Setting up a personal budget for you and your family isn’t as hard as you might think. What’s hard is maintaining and keeping it working for you for any length of time. If you are setting up a personal finance budget, here’s 3 tips to keep in mind.1. KEEP IT PERSONALThat might sound like a given, but with so many budget programs and plans out there, you’d be amazed just how easy it is to try and shoe-horn your personal finance situation into another person’s perfect design. Don’t do it.By trying to make someone else’s ideal, your own, it will only be that much easier to give up on it later when it turns out that it doesn’t work for you. This means setting up categories that are specific to your situation and lifestyle. If you do a lot of camping, for example, and that’s not one of the categories on your pre-formated budget sheet, don’t try to squeeze it into “Recreation” or “Entertainment.” Make a category for “Camping.”2. KEEP IT SIMPLEOne of the quickest ways to give up on a personal finance budget is to have it be so complicated that the week after you set it up, you’re not sure why you did what you did and can’t figure out how to update it. Keep it simple.Keeping the budget simple also means not having it be too much work to maintain. If it’s too much work, then you are really not going to feel like doing what needs to be done, because, it’s too much work.3. AUTOMATE TASKSDo what you can to make things happen automatically so that keeping and maintaining a budget doesn’t wear you out. For example, if you want to track how much you are spending on entertainment during the month, just keep your receipts and stash them in an envelope somewhere. At the end of the month, just add them up and you know how much you spent. This is much easier and “automatic” than writing down everything on a daily basis.As I mentioned at the start, this article was about how to keep the budget going once it gets started. You could sit down tonight and make up a budget, but will it work for you? Will you be able to maintain it over the long-term?Follow the 3 budgeting strategies above and you will greatly increase your chances of designing a personal finance budget that will last as long as you need it to.

Underwater Photography Tips #1 – Objects Underwater Are Further Away Than You Think They AreAre you aware that the ocean acts like a gigantic lens? It refracts whatever you see underwater at an index of 1.33. Hence, underwater photographers should note that when they wear a mask or when their DSLRs are in housings, objects that may seem to be only one metre away from them are actually 1.33 metres away.So what I’m trying to say is that objects you see underwater are actually at a further distance than they appear to be in your eyes. This is why you will have to be aware when focusing on underwater photography subjects.Underwater Photography Tips #2 – Get Creative with SettingsWe all know that setting your DSLR to automatic will make things easier for you. However, be mindful that you should get creative. You can make use of the different settings available for shutter and aperture.Using manual for underwater photography will be a great way for you to experiment what settings works well and doesn’t work well underwater. From experience, pictures will normally appear looking a little flat with presets. This is simply because you adjusted neither the depth of field or exposure.Another thing that you might want to try out is to vary the shutter speed settings. What this does is that it helps you gain control of the background color. Let’s put aside the thought of how fast your subject is moving underwater and the use of the strobe for now.Be mindful that using a slow shutter speed at 1/60 sec normally produces a beautiful blue ocean background. However, using faster shutter speeds like 1/125 sec will create a background color that is close to black. Why is it so, you ask? Well, using faster shutter speeds allow less light into the camera, resulting in a dark background.Underwater Photography Tips #3 – Light Is ImportantThere you have it – light is indeed a very important element in underwater photography. This is why it is of utmost importance that you use an external flashlight or strobe. These gadgets will provide light while you’re taking pictures underwater so that all the colors of the spectrum are put back together into your photographs.When you conduct underwater photography attempts without using external light, you will notice that the results of your photos will be tinged with yellow, green or brown. Be on the lookout for lights that provide a variety of settings.It is best for beginner underwater photographers to use strobes. Strobes are external light gadgets that can adjust automatically. Strobes have through the lens (TTL) metering. This metering is based on your DSLR’s automatic metering.