Everlasting Designs

LifeHack: 10 Painless ways make your savings grow

2009-01-04T17:18:00.004-05:00

Fess up...you overspent on the holidays. The credit card bill arrives under cloak and dagger and your savings account has shed its figure like your under watered Christmas tree. Here's a couple of quick 10 that will get some life back into your budget. (Paddles, CLEAR! ...............THUMP! )

After you make the last payment on an installment loan, set up an automatic transfer of the same dollar amount into your savings or investment account. The difference won't be missed but your savings will grow painlessly.

If shopping at a store that tallies your savings note the amount and transfer those dollars into a savings account.

Use half the laundry detergent called for - we've been doing this for some time and have yet to notice dingy clothes.

Freeze your credit card in a block of ice and leave in the freezer. By the time you have it defrosted you will have had time to consider your purchase and reevaluate whether it deems worthy of the "global warming".

Start shopping now (January) for Christmas or any other upcoming gift giving event. Most stores have killer sales and clear our holiday items at huge discounts.

Check our your magazine subscriptions. Are there any you can read online for free and cancel the hardcopy?

Call your cable company and ask if there are any promotions. If all else fails ask for a discount outright. I 'threatened' to switch our service to a different provider recently and was offered a $20 discount off our monthly bill. You can try this with your credit card companies also just be prepared for them to call your bluff.

Visit your local Library! Check out books, CD's and DVDs without spending a dime.

Use your credit card reward points to "buy" gift cards for upcoming birthdays and holidays. The gift cards are roughly twice as much value as the cash back option.

Bypass brokers and their bulky commissions by purchasing shares of comapny stock directly. Look for Direct Purchase Plan companies that let you deal directly with the company: http://www.wall-street.com/directlist.html

Sites and Sounds: Scribd

2009-01-02T11:07:00.000-05:00

If you're like me, always looking for motivation and inspiration in a good read but don't have a Barnes and Noble bank account then follow me.

Our need for self-expression as writers is fueled by the desire to learn and be impassioned. At Scribd you will find thousands of books, papers and documents covering topics as wide ranging as economics, aviation and sheet music.

Image: Corbis

You can view and share documents with a Flash format that loads quickly and is easy to read. While a good part of the intention of the site is document storage you can search out your favorite books by Napolean Hill, Seth Godin, among others.

They have recently added a mobile feature that optimizes your browser and lets you read documents anywhere you have your phone

If you are looking to add content to your blog or website, Scribd offers a low-key method of embedding document files.

Described as the YouTube of documents, it's a huge warehouse of undiscovered gems just waiting to be found. Let us know what diamonds you come up with.

Jump Start the New Year - Easy habits to feel better now

2009-01-01T13:53:00.003-05:00

No resolutions here but a couple of quick start tips to get you moving into 2009 with more harmony and simplicty.

Breathe deep - Our homes are filled with unhealthy chemicals and noxious fumes not to mention dust, mold, mildew and dander if you have pets. Make it a habit, even in the dead of winter to let the air in and the cooties out. Turn off the heat, put on a sweater and crack the doors and windows for a few moments. The zip in the air may even motivate you off the couch (if for no other reason to get the circulation back in your toes). This is a no-brainer in the warm months, unplug the AC, save some electricity and let the sun shine in.

Along the same lines - buy some plants for your home that will naturally detox your enviroment. NASA research has shown that specific living, green and flowering plants can remove several toxic chemicals from the air in building interiors.

The top 10 most effective plants are:
* Bamboo Palm - Chamaedorea Seifritzii
* Chinese Evergreen - Aglaonema Modestum
* English Ivy Hedera Helix
* Gerbera Daisy Gerbera Jamesonii
* Janet Craig - Dracaena “Janet Craig”
* Marginata - Dracaena Marginata
* Mass cane/Corn Plant - Dracaena Massangeana
* Mother-in-Law’s Tongue Sansevieria Laurentii
* Pot Mum - Chrysantheium morifolium
* Peace Lily - Spathiphyllum
* Warneckii - Dracaena “Warneckii”

Make the switch from bottled water - not only does it produce 1.5 million tons of waste every year it requires up to 47 million gallons of oil to produce. Not to mention that nearly 75% of this never makes it to the recycling plant - instead being thrown away. It is common fallacy that bottled water is healthier than tap but the fact reamins it is up to 10,000 times more expensive. We spent more last year on bottled water than iPods or movie tickets. Why do we submit to $2 a liter for a chemical laden bottle of Poland Spring but gripe about $4 per gallon of gas? Do the math folks. If you don't like the tap taste then purchase a water filter for your faucet and an inexpensive stainless steel reusable bottle.

Turning Japanese: Leave your shoes at the door to help keep floors clean and contaminants out. It is also a symbolic gesture of shedding the outside world and stepping into your sanctuary.

Go Paperless: Set up direct deposit and automatic bill payments online with your primary financial institution. Most banks have the option of adding online payments to anyone, anywhere. This works exceptionally well with any fixed payments - car loans, mortgage payments. Electronic or paper checks are mailed from the bank on a schedule you decide. Just make to allow enough time for the payment to be sent and posted. No checks, no stamps, no late payments. Go online and see if your utilities will stop sending paper statements.

If you pay off your credit card bill every month and have a reward program think about adding your monthly bills to automatically charge your card instead. Note: this system only works if you are hyper-vigilant about keeping the charge card balance at zero!

Set up a 5 daily 5 minute cleaning blitz. Zen Habits has a great list of 5-minute uncluttering actions in the article 18 Five-Minute Decluttering Tips to Start Conquering Your Mess.

Instead of running on unconscious auto-pilot, this year let your brain reach for better choices intead of mindlesss habits.

May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions. Joey Adams

image: Going off ... the 2007 fireworks display over Sydney Harbour.
Photo: AFP

LifeHack: Creating a website name

2008-12-31T11:47:00.007-05:00

Stay with me on this one.....

Have you ever tried to come up with a creative original website domain name?
75 searches later you realize all the cool innovative names are taken. 115 searches later you come to the conclusion that all the alternate names your searches cough up with are painfully irrelevant.

While not the intention of the site, Bandnamemaker, proffered some really great titles based on a keyword I plugged into their search box.

For example: I went to GoDaddy and tried to search out "Learn" for an educational kids website.

Obviously, Learn.com is taken and any decent, relevant suggested domains ran from $500 to $28, 000 to purchase.

The domains that were unclaimed and standard pricing ($9.99) were ridiculous and unimaginative.

Yourunderstand.com?
Freelovelearn.com??
and my personal favorite...Hotlovelearn.com (I can only imagine the droves of disappointed, lonely men pulling up a children's ABC site!)

Whereas the same search at Bandnamemaker doled out some interesting possibilities.

LiquidLearn
LearnMechanic
LearningWheel

Much more, umm, kid-friendly and far more creative.

Even if you aren't looking for a new URL, spike up your best glam rock 80's hair and try out some new band names...who knows, you may be inspired to change careers.

It's a Wrap - What did you get for Christmas?

2008-12-27T10:50:00.007-05:00

Hopefully, the melee has wound down and you are all recuperating from too much merriment. I don't know about you but I have already been infected with a mean case of spring fever. Itching to throw open the sash, let in some fresh air and purge all the superfluous junk littered across the house.

Having received some cool holiday goodies, I started two piles for my misfit toys the day after Christmas (I know, I know...its a sickness): one to sell and one to donate. Into the boxes goes 1 pair of earbuds that always fell out when running, one shorty bathrobe, several worn out sweaters...is this where the partridge in a pear tree comes in?

I did however get a couple of unexpected items that are probably the favorites this year:

A copy of the Dalai Lama's "The Art of Happiness"
A yoga CD

The reason for the thumbs up on these two beside the obvious cool factor is that they were given by someone who is the antithesis of Zen. It took some thought and consideration to come up with these gift- a selflessness if you will.

So what topped your list this year? What are your favorite stocking stuffers (or worst) for 2008?

What's in store for '09?

2008-12-26T12:52:00.003-05:00

We are not huge proponents for resolutions. Making loud posturing noises about what you will accomplish over the next several months will disappoint, deflate and ultimately disintegrate.

Your life should be about constantly tweaking and reinventing yourself - small incremental measures - not a massive attack on your ego and psyche. Personal development means looking daily or weekly at your goals and taking stock in where the bar is. It means honestly assessing if your personal best still works you. It can also mean letting go - of relationships, jobs or anything else that isn't working for you or taking you closer to your purpose in life.

Your lifeplans and goals need to be sustainable. What can you reduce or eliminate in your day-to-day to help pave the way to the things that matter to you? Do you even have a good idea of what matters to you or have you lived vicariously for far too long? If not, that would be a ideal place to start.

Need more time? What can you outsource? Think about the concept in simple terms. If you hate a particular chore, can you pay someone to do it or barter it away? Cut back on the time-consuming minutiae and learn to accept mediocre once in a while.

Choose to look forward. Dwelling on the coulda, shoulda wastes needed energy and time that is better spent on the actionable items on our list.

Learn to recognize your excuses and if-onlys. The reasons why you can't or shouldn't do something will never cease but you need to understand why they persist and have an action plan for dealing with them when they rear up to snap and snarl.

Resolve at the start of this New Year to forgive past failures (yours and others), acknowledge gratitude for what you have accomplished so far and the things and people that have brought you to this point, contemplate your creative wealth and don't forget to breathe...it's going to be great year!

Merry Christmas - there I said it!

2008-12-21T20:38:00.005-05:00

So, here we are just a couple of days before Christmas and the New Year. While we have all shared in our own private turmoils during the past year somehow the feeling is the same. A rocky road is behind us and hope for a more peaceful year is just ahead of us.

Although the past several months seemed to creep right past on tiny cat feet (I still can't recall what happened to October) I vowed that this years holidays were going
to be, needed to be different. No crazy road trips armed with a roster as long as the Obama Administrations to-do list in search of the perfect something. No midnight bake-offs to host a parade of multi-hued cookies, no last minute panic attacks wondering who may have been overlooked. Looking for one less obligation I even begged off the office Secret Santa folly.

After a year of stress, change and angst, I strove to make our lives less complicated and more about healing. More about sharing food and time - about less comparing the checkbook with who got what and how to pay for it. Trust me coming from a family who overdoes just about every holiday...this is no mean feat.

The idea of a Martha Stewart holiday has been banished to the basement in favor of a more realistic experience and the results are in - this year was slightly calmer, more productive and we even got the tree up before Christmas Eve!

How many choruses of "I can't wait til the holidays are over" have you heard in '08?

Let go of your notion of the perfect holiday whatever that is for you. This may be tough as we often carry traditions and attitudes with us from childhood. This may mean letting go of long-held romantic notions of caroling by the fire; while the reality of it was bickering by the oven.

Cut back on parties and obligations - just say no. If the invitations were heart-felt they will be there next year. If they never arrive...well...time was better spent elsewhere.

If a tradition is not working for your family it's ok to let it go or update a time-worn custom. Some of our 1st several holidays were spent sans tree because our newly adopted son arrived late November with a whole lot of anxiety - for those of you who have never adopted lets just say giving birth has its own challenges but adoption reaches entirely foreign levels of trials.

Stay away from the mall at any cost!! The marketing driven hype will curdle your blood, inflate your debt and depress even the jolliest of elves.

Simplify your holiday meal: Particularly if you are the one in charge of serving the ranks see if you can pare down the menu or - hows this for novel...order take out or make reservations. The year we were placed with our son I waited at the adoption agency the day before Thanksgiving for nearly 8 hours only to be told the on-call doctor at the hospital was not available to sign release papers for our newborn. I would have to return the next day for our little bundle. We had reservations for a local restaurant and arrived duly with our 3 day old son in tow. I have to say it was one of the most memorable holidays ever. Most amusing was a trip to the ladies room to change this tiny little creature destined to become part of our family. Mid-diaper I was rushed with a gaggle of women diners who oohed and aahed over my baby and then pronounced that I looked positively smashing. I beamed, said thank you and left everyone none the wiser. It was truly a Thanksgiving to remember.

If all else fails take a nap. Seriously. As one of the most sleep deprived nations, it's little wonder we can enjoy anything let alone the busy rushing holiday. When I find myself getting uber cranky nothing helps more than tuning out the rest of the world. Turn off the phone, close the drapes and catch up on some healing shut-eye.

Happy Holidays to all our readers and thanks for a wonderful year~