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As usual, I watched Suze Orman show tonight. At the beginning of the show, Suze mentioned the top 10 things you can do to make the most of your money in the year 2008:

1. Try to get out of credit card debt - I am not surprise this is the #1. My credit card has balance at 0% for life, so no hurry on that.

2. Save 6 - 8 months of emergency funds - I am not sure I can save that much, but I will try.

3. Contribute to 401K up to the company match point (if company match), open an Roth IRA - No 401K, but have Roth IRA set up by Hubby. Hubby will also take care of contributation.

4. Buy a house if have money (with at least 10% - 20% down, and 30/15 year fixed interested loan) - already own house, can’t refinance in 2 years.

5. Never co-sign a loan with anyone (except spouse?) - sure.

6. Annuity: don’t buy variable annuity, and don’t invest it in a retirment account. Simple fixed rate annuity is ok. - will do more research on annuity.

7. Buy individual bonds, not bond funds. -will do more research on bonds.

8. Get a Will and revocable living trust - I think this has been taken care of, but have to check to make sure. - will do more research on will and living trust.

9. Term life insurance only - if you need to have life insurance, get term life insurance. should get this done this year.

10. Invest in no load mutual funds which is no expense to buy and sell, stock diversified. - Not sure about this one. - will do more research on no load mutual fund.

Suze’t best selling books:

Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny
The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying
The Road to Wealth: A Comprehensive Guide to Your Money
The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke

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Ready to enter the field of general transcription? Here are something you need to know.

What kind of work does a general transcriptionist do?

General transcription work could include but not limited to: Interviews, business meetings, conference calls, focus groups, press briefings, radio shows, video shows, panel discussions, seminars, lectures and speech etc.

Who would use general transcription services?

Many businesses and professions use general transcription services, such as: government, insurance companies, financial professionals, teachers, students, marketing researchers, professors and other general businesses and corporations.

How do I get started if I have no experience?

Fortunately there are some transcription companies will hire workers with no experience. However, you still need to have the required skills I mentioned in my last post (Transcription Job overview), and practice and be prepared to take transcription tests which could include transcribing a short audio, grammar and punctuation tests.

Please remember how fast you do a certain transcription job depends on the quality of the audio, how familiar you are with the audio material subject, your listening skill, your grammar, proofreading and editing skills. Another point is since audio sujects vary greatly, if you have a basic knowledge of a wide varity of topics, you probably will find the job much easier.

Following are some resource you can use to test and improve your skills:

• Sample audio test: here is a a good audio sample test: http://www.freelancetranscriber.com/transcriptiontest.pdf
• Practice audio: do a google search for “free podcasts”. Podcasts are usually crystal clear audio and short, and you will have a variety of topics to choose from.
• Grammar: grammarbook.com (the blue book of grammar)
• Typing: although typing skills is not essential, a few companies do require minimum speed. Following are some free typing test and practice sites:

learn2type.com
testmytyping.com
typingtest.com

There is no formal training for general transcription, it is just a matter of getting your foot in the door and doing it regularly to build your speed. There are companies that willing to hire with no experience, such as TigerFish and AccuTran. TigerFish even have their test posted on their website. You can also check your local transcription companies and craigslist looking for temporary assignments that will give you the experience to apply for other companies later.

Here is a few good companies that offer general transcription jobs:

Accutran - accutranglobal.com
Cambridge Transcription - ctran.com
Domenichelli Business Services - moderndayscribe.com
Escriptionist - escriptionist.com
Morningside Partners, LLC - fdch.com
Mountain West Processing - mountainwestprocessing.com
Net Transcripts - nettranscripts.com
Rapidtext - rapidtext.com
SpeakWrite - speak-write.com
Tigerfish - tigerfish.com
The Transcription Company - transcripts.net
Ubiqus - ubiqus.com

What is transcription? Transcription is the process of creating written text from recorded or live audio. It’s a manual act of typing the spoken word, from any audio format, to paper or computer file. Quality and efficient transcription service is very much needed in many businesses and professions.

There are three type of transcription - General Transcription, Legal Transcription and Medical Transcription.

Skills required for all three transcription work:

1. Above average knowledge of English grammar and punctuation;

2. Excellent listening skills, allowing the transcriptionist to interpret sounds almost simultaneously with keyboarding;

3. Advanced proofreading and editing skills, ensuring accuracy of transcribed material;

4. Versatility in use of transcription equipment and computers, since transcriptionists may work in a variety of settings;

5. Highly developed analytical skills, employing deductive reasoning to convert sounds into meaningful form;

6. Good typing skills.

General transcription: there is no specific training for general transcription.

Legal transcription: previous legal experience is usually required;

Medical transcription: formal training/course from a reputable medical transcription school is required.

Transcription is a great work from home option, since most transcription companies allow their qualified transcriptionists to telecommute. If you have good skills of typing, listening, English grammar and language, you might want to give it a try. I will be exploring the above three transcription jobs in the later posts, so stay tuned!

Dangers in the home are the leading cause of accidental injury and death for children ages 6 months to 16 years. Babies will get into everything! Look for dangers and child proof in advance.

Take some time to go through your entire home. Get a kid’s eye view and look at potential dangers through a different perspective. If something stands out as a potential danger - fix it immediately!

Let’s start…

1. Unplug all electrical appliances each time you use them, and never leave cords within baby’s reach. Tape them or coil them up;

2. Keep baby away from all plastic bags, which includes (not limited to) sandwich bags and plastic food wrap;

3. Stick plastic plug protectors in all electrical outlets;

4. Install plastic safety latches in drawers and cabinets;

5. Put plastic corner guards on your tables;

6. Install safety gates at the top and bottom of every stairway, you also might needs gates for rooms that don’t have doors;

7. Put all matches out of child’s reach, remove all ashtrays, cigarettes and cigars;

8. Keep baby away from the fireplace;

9. Make sure all household cleaning products out of child’s reach;

10. Check under your sinks, the broom closet, garage and basement. Read product labels. If you see the word WARNINg, keep it locked up or well out of baby’s reach;

11. Teach your baby to never touch the stove, weather it’s turned on or not - say “HOT”, keep pan handles turned inward and keep hot dishes away from baby;

12. Keep any knives, other sharp objects and hot food beverages and glassware out of baby reach.

13. When your baby is in his carrier, always leave the carrier on the foloor not on a counter or table;

14. The safest place for the safety seat in a car is in the middle of the back seat;

15. Always buckle the safety belt when your baby is in a high chair or carrier;

16. Do not place your baby or child’s safety seat in front of an air bag;

17. Throw out whatever you don’t need anymore in your medicne cabinet. Store what you keep up high, so baby can’t reach it;

18. Babies put everything in their mouths. Always be on the lookout for things that should NOT go in the baby’s mouth;

19. Never leave your baby alone in the kitchen, in the bathtub, by the fireplace, outside, in the car, with a stranger, with pets or young children;

20. Finally, keep these number handy: Poison Control Center, Fire Department, 911 and police department, baby’s health provider.

Data entry jobs are very popular work at home opportunities, because they are more flexible compare to customer service phone works. However, a legitimate, reliable and long term (either full time or part time) data entry job is very hard to come by.

Data entry jobs usually require you have good typing skills. Most jobs require you to be able to type between 15K - 20K with 97% accuracy.

Due to it’s high popularity, there are many data entry scams on the web - websites claim they have data entry jobs but you have to pay a membership fee to access the information, or a data entry “job” offer but you need to pay a fee for training material. Those are scams, do NOT fall for it and waste your time and money!

So, how do you find legitimate data entry jobs? - Apply and send your resume to the legitimate data entry companies, most likely they are not hiring and your will be put on their waiting lists. It could be a very long waiting period, some people waited for 2 years to get a data entry job from those companies.

You can also search craigslist or freelancing sites like Elance.com and Guru.com, you might able to find short term temporary data entry assignments, but remember do so with caution and common sense (especially while searching craigslist.)

If you type really fast, and have good listening and English language skills, you might consider other options such as general transcription jobs.

Below are the legitimate companies offer data entry jobs, none of them charge you a fee, which is the way suppose to be.

1. DionData
2. Axion Data Services
3. Key for Cash
4. Working Solutions (WSOL)
5. Data Preparation International

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