ENDORPHINS AND LAUGHTER – Exercise Laughter – Happiness & Laughter

Have you heard of the new miracle drug called laughter? Have you thought of all the helpful things you can use laughter for? Now we all know that you can't avoid stress but we can limit the effect it has on us and our bodies. Being an optimist and being able to see positive is the first step in fighting stress. Now we add a big dose of laughter to this and we are on the right track. Laughter activates the chemistry of the will to live. It decreases our stress hormones. Laughter stimulates the brain to enhance learning. It keeps the brain alert therefore we can retain information better. Laughter helps curb the damaging physical effects of stress. Having the ability to laugh at stressful situations could even reduce the risk of heart disease.

It would seem that laughter is a very powerful medicine that can lower our stress level, get rid of our anger and even unite our family in bad times. When we can laugh at ourselves and the situation most likely the problem will not seem to be as earth shaking as we had thought. The good feeling we have after we have laughed can stay with us and give us comfort. Stress is connected with the way we think. It is not the situation that starts the stress, it is the way we think and the meaning we place on the situation.

Laughter can help adjust the meaning so it will not seem so big or bad. If you feel tension coming on just have a good laugh. This is usually followed by a feeling of relaxation. Always try to laugh at situations as this will help improve our disposition. Laughter is a healer. It is very important to our immune system. Recent studies have shown that laughter can successfully lower our blood pressure increase our natural immunities, and burn calories comparable with actual physical exercise.

Laughing each day would be a healthy lifestyle. This comes from stimulating the blood flow and helping your heart. Laughter has similar health benefits as aerobic exercise but comes without the aches and pains.

Laughter is a good medicine that the expectation of laughter was very effective. It showed that a person expecting to watch a funny program or video lowered their stress inducing chemicals and helped release stress relievers. Brain chemistry seems to be changed by laughter; being able to laugh seems to give a person more control over themselves as well as over the situation. Have you ever thought that a good belly laugh could be like a trip to the spa for your upper body? When you laugh your facial muscles stretch, your back and shoulders unknot, even your abdomen and diaphragms contract.

That's a lot of personal attention to get from a laugh, but it will certainly be worth your time and effort. Inside the Immune system laughter helps in the production of natural killer cells and T cells; a major defense mechanism of the immune system. A good laugh will exercise your lungs. This is a big help for those who suffer from chronic respiratory conditions. If you should start laughing and can't seem to stop, you may be producing lots of nitric oxide. This is known as our laughing gas. Laughter is an art. It is amazing how much research has been done, and is being done on laughter. We know that a happy, healthy person laughs more than others. Laughing is by choice. You can choose to laugh or you can choose not to. Laughter is the best medicine available and the fact that it is free makes it even better.

EXERCISE, LAUGHTER, AND YOUR HEALTH

Have you ever thought of laughter as being an exercise and being good for your health? It is in many more ways than you could possibly imagine. Let's begin by looking at laughter as being aerobic. Laughing will give your diaphragm a workout and increase your body's ability to use oxygen. A good bell laugh is considered an internal jogging. It gives good cardiac conditioning and this is especially important for those who cannot do physical exercises. That same belly laugh will relax your muscles. When you are laughing there are some muscles you are not using so they just relax. If you can give a good belly laugh often it will help your respiratory system. Your lungs will expel more air than they take in so the results are a cleansing effect. Have you been to the Dr. and his treatment for you was "diet and exercise"? Well this is where you will really need laughter.

Laughter will not take the place of diet and exercise but it will certainly make it easier to attain. Can you imagine laughter helping give you normal blood sugars? Researchers are not sure why laughter helps reduce blood sugar. It's possible it may increase the amount of energy used by abdominal muscles or it may affect the system which controls glucose levels in the blood. With diabetes being a common ailment for so many, you can be sure more research will follow and many more belly laughs encouraged. A test was made on diabetics and non diabetics. Their glucose levels were higher after a lecture but they were lower after a comedy show.

Like I said earlier, laughing does not take the place of exercise but can be used as an exercise. Suppose you had a day when it was thundering, lightning and raining cats and dogs. It would be tempting to curl up on the sofa with a book or watch TV. Well that might not be so bad if you got the right book or the right TV program. You will need to spend a little time and find something that will be funny. It will be best if it can give you a large amount of belly laughs. If it is not raining today and you have the time, go ahead and plan for your rainy day by getting your movie and book ready. Who knows you may even want to use them when you return from your walk. Here's another little hint: if you have family or friends include them in your laughter exercise. It certainly won't hurt anybody and could possibly turn into a regular habit. We all know that physical exercise is a must if you are to enjoy good health. We also know that some of us do not particularly like exercise everyday.

That's where laughter comes in as a big helper. Whether we have to exercise, by that I mean walk, jog, ride a bike or lift weights, we can make the time pass quicker with laughter included. There are different ways to include laughter. You can control your thoughts and keep your mind on amusing thoughts. Headphones with good snappy music or an amusing joke teller is always good. If you find yourself needing to be motivated take just a minute and find a mirror. Look at yourself. Do you like what you are seeing? Now try smiling at yourself in the mirror.

That's better isn't it? Now keep that smile on your face, and go find someone else that needs a smile and give it to them. Guess what? You can't give a smile away, it keeps coming back. The value of a laugh is priceless, when you consider what it does and can do for you. A good laugh is good for your mental status as well as your heart and your health in general. It is unbeatable to combine exercise and laughter. They go together like ham and eggs. Boy I just blew that diet didn't I???

HAPPINESS AND LAUGHTER

Do you think you could have happiness without laughter? No way. There is no way to have happiness with no laughter. They go together like two peas in a pod. To be a happy person you would have no trouble finding laughter. Also, most likely if you are happy and laugh you are a healthy person. Healthy people with positive attitudes are more apt to enjoy life. Laughter does your body good, inside and out. Do you want to feel as though you have spent a half day at the spa? Just laugh a good laugh and your abdomen and diaphragm will contract, your facial muscles stretch and your back and shoulders will un-kink.

Laughter is a great exercise. It has been described as taking your insides for a jog. If you would do 100 belly laughs it would be about the same as working out for 15 to 20 minutes a day. Wow! What a trade-off. I’d much rather trade a sweaty, monotonous 20 minutes on the treadmill for a good 30 minute laugh session with my closest friends. Wouldn’t you?

Laughing even provides cardiac conditioning for those unable to perform physical exercise. Did you know a good laugh causes your stomach muscles to relax? When you are laughing the muscles you are not using in the belly laugh relaxes. As you finish laughing, all those muscles involved start to relax. Laughing is contagious. Don't you wish everyone would catch it? A happy healthy person is more apt to be surrounded by other happy, healthy people.

By laughing and sharing our laughs with others is good insurance. We can always count on having others around us if we share our laughter with them. Laughter will make us closer. Laughter breaks the ice, initiates a feeling of warmth, friendship and camaraderie; something that each of us instinctively seem to crave. Smiling and laughing is a wonderful habit to have. Learning to laugh can give us a will to live and increases our ability to fight disease. Laughter is something you cannot buy.

You have to make your own. Making your own laughter pays big dividends. You will be more alert by improving your brain functions. Also, it will ease tension and stress while protecting the heart, lowering blood pressure and in general making you feel good and happy. Have you ever thought about having a "Happy Bank"? This would be where you deposit happy events and laughs you would like to remember. You can make a deposit in your bank anytime you are willing to laugh. Try to add to this bank as often as you can. Then when you need a happy or funny event you can draw from the bank. This is a good memory bank to have and unlike a bank you put money in, it would never overdraw. Being happy and laughing should certainly improve the quality of our life. It is our daily task to find ways to make ourselves and others laugh and to be happy. We need to keep an active relationship between our mind and our body.

To be kept active it must be practiced on a regular routine. Smiling, laughing, and being happy are wonderful habits to have. Using the habit will become so natural we will not even have to think about it. It will be a natural action or reaction. We can teach ourselves to laugh and see humor in any situation.

Dot Cully

http://www.dotsbdp06.bloglanding.com

http://www.bigdaddypays.com/dotsbdp06

How to Save Money When Advertising Your Small Business

Are you looking to market your business to the general public, preferably your targeted market? Your targeted market should be the individuals who are most likely to need what your business has to offer. For instance, if you run a professional resume writing business, you will want to target those who are currently unemployed or those who are looking for jobs. As important as advertising is, it can sometimes get time consuming and costly. The costly part is what often causes many small business owners to cringe. The good news is that there are a number of different ways that you can go about advertising your small business without having to spend more money than you need to.

One of the best advertising methods that people fail to realize the importance of is word of mouth. In today’s society, many consumers like giving a company feedback or ratings, literally or figuratively. That is why many consumers tell their friends when they find a nice new store; one that is worth visiting, or a store that they had a bad experience at. You should never underestimate the power of the customers that you already have. Not only will keeping your current customers happy increase the chances of them coming back again, it also ups the chances of them recommending your business to those that they know.

Another easy and relatively cheap way that you can go about advertising your small business to your targeted market is by carefully choosing where you choose to advertise your business. In keeping with the above mentioned example of running a professional resume writing businesses, you may want to think about distributing flyers or business cards to local coffee shops or college campuses. The same can be done for other types of businesses. For instance, if you run a dog grooming salon, you can advertise your business in local pet supply stores, vet offices, and such. Of course, you will need to get permission from other businesses before placing your business cards or flyers on their properties, but you may find that most are willing to assist you. In fact, you may even want to think about doing a flyer or business card swap.

In addition to handing out traditional business cards or flyers, you may also want to think about giving away free coupons. There are many consumers who like free stuff, even if it is only a few coupons. When a customer has a money saving coupon, they are more likely to buy what you are selling, whether it is a product or a service. If you are trying to target a specific group of individuals, like your targeted market, you may want to carefully choose how you distribute your coupons and how much in savings you give away. If you are just trying to generate as many sales as possible or create a “buzz,” you may want to think about contacting one of your local newspapers to put coupons inside their paper.

As it was previously mentioned, there are many consumers who love free stuff, even if it is just coupons. You are advised to take advantage of this well-known fact. For instance, you may want to think about holding a contest or a drawing for your customers. For instance, if you run a pet supply store, you may want to think about creating a pet gift basket, like one that may include food, treats, or grooming supplies. You will want to allow each of your customers, the ones who make a purchase, to enter into your contest. If the prize is nice enough, you may that some customers buy something just to get entered into the contest. Hosting a contest is a great way to generate sales and business “buzz.”

The above mentioned approaches are just a few of the many low-cost, affordable ways that you can go about advertising your business to the general public or even just to your targeted market. The decision as to whether or not you want to use any of the above mentioned methods is yours to make, but they are at least worth looking into.

Can Your Emails Do THIS?

Hey

I'm sure you've heard stories about how some
marketers are able to make a killing every time
they mail their list. It seems like those people
have an almost "magical" ability to make money on
demand, doesn't it?

Well the truth is... it's not magic, and here's
why. There's actually a proven structure behind
every one of those money-sucking emails, and the
good news is...

THE CODE HAS BEEN CRACKED!

It's true! How would you like to make thousands of dollars

every time you hit the "send" button?
Well now, for the first time ever, it's actually
possible, thanks to a new set of free videos that
just hit the market!

*************************************************
SIDENOTE: If you're in a hurry, go ahead and
check out this URL to see what I'm talking about
in this email:

http://www.emailpromosexposed.com/?thankyou-page=54601

<--- Takes 30 seconds

*************************************************

Here's what this is all about:

My friend, Michael Rasmussen, has just released a
brand new set of online videos that walks you
through the process of creating emails that suck

the cash right out of your readers' wallets and
into your bank account.

He'll teach you things like:

A simple way to create an "email blueprint"

that practically writes the email for you!

The single biggest mistake people make with
subject lines that guarantees your email won't
get opened.

And that's just the beginning!

After watching Michael's videos just once, you'll
be armed with a new set of powerful tactics for
creating money-sucking email promos!

The good news is that it's not some kind of
inborn ability that some people have and others
don't. You can learn how to write killer email
promos just like the pro's do by following the
secrets laid out in these videos.

You'll learn things like:

* How to force people to keep reading once they
open your email - proven tricks from the world's
top copywriters.

* How to create bullets that captures people's
attention, and makes your offer irresistible!

* 6 mistakes people make when writing promos that
hurts their results.

* ...and so much more!

The ability to write powerful email
promotions is one of the most important skills
you could possess as an Internet marketer. If you
can't get your readers to buy what you're
selling, then you don't make any money... period.

These videos make the learning process as easy as
humanly possible by laying everything out for you
in a step-by-step process... And best of all he's
giving them to you for F~REE!

Do yourself a favor and check out Michael's new
videos right now. They're available for a short time
only, and I'm not sure how long Michael will keep it
that way).

Here's the URL:

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<-- Click that, please

Warmly,
Dot

PS - I've already watched them twice, and plan on reviewing them every couple months to make sure that I have the principals, techniques and
tactics burned into my mind. Here's the url again:

http://www.emailpromosexposed.com/?thankyou-page=54601

<-- Click that, please

Real Estate - Licence – Listing Loan - Management

Real estate license
Getting a real estate license

Real estate brokering is known as a very lucrative business and a lot of people are working as real estate agents throughout the nation. Not only are they making good money, they are also contributing to the society in a way i.e. by helping the sellers in selling their property and at the same time helping the buyers in buying a property. So, can anyone start real estate brokering? Well, not really.

Real estate license is a pre-requisite for becoming a real estate agent. However, obtaining a real estate license is not difficult. In most states, the qualifications for getting a real estate license are very minimal. So you should first check the eligibility criteria for obtaining a real estate license (rather pre-license) in your state. The real estate license eligibility criterion includes things like the minimum age limit (which is mostly 19 years) and educational qualifications (which is mostly high school). Once you know that you satisfy those real estate license (pre-license) eligibility criteria, you can go ahead and enrol for a pre-license training. There a number of real estate schools that offer real estate license training. Some real estate schools offer online training for real estate license. Choose a course that is spread over a sufficient duration of time e.g. 1 year so that you are able to grasp the concepts properly (after all you want to become a successful real estate agent and not just another real estate agent). You will be taught a number of topics as part of your real estate license training. All this will help you develop a basic understanding of real estate and various aspects related to real estate (e.g. real estate law, deeds, contracts, ownership transfer, etc) Once you have undergone this real estate license training, you will be required to undergo a state exam. After you pass this exam, you will generally need to undergo another training on state approved courses. And that’s it, you can now get a real estate license which is worth that effort (as you will find in a couple of years of starting real state brokering). Most states also require you to go for continuous education after you have received your real estate license. However, this is a just a few hours every few years.

So real estate license is what you need to start your career as real estate agent. But your success after that will be dependent on how seriously, ethically and smartly you carry out your job.

Real estate listing

Real estate listings – Internet Vs newspaper

Whether you are looking to buy a home for living in or whether are looking to just invest in real estate, you will need to get hold of real estate listings as the first thing. Internet and newspapers are the most common ways of getting real estate listings.

With internet gaining popularity, internet real estate listings have become one of the easiest ways of checking out the real estate listings. Though the traditional method of looking for real estate listings (through newspapers) is still one of the most used methods, it is a very time consuming one. You have to read through various listings and sort out the ones that seem more suitable to you (and possibly write down the phone numbers and contact details on a piece of paper) and then call up the owners/brokers to fix an appointment for viewing the property (which may turn out to be totally disgusting in the end). Moreover, the newspaper listings generally happen on a weekly basis. So if a deal has materialised in the meanwhile, there is no way you can check it without actually calling up the owner/broker. On the contrary, the internet real estate listings (on a good real estate listings website) are updated everyday or maybe twice a week. Moreover, new real estate listings go up on the internet everyday (i.e. they don’t wait for the newspaper to get published). So, if you have been using only the newspaper as your source of real estate listing information, you might end up getting stale information. You might lose out on a deal that was out on internet, say 2 days before. As such, making the first offer can make a big difference when it comes to real estate. Further, you don’t need to go through all the real estate listings in order to determine the listings that look suitable to you. You can specify various search criteria/ filters in order to get only those real estate listings that you really want to look into. This is a big advantage when compared with newspapers where listings are generally classified just on the basis of location of the property. Thus you can save a lot of time here by browsing only through the real estate listings that are of interest to you. Moreover, there is no need to note phone numbers etc; you can just take printouts of the listings you want. Some websites also provide tools/ facilities to track those real estate listings. You could even contact the sellers by sending a message through the website (some websites provide such email type of facility). Another important benefit from real estate listings on internet is that some of them also contain images of the property. So you can have a look at the images and see if you like the property at all.

So, real estate listings on the internet do seem to offer a lot of convenience. However, internet or newspaper is really a matter of personal choice too.

Real estate loan

Real estate loan: Understanding the concept

Real estate loan is what a lot of people use to buy their home. Real estate loans have been instrumental in bringing joy to people by making that unaffordable house affordable. Some real estate investors too make use of real estate loans for buying properties. However, real estate loan is not free money and anyone who buys real estate or plans to buy real estate using real estate loan must understand the concept of real estate loan very clearly.

Real estate loan (also known as mortgage) is the money that you borrow from someone (a financial institution i.e. a mortgage lender) for the purpose of buying a property. The real estate loan generally covers a part of your purchase price and the remaining portion has to be paid by you upfront i.e. as down payment. The amount (i.e. the percentage of total purchase price) that you have to pay as down payment is dependent on a number of factors and you can generally reduce it to even 5% by going for mortgage insurance. FHA and VA loans (i.e. mortgage insurances through FHA and VA) reduce the down payment requirement on real estate loan even further. Whatever you borrow from the mortgage lender as real estate loan needs to be paid back to the mortgage lender over a period of time (and, of course, you will also need to pay appropriate interest on that real estate loan). The tenure of your real estate loan and the prevailing market rate will determine the amount of interest you pay for your real estate loan. Generally, you are required to pay back the real estate loan in the form of monthly instalments which are composed of both interest and principal portions of your real estate loan. Also, there are various types of real estate loans e.g. fixed interest rate loans and adjustable interest rate loans. So depending on what type of real estate loan you have gone for, your monthly payments might either remain constant (fixed rate) for the full tenure of the loan or keep getting adjusted periodically (adjustable rate) on the basis of a financial index. Besides that, some other costs are also associated with real estate loans e.g. there are closing costs, inspection costs, attorney fee etc. Also, in case the property needs some repairs, there will be costs associated with that too. Again, there is stamp duty and other taxes that you need to pay. So, really, you need to understand the concept of real estate loans and the related costs clearly before you actually go for the real estate loan. And understanding these concepts is really not that tough.

Real estate management

Real estate management firms – making life easier

Real estate investment can happen for various reasons. You could invest in real estate because you need a house for yourself (that house of your dreams that you so badly want). You could use real estate as a means for supplementing your income either by buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price or by letting it out. Sometimes you might buy a property for the purpose of resale but might want to wait for a few years before you actually sell it. In such a case, again it would make sense to rent out the property and earn some money till you actually decide to sell it off.

Whatever the reason, letting out real estate demands real estate management and real estate management is not an easy job for everyone. In fact, a lot of people find it so much of a hassle that they prefer keeping their property vacant instead of letting it. Real estate management demands time, which you will rarely have. Real estate management is not just about finding tenants and collecting rent from them. Real estate management is also about ensuring that you do all the duties that a landlord/landlady is required to do. Real estate management is about verifying the credentials of the tenants before you actually let out your property to them. Real estate management is about ensuring that all the paper work is complete and correct i.e. the tenancy agreement etc are properly done. Real estate management also requires you to do repairs as and when required. Real estate management activities also include maintenance, painting, polishing etc of the house when the tenants move out and before the new tenants get in. So, really, real estate management is not that easy a job for someone who is in a full time job. However, there is a solution to this and that is hiring a real estate management firm to do all these activities on your behalf. Yes, this will mean that what you receive as an income by letting your property will be reduced (due to the commission/ fee charged by the real estate management firm). But that is just a small price for the convenience that a real estate management firm brings to you. However, it’s important that you choose the real estate management firm carefully. There are all kinds of real estate management firms out there (good and bad). You must check the references of the real estate management firm before you actually hire them for the job. A good real estate management firm will not only keep your property occupied at all times but will also ensure that you always receive the rent in time and without any hassle.

Dot Cully

http://www.tinyurl.com/yynx3o

http://www.tinyurl.com/ybs77a

Ecards That Give Us Happy & Free Communications

All About Ecards

Perhaps one of the best things about the internet is the availability of the ecard, also known as the electronic greeting card. There is such a huge selection of sites that offer ecards, it is almost impossible to even conceive of a number.
The word "free" might in a sense be misleading, since the sites have to have some sort of income to exist. Hence, pop-up ads and cookies that provide for the junk mail we must endure for the seemingly free ecards. But to many, it is but a minor annoyance to endure such things for the sake of something free. Anything free seems to be a way to grab attention immediately, however temporary it may be for those who quickly learn that free is not always what it seems.

Ecards exist in an immense variety. You have the ever-popular all-occasion sites, of course. There are the miniclip ecards, animated ecards, talking ecards, musical ecards ecards that contribute to a cause for a small and hopeful contribution, religious ecards, flash and Java ecards, and free ecards if you subscribe to the site. Of course, that means more pop-ups and cookies will be inevitably coming your way. But, alas, we must have advertising!

Ecards are vast and interesting. The ecards with themes should win over anyone who has an obsession, such as Elvis or teddy bears or even motorcycles. You also have ecards for all occasions and festivals of India. There are Hindu ecards as well.
Certain web sites even allow public participation. You are allowed to submit your own pictures, drawings, photographs.
It's amazing how many web sites you can come across that offer free ecards. Know, as well, that you can use different keywords to search for the ecards. Not to forget, the different search engines should provide differing results.

The invention of the ecard was certainly an invention for the curious. It might also be an invention to cause dismay should you have a slow internet connection or should your computer suddenly shut-down on you before you are allowed to finish viewing your ecard from a much-adored friend or loved one. It's like trying to view a card you receive in snail mail, only to have it snatched out of your hand before you get to the much-awaited punch line. Oh, the horror!

I suppose there are those who are hooked on sending ecards. They are, after all, a source of amusement for many. Most people do need a good hearty laugh. However, sending in bulk could be viewed in bad taste. No one wants their in-box of email to be overwhelmed, even by ecards. So, please use discretion and self-control when you discover the interesting and joyous world of ecards. Besides, isn't there some sort of rules to govern good manners, even when using our rights to something free? It's like taking the whole stack of napkins off the restaurant table when you really only need a few. Someone somewhere has to pay for them, and though they do offer them for free, there's really no need to be greedy.
All About Free Greeting Cards

Greeting cards are a wonderful way to let your loved ones know you care about them and are thinking about them. Free greeting cards let you do exactly that, without breaking the bank. Greeting cards these days can be quite expensive or very cheap, but occasionally you can come across a great deal where you can get greeting cards for free.

Most free greeting cards are sent through email rather than on paper. Free websites offer services to send free or inexpensive greeting cards via email to your loved ones absolutely free (or close to it). Many websites that offer these free services also offer other free services. For example, Yahoo, Google, and MSN all offer free greeting cards as well as many other services such as email and search engines. Other websites that offer free greeting cards are Blue Mountain Arts and Excite.

Free greeting cards are not as easy to find as they once were. Even just a few years ago free greeting cards could be found all over the net. Now, you have to really search, and the selection is not the greatest. The best online greeting cards are not free. The largest selections are reserved for the paying customer, while the free cards are more like a teaser.

These online websites allow for many features. Depending on the site, you can add many free features to your free e-card. Some of these free features include music, a personalized message, animated graphics, and other visual and audio effects. These features allow you to create a very personalized card that is much more special to the person receiving it that just a simple store bought card.

Another way you can get free cards is to make them yourself on a computer. You can get free templates for just about any word processing or desktop publishing software by doing a simple internet search. These free templates allow you to easily create cards on your home or work computer and print them on your printer, which is essentially free for you to use. Unless you print a lot of cards, the cost is so minimal it might as well be free!

You can also design your own free cards on your word processor. Simply set up the page as landscape, and format the page to consist of two columns. The left column is the back of your card. The right column is the front of your card. Create another page with the same format. The right column is your personal message, while the left column is where the poem or phrase of your card would traditionally belong. Print the two pages back to back, and fold it in half. A free greeting card, designed entirely by you and especially for that special someone!

No doubt about it, free greeting cards are the best way to send someone greetings for holidays, seasons, birthdays, anniversaries, valentines, Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, thank you, sympathy, or any other occasion!
All About Holiday Cards

You may think of holiday cards as being Christmas or Seasons Greetings cards, but really there are many more holiday cards than this one holiday. There are holiday cards for Christmas, Hanukah, Easter (or Resurrection Day), Thanksgiving, Halloween, Columbus Day, President's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Independence Day, New Years, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparents Day, and Administrative Assistants Day. As you can see, there are many holidays we celebrate, and each of them have their own holiday cards.

Holiday cards were not always so popular. Only in the last several years have holiday cards been created for all of the holidays we celebrate as Americans. I was surprised to find Halloween and Thanksgiving holiday cards when I went Christmas card shopping last year. I later discovered that holiday cards are becoming more and more popular, as people send holiday cards all year round to their friends and family. It is becoming increasingly popular to send holiday cards to all of you friends and family at every opportunity, just to let them know you care.

Holiday cards come in all shapes and sizes. You can choose holiday cards that are uniform and simple, and send one to everyone on your list. Or, you can choose individual holiday cards suitable for each person based on personality and what holiday they celebrate. For example, if you know people who are Christian and people who are Jewish, you may choose to send a uniform card that says simply "Season's Greetings." On the other hand, you can choose to send your Christian friends Christmas holiday cards, and your Jewish friends Hanukah holiday cards. This way everyone feels special, and knows that you are thinking of them specifically.

Holiday cards can come with fancy pictures or cartoons, sentimental poetry or funny phrases, or even music or pop up figures. You can get holiday cards specifically for each member of your family. There are holiday cards for children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, husbands, wives, and friends. There are romantic holiday cards, funny holiday cards, sexy holiday cards, and sentimental holiday cards.

You can find holiday cards at any general store, retail outlet, discount store, or holiday store. You can also find holiday cards at wholesale outlets, dollar stores, and specialty shops. The funniest and most sexy holiday cards can be found at novelty stores such as Spencer's, found in most shopping malls.

Alternatively, you can make your own holiday cards with a little bit of glue, construction paper, a pair of scissors, and a lot of creativity. Children rather enjoy making holiday cards for their friends and family. Buying a holiday card is not nearly so much fun as making one yourself. Also, the home-made holiday card from your favorite child means much more than a uniform holiday card purchased in a store.

Regardless of who you are sending a holiday card to, you are sure to find the perfect holiday card to suit that person's interests and hobbies. From Harley Davidson to Disney, holiday cards are an absolute must in every season.

http://www.searchbigdaddy.com/dotsbdp06
http://www.dotsbdp06.bloglanding.com

What are the benefits and advantages of a family budget?

• What are the benefits and advantages of a family budget?

We elaborate a little more below. For most people, a family budget is the equivalent of a simplistic process: money is earned and comes in; money is spent and moves out!

It is a fluid, easy-flow, one-directional, cash management process. It is driven by daily life, a spending-orientation, or no plan at all!

For most families, income is also fixed and outflow typically increases over time, as the needs of the family fluctuates and changes. Loading up on debt is also very typical for the majority of our families. If this sounds very much like a vicious circle, it is. Most families are caught up in it and constantly battle to get out.

Mostly, we think that we wisely spend our money on necessities like food and clothing, gas and household or family needs, but can rarely put a finger on where the money actually goes, let alone produce a budget!

A good place to start is to monitor these expenses.

Take stock of your fiscal situation. Start with assessing where exactly you are in your financial life and circumstance. Most of us think we know, but we really do not.

That is, until we take the time to actually list, study and analyze the situation. Figure out what your financial worth is, look at all financial goals, and set a timeline for reaching them. Does this sound like an action plan? Where do you start?

A good suggestion is your bank statements, tax return and recent current credit report – a financial asset statement if you will -and an overview of the current situation.

The premise is simple: you can not get to arrive where you want to be if you do not know where you are today, what it will take to get where you need to be and how to get there.

A well thought out, planned and realistic budget will serve as a roadmap to get you there. It is a financial tool facilitating your financial dreams, goals and aspirations, making them become a reality. Budgeting will enable you to actually reach your financial targets and set goals.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT FINANCIAL STATUS?

How do you define financial worth? Is it cash in the bank, savings and checking accounts, RRSP’s, stocks and investment portfolio?

Remember, anything you have that is of value counts. All your assets form part of your financial picture and health. Ask yourself: What is your take-home pay, after deductions? How are you paid? Is it monthly, weekly, bi-weekly? Then you need to budget accordingly!

Think about all other sources of income, temporary, seasonal, part-time - extra income, found money and bonuses that you might have.

Maybe deciding to leave it out of your family budget altogether is wise and advisable? (we will delve into this question a little later).

Try to find ways to do without some small creature comforts and pleasures to reap bigger rewards later.

Starting small, early and now, with discipline and commitment, a steady, consistent pace and amount every month, tracking and optimizing financial phenomena like ‘compound interest’ (which we will describe later), will all feed into this process.

We will take this journey into budgeting together to see how it can change lives: yesterday, today and tomorrow!

Back to listing assets and thinking about savings: consider all banks, savings and loans, credit union accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, Christmas club accounts you might have. ALL LIQUID ASSETS that can be readily turned into cash need to be included.

Consolidate accounts if you have too many accounts spread out and save on banking fees. Improve tracking actual spending better and more easily. Earn higher interest and have less exposure to identity theft or fraud by getting a good handle on your current situation.

For most individuals and families alike, this step is quite a revelation. It forms the basis and baseline for deeper analysis and scrutiny.

Other assets might include things like: art, precious metals, sculptures, paintings, collections, antiques, jewelry and more.

Most of us are used to having a short-term focus on money and budgeting. A paradigm-shift is required to move us towards a more in-depth, longer-range view and planning.

Set short, mid and long term goals, have a definite structured plan, read up on family budgeting, personal financials and fiscal management strategies. All of this will help us focus on what is important for our needs, requirements and circumstance, while keeping financial discipline and budgeting in the forefront of our busy lives.

This is never an easy task amidst all the hustle and bustle that is our daily lives! Here is a very healthy and wealthy way of supplementing your budget, and a surefire way of taking your health to a higher level, the absolute quick means of discovering that health is wealth. Check it out now!

Most of the published literature on family budgeting in general centers around how to get out of debt, stay out of debt and live a full and prosperous life.

Some suggest frugal living is the answer and offer ‘your money or your life’ perspectives, where you cannot necessarily have both. There are many examples advocating the cheapskate monthly makeover that focuses on shaving costs off expenses and living frugally.

Market providers both online and offline, offer various budget kits which offers worksheets and more and there is always the handy tip-like Coles notes and the pocket idiots’ guide to living on a budget.

Other sources focus on becoming totally debt free, debt proofing your life, getting a life and choosing simplicity or how to address credit card debt and expenditure.

This ‘how to’ guide is a little different.

We have chosen to take a very hands-on, practical approach to fiscal management and get you started, walking through the budgeting steps and set you up, sending you off, well and good, on-course to solid budgeting in your family and household!

This brings us to the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How part of the discussion. These form the dynamic, interacting and inter-dependent elements, systems and processes that form “family budgeting.”

Who? Every family situation is uniquely different and distinctive. There is no one-size-fits-all answer and solution for everyone.

Some of the tips in this guide might apply to your unique means and circumstance, and others may not have any significant impact or practical application at all.

In general terms, you will find handy ideas, hints, process steps, practical savings suggestions and budgeting that might have gone unnoticed before.

The information provided is general and should be evaluated on an individual and contextualized basis. Remember to consult a financial advisor when making fiscal decisions that could affect the financial health, well-being and future of you and your treasured family.

There are various different families in question here too: single-income, single-parent, blended and/or extended families, double-income households, stay-at-home mothers working part-time from the home to make ends meet, social-supported and/or subsidized families, families at risk, divorced household with shared parenting and financial responsibilities, debt-ridden or bankruptcy families and numerous others. We hope to offer something for everyone.

What? Family budgeting is a structured process and planning activity, dealing with a family’s financial resources and context.

This hands-on approach puts expense items into categories as another helpful strategy. This is done to get a better handle on the current situation and offers somewhat of a reality check to most that choose to undertake this journey.

Some of the categories could be:

• Obligations – list each item under headings like: home: mortgage or rent; association fees and professional dues; insurance: health, auto, home, renters’ and life; tuition, day care; loans: car loan, student loan, bank fees and interest; taxes, property taxes and so on.
• Necessities – again list each item under headings like : food, groceries, gas, yard maintenance, security, pest control, utilities: gas, water, electric, garbage, sewer; school lunches, household supplies, car maintenance, monthly parking, housekeeper, household repairs, internet service, dry cleaning, cable TV and more.
• Pocket expenses – treat this as a whole category, covering: lunch at work, snacks, sodas, coffee, drinks, parking, tolls, newspapers, magazines, batteries, postage, shipping, mail
• Family Allowances – another whole category including items like : parties, entertainment, weekend outing, movies, concerts, other entertainment and events, home improvements and decorating, magazine and other subscriptions, dining out and fast food, furniture
• Personal allowances - clothing, hobbies, personal recreation, books, CD’s, manicures, hair, alterations, shoe repair, personal gifts, luggage, night out with friends, gardening, films, processing, video rentals, sports/recreation, family gifts, contributions, donations, computer software and other related items.
  
• Budgeting should also include expenses for improving your health, as you will all agree that health is wealth, check it out here and take your health to a higher level.

Dot Cully
http://www.tinyurl.com/8q3jc
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How to Achieve Leadership While Learning Your Qualities

How to Achieve Leadership While Learning Your Qualities

How to Unleash the Leader Instincts within you

Leaders have many qualities that they cultivated and developed along their journey to unleashing their leader instincts. Leaders have worked hard to achieve their goals by unleashing their qualities, yet many leaders have a long way to go before they become a true leader.

Leaders take on great responsibilities. Leaders adhere to rules, policy, and set the grounds to improve the environment around them. Leaders come in many forms. A true lead makes employees feel great, since they know, they will make mistakes, while giving the room to learn from the mistakes, and know that they will come out on top. Leaders do not dwell on mistakes people make, rather they do not focus on the person, and they focus on the problems.

We can see a difference in a leader in the following illustration by looking at a leader handling problems and a person lacking leader qualities to handle problems.

Leader

A problem arises. A verbal communication attacker targets the leader accusing him of being responsible for his problems. The person lashes out without respect for the leader, and disregarding his human rights. The person fears his discomforts otherwise; he would not act in such a way. The person fears changes, failures, and disapprovals. The leader observes his power, considers his feelings, and thinks carefully before judging, criticizing, or accusing the attacker. The leader paraphrases so that he halts an argument while working toward an understanding with the attacker.

Now instead of me continuing this, I want you to think of leader qualities. Consider those qualities carefully and see if those qualities exist in you. Think about the attacker and leader response to the problem. Do you handle problems in this way? What do you do at what time problems arise? Do you handle the problems maturely? Do you think before you speak?

Consider another example. Consider behaviors. Peruse, you study your human makeup and discover you have behaviors that could prevent you from becoming a leader. Do you know the desirable behaviors of a leader? Are the behaviors within you observed closely and balanced? Do you know what the reinforces are that trigger and make your behaviors.

Do you know the consequences, and were these consequences are, and how they reinforce your behaviors? How can you improve your behaviors?

Continuing seeking answers to these questions while probing into the details, specifics, and new ideas of changing. If you have developed and cultivated good behaviors, your instincts are working and you are on the road to leadership.

Now ask self what are your standards. Standards are set by authority. Standards are customs of a personality that models human traits.

What are your beliefs? Are your beliefs faulty? Is there facts backing your beliefs? Do you have convictions and assertiveness to state your beliefs factually with evidence to back your claims.

Are you prejudiced, and do you understand what these prejudices mean? Do you disregard the rights of others by showing hate. Are you prepared to get rid of that hate and work toward becoming a considerate, honest, loyal person?

What about your morale and morals and are you ethnically prone? Are you ready to love your neighbor as self? Are you ready to pull up your inborn natural qualities while unleashing your leader instincts to achieve leadership qualities?

Continuing dwelling on this information to see what you come up with and as you move along conjure up new ideas to see how you can put them to use? Once you are finished, set small goals and work toward the big goal.

Dot Cully

http://www.tinyurl.com/2qafy2
http://www.tinyurl.com/2dqhvf

How To Set Up A Family Budget

Unlike the quote provided above, seemingly reflective of general opinion on family budgets today, we will attempt to take a much more positive approach to budgeting, as a family oriented, user-friendly, financial management and planning tool and life-enabler.

However, when reflecting on family budgeting and inquiring as to why not more families are actually using it, it becomes self-evident that similar skepticism runs rampant and deep in reality and society, even globally so.

Once you start probing family budgets, expending time and energy researching the subject in-depth, it becomes quite clear, that most families are caught in a vicious, almost never-ending cycle of “What comes in must go out.”

Most families might feel that budgeting is a futile effort, unnecessarily burdening them with thoughts and ways, to go broke methodically and slowly, without the creature comforts and indulgences of our human modern-day society.

Others might voice that they feel as if they are merely throwing money away, in a never-ending and dizzying spiral of spend, spend, spend. People are getting deeper and deeper into debt, no matter how hard they try to get out of it. Questions are then raised : How do we stop these courses of action? How do we change the thinking around family fiscal discipline?

Put simply, in “How to set up a Family Budget”, we focus in on how to empower families to set up better, more realistic budgets, stick to them and celebrate their successes (and learn from their failures!)

Families eventually do have a monthly surplus, see their savings start to grow, consolidate their debt, set aside discretionary funds and personal allowances, build their wealth and become more aware of their pro-active involvement and responsibility regarding their lives and finances. This is when excitement builds and fundamental thought patters as well as spending attitudes are changed.

Budgeting is seen as an accurate measurement of success when significant behavioral transformation is taking place on the landscape of the family budget, spending habits and financial patterns we observe over time!

Do you ever feel that you do not have enough cash at the end of the month to pay bills, buy necessities of life? Are you barely making a dent in your credit card debt balance, no matter how hard you try?

Here is a reality check for all of us: if we choose to spend it, it is gone for good. We cannot spend it on anything else. Are you perhaps worried about a nest egg for your golden years or savings for early retirement? Then you have arrived at a source that can provide some prudent tips on how to start, finish, implement, stick to, revise and refine a family budget.

The family budget is a dynamic process, even more so than a mere static work-product, result, process-outcome or document. It will, can and should change over time. It becomes a barometer of a family’s fiscal circumstance, resources and health.

Maybe budgeting is not as much about reflecting on what you cannot have, but more about thoughts on how to stretch, invest and spend your earned dollars more wisely. In short, it is about making your money going further.

This quick-reference how-to guide was developed to assist you with setting up your own personal, household and family budget, to help you with all of the above and more!

A couple of general money-savings will also be provided in these pages. There are also thoughts and spending patterns that need to change, in order to become fiscally more disciplined and many techniques, attitudes, habitual behaviors that we need to un-earth, evaluate and possibly change, before you even start budgeting.

For example, being a bargain hunter looking for good buys, cutting down on careless spending, being on the lookout for careless credit card spending and letting the person who handles money best in your household actually take care of it, are all good examples of what we mean.

For most households, a budget is no more than a spending plan. Any spending plan can help you see where your money is going. It fits your spending to your income. It reflects how we get the things we want and need most, while being ready and prepared for bills we must pay every month.

For most families it is simply about making a budget you can live with and stick to easily. It is not a difficult exercise, but one most people fear, avoid or dread because of the unknown and perceived complexity of it (sometimes wrongfully so!).

Part of the goal of this guide is to demystify family budgeting and highlight an easy systematic process to setting up a quality family budget.

Many things actually drive our expenditure. We choose to spend our money on things we value, need, prefer or consciously choose. For some it is clothes, for others it might be something as simple as taking that yearly vacation.

Whether you are making financial decisions for yourself or your household, you might have to make some serious choices and adjustments regarding your financial freedom and situation.

“How to Set up a Family Budget”, is a quick-reference, easy, how-to guide, meant to take you through the typical, who, why, when, what, where and how questions typically asked when considering fiscal planning for the household and or budgeting in general for your family need, means and circumstance, now and for the future.

Budgeting is not just about restricting spending and living a cheapskate life. It is about insights, wisdom, informed decisions, action and sustained discipline when it comes to your household financials.

This guide will invite you to learn more in these pages about systematic budgeting. It focuses on practical application and zooms in to apply these “best practice suggestions” in your own home. It empowers you to put together a dynamic, financial plan that suits your pocketbook, means and circumstance.

Financially speaking, assess quickly where you think you and your family are today.

• What kind of a picture do you have?
• Could you come up with something?
• Did you have the data and numbers you needed?
• Would you be able to plan for where you want to be and start living your life today as a fiscally sound and disciplined family with the information you have at your disposal at present?

Money makes the world go round! It is no secret that some of us have more, some have less. We deal with our own personal finances and cash management distinctly differently.

Households have varying needs, means and circumstance. Our money-management skills are also at different levels, as is our debt and savings!

Budgeting has to do with most of these perspectives and reflections.

The purpose and goal of family budgeting is:

• financial situational analysis and informed awareness,
• (ii) cutting cost,
• (iii) gaining control or curbing spending and
• (iv) Starting to save, building up wealth and liquid assets over time.

There are many phases and steps to go through when creating a budget.

If you are looking for ways to manage your money better, making it reach and stretch further, and providing you with financial security and a more solid future, then you have come to the right place.

In this brief introduction on family budgets, we have already introduced our first couple of key questions

• Why an e-book or how-to guide on setting up a family budget?
• Why would or do you need a family budget?
• What is the business case for and rationale behind family budgeting?
• What are the benefits and advantages of a family budget?

We elaborate a little more below. For most people, a family budget is the equivalent of a simplistic process: money is earned and comes in; money is spent and moves out!

It is a fluid, easy-flow, one-directional, cash management process. It is driven by daily life, a spending-orientation, or no plan at all!

For most families, income is also fixed and outflow typically increases over time, as the needs of the family fluctuates and changes. Loading up on debt is also very typical for the majority of our families. If this sounds very much like a vicious circle, it is. Most families are caught up in it and constantly battle to get out.

Mostly, we think that we wisely spend our money on necessities like food and clothing, gas and household or family needs, but can rarely put a finger on where the money actually goes, let alone produce a budget!

Dot Cully

http://www.dotsbdp06.bloglanding.com

http://www.tinyurl.com/ybs77a