July OverHall IT! Issue
JULY, 2000
Vol. 1, Issue 7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Table of Contents:
1. Welcome Message
2. OverHalling and Balance
3. Guest Article
4. D-BUST Your Computer-Part 4-c
5. Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes
6. Products, Books, and Web Site Reviews
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Welcome Message
The month of July has almost passed me by! I've been *
overhalling * my website, planning some seminars, and an
Expo. With all this planning, gardening (the beans, peppers,
and tomatoes just won't STOP), writing, clients, and
life; July has gone by quickly for me and I found August
knocking at my door reminding me I still had this issue to get
out!
This month's issue is packed with * overhalling * tips for the
financial area of your life, where you'll find a link to my FREE
master grocery list.
Our guest article is not just for women; even through the title
implies that, by Craig Lock.
Okay, ready to start "OverHalling"?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. OverHalling and Balance
- I Wasn't Paying Attention: Where
Does My Money
Go and How Can I Get Some Back? -
Part 3
by: Janet L. Hall
Here are my Top 7 Tips Lists for * OverHalling * Seven
Financial Areas of Your Life:
Top 7 Tips for * OverHalling * Your Food Purchases
1. Use a master grocery list (FREE at
http://www.overhall.com/grocerylist.htm
)
2. Make your morning drink at home
3. Stop snacking from vending machines
4. Carry your own snacks, celery sticks, carrots, broccoli
spears, fresh fruit, pop corn
5. Pack your lunch
6. STOP eating out
7. Only use coupons for the products you normally buy
Richard Carlson, Ph.D. gave this wonderful example on how
much you can save by taking your lunch to work with you in
Don't Worry, Make Money, "For example, if you stayed on
the job for thirty years and substituted a $2 lunch for a $7.50
lunch at a local restaurant, the $5.50-per-day savings
deposited in an investment club earning 8 percent over thirty
years would amount to around $100,000."
That's being conservative!
Top 7 Tips for * OverHalling * Your Transportation Costs
1. Find the lowest priced gas station for your gasoline
needs
2. Plan and map out your errands
3. Walk
4. Ride a bike
5. Public transportation
6. Car pool
7. Errand exchange with a neighbor, worker, friend, or
relative
You can find the lowest gas prices in your neighbor, if
someone has reported in, at http://www.gasprices.com
Top 7 Tips for * OverHalling * Your Reading Costs
1. Go to the library
2. Find and use a used bookstore
3. Find it on the Internet
4. Borrow from friend or relative
5. Co-op on subscriptions and book clubs
6. Listen to audio tapes that you get FREE at the library
7. Read book reviews first!
Top 7 Tips for * OverHalling * Your Auto Expenses
1. Learn to and do your own oil and filter change
2. Keep you car maintained
3. Drop collision and comprehension if your car is paid off
4. Sell your car if the payments are too much and purchase
a good, reliable used car
5. Pay off your car loan with a home equity loan and now
that once car payment is tax deductible!
6. Change your deductible on auto insurance to as high as
you can afford; your insurance premiums will be less
7. Maintain tire pressure and drive the speed limit
Top 7 Tips for * OverHalling * Your Banking Expenses
1. Find out what fees/rates your bank is charging you
2. Find and get the lowest fees/rates
3. Check out online banking
4. Switch to a credit union
5. Reconcile your checkbook every month (toss out the
bank statement afterwards.you DO NOT need to keep
it)
6. Don't bounce checks
7. Buy checks through a check company NOT your bank
Top 7 Tips for * OverHalling Your Mortgage Expenses
1. Find and GET the lowest interest rate
2. Pay your monthly payment in two week intervals
3. Switch from adjustable to an ARM
4. Drop your PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) if you have
at least 20% equity in your home
5. Pay a little extra on the principle each month or whenever
you have extra money (make sure you tell the mortgage
company the extra is to be applied to your PRINCIPLE
only)
6. Pay a little extra on the principle each month (needed to
be said again!)
7. Check into changing your mortgage from a 30 year to 20
or 15 year loan
Top 7 Tips for * OverHalling Your Credit Card Expenses
1. Use only ONE major credit card per person/family (cuts
down on paper, tracking expenses, and bills)
2. Get rid of high interest rate major credit and department
store cards
3. Get rid of cards that require you to pay an annual fee
4. Check for additional fees, such as transaction fees, late
fees, over-limit fees
5. Charge ONLY what you can pay off monthly
6. Prepay before you charge, such as vacations and
holidays
7. Pay on time. Don't put the bill in a pile, pay immediately
or put with the rest of your monthly bills
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Can't take a vacation or time off without someone from the
office calling you, asking you for a phone number or where
something is? Then you need to get "The little Green WHO,
WHEN, and WHERE Office Managers Booklet"
http://www.overhall.com/wwwo1.htm
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. The Facts Of Life - Money Management For Women
by: Craig Lock (a mere male!)
WHAT EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW - MARRIED OR
SINGLE.
Now this bit is especially for the dear ladies who make our
lives so happy...
FACT ONE:
MOST OF THE FINANCIAL HARDSHIP EXPERIENCED BY
WOMEN IN LATER LIFE IS DUE TO SOMEONE
REFUSING TO FACE FACTS EARLY ON.
These days there is no need for any woman to spend the
second half of her life with a lower standard of living. Yet
many still do. This is because they continually defer the
decision to do something about preparing for their financial
future until it is too late.
In some instances it is because a woman doesn't know
exactly what financial provision has been made for her, or
feels awkward asking. Or maybe she doesn't marry, in which
case she MUST provide for herself, but fails to do so. When
you are young, healthy and enjoying life, it seems
unnecessary to be thinking of putting something aside and
there is always something else to spend the money on. With
good luck of course you may never need to bother. But
trusting in luck is no way to provide for your future. How
often has luck let you down in the past?
Life, as 'they' say, is what happens to you while you are
making plans to do something else. So it is better to make
provision for the unexpected, because the older you get, the
more the unexpected happens.
FACT TWO:
WOMEN NEED TO PREPARE FOR FINANCIAL
INDEPENDENCE JUST AS MUCH AS MEN DO.
These days one does not hear so much about the "family
breadwinner," largely because so many women either
provide for themselves or make a substantial contribution to
the FAMILY INCOME.
But what happens if your husband dies and his income dies
with him? Suddenly you are prevented from working.
All to often the result is a dramatic fall in the family's
standard of living and in their quality of life. And this happens
just at the time creature comforts are most needed to soften
the blow. No amount of money can bring back a loved one,
but quite small amounts set aside regularly can make the
difference between sadness and absolute despair for you
and your children.
The only way to be sure you can cope is to do something
about it yourself-- to make sure you are adequately provided
for.
FACT THREE:
THREE OUT OF FOUR WOMEN HAVE NO PERSONAL
SAVINGS.
Women are natural savers. Security comes very high on
their list of life's priorities and yet so few have actually
managed to save anything at all.
Others have put aside a little in a savings account which is
fine for short term savings but doesn't really offer a chance
for the money to grow into a worthwhile sum. Many who
have saved watched the demand of the early years of
marriage swallow up their nest egg and never had enough
incentive to replace it later on, thinking that everything would
be provided for.
FACT FOUR:
WOMEN LIVE LONGER AND SO HAVE A GREATER
CHANCE OF BEING LEFT ALONE.
On average a woman can expect to live longer than a man.
For a married woman the implications are obvious but a
single woman will also face the possibility that later in life
she will have fewer friends and relatives around. In neither
case is this a time for financial hardship.
Some women manage to lead active and fulfilling lives in
their later years even when living alone. But in the majority of
cases these are women who have made, or made for them,
provision for their financial security.
My advice: Take responsibility for your own financial destiny.
Make a commitment to save something out of your paycheck
each month.
FACT FIVE:
ONE MARRIAGE IN THREE ENDS IN DIVORCE,
DESERTION OR SEPARATION
Unpleasant as it may be, divorce often comes as a blessing.
But it can never come as anything but a tragedy if the
separation means a lowering of standards, having to refuse
the family little pleasures they have grown used to.
The woman who starts out to plan her own future is not only
able to cope if something should happen, but is less likely to
have it happen.
FACT SIX:
THINKING ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN DOESN'T
MAKE IT HAPPEN.
"It's morbid". "We don't want to think about it."
That has been used as an excuse time and time again. But
not thinking about it won't prevent it happening. The time has
come to be positive. But taking a hard look now at your
situation and doing something about it won't be tempting
fate. But it will be a positive step towards making sure that
no matter what life may have in store, good or bad, you can
rest easy in the knowledge that you can cope on your own if
necessary. And that's a feeling every woman in the country
should get to know. Because without financial independence
most of the other rights women now have are hardly worth
having.
THE FINAL WORD:
Whatever you decide to do about your financial security, DO
SOMETHING. PLAN for the future and let financial services
products like life insurance work for you. They don't have to
be such a "drag" or a painful nuisance to you and your
family. One of the greatest human wants is a feeling of
security and only life insurance can give you that peace of
mind. As Winston Churchill once said so well :" If I had my
way I would write the words 'insure, insure, insure' above
every household door".
Copyright Craig Lock 2000
Contact Author: mailto:clock@xtra.co.nz
About the author: Craig Lock is a life insurance man who has
been involved in the field of personal finance, a "great
industry" for over twenty years . He has been writing full-time
for the past four years. He has written numerous articles on
life insurance and money management. Craig has had five
books published on various subjects with another 12
manuscripts being published and marketed. Please visit:
http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html
http://www.elkpublications.com/godzone.htm
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Unexpected things can happen in your life, so help your
family, loved ones, and caretaker by having one place where
they can turn to to know WHO to call, WHEN things get
done, and WHERE you put important documents.
http://www.overhall.com/wwwh1.htm
"The little Red WHO, WHEN, and WHERE Booklet"
NEW on the page, we'll even tell you how to make your own!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. D-BUST Your Computer - Part 4-c
by: Janet L. Hall
S stands for Save Your Email
Saving incoming and outgoing email documents might be
important to you because:
1. You have verification that it was received or sent
2. You need to keep track of correspondence
3. The information pertains to your projects/work
4. Company policy
5. Reference material
However, this information SHOULD NOT be kept in your IN
(NEW) or OUT (SENT) folders.
First of all it can become very cumbersome to locate
something when you need it. Secondly, your company, web
host, or Internet provider might have a limit to how much *
stuff * you can store in the above areas. Periodically they
might automatically * empty * the folders for you! Then
where would you be when you need to refer to an email that
you HAD NOT saved?
For safety, convenience, and efficiency, the best solution is
to save emails onto your own hard drive or disk, into your
own folders.
The following steps and tips are for saving emails using
Microsoft Explorer's browser along with the mail program
Outlook Express. If you are using Netscape or a different
browser, and a different email program, chances are the
steps are similar but the wording might be a little different.
The best advice I can give you for other browsers and mail
programs is to look in your Help section for guidance.
Steps for saving New Email:
Okay, you've just gotten an important email from your boss
that promises you that you can have the month off to go on
vacation! You want to save this in case a question arises
later when you try to take off.
~~ Move Pointer to File at the top of the toolbar (usually on
the top left corner) and Click
~~ Scroll down to Save as and Click
A Save Message As box will appear.
The Save in: section should have the last folder name that
you saved a document to. In this case you want to save
your document in your * BOSSES * folder, which is
located in MY DOCUMENTS folder.
(Remember, you will NOT have a BOSSES folder unless
you have made one..this is just an example).
~~ CLICK the small black down arrow next to the folder
name in Save in:
~~ CLICK on MY DOCUMENTS
~~ Locate the BOSSES Folder in the box and DOUBLE
CLICK on it
~~ The BOSSES folder should now be in the Save in:
section
Giving the document a name:
~~ PRESS Your TAB Key to move to File name: or move
POINTER to File name: and CLICK.
~~ The document will already be named for you from
whatever your boss put in the subject line of the email
message BUT you can change the name to something you
will remember and can easily locate when needed.
TIP: You can keep the same document name
or change it.
~~ Type in the new name you want to give your document or
leave the same.
BEFORE PRESSING RETURN OR CLICKING ON SAVE
NOTICE THE FILE FORMAT YOU ARE SAVING IN!
Save as type: the default will be Mail [*.eml] but notice the
small black arrow next to this and CLICK on it. Here is where
you are presented with a list of file types that you might need
to save your document into. Go ahead and play around with
the different types and see how they look.
TIP: If you save type as .eml, the next
time you open the
document it will be presented to you as it looked in your
email program. If you save type as .txt, the next time you
open the document it will be a text document in Notepad with
the mail header still in place.
After performing all this functions:
~~ Press ENTER/RETURN
OR
~~ Move POINTER to SAVE and CLICK
How to save the attachments on your NEW email:
If you receive an email with attachments, you can easily file
all the attachments at the same time.
~~ Move Pointer to File at the top of the toolbar (usually on
the top left corner) and Click
~~ Scroll down to Save attachments and Click
A Save Attachments box will appear with a list of the
attachments (they will have the name the person that sent
you the email named them) and they will be highlighted.
Notice the Save to: with a Browse Button at the bottom of
the box. Something will already be there, such as C:\My
Documents\Moe
If you don't want to file the attachments in the MOE folder,
CLICK on the Browse Button. A Browse for Folder box will
appear with a list of all you folders. Scroll up or down until
you locate the folder you want to file the attachments and
CLICK on it and CLICK OK
Notice how the Save to: information has changed, now
CLICK Save.
Warning, Warning: If you have several attachments and you
need to save them in DIFFERENT folders:
~~ Click Save attachments
~~ Click on the first attachment you want to save (it will be
the only one highlighted after clicking), locate the folder you
want to save that one to following the above steps. For each
attachment on that email that you want to save in different
folders, follow the same steps.
To save emails you have already sent (you must be in the
email program) just place your POINTER where it says
Inbox and CLICK.
Move POINTER to Sent Items and CLICK
Locate the email you need to save and follow the same
steps you used for saving your new mail.
To return to your Inbox, CLICK on Sent Items and move
POINTER to Inbox and CLICK.
TIP: You can do the same process for
emails in your Deleted
Items folder.
Next month I'll finish up the save feature with how to *
overhall * and save your Web site favorites.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teleclass coming in August: Prepared for School. If you
have an interest in taking this one hour teleclass, please
mailto:janet@overhall.com for
more information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6. Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes
~~ Beware of little expenses: A small leak will sink a great
ship.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) US statesman, diplomat,
inventor, printer
~~ If you are looking for a fly in your food it means that you
are full.
South African Proverb
~~ In America, a parent puts food in front of a child and
says, 'Eat it, it's good for you.' In Europe, the parent says,
'Eat it. It's good!'
John Levee
"Another Way of Living," by John Bainbridge.
~~ I take Him shopping with me. I say, "OK, Jesus, help me
find a bargain."
Tammy Faye Bakker (1942-____) US evangelist
"Food for Thought," internet collection by Jack Tourette.
~~ There is, of course, a gold mine or a buried treasure on
every mortgaged homestead. Whether the farmer ever digs
for it or not, it is there, haunting his daydreams when the
burden of debt is most unbearable.
Fawn M. Brodie (1915-1981) US author
"No Man Knows My History," Ch. 2, 1945.
~~ Credit cards have three dimensions: height, width and
debt.
Shelby Friedman
~~ I don't trust a bank that would lend money to such a poor
risk.
Robert Benchley (1889-1945) US humorist
To a bank that granted his request for a loan; attributed.
~~ If you have a joke, quote, or anecdote that would fit
well into OverHall IT!, please feel free to email it to me.
mailto:janet@overhall.com
SUBJECT=Newsletter Jokes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7. Products, Books, and Web Site Reviews
~~ Pay my Bills (I wish they would <g>)
http://www.paymybills.com/howitworks.html
~~ Tips for How to Raise Kids on a Budget
http://www.ehow.com/eHow/eHow/0,1053,14765,00.html
~~ More Tips for Spending Less on Gas
http://www.ehow.com/eHow/eHow/0,1053,7688,00.html
~~ Tips on Stretching Your Money in College or Graduate
School
http://www.ehow.com/eHow/eHow/0,1053,9282,00.html
~~ 101 Ways to Save Money
http://financialplan.about.com/finance/financialplan/weekly/aa031100a.htm
Get a free motivational screensaver, a free book on financial
independence, and over 250 pages of other articles, tips,
tools, and techniques for your success by visiting my friend,
Philip Humbert's website at http://www.philiphumbert.com
His site is well worth a visit, and while you're there, sign up
for his popular newsletter, TIP's! I highly recommend it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it for this month!
Smiles, not Piles,
Janet L. Hall
Professional Organizer, Author, and Speaker
http://www.overhall.com
"If your current systems aren't working for you...
get an "OverHall"!"
Janet L. Hall is the owner of OverHall Consulting.
Janet is based out of Southern Maryland and can be
reached at 410-586-9440, 800-687-3040, or e-mail her
at mailto:janet@overhall.com
Book Janet to speak
at your next meeting or conference!
Copyright (c) 2000 by OverHall Consulting
P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676
All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to
reproduce, copy, or distribute OverHall IT! or any articles
by Janet L. Hall so long as article(s) is kept intact, this
copyright notice, and full information about the author is
attached.
|
