I was born and raised in Orange County, California, home to world-famous Disneyland. Until 1981, admittance to this beloved theme park included purchasing coupons, labeled A through E, for specific rides. E-coupons were always in highest demand (and were more expensive) because that was your ticket to the most exciting, the most adventurous, and the most gut-wrenching experiences in the park. As opposed to the A-tickets which were rides for “babies,” as I recall. If you’ve just learned (likely confirming your deepest intuition) that your child is, in fact, gifted, you’ve just found yourself on one of the most thrilling rollercoasters of parenting. A ride fraught with anticipation and anxiety, valid concern and moments of sheer bravadothis is an E-ticket ride!
In case you haven’t already noticed, gifted children are intense. What I mean to say is, gifted children are INTENSE! A good day at school becomes, “the BEST day of my life;” something built out of LEGOs is “The MOST Incredible Creation” and cannot ever be disassembled; while an argument with one friend and, suddenly, “EVERYBODY hates me”!
Life raising a gifted child is life on a rollercoaster of extreme highs and distressing lows. It is ironic that parents of the gifted are often accused of “pushing” their children when in fact, most are hanging on for dear life! How does one “push” in this cling-to-what-you-can-or-die-trying scenario? Seriously, though, the parents of gifted kids I’ve met and worked with aren’t living vicariously through their children’s intellect, they aren’t grabbing for attention from media or anyone else. They have very real problems and very real concerns that are easily overlooked by friends and family. After all, their children look normal.
So your daughter comes home from school and, in the safe cocoon of the kitchen where you are busy throwing together something that will pass as dinner before rushing off to get everyone to their respective lessons and sports practices, she wants to expound indefinitely on how every single man, woman and child she has ever met now hates her, her clothing is stupid (because Katie said so), her classes are too boring (or too hard or too stupid), and, oh, by the way, she’d like to pierce her belly button over the weekend because Jamie did it and at least she’s telling you in advance (unlike Jamie). Inhale. Exhale. Got that seatbelt securely fastened?
New rules: Yes, you are there to hear about every trial and tribulation your child faced that day, but first, she must initiate the conversation with between one and three positive comments on her day. We sometimes forget to share our joys with each other and, instead, wallow in commiserating. One positive remembrance of the day can turn the whole tone of the conversation around.
She must also learn to measure the words, “everyone,” “every class,” “all my clothes,” etc. with a more accurate accounting of how many, exactly who and precisely what. By the way, you should relish in the fact that your daughter is dumping the woes of the world on your lapshe trusts you and values your input. She is safe with you. This could very well be the basis for a long-lasting, trusting relationship that will survive when the going gets really tough: the teen years. Your daughter needs you to stay the course, rock solid, no matter what she comes home with.
With my own children, it’s those last few moments of being tucked into bed at night that open the flood gates of fears, worry, stress, and complete freaking out. Perhaps that’s when they can truly guarantee that they have my undivided attention. Or maybe it’s a way of extending the inevitable bedtime (never a hard and fast time in our household anyway) by just a few more minutes. It is typical for gifted children to reveal their deepest feelings just before falling asleep though, as that’s when the emotions surface, preventing sleep or even a relaxed state. Whatever the motive, the safety of bed and goodnight snuggling seems to bring out the darkest memories of the day for my kids or the fears and concerns for the next day. I can’t bear to send them into dreamland with all that worry, so I usually indulge. At least for a bit. I do insist on revising the assessments: Really? The WORST day of your life? I thought the time (fill in the blank) happened felt worse than this. I try and offer some perspective on the overall review of the day’s events, reminding them that tomorrow is another day, what feels overwhelmingly dreadful right this moment may be resolved by morning, etc. I don’t ever make light of their emotions, or of the very real feelings they are experiencing, I ask only that they balance the assessment of various disappointments with how devastating those events truly are. Sort of a “big picture” view, if you will.
Rollercoasters of our own creation
Be sure to avoid creating rollercoasters with your gifted children. For instance, if you know that your child responds negatively to large crowds or noises, don’t insist on a family trip to a crowded mall or large amusement park. You will likely be signing on for tantrums and frustration. Read your children’s cues about what they can manage as far as noise, lights, crowds, and other stimulations, and respond accordingly. If your son knows that throngs of screaming children will cause him great anxiety and make him want to hide under the table or cling to your leg, he should turn down the birthday invitation to Chucky Cheese. Perhaps he could offer, instead, to have his
best friend over for a private celebration. Help your children think up creative ways for circumventing situations that lead to stress and discomfort. A private lunch and play date will likely be better remembered and can be a lovely way to express birthday wishes while avoiding the noise and chaos of a public restaurant.
When my oldest was an infant, he would scream at the sound of the garbage disposal or the vacuum. So I always made sure my husband or I could take him outside or walk him in a stroller while the other took care of whatever offending chore needed to be completed. My mother would lecture me that I was pampering and acting far too overprotective, but I knew in my heart that extreme noises were actually painful to my son’s small and developing ears. In fact, many gifted kids experience heightened sensitivity to sound, they are not just crying for attention. Some children of high intellect experience sensation to light more intensely than others. And some gifted kids have tremendous tactile discomfort with clothing labels or socks that aren’t at the same height on each leg. (Look for Hanes® and other brands that have eliminated tags, altogether.) Research and be sensitive yourself (pun intended!) to the very real sensations your gifted child is experiencing; these extreme sensations and reactions are not unique among this population.
Gifted children love to build and create, whether it’s with pre-packaged toys such as LEGOs or K’Nex, or just a roll of Scotch tape and recyclable materials. Most have an emotional attachment to their creations and great difficulty discarding them. If you’ve found yourself in a fire hazard collection of inventions and art that your child is deeply connected to, you might try starting a scrapbook. A picture of The World’s Greatest Creation can easily be stored within the pages of a photo album, along with numerous other mementos, for later review and enjoyment, allowing you to discard those items blocking passage through the halls. There will likely be great debate about what to keep and what to toss, but a scrapbook may make the process easier.
Siblings
Research from the Gifted Development Center (www.gifteddevelopment.com) shows that 36% of siblings are within five IQ points of each other; 61.5% are within ten. If you’ve got one gifted child, you can almost bank on the others being gifted as well. There is probably no relationship more volatile among gifted children than that between siblings. If one gifted child is intense, justice-oriented and sensitive then two are exponentially more difficult to live with. Add a third or fourth child to the mix and you’ve got a recipe for disaster! One technique I’ve discovered to halt the rivalry between extremely frustrated children is to get out the digital or video camera. Sounds terrible, I know! Who wants to photograph for posterity your darling child ready to hurl something at his sibling or strike a blow at him, right? But it works! The moment they realize they are about to be the subject of a scrapbook page (one of my favorite hobbies), the action stops. It takes awhile to cool down and be able to laugh at what Mom almost caught on camera but it can turn even the ugliest of arguments into play. You can actually feel the mood of the room change as the frustration dissipates and the camera hams emerge in all their silliness and goofy smiles.
Where did this come from?
“The apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree.” Parents are usually within ten IQ points of their children. By adulthood, you have likely managed to temper your reactions to noise and light, to moderate your responses to slights from others and to react in an “appropriate” manner to losses and disappointments. Now it’s your turn to guide your children in their responses. As your children approach obstacles, recall from your own experience growing up how you wish you’d been treated or received and offer that comfort and support to your kids. We each remember the devastation we felt when snubbed by a member of our peer group or if we earned a grade lower than we had worked toward. Don’t dismiss or belittle these episodes in your children’s lives.
Be a good role model for your children. Demonstrate acceptable responses to situations and support them through these seemingly uncharted waters. Show them how to politely navigate around situations that could create anxiety and, instead, make alternate choices that won’t leave themand youstressed out.
One of the gifts you can and should give your child is to recognize and appreciate your own giftedness. If your child were an accomplished athlete, her skills would be applauded. But American society consistently encourages us to hide our intellectual prowess and blend in with our class- and age-mates. Gifted children are the square pegs that struggle to fit within such holes. Make your home and family a safe place to be gifted; a place where intellectual pursuits are applauded and rewarded, where stimulation abounds and opportunities are plentiful. Indulge your children’s passions to whatever extent possible, while honoring their sometimes temporary but fervent quests for knowledge, knowing that another tangent is inevitable. Delight in your children and allow them to delight in you. You have much to share with one another.
Then, fasten your seatbelt, because this is an E-ticket ride!
Alexandra “Allie” Golon is Director of the Visual-Spatial Resource (visualspatial.org) and homeschooling consultant for the Gifted Development Center (gifteddevelopment.com), both subsidiaries of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, in Denver, Colorado. As a founding member of the Visual-Spatial Resource Access Team, a former G/T teacher, and homeschooling parent to two gifted visual-spatial learners, Allie brings a wealth of experience to her books, Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids: Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child and, If You Could See the Way I Think: A Handbook for Visual-Spatial Kids. Her upcoming release, The Visual-Spatial Classroom: Differentiation Strategies that Engage Every Learner, is a rich source for classroom strategies that will help every student succeed, regardless of preferred learning style. Allie has been invited to present on teaching and parenting visual-spatial learners and on homeschooling issues at state, national and international venues. She can be reached at alex@visualspatial.org.
Dropshipping is like any business and the most important thing when starting out on any venture is to do your market research FIRST…
When you open a store in your town, you wouldn’t open it without doing your market research first. The same thing applies if you are going to sell something on the internet as a dropshipper. Not only are there billions of web pages out there that could be selling competitive products, the net changes so fast that you are obsolete as soon as you have gotten started.
If you are going to set up a dropshipping business you want make sure that the product that you choose can be easily sold. And you want to know how many competitors you have. And you want to stay as up to date as possible. Selling products on the Internet is easy. Hundreds of thousands of people do it every day online on auction sites such as eBay. The most difficult part of internet sales is getting the products delivered to the customer, otherwise known as order fulfillment.
You must have an efficient fulfillment system. One of the reasons that brick-and-mortar stores are so slow on the uptake when it comes to online business, is that supplying retail stores is done with pallet-sized orders usually. But internet sales requires an entirely different kind of fulfillment system. Selling on the internet is essentially mail order, with shipments going out in small parcels to end users.
Few brick-and-mortar retailers have a thriving mail order business to draw from. An inefficient fulfillment system can lose for you the advantages in good customer service that holding the inventory gained for you. And running a fulfillment system is a full time and trying job.
One of the simplest order fulfillment models to use is the drop ship model. Drop shipping does have its advantages and disadvantages. The most important being you don’t have to pay for anything until after you sell it.
You also don’t have inventory costs. Having to purchase inventory to ship to your customers can be expensive not to mention risky. In addition to the out-of-pocket costs, you need a place to store the inventory.
Finally you have to pick, pull, pack, and ship the products once the order is placed. Having the distributor or manufacturer take all these costs and responsibilities lifts a real burden off your shoulders.
Ideally a drop-shipper should be transparent. With most of your drop shippers, especially those with whom you do a regular business, you can send them labels and forms so their package looks like it is from you. Your customer probably won’t know that your hands never touched the product. The customer will think that you have a warehouse.
You can sell many more products than you could if you had to buy and store them yourself. Drop shippers give you a wide choice of products so you can sell a lot more.On the Internet some categories of products are very price-sensitive. If you are selling computer hardware, for example, and using the drop shipping model, you may find it hard to be competitive price-wise and still make a profit. The difference between making money and losing it may be only a few percent. So be sure to pick a product that makes sense to drop ship.
You will be using third party customer service so you will not have full control. Drop shipping is really outsourcing your order fulfillment services to a third party. You will be dependent on your drop shipper to have the products in stock, to deliver on time, and to properly pack and ship your products. So pick your drop shipper carefully.
At the end of the day, however, drop shipping exists because it works. And the largest catalog companies and web sites use it. And savvy small web sites and auction site sellers use it. Drop shipping is simply an arrangement between you and the manufacturer or distributor of the product you sell whereby the manufacturer or distributor — NOT YOU — ships the product to your customers.
There are a few huge advantages to this model. First, it SAVES YOU THE COST of building your own inventory. If you’re like most people starting a small business, you don’t have much capital with which to play with. The last thing you want to do is tie up your cash in inventory that you may or may not be able to sell.
Not having inventory also means no leftovers. If the product you sell suddenly becomes outdated, obsolete, or just plain un-trendy, you aren’t the one with a house full of stock that nobody will buy. Many online retailers find themselves having to offer deep discounts — and taking huge losses — on old products just to get them out of their homes to make room for more inventory!
You’ll also don’t have to deal with shipping your products. Unless you’ve already set up a shipping account with someone like FedEx or UPS, you’ll be heading down to the post office every day to buy stamps and mail out your products. And you’ll be able to ADD NEW PRODUCTS ALMOST INSTANTLY. Since you don’t have to worry about ordering inventory, you can add products to your web site within a few hours.
If you find that your customers are eager to buy a certain product, you can have that item up on your site in almost no time. Finally spend time researching different kinds of products that you might want to sell. The products you choose should be in demand but not widely available online. As usual, I highly recommend targeting a niche market rather than trying to find a product that EVERYONE wants to buy.
Once you’ve found a product that you think may be the right one for your business, you’ll need to do a little “competitive analysis.” This simply means finding out what potential competitors are charging for the products you want to sell and calculating how much of a profit you’ll be able to make. When it comes down to it…its all about ‘Testing, Testing, Testing!’
Good luck!
About The Author
A1 Home-Business was established by Declan O’Reilly in Melbourne, Australia in 2003. Our vision at A1 Home-Business is to empower people to become successful.
Visit http://www.a1home-business.com to download free ebooks and tools for business owners.
a1homebusiness@optusnet.com.au
I have thoroughly researched this diet and am giving you every detail of south beach diet for information.
South beach diet book is founded on the premise that switching to good carbs stops insulin resistance and curbs appetite which leads to weight loss. Also, good fats protect the heart and prevent hunger.
But this is hardly true as you will learn after reading this article.
South beach diet book offers a simplistic solution to weight loss. All you need to do is eat good carbs like whole grains, vegetables and beans instead of eating bad carbs like sugar white breads and potatoes.
South beach diet says, fast sugars are worst for dieters and slow sugars are good.
And how are these foods classified as fast or slow? The Glycemic Index.
According to south beach diet, the food having a high Glycemic Index causes the blood sugar to spike (go up) immedietly after having the meal,whereas the food with a lower GI does not drastically shoot up the blood sugar levels.
But this theory is only partially true. Yes, the foods with high GI are good for diabetics in helping them to keep their blood sugar levels in check, but contrary to popular belief, the glycemic index of a certain food is not the same.i.e. it depends on how the food is processed, stored, ripened and cooked.
Further, south beach diet is formulated on the premise that good carbs like whole grains have a low glycemic index and bad carbs like sugars, white flour and refined grains have a higher GI.
BUT THE TRUTH IS….
Bread is high GI whether whole wheat or white because it is made from finely ground flour.
Pasta is low GI, whether whole or white(thin languine has a high GI as compared to the thick one)
“Instant white” rice is low GI whereas “Uncle bens converted white” rice is high GI.
Take the case of sugars…Glucose is high GI, Sucrose is medium GI and fructose is low GI
This illustrates that recommending foods based on GI is confusing as well as misleading. On top of it all, there is no research to support the claim that the rise in blood sugar by eating high GI foods leads to high blood insulin levels, and that this leads people to overeat.
To summarise…there is no evidence to suggest that eating low GI foods leads to weight loss.
Now lets have a look at the south beach diet menu.
South beach diet book claims that you won’t feel hungry while on this diet. This is impossible considering the fact that some of the menus average only 1200 calories, which is too low not to feel hungry.
The diet encourages you to eat seafood, chicken breast, lean meat, vegetables,whole grains, some fruits, beans, low fat cheese, nuts, oils and whole grains. fatty meats, high fat cheese, refined grains, sweets, juice and potatoes.
The choice of foods in this diet plan are somewhat healthy compared to other leading diet plans like ATKINS but restricting the consumption of carrots, bananas, pineapple and watermelon is the worst part of south beach diet.
The meal plan consists of three phases :
Phase 1 of south beach diet :
You are allowed to eat normal size helpings of chicken, meat, turkey, fish and shellfish, vegetables, eggs, cheese and nuts. You can have three meals per day. Desserts, coffee and tea are also allowed.
But for the first 14 days you are not allowed to eat bread,rice,potatoes,pasta or baked goods and even fruits!
Phase 2 of south beach diet :
You can slowly begin to reintroduce carbs into your diet again. The diet advices you to take all the forbidden foods in phase 1 like bread, pasta, fruits etc. in moderate quantities but at the same time not as much as you were having before.
Phase 3 of south beach diet:
This part is the most relaxed. Dr.Agastson says that you can now forget that you are on a diet. He says that now onwards it is just a healthy lifestyle you are used to, and going to adhere for the rest of your life.
All in all, south beach diet is one more money spinning fad diet for the creator of this weight loss program and a phsychological prop(support) for people who are allways hopping from one diet to the other in search of a hollywood like sexy body.
The initial weight loss caused by this diet is on account of calorie restriction and not because of low Glycemic Index or an invisible switch as Dr. Agastson’s marketing language wants you to believe.
Your health could be 100 times better without south beach diet weight loss program,if you choose healthy foods like green vegetables,whole grains,fiber rich foods and vegetables.
And if you are eager to lose those extra pounds,why not do it the most natural way with the weight loss principles of Ayurveda medicinal science?
This is the most effective long term,scientifically proven solution to excess fat.
You can get real cutting edge fat burning secrets of Ayurveda in my Free 5day email ecourse by subscribing to my newsletter at: www.eweightlosstips.com/weightlossltr.htm
Rajesh Shetty
Expert in weight loss principles of Ayurveda Medical Science
and Author of the Best selling book,
“Proven weight loss secrets revealed”.
http://www.eweightlosstips.com/weightlossltr.htm
A Short Menstrual Cycle is when your period comes earlier than day 25, or so. The cycle is counted from the first day of bleeding until you see it again.
Fertility can be affected if your cycle is too short. This is because it can shorten the number of days before Ovulation, when the egg is developing into a Folicle.
You can figure out when ovulation might be using a very rough formula. Ovulation typically occurs 2 weeks before the period comes.
On a 28 day cycle, a woman would ovulate on day 14. That’s 14 days before her period. She may have signs of Ovulation starting on day 12 or 13 too.
Changes like Vaginal discharge getting clear and stringy and more abundant. Feeling achy on the sides of the lower abdomen.
This is called the Folicular Phase. A Folicle is the egg you were born with a bubble of fluid around it.
Think of a chicken egg. In fact, imagine breaking open an egg. The clear runny stuff is what a woman’s vaginal discharge at the time of Ovulation looks!
Clear, Runny, Muccous-like, stringy…And Hopefully profuse.
A Super Herb I use to regulate/lengthen the cycle is (Chaste Berries)Vitex Agnus Castus. This really reliably will lengthen the average cycle from a few days to a week or more. A Tincture is best. To get solid results, take:
1/2-1 Teaspoon 3X Day
…day in and day out for 1-3 months.
It is the Best Menstrual Regulator that I have solidly used for many years in my practice. Even in cases where the period was coming every 2 weeks it really normalized the situation within 1 to 3 months.
Losing blood too often, through short periods, can be weakening and leave you blood deficient. A period that’s too heavy can do this too. Good herbs to stop excess bleeding are Shepherd’s Purse(Capsella Bursa Pastoralis), Agrimony, Yarrow, and even Hammamalis for severe Bleeding.
Aliza Adar Levine RNMH is a Nurse, Midwife, TCM Herbalist, and Medical Researcher for over 20 years. Learn how to manage your own Fertility at http://www.fertility-xpert.com and about other women’s Health Issues at at http://www.WomensHealthIssues.info
A good public speaking course will help you avoid the five major mistakes that most public speakers tend to make. You will learn how to create and use visual aids effectively to support your ideas. As your progress through the course you will learn how to analysis the audience on the spot to ensure that your content is relevant. A well planned out course will not try to change your current speaking skills instead it will attempt to improve upon those skills by developing you into a better public speaker. You will learn how to use natural nervousness to your advantage by allowing it to strike passion into your presentations.
Once you have completed your public speaking course your audience will never fall asleep or get up and leave on you again. The best thing about public speaking courses is that there are no pre-requisites needed to sign up for a course. No prior public speak experience is required as well. You can take courses online and even at a local college. There are also courses available in books, DVDs and even online through downloadable videos. Public speaking courses cost different prices depending on the experience of the teacher, the length of the course, the materials provided and a few other factors.
-
What public speaking courses will do for you
-
What is needed to sign up and course possibilities
Have you thought about promoting your business in a more proactive manner than a few ads or flyers? Have you thought about any methods where customers will come to willingly? One such way to promote your business or cause is through event marketing. What is event marketing? It is essentially an activity of some sort related to the selling of a product, promotion of a business, or pushing of a type of service. It may be any number of things, but it is a unique and effective type of marketing that may suit you.
Event marketing can involve an event as simple as a sporting event. If your business promotes and sponsors a charity softball tournament for instance, that is essentially event marketing. How, though, do you choose the right event to make your marketing strategy a success? There are a couple of things to consider.
First, your event marketing should be something that will appeal to your target market. Your customers or potential customers should have a profile of some sort. And you, as a business owner, should know what the profile is. If you don’t know your customers, guess what? You aren’t going to be able to market to them. Your event should cater to that customer profile specifically. For your event to be a success you should appeal directly to your customers so that it is appealing to them. For example, if you sell sporting goods, do a sporting event of some sorts. If you sell magazines, do a book drive or a book signing event at your store. You must ALWAYS target your event to the profile of your customers.
Second, your event marketing campaign should also have some value to those attending. Make sure there is a good reason for them to attend other than just hearing about your products or services. They are not going to attend it just to hear a 15 minute commercial. Make it worth their while. Provide specials or discounts, offer free samples, promote a charity, or allow them to have fun like at a golf outing. Just make sure you are not putting on a big commercial where everyone will feel like they have wasted their time in attending. Give them reason to attend and give them as many reasons to do so as you can. Make them feel special and appreciated and they will reciprocate the feeling by being a loyal customer.
Event marketing is not only effective, but also is a fun type of marketing you can do for your business. It is an opportunity to have fun and to mingle with customers and potential customers while promoting your company in an active manner. Choose something of value and something that your customers will enjoy and your event marketing campaign will undoubtedly be a success.
Khemal Dole owns and operates
http://www.PaychecksDirect.com, a completely F*R*E*E
service which helps many first-timers and even
experts find their perfect Work At Home job. Visit
http://www.PaychecksDirect.com right now and see for
yourself why so many are flocking to his site.
Have you ever gone into a paint store with colors in mind to paint the walls of a room in your home or office? Let’s say you wanted to paint it soft green to match the pretty throw pillows that you have on your couch. You get to the paint store and YIKES! You look at the swatches and there are so many variations of the color green. Your head starts to spin and now you can’t quite remember if it was a green with a touch of blue or a green with a touch of yellow.
Tip: Take the throw pillow with you. The paint store won’t mind. They want the sale and this way there won’t be any mistakes on what you want.
Also remember that a wall is a large space and a color on a small throw pillow may not look so good on a large wall. Or you may find that after you get the paint on the wall that you just don’t like it as much as you thought you would.
Tip: I put the item of the color - let it be a pillow, towel, rug or vase up against the wall that I want to paint. I look at it for a couple of days imagining the wall in that color. You will be amazed that after a couple of days of looking at it you may change your mind and want to choose another color. Better to catch it this way then after you spend the money and time to paint your wall.
Tip: If you have a high ceiling and you want to make it look lower. Paint the ceiling a darker shade of the wall color. This will give it the illusion of being lower. If you have a low ceiling and you want to make it look higher. Paint the ceiling a lighter shade of the wall color or a white/off white. This will give the illusion of it being higher.
Interior decoration can be a lot of fun. After painting the room you can now accent it with many colors. Remember just because you paint the room green doesn’t mean that you have to accent it with only greens and browns. Throw in a coral, a blue, or other colors to liven up the room. Experiment with color. You will be amazed how throwing in a bold colored throw pillow can liven up a dreary room.
© A Gift Rack | 2006 | All Rights Reserved
About the author:
Karen Masek is an internet entrepreneur who currently has an online store which she designed, built and maintains. Her store is called “A Gift Rack” and can be found at http://www.agiftrack.com.
Re-print Rights: This article comes with FULL REPRINT RIGHTS which means that you’re free to re-publish them on your website, newsletter or e-book. The only requirement is that you include the ‘About The Author’ information shown at the bottom of each article in its entirety, including the hyperlink.
So, you want to buy a house. Do you pick up the phone and call a real estate agent? Absolutely not!
You don’t take an exam without studying if you expect to do well. Buying a home requires preparation on your part. There are questions to be answered before you make that first phone call.
Here we go…
Where do I want to live? You should zero in on a neighborhood that best fits your lifestyle needs. Are the schools top shelf? Is it close to your workplace? Is the neighborhood improving, declining or in transition? Is it convenient to shopping? Is it relatively crime free?
What requirements must the home meet? One story or two? What are the minimum number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and living areas you need? Do you want a formal dining room? What size lot do you need? What type of floors, i.e. wood, tile, carpet, do you prefer? Is a pool necessary? How important is a porch, patio, or deck? Do you require a minimum maintenance exterior?
How much can I afford to pay for this house? This is a biggie! I always and strongly recommend that before you begin your search, you contact at least two lending institutions to 1) see how much you are qualified to borrow 2) get a pre-qualification letter and 3) see what financial “deal” they can provide to you.
Are all real estate agents created equal? Of course not! The yellow pages are ads, not competency ratings. The name on an existing real estate sign doesn’t have a competency rating after it either. Sally might be your friend but that doesn’t mean that she is the best and most competent person to represent you. This is a business transaction, a big business transaction involving thousands of your dollars. You have to make a strong business decision here. Do your homework. Get referrals from satisfied people. Call agents. Then interview, interview, interview. Remember, it’s your money, a lot of your money. Don’t waste it. The most competent agents will negotiate the best price for you. It’s their fiduciary responsibility.
How many houses should I look at? Very simply, as many as are necessary and as few as possible. Buying a new house is a huge decision, not to be rushed into. But, your time is very valuable also. If you have done the homework above and you have selected an agent that listens to you, then you can eliminate viewing many homes that do not meet your requirements. This saves you time because you are focusing on the right group of homes from which to choose.
Is Murphy Law applicable to this process? Yes. Mr. Murphy has been hanging around for centuries messing things up for people. You’ve heard it many times before: if it can go wrong, it will! Please listen carefully to this. If you find the home you like, if it has the positives you are looking for and, if it doesn’t have major negatives, make an offer immediately. If you don’t, Mr. Murphy will make sure someone else buys it while you’re thinking about it. Don’t ask me why it happens, it just does.
It’s time to start doing your homework.
David McGuire is a Realtor in Dallas, Texas and a contributer to the
Flower Mound Homes Weblog.
After you’ve been using Microsoft Money for while and have been
balancing your account regularly, you will only irregularly have
trouble reconciling it. However, if you are just getting
started, you may have trouble getting your Money account to
balance. For that reason, let me offer some suggestions for
balancing a Money account that’s causing you trouble.
Check for missing transactions
Account balance trouble stems from only three causes:
Reason 1: You cleared a transaction the bank hasn’t recorded
Reason 2: You forgot to record a transaction, or perhaps several
transactions
Reason 3: Either you or your bank incorrectly recorded a
transaction
Therefore, when you find yourself with reconciliation troubles,
first make sure that you are not missing some transaction. Go
through the bank statement line for line, comparing each of the
transactions listed there with the contents of your account
register. If you find the bank statement lists a transaction
that your Money account register does not, then you need to
record it in Money.
Confirm you haven’t incorrectly cleared transactions
Once you confirm that the Microsoft Money account register
includes all transactions, verify that you have not incorrectly
cleared transactions that are still outstanding. To do this,
thoroughly review the Money account register and make sure that
each transaction marked with a “C” does, in fact, appear on the
bank statement.
Compare amounts
If the two reviews described in the preceding paragraphs don’t
explain the difference between your records and the bank’s, you
need to check the actual transaction amounts that you have
recorded against those shown in the bank register. In other
words, if the bank register shows a check to your mortgage
company for $500, you need to make sure that your account
register also records the check as $500.
Unfortunately, it is easy to incorrectly record transaction
amounts in the Money account register. All it takes is pressing
the wrong key. And, in fact, two data entry errors are
particularly difficult to see: transposition errors and sign
errors.
Watch for transpositions
Transposition errors occur when you transpose, or flip-flop, the
numbers in an amount. If you write a check for $123, but record
the check as $132, for example, you’ve transposed the 2 and the
3. And this error is hard to spot later. You look at the bank
statement, for example, and see the digits 123. Then when you
look at the account register, you see the digits 132. Unless you
are looking not just at the digits used but also at their order,
you may miss this error.
Beware of the signs
Sign errors occur when you enter a deposit as a withdrawal, or a
withdrawal as a deposit. All this really means is that you have
entered some transaction amount in the wrong column. Again, this
error is sometimes tough to spot because the transaction appears
both on the bank statement and in your register–just in the
wrong column in the Microsoft Money register.
If you come up with some difference with your records and the
bank’s that is irreconcilable, try dividing the error by 2. Then
look for a transaction equal to this result. For example, if you
have a $200 error, divide $200 by 2 to get the result $100. Then
look for a $100 transaction that is entered in the wrong column.
Some problems account reconciliation won’t catch
There are several common errors that account reconciliation
won’t catch. Reconciliation won’t catch when you forget to
record a transaction and the transaction hasn’t yet cleared the
bank. If you forget to record a check and the check is still
outstanding at the end of the statement month, for example, the
check doesn’t appear in your register and it doesn’t get listed
on your bank statement. Another kind of error that a bank
reconciliation won’t catch stems from entering a fictitious
transaction in the account register. For example, if you enter a
check in the Money account register that you never wrote or a
deposit you never made, the check or deposit will never clear
the bank.
Unfortunately, there is not much you can do to find these sorts
of errors. Mostly, you need to apply simple common sense to
prevent them. In the case of forgotten uncleared transactions,
your only recourse is to be careful in your record keeping. Try
to establish a system whereby you regularly record the checks
you write and the deposits you make.
When it comes to niche marketing, keywords are your best
friends. The reason for this is because keywords are what people
search for on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Excite, and if
it matches keywords provided on your Web site then your web page
will be returned as a result. As you know, when results are
returned from search engines they are ranked in order of
correlation between the keywords searched for and those on your
site.
It is obvious that you will want to have as many possible
keywords within pertaining to your niche market on your web page
in order to drive more people to your site. Although there are
thousands of keywords and combinations of keywords, not to
mention misspellings, that potential customers might search for,
you will want to make sure you have all of the most popular
search terms and as many of the others as possible. These
keywords equal Web page traffic, which equals income and is
certainly worth your time to put forth the effort to find out
what the most popular keywords are for your niche business.
Niche marketing keywords can be difficult if you are trying to
think of all the possible combinations alone, so it might help
significantly to get a software program that will basically do
all the work for you as well as let you know the most popular
keywords for your niche business and help you come up with
additional combinations. You can purchase these online and can
also compare different aspects of different programs to see
which one will be best suited for you.
Once you have all of the keywords you want to include on your
web page, you might be curious as to how to do it and still
maintain a professional looking page. The answer is keyword
articles.Keyword articles use particular keywords within a story
pertaining to it. As a result, your web page has useful
information about a particular service, product, and keyword and
the keyword is incorporated on your web page enough so as to
return your web page as a result. When your web page is returned
as a top result in the search engines, it means your traffic
will increase and subsequently your business.
Keyword articles are easy to write if you are interested in
doing it yourself, however if not you can freelance the work
out. Doing it yourself is certainly cheaper if you are trying to
market on a tight budget, but having the work done by a
freelancer might save you considerable time that needs to be
focused elsewhere.
Niche marketing keywords sounds as if it could be a little
tedious and difficult, however it does not have to be that way.
You simply need to establish the keywords for your niche market
and then incorporate them in articles on your web page. It is
guaranteed that the more information and keywords your web page
contains, the more traffic and business you will see.
Copyright © Aneesh Nat
Permission to Republish: This article may be reproduced entirety
free of charge, electronically or in print, provided it appears
with the included copyright and author’s resource box with live
website links.
