Wisdom section of my book in a nutshell

What follows is the best gems of wit adapted from the wisdom section of my book…

Live well within your means- spend less than you make- and invest what you save.  That’s how most self-made wealthy people got there.  If you spend every dollar you earn, you will never accumulate any nest egg.  It’s as simple as that.

Always save at least 10% of your gross pay.  No excuses, no exceptions.  Make that percentage higher, if you can.

Increase your desire for wealth and you will attract more of it.  Have a dream, i.e., a well-defined goal that motivates you.

Save money by taking advantage of free Internet and e-mail service, rather than paying for it.  Buying things on the Internet is often less expensive than buying the same things in stores.

You are probably paying too much for phone services.  If your total phone bills, including premium services, long distance, cell phone and Internet is over $50 per month, see pages 84 and 93-94 of my book.

Do a through analysis (study the options) before making a major purchase, such as a car or home.

Buy the lowest cost option for homogeneous goods.  Know the best option (by doing research) for non-homogenous goods.  See page 92 of my book, if you don’t know the difference.

Put your life’s goals in writing.  Unwritten goals are wishy-washy, and are not worth the paper they are not printed on.

Learn to be assertive. It’s the happy medium between being too aggressive and too timid.

Be honest and dependable.  Do what you say you will do.

Get the Biography Channel.  See what makes great people great.

Avoid most regular network TV.  It’s designed for the “average” TV viewer (remember- you are FAR above average).

Own a good quality home computer and know how to use it.

Read non-fiction books at least one hour per day.

Read: “the Richest Man in Babylon,” by George Clayson, The 100 by  Michael H. Hart, and  “Jokes, Riddles and Wisdom,” by Roger Kuder.

What to do about spam

Everyone hates spam (unsolicited commercial e-mails, sent out in bulk).  The spam control software programs most people rely on don’t really help the situation much.  What they all do is put suspected spam files in a separate folder.  The problem with this approach is that the programs sometimes put stuff you want in the spam folder and sometimes leave spam in your inbox.  So you wind up reading each piece of spam you get before you delete it.  The only thing the spam programs do for you is put them all in one place.  This may save you a little time.  But here are a few other ideas:

1.  Forward any spam you get to the Federal Trade Commission (spam@uce.gov).  Include full headers.  Right click on the upper pane of Outlook, and then click on options to find the headers.

2. Never reply to a spammer, buy from a spammer or click on a spammer’s link, even if that link claims to be to take you off their list.  Spammers definitely can not be trusted.

3. Never post the e-mail address you actually use to receive e-mail anywhere on the web.  If you do, spammers, will definitely pick up your address with spider/bot software that requires no effort on their part, and the volume of spam you will get will multiply.

4. One effective method to stop spam is to change your e-mail address to another address, when the volume of spam you are getting is too high; close out the old address, and notify the people you want to correspond with of your new address.  That’s a pain in the butt, but effective.

5. Some e-mail services, such as Earthlink, ask any senders not on your approved list to read a graphic, rather than text message and ask the sender to copy it into a blank  (automated programs often used by spammers can’t do this) and then send you a request to be added to your approved list.  This seems to me like a fairly good approach.

6. For additional ideas on spam, check out the following webpage:  http://www.humorandwisdom.com/spam.htm.

Resources for web marketing and social media

Lots of people are now using social networking websites to connect with other people.  Watch this 1.48-minute you-tube that explains the craze: http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking  The most popular “social media”/web marketing sites are: Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.  Another way to web market is to blog—when you do you establish your own website.  Here is some useful information about each, why you might want to use them and how to.

 

Facebook—

Reason to use: to better “connect” with people you already know.  You chose friends, they need to approve your choice of them by notifying you back, then you post as often as you want—what you are doing, planning to do, etc.  You make a little of your life semi-public in exchange for getting a glimpse at other folks lives.

Good websites to check for more information:

• How to get started on facebook: http://bit.ly/llVC7.
• 10 reasons to use facebook for business: http://bit.ly/8PbbS.

 

Linkedin—

Reason to use: this is more oriented toward business. You find jobs, employees, customers, suppliers, etc by searching areas of interest.  It lets you see the “hidden networks” in your life.

Good websites to check for more information:

• 2.29-minute you-tube on linkedin: http://www.commoncraft.com/linkedin
• Beginner’s guide to Linked-in: http://bit.ly/10hYqU.  
• The lowdown on linkedin: http://bit.ly/5ztH1.
• How to use linkedin effectively: http://bit.ly/v8YSV.

 

Twitter—

Reason to use—to connect with people in your field that you don’t already know.

Good websites to check for more information:

• 2.23-minute you-tube on twitter: http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter
• 10 ways to use Twitter to promote your blog: http://bit.ly/bcszV.
• Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners: http://bit.ly/Kdynb.  
• 50 ideas for using Twitter for business: http://bit.ly/15zGWe.  
• 25 page book on how to use twitter for business:  http://bit.ly/141RRu.  
• 21 step cheat sheet for profiting from Twitter: http://bit.ly/DNFJV.

 

Blogging—

Reason to use—To have a means of telling the story of yourself to the world in more detail.  Express yourself on whatever interests you.  With a blog you will have a website because a blog is a type of website.  This is the easiest and least expensive way to get your own website on the web.

Good websites to check for more information:

• 3-minute you-tube on blogging: http://www.commoncraft.com/blogs
• Introduction to blogging: http://bit.ly/MccvP.   
• 10 Blog promotion tips:  http://bit.ly/3AEwK.
• 10 ways bloggers can use twitter: http://bit.ly/bcszV.
• Things bloggers need to know: http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging
• A complete guide to SEO friendly blogging: http://bit.ly/844iL.
• Top 7 tips to write an effective business blog: http://www.wordbiz.com/newsletter/061605.html
• For a 45 minute video on how to use wordpress to blog, see the following video (WordPress is the most popular site to use to set up a blog): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU

Reasons to eat vegatables over meat that you may not have thought about.

–information source: Being Vegetarian for Dummies by Suzanne Havala, MS. RD.

It curbs forest depletion.

Because the worldwide demand for meat is so great– trees and forests all over the world are being felled to make way for cattle grazing.  It takes far more land to provide a given volume of meat than the same volume of plant food.  Trees produce oxygen humans need to breath.  The more trees we fell to produce meat the less trees and oxygen to breathe we will have on this earth.

It curbs fresh water depletion.

Cattle farms suck up tremendous volumes of the world’s under ground water aquifers in order to irrigate grazing lands for livestock.  Pesticides and fertilizers used to grow foods for cattle and fecal matter from the cattle contaminate our water supplies.

It curbs fossil fuel depletion.

Fossil fuels such as petroleum are used extensively to transport animal feed and animals and to run the farms where animals are raised.

It conserves resources to better feed the world.

Fewer resources are required to produce vegetables than an equal volume of meat.  Because of this there would be more food to feed the world if our population ate more vegetables and less meat.

It’s the smart thing to do, per many noted smart thinkers.

Some of the greatest minds throughout history have been persons who chose to be vegetarians, including: Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Sir Isaac Newton and Plato.

The high fiber content fills you up.

Dietary fiber found in vegetables is only partially digested by our bodies. The part not digested is flushed out so that you tend to get a full feeling without taking in so many calories.  This enables you to lose weight without feeling hungry.

Sugar and sugar substitutes

Most people know that sugar is not good for you.  But many people don’t realize how bad for you it is, how many products it is found in and how safe the sugar substitutes are according to numerous studies conducted to date.

The Nutrition Action Health letter website states: “Sugar is a waste of calories, promotes obesity, causes tooth decay, and dilutes the nutritional quality of your diet.”  Use of sugar can also lead diabetes. Because Americans consume so much sugar, type II diabetes is on the rise.  Once you have diabetes, there is no cure. 23.5 million or 10.7 percent of adults have type 2 diabetes, per http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/statistics/#allages.  Diabetes can result in severe complications, including limb amputation, blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke and premature death.

The US Department of Agriculture did many studies to result in their well know “food guide pyramid.”  It states that sweets should be used sparingly.

Whole books have been written on the relationship between sugar and obesity, probably the most famous is Sugar Busters!: Cut Sugar to Trim Fat (ISBN: 0345425588).  The author’s abstract: “Low-fat diets don’t work. The reason: because they are high in sugar. Sugar produces insulin that, in large amounts, keeps weight from coming off — in spite of strict dieting and exercise.”

Some products that you might not realize contain sugar are ketchup, every brand of breakfast cereal except Fiber One and the entire Slimfast line of so called “diet” products, which all have sugar as their primary ingredient—diet products they are not.  You can verify this for yourself by reading the FDA label on the products.  The FDA requires that ingredients be listed in the order of their abundance in all edible products.

Here are the facts about the four major “diet” sweeteners:

	Aspartame (Equal® Sweetener)	Sucralose (Splenda®)	Saccharin (Sweet’N Low®)	Acesulfame Potassium (Ace-K)
How sweet is it?	Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than table sugar.	Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than table sugar.	Saccharin is about 300 times sweeter than table sugar.	Acesulfame potassium is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar.
How is it made?	Aspartame is made by joining together two amino acids with a methyl ester group. All of these components are also found in foods eaten everyday.	Sucralose is made through a multi-step process, which results in chlorine atoms being substituted for hydrogen-oxygen atom groups on the sugar molecule.	Saccharin is made through a multi-step process combining two chemical groups, including a sulfur molecule.	Ace-K is made from a process involving acetoacetic acid in combination with potassium.
Is it safe?	Yes. Aspartame is safe and FDA approved.	Yes. Sucralose is safe and FDA approved.	Yes. Saccharin is safe and FDA approved.	Yes. The FDA granted Ace-K approval in 1988.
How is it handled by the body?	Aspartame is broken down into components that are digested by the body.	Most sucralose passes through the body unchanged; a small percentage of sucralose is absorbed and metabolized.	Saccharin passes through the body unchanged.	Ace-K is not metabolized by the body and passes through unchanged.
How many studies have been conducted?	More than 200 scientific studies done over 35 years have demonstrated the safety of aspartame.	More than 100 scientific studies of sucralose done over 20 years have demonstrated the safety of sucralose.	More than 30 human studies done over 20 years have demonstrated the safety of saccharin.	More than 90 studies have demonstrated the safety of Ace-K.
Can you use it in recipes?	Yes. Equal’s Spoonful product is ideal for use in recipes, and adds great taste without all the calories to many of your favorite recipes. Equal Spoonful measures cup-for-cup just like sugar.	Yes. Splenda (sucralose) comes in a bulk package that measures cup-for-cup, just like sugar.	Yes. A conversion chart is available on the back of Sweet’N Low packages.	Yes. The sweet taste of Ace-K remains unchanged at high temperatures.
What products contain it?	Aspartame is found in more than 6,000 products, including Eli’s cheesecake and Diet Coke®.	Sucralose is found in products including Diet Rite® and Blue Bunny® yogurt.	Saccharin is found in products including Sweet’N Low® Brand cookies and candy.	Ace-K is found in more than 4000 products. It can be found under the brand names Sweet One® and Sunett® and in Equal® Sugar Lite.

Better than any of the above is Stevia – a natural sweetener that uniquely lacks excitotoxins that stimulate your appetite.  You can get it bulk or in packets at Walmart or Publix.

Sugar sneaks its way into foods you might not know contain sugar, such as: almost all breakfast cereals, canned beans, canned fruit, canned soups, catsup, flavored milk, luncheon meats, muffins, pancake mixes, spaghetti sauce, bread, TV dinners, and even some prescription and non-prescription medicines.  For a good article on this subject, see this web page: http://bit.ly/nhUUGG.

Surprising places where germs lurk

If you want to stay free of bacteria, and thereby healthier, take note of the following list of places where germs lurk.  To reduce the amount of germs—use those spools of disinfectant wet wipes that come in plastic tubs.  Also note that the warehouse clubs now carry economy packs of individually packed wipes, convenient to carry in your wallet or purse so that you will have them when you need them.  In general anything that is frequently touched by human hands tends to collect germs.  Here are some places where germs lurk:

• Beds (especially in hotels—read dust mites)
• Car door handles, steering wheels and gear shift sticks.
• Door knobs
• Faucet handles
• Grocery carts
• Gym equipment
• Hotels—bedspreads
• Kitchen sinks
• Library books
• Light switches
• Magazines at your doctor’s office
• Pens in restaurants, grocery stores, banks, etc.
• Buttons on ATM machines
• PC keyboards
• PC mice
• Remote controls
• Restaurant hand-held pagers (that the front desk gives you)
• Restaurant lemon wedges in your drink
• Restaurant menus
• Restaurant condiment jars on the table
• Restaurant table tops
• Shower curtains
• Telephones
• Wet laundry (bleach, hot water and hot drying help)

Keep in mind that public places that clean such things as table tops clean numerous of them at once transferring the germs on their cleaning cloths from one place to another.  They very seldom disinfect the cleaning cloths or use a new cleaning cloth between cleaning different items.