Brain Wave, Family and Home living

Get a good and honest contractor.

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About two weeks ago, we had some minor repairs done in our home. Leaky faucets, broken lights, busted pipes, and some minor fixes that took too long to be taken care of. These days, it is very hard to find an honest and professional custom house contractor. You can find one, yes, but it really is a risk because there are good ones and there are really bad ones.

This reminds me of my friend’s experience when they had their old house taken down to make way for a new condominium-type of house consisting of five floors. My friend, her parents, and her siblings planned the house construction for several months. They made sure to get a good architect (and they did), account every possible cost they would spend (they barely managed), and to get a rental just in front of their house to make sure that they could monitor the construction properly (they were able to). They made a list of contractors and chose the one who was a friend of her sister. They thought that getting someone they know would be an advantage, someone who would not cheat them or do a mediocre work. Well, they thought wrong.

The contractor did build their five-storey house. Each floor looked like a tiny condominium unit. The ground floor included a laundry area and a dirty kitchen. The fifth floor became their roof deck. The façade of the house was really aesthetically pleasing enough to get the attention of their neighbors who asked them about their contractor. A few days after they moved into their new house, the problems started surfacing one after another. Most of those problems were minor fixes. What made their heads ache was the plumbing. The thing that they didn’t think of was the one problem that cost them over their budget.

The pipes used were substandard. There were odd sounds coming from the pipes, the drains were sluggish, and the water pressure was low. They asked the contractor about it and he said that he made do with what was left of the budget. That was his reason. He did not consult with the family to tell them the shortage in budget. The minor problems like paint, alignment of windows, and some other stuff were okay with the family. It was fixed easily by my friend’s husband and brothers-in-law. But the plumbing…

In the end, they got a new professional to re-do their plumbing. They shelled out quite a sum just to ensure that they would not encounter any problem in the future. True to the professional’s word, the plumbing was fixed and there were no issues even years later.

Get a good, honest, professional contractor. Make sure that there is a signed agreement so when there are issues in the future, you have something to show and use to enforce compliance.

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Brain Wave, Life in general

Your Guide On How To Prepare For Retirement

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As you approach retirement, it’s important to start thinking about how you will support yourself financially. While some people are lucky enough to have a pension or other retirement savings, others may need to rely on Social Security benefits or part-time work.

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You can do a few things to prepare for retirement, whether you’re just starting to save or you’re close to retirement age.

Here Are A Few Tips:

Start saving early
The earlier you start saving for retirement, the more time your money has to grow. So if you start saving in your 20s or 30s and consider annuity buyers, you’ll be able to take advantage of compound interest and potentially retire with a much larger nest egg than if you wait until later in life.

Save regularly
Try to make saving for retirement a habit by setting up automatic transfers from your paycheck into a retirement account. The more you can save on a regular basis, the better off you’ll be.

Invest wisely
When it comes to investing for retirement, it’s important to strike a balance between growth and stability. You don’t want to take too much risk with your investments, but you also don’t want to miss out on potential gains by being too conservative. So again, a financial advisor can help you come up with an investment strategy that’s right for you.

Think about when you want to retire
Do you want to retire as soon as possible, or do you want to keep working? If you’re hoping to retire early, you’ll need to make sure you have enough saved up to cover your costs. On the other hand, if you’re okay with working longer, you may be able to save less and still have a comfortable retirement.

Plan for healthcare costs
Healthcare expenses can take a big chunk out of your retirement savings, so it’s important to plan for them. If Medicare covers you, research what your costs will be and consider buying supplemental insurance to help cover any gaps.

Prepare for longevity
People are living longer these days, which means you may need your retirement savings to last 20 years or more. So make sure you have enough saved so that you don’t outlive your nest egg.

Consider downsizing
One way to free up some extra cash in retirement is to downsize your home. For example, if you have a large home with a lot of upkeep, selling it and moving to a smaller place can help you save money on things like property taxes, utilities, and maintenance costs.

Think about part-time work
Retirement doesn’t mean quitting work entirely for some people. However, if you’re healthy and enjoy working, you may want to consider transitioning to part-time work in retirement. This can help you supplement your income and keep your mind active.

Create a budget
Once you retire, it’s important to create a budget and stick to it. This will help you make the most of your retirement savings and avoid overspending.

Talk to a financial advisor
Retirement planning can be complex, so talking to a financial advisor is good. They can help you assess your retirement savings and make recommendations on how to best use them.

With some careful planning, you can ensure that you have a comfortable and enjoyable retirement. By following these tips, you’ll be on your way to a bright future.

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Brain Wave, Health and medicine

The Quick Releases For Tension

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Have you ever been standing in the kitchen and thought, ‘my back feels really tight’? Or perhaps you have been working at the computer and felt an ache in the side of your face? Only to realize that you are tensing your jaw.

We hold on to tension in so many different ways that often we don’t notice it building up.

If you often let your tension build up, getting tension headaches, tight muscles, and jaw aches, then it is time to tackle that tension.

There has been more availability and accessibility of information, techniques, and wellness content in the last few years. It is possible to create a tension-releasing plan for yourself with all of the extra information.

Creating a list of things that you can do to lower your stress levels will mean that you are less likely to turn to unhealthy methods of tension and stress control—things such as becoming isolated, stopping communications with others, and turning to alcohol or drugs. If you recognize those behaviors, it is important that you consider alcohol rehab and honesty with yourself.

So what can you do to create a tension-releasing plan than can help reduce your stress and free your mind from worries?

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Walking

If you want to clear your mind quickly, then going for a walk is one of the best ways to start that process. It usually doesn’t happen when you have a goal, like picking up the children from school or getting milk.

But if you go walking with only the intention to walk, you will soon notice that you aren’t thinking about anything.

If you can walk somewhere green, that will work even better, so try to head somewhere like a park.

Tense up

If you can’t pinpoint where you are feeling tense in your body, but you just know that you are having trouble relaxing, this is a great thing to do.

Starting with your hands and feet, tense all of the muscles in your body up, hold that for between 3 and five seconds, and then release it.

One of the best things about this type of tension release is that you can do it anywhere. At your desk at work, in bed, or just in the middle of your day.

You can do it multiple times to get the ‘ahhhhh’ feeling when the tension leaves your body.

Comedy

If you are a social person, then invite one of your friends to an open mic comedy night and laugh the night away. Laughing is one of the best tension releases that we have available to us.

For those who are less social and prefer to belly-laugh and let it all out at home, check out some of your favorite comedians on Netflix or YouTube. Find something that makes you laugh all the time and let yourself indulge in it for a while.

Aside from releasing the tension, laughing will flood you with those happy, feel-good hormones that naturally help reduce tension.

Music

The music we listen to can influence our mood a lot. And one of the side effects of great music is singing it out and moving your body. Dancing around too fast music, singing to ballads – all of these things help to reduce tension.

If body tension and mental tension prevent you from getting a good night’s rest, then checking out music designed to help us sleep can work wonders.

Breathing

There are several breathing techniques that can help bring us into the moment and reduce worries and body tension.

One of the most commonly recommended and used is something called box breathing.

The box breathing technique can also be called square breathing. It is good to ground yourself a little by placing your feet firmly on the floor and sitting comfortably.

Breath as you normally do for a short time, and just relax. Try to pay attention to how your body moves when you breathe – is it just your chest or your belly and chest?

If you only notice your chest moving, you are only shallow breathing. Take a bigger breath and notice how it expands your chest and stomach.

Once you begin to see the deeper breathing and the belly moving as you breathe, here is the process:

  • Breathe in counting to four, but do it slowly
  • Hold your breath for 4 seconds
  • Exhale slowly for 4 seconds

Repeat these steps until you feel notably calmer and less tense.

There are many ways to help reduce your tension levels so that they are manageable.

It might be time to change some other things in your life, too: How To Change Your Life.

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Brain Wave, Family and Home living

Cleaning Up Your Backyard in Time for Summer

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Over the winter, your backyard can become somewhat neglected. You probably aren’t using it as much, so you don’t pay as much attention. On top of that, the colder weather is likely to leave your landscaping looking a little raggedy and it can take a while to recover. When spring starts to arrive and you begin to think about using your backyard more, it’s a good time to think about getting it ready in time for summer. You won’t necessarily be able to make it look beautiful right away, but you can definitely start to clean up and prepare the space for the summer months.

Do the following things to get your backyard ready in time for summer and you’ll be able to enjoy everything that it has to offer.

Start By Tidying Up

Your backyard might look a bit of a mess after the winter months. It can end up covered in various debris or maybe you even have various furniture, tools, and other things that have been left lying around. If you’ve experienced storms over the winter, it might have caused a mess in your backyard, too. So the first thing that you can do is tidy up and start putting things in their rightful place. There might be some things that you choose to get rid of if you no longer want or need them in your backyard.

Pick Up Old Leaves and Branches

One of the reasons your backyard might look pretty messy is that there could be old leaves, branches, and other vegetation lying around. This might be left over from the fall and winter if you haven’t had time to clean it up. Collecting it all and throwing it out can immediately refresh your yard and make it look a lot better. You can often use this stuff to make compost or mulch, which you can then use to help grow a beautiful new lawn or garden. But if not, you can use a natural refuse service to take it away.

Clean Paving and Decking

If you have any paving or decking, it can get very grubby during the winter. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to start cleaning up and make it look like new again. Take a look at this pavers cleaning guide to help you get started with how to clean your paving. Pressure washing is often the fastest and most effective way of getting everything as clean as you want it to be. You just blast off the dirt, moss, weeds, and other things that might be making your paving or decking look untidy. You can reveal the true color underneath and immediately have a better-looking backyard.

Take Care of Your Lawn

If your backyard has a lawn, you should start to assess its health in spring so you can get it ready for summer. There are lots of things you can do to improve the health of your lawn and help it look good as it starts to get warmer. By the time summer arrives, you can have a beautiful green lawn for your kids to play on, for your dog, or just for you to enjoy looking at.

Some of the things you should be doing include aerating the soil, seeding to fill in any bare patches, and fertilizing to help with growth.

Weed and Prune

When you’re dealing with weeds in your backyard, you need to find ways to remove them without harming other plants. You could choose to pull up some weeds by hand or you might use a weed treatment to kill them off. You can also prevent weeds from occurring in different places by, for example, treating your paving or using mulch around your plants. Pruning is a good task for your backyard spring cleaning too. It will allow you to cut back on anything overgrown and can also encourage growth in the plants you want to flourish in the summer.

Fill Out Your Landscaping

Your backyard can look kind of bare after the winter. Hopefully, it starts to regrow when spring arrives, but you might have to give it a helping hand. Spring is the right time to start thinking about planting new things and adding to your landscaping so your backyard will be in full bloom when summer arrives. You might want to replant any plants that didn’t last the winter or anything new that has caught your eye.

Get started on cleaning your backyard and you can be prepared for summer, with a relaxing space that you can use however you want.

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Brain Wave, Health and medicine, Life in general

3 Reasons to Develop a More Physically Active Lifestyle (Other Than Heath)

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If you took a random poll of people in the street, probably very nearly everyone would tell you that regular exercise is good for health. It’s just something that we all tend to understand.

But not all of the benefits of exercise are health benefits. There are many ways in which living a more physically active lifestyle can help individuals to thrive, and there are many ways in which living a more sedentary life can be detrimental.

Here are some reasons to develop a more physically active lifestyle, other than health.

You’ll almost certainly feel more upbeat as a result

Being physically active on a regular basis, and moving around a lot, can work wonders with regards to helping to elevate your mood.

According to the psychologist Kelly McGonigal, physical activity actually causes certain molecules to be released from the muscles that are known colloquially as “hope molecules”, due to their ability to promote feelings of hope, optimism and well-being.

These “hope molecules” are different to the endorphins that are already well known to promote feelings of wellbeing.

There’s also evidence to suggest that the number of steps you get each day can impact your sense of wellbeing quite significantly, with more steps — up to a certain point — contributing to greater overall feelings of positivity.

In your own life, there’s a good chance that you can think of a number of examples of times when you were stuck indoors not moving around very much — and it’s likely that you didn’t feel too great during these periods of time.

By contrast, many people have experienced the feeling of an elevated mood after going for a stroll.

Your sense of potential and personal agency can increase

Physically active pastimes and activities can help to promote a heightened sense of personal agency and potential, instead of leaving you feeling as though life is just something that “happens to you” without your input.

By getting onto a consistent and committed weightlifting routine, for example, and supporting your workouts with good food and potentially supplements from a company like steelsupplements.com, you can begin noticing changes in how you look and feel relatively quickly.

This, then, can help to support your sense of being able to achieve things and to move towards valued goals of yours.

Depending on the activities you’re doing, you may become more capable in other areas of life

Certain forms of physical activity can have the great effect of helping you to become more capable in other areas of your life, such as by making it easier for you to move around in a dynamic way, or even to carry the groceries.

With many people experiencing chronic stiffness in certain muscle groups, and bad posture as well, practices such as yoga and Pilates can have the potential to make a real difference to everyday mobility.

By developing your flexibility and core strength through these kinds of practices, you may find that you’re able to do a lot more — a lot more comfortably — on an everyday basis.

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Brain Wave, Life in general

How To Change Your Life

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Are you living in a way that allows you to chase the dream? Whatever that dream may be, you have to strive, work, and plan to make sure that your ambitions and goals become a reality. There is nothing wrong with this. Daydreaming could be a sport, and while there are lots of conventional methods to change your life, it might be your time to do something a little different.

You want changes that you make to your life to be meaningful, but you don’t have to do them all at once. For example, one of the main changes you might like to make in your life is to upgrade your car from the rickety one you currently drive to a lush sports car. You might use resources like Edmunds to help you to decide whether your dream car really is a dream, or whether your budget really can afford it. Either way, consider your end goal like a tree.

There is no road with rocks in the way to stop you getting where you need to go. There is just you at the base of the tree, and your goal at the top. To get to your goal you first have to plan (climbing the trunk) and then you have to find the right combination of branches to swing across to where your goal and end game will be. A branch may break but there are always more branches to grab onto. Here are some of the best ways you could upgrade your life now.

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  • Read more. You may not think that reading more is a way to change your life, but knowledge is power. Consuming different types of media, diving into books in the library, discovering what you truly are passionate about and going for it, can all be determined by the things that you read. When you read, you learn, you change.
  • Learn and overcome your mistakes. We do a lot of stupid stuff when we’re growing up. The things that you may have done 10 years ago don’t always reflect the person that you are right now. Own the mistakes you made growing up, learn to be at peace with them, learn to meditate and focus on those mistakes so you can let them go and move on. That’s a pretty powerful way to upgrade your thinking.
  • Take back your time. Instead of indulging in this hustle culture we all seem to be attracted to, learn to say no. If you want to be able to put in more effort with your time and be more productive, go for it. But if you recognise mentally and physically that your body needs to rest, just say no and learn to rest. This is a powerful way to upgrade your life, because you’re taking ownership of who you are and you are letting the world know that you are finally standing up for yourself.
  • Chase your dream job. Right now you might be in a low-level position (or even a high-level position) but it may not be your dream job. This could be the job that you’re doing to help you to pay for all the things that will help you to capture your dream. Never say to yourself that you cannot do something, because if not now, when?
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Brain Wave, Money matters

Surviving my credit card debts

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I took up Accountancy in college. After graduation, I reviewed for the board examinations and, fortunately, passed the board to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). I managed to land a job at a prestigious accounting firm. But prestigious doesn’t translate to a high-paying job. My salary was minimum wage that time.

I made a promise to my parents that I would help send my siblings to school. So when I began working for the accounting firm, I would give most of my salary for my siblings tuition fees. Maybe, you would ask yourselves how I managed to help when I was barely making enough for myself. Well, credit card companies began calling one after another, offering pre-approved credit cards with close to three times my take-home pay. I accepted three credit cards, and managed to drown myself with debts in the process!

I juggled payments. It still boggles my mind how I managed to do that during the early years of my credit card debts. I managed to dodge collection letters and calls by paying the minimum amount due of the three cards. But as you all probably know by now, paying the minimum is like trying to stay afloat in a quicksand. It will slowly eat you alive.

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For those of you in the same predicament I was in, let me help you through these three steps I did in order to survive and, eventually, get out of my credit card debts.

Compromise. Talk to the collection department of the credit card companies, tell them that you are willing to discuss the ballooning amount of your credit card debt, and ask for consideration. They are willing to talk to you on settlement terms. You can compromise with them, you just need to reach out and show the sincerity of your intention to pay off your debt. Believe me, they are willing to compromise. If you want to consolidate your debts, do so. Learn more on how you can utilize debt consolidation.

What happened to me: I called up the credit card company if the card I had the biggest debt with. They told me to pay a small percentage of my total debt, and after complying, they allowed me to pay off in installments. The penalties and surcharges were waived and I was asked to pay off a reduced amount of credit card debt. After paying it all off, they issued a certification to me saying that I no longer have any liability to the said credit card company.

Budget. You need to use whatever tool at your disposal (a planner, a spreadsheet, a budget tracker app, etc.) and make sure to include the credit card debt amortization to your monthly budget. Control your impulses. Do not be swayed by sales promotions online. Do not spend what is allocated for your credit card payment. You need to religiously meet their due dates in order to maintain your good credit standing.

Check your monthly spending. If you can cut down on weekend getaways for a while until you manage to pay off at least fifty percent of your total debts, do so.

What I did: I created an Excel spreadsheet. Every start of the month, I would put the bills and amortizations I needed to pay. When salary came in, I would pay off bills and amortizations first before setting aside a portion for my siblings’ tuition fees. I brought home-cooked meals to work and I stopped buying pricey cups of coffees. It worked for me.

Reduce and Stop. Temptations are everywhere! And most of the time, it is in the form of a pre-approved credit card arriving through the mail. Do not activate it! Immediately call the credit card company to advise them that you are not interested and that you will be cutting the card in two. Stop applying for new credit cards because it will only sink you deeper in debts.

Keep one credit card for emergency use. Choose one which will give you rebates and good credit card rewards.

It was hard. Believe me, it was really hard! But surviving my credit card debts is one of my achievements in my adult life. Those collection calls… I think I had trauma from it. Phone calls make me nervous. I am just grateful I managed to survive and came off it a better manager of finances.

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