Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You may have become an entrepreneur because you thought being self-employed meant no longer having to look for work or do job interviews. But entrepreneurship is all about prospecting, cold calling, and constantly staying vigilant for new clients. That’s one reason why keeping your resumé up to date is so important, even if you’re not exactly “searching for a job.”
StackCommerce
Fortunately, creating an awesome, ATS-optimized resumé is easy with Resoume Resumé Creator. As part of our Same You, New Job campaign, you can get it for a specially reduced price of just $24.99 as long as you order by 11:59 p.m. Pacific on 1/9/23.
Resoume makes updating your resumé as simple as updating your LinkedIn page. By dropping a link to your LinkedIn, Resoume automatically imports your profile and formats it into a beautiful, head-turning resumé that is optimized to make it through ATS services to land at the top of HR departments’ piles. You can easily create an online version of your resumé, CV, or portfolio and send them out. It also gives you the power to change colors, themes, and fonts.
Resoume also works with cover letters and portfolios and even gives you the tools to build your own personal website with a custom subdomain. After you send out applications, there’s a central hub to track interview offers, applications, and more.
With 4.5 stars out of five online, one verified customer wrote, “Drag and drop tool to easily create clean resumes. No fussing around with bulky templates that break after a quick edit anymore.”
Be the same you, with better job prospects with this Resoume Resumé Creator. Order by 1/9/23 to get a lifetime subscription for 74% off $95 — just $24.99 with no coupons needed.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You’ve likely read the studies saying that those who wake up earlier are more successful. You may even have set the goal to adjust your wake-up time, sure that an extra hour or two at the start of the day is all you need. But deciding to wake up early and actually follow through are two different things. If you’d like to test out the theory that an early start is the key to success, here are a few tips to help you get started.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The new year is upon us, and many of us are making grand declarations about what to do next year. For entrepreneurs, the best thing for you might be to pick up a hobby. Hobbies help you unwind, decompress, and improve your focus so you can do your best work.
StackCommerce
You don’t have to make drastic changes to who you are to bring forth change in the new year! During our Same You, New Hobby promotion, you can elevate your chef skills with the Seido™ Japanese Master Chef’s Knife Set. If you purchase by 11:59 p.m. Pacific on 1/9/23, you can get the eight-piece set for 79% off.
These gorgeous knives are made with strong high-carbon stainless steel that delivers a nice balance between edge retention and durability. The forged construction incorporates a sloped bolster for better comfort, control, and balance while cutting absolutely anything. And with the acute 15º cutting face, you’ll be able to slice through all of your food with great efficiency.
The set includes an 8″ chef’s knife, an 8″ slicing knife, an 8″ bread knife, a 7″ cleaver, a 7″ Santoku knife, a 5″ Santoku knife, a 6″ boning knife, and a 3.5″ paring knife. And it all comes in a beautiful gift box for easy storage and access.
Rated 4.5 stars out of five online, one reviewer raved, “The knives are super sharp, the handles have a nice feel and balance. Totally recommend these knives if you’re looking for a new knife set.”
Treat yourself to a new hobby in 2023. Now through 1/9/23, you can get the Seido™ Japanese Master Chef’s Knife Set with a gift box for 79% off $429 at just $89.99 with no coupon needed.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Life would be a pretty simple ride if we never hit a simple bump in the road, a pothole that shot us off course or even a strike of lightning that left us dazed and bewildered searching for a way forward. In the moment, these incidents can seem monumental, overwhelming, perhaps even more than you can handle. But the truth is, you will almost always handle them, and you can come out the other side better for it. That is, if you view them for what they are, which are temporary setbacks that can actually make you a better, more motivated person.
Let’s look at some professional examples. Imagine you’ve spent ten years building your resume as a software engineer. You have honed your chops and become extremely proficient in several programming languages while also learning to successfully manage people. You work for a small startup that has seen some success, but now you’re looking to move to a large, high-growth tech company that sets the bar for equity and cash compensation. You get in the door, interview repeatedly and are finally offered the job as an engineering manager. You love your new position and your team, but four months in, without warning, your company downsizes the engineering team by 50%. You haven’t done anything wrong, but you’re a part of the reduction in force. You’re confused, scared and don’t know quite what to do.
In the current economic climate, this scenario isn’t only possible, it seems downright common. As a matter of fact, while writing this, I received a Google Alert about a large technology company reducing its workforce. But while this seems like a catastrophic blow to your career at the time, the truth is, it’s not a moratorium on you, your skills or your personality. It’s simply a result of circumstance. The key is to use it as motivation to propel you forward and not question your own self-worth.
I’m not a software engineer, so the hypothetical above is not about me (for those of you asking the question). But my career has not been immune to similar situations. I’ll give you an example from my days applying to law school. For some perspective, I was not an all-star undergraduate student. Let’s just say I enjoyed the distractions of college life and just did “ok.” So, when it came time to apply to law school, my decent GPA combined with a pretty good LSAT score made me very cautiously optimistic that I would get into a law school, but I wasn’t at all certain which law school. And I was even less certain about the caliber of the law school that might admit me. But as the admissions process started, I actually got into some really good law schools. My confidence grew, and I started to expect admissions rather than rejections.
The only problem was, I was dead set on going to one particular law school. Regardless of the fact that it wasn’t the best law school I applied to, it was simply where I wanted to spend the next three years of my life. When the letter arrived, I was not only excited, I was overconfident. Based on my track record of admissions, I figured this one was a proverbial lay-up. The letter I opened, however, was not an acceptance. Quite the contrary. I was floored.
I really didn’t know what to do, but after a brief period of professional mourning, I developed a plan. I hopped on a plane, flew down to the school, made an appointment with an admissions counselor and asked “What do I need to do to get into this school?” His curt and unemotional response was “There is nothing you can do to get into this school…” Yes, he literally said there was nothing, not a thing, I could do that would gain me admission.
But after getting knocked down again, I flew home and developed a second plan. First, I called two of the schools that admitted me and asked if I could defer my admission for a year. They both graciously agreed. Then I inundated my dream school with correspondence. I wrote a letter a week for almost a full year explaining how badly I wanted to attend. I included pictures of me rock climbing, skiing and hiking with the name of the school emblazoned on my gear. I told them I wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. On the first day of admissions for the next year, I received a call. A different admissions counselor simply said, “You’re in … please stop writing us.”
Incidentally, when I graduated and walked to receive my diploma, the same admissions counselor who told me that I would never get admitted actually congratulated me, told me he “knew I could do it” and offered a handshake. I less than politely declined. Looking back, that probably wasn’t the right response. Being gracious even in the face of indignity is always laudable. But hey, it is what it is.
Setbacks are catalysts for taking big steps forward
The point being, when I was knocked down by the unexpected, I didn’t allow myself to stay down. I used the rejection as motivation to push harder for what I wanted. At the end of the day, I’m sure I would’ve worked hard enough to be successful at any of the law schools that admitted me, but I also know I would have constantly wondered what would’ve or could’ve been. I didn’t want that regret. And more importantly, I didn’t want rejection to be the lasting emotion from my application process.
It’s hard when someone tells you you’re not good enough, that you don’t matter or that you can’t be successful when you feel like you can. The key is to turn that rejection into motivation. Don’t sulk, don’t get depressed, and don’t put yourself into a shell. Instead, get angry. Not revenge type of anger, but motivational anger. Anger can be a positive force when it’s driving you to prove people wrong. Setbacks are going to happen. But when they’re the catalyst for taking big steps forward, they aren’t really setbacks at all.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One of the most important books my dad ever gave me was Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty by Harvey Mackay. Mackay tells a story about a friend who got a call at two in the morning from someone he hadn’t talked to in more than ten years. The caller was semi-hysterical because his accountant had called him that afternoon and told him he was broke; his company couldn’t make payroll, and if he didn’t retrieve the checks he’d written, there was a good chance he would go to jail. He needed $20,000.
Mackay’s friend offered to lend him a few thousand dollars, but he didn’t give him all he needed even though he could have. Why? Because the connection just wasn’t there anymore. Not only did this 2:00 a.m. caller not dig his well before he was thirsty, he waited until he was dying of thirst before he even broke ground.
The premise of Mackay’s book is that it’s important to build relationships long before you need them. The biggest thing that resonated with me in the book was the concept that a network never sleeps. To this day, that is still a guiding concept in my life.
Here are four simple strategies you can implement to go the extra mile and show people you are interested in getting to know them. Taking the time at the very beginning of a relationship will make the difference. These simple steps apply to building relationships in business and the rest of life as well.
1. Learn Names
The first step in establishing deeper level connections is to learn and remember people’s names. Make an effort to learn a name the very first time you meet them.
I’m sure you’ve been in social situations where you have a neighbor that moves in. You might ask their name the first two or three times, but once they have lived there any longer than that—five or six months—and you still don’t know, it becomes awkward. It comes across as insensitive not to have taken the time to learn it.
The same goes with teams and coworkers. When somebody first joins your team, you have the unique opportunity to get as much information from them as you can. Open up and be vulnerable, share, be empathetic, understand where they’re coming from, and try to learn all about them. Take notes and establish that deep connection early. If you wait too long to take this step, it becomes more difficult.
2. Try 4, 3, 2, 1
If you have ever found yourself at a networking event struggling to connect with the person you’re speaking with, or find it challenging to get beyond small talk, a technique I have used very effectively is called 4, 3, 2, 1. In short, you want to have 4 stories, 3 facts, 2 quotes, and 1 question ready at all times. You may not actually share all of these in every conversation, but having them ready to share eliminates the awkward silence in conversation and invites the other person to share more about themselves as well.
4 Stories: Humans are hardwired to remember stories. Not only does telling a story let the other person get to know you, but when told well, it makes you memorable. Of the four stories you have ready to tell, one should be personal, one business, one should demonstrate a challenge, and the other should demonstrate a time you were successful.
3 Facts: Think about three facts you are passionate about, that are not widely known, and that you think are pertinent and relevant to the kinds of people you speak with on a regular basis.
2 Quotes: Memorize two quotes that inspire you and know who said them. Sharing these can be inspiring and even prompt further conversation.
1 Question: The question should be one you can ask to anyone in the world. This could be a billionaire, or it could be a homeless person on the street. The question I like to ask is, “Knowing what you know now, if you had to do it over, what would you tell yourself twenty years ago?”.
3. Ask the Right Questions
Each person is unique. This is a simple statement, but the more you show genuine interest in your coworkers, your neighbors, your friends, and even your family members, the more likely they are to open up and trust you. Start with questions. What are their personal values? What are their strengths and abilities? Understanding another person’s true motivations can lead to a deeper level of trust. Knowing where others are coming from, and what makes them tick, allows you to better react and respond to their needs.
One of the questions I love to ask when I am in a conversation is, What is giving you energy right now? It’s very open-ended, but when I can understand what matters to people personally, professionally, and in their family life, I know how I might be able to help that person in specific ways.
On the business front, the more I can help a person achieve their goals, the more buy-in I will get as their leader. This is a give-first mentality. Helping someone will make them want to reciprocate.
4. Send Handwritten Notes
When I first started at Novartis, I spent a few weeks rotating through various departments to learn more about the company. As a global pharmaceutical company, there was a lot to learn. During training, a customer service specialist spent three hours showing me how Novartis’ customer service operates. Afterwards I wrote a short note to say thank you, expressing how much I appreciated her taking the time to help me get up to speed.
A year later, I passed by the woman’s desk who had provided the training, and she had the card I wrote pinned up on her bulletin board. It touched me so much, because it had taken such a small amount of my time—no more than twenty seconds to write—but was so special that she still had it pinned up a year later.
I realized then how much it matters to people when I take the time to show support and genuine gratitude. When I used to attend a lot of conferences, I would try to tap into the power of handwritten notes whenever possible. When I knew some prospects and clients were staying in the same hotel, I’d send them handwritten letters. Of course, the gesture stood out. After all, how often does somebody at the hotel bring an envelope or a small package to your room or call and say there is an envelope waiting for you downstairs? Each time someone received a letter from me at a hotel, they’d be surprised and delighted. I knew they’d remember that letter for a long time.
The Art of Building Relationships Before You Need Them
The art of building relationships before you need them is only step one; it’s the most superficial aspect of relationship building. These four strategies will help you create a meaningful connection, but they are just the beginning of your journey.
After this step, you must continue investing in each relationship to deepen connection and build trust. Establishing deeper level connections requires maintenance and upkeep, but it’s one of the best things you’ll ever do, both for yourself and for your career.
It was 2017, the year before they got married, when Ali and Josh Lupo took a serious look at their finances — and realized they owed more than $100,000 in student loans.
Courtesy of The FI Couple
Despite working long, hard hours in human services, the couple was still living paycheck-to-paycheck, unsure how they’d afford a wedding or pay off their staggering debt.
“So we started having that conversation of: ‘Is this what we want to do for the next 30 to 40 years, or do we want to start learning how to live differently?’ And that was where our mindset around money really started to evolve,” Josh tells Entrepreneur.
The Lupos began tracking their expenses and saw they spent most of their income on rent and car payments, followed by food and dining out. Their first plan of attack? Implementing a strict budget: No date nights, no Netflix subscription, etc.
But the extreme approach burned the couple out quickly, so they went back to the drawing board. They needed to find a creative way to reduce their largest expense: housing.
Self-education led them to a solution (Ali emphasizes how many online resources, podcasts and books on financial freedom exist). If the Lupos purchased a multi-family home with a low down payment, they could dramatically decrease their monthly payments by renting out the other unit.
So that’s exactly what they did.
In the years since then, the Lupos have continued their journey to financial independence. They manage numerous streams of active and passive income, including their work as personal-finance content creators running the educational platform “The FI Couple.”
If you’re ready to get your finances on track in 2023, read on for the Lupos’ step-by-step strategy.
Define what success looks like for you
The first step is the foundation for all the rest: Figure out your unique definition of success.
The couple suggests considering what your ideal day and life look like. In other words, be clear about how financial freedom will allow you to do more of the things that make you happy.
“Our life was ‘easier’ when our heads were in the sand, ignoring everything about our finances,” Ali says. “Our lives are more complicated and harder now because we’re more in tune with all of the responsibilities that come with this. But to have the power and autonomy over our time is worth all of it, so [you have to be] clear with your why.”
Build a community that can help you stay the course
The road to financial freedom can be a difficult one, but it’s even harder for those going it alone.
Finding a community geared towards financial wellness can make all the difference, according to the Lupos.
“Unfortunately, being financially savvy is not the norm,” Josh says, “and pursuing financial independence can get lonely because a lot of people aren’t necessarily living the same lifestyle. So whether it’s in person or online, having that community of like-minded people can be really inspiring.”
Know your numbers: income, expenses, assets and debts
Another critical move?Get thoroughly acquainted with the reality of your financial picture.
As of September 2022, consumer debt in the U.S. was at $16.5 trillion, according to Bankrate. But many Americans are unaware of how much they actually owe: A 2019 survey from U.S. News found that one in five Americans doesn’t know if they have credit card debt.
The Lupos stress the value of familiarizing yourself with all of your numbers.
“So literally outlining and understanding your income, expenses, assets and debts,” Ali explains, “and having a crystal clear understanding of your financial situation.”
Figure out how to lower expenses and increase your income
Next up, consider how you might save and earn more money — “the two biggest levers a person can pull,” Josh notes.
The couple acknowledges that increasing your income significantly can seem challenging at first, but the key is to get creative.
“We decided to focus on how we could radically lower our expenses to increase our savings,” Josh says, “and doing so helped us pay off all the debt and buy real estate.”
“If you’re able to increase your income and reduce your expenses, you’ll have more of a gap in between,” Ali adds, “and what you do with that gap is the key to becoming financially independent.”
Never underestimate your earning potential either.
“Coming from backgrounds in social work and human services that are historically lower-income opportunities, for a long time we identified ourselves as people [whose] value was a little bit lower and [thought] earning more just simply wasn’t in the cards,” Josh says. “In hindsight though, [the key is] getting around the right people and understanding different opportunity vehicles.”
Consider which strategy makes the most sense for your lifestyle
It’s not enough to brainstorm a solution and go all in — part of the secret is choosing an approach that aligns with your values and priorities.
As fundamental as real estate investment has been to the Lupos’ success, the couple recognizes that it’s not for everyone.
“The goal of financial independence is to have enough assets to pay for your overall cost of living,” Ali says. “So you have to [ask], What strategy makes sense for me? Do I want to invest in stocks? Do I want to invest in real estate? Do I want to be a business owner?“
“We talk to people all the time,” she continues. “They say, ‘I want to buy real estate.’ But then we talk to them, and I’m like, ‘It doesn’t really sound like you want real estate. Because real estate’s not that passive — and it’s a little more hands-on.’ You really have to think about which investing strategy makes sense for [your] life.”
Real estate isn’t always “passive”
Then again, neither are 40-50 hour weeks at a job
At least with real estate “hard” weeks are still only 2-3 hours of work
Maybe the most important thing to keep in mind, though? Don’t forget to enjoy the journey to financial freedom.
“When we first started out, it felt like a chore,” Ali says. “Through the process, we’ve learned that the journey to financial independence is more important than the destination and that it’s really important that whatever you do to get there is sustainable and you don’t sacrifice the quality of your life to achieve [your] goal. Because then once you get to the goal, what life do you have?”
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It’s no secret that successful people in business take the time to read, with most CEOs reading on average one book a week. But it’s not the act of reading that makes them succeed, it’s all the information they soak up within the pages. So imagine you could glean the important information in the world’s bestselling books in fifteen-minute summaries.
StackCommerce
If you’re hoping to expand your mind this year, take advantage of the Same You, New Focus sale and get a lifetime subscription to Headway Premium, which provides engaging summaries from bestselling books for just $59. That’s an 80% savings off the usual $299 price tag, no coupon code needed.
Looking to increase productivity in 2023? Headway can help with that too. This mobile app provides fun and easy growth, putting the key ideas and insights from world-famous nonfiction books right at your fingertips. You can decide how you digest the ideas: in text, video, or audio.
Though you won’t get to see the whole book, Headway gives subscribers access to concepts and principles from the pages, allowing you to familiarize yourself with the ideas and discover works you might want to take a closer look at. This genius concept helps you stay productive, letting you discover what books are worth your precious free time.
Headway can be used while you’re commuting, standing in a line, brushing your teeth, or tending to another daily routine, allowing you to enrich your life while multitasking. Daily insights and widgets help motivate you to continue along while you receive personalized recommendations and relevant content based on your interests.
Celebrate you in 2023 by expanding your mind with a lifetime subscription to Headway Premium. It’s on sale now through January 9 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.
I had always said I was going to retire when I was 50. I had worked and saved since I was 16. Retiring without Medicare and Social Security is a scary thing. I wound up retiring then going back to work. At 53, I took a part-time job with a decent salary for the hours but I was sooooo bored. And then life rang my bell.
I had major medical problems. So major that when I was able to return to work they let me go because they didn’t think I could keep up with the workflow. They were probably right. Nobody else felt comfortable enough with my health issues to hire me. I applied for disability but was denied. I appealed and got my rejection to the appeal while I was in ICU. I appealed again and I was denied because they didn’t think anything changed from my original application.
I am assuming you can imagine what my savings is now. I took early retirement, with the penalty, because I needed income. $4,000 a month wouldn’t have put a dent in my prescriptions.
Everybody needs to know there’s no such thing as a safe amount of money set aside for retirement. Life happens and in the blink of an eye your whole life and everything you worked for can be gone.
I normally only feature letters with questions for this column, but your note was just so important for other readers that I had to respond — and let others see what you’ve shared.
I’m so very sorry that you experienced this. Wanting to retire early isn’t inherently wrong — so many people wish to do it, especially after decades of working. But without the proper planning, it could lead to despair, especially if an emergency occurs.
“Retiring early is a dream for many people,” said Landon Tan, a certified financial planner. “But those years of not working diminish your chance of a successful retirement more than almost any other metric we toggle when making financial plans.”
Retiring early means there are more years you need to be able to financially cover, and that requires money — a lot of it. When planning to retire early, those extra years need to be considered — at the forefront of retirement, but also in the back end if you live longer than anticipated.
“Today’s retirees are expecting their accumulated assets to work for them for 10-20 years longer than before,” said Glenn Downing, a certified financial planner and founder of CameronDowning. “Centenarians are no longer uncommon. For that to happen successfully, there needs to be more assets — simple as that.” Anyone should prepare to live longer than expected so their money does not outlast them, which can feel daunting.
Those missing years may also affect your Social Security benefits, which so many elderly Americans rely on for most of their retirement income. People retiring early should have a clear picture of what to expect from Social Security in the future, and how their plans may impact those expectations.
Leaving the workforce also means possibly losing out on participating in a group health plan, and I think we can say with certainty the pandemic has shown just how crucial health insurance can be in dire times.
You’re absolutely right: Retiring before Medicare is scary. Healthcare is expensive even without an emergency. Not everyone considers this expense when they’re dreaming about calling it quits in their 50s, but if they don’t have proper insurance lined up when they retire they could be blowing through their retirement budget quickly — or putting themselves in a very dangerous situation. Those years can feel long when Medicare eligibility only begins at age 65 for most Americans. And it also doesn’t take into consideration long-term care, which is an entirely other expense. Think nursing homes, home health aides and necessary medical equipment for daily activities.
Knowing how much is enough to have saved for retirement is very difficult. There is no such thing as one “safe” number before you retire, but there are a few guidelines one can follow to find security in old age.
Part of that equation comes down to personal circumstance: how much you typically spent in your pre-retirement life, how much you anticipate spending in retirement, various financial factors like taxes and cost of housing and utilities, and so on. And as you have experienced — and considerately reminding others — major unexpected emergencies can absolutely derail any sort of financial security.
Another factor is what is available to you in your older years. I’ll get to that in a moment in hopes it may help you or others in similar situations.
Retirees tend to focus on short-term changes, which can cause them to be unprepared for what the future holds, a recent survey found. Many retirees just deal with these emergencies as they come, according to research from the Society of Actuaries. The organization found more than seven in 10 retirees have thought about how their lives will change in the following decades, but only 27% feel financially prepared for it.
More than half of the retirees in the survey said they could not afford more than $25,000 for an unexpected emergency without jeopardizing their retirement security. More than half of Black respondents and Latino respondents said they couldn’t afford to spend $10,000 for a financial shock.
“The world can change around you really quickly, and you need to be prepared for the change and to deal with change,” said Anna Rappaport, a member of the Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Program. Americans didn’t often plan for the shocks life could bring before the pandemic, and that hasn’t necessarily changed since, she said. “The shocks were there before and the landscape just changed a little.”
Check out MarketWatch’s column “Retirement Hacks” for actionable pieces of advice for your own retirement savings journey
But you’re not alone. Many people have fallen into hard times before and during retirement, pandemic or no pandemic. You may already be exhausting all avenues, but this one retiree shared the steps he took when he lost his job at 58. He searched for another job for 18 months before taking one with a 40% pay cut, and had to live a lot leaner until he officially retired at age 64. That lifestyle included taking in a roommate, buying some household items at the dollar store and extreme meal planning. Here’s what he says about his retirement now.
If your medical condition allows, could you take on some part-time work, or find some ways to make money while working from home? Or could you possibly downsize where you live or take in a roommate?
I know you didn’t ask for any suggestions and I’m sure you’re already doing as much as you can to live comfortably, but there are plenty of resources you might want to consider if you haven’t already.
Have you explored any government benefits, such as assistance in costs for housing, heating or groceries? There are many federal and state programs available for seniors with needs for financial assistance — not just Supplemental Security Insurance and Medicaid, though of course those are the most prominently known.
AARP created a list of resources, broken up by state, and has its own services, such as helping people get back to work in their 50s and beyond. GoFundMe also has a list for financial assistance for older Americans. It includes options for housing, food, medicine and getting back into the workforce. States, and sometimes even individual cities, have departments and offices dedicated to aging issues, which you may want to try calling as well. There is help out there, even if it may not feel easy to find.
I wish you the best.
Readers: Do you have suggestions for this reader? Add them in the comments below.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Everybody needs to find ways to relax and unwind from time to time, which is why finding a hobby is especially valuable for stressed-out entrepreneurs. Of course, some hobbies are more useful than others, but during our Same You, New Hobby promotion, you can learn a new hobby that can also help you make gains in your business’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The bundle includes 13 courses taught by Intellezy Learning (4.4/5 star instructor rating) and Able Lingo (4.7/5 star rating). Designed for beginners, you’ll start your education by learning the basic ASL alphabet, colors, animals, and more, and learn how to use ASL in day-to-day situations. Next, you’ll learn how to use ASL for business, focusing on business-related terminology and expressions and understanding numbers, basic structure, and beyond.
As you progress through the coursework, you’ll practice pronouns and vocabulary, fingerspelling exercises, adjectives, action verbs, animals, numbers, and more. In addition, there is coursework designed to help you tell stories, describe personality traits, and discuss emotions in ASL. You’ll discover everyday phrases that simplify how you communicate with hard-of-hearing individuals while still mastering your technique. Before you know it, you’ll be able to communicate in ASL and have a ton of fun doing it.
Verified buyer Raphael raves, “This is a great bundle. I just started, and I already learned quite a lot.”
Pick up a hobby that will pay dividends for your DEI initiatives. Now through January 9, grab The All-in-One American Sign Language Bundle while it’s on sale for just $19.99 with no coup[ons needed.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you’re like around half of the country, then you’re probably already making New Year’s resolutions like losing weight, getting organized, spending less money and saving more and living life the fullest.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you’ll be spending more time traveling in 2023, for work or for play, it’s time to start thinking about your plans. With global inflation impacting airfares and prices abroad, you owe it to yourself to be as prepared as possible when traveling the world.
StackCommerce
That’s where the World Traveler Bundle comes in. This package deal combines lifetime subscriptions to Rosetta Stone, Matt’s Flights, and the Complete 2022 Travel Hacker Bundle to help you get the most out of all of your adventures in the coming year.
First off, Rosetta Stone can help you learn the language before you get to your destination. Trusted for three decades by international organizations like NASA and TripAdvisor, Rosetta Stone’s proprietary speech recognition and award-winning curriculum is a proven way to learn 24 languages (one at a time). You’ll develop your command of your chosen language as you learn to read, write, understand, and speak about things like shopping, ordering, navigating, and more. It’s an efficient way to iron out the phrases you need to know before you get there.
Matt’s Flights can help you save money on airfare by sending you multiple flight deals from your home airport every single week. You’ll also get an unlimited number of custom search requests to guarantee the cheapest airfare when it comes time to travel. Personal 1-on-1 flight and travel planning support from Matt is also available.
Finally, the Complete 2022 Travel Hacker Bundle can help you learn how to take advantage of points programs, earn money while traveling abroad, and more.
Travel like a pro this coming year. For a limited time, you can get everything included in The World Traveler Bundle for just $159.20 with code TRAVEL20 through December 31. That’s less than the price of Rosetta Stone alone.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
These days, you might be feeling like the world you knew is slipping away from you. Like you have less control than ever before and events far bigger than you are whipsawing your life in directions you never thought you’d be heading.
It’s ok. We’re all going through the same turbulent journey together. We’re all in one giant lifeboat in this great adventure called life. These are truly unprecedented times between a generational pandemic, a war in Europe, rampant inflation, scary talks of recession. But this is when truly strong people are built. When everything external seems out of control, it’s important to realize that the only thing they can truly control is ourselves. Once we understand this unchangeable truth we start to ease up and see that going with the flow is the optimal way to deal with the outside world.
What is “going with the flow”? Is it a hippy term or some feel-good mantra? No! Going with the flow simply means separating what’s in your control from what’s not, and letting the uncontrollable unfold without judgment or exertion on our part.
Guess what? It’s actually the most freeing thing in the world to know that the world is unchangeably chaotic. As Frank Herbert famously said, ” The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.” Imagine how boring life would be if it was already completely mapped out for us and we were following a set storyline like a character in a video game?
Here are a few tangible ways to implement going with the flow into your life today.
Going with the flow allows us to stay in the present moment and separate the essential from the non-essential.
The best way to keep ourselves centered and smooth in our daily lives is a two-step question process.
Is this something that’s in my control? (this question filters out the changeable from the unchangeable)
What can I do right now to better this situation? (if it is in your control)
I’ve found that asking yourself guiding questions during the day is the most effective way to keep yourself calm, focused and unmoveable in the face of thousands of thoughts and decisions that come our way each day.
True progress comes from mastering variables within our control. It’s impossible to comprehend the amount of time we spend worrying and poring over fictional mental situations, trying to solve the unsolvable.
By focusing purely on what we can control and letting go of the rest, we give ourselves freedom and space to operate to our maximum potential.
2. Plan then relax about the future
As human beings, we have an uncanny knack for subconsciously pinning our happiness on some imaginary time in the future. Guess what? Our future is shaped solely by what we do now. In the present moment.
Once we’ve gotten stronger at going with the flow, the future doesn’t seem so scary because we’re living firmly in the right now.
It’s definitely important to plan for milestones we want to achieve in the future, but if our happiness is always tethered to some other place and some other time, we’ll never be truly fulfilled.
Enjoy the things that truly matter today like your health, your relationships, and the meaning behind your work.
Former NFL linebacker Matt Mayberry puts it best, “One of the major causes of unhappiness is to not appreciate what we already have and focus our energy and effort towards what we don’t have.”
We all have set goals we want to achieve in the future. It’d be silly not to have targets to aim towards that mold us into better, smarter, stronger human beings. The key is the balance between living in the now and taking time to intentionally plan for the future.
Try this: Take a 20-30 minute walk at the end of the day and give yourself complete permission to think about the future. You might start out with worries about what might unfold. Try to consciously think about your goals and how you’re tracking towards them, or dreams you want to accomplish. The more you practice this the more you’ll start honing your focus toward positivity in the future instead
The way you get to your dreams will take many winding paths. It’s not a straight line to the end goal, it’s a journey filled with pitfalls, ups, downs, and everything in between. It’s critical to go with the flow because that’s how you truly soak up the journey. All of the little experiences that happen on the way to the “finish line” are what you might look back on as your favorite parts of life.
Southwest Airlines continued to extract itself from sustained scheduling chaos Thursday, cancelling another 2,350 flights after a winter storm overwhelmed its operations days ago.
The Dallas carrier acknowledged it has inadequate and outdated operations technology that can leave flight crews out of position when adverse weather strikes.
Southwest LUV, +3.70%
was the only airline unable to recover from storm-related delays that began over the weekend when snow, ice and high winds raked portions of the country.
As has been the case every day this week, the vast majority of flight cancellations nationwide, are Southwest flights.
There were 2,451 flights cancelled before noon Thursday in the U.S., and 2,357 were Southwest routes, or about 58% of its entire schedule, according to the FlightAware tracking service.
The airline has warned that cancellations will continue for days.
The federal government is investigating what happened at Southwest with total cancellations soaring past 10,000 early in the week.
Southwest added a page to their website specifically for travelers who were stranded, but thousands of customers remain unable to reach the airline.
Every year, I make a bunch of lofty New Year’s resolutions, and every year I accomplish approximately zero of them.
Lose 30 pounds. Write a novel. Increase my income 2x. Convince my wife to get a third cat. These all sound like good ideas at 11:55 pm on December 31st, but then life happens, priorities change, and my resolutions take a backseat to watching football games on my couch and enjoying the occasional apple fritter.
But I am not alone in my New Year’s resolution dissolution.
According to a University of Scranton study, only 8% of Americans feel they’re successful in keeping their resolutions by the end of the year.
This isn’t because we’re all lazy or procrastinators. Many of us are just too ambitious with our aspirations. Not only do we bite off more than can chew—we choke on our hubris.
But author and thought leader Amy Morin says there is a different way to approach New Year’s resolutions. Morin, a psychotherapist, and editor-in-chief of Verywell Mind, is an expert on what mentally-strong and disciplined people do. In fact, she’s written four bestselling books on the subject. Her Ted Talk is one of the most watched, with 22 million views on YouTube.
Morin says we often sabotage ourselves by creating vague or unrealistic goals. I spoke with her on the podcast Write About Now.
Here are some smart strategies for making, not breaking, resolutions in 2023.
Rather than just starting all willy-nilly on January 1, make a realistic plan first. Most people start the New Year’s resolutions without a plan and then wonder why they failed.
“Write it down. There’s something about seeing it on paper that makes it more real to us,” Morin says.
She also advises saying your resolution out loud to your friends, making sure to be as specific as possible.
“There’s some evidence that if you go around telling people like, ‘I’m gonna get a beach body next year,’ it’s almost like your brain thinks you already did it. So then you don’t put in as much effort,” Morin says. “It’s better if you talk to people about what you’re going to do to reach that goal, saying, ‘Here’s what I am going to do.’”
2. Set 30-day challenges, not 365-day goals
Morin is a fan of giving yourself mini, 30-day practical, achievable challenges rather than mammoth, year-long ordeals you’ll need more time to finish.
“One of the problems with big resolutions is we think I’ll put that off until later, and then before you know it, the year’s gone,” says Morin.
Better to give yourself a month to create some sort of change, whether that’s getting firmer abs or reading more books. Thirty-day challenges are easier to start and finish because you know they’re not going to last forever. They’re also easier to repeat.
3. Take two minutes a day to be more grateful
When I first heard this, I rolled my eyes a little. Gratitude is one of those New Age buzzwords like “abundance” that makes me a little dry heave-y. But Morin says gratitude is one of “the most underrated superpowers there is.” The simple act of acknowledging what you’re grateful for each day can make you happier, healthier, and even sleep better.
In a study at the University of California, participants were asked to write a few sentences each week. One group wrote about things they were grateful for, and another about things that bothered them. After ten weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about themselves. They also worked out more and had fewer visits to the doctor than those who focused on things that pissed them off.
4. Reach out to a friend every day
“In today’s world, I don’t think we value social connection with our friends nearly enough,” Morin says.
She recommends reaching out to a friend daily, even if it’s just texting them a funny meme. Some friends might not reciprocate, but most people will be happy to hear from you. “They’re looking for that in their lives,” Morin says, “and they’ll notice it puts them in a better mood.”
Getting in touch with friends will also help recharge your battery. It’s far too easy to get so caught up in daily work stress, but making time for a friend puts things in perspective and makes you realize who and what’s important.
5. Set realistic timelines
If you’re aiming for something big, like writing a book or doing a Ted Talk, Morin recommends giving yourself a reasonable timeline.
For example, if you want to write a book in a year, figure out how many days a week you would have to write, and how many words you would have to write a day to get it done. “And figure out how you’re going to keep track of this,” Morin says. It might be a paper calendar on your fridge or one of those desk calendars from the 90s. Something about having a physical thing where you chart your progress helps keep you on track and feel like you’re achieving something.
No matter what your resolution is, Morin says don’t give up on it so fast.
“You can always shift your resolution, come up with a slightly different plan, or figure out how to say motivated,” she says. “Don’t give up on it just because it’s not working out in the first couple of weeks or months.”
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Recently I decided it would be a good idea to participate in a Kidnapping Survival Course. During the course, I would become trained in handling a real-life kidnapping, interrogation and being hunted for a day by professional bounty hunters.
It sounds nuts, I know. So, why did I do this?
One reason — to learn critical performance and stress management mindset and skills.
I believe that mindset is everything. It can be the difference between success and failure. It can determine whether a business will grow from five figures to six figures, to seven figures and beyond. Mindset is essential for your success.
I learned this specifically when I picked up my first business book in 2002 by Robert Kiyosaki. His timeless must-read book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” completely shifted the way I thought and changed my life trajectory. Since then, there have been numerous books, classes and workshops that I have invested in spending over $100,000 in education to upgrade my mindset.
And that is precisely why I decided to take a kidnapping survival course. Realistically, I don’t think I will get kidnapped anytime soon. Still, I thought to myself, if I can learn to survive a kidnapping, being trained by the same people that train Navy SEALS, the CIA and the FBI, then I can control my emotions when a major crisis happens in my business. I can control my communication when working with customers, clients and my team.
All entrepreneurs need preparation. Without preparation, you become more vulnerable. To survive a kidnapping, you must first be mentally prepared. To survive the ups and downs of business, preparation always helps us get one step ahead. No matter if we are preparing a pitch deck to ask for investment or if we are preparing our tasks for the week. You can’t control when you get kidnapped or oftentimes what is going to happen in business, but you can control your reaction and be prepared is essential to making that easier.
2. Develop a plan
As mentioned before, being prepared is essential, and planning is an important part of that. To survive a kidnapping, one must plan to evade those trying to capture them. Choosing undercover personas that blend in well with the environment and don’t stand out is essential. This is also essential in business. Robust plans can make our business operations run more smoothly and keep us operating more effectively. The more you can create an educated and detailed plan, the better your chances of success.
3. Breathe
This is the most simple underestimated lesson we learned. When a Navy SEAL gets kidnapped, they are trained to manage their breath. Why? Because breathing will manage your brain’s stress response. When you fear something, your amygdala reacts. Your heart rate and the levels of adrenaline and cortisol start to increase. If you can learn how to slow your breath down, it will control your heart rate and begin to wash away the stress hormones. It also improves brain functioning so we can focus better and make better decisions.
During our kidnapping simulation, we stayed undercover the entire day while bounty hunters searched for us. We had to change clothes regularly to blend in. We had to hide when we were spotted and run when we were being chased. We had no control over when we would be under stress and had to react instantly. We were taught to remain completely adaptable. This is very similar to business. I can’t tell you how often entrepreneurs (myself included) get stuck on resisting change. Often it is the main reason why most businesses fail. It is important to plan well and follow your plan, but it is also essential to know when to adapt and shift.
Throughout the kidnapping simulation, we worked in teams of three. We had 14 missions we needed to complete throughout the day while avoiding being caught by the bounty hunters. We did this without phones, the internet or money. The only thing we had to rely on was our training, our plan and our team. My team decided to start by planning who would work on each mission and how.
The missions included getting someone to give us money for a bus ticket, translating a phrase into Russian or Portuguese and finding a free food and water source to survive. Like in business, we discussed a plan to accomplish each task to the best of our ability. All companies have some team and need to make daily decisions on what that plan will be and who will work to accomplish the mission.
While undercover, if a bounty hunter spotted us, they captured and handcuffed us to a bench or a pole. We then had to escape from the handcuffs in a downtown area while people were awkwardly staring at us. After being trained for a week to survive a kidnapping, I had my mind set on not getting caught.
Toward the end of the day, my team was walking through an outdoor mall when a bounty hunter spotted us. We looked at one another and went on a dead sprint through the mall. This took us on a chase through the back rooms of various stores, racing through a parking lot and running circles inside a Macy’s department store. As you can imagine, the pedestrians thought we were running from the police. All of our team went in different directions. I thought I was in the clear and started to walk when a bounty hunter came around the corner at that exact moment. I began to sprint as fast as I possibly could. I turned another corner and dove behind a pillar of a building. Unfortunately, as the bounty hunter walked by, he saw my reflection in the window and captured me. He then handcuffed me to a bench and walked away with a smile. I spent the next few minutes embarrassingly picking the handcuffs while people were walking by and giving me the most awkward looks.
Business is very similar. There are deadlines you will have to hit even when you don’t want to. You will often need to push your limits to accomplish impossible things. You will need to flat-out sprint and hustle with everything you have got, and the more prepared you are for these moments, the better you will be able to handle them when they happen.
The last lesson was that all things are possible. If goals are dissected into a simple step-by-step process (make a plan), it is much simpler to take each hurdle and obstacle that comes your way. It seems nearly impossible to be kidnapped, handcuffed, blindfolded, duct taped, waterboarded, shocked by a stun gun, escape from bounty hunters and accomplish 14 missions in one day that most people would struggle with working on only one. But we did it, and we did it because we were prepared, planned, worked as a team, were adaptable, remembered to breathe and ran as fast as we could when needed.
I firmly believe that anyone can build a business if they believe in themselves and their dreams. Learning to survive a kidnapping was just one way to reassure me that anything is possible if you believe.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Paint can take years before discoloration starts to be noticeable. However, if one of your clients is sure their wall is one color while your expertise points another direction, you can find out for sure with a Nix Color Sensor. This pocket-sized device should help you identify the color on almost anything, and it’s only $59.
StackCommerce
You might astonish your client when you can match their fading paint with a modern counterpart. Nix can scan almost any surface, including walls, vinyl, leather, plastic, fabric, dyes, and more. Your scan will be compared with a collection of more than 100,000 brand-name paint colors. If you want to find their digital color counterparts, get the HEX, CMYK, and LAB color codes.
Nix is a sturdy, simple precision tool that could travel in a pocket or tackle box. The lightweight solid-state tool pairs with your phone using Bluetooth and the Nix app to browse saved color palettes or share colors with customers, colleagues, and friends. The unique scanner design blocks all ambient light when you put it against a scannable surface.
If you’re a rental property owner, you may appreciate a way to identify paint colors without hiring an expert. Maintain your property and see if it’s Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, or another major paint brand.
The Nix has worked well for a verified buyer who works in construction: “In construction these days, you have to be versatile. Painting has been something I’m able to do, matching paint is not my strong point. The nix Mini was easy to set up, easy to use and spot on with a match. Makes me look like a real paint pro.”
While many are cheering China’s scrapping of its stringent zero-COVID policy earlier this month, an increasing number of reports suggest that the latest official tallies of new cases only represent a fraction of the real numbers.
On Friday — before announcing over the weekend that it would no longer provide daily COVID data — China reported about 4,000 new cases for the entire country, as the New York Times reported.
At the same time, local media reported that a health official said there were about half a million cases a day in the city of Qingdao alone. The city of Dongguan estimated it was seeing about 250,000 to 300,000 new cases a day, and the city of Yulin reported 157,000 new cases last Friday, the New York Times report said.
A public-health expert at the University of Hong Kong said that based on data from Hong Kong’s COVID outbreak earlier this year, China could be facing tens of millions of new cases a day, the New York times report said.
That jibes with other reports that some hospitals in China are being overwhelmed with severe cases. Vaccination rates in the country have been relatively low, especially among the elderly.
Even as reports of a nationwide surge in cases increase, so do reports of restrictions that are being lifted.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong will stop requiring PCR COVID tests for arriving travelers and will also end the requirement for vaccine passes in order to enter some public venues.
The lifting of the requirements come as government data showed that 95% of Hong Kong’s population have had at least one shot of a COVID vaccine, while 83% have had three doses.
In the U.S., 80.8% of Americans have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, 69% of the population has been fully vaccinated, but only 14.6% have received an updated bivalent booster dose.
For new COVID cases, the seven-day average ticked up to 67,215 on Tuesday from 66,014 on Monday and has edged up 2% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker.
The daily average for COVID-related hospitalizations was 39,432 on Tuesday, down from 40,156 the day before and down 1% from two weeks ago. Deaths dropped to a two-week low of 388, down 18% from two weeks ago.
On a negative note, the test-positivity rate rose to a four-month high above 14%, which suggests that many new COVID infections are not being reported.
The New York Times
The number of COVID-related patients in intensive-care units fell to 4,871 on Tuesday from Monday’s 4½-month high of 4,931 but has increased 8% from two weeks ago.
DALLAS — Travelers who counted on Southwest Airlines to get them home suffered another wave of canceled flights Wednesday, and pressure grew on the federal government to help customers get reimbursed for unexpected expenses they incurred because of the airline’s meltdown.
Exhausted Southwest LUV, -5.16%
travelers tried finding seats on other airlines or renting cars to get to their destination, but many remained stranded. The airline’s CEO said it could be next week before the flight schedule returns to normal.
Adontis Barber, a 34-year-old jazz pianist from Kansas City, Missouri, had camped out in the city’s airport since his Southwest flight was canceled Saturday and wondered if he would ever get to a New Year’s gig in Washington, D.C.
“I give up,” he said. “I’m starting to feel homeless.”
By early afternoon on the East Coast, about 90% of all canceled flights Wednesday in the U.S. were on Southwest, according to the FlightAware tracking service.
Other airlines recovered from ferocious winter storms that hit large swaths of the country over the weekend, but not Southwest, which scrubbed 2,500 flights Wednesday and 2,300 more on Thursday.
The Dallas airline was undone by a combination of factors including an antiquated crew-scheduling system and a network design that allows cancellations in one region to cascade throughout the country rapidly. Those weaknesses are not new — they helped cause a similar failure by Southwest in October 2021.
The federal government is now investigating what happened at Southwest, which carries more passengers within the United States than any other airline.
In a video that Southwest posted late Tuesday, CEO Robert Jordan said Southwest would operate a reduced schedule for several days but hoped to be “back on track before next week.”
Jordan blamed the winter storm for snarling the airline’s “highly complex” network. He said Southwest’s tools for recovering from disruptions work “99% of the time, but clearly we need to double down” on upgrading systems to avoid a repeat of this week.
“We have some real work to do in making this right,” said Jordan, a 34-year Southwest veteran who became CEO in February. “For now, I want you to know that we are committed to that.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has criticized airlines for previous disruptions, said that “meltdown” was the only word he could think of to describe this week’s events at Southwest. He noted that while cancellations across the rest of the industry declined to about 4% of scheduled flights, they remained above 60% at Southwest.
From the high rate of cancellations to customers’ inability to reach Southwest on the phone, the airline’s performance has been unacceptable, Buttigieg said. He vowed to hold the airline accountable and push it to reimburse travelers.
“They need to make sure that those stranded passengers get to where they need to go and that they are provided adequate compensation,” including for missed flights, hotels and meals, he said Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
On its website, Southwest told customers affected by canceled or delayed flights between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2 to submit receipts. The airline said, “We will honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel, and alternate transportation.”
Navy physician Lt. Cmdr. Manoj Mathew said after spending hours on hold over two days Southwest reimbursed him for the first leg of his family’s trip from Washington to Houston — they drove through terrible weather after the Dec. 23 flight was canceled. Now he is worried whether Southwest will operate the return flight Sunday.
“I’m trying to reach other airlines,” he said. “There are no flights, plus it’s very expensive for us.”
Leaders of Southwest’s labor unions have warned for years that the airline’s crew-scheduling system, which dates to the 1990s, was inadequate, and the CEO acknowledged this week that the technology needs to be upgraded.
The other large U.S. airlines use “hub and spoke” networks in which flights radiate out from a few major or hub airports. That helps limit the reach of disruptions caused by bad weather in part of the country.
Southwest, however, has a “point to point” network in which planes crisscross the country during the day. This can increase the utilization and efficiency of each plane, but problems in one place can ripple across the country and leave crews trapped out of position.
Those issues don’t explain all the complaints that stranded travelers made about Southwest, including no ability to reach the airline on the phone and a lack of help with hotels and meals.
Teal Williams, a 48-year-old active-duty Army reservist from Utah, was stuck at the Denver airport with her husband and two teenage kids on Christmas Day after their flight to Des Moines, Iowa, was canceled. She said Southwest employees had no information about flights and didn’t offer food vouchers while elderly passengers sat in wheelchairs for hours and mothers ran out of formula for their infants.
“It was just imploding, and no one could tell you anything,” Williams said. The airline employees “were desperately trying to help, but you could tell they were just as clueless as everybody else … it was scary.”
Unable to find plane, train or bus seats, Williams and her family felt lucky to score a rental car. They drove 12 hours to Iowa.
Barber, the musician from Kansas City, already missed a performance Sunday in Dallas but had hoped to make it to Washington in time for a New Year’s performance near the National Mall.
What fresh shenanigans and money dilemmas enthralled readers in 2022?
Another year of broken promises, dodgy dealings and moving letters about how to get back on one’s feet after divorce, unemployment and even a 15-year abusive relationship.
The most widely-read Moneyist of 2022, however, was actually one of the shortest letters from someone called ‘Surprised Sister.” The answer, as is often the case, was not so simple, nor so short.
My response: There are times to contest a will: a parent who was being controlled by a new friend or greedy child, and/or someone who was forced to change their will when they were not of sound mind.
But her own legal advice notwithstanding, I suggested she should accept your brother’s wishes. Feeling aggrieved that she did not inherit his estate is not enough to break his will.
Separate the emotions from the finance, and the answer often reveals itself. But there were others that ran the gamut from romance to stocks. They other most-read columns are an eclectic bunch:
It would be nice to offer to take the booze off the check, you were a non-drinker, would you speak up at one drink or two or three, if your date split the entire bill 50/50?
The financial intricacies of dating are like an onion that can be peeled ad infinitum. We’ve had plenty to chew over. Paying for one of your date’s drinks is OK, paying for two is pushing it.
“The Other Brother” wrote that his father offered three children a choice: stocks or cash. The other two siblings took the cash. He took the cash. The stock soared. Dems are the breaks.
Her siblings could have chosen stocks over cash, but they wanted immediate gratification. That was their decision, and they are going to have to take ownership of their choice and live with it.
They have been in a 20-year relationship and have a 10-year-old child. “Not on the Deed” said she and her partner have had several tense “discussions” about adding me to the deed.
I told her that her contribution to your partnership is valuable, her sense of worth is valuable, and her role as a homemaker and a mother is also valuable. Yes, he should add her.
Even amidst the fights over inheritances, some breaches of social and financial etiquette seem so bizarre some people might think, ‘That behavior is too outrageous to be believable.”
The letter writer received free theater tickets, they split the bill 50/50 even though her friend had a cocktail, and she paid $10 for parking. Is he obliged to take her out again? No-can-do.
Another dating story, this time where the guy chose a fancy restaurant and, as the date wore on, things took a turn for the worst, at least in the letter writer’s eyes: She was asked to split the bill.
What if they didn’t get along? What if he was an abortion-rights supporter and she was anti-abortion? What if he was a Republican and she was a Democrat? Or vice-versa? Always be prepared to pay.
You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions related to coronavirus at qfottrell@marketwatch.com.
Check out the Moneyist private Facebookgroup, where we look for answers to life’s thorniest money issues. Readers write to me with all sorts of dilemmas. Post your questions, tell me what you want to know more about, or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns.
The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Entrepreneurs need to be good listeners. But sometimes, you just need to clean out your ears! We’re joking — yet we’re not joking about the Smart Visual Ear Cleaner, an innovative new way to remove earwax and promote ear health. Because you need your ears for the long haul, and nobody wants to do business with somebody who has clumps of earwax hanging out of their ears.
StackCommerce
This clever device has an attached camera with a 360º wide-angle, 1080p Full HD view that wirelessly streams to your Bluetooth device. That way, you get a full, clear HD view of the inside of your ear so you know exactly where those peskiest buildups of wax are hiding. With the attached silicone earbud spoons, you can comfortably remove ear wax without scratching or impacting your ears, making it a much safer way to remove wax than traditional cotton swabs, especially for kids.
The device has a 360mAh battery that supports up to 1.5 hours of continuous use, which translates to about 45 consecutive days of use. It’s rated IP7-waterproof, making it easy to clean with water or wipe with alcohol. That also makes it versatile enough to check teeth, your nasal cavity, your throat, scalp roots, and other body parts that you can’t see with your eyes. All you have to do is remove the magnetic cap to sync the device and get started immediately. Since it’s so lightweight, you can take it with you or store it anywhere.
You’re an innovator, so clean your ears in a more innovative way. For a limited time, you can get the Smart Visual Ear Cleaner for 14% off $34 at just $29.95. You can upgrade to an included storage box for $34.95 (reg. $39). That’s a small price to pay for the cleanest ears you’ve ever had.
