Know your audience

When facing money issues, you might find that a good solution is making a plan. 

This implies identifying your financial stressors as well as establishing ways to decrease your expenses.

Whenever you find yourself in difficulties related to how to handle the stress that managing your money brings, try to not give in to addiction, but rather seek professional support or, even better, think outside the box and find new ways to turn the issues into opportunities in order to make necessary changes.

This interesting TV show made us realize that, unlike what some of us might think, write-offs have the role of lowering the amount of income that one is to be taxed on rather than returning the money one spent.

This funny TV show provided us with some valuable lessons, among which the idea of a side hustle. Having a side hustle will not only enable you to earn some extra income, but it will also offer you the possibility to change your mind from the everyday stressful life.

• When you have an emergency: Cash is accepted everywhere, so have some on hand. Dave Ramsey recommends having at least $1,000 in an emergency fund.
• When you want to limit your spending: Psychologically, we spend less money when we use cash as you can see the money leaving your hand.
• When you want to make healthier purchases: Customers who pay with cash are less likely to make impulsive purchases.
• When you want to have a better relationship with the things you buy: When you pay with cash, you may feel a deeper sense of connection and pride in the item you purchased.
• When you want to make a small purchase at a small store: Every dollar you spend at a small store, they're losing two cents automatically - a cost that could eat up into their already small profits.

• When you want to avoid getting into (more) debt: Since your debit card is connected to a checking account, you theoretically only spend what is available in your account.
• You want to pay for everyday purchases conveniently—things like gas, groceries, and coffee.
• When you want to limit your spending, but don’t want to carry cash.
• When you want the best of both worlds between cash and credit.

There are now many things to consider before ordering something:

• Should we add to the burden of the ‘essential workers’ already toiling hard?
• Shouldn’t we save the money for the uncertain future?
• Shouldn’t we give it to a homeless charity, to those less fortunate in these troubled times?
• Is ordering safe?

This seems to be the new mantra among the responsible people who are worried about themselves and their families. Large supply chains have a greater chance of transmitting diseases. Small shops also need our business to survive this catastrophe.

These small shops are also trying very hard to follow all CDC recommendations regarding protective gear and social distancing.

In a recent study, focused on measuring the systematic inflammation, a large number of participants were asked to rate the extent to which they had experienced both positive and negative emotions throughout the day, for 30 days. As a result, the people who experienced a wider range of positive emotions were also the ones who had the lowest rates of inflammation.

Experiencing both negative and positive emotions can lead to better mental and physical health.

Furthermore, the chances to get depression or even bad habits seem to be smaller in this particular case when compared to individuals who experience only positive emotions.

We hate being wrong, but mistakes often teach us the most and allow us to innovate.

Think of the pros and cons of trying something and then free yourself to do it. If it doesn't work, take what you learn, and try something else. 

The persona of the fool allows the truth to be told, without the usual ramifications that might come with speaking against social conventions. Give yourself permission to be a fool and see things for what they really are.

Essentially audio blogs, taking advantage of the freedom of speech, early podcasts were chatty, amateur products, until some heavyweights joined the bandwagon, like MTV VJs, journalists and talk-radio personalities.

This was fueled by the fact that the old public radio medium had certain creative limitations along with rules and regulations that were not a problem in the world of podcasting.

• Podcasting started evolving with certain progressive companies like Stitcher along with early sponsors playing to a crude, uneven audience.
• Podcasting kept growing slowly, even during the 2008/09 recession, which was ironically a creative peak for the medium.
• Many new shows launched and things eventually reached a plateau in 2010/11.

While connecting and making new friends can prove quite exhausting sometimes, it does eventually pay off. In order to find it easier to know new people, make new friends and reconnect with the old ones:

• Learn to actually ask your friends for the things you want from them.
• Seek professional help to forgive and love yourself first: the empathy that you feel for yourself is a key to the empathy that you end up feeling for the others.
• Learn to say no, even when you fear the possible disappointment that this can lead to.
• Accept your friends without judging them.
• Learn to be honest with your friends: this always goes a long way.