To make this complex and intricate journey simpler and easier these are certain steps one must take to ensure a smooth transition from Academia to Employment:

Internships

Internships help a person to get an insight in the work-world before sub-merging full fledge in the world of businesses, it facilitates you in acquiring practical application of knowledge and hands-on experience in a professional environment as they help you get the feel of what you are getting into, think of it like these internships are a way to test drive possible jobs and explore different career options As an intern you learn to manage TIME as very important attribute when working in a fast paced professional environment you need to know every minute counts as it is vital in every circumstance whether you’re attending meetings, finishing tasks on deadlines.
Internships often give you the opportunity to create your networks, attend meetings and events. By interacting with professionals you gain new connections and learn how to communicate in a professional environment.
Internships are key to building experience that’s builds a strong resume as a student or recent graduate employers are much more likely to hire someone with internships and work experience rather than someone with a generic resume, lacking experience.

Discover What ‘Soft Skills’ Need Work

According to a survey, more than half of accounting and finance professionals polled felt only somewhat prepared for their first job after college, with 14 percent saying they did not feel ready at all.
The difference is between the knowledge taught in books is somewhat different from the practical job experience so, when we enter workforce we often feel the need to upgrade our skill and knowledge base according to that.
Hard skills are taught; soft skills are personality-driven and honed through experience. Nonetheless, potential employers value soft skills, such as relationship building, teamwork, industriousness, flexibility, attentive listening, and an ability to learn.
Which of these skills do you bring to the table? That is a million Dollar question, while you can’t attend a certificate course on soft skills, you can improve in all these areas through focus and practice.

Cultivate Patience

Cultivating patience will help you avoid burnout and stay positive, while also being a compassionate and supportive teammate and employee in the organization.
Everybody is going to experience having a bad boss day. The day when your boss may yell at you and tell you that you are doing everything wrong. Take what they are saying and pick out the important parts. Take the tasks they are asking you to do and ROCK THEM! But then take all the negativity and throw it out the window because you don’t need it.

Be Coachable and A Team Player

It is vital for a candidate to come across as independent, In addition to this, out-of-the-box thinking and innovative ideas can get you the competitive corporate advantage.
A lot of the so-called grunt work is key to understanding your new job. Respectfully ask for help when you need it, and brainstorm your improvement ideas with peers and bosses.
The word ‘team’ has very different connotations in school and in the workplace.
In school, every member of your team probably has a similar level of knowledge and experience when it comes to executing a group project, thereby helping each other is a mutually beneficial arrangement. This level playing field actually makes it easier to work as a team since everybody, more or less, acknowledges each other on an equal basis.
In contrast, as a fresh graduate, your working team in the office will consist of co-workers who outrank you and have more experience than you. As the fresh graduate, you’ll have to prove your mettle and defer to their authority in order to gain their respect. This is part and parcel of becoming a good team player who is able to work well with his or her teammates.

Earn, Spend and Save

Just because you are getting paid does not mean you need to spend it all we all know and remember the times when our grandparents would hand Rs.100 for birthday and say “Don’t spend it all in one place”
This means that the first job will probably not be your last and odds are, you will have a time when you lose a paycheck or two. Having something in saving can be a lifesaver. Additionally, make sure that you are setting aside a certain amount by investing somewhere little by little or just by putting money in your piggy bank at home.
One of the ways you can spend smart and save is by using a Credit Card, as many Banks are providing some amazing discounts and cash back opportunities on a credit card that help you save money while you shop and spend on your utilities this is one of the major ways one person spend smart and be on budget while going grocery shopping, eating out  or anything else on your list!!

Do Your Research

It is advisable to a fresh graduate when stepping up to enter professional career learn more about the scope, expectations, and challenges of your target job and industry by browsing the internet and connecting with professionals in similar positions in that industry.
Find out the minimum and preferred requirements for your target job by studying similar job descriptions and create an achievement-based resume that shows how your work history, skills and knowledge fit the job.

Be prepared to be a little depressed

After studying the degree of choice, the graduates are full of hope and energy that once done with this, they have a perfect illusion that the instant they leave Universities, they shall be able to bag the job of our dreams.
Fresh out of Universities Graduates have high morale, enthusiasm, and determination, they are bursting with anticipation and positivity that all good things would come their way, how every employer would want to have them as their employ, but often the reality is 180 degrees opposite to what they expect their careers opportunities to be or the job role they want themselves want to be in, so it’s a Million Dollar advice to be prepared to be rejected from your dream employers, you may not be offered work role you see yourself to be working in, when you start you don’t exactly land your dream job immediately, so all is not going to be green, but with experience and time you can pick and choose the job you want to do till then keep your confidence high and always be aligned with Goal you want to achieve.

All these tips and advice will make the transition easier, if not guaranteed to solve all the issues when entering the Job Market.

Khurram Zahid

The post 7 Tips for Transitioning into the Workforce after University in Pakistan appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

Remember it is never too early to teach kids about finance management. It is a necessary part of the life.

1. Their Wants & Needs with Candies & Choco:

Which of the kids is not fond of eating popcorns, M&M or juices? The technology has tailored the minds of kids well and they are aware of what they need in their life since early ages. Use these desires to develop a sense of responsibility towards wishing. Explain the kids about the difference between the needs and the desires. Teach them that need is something necessary for life or survival while want is something that is pleasing to have but is not a must. Wants are not necessary for survival and we must learn to compromise on our desires about minors things. Developing their understanding for the two and enabling them to control their will can help you make them a better human with better control on them.

2. The Weekend Plans:

What are the costs and benefits of a weekend plan? Being a grown up individual you might have a clear idea of the matter, but do your kids know? Let them make such decisions. Let them decide if they should go to the park on the weekend or play with their toys and spend some time with the family. Explain them the costs and benefits of each alternative and present them with the examples of their decision and outcomes.

3. Comparison Shopping & Budgeting:

It’s common that your kids will accompany you to the grocery store. Do not waste this time in scolding them for being too much naughty. Let them explore and share the concept of budgeting and comparison shopping.

You can take your kids to the grocery store and ask them to pick some minor grocery items in a given amount of money. Let them decide which product they must select from the shelve and let them complete the transaction on their own. Later on, you can discuss the shopping decision of the kids and guide them if they have done it right or they can still find some better option that is economical.

At the same time important is to teach kids, the concept of comparison shopping. You can assign the kids with a specific amount of money and ask them to shop in a way to make get most items in the limited amount of money.

4. Focus on Priorities:

Money is just a tool and it can’t and should not be taken as a cause of happiness. It is important for us to know the fact and to teach it to our kids as well. It is important to teach kids that money is meant to meet the end of life and is not the aim of life. Also, they must learn that money cannot earn you love or any other intangible leisures of life, love, family and values.  At the same time money does not guarantee happiness in life.

Assist them to understand the value of sharing, caring and recycling, for themselves and for their surrounding (both people and ecosystem). It will help them develop and maintain a healthy relationship with the money. if not, unfortunately, money will be controlling them for rest of their lives.

5. Importance of Personal Information:

We are living in the technological world. The securities are extreme and so do the threats of security breaches. Although as an adult you may have a clear idea of the importance of privacy of your personal information, important is to teach this to your kids at an early age. Guide them how to protect themselves and how and in what conditions they must share their personal information with any person, known or unknown, other than parents.

kids are quick learners and learn very easily about everything, make sure that being a parent you are doing your best to teach the kids with the importance of their security and the value of everything they have in their life. They must also learn to keep a balance of things in their life and must look after their priorities. Taught well today, the skills will help kids tomorrow, to become a better person for the society.

Khurram Zahid

The post 5 Financial Skills You Must Teach Your Kids for a Prosperous Life appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

If we speak about a simple, household, salaried person, we can have a better idea about hassle they have to take in managing their salary so that they can have a sufficient amount of money in their pocket at the end of the month hits them. Managing some savings is a great deal in such cases. In such situations, saving some money is a big deal.

An average Pakistani job holder is earning from PKR 30-50 thousand per month. This amount is obviously a handsome one for the intermediate level jobber in Pakistan. But the most common problem faced by this group of youngsters in their expenses. And most of them encounter it as they arrive at the second half of each month.

Here are some basic level tricks to keep your spending in your control and predefined budget.

Related Read: How to Manage your Expenses when you get Unemployed in Pakistan

Putting Your Budget in Place:

By budget, we mean to decide and allocate a fixed amount for your basic expenses. For a household person budget will include the average amount they need to spend on monthly grocery, electricity/telephone/internet/gas bills, fuel, fees and other expenses that are necessary to be paid on monthly basis. Apart from this, you must include a fixed amount for medical treatment into your budget.

Once you will enlist and calculate the amount you needed for these activities, you will be done with your budget. Once you will get your salary, take that calculated amount aside and make sure you are not spending it anywhere else.

Just waiting for the salary to get credited to make your saving for the month ahead is not enough. You need to make yourself a clear concise and strict, yet practical budget plan that need to stick beforehand.

You can consider the revision of your plan, every three months. There are chances your budget will change, you need to add new expenses, the fees for kids are increased or there are some additional medical expenses.

In budgeting, you also need to make sure that you are strict to the basic expenses and savings before you look for some party and outing activities. If you are left with some amount from budget or savings, you can think of other things like shopping or hanging out with friends.

Budgeting helps us to control the most common problem that we face overspending. Overspending is also found to be a major problem that keeps our bank numbers at their lowest by the end of each month.

Use Credit Card Wisely:

Simply keep them to a minimum. We believe that you are one of those youngsters who would like to keep a balance on their credit card. If it’s really so, prefer to shop for the card with the lowest interest rate as it will lower your credit card bills.

If you are a full-time job holder and are able to pay your bills by end of each month, financial experts would suggest going for a card that offers a reward program. Different banks offer different packages and facilities on their credit cards. Look for the credit card offer that suits you the best.

Well! In another case, if you fail to maintain this balance, be competent to avoid paying the interest while enjoying the perks. An expert tip for using a card perfectly is that “Never miss the due date of the payment.” If you are paying your credit card dues on time, let’s say by end of each month, you are going great!

Related Read: Which Terms You Need to Learn before Applying for a Credit Card?

One of the major issue that credit card users face is that they spend too much money by using their credit card. The credit card does not mean that you can shop anything you want to.  

Credit card just provides you the opportunity to pay your bills with a bit of delay. Let’s say by end of each month, or the moment you get your salary. Then how is it possible to pay your bills more than you earn???

Your credit cards help you to make some urgent payments at the time when you have less or no amount in your wallet. You can use a decided amount of money from your credit card and then return it back to the bank after some time. But make sure you are spending that much money which you can pay back to the bank once you will get your salary.

Have credit card to serve you as a helping friend, in the time of need. Having it for your leisure expenses will never be a good idea.

Spend Carefully on Yourself:

This might sound strange but you need to pay yourself for your salary. Managing your personal expenses is also a must if your salary is under PKR 50,000, from which you have to pay your expenses and fulfill needs of your family at the same time.

Setting aside some specific amount for your personal expenses on monthly basis will help you keep the bigger figure aligns and will allow you to make some saving as well.

You must think twice before spending the money on activities like hanging out and random shopping even when you are not much in need of the particular thing and you are buying it just because you liked it, or if you are about to start a new course and you need to pay funds for that.

Stick to your needs, rather than wishing to have everything what you look around you.

The Pro Tip!

Why not make some extra money from the amount you will save!

Focus on the saving plans that offer you the facility to divert your funds towards tax saving, insurance, and investments etc. Look for better and trustable insurance and investment opportunities to double your money with no effort.

Try to have an insurance for you with some basic ongoing investment. You can go for the insurance even if you have a huge amount of savings in your pocket. For the details, you can consult any financial analyst or even your bank might offer you some related opportunities.

Related Read: Smartchoice.pk Introduces New Features with Better User Experience

Keep a money bank saving for emergency purposes. This is always a great idea to cheat you into saving a bit more. At the time when insurance and investment plans are pre-planned financial tools, money banks can bring you some extra unplanned surprises with a very little amount of effort placed in it.

Maybe it looks childish but the idea works a miracle. If you are a salaried person and are worried to meet and manage your expenses, try these simple yet effective rules that will surely earn you some amazing benefits, but only if you apply them on regular basis for a year or so.

Khurram Zahid

The post Money Management Tips for People Income Under PKR 50,000 appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

You have to start a new search for jobs and re-evaluate your spendings. But don’t worry, this is not the end of the world. You will get through this bigger and better.

Due to the hike in prices of nearly everything, be it food or clothes or other basic everyday needs, managing your budget has become a great challenge. In such inflation, one can not even think of saving extra bucks for the future.

Read Also: 25 Ways to Save Money in Pakistan if You are a Salaried Person

Most of the families in Pakistan are middle class, thus spending what they earn as there is a very small margin, and even if you do save some money, it either gets used up in case of emergencies or even if not, it is not something that you can solely rely on for your sustenance.

So as a wise man once said, you should always be prepared for the worst in order to get the best. This article not only focusses on the ways that you can manage your finances when you are unemployed, but these points, if integrated in your daily life while being employed can make you manage your expenses very well.

Now with increasing population and a great competition in the education field, we have many fresh graduates coming out every year with better qualifications and a more talent.

Thus, companies tend to prefer these multi-talented individuals over the old ones. Hence the chances of unemployment have also increased because of this competition.

Only a few people are left with stable, high caliber jobs. Rest have either been already fired or stand at a high risk of unemployment.

Become save-a-holic!

When you are unemployed, there is no fixed income. You may work as a freelance for some time but that is also equal to no pay at all, so the only thing left now for you is saving! Saving up after unemployment is essential, as you don’t know when and where your next job will be. Till then you have to survive with the money you have only.

You won’t get more cash miraculously from somewhere, neither will the prices of everything around you go down. Rather, you yourself will have to be realistic and use your money efficiently so that your basic needs are covered for your survival. And this needs to be done from day one only as every penny counts

Saving has a lot of benefits other than the obvious ones and we will discuss those here. For you to start saving, first you need to chalk out your spending and plan them out strategically, this makes you more organized and calculated.

Moreover, it makes you realize the true worth of money. You weigh the importance of your spendings, you realize what is important and what is not.

How to save money while being unemployed

Now being unemployed, you are already on a very low budget and saving up in this scenario might seem unreasonable and stupid. But this saving up is not for your extra needs but for your basic everyday food, clothing and house.

You need to realize that these things are an essential to your daily life, if you don’t have them, you will be at the stake of other’s mercy and believe me, no one wants that! So let’s discuss a few ways that will help you save small amounts till you get employed again.

1. Cook most food at home

This seems small but makes a great difference by the end of the month. Eating outside might seem convenient and sometimes cheap to you, but in reality you are actually paying a lot more and doing harm to your body. This you will realize when you cook food at home.

The added cost of groceries is way less than food from outside or the frozen food that you get. Also, eating such food does harm to your health which you might have to pay in the form of medical bills in the future. So cook at home, and stay healthy, alongside saving a few thousands.

2. Use public transport

Try to use the public transport as much as you can. For trips to the market, or searching for a job at different places etc. we don’t realize but the petrol cost every day takes up a major chunk of our money and so does the car maintenance. We are not telling you to sell your car yet, but save up on the cost by not using it for the time being.

3. Plan your spendings

Keep fixed amounts of cash for groceries, traveling, and rent. Keep the rest aside and don’t use it until it’s very important.

Read also: How Travel Insurance Can Help You Save Money!

4. Use your bank account

Now keeping that saved money in the cupboard might tempt you to spend it on something that for the time being seems important to you. So use your bank account and deposit your cash there. It will make you difficult to take that cash out and spend, thus making your saving more effective.

5. Watch your bills

By this we are referring to electricity, water and gas bills. Watch the usage of these resources and try to cut them down. Some tips can be to not use the air conditioner, reducing the water usage by taking a shower with a fixed amount of water rather than free flowing, switch of the lights not in use etc. this will decrease the usage resulting in less payable amount in bills.

Conclusion

So these were a few points to make your struggle a little easy. Follow them and feel the difference. And remember, this unemployment is temporary, so don’t loose hope and give it your best shot.

Khurram Zahid

The post How to Manage your Expenses when you get Unemployed in Pakistan appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

Related Read: 5 Tips To Save Money Using Your Credit Card!

DOMESTIC LEVEL SAVINGS

One must start from the lowest level to attain large amounts of yield and so the effort starts from the very basic organization that a salaried person needs to save a considerable amount of money.

1. Eliminate debt

Focus on putting your saved money to paying off debt firstly so that you may later save the money going in debt and use it on your own self.

2. Everyday savings

Try to use less money each day and save up the extras on daily bases. When the daily savings add up at the end of the month, the amount is often considerably large and substantial.

3. Sell things not in use

Appliances, extra cars, computers, books etc. are often kept at houses just for the sake of it, adding up to the money that had been spent on them, going to waste. Sort these unused things out and sell them for as much money as possible to save yourself the resent of spending money on useless items.

4. Make a budget

A salaried person always finds it hard to decide where to spend the limited amount of money that he/she earns. At the end of it all, savings get the lowest importance or no importance at all, to save yourself this trouble, develop a well- organized budget.

5. Set saving goals

While developing a plan for your savings, first decide what are you saving for so that it may become easier for you to divide your money according to the amount you need saved and the time at which you might need the saved money.

Related Read: Credit Card options for Salaried Employees

STAYING IN BUDGET

6. Put aside the savings first and then form the budget

If not put aside in the very beginning, it may get used up and besides the daily savings there would be no other alternative of saved money left.

7. Keep a count of the budget that is spent

To keep a check on whether the budget is being followed or not, count the money used daily.

8. Psychological preparation for self-frugality

This is perhaps most important for an average salaried Pakistani because a lot of psychological effort is required for saving earned money.

9. Keeping a bit out for emergency

Keep some extra money out in your budget for emergency use. If the money is not used up at the end of the month add it in your monthly savings.

10. Annualized Spending

If you eat a 20 rupee snack daily at some point of the day, it means you spend a definite 7300 rupees every year on one particular snack, so it can be saved if required.

MINIMIZING LUXURIES

11. Cooking food at home

Make yourselves healthy economical food every day to meet your financial needs instead of spending money in restaurants and canteens.

12. Vacationing near home

Instead of spending excessive money on outstation trips, prefer vacationing in your own vicinity, spending as little as possible.

13. Minimize utility without resent

Efficient utility of the in-budget necessities can be very helpful for low waged employees. No resent helps in staying positive and saving up energy for more and better work for better earning, ultimately increasing the amount of savings.

14. Shop effectively and only for necessary things

Branded clothing in seasonal sales attract a lot of customers. Buying such items is a waste of money.

15. Spending only on absolute necessities

Oftentimes we get distracted by the allure of fancy products in the market which we have no need for. Try to save your money by only buying what is necessary.

PERSONAL INVESTMENTS

To save money on a larger-scale, people in Pakistan typically make the following investments on their own:

16. Property

People buy properties and then sell them when they require their saved money. A plus point about this is that the cost hardly ever reduces and there is no loss.

17. Gold

Buying gold is risky in the sense that its price fluctuates daily. However, it is a popular way of saving money because the amount of money that is not sufficient for property is always sufficient for gold.

18. Renting properties

People often rent out their properties and then save money that they receive as rent.

19. Side businesses

Like the above-mentioned investments people invest money in various businesses, hoping to receive more and meet no loss, this way is also unreliable.

20. Committees

Committees are formed at community level and the members submit a fixed amount every month to the head. The total is then given to one person of the committee each month.

LARGE-SCALE SAVINGS OFFERED AT INSTITUTIONAL AND GOVERNMENT LEVEL

21. NIT units

National investment unit trust offers certificates to people who want to invest and their money becomes a part of the units’ fund. They then distribute the money amongst the investors.

22. Shares In stock exchange

Different factories need investments and they sell shares, people buy these shares and the yield of the factory is distributed amongst the shareholders.

23. Prize bonds

Government launches certified prize bonds of different amounts. People buy these bonds, the money received by the government is used up and the profit is sent out to buyers through ballet system.

24. Qaumi bachat scheme

A scheme offered by government similar to prize bonds. They sell out special saving certificate, defence saving certificate etc.

25. Insurance policies

Insurance companies receive money from people who mean to save it and insures them their required money at the time of need. Different types of insurances include health, life, education, marriage etc.

Compare Health Insurance at SmartChoice.pk: Click Here 

The story of savings starts from the basic level to a large-scale level. It is not difficult even for employees with low wages to save money if they follow the recommended options efficiently and without break.

Khurram Zahid

The post 25 Ways to Save Money in Pakistan if You are a Salaried Person appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.