Life Skills & Life Tips - For A Better Life

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Everything You Need To Know To Succeed At Investing

Financial professionals would agree that the best way to grow your extra income is with investments. A particularly profitable choice can be found in real estate investing, if you know how to go about it. Read on for some useful tips on how to get started in the field and grow with it.

Try not to overextend yourself. Don’t get overeager. Start small and work your way up. Don’t just assume that you can spend a great deal and make that money back. That’s an easy way to back yourself into a corner. Wait until your smaller investments can fund some of your more ambitious ones.

Make certain you have the time to put into property management before you invest. Dealing with your tenants can be very time consuming. If you see that happening, really look into a property management firm to help.

Don’t let your emotions cloud your judgement. Choosing a property to invest in should be a business decision, not an emotional one. It can be easy to get attached to a house or really fall in love with a location. Try to always look at things objectively. Shop around for the best deal without getting attached to one of the first few places you look at.

If you plan to rent a property, use caution when selecting a tenant. They should have the money for the deposit and first month’s rent. If they can’t get the cash, they may not be able to pay the rent. So, the best idea is to rent to someone else.

Do not dig up anything if you are trying to make renovations. Digging in a property is illegal in many places, plus you want to avoid causing any damage to it.

Do your homework about municipal governments of any real estate market you plan on investing in. Most cities have an official website that can be found with a simple search. Find out about any city planning issues or news so that you can get a feel for the real estate market before invest precious capital. Growing cities tend to be good investment opportunities.

A foreclosure listing service will keep you up to date on foreclosures in your area. This saves you a lot of time and effort. These will also often be current and ready to search.

As an investor, be very picky about the properties you will invest in. This means that before you even consider making an offer, you take the time to thoroughly inspect the property. To be even more on the safe side, hire a professional inspector to perform a walk-through and ensure the property is structurally sound.

Remember, you should only invest money that you could lose without causing seriously financial pain to your family. This means that going into debt to invest or using equity from your family’s current home is not the right solution. Find other sources of income to protect yourself from the worst possible situations.

Don’t jump into real estate investment while you’re still wet behind the ears. Get to know others who are in the business and learn from their experience. Join real estate clubs. Read books and visit websites that offer tips and information on real estate investing. Don’t invest until you really know what you are doing.

Before you invest in any property, make a decision on what you want to invest in. Think about whether you want to purchase a buy and hold investor, a rehabber, a wholesaler or a flipper. Knowing where you’re going to go with the investment will make it easier.

Remember that investing and managing property will require time in addition to money. Lots of folks think only of the dollars and cents, though there is much more to the story. In order to protect your investments, you will have to devote time and energy to your rental properties.

If any contractor you hire to work on a property asks you for an advance for materials and costs for the job, do not give it to him. He likely has a cash flow problem and would instead use your funds to finish a project for someone else, hoping that profit finishes your job.

Do your homework before you invest to avoid critical mistakes. This is exactly why you need the tutelage of an experienced hand. It’s better to pay for a professional than to lose a lot of money on a mistake.

Don’t go into this along. You need others who can advise you or lend their expertise to help you consider all aspects of investing in real estate. Develop a relationship with them and learn from their expertise. It is partnerships like these that can garner you the most chances for profit.

Find out when you will be able to get money back from an investment. Some investments allow you to cash out at any time. Other investments require some commitment. Make sure that you really do your research before committing to any sort of investments that you may regret in the future.

When it comes to proper investing, you must define your goals. Figure out why you are investing your money. You could be doing it to save on something like a new car or home. You could even be saving it for something like your future education or that of your children. Whatever it is, make sure you understand it so you can work towards it.

If your workplace has a 401K plan, try making the maximum investment on it. This is an excellent way to save money for when you retire. If your contribution is matched by your company, then a return is guaranteed on the investment you made. Begin right away, as that is the best way to ensure you get the best possible return while working for this company.

Although it can seem a bit daunting at first, investing in real estate doesn’t have to be out of reach. It’s a buyer’s market at the moment, and allowing some time to pass will let you see great profits. Remember these tips before you begin to invest in real estate.

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Chemical Allergies

Understand the fundamental differences between irritants and allergens. Exposure to an allergen provokes a physical reaction in your body in response to an unnatural protein. Irritants include things like paper dust, chemical fumes, perfume and cigarette smoke. These substances are irksome, but they do not carry an actual health risk, most of the time.

Many people can have allergic reactions to the household cleaners they are using in their home. Many times this problem can be solved by simply switching to natural products and getting away from chemical cleaners. Baking soda, plain soap, vinegar, and lemon juice can all be used to clean your home naturally.

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Life Skills 101

He may have aced his exams, but can he clean a bathroom? The six essential talents all children should have.

The request sounded simple enough, but my 7-year-old son looked at me as if I were speaking Chinese.

“Let’s organize your action figures,” I repeated.

“Organize?” he asked, giving me his most uncomprehending stare. “I don’t get what you mean, Mom.”

I could see this was no act. Dan was genuinely confused. I was the one staring blankly now, humbly recalling all the advice I’d ever read in parenting books and popular magazines. This was a skill I should have instilled in him by now: After you play, you put your things away. Clearly, I’d failed–and by now, his inability to sort toys’ was probably irreversible. Even substituting the phrase “clean up” didn’t seem to help him much.

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Then he brightened. “Oh, I get it, Mom. You mean `pick up’!” And he cheerily proceeded to heap everything into a shopping bag he’d taken to carrying about the house.

“All organized, Mom!”

If things stayed on this course, I figured Dan would wind up with the life skills of one of our teenage baby-sitters. Smart, charming, and a riot With kids–I love her dearly. She even knows CPR. But her other talents need a little polish. There was the glass plate she’d exploded in the microwave. “That surprised me,” she’d confessed, when I asked about the shards of glass sitting in the oven. “I never knew that silverware shouldn’t go in the microwave.” Dirty dishes often await me after she has pizza with the kids. Could she start the dishwasher the next time? “How do you do that?” she queried.

As it turns out, our baby-sitter’s cluelessness isn’t really noteworthy. Americans are raising a generation of boys and girls “with extremely low levels of competence in domestic skills,” according to two sociologists, Linda Waite, a professor at the University of Chicago, and Frances Goldscheider, a professor at Brown University. Most children aren’t being taught how to cook, clean, or sew–much less what it means to organize and run a household.

On average, children do about a third of the household dishes, about 25 percent of the housecleaning, about 20 percent of the laundry, and less than 20 percent of the cooking and yard work. Girls do about twice as much as boys, and by the time boys are teenagers, they do very little at all. “Teenage boys do about the same as toddler boys,” says Waite. “That’s almost nothing. We call them free riders on other people’s labor.” There is one exception to this dismal housekeeping report: Kids in single-parent homes, including boys, do much more than any other group of children.

What’s going on here? For one thing, says Waite, parents today are more intent on teaching kids nondomestic life skills. Instead of making our kids clean their rooms on Saturday morning, we’re ferrying them to soccer games. What’s more, with two parents at work in most households, we’re also busier than our parents were. “There’s a training component to many chores; you have to show kids how to make a salad or bake cookies,” says Waite. “Sometimes, it’s just easier to do the chores ourselves.”

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That part of the equation is no surprise. But the fact that the majority of kids are learning less about running a household is a trend worth paying attention to, and not only because most of us are still hoping to avoid the exploding-plate phenomenon. Completing a basic task such as sorting socks or sweeping the floor can build a young child’s pride. Similarly, preparing a simple Sunday-night dinner can make a teenager feel more independent and in charge of his life. Children also learn what it takes to run a family. And while gaining a sense of responsibility, they can feel part of a team.

Here are six skills all children should learn before they leave home.

  • How to Do Laundry At 3 (yes, 3), your child can help you sort clothing into lights and darks, load the washer and dryer, and fold towels. By 11 or 12, your child should be able to run a load by himself. “Learning basic housekeeping skills should happen early, not when kids are ready to go out the door,” says Kathryn J. Kvols, president of the parenting organization International Network for Children and Families, based in Gainesville, Florida.
  • Dan Simpson’s parents subscribed to that notion, and it paid off. Now a junior at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, he’s helped more than a few of his dorm mates master the mysteries of laundry. “One day, I saw this guy who was using like five machines–one for pants, one for shirts, one for socks,” says Simpson. “He had no idea what he was doing.” But Simpson is more than just a laundry guy; he also knows how to sew. “The other day, another guy came into my dorm room and asked me to sew on a button for him.”
  • How to Cook By the time your child is 8, he should be in charge of at least one meal per week. It can be as simple as pouring cereal for everyone in the morning or mixing up a box of macaroni and cheese. A younger child, of course, will need more supervision until he learns to master knives and stoves. And don’t forget to teach him to clean up while he works.
  • How to Budget Expenses When your child reaches junior high, start giving allowances monthly instead of weekly. Explain that he is responsible for budgeting the money. Don’t bail him out if he spends it too quickly, but you can allow him to take on extra chores for more cash. At 15 or 16, have your child open a checking account. Stay involved at first–help balance the checkbook and watch for errors–but gradually ease off as overseer.
  • How to Clean a Room When your child is young, give him specific tasks, such as picking up blocks in his bedroom. Teach him how to keep the room clean throughout the week by designating spaces for dirty laundry and toys. At around 7, he should take on more, such as vacuuming and changing sheets. An older child should be asked to pitch in on cleaning other rooms–vacuuming the living room or scrubbing the tub.

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Simpson’s family made such chores a weekly obligation. “It was kind of a pain. Every Saturday, each one of us had to do something, like clean the bathrooms or the kitchen. We couldn’t weasel out of it, like the other kids we saw just loafing around,” he says. But now that he’s on his own, Simpson appreciates what he learned. “It takes a lot of energy and effort to run a household with five kids,” he says. “Somebody was always breaking something or spilling something else. The house would get really messy really easy. My mom would have gone insane if she had to do it all herself.”

How to Shop for Groceries Taking a toddler to the grocery store can be a pain, but if you make him a part of the process, he’ll pick up important skills. Send your 9-year-old down the next aisle to find the right brand of laundry detergent; ask him to help you compare prices on paper towels. By the time he’s a teenager, have him help you draw up the weekly shopping list, then send him to do the shopping himself.

How to Help Themselves Teaching a child the self-sufficiency to handle any new task that comes his way is the ultimate goal, but sometimes it’s tough for parents to let go enough to let their children learn. “I think a lot of kids my age are losing the sense of how to figure things out, how to problem-solve and fix things,” Says 20-year-old Erica Engle, Who attends Fairhaven College in Bellingham, Washington. In Engle’s family, children learned such skills by being given responsibilities that required them to come up with their own solutions. For instance, an older kid can make his own doctor’s appointments. He should start by looking up numbers in the phone book (no cheating with directory assistance).

Offer guidance by asking questions. instead of giving advice. Or decide on a family vacation, then have your teenager do the research on where to stay and what to do, then make the reservations (double-checking the work is advisable, at least the first time out). “I learned a lot about how to take care of myself,” says Engle. “I’m glad that I’ve had some training in that.”