Monthly Archives: May 2011

Master your Credit Card

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A lot of people don’t really know how to use their credit cards. Nevertheless, it’s very important to learn the rules of handling credit cards for success and ease of mind, encouraging sound spending habits for new and experienced credit card users alike. Here are the three basic laws for success with credit cards:

1. Buy only what you really need. It’s a matter of responsibility. Get to know all of the responsibilities in owning and using a credit card, and please make wise decisions about the items you really need to purchase versus the ones you simply wish to have. It’s important to learng to distinguish between Need to purchase and Wish to have. By using your cards responsibly we mean you should learn to recognize which things you need and which things you just want. If you use your credit card to buy things you can’t afford today, chances are that you won’t be able to afford it tomorrow, or next month, and you will quick and steadily get into debt. Then don’t live a borrowed lifestyle, be true to yourself.

Responsible purchases help to keep lower balances, which are easier to manage and pay off than those that are higher. Further, lower balances helps you maintain a good credit score, as a large part of your credit score takes into account the levels of debt you have raised. Ideally you should stay within 30% of your credit limit.

Responsibility also means remembering your credit card payment. If you cannot make your monthly payment on time, let your creditor know in advance. Call him, explain the problem and ask that any late fees be waived.

2. Rather than seeing your card as debt or emergency funds, see them as liabilities that have to be paid. It’s about focus. Don’t recur to your credit card to make everyday purchases. Goods and items such like clothing, apparel, and gas shouldn’t be purchased with a credit card. If you use your credit card as a substitute for cash you may quickly grow debt. It’s true that some transactions may require credit cards (buying an airline ticket, renting a car or shipping an overnight package), but prefer cash or debit cards when possible.

3. And pay off your cards in full every month (or at most every two months). It’s about being smart. If you pay your card balance in full each payment cycle, you can use the bank’s money interest free for about a month. If you don’t pay your bill in full each month and make further purchases you will soon find yourself clobbered by debt (specially interest payments) on a rocketing balance. This is very, very dangerous to your financial health and can heavily hurt your credit score. Similarly, keep out of the habit of making minimum-only payments. This bad habit increases the amount of time it will take to pay off your credit card debt, and also increases interest payments. In short: to pay your debts off cheaper and quicker, pay as much as you can on your balance each cycle.

Being smart also means that you should negotiate a lower interest rate whenever possible. Remember that interest rate determines how much you pay for carrying a balance on your credit card. Study your interest rate on your credit card periodically to be sure you are getting the best deal possible. And get rid of credit cards with high and hard interest rates (but take into account that closing cards that still have a balance, or cards which make up a significant part oy tour credit history may hurt your credit score.)

Finally, remember that credit cards are essentially high-interest loans. Using them to buy everyday goods (household items, apparel, food, etc) sounds silly, and that’s why credit card holders who don’t pay their bills in full each month are not being smart. Certainly, if you don’t have the money to pay for an item now, chances are you won’t have it after the credit card bill arrives. So be smart.

Breathing for Stress Relieving

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As promised in our previous post about the roles of breathing, we present here a simple routine for stress relief through breathing. Remember that breathing is especially important for those who suffer from stress, high blood pressure, anxiety or digestive problems. These symptoms and problems are typically the result of the body staying in conflict due to an disequilibrium of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. As our body is burdened with stress, our sympathetic nervous system is stimulated so often that it begins to dominate the parasympathetic nervous system resulting in chronic elevated blood pressure and heart rate, nervousness, anxiety and muscle tension, bowel problems. In this sense, the goal of this breathing exercise cleanses the body of diseases, steadies the mind, helps in concentration, improves digestion and increases appetite. The exercise can also be done anywhere and at virtually any time:

  1. First locate a quiet and comfortable place. Make sure the room is not too bright. If you prefer to play music, choose relaxing themes and set them to a reasonable volume level.
  2. Sit or stand in a relaxed position.
  3. Slowly inhale through your nose, counting to five in your head. As you breathe, let your abdomen expand outward, rather than raising your shoulders. This is a more relaxed and natural way to breathe, and helps your lungs fill themselves more fully with fresh air, releasing more old air.
  4. Let the air out from your mouth, counting to nine in your head as it leaves your lungs. If you like, you can make your throat a little tighter as you exhale so the air comes out like a whisper. This type of breathing is used in some forms of yoga and can add additional tension relief. Try for several breaths to make your breathing as quiet, slow, regular and deep as possible. Repeat the exercise several times (at least 10 times).

This simple exercise can be used for meditation and visualization.

On Breathing

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As stress in our lives keeps growing, breathing in our activities is becomes increasingly shorter and faster, that is, we tend to inhale less oxygen as we exhale more. This causes our body to become quickly tired because of low blood flow due to the small amount of oxygen and the high levels of carbon dioxide. In turn, the physical fatigue stresses the muscles that support the spine and the weight of our body, generating unnatural pressure on the lungs and other internal organs. For its part, the brain, not receiving adequate amounts of oxygen, begins to reduce performance, and this causes drowsiness among other problems. Further, the diaphragm, when not working properly, makes little effort and loses tone, thus contributing to the reduction of lung capacity.

That is why it’s very important to learn to breathe properly, with simple exercises and frequent practice. In an upcoming post,  we’ll be reviewing one useful exercise for proper breathing.

Tips for a healthy world: Part II

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Second part of our series. First part here. Here we review some facts (grouped into five topics) for fighting pollution.

1. Water

Consume the really needed amount of water. Avoid unnecessary water costs with these tips:

  • Do not leave the tap running while you brush your teeth or shave.
  • Do not wash the foods with the tap open; use a container. Upon completion, this water can be used for watering plants.
  • Do not use any soap under running water.
  • Use the washing machine and dishwasher only when they’re fully loaded.
  • Do not throw sticks, paper, cigarette butts, sanitary towels, tampons or condoms. Put them in a garbage basket.
  • Repair leaks immediately. 10 drops of water per minute represent 2,000 liters of water a year wasted.
  • Use native plants that require less care and less water.
  • Reuse as much water as you can. Reused water is fine for bathrooms, cleaning floors, or washing the front of your home.
  • Do not empty the tank without a real reason to do it .
  • Do not throw the oil sinks. They float on water and are very difficult to remove.
  • Do not throw any garbage into the sea, rivers or lakes.
  • Water gardens and streets with potable water.
  • The best time to water is late afternoon as it prevents evaporation.
  • Gel, shampoo and detergents are not environmentally friendly. They should be used sparingly and where possible choose organic products.
  • Do not forget to plant a tree at least once in your life.

2. Garbage

  • More than half garbage is recyclable.
  • Recycling boxes or containers that are made of paper also contributes to fewer trees cut down, less releases of methane and an improved air purification. By reusing 100 kilograms of paper we can save the lives of at least 7 trees.
  • Classify the trash you generate. You should consult your local or residential institutions asking if they have a garbage selection system.
  • Always prefer recycled paper and always write on both sides .
  • Do not waste napkins, tissues, toilet paper or other form of paper whenever possible .
  • Choose glass containers instead of plastic and aluminum ones.
  • Remember that there are companies dedicated to the purchase of recyclable materials such as newsprint, old books, bottles, etc.

3. Food

  • Reduce consumption of red meat because rearing of cattle contributes to global warming, deforestation and reduction of the rivers. Producing a kilogram of meat spends more water than 365 water showers.
  • Production of canned goods is also high in resource and energy consumption. And avoid canned tuna because it is especially in danger of extinction.
  • Avoid foods “transgenic” organisms (GMOs: genetically modified organisms) as their production pollutes the environment deteriorating ecosystems .
  • Do not eat exotic animals such as turtles, capybaras, iguanas, etc.
  • Eat more fruits, vegetables and legumes.
  • Never buy fish of small sizes to consume.
  • If you can, eat organic food (no pesticides, no insecticides, etc.)

4. Paper

  • Use recycled paper.
  • Encourage the use of products made from recycled paper.
  • Reduce consumption of paper: use the leaves on both sides.
  • Make photocopies of essential documents only.
  • Reuse envelopes, boxes, etc.
  • Reject single use products.

5. Education

Finally, it’s very important to educate our kids about nature ant teach them the love for our world.

Tips for a healthy world: Part I

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In the following, I present a few tips that may contribute to decreasing of global overwarming. In this case I give a series of simple tips everyone can do and help control such important element called global overwarming and the increasing rates of contamination.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. Replace conventional and old light bulbs: With this simple task we’re freeing our planet of 68 kilograms of CO2 per year. The option of saving bulbs or bulbs of low flow cares for the environment (and also cares for our pockets).
  2. Use the car less: I recommend going more for cycling, public transport or walking to help protect the environment (and our health). By not using the car we avoid half kilogram of CO2 per mile of journey. The overuse of the automobile encouraged to make new roads and such decision caused a great impact on the territory and destroyed beautiful landscapes, and in addition to that there is more traffic noise, which causes more stress for those living near such noise.
  3. Recycle more: By recycling we will save more than one ton of CO2 yearly. But recycling is not the answer, here the question is: how to avoid generating all that waste?, i.e., we should buy only what we really need and keep out of the levels of consumerism. Further, when choosing our goods we should prefer the ones with less packaging and pick reusable bags for our purchases. At the time of purchasing beverages is better to buy glass bottles because they are easier to recycle and they do not use the amounts of fuels as requiered for plastic and paper (besides, production of paper and plastic releases many chemicals into the air, rivers and seas).
  4. Examine the tires of your car: In this issue we recommend keeping tires inflated to the corresponding pressure since taking into account this recommendation saves fuel combustion in a 3%. Each gallon of gasoline less implies 9 kilograms of CO2 less reaching the atmosphere. And it should be emphasized that it is recommended to use the car only when necessary.
  5. Use less hot water: To warm the water uses too much energy, especially in the winter time because the environment is colder than normal. The same is recommended to wash clothes using cold water as it would save about 230 kilograms of CO2. It is also important to use water that is needed in such tasks as washing the car, washing dishes etc. And remember not to leave water valves open.
  6. Avoid using too much packaged products: You can save 545 kilograms of CO2 if you avoid generation of 10% of garbage. This helps to a great extent because if we create a culture to choose products with less packaging producers make products with less packaging and thus avoid much of pollution.
  7. Set the thermostat on the car properly: to set two degrees higher in winter and lower it 2 in summer, you can save 900 kilograms of CO2 with this simple adjustment in a year. You should not use the heater where it is not necessary because the car engine will make more effort and will burn more fuel.
  8. Plant a tree: this recommendation is important because every tree in its lifetime absorbs about one ton of carbon dioxide. I recommend watering at night or when the sun is hidden because the tree would absorb more water since it is not evaporated by the sun.
  9. Turn off electronic devices: Turning off the TV, DVD, stereo, and computers when not in use can save thousands of kilos of carbon dioxide a year. There is no need to have the TV on when nobody is watching it.

You can read the second part of this series here.