Posted February 21, 2012 at 1:48 am
by Marla Brill
Karin Prangley, a 33-year-old Chicago estate planning attorney, attempted to guess her father-in-law’s password to gain access to his business computer after he suffered a debilitating stroke several years ago at age 62. None of them worked.
“At the time he owned a building supply company, and he ran most of the business through his Yahoo e-mail account,” Prangley says. “But he hadn’t left his password with anyone, so the family had no way of accessing the contents. We didn’t know which orders had been filled, what was coming in, who the business owed money to, or who to bill.”
Yahoo would only provide the password with a court order. “As an attorney, I knew that takes at least a month,” Prangley says. “The business couldn’t wait that long.” With important records sealed off, the business lost a significant amount of money and eventually closed.
Computer passwords, increasingly the portals to our financial and personal lives, can be sealed in [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 21, 2012 at 12:53 am
via International Living
You’ll find lots of climate choice in our top retirement havens for 2012, and a good climate is an important consideration for those who wish to move overseas. In fact, thousands of expats have turned in their snow shovels for good and moved to places where the weather is better.
In places where the weather is warm year-round, not only do you eliminate the need for heavy winter clothes, but you gain in quality of life. Better weather means you’re outside more. And that often translates to “healthier.” Plus it usually means lower utility bills, too.
Scoring a country on its climate is difficult, because everyone has their own ideas on what sort weather they enjoy most. But it was Italy’s ability to cater to all tastes that saw it surge to the top of IL’s Retirement Index 2012 in the Climate category.
The weather in Italy is quite different from the stereotypical Mediterranean climate with many of its inland northern regions enjoying weather more on par with what is found with southern France and other continental countries further north. This tends to translate into hot summers and often quite dramatic, picturesque snow-swept winters.
But head south to the coastal areas of Liguria and most of the peninsula south of Florence and you get the more typical Mediterranean weather—mild winters and warm, dry summers.
Altitude also plays a part. Italy’s highland areas regularly get snow during winter while the lower-lying land in the south rarely gets uncomfortably cold, even in winter.
France, coming in second, also enjoys a varied climate. Northern regions are temperate while north-eastern areas have a more [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 20, 2012 at 3:55 am
by Joshua M. Brown
The obituary of John Fairfax (who passed at 74 years old on February 8th) has absolutely lit up the internet over this weekend, he is being called the real-life Most Interesting Man in the World by all who read it…
At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle.
At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. Afterward he was apprenticed to a pirate. To please his mother, who did not take kindly to his being a pirate, he briefly managed a mink farm, one of the few truly dull entries on his otherwise crackling résumé, which lately included a career as a professional gambler.
You have to get over there and check this thing out, it’s an amazing life story [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 20, 2012 at 12:19 am
by Marc Hack
Live by choice, not by chance. Make changes, not excuses. Be motivated, not manipulated. Work to excel, not compete. Listen to your own inner voice, not the jumbled opinions of everyone else.
This is the way to inspire people! This is how you can grow into the best version of YOU!
Here are a few more ideas to get you started with inspiring everyone around you [continue]...
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 19, 2012 at 11:14 pm
In light of Google’s latest user-tracking snafu, a guide to leaving behind fewer digital breadcrumbs and fingerprints.
by Quentin Fottrell
Online, everyone’s an open book — and an open wallet. Users increasingly wear their hearts on their screens, and security experts say sites are growing more adept at tracking their every move.
Privacy settings clearly aren’t enough judging from revelations Friday that Google and other advertisers found creative ways to exploit Apple’s Safari web-browsing software.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google disabled code that allowed it to circumvent privacy settings after being contacted by the paper. In a statement, Google says it didn’t use these “cookies” — little pieces of code stored on user computers or mobile devices that tell a company what sites consumers visit on the web and what they do there.
But this latest episode raises an important question for consumers: Can we maintain a healthy virtual lifestyle — interact with friends, buy products and visit our favorite sites — and still remain incognito?
“The odds are against you as a consumer, your online life is probably already compromised by spyware,” says Rick Dakin, CEO of IT security business Coalfire.
SmartMoney.com spoke to some experts about how to remain invisible online to advertisers, market researchers and other businesses who buy and sell information about consumer behavior.
Here are their tips [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 15, 2012 at 2:32 am
Founder Scott Finkelstein is expanding NextLot, this week’s Inc. 5000 applicant of the week, for the next generation of Web users.
by Eric Markowitz
As we process applications for the 2012 Inc. 500|5000, we thought it would be worthwhile to shine a spotlight on some of the companies that are vying to appear on our ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. (For more information and to apply, click here). One that caught our eye was NextLot in Raleigh, North Carolina.
If Scott Finkelstein has his way, the online auction business will never be the same.
Finklestein, the third generation of Finklestein men to work in the auction business, founded NextLot, a privately branded auction software for online auctions, in 2007.
“What we do is help auction companies post timed Ebay-style and live webcast online auctions,” he says. “People can watch and listen in and bid from all over the world.”
Each year, nearly $300 billion items—from farm equipment to artwork—are sold in auctions. Last year, NextLot sold $1 billion of that sum, netting nearly $2.5 million among 100 clients in various industries. The company sells [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 15, 2012 at 1:53 am
by Troy White
I admit it…
…I recently got hooked on True Blood.
I have watched the first season, and it is fantastic!
Between the darkness, the characters, the blood and the fantastic story lines they use… I am a fan.
Much like Sons of Anarchy that I wrote about before.
For far too many years, the shows that were playing on late-night television were awful. No creativity. Copy-and-paste
plot lines. Crap characters.
Every once in a while one would pop up that was ok… but most stunk up the bloody screen.
Something shifted and the writers and creatives are cranking out some genuinely good shows.
Considering I am not much of a tv guy, it pains me to admit I am taken in by some of these new series.
Like True Blood.
The story of Vampires and Humans co-existing on earth.
The story of how the vampires feed, and convert humans to vampires.
The stories of some very unusual personal powers that some of the humans have… bordering on as scary of a power as fangs are.
And Anna Paquin is just hot in this show!
She makes True Blood shine.
I also LOVE the names they have created for the show.
“Fangbangers” is one I love! This is the name of the humans who love to get bit and banged by the vampires. It’s a whole subculture of humans that take great pleasure in this.
Creating unique names like this is a skill and art in itself.
One you should be practicing!
It makes book titles more interesting.
Subject lines.
Headlines.
Product names.
Even dog names. My daughters and I have a game we play at the dog park. We go around and create new names for each dog we see, based on how they look and their personality.
We have a blast doing this… and it is teaching my girls how fun it can be to create names like this and to use their creativity in all kinds of innovative ways.
Try it.
True Blood also makes me think of a few other things that relate to you and I.
…and our ability to shine in our own businesses.
The first thing us humans need to be weary of… Time Vampires. They are everywhere!
Those innocent looking phone calls or emails that drain you of a precious hour out of your day. It may not seem like much to the person calling, but each hour sitting on the phone is a significant chunk of real, money-making, work not getting done.
Be very, very careful of the time vampires.
Avoid them like the plague if possible, and cut off their blood supply (your time) at the pass. ”I have another call in 10
minutes” usually repels them like garlic.
Also be very careful of the entrepreneurial spirit vampires.
They are the ones who try and suck the passion out of your entrepreneurial drive.
They try and make you believe that going back to a job is the most honourable thing a mere mortal can do.
They do everything in their evil power to suck you dry and make you feel completely drained…
…energy-less and ready to sink deep into the deep dark hallows of depression.
Been there, done that… got the bumper sticker.
Avoid it.
Do whatever it takes.
My mission this year is change.
BIG CHANGE.
Positive change.
Forward change.
…And I have made many changes already.
But they weren’t easy to do.
Nor will they ever be.
BIG CHANGE takes guts. It takes ‘testicular fortitude’ as one friend says.
Few can do well on change…
…but the new era of entrepreneurs THRIVE on change.
Care to join me in a whole new world?
One where YOU are in control… and one where YOU know what types of garlic, sunlight, or wooden stakes it takes to slaughter the vampires in your life.
You in?
Good.
Start with the biggest areas of your life that need change right now.
List them out.
Pick one.
GET IT DONE.
No more excuses.
Just do it.
Fight the fear and do it.
Deal with the tears that may come…
…and move forward faster.
I am there at your side right along the way.
Promise.
Let me know how it goes and what I can do to help.
Troy
PS: One of the greatest things I personally did to help myself make the necessary changes at a faster pace was to start writing more.
There is a therapeutic quality to writing that can propel your business forward at breakneck speed.
But again, it takes guts to do and motivation to start.
If you want to start now… get the Story Selling Home Study Course and I will also give you my 31k club training series. For the next 31 days I will fire you up and get you writing more often, with greater profits as your goal.
The 31k club has transformed many lives of those who went through the Story Selling Coaching. Now you get it free with the Story Selling Home Study course!
PPS: One other way you can crank up your ability to innovate and implement is to get more ideas with action plans.
If you aren’t on my daily email list yet, you should be!
Mon-Fri I send you shorter articles that get you thinking differently about growing your business.
You will love them.
One click and you are signed up…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 15, 2012 at 12:57 am
by Joel Runyon
I was talking to a friend the other day. They’re in their senior year of college and enjoying things mostly. I asked them what they were going to do after college, and they really had no idea. After a few more minutes of prodding, my friend admitted,
I really don’t know, but I’m scared to death.
Good! I told them. If you’re scared to death, you’re doing it right.
I think everyone starts out scared. Scared they’re doing it wrong, scared they’re going to make a mistake, scared they’re going to fail. Over time, we’re taught, that you should take the safe way, do things you’re qualified for. Be nice, stay comfortable and in return, you won’t have to scared.
We gravitate towards comfort, and are lulled in by it’s but over time that comfort zone we’re lulled into turns into a sort of apathy. Every once in a while you need a good scare to get you jolted back on the right path (but that’s always much easier to say than do).
A Good Scare
A month ago, I really scared myself for the first time in a long time. I went skiing.
Every year a bunch of friends from college get together and catch up. This time we went skiing. I’m moderately coordinated, but I’m not a big cold-weather fan and usually do what I can to avoid it (like going to an island).
I had been skiing before, but it was a while ago – as in at least 15 years. Since then, my only experience with skiing was avoiding [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 14, 2012 at 3:47 am
by Jerrold Mundis
You can have more money. And you can have it — get it — without turning your life upside down or driving yourself nuts. Seriously.
I got it that way, quietly, simply, and still am. You can, too. Maybe only a modest amount more, maybe a lot more. I don’t know. But I do know that you can have more. I’m not doing anything so far as concept and technique go that you can’t either. I just work the simple little four-point program that follows. You’re welcome to it.
Here’s what I do — and don’t do.
I don’t debt and haven’t for 28 years now.
I know: using debt as a verb is unlovely. But it helps to distinguish that act from other uses of money, to be clear about what is actually being done — not spending, buying, enjoying, but: going into debt.
Readers of Get Rich Slowly and other personal finance blogs almost certainly know that using unsecured credit is a bad idea. But I’ll tell you: It’s more than a bad idea. It’s a catastrophe. If any single thing can crush, break, and poison a life, kill anything of value or pleasure in it, it’s unsecured debt, the sustained and mounting pressure of it over months, years, and even decades.
In his play A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen wrote more than 130 years ago, “There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing or debt.”
True. I’ve never seen anyone for whom it isn’t.
By the time I bottomed out on debt myself, way back in [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Posted February 14, 2012 at 2:32 am
by Susie Steiner
There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps. A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is ‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard’.
Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years working in palliative care, caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. She recorded their dying epiphanies in a blog called Inspiration and Chai, which gathered so much attention that she put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom.
“When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently,” she says, “common themes surfaced again and again.”
Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by Ware:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
“This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.”
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
“This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their [continue]…
Filed Under: Lifestyle Design
Category Feed:
To get an emailed digest of all posts, join our free Wealth Wire News Feed
Stay connected to the pulse of Renegade Investing & Wealth Generation
Subscribe to our email wire and receive hand- picked DAILY-updated financial, investing, and economic news that is usable, unique, and timely.
Find Out More
or sign up below
Loading ...
Add Your Comment | 0 Comments