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“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” (Benjamin Franklin) Blowing your budget and sending your stress levels sky high are the usual consequences when you don’t take the time to plan your renovation project from start to finish. A good starting point is to think hard about why you want to renovate and make a list of all you want to achieve. Prioritise this list and include in it things you love to add, but can do without if need be. Think about the functionality of the floor plan and layout before you begin your project and ensure the design of the renovation doesn’t clash with your home’s existing design or streetscape. Don’t focus too much on trends as these come and go; think instead comfort and ease of living. Before you get too involved in a particular design, check building regulations. Look...

If you use a family name, a pet’s name, a birthdate or numbers between 1 and 6 as your online password, you are an easy target for a hacker. The recent cyber-attacks on a spate of organisations, from EBay to Apple, has emphasised the importance of choosing strong passwords that can’t easily be discovered. An alarming 25 per cent of the top most common passwords are first names and the average password people use (and hackers know about!) is six characters and all lower case. The security risk becomes even greater if you are one of the 73 per cent of Australians who use the same password for multiple sites. Once a hacker has discovered your password for one site, they will use automated software to fire it at a whole bunch of other sites. Experts advise that not only should you have...

Here’s a round-up of interesting statistics you might want to know about: Australians are worried about not having enough money for retirement: Over half the participants of the 2014 MLC Retirement Survey expect not to have enough money to retire on. One in three people expect a sizeable financial shortfall at retirement and only 3.5 per cent think they will have more than enough money to maintain a desired lifestyle. Around 70 per cent said they did not have a fall-back plan for financial setbacks like health issues and unemployment. Borrowers should be paying less for their home loans: The official Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate has been at a historic low of 2.5 per cent since August 2013, yet some borrowers are paying up to 9 per cent for their home loans simply because they haven’t shopped around for a better deal....

Happiness--in your business life and your personal life--is often a matter of subtraction, not addition. Consider, for example, what happens when you stop doing the following 10 things: 1. Blaming. People make mistakes. Employees don't meet your expectations. Vendors don't deliver on time. So you blame them for your problems. But you're also to blame. Maybe you didn't provide enough training. Maybe you didn't build in enough of a buffer. Maybe you asked too much, too soon. Taking responsibility when things go wrong instead of blaming others isn't masochistic, it's empowering--because then you focus on doing things better or smarter next time. And when you get better or smarter, you also get happier. 2. Impressing. No one likes you for your clothes, your car, your possessions, your title, or your accomplishments. Those are all "things." People may like your things--but that doesn't mean they like you. Sure, superficially they might...

A strange thing happens in the mind when you buy something. No matter what it is—a pair of jeans, a car or even a house—in that moment when an object becomes your property, it undergoes a transformation. Because you chose it and you associate it with yourself, its value is immediately increased (Morewedge et al., 2009). If someone offers to buy it from you, the chances are you want to charge much more than they are prepared to pay. That is a cognitive bias called 'the endowment effect'. It's the reason that some people have lofts, garages and storage spaces full of junk with which they cannot bear to be parted. Once you own something, you tend to set its financial value way higher than other people do. When tested experimentally the endowment effect can be surprisingly strong. One study found that owners of tickets...

We all make mistakes, but should you beat yourself up or show a little mercy? We all have a kind of virtual policeman living inside us. Amongst other things he's the guy that helps us work towards our goals, whether personal or professional. When things go wrong and we stray off the straight and narrow, he reminds us what we were supposed to be doing. But what kind of policeman is he? Is he the kind with a riot shield, a baton and a bad attitude or does he offer a forgiving smile, a friendly word and a helping hand? People sometimes think of the latter, more relaxed internal policeman, as being weak and ineffectual. The danger, it is thought, with going easy on ourselves, is that it will lead to lower motivation. Surely if we don't use self-criticism to push ourselves, we'll never...

Ask any Olympic athlete what got them to London and they will invariably mention the words 'motivation', 'dedication', 'perseverance' and 'goal setting'. While physical ability is critical to an athlete's success, it is what comes from the inside that can make or break their performance. One of the key differences between athletes who produce their personal best when it is needed and those who don't is the way they prepare - by setting targets, aiming high and maintaining a clear focus about how they will achieve their goals. Your personal objectives may be far removed from those of an Olympic athlete, but by following their approach you can become a champion in your own life. To do this you don't have to run a marathon or train like an elite athlete, you need only strive for 'Olympic' standards of excellence in all...

[dropcaps]N[/dropcaps]etworking is a great way to make contacts and establish relationships, but not everyone is good at small talk. Luckily there are tried and tested tactics for breaking the ice and getting a conversation going. 1. Be prepared Think through in advance some topics you can talk about. You don't need to have a shared interest to connect with others, you just have to share your interests - talking about something that you're passionate about will automatically engage those around you. You can also prepare some ice breaker questions in advance. Choose questions that are open-ended so the listener can't just answer with a yes or no. 2. Make the first move Finding someone to talk to in a room of strangers can be daunting but remind yourself it is preferable to standing by yourself. A good tactic for breaking into conversations is to make...