Financial Quizzes

To know your Financial IQ and to test your knowledge on aspects related to personal finance, you can take the following quizzes. They are quite interesting and insightful.

• 10 Financial Myths Quiz - Developed by the staffers at USA Today, it consists of 10 of the most common myths about personal finance.
• True/False Quizzes - To test your knowledge regarding the fundamentals of Financial Management, you can take these True/False Quizzes. The quizzes are based on chapters of financial management.
  
• Financial Planning Fundamentals - There are 7 quizzes which include topics such as Basics, Cash Management & Budgeting, Income tax, Insurance and Risk Management, Investments, Retirement and Estate Planning.
• Rich Dad's Financial IQ Quiz - Rich Dad Poor Dad is one of the most highly recommended book for the people related to the financial sphere, especially individual investors. You can take take Rich Dad's Financial IQ Test. There are also quizzes on Real Estate and Debt.
• Kiplinger.com - They have a collection of quizzes on personal finance and business.
• Dave Barry's Quiz - For some fun and humor, you can take Dave Barry's Quiz to determine your current financial health. The result will surely make you laugh.
  

Kaizen Philosophy

I came across this philosophy while reading a book on World Class Manufacturing. The Kaizen principles to be adopted by companies for improvement can also be applied on an individual basis to improve one's life.

Kaizen is the name given by Japanese to the concept of “Continuous Incremental Improvement”. “Kai” means “change” & “Zen” means “good”.
“Kaizen” therefore means making changes for the better on a continual never-ending basis.

Kaizen strategy is the single most important concept in Japanese management – the key to Japanese competitive success. There are two elements that construct Kaizen, improvement/change for the better and ongoing/continuity. Kaizen involves on-going improvement involving every one – top management, managers and workers.
If Kaizen philosophy is in place in an organization, all aspects of the organization should be improving all the time.

Kaizen 5-step plan:

The five step plan is concerned with 5‘S’s namely – Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu & Shitsuke and it is the Japanese approach to implement Kaizen.

1. Seiri – means to Straighten – up or Sort
   It involves differentiating between the necessary and unnecessary & discarding the unnecessary. In the same way, we should also realize what is important for us in life and what matters the most & then accordingly remove all the unimportant concerns, matters from our life.



2. Seiton – means putting things in order – Organize
   Keep the things in order so that they are ready for use when required. Everything should be at its place and there should be place for everything.



3. Seiso – means to Clean Up
   Japanese firms strongly believe in the slogan “keep the work place clean”. We should also keep our mind & environment clean &/or clear from bad thoughts & dirt.



4. Seiketsu – means personal cleanliness – Maintain
   It refers to maintaining personal cleanliness. Some of the Japanese beliefs are – “There is a healthy mind in a healthy body”, “Cleanliness is necessary for Godliness”.



5. Shitsuke – means Discipline
   Japanese believe that only with discipline in following the principles and procedures, one can contribute significantly to personal & organizational success. It is necessary to have discipline in all aspects of life to improve our quality of life.

Creativity Check

Are you in the right job?

Are you happy doing what you do to earn?

Creativity and Success in the work we do is directly related to our happiness in performing it.

So do you want to know how creative you are at work.

You could do your Creativity Check by taking the Creative Motivation Scale developed by Dr. E. Paul Torrance, a pioneer researcher in the field of creativity research. You could probably take a sheet of paper and a pen and mark "T" stands for True, if the statements below describes your attitudes and motivations and "F" stands for False, if it does not describe your attitudes or motivations.

1. I think financial reward is the best incentive to good work.
2. I am apt to pass up something I want to do when others feel that it isn't worth doing.
3. I find it easier to identify flaws in the ideas of others than to think of other possibilities myself.
4. It is hard for me to work intently on a problem for more than an hour or two at a stretch.
5. I enjoy work in which I must keep trying out new approaches.
6. I am fascinated by new ideas, whether or not they have practical value.
7. My mind often gets so caught up in a new idea that I am almost unable to think of anything else.
8. I thoroughly enjoy activity in which pure curiosity leads me from one thing to another.
9. I enjoy trying out a hunch just to see what will happen.
10. I never pay much attention to "wild" or "crack-pot" ideas.
11. I enjoy experiences where I can't know what is going to happen.
12. I feel upset when little things happen that I had not counted on.
13. I sometimes lose myself in experimenting with an idea that may have no practical value.
14. My interest is often caught up in ideas that may never lead to anyhing important.
15. The presence of a group stimulates me to think of new solutions.
16. When I get a new idea, I drop everything to try it out.
17. I sometimes get so intent on a new idea that I fail to do the things I ought to be doing.
18. I enjoy work in which I must change my course of action as I go along.
19. I am inclined to be "lost ot the world" when I get sarted on a new, original idea.
20. I enjoy tackling a job that I know involves many as yet unknown difficulties.
21. I never feel really qualified when taking on a new job.
22. I have a feeling of excitement when an idea I am working on begins to jell.
23. I enjoy staying up all night when I'm doing something that interests me.
24. I frequently try things which do not occur to others to try.
25. I like to find ways of converting necessities to advantages.
26. I am willing to risk suffering for the sake of possible growth.
27. I see many problems to work on, much work to do.
28. I sometimes become childishly enthusiastic about an apparently simple thing.
29. I usually put a great deal of energy and zeal into my work.
30. I resist accepting the accustomed ways of doing things unless I can prove to my own satisfaction that it is the best way.
    

So now lets check the score. Your score is the number of answers you marked "True."
The following answers are how an ideal 100% creative person would have answered.

1. F
2. F
3. F
4. F
5. T
6. T
7. T
8. T
9. T
10. F
11. T
12. F
13. T
14. T
15. T
16. T
17. T
18. T
19. T
20. T
21. T
22. T
23. T
24. T
25. T
26. T
27. T
28. T
29. T
30. T
    

Interpretation of Scores for Creative Motivation Scale
24 or higher: Exceptionally strong creative motivation, "hard to stop," not easily discouraged
21-23: Strong creative motivation
18-20: Above average in creative motivation
14-17: Average creative motivation
12-14: Below in creative motivation
11 or less: Weak creative motivation, hard to get motivated for creative thinking or expression