If you're leaving home for the first time, just striking out on your own, there are a few things you need to know to be successful. You must have a basic understanding of how to maneuver in today's complex social and economic society, and that isn't something you can pick up in the traditional education system. Instead of learning the hard way, place yourself on the pathway to success with a guidebook that outlines basic life skills in fifteen short and simple chapters. You will find meaningful information that will help you remain independent, including how to make the right decisions, write a resume that will get you a professional job, buy a vehicle at a reasonable price, get your own place, and live on a budget. Don't just rely on what you were taught in high school as you begin a journey that's completely your own. Take a practical approach to life's greatest obstacles to ensure you live the life you want as soon as possible. Get the guidance you need as you move from Dependence to Independence.

DEPENDENCE to INDEPENDENCE

I Think I Can ... I Know I CanBy André J. Olivan Sr.

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 André J. Olivan Sr.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-5501-2

Contents

Introduction...............................................v1. Things to Consider......................................12. Employment..............................................133. Transportation..........................................254. Getting Your Own Place..................................435. Budget..................................................656. Banking.................................................757. Establishing Credit.....................................878. Managing Your Medical Information.......................1079. Duties To Society.......................................11910. Balancing Responsibilities.............................12911. Real Estate - Owning Your Own Home.....................13912. Serving Your Country...................................15513. Understanding Taxation.................................16314. Recordkeeping..........................................18115. Conclusion.............................................187

Chapter One

Things To Consider

* * *

Your Quality of Life Depends 0n Your Choices

Evaluate Your Motive Behind Your Decision

Identify The Steps In Making A Good Decision

Identify The Difference Between Rationalization And Justification

Apply The Ben Franklin Technique

Confidence In Making A Good Decision

How to Make the Right Decision

Life is full of choices. There are always consequences resulting from the decisions you make. You are accountable for your own actions. It is therefore imperative that you try to make good choices and appropriate decisions. You have to establish a method or process to evaluate choices that have a direct affect on your future. In order to make a good and intelligent decision you must be honest with yourself. We want to help you keep the process simple.

There are many factors which go into how you make decisions. You are often influenced by emotions when making an important decision. This can be a disadvantage. You often make impulsive choices rather than being thoughtful in your decision making process. There are times when an immediate decision is completely appropriate. However most of the time it is in your best interest not to be too hasty when making the decision.

Impulse causes you to want something right now. Impulse is defined as "a sudden, unreasoned inclination to action". Rationalization can be thought of as talking yourself into something you want. It is convincing 'yourself' of something. It is best to avoid rationalizing your way into a decision. Needing is defined as "having an urgent or essential use for something lacking."

The first step in making a good decision is defining the difference between wants and needs. You will need to ask yourself questions to help you through the process of differentiating whether this is a want or a need decision. Ask yourself questions that will justify what you are trying to accomplish. Justifying is defined as, "searching for a reason, fact, circumstance, or explanation that will guide you to a solid and sound decision" for example, what is in your best interest over the long term.

To summarize, you should always be able to justify rather than rationalize your decisions.

Ben Franklin's Decision Making Process

Ben Franklin is one of the finest role models in our Country's history. He exemplified intelligence, integrity, confidence, and steadfast values. In his lifetime, he faced many personal obstacles and made both personal decisions as well as decisions on behalf of his country.

It has been said that Ben Franklin had one of the best and easiest ways of processing a decision. He simply took out a sheet of plain paper and drew a large T on it. On one side, he wrote the word pros and on one side the word cons. In his evaluation, he listed all the positive effects of the decision he was pondering under the pros side of the T. Under the cons side of the T, he listed all the negative effects of the proposed decision. Once he had listed all of his thoughts as either pros or cons, he simply chose the side with more items listed under it and made his decision accordingly.

To take this a step further, once you have completed the basic method used by Ben Franklin, you should go back and identify by order of importance each of the items listed in both pros and cons. One way to do this would be to identify each of the items listed in your pros and cons columns as either a Want; an Impulse; a Rationalization; a Need; or a Justification. By doing so, you can then weight the importance of each item and rather than simply making your decision based on the number of items in each category, you are now making your decision based on the importance or validity of each item in each category. Remember, it is very important that you be completely honest with yourself at this point.

Here are the steps -

1. List the advantages and disadvantages to the decision as outlined on the previous page

2. Grade each of the advantages and disadvantages using the following key.

3. Now, be honest with yourself and determine what is in your best interest when making a decision.

Once you have truthfully identified and graded each item by its importance or validity, the answer should then be very clear to you. The Needs and Justification items should have a greater weight on your decision than the Wants, Impulse, and Rationalization items. Instead of making an emotional decision, you have now made an appropriate and solid decision.

Occasionally, you will ponder an issue and still not be sure what the right decision should be. In a case such as this, go with your heart instinct. It is better to make some decision than to make no decision at all and get into the bad habit of procrastinating. Procrastination is putting things off. This causes undue stress and causes you not to be productive in your life.

To conclude, even a good decision can turn out to be a mistake. If you go through the process of being truthful in evaluating the best decision and it turns out to be a mistake, remember that the best learning curve often results from mistakes. More than likely, you won't repeat the mistake. None of us are perfect. Just try to consciously make good decisions. The rest will come with experience.

In this example, the disadvantages outweigh the advances 9 to 8 and therefore, the decision should be made NOT to purchase the car.

Think carefully about the advantages and disadvantages of the decision. Be honest with yourself. Ask others for their input and advice and consider it objectively.

Chapter I Summary

1. Your quality of life depends on your choices:

? It's important for you to make good decisions

? Choices and decisions drive your actions

? You are accountable for your own actions

2. Motives that influence your decisions are:

? Wants

? Impulse

? Rationalization

? Needs

? Justification

3. You should identify your steps for making a good decision:

? Defining the difference between Wants and Needs

? Understanding and knowing the difference between - Rationalization and Justification

? Asking yourself justifying Questions

? Search for what is in your best interest over the long term

4. Identifying the difference between Rationalizing and Justifying reasons:

? Rationalization – A sudden unreasoned inclination to action. Also can be thought of as talking yourself into something you want.

? Justification – Searching for a reason, fact, circumstance, or explanation that will guide you to a solid and sound decision

5. Applying Decision Making techniques:

? Take a plain sheet of paper and draw a large T on it

? Label each side with advantages and disadvantages

? List any and all reasons for the decision you're about to make

? Label each reason as follows:

Wants (W) Impulse (I) Rationalization (R) Needs (N) Justification (J)

? Eliminate all reasons other than needs and justifications

? Count number of items listed under advantages and disadvantages

? Your answer should be obvious

? Honesty will eliminate most emotional decisions

Chapter I Quiz

Is your quality of life really affected by your ability to make good sound decisions and why? Please explain your answer.

List the five categories used in the decision making evaluation worksheet.

Which two of the five is the most important? Why?

Which is the most detrimental to the process? Why?

Explain the importance of being honest with yourself as you go through the decision making process.

To summarize the process, is it best to justify or rationalize your decisions?

Chapter Two

Employment

* * *

Prepare For Finding The Right Job

Creating The Image You Want

Where To Look For The Right Job

How To Present Yourself

Understanding The Interview

Interview Tips

Resume Development

Everyone should have a current resume prepared at all times. A resume is defined as a brief written account of personal, educational, and professional qualifications and experience. It is designed to assist a prospective employer in selecting from a number of candidates to fill a job vacancy. Many times, a resume will be requested before an interview is ever scheduled. It is therefore very important that the resume be impressive both in contents and in appearance.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when developing your resume. First, the prospective employer is very busy. They are not interested in reading an entire book about you. They want to hit on the highlights – those characteristics which define you as being qualified for the position. Keep your resume short and to the point. Try to be precise in defining yourself. Don't use too many words. It is best to try to keep your resume down to a one page sheet if possible.

You can begin your resume by putting your name, address, and telephone number centered at the top of the page. You might want to enlarge or bold this information so that it stands out. If you have a fax number or e-mail address, you may want to include these as well. After this, you should included information using the following five points -

1. Objective - In this section of the resume, you will briefly define what your goals might be. For example, you might want to state that you seek a position working as a marketing representative utilizing your educational experience along with your interpersonal skills to contribute to the expansion of a growing company.

2. Skills and Qualifications - In this section, you should briefly state any special skills you possess and any special qualifications you have relating to the position you are applying for. For example you might have special computer knowledge and speak a second language fluently, or you may have other training or schooling.

3. Experience - Here you will list your prior employers starting with the most recent first and working your way backward. You will state the period of time that you worked for that particular company along with their complete name and the mailing address. List the name of the title you held and a brief description of the duties or responsibilities involved. If there were promotions within one place of employment, be sure to mention them.

4. Education - This is where you list your formal educational background as well as special courses or training accomplishments. Like the Experience section, you begin by listing the most recent educational accomplishment first and work your way backwards. You need not include specific dates of educational accomplishments.

5. References - List the names and telephone numbers of individuals that a prospective employer can contact to ask for a recommendation about you. Examples of persons you might include as references are, prior supervisors, teachers, community leaders, coaches, or long time friends. Make sure these people know they have been listed as your references so that they can be prepared for any inquiries that they might receive. Many resumes simply state references available upon request. This is a way to keep the resume precise and protect your references from unnecessary calls. A serious prospective employer will request the list from you. You should then be prepared to provide them with a separate sheet of paper listing those references complete with telephone numbers. Three references should be adequate.

If you have never held a job before, you should state this fact under the "Experience" section. Simply write, "No prior employment history". You will want to emphasize your educational background and activities involvement such as community service, extra curricular activities involvement, club membership, volunteer work, sports participation, hobbies, and so on. Show the prospective employer how you have spent your time. If you have been going to school full time and have been involved in community service, this would explain not having had any gainful occupation thus far. There are also many books and software programs available which have been designed to customize and define a resume.

Sample Resume

Name Address City, State Zip Telephone Phone E-Mail Address

OBJECTIVE

Seeking a position in retail sales utilizing my interpersonal skills working with the general public in a fast paced, challenging environment with the possibility of advancement into management.

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Experienced counter representative with knowledge of computerized cash register operation, accurate money handling, customer satisfaction issues involving complaints, inventory responsibilities, weekly ordering, and employee scheduling. I speak Spanish and English fluently.

EXPERIENCE

? 2008-2009 - Burgers R Us

Counter Representative – responsibilities included taking customer orders, customer complaints, ordering weekly supplies, handling cash, scheduling employees, doing weekly inventory.

EDUCATION

? 2007-2008 - Burgers R Us National School for Counter Sales Persons. Received first place in Burned Burger Complaint Specialist Competition

? 2003-2007 - ABC Joint Unified High School. Graduated with honors

REFERENCES

? Available upon Request

Where to Look for a Job

The first thing you need to consider when looking for a job is what you are qualified to do at this point in your life. You will also need to consider when you are available and what other commitments you have made for your time. Do you go to school or have children to consider? Think about how you will get to and from a job. Is there reliable transportation? This will help define where you should look for employment. Consider how much money you need to earn monthly in order to pay your expenses. Will there be any additional expenses from taking a specific job? For example, will you be required to purchase special attire or equipment? Will you need your own vehicle to perform your job? How much will it cost to get to and from work?

Once you have defined your needs and any limitations, you can begin searching for possible employment opportunities which match your availability, experience, and talents.

1. Newspaper - The classified advertisements section of any newspaper will have an entire section devoted to employment opportunities. Here you will find available jobs listed alphabetically, and by category. The Sunday paper typically has the largest classified section. Local newspapers are an excellent source of finding jobs offered in your area.

2. Employment Agencies - Employment agencies handle placement of qualified employees for employers. They interview and pre-qualify prior to sending a prospective candidate out to the employer. There are temporary agencies which specialize in temporary placement positions. Often, these temporary positions work into full time permanent positions. Some agencies charge the employee a fee, and some charge the employer a fee. Be sure to have clarification of this up front, especially if you are signing any kind of contract with them.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from DEPENDENCE to INDEPENDENCEby André J. Olivan Sr. Copyright © 2011 by André J. Olivan Sr.. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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