Shopping Smarts

In Hong Kong, we make consumer choices every day. Yet we seldom have books on teaching you how to be an informed consumer. We believe that everyone knows how to shop. Partly correct, but not everyone knows how to shop SMARTLY.

Here’re some tips from the book:

1.      Do you really need it? Or just being tempted by a sudden urge (impulse buying)?

2.      What exactly are your needs?

Pinpoint your needs. Don’t waste your money on features that you don’t really need or end up with a bargain that doesn’t get the job done.

3.      Does brand names really matter?

Many well-known brands have a reputation for quality, but remember that you’ll probably spend more for them. Lesser-known brands offer the same quality for a much lower price.

4.      Do your research online, through consumer magazines, or in person. You can read the reviews to get the opinions of other shoppers. If you pay a visit in person, do remember that the salesperson is there to sell you a product. He or she might tell you only the benefits (not flaws) of a product. And not all salespeople are experts on the products they sell.

5.      Consumer power

The choices you make as a consumer can have a big impact on the issues you’re concerned.

l   Buying green

Try to avoid products with excessive packaging and look for recyclable or biodegradable packaging.

Bring your reusable bags to the store.

l   Animal testing

Check the label or animal rights websites before you buy a personal care product.

l   Locally produced

The money you spend on those products will help the local workers and local economy.

l   Boycotts

If you don’t like a company’s products or the way it does business, you can choose not to buy from that company.

6.      Full sale

Most stores discount prices and hold sales regularly. If you wait a bit, the item you want may soon be on sale for a fraction of the price.

7.      Power outlet

The savings on these items can be large, especially on well-known brands, but make sure you check them very carefully before buying, as they usually aren’t returnable.

There’re many other tips on rewards programs, coupons and rebates offered by shops; pricing tactics like bulking up and markups; and shopping via online auctions and for secondhand.

Finally, the book tells us pros and cons of various ways of paying goods: cash? Cheques? Gift card? Debit card? Credit card?

By the way, this is the first time I heard about the difference between “http” and “https” in URL. Want to know the answer? Better read this book!

What a surprise! This book does give us a complete picture on shopping and shop smartly!

Scheff, Anna (2012). USA Today. Teen wise guides: Shopping smarts. MN: Twenty-first Century Book.

Job Smarts

Have you ever think of finding a part time job or start a business? Jobs bring you valuable experiences and skills that are useful for the rest of your life.

If you’re considering taking a job option, bear in mind that your first commitment as a teenager should always be school. You have to find a balance between your school responsibilities and your job.

This book gives you some hints on finding a job and keeping a job:

1.       Don’t let Facebook cos9t you a job:

Before you apply for a job, better do a quick review of your online profiles and remove anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see.

You may also type your name into a search engine and see what shows up.

2.      Don’t be late:

In fact, being on time – or even early – is one of the easiest ways to make a good first impression.

3.      Follow the rules:

Always ask your supervisor if you’re unsure about a rule or a policy.

4.      Dress appropriately:

Always ask your supervisor about any dress code – whether written or unwritten.

5.      Ask your friends to back off:

You’re there to work, not socialize. Don’t let your friends distract you. Don’t take personal phone calls at work and don’t text, e-mail, or check your messages while working.

6.      Act professionally:

Behave professionally toward both customers and coworkers.

7.      Keep a positive attitude:

Take responsibility for your mistakes, apologize and move on.

8.      Don’t burn your bridge:

Let your boss know at least two weeks before you need to leave a job – and work hard up through the very last day.

Sandy Donovan (2012). USA Today. Teen wise guides: Job smarts. MN: Twenty-first Century Book.

Economics Books for Junior Forms

These are books for junior forms.

How do you decide what to do with your money? Do you plan how much money you’ll use? Or how much you’ll save? How to budget?

Try this web site when you’re preparing your budget.

http://www.bankingkids.com/pages/eb_1.html

Larson, J.S. (2010). Do I need it? Or do I want it?: Making budget choices. MN: Lerner Publication Company.

What are goods? What are services? What are resources? A simple but precise introduction on some basic economic concepts.

Nelson, R. (2010). What do we buy? A look at goods and services. MN: Lerner Publication Company.

This book introduce some abstract concepts like how do producer and consumer work together in the market place? How does price be determined? What are the costs of buying things? What are the benefits?

Larson, J.S. (2010). Who’s buying? Who’s selling?: Understanding consumers and producers. MN: Lerner Publication Company.

What makes money so special? Why does money make trade easier? Where does it come from and how it is used?

  

Larson, J.S. (2010). What is money, anyway?: Why dollars and coins have value.  MN: Lerner Publication Company.

What is a bank? What is a saving account? What are loans and interest?

Learn more about the money topic in

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/money/index.html

Larson, J.S. (2010). Where do we keep money?: How banks work. MN: Lerner Publication Company.

Happiness Advantage

Success causes happiness? No, it’s the other way round.

Happiness and optimism actually fuel performance and achievement – giving us the competitive edge that the author called the Happiness Advantage (p.3 - 4).

The author isolated seven principles that predict success and achievement.

THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES

哈佛七大黃金法則

#1 The Happiness Advantage

     快樂優勢

Happiness implies a positive mood in the present and positive outlook for the future. It has three measurable components: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential. P. 39-40 Positive brains have a biological advantage and retrain our brains to capitalize on positivity will improve our productivity and performance.

                                                    

#2 The Fulcrum and the Lever

     支點與槓桿

We view our work as a Job, a Career, or a Calling. People with a “job” see work as a chore and their paycheck as the reward. They work because they have to and constantly look forward to the time they can spend away from their job. People who view their work as a career work not only out of necessity, but also to advance and succeed. They are invested in their work and want to do well. Finally, people with a calling view work as an end in itself; their work is fulfilling not because of external rewards but because they feel it contributes to the greater good, draws on their personal strengths and gives them meaning and purpose. Unsurprisingly, people with a calling orientation not only find their work more rewarding, but work harder and longer because of it. And as a result, these are the people who are generally more likely to get ahead. (p.78) If we can adjust our mindset (our fulcrum) in a way that gives us the power (the lever), we can be more fulfilled and successful.

#3 The Tetris Effect

     俄羅斯方塊效應

When our brains constantly scan for and focus on the positive, we profit from three of the most important tools available to us: happiness, gratitude, and optimism. When our brains get stuck in a pattern that focuses on stress, negativity, and failure, we set ourselves up to fall.

We may make a daily list of “three good things”. When you write them down, your brain will be forced to scan for potential positives things that brought small or large laughs, feelings of accomplishment at work, a strengthened connection with family, a glimmer of hope for the future. This trains the brain to become more skilled at noticing and focusing on possibilities for personal and professional growth, and seizing opportunities to act on them. This also push out those small annoyances and frustrations. p. 100-101

#4 Falling Up

     在挫折中成長

In the midst of defeat, stress, and crisis, our brains map different paths to help us cope. There are three mental paths. One that keeps circling around where you currently are. Another leads you toward further negative consequences. And one that leads us from failure and to become stronger and more capable, the Third Path P. 108.

People with an optimistic explanatory style interpret adversity as being local and temporary while those with a pessimistic explanatory style see these events as more global and permanent. Our beliefs directly affect our actions. Those who believe the former are spurred on to higher performance P.123. In other words, those who can most successfully get themselves up off the mat are those who define themselves not by what has happened to them. But by what they can make out of what has happened. They use adversity to find the path forward P. 110-111.

#5 The Zorro Circle

     蘇洛圈

When challenges loom and we get over-whelmed, our rational brain can get hijacked by emotions. We can regain our control and enhance our decision-making skills by verbalizing the stress and helplessness.

Interestingly, employees who think they have, not actually have, high levels of control at the office are better at their hobs and report more job satisfaction. This is true in nearly every domain of life. So it is better to recommit to some manageable goals and focus our energies on something we can handle. Once our own performance improved, our circle of influence will expand.P.140

I very much like the two examples on how to clear one’s room and in-boxes listed on p. 141 – 143.

#6 The 20-Second Rule

     二十秒定律

Sustaining lasting change often feels impossible because our willpower is limited. The more we use the willpower, the more worn-out it gets. And when willpower fails, we fall back on our old habits and succumb to the path of least resistance.

Have you ever found free time more difficult to enjoy? For the most part, our jobs require us to use our skills, engage our minds, and pursue our goals – all things that have been shown to contribute to happiness. During free time, we often find it difficult to muster the energy necessary to kick-start “active leisure” like hobbies, games, and sports that enhance our concentration, engagement, motivation, and sense of enjoyment. So we simply follow the easiest, convenient and habitual path leads us to the couch and the television. Studies shown these “passive leisure” are enjoyable and engaging for only about 30 minutes, then they start sapping our energy and make us unable to shake a listless sense of disappointment.

What should we do? According to the author, by simply put the desired behavior on the path of least resistance, so it actually took less energy and effort to pick up and practice the desired habit than to avoid it. He referred this as the 20-Second Rule, because lowering the barrier to change by just 20 seconds was all it took to help us to form a new life habit. By the same token, by raising the barrier for habits you want to avoid can enhance our ability to jump-start positive change.

It’s worth to take some time to read the story of Ted about his struggle to keep up with his workload in p. 158.

#7 Social Investment

     人際投資

In the midst of challenges and stress, some people choose to hunker down and retreat within themselves. But the most successful people invest in their friends, peers, and family members to propel themselves forward.

Achor, Shawn. (2010). The happiness advantage: the seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work. NY: Crown business.

尚恩‧艾科爾。(2013) 。《哈佛最受歡迎的快樂工作學》。台灣：野人文化股份有限公司。

How will you measure your life?

The author had just overcome the same type of cancer that had taken his father’s life. As he struggled with the disease, the question “How do you measure your life?” became more urgent. He drew upon his business researches and tried to find out the true meaning and happiness of life.

I, in particular, was impressed by what the author shared in Section I: Finding Happiness in Your Career. Many young people find themselves stuck in unhappy careers is often the result of a misunderstanding of what really motivates us. For true motivation, the author believed, “is getting people to do something because they want to do it.” (P.32)

According to Frederick Herzberg, job satisfaction is not a spectrum. Instead, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are two independent measures. Hygiene factors are status, compensation, job security, work conditions, company policies and supervisory practices. Bad hygiene or lack of it causes dissatisfaction in work. Please note, Herzberg classified compensation as a hygiene factor, not a motivator.

While motivation is much more about what’s inside of you and inside of your work. They are the feelings that you are making a meaningful contribution to work, like challenging work, recognition, responsibility, and personal growth.

Many young people had chosen their careers using hygiene factors as their primary criteria. They viewed their education as an investment and often believed that income was the most important criterion. It wasn’t too long, some of them had actually begun to resent their jobs. Worse still, they found themselves stuck as they expanded their lifestyle to fit their salaries. It was, if not impossible, really difficult to wind that back.

You have to find a career that both satisfies the hygiene factors and motivates you.

In Section II: Finding Happiness in Your relationships, the author found out that people are constantly pressured, both at home and at work. Yet most high-achievers focus a great deal on becoming the person they want to be at work – and far too little on the person they want to be at home. They might be hoping that their family ties and friendship bonds are strong enough to endure neglect. But that’s seldom the case. It is paradoxical that it is important to invest in building strong families and close friendships when it appears as if it’s not necessary. Or it is often too late to repair them when serious problems arise.

Indeed, relationships with family and close friends are one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.

Reflected from his own life, the author recognized some of the greatest gifts he received from his parents stemmed from what they didn't do for him. They helped him to learn that he should solve his own problems whenever possible; they gave him the confidence that he could solve his own problems; and they help him experience pride in that achievement. That’s how self-esteem comes from. Yet, many parents mistakenly flooding their children with knowledge, skills and experiences as to get ahead. Some even outsource too much of their lives: their values, which may be the most important capability of all.

Christensen, C., Allworth, J. & Dillon, K. (2012). How will you measure your life? NY: HarperCollins.  

死裏逃生

冼家強，一個久違了的名字。相信大家仍然記得06年在尖沙咀隧道內的擊警案，造成兩死一重傷，同時又發現另一前警員的失槍，事隔七年，唯一的生還者冼家強才能平平靜靜地整理自己的情緒，回顧他過去漫長的醫療經歷。

對，書本是記錄他接受治療的過程，而並非論述案件的經過。不是他不想說，作為警員的當事人，他恨不得提供詳盡知料以協助同僚調查；作為當事人，他更希望得知事實的真相，好讓一起巡邏卻在事件殉職的拍檔安息。只是，他記不起來。

書中由搶救開始，當我看下去，被作者那份幽默感吸引，遇上巨變，他仍能用如此輕鬆的筆調來記述，不得不佩服他那放得下的胸懷。書中只記下自他三月中槍到五月出院這兩個月在醫院接受治療的經歷：如何面對痛楚？如何與痛楚打交道，並做一世的朋友？如何面對醫生們模凌兩可的診斷評語？如何向兩老交代病情進展？尤其是根本沒進展？如何面對傳媒那不盡不實的相關報導？如何面對外界對事件的揣測？如何面對狗仔隊的纏擾？如何計劃自己的將來？

一個有血有肉的故事，很認同鄧厚江處長的一番話：「若然那天晚上他是在沒有選擇的情況下當上英雄，那末他在康復路上的表現就亳無疑問地証明了他固有的英雄本色。」

推薦這一本書，以及之前所介紹的《翻越生命的高牆》，都是想叫我們反思自己的生涯規劃，又若果計劃被無清地打亂了，甚至打斷了，我們又可以怎樣呢？當然遇上書中所描述的巨變機會不大，但是，遇上困難和逆境卻是無可避免，你又會如何面對呢？

冼家強。（2014）。《死裏逃生》。香港：明窗出版社。

Everything Money

Do you know:

1.      the different between money and currency?

2.      why people use bat droppings as money?

3.      are loan and credit card money?

4.      why people who already have money want more of it?

5.      what money can’t buy?

6.      what to do if you have a damaged, more than half, bill?

7.      how long do the coin and bill last?

8.      how to raise money from a good cause?

Find your answer in this book.

Furgang, F. (2013). National Geographic Kids: Everything Money. Washington, D.C: National Geographic Society.