The Consumer SmartCalendar lists many things consumers can do throughout the year to enhance their lives, finances, and the condition of their homes. When you take a minute to glance at it each month, you’ll be able to plan the month much better. For example, you’ll remember to inspect your home so you’ll prevent ruinous disasters like termites, mold and fires. Here’s a screen capture (40% of screen size):
It’s really easy to use. Many people will choose to just read what’s on the page: that’s as easy as using a paper calendar. Simply moving your mouse arrow over nearly anything displayed on the page will reveal its purpose (unless you have a really old browser.)
If you’d like to add a few reminders, scroll down to the “Add Reminder To Calendar” section. For example you could add birthdays or an anniversary, or list regularly held meetings, tasks or events. Simply fill in a date, name it, and click one button to control how often it occurs. After you’ve entered all your dates, click “Save Changes” at the top of the screen. This will save the calendar to your bookmarked favorite pages, along with all the reminders you’ve entered.
How do you remember to check the SmartCalendar each month? Simply add it to your home page. In Internet Explorer 7.0 and higher, click the Tools menu, click Options, and type http://www.smartconsumertips.com/mycal.htm into your list of home pages. Now whenever you open your browser, all those pages will open. If you have version 6.0, you can still use SmartCalendar, but if you want multiple home pages you’ll need to upgrade to version 7.0. FireFox users can browse SmartCalendar, but Firefox can only remember one home page.
Explore Your Happiness: The Happiness Inventory is a sort of “happiness wizard” by the authors of How We Choose to Be Happy, Rick Foster and Greg Hicks. You’ll discover the nine areas of your life that you can improve upon to make yourself happier. It’s well worth checking out and reflecting upon, and you can’t argue with the price (free.)
The authors say that if you work on just one of these nine areas, all the others will also be enhanced. Maybe you can’t achieve happiness all at once, but if you improve it a little at a time you’ll find that you really can choose to be happy!
Just created by the CFA — a Fantastic New Site! At http://www.mymilliondollarface.net/ you can upload any photo, merge it with an image of currency, and print a stack of fantasy money.
“Why would I want to do that?” you’re probably asking. Well, your money stack is filled with gems of financial wisdom, one tip per greenback. You can use your stack of moolah to remind you how important consumer tips really are in securing your financial future. Or you can give it away to someone this Christmas. Think of it… you can print out your gift at home, spend no money on it, and yet the value of your gift could be in the hundreds (or more probably thousands) of dollars! It might just be the most popular gift in America this coming Christmas.
It’s easy to cut out the bills with scissors. You can actually cut all the sheets at once: Just stack all the sheets together and seal the edges with scotch tape or masking tape. To get a more exact cut, you can drop by a Kinkos or UPS Store and use a paper cutter like the one pictured here:
Want to see a sample? Here’s something I printed off today:
Go there today and “make a mint” in valuable consumer tips!
The Japan earthquake in November 2006 caused a tsunami (tidal wave) which destroyed some docks in California. Experts believe that far worse tsunamis are likely to hit the west coast of America, with waves up to a hundred feet high. Tsunamis can sometimes flow inland for a two miles or more, if the terrain is sufficiently low-lying. They often come in successive waves, and there is no way to tell which wave will be the strongest. If you feel an earthquake or hear a warning siren, get inland quickly!
A map of historical tsunamis is available online (however, it isn’t updated to include the Sumatran tsunami of 2005 that killed over 250,000.) The Pacific Northwest and northern California are the most at-risk areas in America: their offshore geology is very similar to Sumatra’s. Big tsunamis rarely occur in the Atlantic ocean because of its relatively peaceful geology. Tsunami preparedness is handled by state governments: here’s a list of state agencies where you can find maps (often called “inundation maps”) that show where the dangerous areas are.
Special Report:
