Easy Strategies to Create Happiness in Your Life

MOST OF US know intellectually that happiness really comes come from within - not without. Our acquisitive culture has made us only too aware of the transient nature of short-term, external fixes. Like a Chinese meal, we're all too often left hungry after feasting at the table of consumerism! Hungry for more, yet not knowing where to turn to satiate us, we use food, sex, work, drugs and so many other distractions to self-medicate and numb the gnawing pain. It's a right palaver, this happiness shtick!

Certainly, no one else has the power to make us happy - not in a long-term, ongoing way. People come and people go. If we rely on another human being for our happiness, we really are sailing up the Swanee. And what a massive and unrealistic responsibility to place upon another person. Not to mention totally unrealistic. Nope, we have to get the happiness pill all by ourselves ... And yes, it does take a little work. But oh, is it worth it!

The secret?
Change your thoughts. Nothing outside of you has the power to make you intrinsically happy. You can choose happiness, or you can choose to dwell on people and situations that bring you down. Ditto gratitude. When life takes you down, have a look around and acknowledge all the truly wonderful things you have to be thankful for. Roll around and luxuriate on the grass you're on now. It's not always greener the other side!

Indeed the old Bard hit it on the head when he wrote: 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.'

Copyright: Gina Baksa

Best Soaps to Use When Washing Your Car

People usually think that they can use any soap they want to wash their car. This is not true. In fact, some types of soap will actually damage your car. For example, if you use dish soap to wash your car, the paint on your car will begin to peel off. If you continue to use this soap, it will only get worse and worse. If you want to preserve the paint on your car and give it a new, shiny look, here are some of the best soaps to use.

Pinnacle Bodywork Shampoo

If you want to treat your car like you treat your own hair, then this is the soap to use. It is specifically designed to give your car the perfect wash without leaving any scratches or soap marks. It targets dirt, sand, and gritty substances, leaving your car with a nice clean look. It also has a new foaming substance called Tuff Suds II that was washed away even the clingiest dirt. If you have a protective wax on the surface of your car, this soap will retain the wax while still washing away the unwanted dirt.

Simple Green Car Wash

This car wash soap is so great because it is biodegradable and safe for the environment. It is also non-toxic and non-abrasive. It is inspired by Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner and has been reformed to account for the needs of a car. This soap comes in the form of a concentrate that you mix with water. It then turns into a foamy substance that removes all dirt and grime from your car. It is also safe to use on waxed cars and will not leave streaks or swirls. This product can be used on a variety of vehicles, including cars, trucks, RV's, SUV's, trailers, and even motor homes.

Homemade Car Wash Soap

If you want to save money, you can actually make your own soap for your car right at home. You can use substances that you probably already have in your house and create one of the best car soaps. There are a few different substances you can use. A vegetable-based soap added to a few gallons of water will allow for a shiny clean that will help keep dirt and bugs away. If you are looking for an even deeper clean, add about a half cup of Borax to the mix and scrub away! The use of a pressure hose will work even better.

When washing your car, you should use a soap product that is safe for its surface and will help prevent more dirt from clinging in unwanted locations. If you do not know if a certain type of soap is safe for your car, do not use it. All of these products are safe to use and will give your car the maximum clean and shine.

Ways To Receive Money Online

Nowadays, a lot of things can be transacted online. The effort of many websites to make their sites more secure opened up a lot of possibilities and allowed many financial transactions to be connected online. It is now possible to send and receive money online without compromising your personal and financial details. This created many wonderful opportunities online such as shopping and telecommuting.

One huge importance of this is that anyone can easily earn money at home. By signing up with a payment website, you can take advantage of the many ways to make money online. Sometimes even just having your bank account is enough. Still, it pays to know the different ways you can receive money online. Whether you want to try your hands at eBay selling, freelance writing, or work from home virtual assistant, knowing the different options that you have for receiving money is good information. Below are some of the popular ways you can receive money online.

• PayPal. If you would like to be active in eBay, then you should get PayPal. One of the most common ways that people use to send and receive money, PayPal has quickly grown from being primarily used in eBay to being used and accepted in most of the major shopping websites. PayPal claims to keep all your financial details secure. With PayPal, you do not have to provide any financial and personal details to anyone or any site; you simply have to give your PayPal address and anyone can send money to you. Sending and receiving money have fees depending on the particulars of your transaction. You can link you bank accounts, debit cards, and credit cards to your account so you can use them to fund your PayPal account or withdraw your PayPal fund.

• Amazon WebPay. If you already have a PayPal account, then getting familiar with Amazon WebPay will be quite easy. It is very similar to PayPal - you only need to have your email address and you're good to go. The best thing is it is free! Like PayPal, it allows you to link bank accounts and credit cards. You can even withdraw your funds to an Amazon gift certificate.

• WePay. If you find yourself dealing more with group payments, then WePay is another good alternative for you. You can easily collect money from a group of people and then withdraw it to your bank account, paper checks, or with a prepaid VISA card.

An Energy Efficient Air Conditioner Makes Cents

If you're in the market for a high efficiency air conditioner, you need to know a little bit about the rating scale for energy efficiency to help you discern a good investment from a disaster one. The efficiency rating for air conditioners is known as the SEER rating. SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio and it's the ratio of cooling produced to energy used. A high SEER score means a highly efficient AC unit.

A new AC unit can have SEER ratings anywhere from 13 to 23, while older models generally have a SEER rating of 10 or under. If you invest in a new air conditioning system, you can save anywhere from 10 to 70% on your utility bill. So, should you splurge on a top of the line AC unit or settle for a cheaper model?

Climate, home size and seasonal duration all have a major impact on the air conditioner that's right for you. If you live in Hawaii, where the weather is perfect year round and trade winds keep homes from getting stuffy, investing in a top of the line SEER rated unit may not get the return on investment you're hiring for. On the other hand, if you live in the south, where much of the year the weather is hot and humid, paying a higher price up front for your AC unit will be well worth it.

Obviously, when you're choosing an air conditioner, the higher the SEER rating, the higher the price tag will be. The SEER rating is usually shown on an EnergyGuide sticker attached to the unit. If you're struggling with whether or not you should splurge initially or save money up front on a unit with a lower SEER rating, consider this. A high efficiency air conditioner will pay for itself several times over in utility savings during its lifetime.

Just how much money can you save by upgrading your air conditioner? Let's say you owned a 1970's era air conditioning system with a SEER rating of 8. If you upgrade to a new, efficient model with a SEER rating of 16, you'll cut your energy bill in half each month. Even if you live in an area with short and mild summers, upgrading your old air conditioner can pay for itself.

If you're in the market for a new air conditioner, or you're sick of setting aside a chunk of each paycheck to the utility company, consider investing in an energy efficient AC unit. You'll end up saving money each month by cooling your home more efficiently, keeping you and your wallet comfortable this summer.

Ways Young People Can Win With Money

Learning about money while you are still young is an awesome idea. Let me give you a few ideas that young people can use to really win in their financial lives.

Being realistic is key. And winning with money is realistic! This means you should use common sense, investigate investments, the markets, and the opportunities you are interested in. Read the fine print. If you were to take on debt, ask yourself if it would be worth it, or if the debt would be like an anchor. Again, be realistic. Look at the real consequences of the actions you could take. Good actions should be turned into habits.

Consider entrepreneurship. Write down business ideas. Learn the skills you need to succeed. See if your business idea is feasible by testing your product or service. If it is, type up a business plan, and get to work. Make the phone calls and do the web searches necessary to find the information you need.

Join a club or society for young entrepreneurs. Earn a business degree. The more you can learn about business, the better off you are. Being around and networking with other goal oriented, ambitious entrepreneurial types is a boon to your success. Being around the total risk averse and the complacent is not a boon to success.

Work hard at your job and / or at your business. Make a good name for yourself. If a job does not work out, do not trash your goal of being rich. Just keep plugging away and learn from your mistakes. Sales or customer service would be a good starting point if your first job is not running your own business.

While (and if) you live with your parents, sock away as much money as you can. W. Clement Stone once said, "If you can not save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you."

Learn about investments, by taking an investments class at your high school or college (taking a few more classes is better). Economics is good thing to study too. Finance and economics are tough courses but are very worthwhile. Read extracurricular books and read about your interests.

Winning with money is not always easy. Self discipline, sacrifice, frugality, hard work, managing risk, reading books, and holding on to your long term vision are essential to your success.

How to Use Your Phone for Music in Your Car

Smartphones have become an essential item for so many millions of people around the world. Many are completely lost without their trusted phone in their hand.

It is anticipated that by December 2013 there will be over 1.4 million smartphones being used around the world, which means that one in every five people will own one of these phones.

Smartphones have become so popular because they're multi-functional, a phone, sound system, navigational system and computer in one. For many their phones are worthless once they step into their vehicles. Driving and using a phone requires a Bluetooth headset and you can not use your phone to listen to music through the car speakers unless you have car MP3 players.

There are many ways people use their smartphones in their vehicles from FM transmitters, which never really work and constantly experience interference to cassette tape adapters, depending on the age of the vehicles sound system.

The FM transmitters increased in popularity for a while because they offered the convenience of being able to listen to music while driving through the vehicle speakers. These units plug into the lighter adapter of the vehicle and the phone plugs straight into the unit, you then spend a lot of time trying to sync the unit to a frequency on your car sound system, the music then plays through the speakers.

The biggest problem with the FM transmitters is that they lose signal and you will experience a lot of interference. Another problem is that not all vehicles come with a lighter socket anymore, which means that these transmitters are not a suitable option for all vehicles.

Those with older sound systems which took a cassette tape could use the cassette adapters. These adapters were car MP3 players for a while and are still in use by some vehicle owners.

With the cassette adapters, a cassette is placed in the sound system which has a headphone jack attached which is then plugged into the smartphone headphone socket. The music is then played through the car sound system. While this sees a practical choice, these options also came with a number of problems including static interference.

With the new car sound systems being introduced car MP3 players are readily available. The car head unit will have a headphone jack or USB port, enabling the vehicle owner to plug their smartphones straight into the car audio system and listen to their favorite MP3 songs through their car speakers.

The advantage to the car MP3 players is that there is no interference and the owner gets to enjoy all their favorite songs while on the move.

As previously mentioned we use our smartphones for just about everything these days, including keeping playlists of our favorite music. Being able to listen to our music through our MP3 players is a huge advantage which reduces expenditure in the long run.

We pay to download songs to our phones, but then we have to purchase CD's for the vehicle, this means many car owners are purchasing the same song more than once.

Investing in car MP3 players can reduce the amount of money spent on purchasing music, while offering the convenience of having all the music on one device whether you're driving, walking the street or at home.

Many of the car systems these days also offer Bluetooth functionality, this enables the owner to listen to music, make and receive calls directly from their car sound system, using the speakers to hear the voice. A microphone is attached to the vehicle, offering crisp and clear music and phone calls while on the move.

Dumbest Ways Internet Marketers Lose Money

I've made some stupid Internet marketing sales mistakes in my day. Some real bad ones, too.

The kind that, when thinking back, make me wince at the sheer idiocy of it all (this includes selling online, offline, belly-to-belly, by phone ... the whole ball of wax - but especially on the Internet).

Below are a FEW of those mistakes. If you find yourself making any of them, fear not.

Even though almost everyone does at least 1 or 2 (probably more) of these at some time in their lives, they are quickly and easily fixed. In some cases, even immediately fixed.

Ready?

Okay then, here goes ...

* Using pressure (or worse, intimidation)
* Waiting too long to take action (this has gotten me WAY too many times, and I shudder to think of all the sales I've flushed down the toilet because of this ...)
* Using "frothing at the mouth" claims
* Not respecting the customer's intelligence
* Selling a weak product
* Bad customer service
* Stealing (or excessively swiping) ads and sales letters
* Not collecting mailing list info (I'm still amazed how few websites do this every time someone visits their site - it's like stealing from themselves)
* Bragging without proof
* And last (but certainly not least) ... Using manipulative "tricks and tips" ... instead of proven psychological principles that are in perfect harmony with the way people think, buy and actually LIKE being sold by.

Anyway, here's the bottom line:

Methinks the black hat Internet marketers using all the head games and so-called "mind control" techniques (right ...) have no idea how much that nonsense turns people off.

Sometimes it's actually kind of amusing.