I think Americans are not taking their vacations because they don't know any better. As a whole they are fairly unintelligent and materialistic. Unless they are told to take off by one of their television shows they won't. I think the system we have here in Canada far out-shines our basement neighbor the US. Their capitalist ways are fraught with problems. I hope their president can fix them as a people and spread the wealth more equally.
Speaking as a manager at an apartment community, I have to say that some of your tips are right on the money. I do need to dispute the validity of number 3. The majority of reputable management companies genuinely want to know your concerns. You need to give on site management the opportunity to help you. I would never turn away a resident with a concern. I and all my staff bend over backwards to keep our residents happy. We do not want a multi-million dollar asset to lose value because of unaddressed maintenance issues. Very few management companies see the landlord/resident relationship as an adversarial one.
"3. The agent does not listen to you.
This is a pretty common complaint I hear about. Basically, the real estate agent shows homes to clients that do not meet the clients' requirements. The most common problem is that the agents show people homes outside the price ranges they have agreed upon."
Go figure that most real estate people would try to max out their customer's purchasing costs since that results in higher commissions. But then again the Freakonomics economics guys proved that many agents get their clients to accept offers slightly lower than needed since this sells quicker. They compared the prices which agents got selling their own homes versus homes of other people and it showed this trend...
I can agree with a lot of this advice. There are a lot of agents out there that just aren't that good at their job. They don't understand that they are a small business, and don't act as such.
And while I do carry the title REALTOR, I decline to use it because I feel that it cheapens the profession as opposed to enhancing it like the local, state, and national boards would have you believe. Why do I carry it? If I want access to the MLS system, I need to join the local board of REALTORs, and pay my dues there as well as MLS access fees.
Instead, I opt to use Licensed Real Estate Salesperson. Bottom line up front, the state the agent works in is who ultimately issues their licensed as a real estate salesperson. The term REALTOR is mostly marketing.
My biggest suggestion for finding an agent you can work with is to find one who has a personality that suits you. Chances are the agent that works best with you will end up helping you build the best deal on your purchase, or get the most on your sale.
We have tried this out for a week or two here and there when one of the cars needs the mechanic but we don't feel like dashing off to spend the money. Having one car is definitely an option we've considered.
We have a little bit of a plan mapped out that includes some days when my husband takes the car and leaves me home with our homeschoolers, and others when I drop him off so I can take care of chores and various lessons the kids go to.
It helps that the kids are older and can be left alone and that my husband only works about 6 miles away.
A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, but I've never heard the same thing said of teachers. Wise people teach themselves all the time.
However, I wouldn't say it's "ironic" that your alumnae status has helped you line up work for your college--that's exactly how these things work and is entirely to be expected. In a very real sense, that's what you're paying for when you go to college--the connections that will help you find work in your field.
Either paint the bottles black or mix food coloring for the darkest color you can make into the water. This will help the bottles absorb heat more efficiently. Sand actually might be a good choice too in a black bottle.
The first thing is, that we all come up with a plan to make a dinner together, so, several people come and buy several things that may be used for the food (we keep the leftovers) and we all have a good time. Some people bring wine, others the meat, others the vegetables and fruits. The good part on top of the sharing, is that because there are several people, each producing warmth, the heather is not on, so, less electrical bills. We do this in several groups, one for work, one for family, one for friends... And we try to do this at least twice per season.
I live alone, so I am ok with setting the thermostat at 60 and wearing a hat around the house. I also morph into the pilsbury doughkid during the winter (hey, extra adipose=insulation, right? just kidding) in terms of LAYERS. As previous commenter said, wear the first layer close to the skin and you will be toasty warm. The only thing I hate doing is wearing lots of socks because I feel like my feet are getting all sweaty and smelly- but then if I leave off socks they get cold. Bah!
Yes. Not sure what a sparklets is. But plastic is fine. Keep in mind, there are different plastics. The 5 gallon water bottles are thin and porous. They will let air in. oxygen is fine when you start the fermentation, but not so good after it gets going. It changes the flavours. Since you will distill, it won’t mater as much. The plastic I like best is the heavy food grade plastic used in bakeries and delis. They come with nice rubber seals. The pickle buckets need to be really cleaned well, but they are chemical resistant, vinegar is an acid.
We have a programmable thermostat so any time of the year it is set to run less during the day while we aren't there. During the winter my husband and I prefer to be under lots of covers as well so we can keep it fairly low. We close the doors and vents of rooms we aren't using so we are not heating the extra square footage (guest room, guest bathroom, etc). In the summer we close most of the vents downstairs to force the cold air upstairs where it will then sink. In the winter we do the opposite and it seems to help the house maintain a more consistant temperature. And finally I love to where my Duofold shirts and pants around the house in the winter. They aren't bulky but they provide extra warmth. In the end though if I am truly cold I allow myself to turn up the heat because it is not worth being miserable!
Wow, this is the most useful post I've come across on the internet. I just wish I had read it before heading out on my first shop. Anyway, its helps for next time and I high recommend it for any newbies.
i think that americans are not taking all their vacation time for two reasons; one, they have a mountain of debt to go through and there is no time to rest and two; they are passionate about their jobs, as a non american,i think that it is the latter. this is because i am an avid reader of the forbes magazines and i have noticed that most of the worlds billionaires are american and i seem to think that the passion that these people seem to have for their work is so for everybody else...but i could be wrong
Cut your bloated lifestyle and don't take a job that doesn't treat you right! Don't shop where people are lowly paid, don't buy goods from china. Don't take a job where you do something unhealthy or emotionally hurtful to another person or family or society. This life is about people and living things, not nepotism and profit. Wake up! They don't care about you and your problems, they just want that flat screen trophy wife. If you think they are not trying to kill you off, and take your house.... your blind! Grow a spine America!
What we're really talking about is who should win and who should lose. The options in the article are aimed at the current set of losers who became losers from the chain of unfair activities that have taken place in the form of bailouts and loan modifications for people defaulting. What should have been done from the get-go is no intervention, let the bad loans forclose naturally, my third point sounds extreme but I heard about a city that did this and I think it makes sense: remove the forclosed home (make it an empty lot) - this idea could work as the home would not exist to be sold at a lower price and therby not bring down other values - there would need to be a way to offset the loss to the bank maybe in the form of a write off. This process would remove the glut of homes and prevent home vaues from dropping.
I enjoy burning things to stay warm. Nothing in particular, just flammable stuff.
I also make every effort to sleep during the day when it is much warmer. Somewhere near a sunny window. Like my cat, Prince Snuggleboots. He's just plain awesome.
At night I surf the internet and eat Ben & Jerry's on my couch with lots of blankets. It helps pass the time.
You lose a lot of heat through your head. I always where a hat in the house. Nothing else, just a hat.
When all else fails I go outside. I live in California, and it's usually pretty hot outside.
I've found that the window kits that are supposed to insulate your windows are expensive and the plastic is too thin to do much of anything. Several years ago, I bought ten of those thick clear plastic shower curtains for about a buck apiece at the Dollar Tree. I use nails or thumbtacks to fasten them to the outside of my window frames, which cuts down on air coming in through the windows as well as through gaps in the window frames. since they're clear I can still get lots of light in the house, and since they aren't taped or shrink wrapped onto the windows I can take them down and re-use them the next year.
I also have two pairs of those rubber backed curtains from the 1950's that i found at a yard sale. They're ugly but the rubber backing will keep wind and cold air out really efficiently.
I live in an old leaky building, and mine is usually the warmest apartment out of the entire building!
The best thing I do to keep comfy during the winter is to use the two thick Polartec blankets I bought from LL Bean years ago. I remove the sheets on the bed for the winter and use one of the blankets as a fitted sheet and the other one as my blanket. They keep me toasty warm without overheating like a down comforter can do. Plus the fact that the bed is warm from the moment you get into it is worth anything!
Never really been much for saving money - reason being I have never seen a light at the end of that tunnel...
What is the lowest you can reduce your expenses to? The answer is not zero. You can't reduce your expenses below a certain amount - which makes us look to the other obvious question -
What is the highest you can raise your income to? There is no ceiling on this number.
There is no way to reduce your expenses to nothing - but there are ways to increase your income so much that your expenses mean very little. So that's what I have focused on.
However, that's not to say focusing on reducing expenses isn't rewarding or worthwhile.
Saving money means you have more money to invest on creating more income. So if you save $2 somehow, and you know that your method of investing will bring you 10% for the month, you have just increased your income by 20c!
Something to keep in mind for those who, like me, have a hard time coming to grips with saving
I think going to university (in the states) is like an expensive extension of high school. I think that those personalities that have always found school easy in a boring kind of way - should take some time outside of the school environment to learn how to learn all over again.
My degrees were easily earned, but along with the theme of this post - I didn't look into what I would be on the other side. (Who would to hire a pysch/phil major?)
My main motivation as a young man was to make money - I thought that university would provide an opportunity to do that. And, it did. However, I have learned more, and created a great deal more wealth being outside of the classroom, making mistakes, and developing the skill to recover from those mistakes.
This could, however, all be the product of my university experience - albeit not directly related to my certification
Lifelong Minnesotan here, and layers are key. Rather than turning the heat way up we dress in layers as much as possible. It's easy (and free!) to put on a sweater if you're cold. Only when it gets ridiculously cold do we crank up the thermostat or turn on the gas fireplace. I'm a pretty warm person by nature, so I don't have too much trouble in the wintertime. Plus my hubby and dog are nice and cuddly and keep me warm! I'm also a fan of hot soup and bubble baths to get rid of the chill.
I think Americans are not taking their vacations because they don't know any better. As a whole they are fairly unintelligent and materialistic. Unless they are told to take off by one of their television shows they won't. I think the system we have here in Canada far out-shines our basement neighbor the US. Their capitalist ways are fraught with problems. I hope their president can fix them as a people and spread the wealth more equally.
Speaking as a manager at an apartment community, I have to say that some of your tips are right on the money. I do need to dispute the validity of number 3. The majority of reputable management companies genuinely want to know your concerns. You need to give on site management the opportunity to help you. I would never turn away a resident with a concern. I and all my staff bend over backwards to keep our residents happy. We do not want a multi-million dollar asset to lose value because of unaddressed maintenance issues. Very few management companies see the landlord/resident relationship as an adversarial one.
"3. The agent does not listen to you.
This is a pretty common complaint I hear about. Basically, the real estate agent shows homes to clients that do not meet the clients' requirements. The most common problem is that the agents show people homes outside the price ranges they have agreed upon."
Go figure that most real estate people would try to max out their customer's purchasing costs since that results in higher commissions. But then again the Freakonomics economics guys proved that many agents get their clients to accept offers slightly lower than needed since this sells quicker. They compared the prices which agents got selling their own homes versus homes of other people and it showed this trend...
I can agree with a lot of this advice. There are a lot of agents out there that just aren't that good at their job. They don't understand that they are a small business, and don't act as such.
And while I do carry the title REALTOR, I decline to use it because I feel that it cheapens the profession as opposed to enhancing it like the local, state, and national boards would have you believe. Why do I carry it? If I want access to the MLS system, I need to join the local board of REALTORs, and pay my dues there as well as MLS access fees.
Instead, I opt to use Licensed Real Estate Salesperson. Bottom line up front, the state the agent works in is who ultimately issues their licensed as a real estate salesperson. The term REALTOR is mostly marketing.
My biggest suggestion for finding an agent you can work with is to find one who has a personality that suits you. Chances are the agent that works best with you will end up helping you build the best deal on your purchase, or get the most on your sale.
We have tried this out for a week or two here and there when one of the cars needs the mechanic but we don't feel like dashing off to spend the money. Having one car is definitely an option we've considered.
We have a little bit of a plan mapped out that includes some days when my husband takes the car and leaves me home with our homeschoolers, and others when I drop him off so I can take care of chores and various lessons the kids go to.
It helps that the kids are older and can be left alone and that my husband only works about 6 miles away.
It is still my dream to put this in action!
@ pam munro:
A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, but I've never heard the same thing said of teachers. Wise people teach themselves all the time.
However, I wouldn't say it's "ironic" that your alumnae status has helped you line up work for your college--that's exactly how these things work and is entirely to be expected. In a very real sense, that's what you're paying for when you go to college--the connections that will help you find work in your field.
Either paint the bottles black or mix food coloring for the darkest color you can make into the water. This will help the bottles absorb heat more efficiently. Sand actually might be a good choice too in a black bottle.
The first thing is, that we all come up with a plan to make a dinner together, so, several people come and buy several things that may be used for the food (we keep the leftovers) and we all have a good time. Some people bring wine, others the meat, others the vegetables and fruits. The good part on top of the sharing, is that because there are several people, each producing warmth, the heather is not on, so, less electrical bills. We do this in several groups, one for work, one for family, one for friends... And we try to do this at least twice per season.
I live alone, so I am ok with setting the thermostat at 60 and wearing a hat around the house. I also morph into the pilsbury doughkid during the winter (hey, extra adipose=insulation, right? just kidding) in terms of LAYERS. As previous commenter said, wear the first layer close to the skin and you will be toasty warm. The only thing I hate doing is wearing lots of socks because I feel like my feet are getting all sweaty and smelly- but then if I leave off socks they get cold. Bah!
A friend of mine referred someone for an appartment in his complex and got a check from the management company. It was just like that ING promo. Nice!
Yes. Not sure what a sparklets is. But plastic is fine. Keep in mind, there are different plastics. The 5 gallon water bottles are thin and porous. They will let air in. oxygen is fine when you start the fermentation, but not so good after it gets going. It changes the flavours. Since you will distill, it won’t mater as much. The plastic I like best is the heavy food grade plastic used in bakeries and delis. They come with nice rubber seals. The pickle buckets need to be really cleaned well, but they are chemical resistant, vinegar is an acid.
When it gets colder here, I stop wearing shorts and wear long pants. But then, I live in sunny, warm Orlando!
Jae
We have a programmable thermostat so any time of the year it is set to run less during the day while we aren't there. During the winter my husband and I prefer to be under lots of covers as well so we can keep it fairly low. We close the doors and vents of rooms we aren't using so we are not heating the extra square footage (guest room, guest bathroom, etc). In the summer we close most of the vents downstairs to force the cold air upstairs where it will then sink. In the winter we do the opposite and it seems to help the house maintain a more consistant temperature. And finally I love to where my Duofold shirts and pants around the house in the winter. They aren't bulky but they provide extra warmth. In the end though if I am truly cold I allow myself to turn up the heat because it is not worth being miserable!
Wow, this is the most useful post I've come across on the internet. I just wish I had read it before heading out on my first shop. Anyway, its helps for next time and I high recommend it for any newbies.
Check out my first time out mishap.
http://www.harvardhousewife.com/2009/10/mystery-shopping-instead-of-clea...
i think that americans are not taking all their vacation time for two reasons; one, they have a mountain of debt to go through and there is no time to rest and two; they are passionate about their jobs, as a non american,i think that it is the latter. this is because i am an avid reader of the forbes magazines and i have noticed that most of the worlds billionaires are american and i seem to think that the passion that these people seem to have for their work is so for everybody else...but i could be wrong
Cut your bloated lifestyle and don't take a job that doesn't treat you right! Don't shop where people are lowly paid, don't buy goods from china. Don't take a job where you do something unhealthy or emotionally hurtful to another person or family or society. This life is about people and living things, not nepotism and profit. Wake up! They don't care about you and your problems, they just want that flat screen trophy wife. If you think they are not trying to kill you off, and take your house.... your blind! Grow a spine America!
What we're really talking about is who should win and who should lose. The options in the article are aimed at the current set of losers who became losers from the chain of unfair activities that have taken place in the form of bailouts and loan modifications for people defaulting. What should have been done from the get-go is no intervention, let the bad loans forclose naturally, my third point sounds extreme but I heard about a city that did this and I think it makes sense: remove the forclosed home (make it an empty lot) - this idea could work as the home would not exist to be sold at a lower price and therby not bring down other values - there would need to be a way to offset the loss to the bank maybe in the form of a write off. This process would remove the glut of homes and prevent home vaues from dropping.
I enjoy burning things to stay warm. Nothing in particular, just flammable stuff.
I also make every effort to sleep during the day when it is much warmer. Somewhere near a sunny window. Like my cat, Prince Snuggleboots. He's just plain awesome.
At night I surf the internet and eat Ben & Jerry's on my couch with lots of blankets. It helps pass the time.
You lose a lot of heat through your head. I always where a hat in the house. Nothing else, just a hat.
When all else fails I go outside. I live in California, and it's usually pretty hot outside.
Thanks for your time
TOBY
Thanks for the great advice!
I've found that the window kits that are supposed to insulate your windows are expensive and the plastic is too thin to do much of anything. Several years ago, I bought ten of those thick clear plastic shower curtains for about a buck apiece at the Dollar Tree. I use nails or thumbtacks to fasten them to the outside of my window frames, which cuts down on air coming in through the windows as well as through gaps in the window frames. since they're clear I can still get lots of light in the house, and since they aren't taped or shrink wrapped onto the windows I can take them down and re-use them the next year.
I also have two pairs of those rubber backed curtains from the 1950's that i found at a yard sale. They're ugly but the rubber backing will keep wind and cold air out really efficiently.
I live in an old leaky building, and mine is usually the warmest apartment out of the entire building!
I moved to Maui. It really worked!
(We are such wimps here, that when winter comes, and it's maybe 7 degrees (F) cooler, we, too, pile on the blankets and sweaters.)
The best thing I do to keep comfy during the winter is to use the two thick Polartec blankets I bought from LL Bean years ago. I remove the sheets on the bed for the winter and use one of the blankets as a fitted sheet and the other one as my blanket. They keep me toasty warm without overheating like a down comforter can do. Plus the fact that the bed is warm from the moment you get into it is worth anything!
Never really been much for saving money - reason being I have never seen a light at the end of that tunnel...
What is the lowest you can reduce your expenses to? The answer is not zero. You can't reduce your expenses below a certain amount - which makes us look to the other obvious question -
What is the highest you can raise your income to? There is no ceiling on this number.
There is no way to reduce your expenses to nothing - but there are ways to increase your income so much that your expenses mean very little. So that's what I have focused on.
However, that's not to say focusing on reducing expenses isn't rewarding or worthwhile.
Saving money means you have more money to invest on creating more income. So if you save $2 somehow, and you know that your method of investing will bring you 10% for the month, you have just increased your income by 20c!
Something to keep in mind for those who, like me, have a hard time coming to grips with saving
I think going to university (in the states) is like an expensive extension of high school. I think that those personalities that have always found school easy in a boring kind of way - should take some time outside of the school environment to learn how to learn all over again.
My degrees were easily earned, but along with the theme of this post - I didn't look into what I would be on the other side. (Who would to hire a pysch/phil major?)
My main motivation as a young man was to make money - I thought that university would provide an opportunity to do that. And, it did. However, I have learned more, and created a great deal more wealth being outside of the classroom, making mistakes, and developing the skill to recover from those mistakes.
This could, however, all be the product of my university experience - albeit not directly related to my certification
Lifelong Minnesotan here, and layers are key. Rather than turning the heat way up we dress in layers as much as possible. It's easy (and free!) to put on a sweater if you're cold. Only when it gets ridiculously cold do we crank up the thermostat or turn on the gas fireplace. I'm a pretty warm person by nature, so I don't have too much trouble in the wintertime. Plus my hubby and dog are nice and cuddly and keep me warm! I'm also a fan of hot soup and bubble baths to get rid of the chill.