"The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today. And that's how I look at my life. I will be better as a golfer, I will be better as a person, I will be better as a father, I will be a better husband, I will be better as a friend. That's the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better." Tiger Woods
1. Retirement is a Reality Don't wait to see if you can play catch up. 2. Not some one else, do something now It's up to you to take care of yourself. 3. Whenever there is free money, take it Work for a boss who will make matching contributions to your retirement plan. 4. Treat retirement as part of saving plan Have contributions deducted automatically from pay cheque. 5. If you aren't saving, you're setting yourself up A little saving a month will help to accumulate for long term wealth. 6. The power of compounding The earlier you save, the more money will work for you. 7. Don't count on any future help There are no sure things in life and retirement. 8. The difference between good and bad debts Credit card is bad debt when you don't pay it off expeditiously. 9. No stupid questions, only stupid decisions. Financial independence equals ability to save?! 10. Live life Don't save for tomorrow at the expense of today.
Free Personal Finance Websites... Clear CheckBook Mint Wesabe "If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy." Anon
As the New Year approaches, traditionally, every households would be busy clearing old stuff...
... more so, it's been found that people living in a moldy home may be more likely to suffer from depression, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the Brown School of Medicine in Providence, R.I., and published in the American Journal of Public Health.
"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect." Oren Arnold
Extract from an interesting article by Michael Litman...
I used to think my self worth and SELF esteem were tied to how much money I made. So if I did well, I was awesome. And if I didn't I was a fool.
I later learned this is a one way ticket to unhappiness and never feeling truly fulfilled. I thought 'who I was' was in how much money I made or the applause from others at that moment. What a lie we've been taught. What a lie our culture has ingrained in many.
You are not the money you've made or haven't made yet. You're not. Your SELF is the most important part of you. If you feel good about yourSELF, you soar. If you don't, you struggle. Have you bought into the lie that attaches your self worth with your income? You are not your weekly check.
You are a GIFT to this world. You're a PRESENT for a certain population or group of people. WHO you are is much bigger than your monthly salary or latest commission check. You can feel good about your SELF whether you're making millions or barely getting by (you'll turn things around).
What happens is most people's self worth is too attached to their income and then when their income is down they beat up their SELF. Their SELF gets hit. They stop loving their SELF. They start disrespecting their SELF through negative selftalk. They then go to other's for approval or acceptance because they've lost themSELVES.
McDonald's and Children's Health: The Production of New Customers
I once chatted with an inmate who lamented that his grand children would never join him at the heartland coffee shop nearby but prefer the further away 'posh' eatery at the central shopping center, of course, such distances are narrowed...
In a recent study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 1 researchers found that low income 3 to 5 year old children preferred the taste of hamburgers, chicken, French fries, carrots or low fat milk if they thought the products were from McDonald's, whether or not they actually were...
According to its 2006 Annual Report, McDonald's is the leading global foodservice retailer with more than 30,000 local restaurants serving 52 million people in more than 100 countries each day. Its 2006 revenues were $ 21.6 billion, up 16% from 2004...
In 1998, 89% of children in the United States eight years of age or younger had visited a McDonald's at least once a month. In response to this information, R.J. Milano, a Mcdonald's Vice President stated that their goal for the following year was to reach 100%. He boasted "I'm going to own every kid transaction out there." 3(p. 291)...
Obesity is now responsible for 300,000 deaths a year, according to a U.S. Surgeon General’s report.
"One quarter of what you eat keeps you alive; the other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive." Unknown Hospital Bill Size
You may be in an abusive relationship if he or she: - Is jealous or possessive toward you. (Jealousy is the primary symptom of abusive relationships; it is also a core component of Sexual Addictions and Love Addiction.) - Tries to control you by being very bossy or demanding. - Tries to isolate you by demanding you cut off social contacts and friendships. - Is violent and / or loses his or her temper quickly. - Pressures you sexually, demands sexual activities you are not comfortable with. - Abuses drugs or alcohol. - Claims you are responsible for his or her emotional state. (This is a core diagnostic criteria for Codependency.) - Blames you when he or she mistreats you. - Has a history of bad relationships. - Your family and friends have warned you about the person or told you that they are concerned for your safety or emotional well being. - You frequently worry about how he or she will react to things you say or do. - Makes "jokes" that shame, humiliate, demean or embarrass you, weather privately or around family and friends. - Your partner grew up witnessing an abusive parental relationship, and/or was abused as a child. - Your partner "rages" when they feel hurt, shame, fear or loss of control. - Both parties in abusive relationships may develop or progress in drug or alcohol dependence in a (dysfunctional) attempt to cope with the pain. - You leave and then return to your partner repeatedly, against the advice of your friends, family and loved ones. - You have trouble ending the relationship, even though you know inside it's the right thing to do.
He says; she says Woman: Would you get married again if I died? Man: Definitely not! Woman: Why not -- don't you like being married? Man: Of course I do. Woman: Then why wouldn't you remarry? Man: Okay, I'd get married again. Woman: You would? (With a hurtful look on her face) Man: (audible groan) Woman: Would you sleep with her in our bed? Man: Where else would we sleep? Woman: Would you put away my pictures, and replace them with pictures of her? Man: That would seem like the proper thing to do. Woman: And would you let her use my golf clubs? Man: She can't use them -- she's left-handed. Woman: (silence) Man: Sh*t.
"The only way to have a friend is to be one." Ralph Waldo Emerson
According to Terry Martin, use the smoking facts below, to fuel the fire in your belly that will help you beat your smoking habit, once and for all.
Smoking Facts and Tobacco Statistics 1) There are 1.1 billion smokers in the world today, and if current trends continue, that number is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by the year 2025.
2) China is home to 300 million smokers who consume approximately 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year, or 3 million cigarettes a minute.
3) Worldwide, approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased a minute, 15 billion are sold each day, and upwards of 5 trillion are produced and used on an annual basis.
4) Five trillion cigarette filters weigh approximately 2 billion pounds.
5) It's estimated that trillions of filters, filled with toxic chemicals from tobacco smoke, make their way into our environment as discarded waste yearly.
6) While they may look like white cotton, cigarette filters are made of very thin fibers of a plastic called cellulose acetate. A cigarette filter can take between 18 months and 10 years to decompose.
7) A typical manufactured cigarette contains approximately 8 or 9 milligrams of nicotine, while the nicotine content of a cigar is 100 to 200 milligrams, with some as high as 400 milligrams.
8) There is enough nicotine in four or five cigarettes to kill an average adult if ingested whole. Most smokers take in only one or two milligrams of nicotine per cigarette however, with the remainder being burned off.
9) Ambergris, otherwise known as whale vomit is one of the hundreds of possible additives used in manufactured cigarettes.
10) Benzene is a known cause of acute myeloid leukemia, and cigarette smoke is a major source of benzene exposure. Among U.S. smokers, 90 percent of benzene exposures come from cigarettes.
11) Radioactive lead and polonium are both present in low levels in cigarette smoke.
12) Hydrogen cyanide, one of the toxic byproducts present in cigarette smoke, was used as a genocidal chemical agent during World War II.
13) Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 cancer-causing chemical compounds, 11 of which are known to be Group 1 carcinogens.
14) The smoke from a smoldering cigarette often contains higher concentrations of the toxins found in cigarette smoke than exhaled smoke does.
15) Kids are still picking up smoking at the alarming rate of 3,000 a day in the U.S., and 80,000 to 100,000 a day worldwide.
16) Worldwide, one in five teens age 13 to 15 smoke cigarettes.
17) Approximately one quarter of the youth alive in the Western Pacific Region (East Asia and the Pacific) today will die from tobacco use.
18) Half of all long-term smokers will die a tobacco-related death.
19) Every eight seconds, a human life is lost to tobacco use somewhere in the world. That translates to approximately 5 million deaths annually.
20) Tobacco use is expected to claim one billion lives this century unless serious anti-smoking efforts are made on a global level.
Tobacco offers us a life of slavery, a host of chronic, debilitating illnesses and ultimately death. And think about it: We pay big bucks for those "benefits." Sad, but true. Take your life back! If you're a smoker wishing you could quit, make your mind up to dig your heels in and do the work necessary to get this monkey off your back now. You'll never regret it.
Preview
Experts say the vast majority of head and neck cancer cases are linked to tobacco use, including smoking and smokeless tobacco. Heavy drinking also increases one's risk. If found early, these cancers are often curable - showing the need for early detection of the tumours.
'We know who gets head and neck cancer - people who smoke and drink a lot and tend to be at an older age. The problem is that it's sometimes difficult to diagnose until it's at its late stages and difficult to treat and cure,' researcher Dr Joseph Califano of the Johns Hopkins department of head and neck surgery.
Many of us would never think about our actions in a long term perspective, we're just too busy trying to use our influence over an encounter with someone to gain attention/privilege without realizing the harm it can cause to others or ourselves, especially so within a group of people who are close to one another...
Here is an interesting story regarding the behavior.
There was once a little boy with a bad temper. So his father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he was to hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had already driven 37 nails into the fence. Then the number of nails gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally, the boy thought that he would not lose his patience again or randomly had a fit of temper. He told his father about it who then suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. It's like you plunge a knife into a man and then draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say sorry, the wound will forever be there."
A verbal abuse is as bad as a physical one. Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they are there to want to open their hearts with us.
Think about it the next time you lose your temper with someone. You'll never know when they may be your only source of assistance in a time of need.
"Anger corrupts faith in the same way that vinegar destroys honey." Prophet Muhammad
"Scotland isn't going to make anything out of it. The only person who will make anything is Mr. Trump... It's all about the houses - and not affordable housing. Houses for rich people - there are too many of them running the world. It's nothing to do with the golf course... They say that money talks; not with me, it doesn't. He (Trump) has no change of getting it." Michael Forbes
"You are going to teach him a very valuable lesson in life, and that is the value of one's house, home, land and true happiness. You have it and he does not. Stay put." Well-wisher from Adelaide, Australia.
The 'rich' and the 'poor' A rich man was horrified when he found a fisherman lying lazily beside his boat, with his hands folded behind his head, admiring the far-out ocean scenery.
The rich man: "Why aren’t you out fishing?" The fisherman: "Because I have caught enough fish for the day."
The rich man: "Why don’t you catch some more?" The fisherman: "What would I do with them?"
The rich man: "You could earn more money. With that, you could buy a new motor so your boat could go into deeper waters and catch more fishes. Then you could make enough money to buy nylon nets. These would bring you more fishes and more money. Soon you would have enough money to own two boats ... maybe even a fleet of boats. Then you would be a rich man like me." The fisherman: "What would I do then?"
The rich man: "Then you could really enjoy life." The fisherman: "What do you think I am doing right now?"
It's easy to get caught in the world's trap of working harder... the stonecutter story
Contentment is a difficult attitude to learn, but so important. It's easy to get caught in the world's trap of working harder and harder to earn more and more, when we may well already have what can provide us with the greatest possible happiness.
"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." (1 Timothy 6:6-8)
According to Harris Interactive, the 2007 poll measured the American public perceptions of 23 professions.
These professions as having:- 'Very great prestige' 'Considerable prestige' 'Some prestige' 'Hardly any prestige at all' 'Not ranked' 'Not sure'
The most prestigious occupation on the list: 61% of adults consider Firefighters 54% of adults consider Scientists and Teachers 52% of adults consider Doctors and Military Officers & Half of the adults polled consider the Nurses
- If you can't get your work done in the first 24 hours, work nights. - If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done. - Following the rules will not get the job done. - Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules. - No matter how much you do, you never do enough. - A pat on the back is only a few centimetres from a kick in the butt. - Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted. - It doesn't matter what you do, it only matters what you say you've done, and what you're going to do. - After any salary raise, you will have less money at the end of the month than you did before. - If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a fool about it. Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he/she is supposed to be doing. - If you are good, you will complete all your assigned work. If you're really good, you'll get out of it. - You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk. - People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn't. - The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong.
"Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs." Malcolm Forbes
They are as follows:- 1. Zeng Manwu, battalion leader, with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) 2. Yang Wei, gymnast, won several international competitions 3. Li Changsong, "hero", from the Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) 4. Pei Chunliang, village head, from Henan Province 5. Wang Jie, handicapped person, who runs a secondary school for the handicapped 6. Xu Chuanxi, dean, of the Sino-US Law Institute of the China University of Political Science and Law 7. Wu Qiang, police officer, who has participated in United Nations peace-keeping missions 8. Dong Yuexia, female expert, from the oil field 9. Xu Benyu, postgraduate student, who has devoted himself to teaching in a remote hilly village 10. Lu Meng, prize-winning ballet actress
The 10 were selected from 45 candidates recommended by 30 local organizations of the Chinese Communist Youth League and the All-China Youth Federation, as well as the General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
The judges, who were selected from 600 people by random computer generation, cast a secret vote to choose the winners.
Cash prizes for essays on wider income gap by Chua Hian Hou
STUDENTS are being invited to write essays on one of Singapore's hottest topics today - with the added lure of sizeable cash prizes.
The essay competition, organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Economic Society of Singapore (ESS), has this theme:
Singapore's Growing income disparities: Causes, Consequences And Policy Options
The topic, according to an MAS-ESS press statement, is one that has 'captured the attention of not just policymakers but also analysts, commentators, academics and the general public'.
For students, the competition offers a timely opportunity to 'debate and analyse', as well as to suggest ways for Singapore to meet this challenge, the release said.
Essays submitted, it added, should 'provide in-depth analysis of the factors underlying the trends in income distribution in Singapore... There should be both breadth and depth in discussing policy options to meet present and future challenges'.
Competition topics in previous years have included lessons learnt from the Asian financial crisis, how Singapore can stay competitive, and the role of the government in an increasingly borderless world.
There are two categories: one for university students and one for pre-university students. The top prize for the university category is $5,000 and for the pre-university category, $2,000. Winners and runners-up will be offered internships with the MAS.
According to LiveScience the top 10 deadliest animals... 10. Poison Dart Frog - Each frog produces enough of the toxin to kill 10 humans. 9. Cape Buffalo - When faced with a predator, cape buffaloes charge head on. That's 1,500 pounds of beast topped off with two big, sharp horns. 8. Polar Bear - Get between one and its cub and it could easily rip off your head with one swipe of its giant paw. 7. Elephant - They kill more than 500 people a year worldwide. 6. Australian Saltwater Crocodile - In the blink of an eye, it'll lunge at prey, pulling it under water to drown and dismember. 5. African Lion - These big cats are near perfect hunters. 4. Great White Shark - Blood in the water can excite these sharks into a feeding frenzy, where they'll use all 3,000 of their teeth to bite anything that moves. 3. Australian Box Jellyfish - This salad-bowl sized jellyfish can have up to 60 tentacles each 15 feet long. Each tentacle has 5,000 stinging cells and enough toxin to kill 60 humans. 2. Asian Cobra - responsible for the largest chunk of 50,000 deaths by snakebite a year. 1. Mosquito - responsible for the deaths of more than two million people a year.
What Personality Type Are You? This test uses the nine forces of the Enneagram to help you understand your personality and become a more balanced and integrated individual.
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