conversation

I’m not saying you should use the person’s name every sentence, but do drop it in the conversation a few times here and there.

People love to hear their names, so don’t worry about the occasional use in the conversation.

You will make the person happy and it will help you to remember the person’s name better.

3. Focus on something unique about the person

When you’re talking to the person, find something that sticks out in your mind to help you remember his name.

For example, if Kevin is the only man in the world who can sing five notes at the same time, that would be something interesting to associate with his name. Perhaps Stefan is from Switzerland but hate Swiss chocolates, instead he likes Belgian chocolates.

Basically, anything unique or out of the ordinary can help you to remember a person’s name.

4. Get the person’s business card

Ask the person for a business card. Then write down some things to jog your memory that can help you put a face to the name.

5. Ask the person if you can take a picture of them

Most mobile phones manufactured today include some kind of camera. It’s nearly impossible to get a phone without a camera.

Depending on the person, this could be somewhat awkward. If you play it off right, however, you’ll be able to have a picture that’s associated with the person’s name.

You could make a quip about your old age and having a bad memory. Perhaps you could tell the person about how beautiful they are and that you never want to forget their name or face. Any other witty comment that brings a laugh or smile will also be adequate to save you from utter embarrassment.

6. Write the name down

People remember things differently. Some people remember by doing, others by listening, and some by seeing.

Writing the person’s name down is another tool in the chest to help you remember his or her name.

7. Use a descriptive that rhymes with the person’s name

Maybe Bill is a Barber, so Bill the Barber might help you to remember his name. Sally is silly. Mike rides a bike. Amy thinks quail tastes too gamey.

Admittedly, those are some pretty sorry examples, but you get the picture.

Find a quality or personality trait about the person, that rhymes with his or her name.

At any rate, even if you’re like me and can’t remember a person’s name to save your life, try and try again.

What are some other tips and techniques you find helpful in remembering people’s names?

Source:http:http://www.lookingformylife.com

10 Things You Must Know About a House Before Purchasing

Have You Decided to Buy a House

Buying a house means that you might be risking years and years of hard earned money and possibly putting yourself into debt that could take decades to pay off. There are lots of factors to take into consideration before you make your purchase in order to ensure you have a pleasant experience and come out financially healthy.

The rules are different if you are buying a house as an investment property than if you’re buying to live in it. In this article I will share some of the important things to consider about the property in question before you sign the contract and change your financial future.

1. How much was the home last sold for– Was it sold before the recession? I’ve noticed that nowadays, most houses at their 2001- 2002 price levels. If the house you are looking to purchase has not been reduced substantially (25 – 30%) from its 2005 – 2006 levels, you could be overpaying.

2. Identify the conservative estimates on the home value – Fortunately, you don’t have to hire an appraiser to do this. Zillow and eAppraisal are great websites which take into tons of factors to give you a price range. Don’t look at their estimate, but rather the lowest value possible in order to stay on the safe side.

3. How much are you paying for square foot of living space? The price per square foot is one of the most important factors you must consider when purchasing a house. You can easily find the average price per sq. foot in the same zip code or for similar houses in the area on Redfin and Trulia. Always aim to be on the lower end, especially if there is work to do on the house.

4. Are you buying a flipper? A “flipper” is a home purchased by an investment company or an individual with the sole purpose of making a profit on it. These houses are purchased as a foreclosure or a short sale, slightly renovated, and sold for a much higher price. Flippers are easy to identify – they almost always have fresh paint and new carpets, two of the cheapest ways to breath cosmetic life into a house. Also common in flippers are large mirrors, painted counter tops, painted doors. Remember,investment companies try to make the house look as new as possible while spending the least amount of money. Stay away from these because you don’t really know whats on the inside.

5. Leaky roof? Squeaky floors? Be sure to hire someone to check for mold. – You can always place an offer on a house without knowing the mold situation as almost all contracts allow you to rescind offers if it fails an inspection. Mold is a problem that can cause you to go under on your house and even presents itself as a health problem. Be sure to hire a sound environmental inspector to detect mold.

6. Sure, the house looked nice during the day – but have you checked the neighborhood at night? When buying a house, check the area during the day and during the night time. Sometimes, gangs and criminals tend to walk around at night. Also, do people walk around the house? Is it lit with street lights? Are their gang signs tagged on the walls of houses, markets, or street signs?

7. Is the plumbing in good shape? There are a few ways to run a quick check on the plumbing before submitting an offer. Go to one of the bathrooms and turn on the shower water, the faucet, and flush the toilet. See if the water drains properly. If not, you could have a problem at your hands.

8. Does the house have “curb appeal?” Although not a financial term, curb appeal describes the attractiveness of the house in terms of how people who might buy it from you later see it. Some houses are stunning on the inside, but look horrible from the outside – so much that they might be looked over for a less stellar house thats more attractive. If you’re buying real estate, its good to check how other people perceive it.

9. How much money do you have to spend out of pocket to bring your house to your standards? Besides the down payment, there are closing costs for a loan, furniture, renovation (paints, carpets, counters) and other small out of pocket expenses. Make sure you keep this in mind when putting down any sort of money.

10. Are you buying a corner house or a house in a busy street? Corner houses are priced much lower than houses in the middle of the street because they are often victims of car lights being shone into the house and more traffic. The same applies for houses in the middle of a busy street. Make sure when buying a house, you aim to be as far from the street traffic as possible.

Source:http://smarterspend.com/2010/04/10-things-you-must-know-about-a-house-before-purchasing/

Kuwait Finance House (M) Gold Account-i

Just got this info from Pakdi.net
Kuwait Finance House (M) Gold Account-i was launched on 30th April 2010.

Building a Personal Finance Library: 25 of the Best Books About Money

I frequently get e-mail from people seeking book recommendations. Most messages are like the one Cody sent yesterday: “What is the first book that I should read that tells me how to invest?” These are easy to answer. In January, Bobby asked a broader question:

I was wondering if you have a list of PF books that you have in your personal library. I use the library frequently and am very interested in furthering my own education in the PF area. It is also a personal goal for 2007 (one educational book a month.)

This is a great goal and a great question. Eventually I’ll have a subsection of this site devoted to personal finance books. But for today, I’ll list the books I refer to frequently. (These aren’t all the books I own — I own many that aren’t worth having.) I’ve marked the books I consider essential with a happy star *.

Please note that these recommendations are based on how well a particular book has worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

Basic Personal Finance

These books offer a wide view, discussing many aspects of money. They offer advice about saving, investing, and getting out of debt. They don’t go into much detail about any one subject, but they provide motivation to get started. And that’s what’s most important.

The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko
The authors interview and survey a pool of millionaires, attempting to find common connections among them. They discover that millionaires live below their means. They budget. They let their adult children make it on their own. This book introduces several key concepts, including degrees of wealth accumulation. It’s a bit tedious in spots, at least in the audio version. This is one of just a few books to cover both sides of the wealth equation: saving money and earning money. [My review.]
*Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin
A classic, and one of the foundation books for the simplicity movement. The authors play off the concept “time is money” in a very literal sense. They encourage readers to sort out priorities, to cut expenses, and then to seek passive income in pursuit of financial independence. A little New Age-y in spots. An excellent book. [Frykitty reviewed this book last year.]
*The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
Ramsey is an anti-credit zealot. He made a $4 million fortune by his mid-twenties, and then lost it to bankruptcy. Now he runs a personal finance empire. He takes a lot of criticism for his support of the Debt Snowball, which he describes in detail here, but the thing is: his methods work. If you are struggling with debt, there is no better starting place than this book. Ramsey’s advice is permeated with his Christianity, but you can get a lot out of this book even if you’re not religious.
The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton
This book offers good, general personal finance advice in the guise of a novel. Several friends meet once a month at the barber shop where the titular character dispenses wisdom on saving, investing, buying a house, and so on. The advice here is excellent, often backed by clear examples. The book’s conversational tone may appeal to some who might otherwise be turned off by personal finance. [My review.]
The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason
Clason offers personal finance wisdom in the form of parables. These nuggets of wisdom were originally distributed as pamphlets at banks and insurance companies during the 1920s. The most popular were collected into book form. This is the grand-daddy of personal finance (Benjamin Franklin is the great-granddaddy), and many of modern admonitions — “Pay yourself first”, “Invest for the future”, “Learn the power of compound interest” — can be found here.

Frugality

Saving money is a key skill to develop if you hope to get rich. (Read The Millionaire Next Door if you don’t believe me.) Here are four books that can help you learn to cut corners, to save money in ways that may not have occurred to you.

How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish
Balish begins by explaining why you’re better off not owning a car — financially, ecologically, and socially. He spends the rest of the book describing how to survive without one. He offers tips for mass transit, walking, bicycling, and more. This book has a narrow focus. But if you’re in its target audience, it’s worth a read.
Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Sometimes it’s the most unassuming of books that offers the best advice, that can actively help you on your quest to get rich slowly. Miserly Moms is ostensibly a guide for stay-at-home mothers, but is actually filled with useful tips for anyone who is concerned with frugality (especially parents with young children). [My review.]
*The Joy of Simple Living by Jeff Davidson
This book is packed with tips. Davidson covers a wide range of topics, and for each he offers several ways to save money. If this book were a weblog, it would feature digg-able entry after digg-able entry. A great resource for anyone wanting to cut down the clutter of life.
Wealth on Minimal Wage by James Steamer
If you’re a young adult just starting in life, this book is a fine choice. It offers hundreds of ideas on how to avoid debt, maximize your wages, save on insurance and utilities, and generally live a frugal lifestyle. A bit out of date, and maybe a little radical, but filled with good advice. (I’ve had a copy out from the public library for six months. It’s been battered and worn by previous patrons — a sure sign of a good book.)

Another highly-regarded book on frugality is The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. I’ve never read it, but it’s near the top of my list of books to borrow from the library.

Investing

This set of books deals specifically with investing. The four books I keep at hand are user-friendly. They’re not technical, but offer a good introduction to the topic.

The Automatic Millioinaire by David Bach
There’s more to David Bach than “the latté factor”. The system he recommends here is excellent. If you’ve been meaning to open an IRA, but have never actually done so, then read this book! He’ll explain how to set it up so that it’s painless. (Ad: Buy Stocks for $4 at ShareBuilder.)
*The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias is an entertaining writer. His jocular, conversational tone will keep you interested as he describes mutual funds, bonds, and treasury bills. There’s a good section on how to handle a windfall (lottery, inheritance). This is an excellent introduction to the subject of investing.
*The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Larimore, Lindauer, and LeBoeuf
You want expet investment advice? You can’t beat the info found here. These devotees of Vanugard founder John Bogle are big on slow, sure investments like indexed mutual funds. They tap their decades of experience to teach about diversification, inflation, and asset allocation. It’s not nearly as boring as it sounds. Highly recommended.
Yes, You Can…Achieve Financial Independence by James Stowers
Despite the odd title, this is a solid book on investment from one of the richest men in America. It does cover some basic personal finance information, but mostly gives tips on how to invest. I haven’t read the entire book, but I often use it as reference when preparing entries here. It’s a sort of bridge between overviews like Tobias and more technical books like Graham or Malkiel.

Two other classics on investing are The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel. I have both, but have read neither. They’re both quite technical.

Success

Wealth is about more than money. These books will help you become a well-rounded person, will help you develop skills that will indirectly aid your personal finances.

*50 Success Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Butler-Bowdon selected fifty important books from success literature. For each, he created digest versions, summarizing each volume in only a few pages, distilling its key points. He also provided biographical information on each author, and attempted to explain why each book is relevant, placing it in a larger context. This is a wonderful way to find other books to read. [My review.]
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
There’s a little personal finance advice here (all of it solid), but mostly this book is about changing the way you think about money and about yourself. I found Secrets inspirational. It’s a good choice for somebody with big goals, or somebody trying to overcome negative thinking. [My review.]
*How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
One of the classic success books. Carnegie uses anecdote after anecdote to illustrate the best way to make the most of human relations. It all boils down to this: “To win others to your way of thinking, put yourself in their shoes.” The devil is in the details, though, and Carnegie’s simple prose does a fine job of pointing the way. You can find this book cheap at almost any used book store. [My review.]
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Little needs to be said about this book — it’s a geek classic. Allen describes his formalized system for creating greater efficiency. Though I’ve found it difficult to maintain the precise system for long, I use elements of it all the time. If you have trouble procrastinating or staying organized, this book is for you. [My review.]
Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
I’ve been meaning to review this book for weeks. I have a love/hate relationship with it. Parts of it are fantastic — you can learn how to relate to people, how to establish contacts and maintain connections, how to create a social network. But parts of it are creepy — networking for the sake of networking puts me off. The endless name-dropping gets old fast. Worth reading if you have contact with a wide group of people.

One book that’s not in my library is What Color is Your Parachute? This is a classic on changing careers. I’m locked into Get Rich Slowly and the family box factory, but if I were job hunting, I would pick up a copy of this book without hesitation.

Kids and Money

Many parents are unprepared to teach their children about money. You needn’t be one of them. These books suggest methods for getting kids to understand how money works.

What Color is Your Piggy Bank? by Adelia Cellini Linecker
This slim volume is a great choice for kids from 10-14 who are beginning to show an interest in entrepreneurship. Linecker covers the world of jobs, setting up shop, and how to manage money. I hope to provide a complete review of the book in the next few weeks.
You Call the Shots by Cameron Johnson
This is a new book from a young entrepreneur. It’s in my “to-read” stack. I ordered it based on high praise from Flexo at Consumerism Commentary, who wrote: “This book should be required reading for any young adult showing an interest in entrepreneurship.”
Living Simply with Children by Marie Sherlock
Sherlock offers tips for how to raise children that aren’t part of the consumerist culture. She encourages strong family ties as a counter to the relentless purchase to acquire “stuff”. There’s some great advice here.

Final Thoughts

Though I’ve linked to the Amazon pages for each of these books, I encourage you to get them free from your public library. I acquired most of the books in my personal finance library for cheap from garage sales and thrift stores.

Source:http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/03/07/building-a-personal-finance-library-25-of-the-best-books-about-money/