Earn 1500 miles for signing up with US airways

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Textfree Unlimited - Send Text Messages (SMS) Free!

It is an iPhone application, was 5.99$ but free now. You can get your phone number and send messages for free to any mobile phone in USA.


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Mobile PayPal Money Transfer

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Now it is easy to send money to friends and family through your mobile phone. (Some mobile phones support this feature). You need to download the application and activate your phone to use this service.More details -- Linky

New AAA Benefits - Very Useful in Emergency Situations

Dreamstime

I received an email from AAA with new benefits they are offering:

1.       Office services: Complimentary copies (black and white), outgoing fax (limited), and notary services (with some restrictions)

2.       Passport Photos

3.       Free emergency door key card (for your car) ---Opens door for most makes and models. (Remember: this is only to open the door not for ignition)

These are in addition to already available list of services:

1.          Attraction Tickets

2.          Gift Cards (Visa and American Express)

3.          Hotel Reservations

4.          IDP: International Driving Permit

5.          Insurance Agency

6.          Luggage

7.          Membership Services: Offers membership record changes, membership payments, add a member, upgrade to Plus, Premier or RV.

8.          Tour books & Maps

9.          Travel Agency

10.      Travel Insurance

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Future

The fear of tomorrow is the death of today.

My Saying

A library is my temple.

Free Personalized Luggage Tags From KLM

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I ordered a while ago and I received them soon after. They were really good. Give a try.

Free eBooks from Barnes and Nobles

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Lessons I Learnt About Investing

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Investing is not trading and I understood that after a couple of mistakes. Investing is basically buying a business and in this case buying a part of business. Investing is definitely not gambling but trading is. In the long-term, one can make lot of money through trading (gambling) but will eventually lose most or all of it. The right way of investing is to pick and choose a right stock that has a future and demand for its products and then invest some money on it. Like any personal business, it takes time to grow and so have some patience. Too many clicks of your mouse to buy and sell take away the advantage of growth. It is very important to buy good stocks not cheap stocks (because the price is low). Once you buy a stock, keep it for a long time and have a goal for that stock. Say, you want to sell a stock after it doubles and that is when you sell that stock and make some profit. Remember emotion is the enemy and time is your friend. Too many trades ruin the game and it becomes a speculative game rather than growth game. If your stock falls below certain level, sell it to avoid complete loss (say your stock is going bankrupt). In general, it always pays to wait and wait until you get what you want. As warren buffet said, never lose money and it is true. Do a lot of research about the business you are interested in and once you buy, stick with it no matter what TV reports or Internet reports or friends say? Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow and I mean nobody; even Warren Buffett. So always do your research and go on with your gut feeling. Set some filters in choosing a stock and if the stocks you are interested in pass through them then you buy. Up’s and Down's are common and so understand and accept the trend. There are more lessons to be learned and i will write in coming times.

Warren Buffett on Gambling

What Kind of a Saver are You???

Never delay investing just because you do not have enough money. No matter how small start investing for future. With time, value of money goes down so it is important to grow your finances.  


Image: Lifehack.org

Past and Future

"The past cannot be changed.
The future is yet in your power." - Hugh White 

Australianism

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Sixty one years ago, at the end of a tour of England by Don Bradman's famous pack, John Arlott put it thus: "Australianism," wrote Arlott, "means single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them. It means where the 'impossible' is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them. It means they have never lost a match - particularly a Test match - until the last run is scored or their last wicket down."

Source: Cricinfo.com

Fences on Desktop

 “It is a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icon when not in use”—as per their website. I started using this recently and I really like it. It is free to use and easy to install. It is easy to customize your folders, files and icons. The icons can fade out or fade in when you double click in the empty areas of your desktop. Click here to see some example screenshots of fences. Currently, fences support only windows. This is by far the best way to keep your desktop clean and organized.

Screenshot of my Desktop below:

I hope you like it.

Travel Tips --I

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Nowadays, everyone rents a car; the kind of car we choose to rent depends on the distance we are going to travel.  I would choose a better mileage car, if I am travelling too far from my place rather than a posh car. It is always a good idea to know how much we are going to spend on gas beforehand. Here is a link that helps you figure out the cost to drive. When planning to travel long distances, it is better to know the places where you can get gas for cheap. Follow this link to find the lowest gas price in any area in USA. Remember, everything counts at the end, every dollar saved is a dollar earned. If you have AAA membership, you can find the best hotels, gas stations and restaurants that offer discounts. If you are travelling to a tourist attraction in some other state, AAA offers free tourist guides and maps. They are really helpful guides to find good deals.

             The first and foremost thing to do when you rent a car is to make sure you have Insurance that covers your car and also other cars/vehicles (liability and collision). Contact your agent to find out if your insurance policy covers rental car as well and also ask for any exceptions and limitations. If you have only liability covered then call your credit card people and ask the same questions and find out everything you need to know about the car rental protection they offer. I have an AMEX blue card that covers up to 50000$ (rental car value) and it works as a secondary insurance. But if you pay 24.99$ up front (every time you rent a car), you can get complete primary insurance for 30 consecutive days (exceptions and limitations apply). Other credit cards also offer Collision waiver/supplemental insurance and it is always a good idea to contact the customer service and confirm. It is even better if you can get a copy of the Insurance document with terms and conditions.

Dreamstime

              If you know where you are going and have time to plan your trip, I would recommend buying an entertainment book to get coupons valid in your destination city. AAA and similar services have discounted attraction tickets. Read the reviews on www.tripadvisor.com to know more about the attractions you are planning to visit. You can find valuable information based on the experience of the previous visitors (inside stuff—what to do and what not to do). See if they have City pass that gives admission to more attractions for less (usually called combo packs). If you are visiting your destination city for the first time, it is very much a good idea to check out the restaurants and their reviews on www.yelp.com and www.urbanspoon.com . After you figure out the prospective restaurants you might visit, buy www.restaurant.com certificates for 2 or 3 $ (Google for 80% off coupon codes) and save a lot. These are some travel tips but I will add more in future.

              

Charlie Bit My Finger -- Most Hilarious Video

Charlie Bit My Finger

20-80 Formula of Life

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Life can be very hard to live for all of us at some point or the other. We get bothered by something or the other, we get bored, we get frustrated and we lose hope from time to time. These are like recurring episodes, it is natural to have such feelings but it is not good to have them at regular intervals. When we see our lives, we see too far and get scared of the future, due to past failures. In most cases than not, work stress is the biggest problem a person can face in his/her life. We take work issues to home and its effect is on the family and friends. We don't enjoy our lives in the present, instead we think about problems at work. If we are not capable of doing our work then the person who hired us should be a fool. In most occasions than not, it is not true. We are very much capable of doing our work but we think we cannot. The amount of time we have in hand is a lot compared to the time we spend on work. Let see if it is true....

• There are 168 hours in a week. (Imagine these are not hours but dollars and we are asked to spend them properly in a week)
• Say we spend 56 hours (8 hours per day) for sleep
• The balance is 112 hours
• Officially we are paid for 40 hours a week, so lets take those off
• Balance 72 hours ( equivalent to 3 days)
• Lets spend 30 hours on our daily routine (cooking, bathing, brushing, travelling to work and so on)
• Balance is 42 hours (Almost 2 days); equal to 25% of total time.
• These 42 hours can be spent for entertainment, phone calls, internet, time with family and friends and other hobbies.

Analysis: (approx. numbers)

• Sleep : 33.3%
• Extra/personal time: 25%
• Work: 23%
• Routine: 17.8%

These may vary based on who you are and how you live your life but, in general, most of us fit into this. There is no point in reducing the sleep hours, i think some people over do things (by sleeping less) and burn themselves down in the long run. It is important to have 8 hours of sleep (7 is OK). Work; even though it says 23%, we don't really spend that much time doing work (we spend some time checking emails, phone calls, internet, coffee, friends, chatting with co-workers, meetings and so on). So, I would say, taking into account of the work we do at home sometimes, the most we work is only 20% of total time (or less in a week). But this 20% is important for other 80% to be good. Without spending 20% of time on working, we could not have a good sleep, a good routine and we could not have fun time with friends and family. Most people ignore or take this 20% for granted. Working for 20% of the time is actually responsible for 80% of happiness in life. The extra/personal/family time we have (25%) is very important, how we spend this time determines whether we will be just happy or both happy and successful. Most part of this 25% can be spent for TV alone or Internet alone and be just happy or take some time to hone one's skills and learn something new. The one's who are constantly in search of learning more to improve themselves end up not only being happy but satisfied. The people who complain about not having time and about their job are those who do not have skills to prioritize their 20% work time. If one really focuses on work at Job, they usually don't have to complain about things not getting done. These people give more importance to the 80% rather than 20%. Its like a sports star giving importance to ad campaign, as it gets him more money. Ads come, when he is at the top of the game not otherwise. These ads (in our case extra/personal time) is the fruit of what we do and how we do at work during that 20% of time. We will still have that 80% time even after not doing well at work but we will not be peaceful and completely happy at home. 
The conclusion is, we have lot of time; when we prioritize things that matter. Time cannot be borrowed or lended like money and it is important to spend our time in a right way. You can earn lost money but not time. Since time is such a valuable thing, do not waste it on past and future and things that don't matter. Spend time only on those which are necessary for you. Don't spend time on something just because it is easy to do or because everyone is doing. When you see time as money (or more important than that), the only way one can benefit is by using it then and there (living in the present). It cannot be taken forward or backwards. You waste it....You lose it. Thats it !!!!!!!!!!

There are ways to prioritize time, which i will discuss at a later time.

Desktop Wallpapers

I have a habit of changing my desktop wall paper @ regular intervals. It is easy to find wall papers on Internet. These are some of the sources I use. I will regularly update them, so check back from time to time.

• Social Wallpapering : "a community effort to classify, rank, and distribute high resolution images for use as desktop wallpaper" - as per their website
• Quotexite: This is a good one if you like Quotes along with the picture.

My Sayings

To fill a cup with something fresh, it is important to empty it first.


Image: Dreamstime

Life Lessons

Image: Dreamstime

I heard a small but beautiful story on TV. Here it goes….

Person 1 to Person 2: Imagine there are four eagles on a branch of a tree, one of them decides to fly away, and now, how many eagles are left on the branch??

Person 2 answers:  Three of them will be left on the branch.

Person 1: No

Person 2: If not three, how many?

Person 1: Four are left on the branch; one of them decided to fly away but never did.

Moral of the Story: Deciding in your mind to do something is not doing, it counts only when intention turns into action.