We won't mince words here: being in credit card debt can be an absolutely miserable, soul-sucking stress hurricane. When you're struggling to keep up with a bunch of different debt payments, debt can seem like it controls your mind, always hovering around in the background, waiting to remind you that your money is not your money and your future has long since been mortgaged.
It can be enormously difficult to distance yourself from this kind of stress and force yourself to relax. After all, how are you actually going to go about making yourself happy? In the short-term, you are broke and short of an irresponsible credit-backed spending spree, where are you going to find the funds necessary to treat yourself and give yourself a break? In the long-term, how can you possibly plan for a happy future when all of the traditional markers of success (your own home with a white picket fence, a two-car garage and plenty of time for vacations) have been put so far out of reach by your creditors that it makes your head spin?
We understand this kind of thinking. Anyone who has ever dealt with a sizeable amount of debt in any form can attest to gut-wrenching depressive spiral that can be triggered when you finally work up the courage to calculate just how much you owe.
Be optimistic, though: we have good news. It is perfectly possible to deal with your credit card debt and still be happy. There are only two simple steps to the whole process. First: make a plan to deal with your debt so it doesn't cripple you with anxiety. Second: devise a responsible, affordable approach to self-care so you can treat yourself without breaking the bank.
Let's start with item number one: making a plan to conquer your debt.
Have you ever heard the cliche that "proper planning prevents poor performance"? It's a cliche for a reason: it's true, even when it comes to something like your debt.
Most people drive themselves nutty worrying about their debt because they feel like they're incapable of handling it. To them, debt feels like a force of nature, thrust upon them by some merciless third-party. They feel as if they have very little power to eliminate debt for good.
Luckily, that's just not true. You are perfectly capable of getting out of debt, and if you take back this feeling of control and intention, chances are you'll worry much, much less about your finances and be much more capable of joy, happiness and everything else in life that's good.
There are four basic ways we'd recommend to take control of your debt and your financial future: budget, strategize and, if all else fails, ask for help.
Making a budget sounds easy because it is easy. Almost everyone over the age of 11 (and even some high-roller kids younger than that) knows that making a budget is day one table stakes for getting a handle on your finances. That goes double if you're in debt and need to make sure that you're being financially responsible.
Yes, everyone knows to make a budget. The reason we put it on this list is that so few people actually do it and do it well.
Making a basic budget is simple. Fire up your spreadsheet program of choice (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.) and start entering some data. Kick things off by entering your monthly income (if you're salaried, this is easy; if you're an hourly employee, make your best guess). Next, start to deduct all of your expenses for the month. Your fixed expenses, like your rent, car payment, and your minimum debt payments, should be easy enough to tally up. Variable expenses, like groceries, utility bills and gas for your car are tougher, but you should be able to come up with a fair number for those, too.
Whatever's left over after you deduct your expenses is surplus cash that can be put to a wide variety of uses. While you can do whatever you want with your own money, we'd strongly recommend splitting those surplus funds up into three different buckets. A chunk of that money should be put into a savings account, at least until you build up a sizeable emergency fund of $1,000 or more. Another chunk should be put towards additional debt payments that you can strategically make to help yourself get out of debt quicker (we'll get to the details of that strategy in a minute).
Lastly, you should set aside some money each month for recreation and fun. You're a human being and you deserve to splurge a little bit on yourself, at least to retain your sanity. Setting a limit within your budget helps you to ensure that you don't go too over-the-top with it.
Now that you have a budget in place, the hard part is following it. It takes discipline to track your finances and control your spending – after all, who likes to tell themselves no? – but following the limits that you've set is vital for your long-term financial health.
Coming up with a strategy for paying off your debt in an expeditious, cost-effective way is vital for keeping yourself happy when you're deep in debt. Strategy doesn't just make your debt repayment dollars go farther – it helps you to set priorities and create a feeling of control over your financial future that can keep you sane when "debt-free" seems impossibly far away.
There are two popular strategies that many individuals in a lot of credit card debt tend to gravitate to: the debt snowball and the debt avalanche. They're relatively similar in philosophy, but both have their pros and cons.
With the debt snowball, you identify the debt that you have with the smallest overall balance and focus on paying that off first. Remember that surplus money you identified when you made your budget? Paying off this debt is what you put it towards. Above and beyond your mandated monthly minimum payment, you pay extra, reducing the balance much more quickly and reducing the overall amount of interest that compounds each month.
You choose the debt with the smallest overall balance so that you can pay it off quicker, increasing the amount of surplus cash you have left over each month. As you pay off more debts, that surplus amount begins to grow and your debt repayment efforts begin to snowball, allowing you to devote more money to paying down debts without making further cutbacks in your life.
The snowball also gives you the "victory" of eliminating a debt as quickly as possible, which can help to motivate you to stick with your debt repayment strategy for the long haul.
The debt avalanche follows the same basic approach. You identify a debt to focus on and concentrate your repayment efforts for maximum effectiveness. Instead of focusing on the debt with the smallest balance, though, you focus on the debt with the highest interest rate.
The thinking behind the avalanche is that, at the end of the day, your goal is to pay the least amount possible to get out of debt. By eliminating high-interest debts first, you reduce the total amount that you'll pay your creditors in interest over time. High-interest debts tend to have larger balances, however – it can be a long time before you really feel like you've made a dent, which can be demoralizing.
The strategy you choose is up to you. What's more important is having a strategy at all. Without a strategy, you're likely going to be making payments willy-nilly without priorities or milestones to keep you on track. A strategy keeps you focused, lends you a sense of control and allows you to get out of debt much faster than you'd be able to otherwise.
Have you tried it all and still feel like you're not making any progress? If you can't find the funds to make a debt repayment strategy work well on your own, then it can be tough to feel good about the effort that you're putting in.
Luckily, there are still plenty of options out there for individuals who might need a little bit of help to get out of debt.
One of the most popular options is debt consolidation. With debt consolidation, you consolidate all of your various debt payments into one single monthly payment. Often, this payment is much lower than the sum total of all your monthly minimum payments and accrues much less interest over time, saving you money in the short term and the long term.
There are many different forms of debt consolidation out there. Some people approach their bank or credit union for a personal loan that they can use to pay off all of their debts at once. Others take out new credit cards with zero percent APR promotions and use those cards to pay down their debts, then pay off the balance of the card over time, interest-free.
A less common but still effective debt consolidation method entails working with a debt consolidation company to pay into a savings account over time. You stop paying your debts and pay into the savings account instead. Once you've built up a sizeable chunk of change in that savings account, the company takes that money and uses it to negotiate with your creditors, offering them a lump sum payment in exchange for forgiving the rest of your debt. You'd be surprised how many creditors are open to this.
Whatever you do, make sure you trust the company you're working with. There are a lot of bad apples out there, so make sure you check their reviews to make sure they can do what they claim to do.
Okay, you've taken control of your debt payments and you have a plan for getting out of debt. The next question: while you're paying off your debts, how do you make yourself happy?
People tend to equate self-care with going out and spending a bunch of money on expensive things without sweating the consequences. It goes without saying that, if your finances are precarious, this is irresponsible.
You don't have to shell out for an expensive gym membership to exercise. If you're feeling blue, force yourself to go for a jog or load up a quick exercise routine on YouTube. Exercise releases endorphins, keeps you occupied and, of course, helps you to stay healthy.
You can drive yourself crazy scrolling through Instagram. It seems like everyone else in the entire world is flush with cash and on vacation without a care in the world. They aren't, but resentfully liking their selfies isn't going to make you feel any better about your financial circumstances. Give social media a break for a few weeks. You'll be glad that you did.
We tend to feel like any time we have that isn't occupied by something – even meaningless distractions like cell phone games – is wasted. We might actually feel guilty if we aren't using our time actively, no matter what we're actually doing with it.
That feeling is useless and counterproductive, though. Sometimes, laying back and doing nothing is exactly what you need to recharge your batteries.
Not to mention that it's free. If you're in debt and need to stay happy, sometimes all you really need is to make a budget, kick off a debt repayment strategy and then reward yourself with a nice, relaxing session of nothing at all.


The rise of social media has undoubtedly revolutionised society. As more of our work and home affairs are conducted online, and with the ability to access data from work at any time, the line between personal and work is increasingly blurred.
This in turn presents different challenges for employees and employers. Employees may be confused regarding what is acceptable and not acceptable on social media. Whilst in this changing landscape, employers may need to take steps to protect their business.
Our employment team is available to provide some much needed guidance on this difficult issue for employers and employees.
Expressing opinions online is an extremely grey area. An employee is allowed to say what they want, so long as they are not breaking the law when doing so. Its best to adopt an approach of not posting anything online that could possibly be construed as being detrimental to your employer or a fellow employee.
It is possible under the law to be dismissed fairly for content posted on social media that can be construed as damaging. This is especially true if what has been posted is classed as defamation, where you could be subject to legal proceedings potentially resulting in a financial penalty.
The main advice to employees is to use a common-sense approach. Check your contract of employment or your employee handbook, which should contain policies pertaining to social media usage.
The Human Rights Act, 1998 affords individuals "the right to freedom of expression." However, that can be qualified by "necessary" restrictions prescribed by law. Restrictions will be contained in an employment contract or a company handbook so make sure you are familiar with those sections.
There are three main ways an employer can best protect a business from damaging social media. The first is policies, employers must make it clear what online conduct is acceptable and what is not. This will be done through contracts of employment and other contractual policies. Employers must be clear when employees will be seen as representing the employer.
The second way is training, employers should ensure that their employees know what is acceptable and unacceptable on social media. Training can be conducted through webinars, sending employees on courses, or outsourcing to a private company.
Finally, employers should engage their employees and provide them channels to provide feedback anonymously. Research has shown these provisions allow employees to share their thoughts in a constructive way, rather than posting on social media harmful content about an employer's business.
At CJCH, we have established ourselves as world leaders in an industry which is still gaining public awareness and understanding. As a Firm, we have developed an innovative and systematic approach to not simply identifying an incident of software piracy, but to manage that process through the full lifecycle of enforcement to licence compliance and the recovery of lost revenue for our clients, the copyright owner.
Terms such as "anti-piracy" and "licence compliance" might seem to be counter-intuitive, but in reality, are quite straight forward. Anti-Piracy is the process of instituting countermeasures to piracy. In our industry, piracy does not mean eye-patches and cannon battles at sea. Rather, it refers to the reproduction or unauthorised use of someone else's work or innovations.
Physical copyright infringement, such as reproduction of clothing, is commonly known as counterfeiting. When it comes to the digital arena, such as computer games and software, we refer to this as piracy.
"Licence compliance" is a term used to describe the process which follows on from the identification of infringement activity. The licence is the right the software developers give to the users which allows them to use the product they have developed in a specific way or format. These details are usually outlined in a "ULA" or user licensing agreement. Terms will vary depending on the developer, but any user who uses these products is agreeing to these terms when they install and/or use the software. The terms usually include the number of times the product may be installed on a device or number of devices it may be installed on. They may also relate to the number of users who may use a single licence, the location the licences may be used in, or the primary function the licence may be used for, i.e. personal, academic, or commercial use.
Therefore, licence compliance is the process by which the owner of the copyright takes action to enforce their copyright and require an unauthorised user (someone who is using a fake, copied, or cracked version of their product without paying for it) to pay for the licence and usage that they have benefitted from.
In a field shrouded in misperceptions and deception, we often come across infringements that, for various reasons, such as the scope of the violation, require a more direct and tactical intervention – an on-site inspection ordered by a law-enforcement authority (often informally referred to as a Raid).
As mentioned above, copyright infringements constitute a violation of intellectual property rights. Due to the intangible nature of computer programs, there are mechanisms which allow for software infringements' traces to be easily hidden or deleted by the infringer. This makes it very difficult for the right holder to enforce their rights and consequently could result in the infringer being able to avoid liability.
An on-site inspection is an approach we use which helps to avoid these risks. An unexpected inspection on the premises on the infringer, ordered by a law-enforcement authority enables the right holder to obtain and/or secure the evidence of the software infringements currently being used and has proven a very effective remedy.
Around the world, the legislation of various nations usually provides the possibility to obtain an ex parte / Inaudita parte order (meaning it is in the interest of one of the parties to the matter) for the inspection which will be granted by the relevant authority (court, prosecutor, police…) depending on the jurisdiction. Once this order is obtained, and following the regulations of that particular jurisdiction, an inspection is conducted, usually under the supervision of local law enforcement, to inspect the premises of suspected infringements.
Access to the premises is granted, by order of the authority, and the inspection is carried out. All computer devices and IT equipment are inspected, and evidence of unlicensed software use is gathered/or preserved.
On-site inspections are a legal process which we manage on behalf of our clients and is a service which has allowed many of our clients to expose large volumes of unlawful use of their products which have been stolen from them.
CJCH have a dedicated on-site inspection team which are strategically placed to observe and monitor our client's usage data. To date, they have managed the legal process relating to on-site inspections for a number of cases and have recovered in excess of €1 million in revenue for our clients (with up to a further €1 million in pending action).


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HomeNewsAsahi India Glass Ltd. denotes sustainability with Mahindra TERI CoE
Asahi India Glass Ltd. denotes sustainability with Mahindra TERI CoE
Mahindra and TERI's new Center of Excellence (CoE) was inaugurated on June 12, 2018, in Gurugram by the group Chairman Mr.Anand Mahindra. Asahi India Glass Ltd. (AIS) – The integrated glass company has completed their most-celebrated energy efficient project Mahindra-TERI CoE's new research facility.
Mahindra TERI Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Habitats has been established to develop energy efficient innovative solutions, tailored to the Indian building sector and climates. It would also develop an effective dissemination strategy for energy efficient envelope design and water use for sustainable habitats. Mahindra TERI CoE is an SVA-GRIHA 5-star rated building. The recently inaugurated CoE at Gurugram has employed innovated products from AIS in its structure. Products like high-performance energy efficient glass, uPVC doors and windows, laminated skylight work & frameless doors were installed in this building.
On completion of the project, Sanjay Labroo, MD & CEO, Asahi India Glass Ltd (AIS) said "AIS has always believed in sustainable living and one of the ways to show our support and commitment to the same, is through our innovative, specialised and sustainable glass products and solutions. We are extremely proud to be associated with TERI and Mahindra group for this path-breaking project. I congratulate Anand Mahindra and Mahindra team, Dr Ajay Mathur and TERI team for selecting AIS as a partner of choice for glass solutions at the TERI Center of Excellence. At AIS, we shall continue our efforts and investments to help create and support sustainable habitats."
Speaking at the launch, Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group said, "We have used the planet's resources disproportionately for our development so far. For India to develop, we will need to find new and innovative ways so as to reduce the adverse impact on our planet. To find the right balance between development and sustainability is a big opportunity for businesses to make a profit and flourish and therefore being green should not be considered as a burden or cost."
Talking about the need for green buildings and sustainability, Anita Arjundas, Managing Director, Mahindra LifeSpaces said, "The Centre of Excellence is an outcome of the vision to bring academia, developers, and the building material industry partners together to work on building materials and innovation for the Indian context."
Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI said, "2/3rd of India is yet to be built. We need to find new sustainable building materials. This initiative of CoE has been 2 years in the making and has been made possible with Mahindra LifeSpaces and our partners like Asahi India Glass(AIS) who have supported the CoE with energy efficient fenestration and glazing solutions."
Center of Excellence (CoE)
Mahindra TERI
new research facility
sustainable habitats
HIL opens exclusive retail showroom Havells Galaxy in J&K
UC Berkeley launches Smart City lab to co-opt citizens for innovative solutions
KONE India launches energy-efficient elevator

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The announcement was made by Jagan during a public rally at Kuppam in Chittoor district, less than a week before polling is scheduled to begin in the state.
Under the healthcare scheme, any individual with an annual income of up to Rs 5,00,000 can avail medical services free of cost. Taking YSR's vision of Arogyasri forward, the universal health cards will be applicable for any medical expense over Rs. 1,000.