Hints on How to Improve Your Life

[ChemEngrMBA]

Through the years, we are always learning.

All of us are smarter than any of us.

It might take me hours to post little known things I have learned or developed that can help you too!  I'll start with these. Please add your own tips. (No politics)


1.  I used to drink a cherry coke for lunch and another for late night snack. Love that poison.  I also took calcium carbonate pills as nutritional supplement.  AVOID THEM BOTH!  I developed very painful kidney stones on both sides, requiring surgery.  Now I take calcium gluconate, or CitriCal and drink carbonated beverages only once or twice a month.

Calcium carbonate is limestone. HELLO!  Limestone in your ureters will make you sad.  (I also ran 6 miles every day for 25 years, and many marathons, which resulted in my developing atrial fibrillation.  I thought it was healthy - strong like lion. Not so much.  Don't do a marathon or run more than 6 miles a few times a week.  It took two cardiac ablations to correct my AFib.)


2.  I used to write checks to pay bills in the amount due.  It's a pain in the butt subtracting $69.73 from your balance.  I started rounding up to the next $10 long ago, especially my house payment when I had one.  I rounded that up to the next $100, sometimes $200 or $400 more, to pay down my home loan faster.  It's like putting money in a savings account.


Rounding every payment up to the next $10, even if you pay online, makes subtracting from your current balance a cinch.  When small bills, like water, are under $20, double up on them so the following month, you will have a credit balance and don't even have to pay it!


3.  My cell phone directory has ~360 names on it. I contact city officials several times a week to report problems they need to address, so I have a lot of their names and can't remember them all. I file them by Department, then name.  Tennis Allen.  Pickleball Ted and Val.  Coffee Bob.  Ralphs Manager John.

____________________________________________________________

I'll stop at three so as not to overload your heads. Lots goin' on in this crazy world. I hope this has been a welcome reprieve from it.   If it has not, let me know and I will have to hunt you down and, well, you know......

 
"We scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested..." – Martin Seligman, psychologist, in his book Flourish


"People crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."- Steve Jobs


“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman


Call me unreasonable.

[Cyber Liberty]

[DCPatriot]

The chances of #2 working are between "slim" and "none".

Oh sure, you'll have a claim that you made all those principle curtailments, but to trust the banks computer to provide your absolute correct balance at years end??  Ridiculous!

Better to have an original amortization schedule listing all 180 (15 yr) or 360 (30 yr) monthly payments so that you can go forward under the "principle paid this month) column and send it an exact amount.

This way, you know EXACTLY what your balance is once said check clears.

[ChemEngrMBA]

I'm guessing that red ribbon from Boss is a good thing.
Thank you kindly for it. 
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Anything else good and proper you'd like me to present to the troops?

[ChemEngrMBA]

The chances of #2 working are between "slim" and "none".

Oh sure, you'll have a claim that you made all those principle (sic) curtailments, but to trust the banks computer to provide your absolute correct balance at years end??  Ridiculous!

Better to have an original amortization schedule listing all 180 (15 yr) or 360 (30 yr) monthly payments so that you can go forward under the "principle paid this month) column and send it an exact amount.

This way, you know EXACTLY what your balance is once said check clears.

Modified Nov 11:
After reflecting on this incredible cynicism, it occurred to me that the *businessman* might treat his own customers the same way he accuses mortgage companies of conducting themselves.  Projection.  Honest people expect others to also be honest.  We don't think negatively because that is not our nature.  You can still count your change and be careful, but cynicism and negativity, as expressed by our ever so clever businessman harm much more than they help.
END OF AMENDMENT
----------------------------------------

In the first place, my loan WAS on a 15-year amortization.
In the second place, it is a very simple matter to calculate accrued interest and principal reduction.
Third, the next interest charge drops considerably compared with what it would have been.

Finally, you must not be aware that businesses do not intentionally cheat customers. Such illegal actions bring on lawsuits and bad press.   Governments, federal, state and local DO cheat citizens constantly.  You pay more and more taxes while getting less and less for your money.  Look at education.

Democrats badmouth businesses, following the lead of Karl Marx, a lazy, good-for-nothing, filthy bum whose ideas resulted in evil governments that murdered over a hundred million and continues in earnest to this day worldwide.  Hundreds of millions around the world have learned nothing from history.  You have politicized this apolitical thread quite improperly.

[DCPatriot]

In the first place, my loan WAS on a 15-year amortization.
In the second place, it is a very simple matter to calculate accrued interest and principal reduction.
Third, the next interest charge drops considerably compared with what it would have been.

Finally, you must not be aware that business do not intentionally cheat customers. Such illegal actions bring on lawsuits and bad press. 

Democrats badmouth businesses in that manner, following the lead of Karl Marx, a lazy, good-for-nothing, filthy bum whose ideas resulted in evil governments that murdered many scores of millions and continue in earnest to this day worldwide.  Hundreds of millions have learned nothing from history.  You have politicized this apolitical thread quite improperly.

@DeerSlayer

First of all, I've been in the business for 44 years so don't tell me about making principle curtailments helter-skelter is going to guarantee you having matching balances.

And bleep you for suggesting I'm politicizing this thread, ya idiot.  I'm simply giving an opinion based upon personal experience of almost a half century.

[ChemEngrMBA]

@DeerSlayer

First of all, I've been in the business for 44 years so don't tell me about making principle (sic) curtailments helter-skelter is going to guarantee you having matching balances.

You don't even know how to spell "principal."
I said NOTHING about "curtailments."  That is your inane word and interpretation.
I said NOTHING about "guarantee(s)".  I stated that subtracting amounts rounded up to the next 10 would simplify and speed up your check balancing.  Whoosh.  Right over your head.
Paying down your mortgage is NOT "helter-skelter."  You're misconstruing everything to try to make a point you cannot possibly make, so you have to falsify and talk nonsense.

@DeerSlayer
And bleep you for suggesting I'm politicizing this thread, ya idiot.  I'm simply giving an opinion based upon personal experience of almost a half century.

YOU screw up in lots of ways and have the temerity to call ME "idiot"?
"Bleep" me?    Is that what your personal experience has taught you?

I reported your violations to the moderators    Now  I'll add you to my ignore list for being rude, crude, and adding nothing.  The word is "principal" not "principle."

[mystery-ak]

Stop the name calling you both know better..

[DCPatriot]

You don't even know how to spell "principal."
I said NOTHING about "curtailments."  That is your inane word and interpretation.
I said NOTHING about "guarantee(s)".  I stated that subtracting amounts rounded up to the next 10 would simplify and speed up your check balancing.  Whoosh.  Right over your head.
Paying down your mortgage is NOT "helter-skelter."  You're misconstruing everything to try to make a point you cannot possibly make, so you have to falsify and talk nonsense.

YOU screw up in lots of ways and have the temerity to call ME "idiot"?
"Bleep" me?    Is that what your personal experience has taught you?

I reported your violations to the moderators    Now  I'll add you to my ignore list for being rude, crude, and adding nothing.  The word is "principal" not "principle."

Treat and post to people in the same manner they come on to me. 

GFY!   YOU made this political and started your shit.  I did nothing but offer an opinion different than yours.

Suggest you not post while drinking or doing drugs.

PS:  "Principal" is the person.   "Principle" is not.

[mystery-ak]

I asked you to stop DC...please let it go!

[Cyber Liberty]

I'm guessing that red ribbon from Boss is a good thing.
Thank you kindly for it. 
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Anything else good and proper you'd like me to present to the troops?

You are doing fine, pray continue!  You can pop in some links for your book, if you wish!

[Smokin Joe]

 

[DCPatriot]

I asked you to stop DC...please let it go!

Didn't see your post because you didn't "ping" me.

Had already responded to him. 

@Cyber Liberty
@mystery-ak
@Smokin Joe


And now I will NOT let it go!

WTF??  Are we going "WOKE" around here?  Stop this bullshit coddling.

Read my damn initial post.

It's virtually impossible to have matching balances on your "BALANCE REMAINING" if you send in a rounded up dollar amount each month.

To save mental anguish, lawyer fees and angry letters and emails, simply use the 5 ft tall amortization schedule provided to you by the lender in the documents you signed at closing.

Go to the "PRINCIPLE" amount paid each month, which incrementally rises each successive month on the schedule.

Add up the next month or 2 or 5 or 7 months worth of "PRINCIPLE" until you get to the number you can afford.

Now take a yellow highlighter and cross out all those monthly payments...and the very next column shows you EXACTLY what is your loan balance.

Show me where I made this thread "political".

....I'll wait.

[DB]

I'm guessing that red ribbon from Boss is a good thing.
Thank you kindly for it. 
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Anything else good and proper you'd like me to present to the troops?

That is a bookmark so one can easily find the thread later without actually posting any comments.

[ChemEngrMBA]

You are doing fine, pray continue!  You can pop in some links for your book, if you wish!

Love this Cyber Liberty, I tell ya.

Profound fortuitous interdependencies is a phrase I created to describe disparate but interconnected laws/states of nature and/or events which combine to our supreme benefit.  They are everywhere.  Fire is just one example.  Read about them and much more at
http://BrilliantCreations-TheWonder.blogspot.com

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

A lot of people are recommending strength training over cardio these days for these types of reason. Don't look to me for that though, i'm no example unfortunately. I'm still working on it.

But a lot of people are finding they feel much better doing strength training rather than cardio.

[ChemEngrMBA]

A lot of people are recommending strength training over cardio these days for these types of reason. (sic Don't look to me for that though, i'm no example unfortunately. I'm still working on it.
But a lot of people are finding they feel much better doing strength training rather than cardio.

For these types of "reasons"?  What reasons?  You didn't say.
Very critically, it is not an either/or choice or decision.  I am writing this in the gym at LA Fitness where I do both.  After one hour of racketball (cardio workout), I put 200 pounds on the pull bars and pull them down from high in front of me  to my chest, 12 times (and I have pencils for arms).  Then I bench press 150 on the machine with a little help from my legs.  In college, I maxed 240 on the bench, one rep but muscles change.  Military 138 on the machine 6 reps.  Ooof.

Use it or lose it, for sure. Take a walk with the love of your life every day.  Pick up any litter on your walk, preferably with a 36 inch grabbing tool and put the litter in a plastic bag you carry with you.  The world needs all the good you can do, and it will make you feel better.

[ChemEngrMBA]

See amendment to my Reply #4 above.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Don't listen to unsolicited advice on how to improve my life.

[ChemEngrMBA]

Don't listen to unsolicited advice on how to improve my life.

Why then did you click on this message, hmmmm?
You contradict yourself.  Moreover, all of us are smarter than any of us.
Believe it or not, you don't know EVERYTHING.  I know, I know, it's hard to take.