Hope for your financial life and beyond

4 Life Hacks That Make Everything Easier

Have you ever been overwhelmed by the tasks of adult life? It’s an easy thing to have happen and a common experience once you are out on your own. When you were young and lived at home under your parent’s roof (and authority), everything was taken care of for you. Once that life situation ended either after high school or college, all the responsibility shifted to you. 

Life is not easy. But there are some common practices that, if you do them, can make things easier along the way. At the least, they can reduce the stress that comes from being an adult and making decisions for yourself. Here are four life hacks that can make your life more enjoyable.

Declutter Daily

Unless you’re one of those people who genuinely loves to clean, chances are you often feel you’re drowning in stuff. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the thought of cleaning out the entire garage or the basement. However, most of the time, even those tasks can be accomplished with just a little bit of effort each day. A daily declutter habit helps prevent junk mail from piling up on the table you always drop it on.

This mindset can be further applied to other problems in your life. If you want to take control of your financial wellness, learning how to live with less can facilitate that habit. The more possession you have, the more you have to worry about.

So set aside 10 minutes daily to make a sweep through the house to see what you can declutter. It will keep you from having to spend a whole day doing it later. 

Related Content: I Love to Clean the Bathroom

Collect Life’s Secret Codes

Life is full of little secrets. Chances are, a parent, grandparent, older sibling, or someone else taught you some of these. These are the little life tricks that on their own, may not seem like much, but as you accumulate a lot of them, they make things so much easier.

These hacks can be found all over the Internet. Suggestions like washing and prepping all your fresh fruit and vegetables when you bring them home from the grocery store, putting a couple of tennis balls in the dryer to help clothes dry faster with fewer wrinkles and learning how to season an iron skillet so that it lasts and food does not stick. These may not seem like earthshattering suggestions. But you can streamline your life and save time by regularly doing these things.  

One hack that I learned years ago was learning what your vehicle identification number (VIN) means and where to find it on your car.  This can be handy if you’re buying a used car and want to find out if the car was involved in a recall, wreck, flood or had other issues. If you work in the industry (such as a fleet manager), being able to find this number can be especially helpful since you can also track things such as warranties, insurance, and registration. The numbers assigned are not random. You can learn to locate your VIN number and what each digit in it means.

Related Content: 7 Tips on How to Handle a Teenager’s Car Accident

Move in the Transitions

Everyone knows that exercise is important. It’s one of the fundamental things to living a healthy life. But your problem with exercise is everyone’s problem. How do you fit it into an already packed schedule?

A great way to do it is by grabbing the moments in between tasks when you are either waiting on something or transitioning from one thing to another.

Are you waiting on a pot of water to boil on the stove. Are you ending your workday? Will the laundry be dry and ready to fold in 30 minutes?

The temptation is to relax or get on your social media account during these times. However, these moments are great spaces to do a few stretches, squats or move in another way that works our your body. Even simply deep breathing exercises can be great way for you to reduce stress. The bonus of this hack is that it also helps break you of the habit of scrolling on your phone every time you have a free second.

Related Content: Barriers to Entry: The Ongoing Battle With Exercise

Talk to People

Everyone communicates but few really connect with other people. To connect, you actually have to talk to others. Even if you’re shy or an introvert, some interaction with other humans is important. You will almost certainly feel better for it.

You can set yourself a goal, such as three short conversations with strangers each day. You may end up building genuine connections, particularly by doing this in the places where you go regularly. 

The best places to find people to talk with are church, your job, a grocery or department store and your neighborhood. Start there with simple conversations and see how much better it makes you feel.

Leave a Comment or Answer a Question Below: What is your go-to life hack? What have you found out in adulthood that you didn’t know when you were younger? 

Fighting the Battle of the Bulge, the Bustle and the Bling in 2016

I’ve come to realize there are three big battles I fight like the plague. They are tenacious, hounding me like the Bumpuses’ dogs after a Christmas turkey. There’s no way around them. Inevitably I’ll continue to fight the battle of the bulge, the battle of the bustle and the battle of the bling again this year.

battle of the bulgeI don’t think I’m alone either. I do enough surfing around the net to know better. So I draw a little comfort in knowing I’m not alone when I see other people lamenting about what has become my ongoing battles with:

  1. A healthy lifestyle,
  2. A hectic lifestyle, and
  3. A materialistic lifestyle.

I doubt I’ll ever gain total victory over these three relentless monsters. But I have to keep fighting. Otherwise they will overtake me and I’ll be completely undone.

The Battle of the Bulge

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Americans Share Their Biggest Financial Worries

When it comes to your money, what are your biggest financial worries?

Paying the bills?

Retirement?

That massive chain of student loan debt wrapped around your neck?

There is no shortage of issues to worry about. At each stage of life we face something that puts us on edge. This anxiety about the present and the future drives our choices for good or for bad as we attempt to solve the problems that keep us up at night.

Over the years I’ve learned how to let go of the worry that can so easily bind me up. There is a fine line between worrying about the future and planning for it. Planning for it is prudent and wise. Worrying about it robs us of living in the present and maximizing all that today has to offer.

Whether you are a worrier or not the fact remains we all face financial challenges. Even the wealthy have problems they must deal with. What’s dominating your thoughts? See how you fit in with the rest of Americans in the infographic below.

Americans Deepest Financial Worries

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5 Coping Strategies For When the Busyness of Life Causes the Dam to Break

water causes an explosion at a dam

Water exploding through a dam

On Friday, I commented to my blogging friend Tonya at Budget and the Beach that I was not looking forward to the upcoming weekend. When I realized all the items that were on my to-do list, I sort of felt depressed. I could see there would be absolutely no down time.

After all, aren’t weekends supposed to be relaxing? Most of the time during the school year ours are not, especially during tax season (from Jan. – Apr.) when Mrs. Luke1428 works on Saturday. It feels like the weekends are jammed packed with everything that couldn’t get done Monday – Friday. They become more hectic for me than the actual workweek.

For some perspective, (and I’ll keep this brief) here is what happened in our house the last three days:

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We Are One Heartbeat Away From a Life Changing Moment

Hidden Nuggets Series #33 – “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” – Proverbs 27:1

life changing

Sports fans watching their Wednesday late night highlight reels witnessed some stunning footage of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman being drilled in the head from a batted ball by Kansas City Royals player Salvador Perez. It’s a “Gasp…OMG!” moment, as Chapman lay sprawled on the ground, writhing in pain.

For those able to stomach grisly injury videos, the scene can be found here at ESPN.

Reports today are that Chapman suffered a few fractured bones and a mild concussion. He will have surgery to implant some steel plates in his head and miss about 6-8 weeks of the regular season. I’m amazed that’s the extent of his injuries and am thankful he is fine.

Let me rephrase that…I’m thankful he’s alive.

The speed and suddenness at which this incident happened, reminded me of a Monday night football game I watched in 1985. On that night, Giant’s linebacker Lawrence Taylor sacked Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, snapping his leg in two. That fateful flea-flicker play that took only a few seconds ended Theismann’s career. Anyone who was there or watching on TV will say it’s the most gruesome sports injury ever.

Events like these remind me we are one heartbeat away from a life changing moment.

Reacting to Life Changing Fastballs

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