If you see the site doing something weird when you refresh, chances are I’m pressing buttons and wearing my wizard’s robe behind the scenes.

Please do let me know if you have any issues with the updates or they aren’t loading properly.

I’ve updated the RSS feed and need some help testing it so let me know if there are issues with the upgrades.

I will probably leave this theme up for the remainder of the week and change to another option early next week, so check back and lemme know what y’all like.

I’d love to have some feedback or ideas to what you all enjoy about the site and what you dislike.  If you’re not a spam-bot or hot air blowing bastard(or if you are that’s okay too) then leave a comment!

If you want to become wealthy then you’ve got to find a way to help people and provide meaningful solutions to their problems and challenges.

It’s really that simple.

I just checked out their website   www.Freshaire.org   and they are still looking for people to host this summer.  They also have had a very generous member who is willing to match any donations made to the Fresh Air Fund which helps to fund the travel for the children to their host homes.   Consider becoming a volunteer host or making a donation.   Even something small can make a big difference for these children.

I looked at the pile of stuff that I had just carried out to the curb and it made me feel sick that we waste so much.  Since we have been in our new home we have bought a bunch of stuff and all of it comes in some sort of packaging that has to be thrown out.  While we recycle most of the glass, plastic, and cardboard  there are still a lot of companies using Styrofoam to package things.  Styrofoam can’t be recycled to my knowledge so it just goes straight to the dump to sit there and never biodegrade or break down.

I was looking around the attic on a project a few days later. I found that instead of the usual roll out “Pink Panther” style insulation  my home has about 1′ of loose fiberglass insulation that was blown on top of all the studs.   I started thinking about what I could do with the clean Styrofoam that came as packing in many of the items we had been buying and I had a stroke of genius.

I remembered as a kid setting out 2 buckets of ice on a hot day, one in a Styrofoam bucket with a lid and the other in a regular metal pail with a lid on it.  I came back a few hours later and checked on them and the metal bucket was now mostly water but the Styrofoam bucket of ice looked basically the same as it had when I left it!

I looked in the attic again and it was just a cloud of loose insulation.  I started to think it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all to just start throwing the clean packing Styrofoam up in the attic as extra insulation.  Now instead of throwing clean Styrofoam to the curb to go into a landfill I throw it into my attic to cut down my heating and cooling bills. Also as an added bonus if  I ever need the packing materials now I don’t have to go buy them I just look in the attic for something that will do.

Is this Green Genius? Have you thought of a way to reuse something that can’t be traditionally recycled?  Post your thoughts and comments below!

So you’re looking at your balance in your “savings” account after the holiday and it isn’t on track to put you where you dream of being in your future.  You’re not alone (at least I’m right here with you)! Sometimes everyone feels this way about major life  issues like money especially around the holidays.  This year for new year’s don’t make another resolution you will push aside when it’s no longer easy to keep.

Let’s start putting money in your bank account for your dreams, your retirement, and your future.   It’s really astoundingly easy to do when you do it right.  It only takes one simple choice that will drastically change where you end up and how well off you are.  Give me 10 minutes of your time, do this today and don’t worry about any other new year’s resolutions this year.   This one will stick!

First get out your calculator and a current pay stub.  Looking at your current savings, really start thinking about where you want to be when the time comes to use those savings.  Will what you are currently doing now get you where you want to be? For most people the answer to this question  a no, because in real life things come up.

Taking into account where you want to end up and how much money you will need, pull up a rough figure.  Take that figure and think about when you will want to use this money.  Say you want 1,000,000 in 10 years. So there’s 520 weeks to get to your goal of one million dollars.

1000000/520= 1923.07   is how much you would need to save each week to meet your goal.  You actually wouldn’t need to save near this much provided you managed the money properly, but to keep it simple we won’t compound interest.

The purpose of this exercise is to wake you up.  How much are you saving now?  Will it be enough to make your future what you want?  The only way to be sure is to act today.   I now know instead of saving 200$ a week I should be trying to save 2000$ a week to meet my goals.    The first thing to do is to get into your online banking account and do one simple thing.

Pick a PERCENTAGE!  Start saving a percentage of your paycheck each week instead of a dollar amount.  This way as you make more, you’re saving more too. Many online banking sites have options to set this up and make it very easy. Its done just like a regular money transfer, but you just make it a recurring transfer  and set a percentage of the money from your paycheck to automatically roll over into your savings.  Try to set the date on this automatic transaction a day or three behind when your deposits are usually made (just in case).   Try to start with at least 5% of your pay if you can.

The next thing to do is look at the dollar amount for that percentage that you are now saving automatically.  Say you’re paid 500/week  and you are saving 5% automatically.  That’s 25$ a week… A great start but you still need 1898.07 each week to make your million (without compounded interest).  Now you have an ACTUAL number to shoot for. You know what you need to be doing to get to where you want to be.  Don’t get upset or overwhelmed, start thinking about what you can do to put yourself closer to where you want to be.  Even if you don’t feel that you can save much, set up a recurring 1% to roll into your savings and start to see it add up.

P.S.

Even if you don’t feel that you can save much, set up a recurring 1% to roll into your savings and start to see it add up.

This site has lots of great ideas that will help you find ways to get where you want to be.

http://ptmoney.com/2009/01/28/52-ways-make-extra-money/

Improving your FICO® credit score

It’s important to note that raising your FICO credit score is a bit like losing weight: It takes time and there is no quick fix. In fact, quick-fix efforts can backfire. The best advice is to manage credit responsibly over time. See how much money you can save by just following these tips and raising your credit score.

Payment History Tips

• Pay your bills on time.
  Delinquent payments and collections can have a major negative impact on your FICO score.
• If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.
  The longer you pay your bills on time, the better your credit score.
• Be aware that paying off a collection account will not remove it from your credit report.
  It will stay on your report for seven years.
• If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a legitimate credit counselor.
  This won’t improve your credit score immediately, but if you can begin to manage your credit and pay on time, your score will get better over time.

Amounts Owed Tips

• Keep balances low on credit cards and other “revolving credit”.
  High outstanding debt can affect a credit score.
• Pay off debt rather than moving it around.
  The most effective way to improve your credit score in this area is by paying down your revolving credit. In fact, owing the same amount but having fewer open accounts may lower your score.
• Don’t close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score.
• Don’t open a number of new credit cards that you don’t need, just to increase your available credit.
  This approach could backfire and actually lower your credit score.

Length of Credit History Tips

• If you have been managing credit for a short time, don’t open a lot of new accounts too rapidly.
  New accounts will lower your average account age, which will have a larger effect on your score if you don’t have a lot of other credit information. Also, rapid account buildup can look risky if you are a new credit user.

New Credit Tips

• Do your rate shopping for a given loan within a focused period of time.
  FICO scores distinguish between a search for a single loan and a search for many new credit lines, in part by the length of time over which inquiries occur.
• Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems.
  Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time will raise your credit score in the long term.
• Note that it’s OK to request and check your own credit report.
  This won’t affect your score, as long as you order your credit report directly from the credit reporting agency or through an organization authorized to provide credit reports to consumers.

Types of Credit Use Tips

• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.
  Don’t open accounts just to have a better credit mix – it probably won’t raise your credit score.
• Have credit cards – but manage them responsibly.
  In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and paying timely payments) will raise your credit score. Someone with no credit cards, for example, tends to be higher risk than someone who has managed credit cards responsibly.
• Note that closing an account doesn’t make it go away.
  A closed account will still show up on your credit report, and may be considered by the score.

The tips above are from http://www.myfico.com

The WindHunter Eco-Ship

Not to restate what is already well done I will post the link and let you read it for yourself.

Learn to Improve Your Luck!

It is definitely worth a shot…

Learn Luck

It took me a while to figure out that if you are unemployed, looking for a job is more than a full time job in this economic market. You have to be flexible, open to anything, and ready to do more than the other 10 qualified people that they interviewed that day….just to get a final interview!

I went for months posting my resume on careerbuilder and monster and any other job board. I applied to any position that seemed like I wouldn’t mind doing. I did what everyone else is doing… They are saying, ” I have experience, and marketable skills, I will make a great resume and blanket every employer in the nation with it.”  The sad reality was that I had little to no success securing interviews using this tactic.

I really started having success getting interviews when I  figured out that employers are so flooded with resumes that they don’t read many of them… they don’t have the money to hire people just to read resumes. They put them through a “keyword scan” program and when a resume has the keyword density, or “relevant experience”  they actually read it and then you have a chance at getting a call for the interview.

What I started doing was going through the job postings on monster, careerbuilder and whatever sites I was a listed on then browse jobs for what you want. When you come across the job ads you like and qualify for read them carefully for keywords and make a list of all of those keywords. Spend a few hours doing this and really browsing for similar positions and looking at job postings.  The better your keyword list is… the more responses you will get.

Once you have the keywords from the positions you are seeking, rework your resume to use those keywords as much as possible and show your experience relevant to what they are seeking. I know, your resume is great already, but if you take the time to even rebuild it from scratch thinking about what your potential employer really wants to see chances are  you will have much more success.

Upload the new copy of your resume to the job listing sites making sure to view it and that it looks *perfect* and is formatted correctly(which is hard to get right…don’t use the tab key building the resume, you have to use the little bar on the top in Word to set the formatting for each line or it wont come out right when you upload it).

One major thing I found was to keep re-uploading your resume  at least 2x a week. If you don’t subscribe to monster and careerbuilder’s pay service for exposure… you mysteriously stop getting calls after about 4 days from your last posted resume.  Maybe they use algorithms or maybe employers just see the top of the stack of resumes first, either way you definitely get a lot more calls from employers by updating your resume constantly. Even if you just upload the same resume with the text color of your name changed you start getting calls again.

Don’t be afraid to use some color in your resume to help it stand out in a sea of black and white! I had lots of success using bold bright colors to make my resume stand out too.  I found that bright blue, bright red, and deep green worked well for emphasizing experience and other important points.  I noticed a lot more calls once I put the color in too.

I know how brutal the job hunt is now, but dont get down.  Know that there are good jobs out there like always, you just have to work for them… I started working smarter, not harder.  Don’t waste time blanketing your resume out to every employer. Find what you want to do and build your resume to sell yourself and your experience as what those employers are looking for.

When you do get the interview, I  found that using all of the interview prep questions and other help documents on careerbuilder and Monster will REALLY help getting ready for interviews too.

Make sure you prepare and do your homework!  More good advice and tips can be found here:

Twenty something? Job seeker? Are you forgetting these 10 interviewing basics??
How to prepare for a job interview

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Aside from hunger and starvation the single biggest need is for affordable housing.  The United Nations figures that there are around 100 million people worldwide that are homeless. With the current economic conditions in America homelessness is devastating more lives than ever. The good news is that there is something we can do to help. We can break out of our current routines and start thinking about helping others.  Organizations like Habitat for Humanity are doing great works every day and need your help!

They are working to combat the lack of affordable housing by having volunteers like you and I donate our time and materials to help build homes for the disadvantaged.  They aren’t just giving homes away either, they are building a community of great volunteers that are paying for these homes with sweat equity and the opportunity at a fair home loan.  If you haven’t ever been involved with a habitat for humanity project find a way to get involved. You won’t regret it.  The feeling you get from working on a habitat project and meeting the people that are involved will really change your life.

October 5th is World Habitat Day and we need to raise awareness about the lack of safe and affordable housing for all.  Please join in spreading the word about World Habitat Day on October 5th.  For more information check out:

http://worldhabitatdaynews.com/