Home Articles Posted by Izy Berry (Page 45)
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3 Things to Think About as you Age
It’s something that happens to everyone, but most of us cruise through life not really thinking about how different things will be as we age. You can still have a great quality of life even in your Golden Years, but it definitely takes a bit of forward planning. Here are my top 3 suggestions to think about as you age – or even well before you start feeling old!
1. Tick Off Your Travel Bucketlist
You can travel at any age, no doubt, but there are some things that you’ll quite simply prefer to do while you’re younger. I suggest looking through your travel bucket list and realistically seeing what you can handle doing when you’re a bit older, and things that are probably best done now while you’re a spring chicken. Things such as skydiving, bungy jumping, backpacking etc are probably better suited to someone who is more mobile and fit. As you get older, you might notice the type of travel you do changes – option for more tour buses and tours to help with the logistics of getting around.
2. Senior Care
Have you considered what kind of environment you want to live in when you’re older? The truth is retirement can be quite expensive and it’s something you absolutely have to plan for now. Making little changes now can make a big difference in terms of your financial security in future, allowing you to be more comfortable as you age and also affording you more options. You’ll need to think about what kind of care you would like, whether you think that you would prefer to move right into a retirement village, or perhaps you would prefer senior care in your home daily or weekly. Both of these options are a good way to have an assisted lifestyle, but they obviously have considerably different costs so it can be worthwhile considering what your preference is now. SpectrumHealthcare.com have a few options available so you can browse their website for a good idea of what options might be available to you in your area.
The process of retiring is multi-faceted. There are many things you need to consider, but most of them come back to money. How will you find the money you need? Where will you find it? One option is to apply for a reverse mortgage on your home. When you do, the lender will access an online reverse-mortgages calculator tool. Plugging facts about your residence into the reverse mortgage calculator is the only way to know how much it is worth. It is also the only way to know how much of that value is available through a reverse mortgage. Those two figures will always be different due to federal laws. Once you know what you can borrow, you can go ahead and borrow it. You can also be secure in the knowledge that you are allowed to keep owning and living in your home for years without the need to return what you borrowed right away.
3. Your Teeth
While it’s important to take care of all of your body, your teeth are something that needs regular check-ups and often requires a decent amount of work to keep them in tip-top shape as you age. Sometimes it can be a good idea to look at investing in veneers if the quality of your teeth is declining and you’re eligible for them. Veneers can be used for both cosmetic reasons, to improve the overall look of your smile, but also can be used when a tooth is comprised and runs a decent risk of becoming infected. The truth is a white, bright smile is something that gives us a lot of confidence and doesn’t need to be reserved for only those of us who are youthful. Investing in your teeth is a great way to invest in your health, but also your confidence. A healthy, beautiful smile can even make you look younger! Check out DiscoverDentalHouston.com for some great options and price points.
Have you started thinking about how you’ll manage things as you age? Spending a little time now will save you a lot of stress in future.
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4 Tips for Showing Your Parents You Care Even When You’re Far Away
One of the harder things about travelling is missing out on special times back home. Whether that’s missing mother’s day with your mom, or spending Christmas alone, halfway around the world. There are little things you can do while you’re away to show your loved ones you care, and here are some suggestions of how you can do that!
1. Skype
I love Skype, it’s such a wonderful invention and makes being away from home a little easier. If you Skype from computer to computer you don’t pay a cent, making it an affordable way to see your loved ones, no matter how far away you are. The only real issue you’ll face is trying to make the time zones line up if you’re really far away. If your parents are not very tech savvy, I suggest setting Skype up before you go so you can give them a little tour of the platform and how everything works. If your parents or grandparents are a bit too old for traditional Skype to Skype calls, you can even load your Skype account with credit and call them on their normal phone.
2. Don’t Forget About Their Needs
The truth is, as people age many of them find themselves in a slightly sticky financial situation. Ageing can be quite expensive, especially relying on government pensions to live off. If you’re wanting to get your parents or grandparents a thoughtful gift for a missed birthday or Christmas, then something that can be really helpful is a hearing test from The Hearing Room. Often people will try to avoid dealing with hearing issues if they think they can get by, especially if finances are tight. If you notice a loved one is struggling with their hearing, this is the perfect gift for them.
3. Extra Help
If you usually visit your parents regularly to help and are apprehensive about what will happen while you’re overseas, why not consider gifting them some in-home care? It can be something as small as a fortnightly cleaning service to help them keep on top of the housework, or something more personalized like home care by SeniorsForSeniors.ca, allowing them in-home support, care and assistant while you’re on the other side of the world.
Home care is useful if your parents don’t need 24/7 help, but need assistance with certain tasks like cooking and taking medication. Home care services are flexible in the time of day they can visit your parents, so if your parents can make themselves breakfast but struggle to make dinner, a carer can come to make them a hot meal every evening. Services using the best home care software will be able to schedule a time that works for both themselves and your parents, giving you the peace of mind that your parents have the help they need when they need it.
4. A Postcard
There’s nothing quite like receiving real mail in the post that isn’t a bill demanding payment. For a parent or grandparent, there’s something particularly special about getting a postcard in the mail. It shows them that their child or grandchild was thinking of them, even in the midst of their great adventure. For many older generations, it just wasn’t viable or possible to travel as we can now, so it’s also a special way to bring them along on your adventure with you. Postcards are available everywhere around the world and make a wonderful fridge decoration.
It can be hard deciding to travel when you have ageing parents or grandparents and you don’t want to miss out on spending time with them and helping them. With these four simple tips you can ensure your family members know how much you care, while still getting to live your own adventures.
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3 Ways You Can Improve Your Home Quickly
Whether you’re wanting to improve your home for your own comfort, or in order to be able to sell at a higher price point, there are a few small changes that you can make that have a huge difference in terms of your property’s value and comfort value. Here are 3 simple ways you can improve your home quickly.
1. Clean Up Your Lagoon
If you’re lucky enough to have a large pond or lagoon on your property, then you know how easy it is to let the maintenance and care of your lagoon to slip to the bottom of your properties. Maybe you only spend time near your pond during the summer months, meaning that it’s almost completely neglected during the colder months. You may have bought your property with the lagoon in an average condition. Whatever the reason your lake isn’t quite where you want it to be, there is an easy fix! You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to have this taken care of, with https://scicorp.net/wastewater/lagoon-odors/ you can easily get rid of the odour and ensure that your pond is as beautiful as can be!
2. Check for Leaks
There’s nothing worse than wasted resources and water is one of our most precious resources. You should check around your home for leaks to ensure that you’re not driving your water bill for unnecessary reasons. During the summer, many cities around the world have water usage restrictions, making it even more important that you are checking for leaks around your home. If you’re interested, there are plenty of tools available that can work well for leak detection and you can click here to find numerous resources that you can use around your home.
3. Consider Your Street Appeal
Your home’s street appeal is a pretty big determining factor in your home’s overall value. If you’re trying to sell, this could be one of the easiest ways to increase your value. You have to think about how prospective buyers think: when they pull up to you’re home, they’re going to start imaging how it would be to live there and to come home to this home every day. If your home looks tired, ratty or unkept from the curb, then that’s probably going to decrease how excited someone is to buy your property. Depending on the condition of your home’s exterior, investing in a coat of paint might be all you need to freshen up your home and make it look more modern from the first viewing.
Beyond the exterior of your home, you should also consider how the plants, yard and fence look. If any of those are in less than optimum condition, then I suggest you could spend a little time and maintenance to ensure they’re up to the standard of the rest of your home.
A home can be a wonderful investment that can last generations and be home to so many precious memories. Whether you’re planning to sell your property in the near future, or merely want to update it to better suit your family’s needs, investing a little will go a long way.
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3 Unconventional Types of Education That Might be Right For Your Family
Education is one of the most important investments you will ever make, whether it’s for you or for your children. Doing proper research before choosing a provider, can make all the difference in terms of the quality of education you will receive, as well as the opportunities it will open the door to. If you’re looking for a different type of education for yourself or your loved ones, read on to learn more about some of the interesting types of learning that are available around the world!
1. Homeschooling
You might have heard of homeschooling before, already been involved in homeschooling or wanted to know more about it but feeling a bit overwhelmed as to where to start. With the invention of the Internet, has come the ability to study college degrees and other formal education courses online from the comfort of your own home. Traditional homeschooling is more directed at teaching your own children, rather than sending them to a conventional school. There are many reasons why parents might consider homeschooling their own children: they might think they can give their children more personalized attention, it may be due to location and not being in a good area with schooling, it may be also because they’re traveling and unable to attend normal school. Check out BrightMindsOnlineSchool.ca for more information on homeschooling if you want to learn more.
2. Travelling
Is there a better way to learn about the world we live in, than to travel it? I don’t think so! When I have children, I plan to travel with them as much as possible, in order to show them how other people around the world live, to take them to the best museums and musical performances and to show them some of the world’s most historic sites. Obviously, I understand I’m blessed to be able to travel so much and to be able to share that experience with my future children. If you can travel with children, I definitely suggest doing so. It’s such a special way to spend time with your children and to also create special memories. There’s also no better way to learn about a country than to be actually there, enjoying all the sights, sounds and smells that a new place has to offer.
3. Coaching
You might have heard of people getting a coach for a range of different areas of their lives. You can get a fitness coach, that is essentially a personal trainer that is dedicated to getting you into the best shape possible. If you want to learn more about nutrition and how to properly eat for your fitness goals, then you can get a nutritional coach. You can find a coach for almost every area of your life, including a business coach. One type of coaching I’ve heard about and am very interested in is leadership coaching. You can learn how to improve the effectiveness of your team management through more effective decision making and improved collaboration and you can even have support to learn more about efficient fundraising.
Education is the best way you can invest in yourself and your loved ones. Consider these three types of unconventional education that can improve your job prospects and career.
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Gifts for Someone Who Has Everything
Do you struggle to think of the perfect gift? Me too! I sometimes spend longer thinking about what gift to buy someone than celebrating their birthday or special occassion. I think it can be a great idea to think outside the box when getting someone a gift, that way it’s less likely they already have it and even less chance that someone else will buy it for them too. If you want some different kind of gift ideas for the person who has everything, please read on!
An Experience:
Getting an experience as a gift is something that someone can do, which in my opinion makes it so much more memorable. Depending on the friend, you can get them a variety of experiences to best fit their interests. If you’re wanting to buy a more expensive experience, it could be a good idea to see if other friends or family members want to go in on the gift so you can afford it without breaking the bank. Some suggestions include bucket list activities such as sky diving, a special overseas trip, bungy jumping, a zoo experience and so forth. It can also be a good idea to look around and see if there are any upcoming shows or performances that you think your friend would love, and buy two tickets – one for each of you. Think about what your friend or loved one would like most and then try to get them that experience rather than a gift they’ll use and throw away eventually.
Water Pipes:
If it’s legal where you live and your friend or family member is over 21 years old, then it can be a nice idea to get them https://www.smokersvice.com/shop/water-pipes.html. Smoking by a water pipe is a lot healthier than smoking other ways. The water acts as a filtration system to remove impurities, making everything smoother and healthier than other alternatives. This can be a great gift, but it depends on the person you’re shopping for!
Air Cooled Chiller:
If you’re trying to think of the perfect gift for a growing family or an expanding food business, why not consider an air cooled chiller? HydroSolar.ca offer a great range of food chilling and storage solutions which can be a great way to handle the growing demands of an expanding family or a business that’s blooming. These are a great investment piece, so that’s another gift that might be worth asking if other friends and family members want to go in on, so that you don’t have the financial burden alone. While it’s nice to get an individual gift for someone, sometimes I think it’s better to go in on a bigger gift to get something your recipient really wants and needs!
Spending a little more time thinking about a gift that will provide your friend or family with an experience they will remember forever, or a gift that they really need or will treasure is the best way to show how much you care. Use these tips to get a different kind of gift I’m sure they will love.
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Easy Hacks for Improving Your Health
Modern life is no joke – we have so many things to juggle every day that it’s easy to put our own health on the backburner, which can lead to feeling burned out, unnecessary stress and a negative impact on our health. When our health declines, everything else in our lives is negatively affected, so I suggest taking some time each day or week to ensure you’re prioritizing your own health. Here are some easy hacks that can help you improve your health on a regular basis:
1. Grow Your Own Food
Hold up – I’m not suggesting you move to a farm and live off the land, but even if you live in a central apartment with a balcony, you can look to start growing some of your own food. The benefits of growing your own food at home are considerable: you can avoid the use of pesticides and chemicals which are known to impact our health. You can have fresh produce available to you for almost no cost. It can also be a good way to learn more about food and healthy eating. If you’re interested in growing your own food, start small. There are products like the https://www.octopot.com that allow you to have a small, hybrid hydroponics set up in your own home for a low cost.
2. Take Time to Relax
There are many different ways you can relax, but you’re going to want to find things that work well for you. If you have a high-pressure lifestyle, you might be surprised to know that your hormonal levels can become continuously elevated due to this stress, which can dramatically impact your health. There are a number of great meditation applications available which can help you learn how to calm down and relax, which has been shown to have a number of health benefits. Depending on where you live, you might be interested in trying a Healthcare Dispensary for a herbal approach to relaxing. Whichever way you choose to relax, make sure to make it a regular part of your schedule.
3. Have a Regular Sleep Schedule
A lack of sleep quickly adds up and can negatively impact your concentration, energy levels and even impact your weight. We have so many more distractions in our phones now, many of us lay in bed each night scrolling through social media instead of getting the number of hours sleep we really need. Implementing a regular sleep schedule is a great way to improve your sleep hygiene. Setting sleep and wake times that work for you and ensure you are well rested are a great way to ensure you’re doing all you can to be as energized as possible.
Your health is something you need to invest in each day and with these small suggestions you can make a dramatic change.
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3 Careers That Allow You to Travel More
If you’re anything like me, then you’re constantly searching for ways to be able to travel more. It’s hard to find the balance between travelling and making money to fund that travel. So if you’re trying to think up ways to pay for your next adventure, read on to learn about these three careers that allow you to travel more.
1. Self Employment
This is probably the best of all options although it does come with some challenges. The first one finding a space in the market where you can work for yourself. You can consider online work, such as freelancing, blogging, consulting, teaching a language online and the list goes on. If you want to do something in person, it may be a little more challenging to get started as non-remote work tends to have a higher startup cost. One of my friends works as a builder works very hard on projects and then takes time off to travel. He will essentially skip a project to go away and when his company starts the following project he will be involved. Construction can be a really interesting career as well as a practical life skill, if you’re interested in building you might also be interested in looking at the best portable bridge hire for your next project.
2. Mining
Working in a mine might not be your dream career, but it’s a booming industry in many parts of the world and offers an interesting lifestyle. Due to the fact that many mines are located far away from main cities and towns, people who work in mines are often given very generous time off in order to spend time at home. You can choose to use this time to travel. I have plenty of friends involved in the mining industry in Australia and instead of spending their time off at home, they choose to pop away to Bali or Indonesia for a vacation before getting back to work. At the mines there are so many types of jobs, from engineers right through to chefs, so even if this is not something you studied, if the mining lifestyle appeals to you, you might be able to find a career that works for you! If you’re looking for a transformer oil purifier, check out http://filtervac.com/product/transformer-oil-solutions/transformer-oil-purifier-model-vph/
3. Teaching
I wouldn’t suggest getting into teaching just for the lifestyle, as the reality is teaching is a lot of work behind the scenes. Yes, of all the professions they have one of the most generous leave schedules, but it can be a lot of extra hours marking, preparing lessons and so forth. If you love teaching and enjoy that feeling when someone ‘gets it’ then teaching could be a fantastic way for you to earn a living, make a difference and also save for travel. Depending on where you look to teach, you will usually have the entire summer vacations off, as well as generous holidays for Easter and Christmas. You can also look into the option of teaching English overseas in order to be based in a foreign country where you can use that as a base for traveling the region!
Finding a job that you enjoy and that allows you to travel more is a wonderful way to ensure that you have enough money to see the world. Use these three suggestions to get yourself on the right path to working and traveling as much as your heart desires!
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4 Ways to Save for Your First Home
Yes, this is a travel blog and for a very long time figuring out how to travel as much as possible was my main focus in life. But as I approached (and passed) the 30-year-old benchmark, I became more interested in other things too. That’s not to say my love of travel waivered, just that I wanted to find more balance in my life. One of my main focuses was on buying my first property. My husband and I saved very hard and bought an apartment that we currently rent out on Airbnb for a tidy profit. Since then we’ve also bought land and are constructing our first family home. While it’s been a very exciting process, it has involved a lot of sacrifices and changes to ensure that we reached our savings goals. Here are my top 4 ways to save for your first home to get you inspired and on the right track.
1. Find Some Inspiration
The first thing you’re going to need to do is to get inspired. Unless you come from a wealthy family that are able to help you get into the home ownership club, you’re probably going to have make some sacrifices to ensure you reach your goals. This can be challenging, especially in a world that’s so consumption based. I suggest finding some inspiration of what you want in your home. I personally love browsing Better Homes and Gardens MCR Bahamas and seeing all their beautiful homes. Not only has it influenced the style we want for our home, but it also makes me dream of having one of these homes for myself. Some people use Pinterest as an easy, visual way to get inspired. Others prefer to make a physical vision board to inspire them. Whatever you choose, just make sure you keep it at the forefront of your mind to keep yourself inspired!
2. Get Realistic About the Costs
I think the most important thing when you’re saving for anything big like property is to get realistic about the costs. Are you hoping to build? Are you aware of how much the building license will cost and the lawyer’s fee for changing over the titles? These costs might surprise you so it’s good to ask around your friends and family to see what the going rates are. Likewise, if you’re building in a hard to reach the site, you might need to hire some specialized equipment which can really add up. Be sure to take these extra costs into consideration before committing to a project.
3. Track Your Spending for a Month
You’re going to need to track your spending for a month at least – if you’re not already – so you can see where you are spending your money. Without knowing where your money is going, it’s close to impossible to make effective changes to your spending. There are plenty of apps out there that are designed to make tracking your spending easier, I suggest downloading one and tracking for at least a month. Longer is better if you can. If you’re hoping to head away on a holiday while saving for a house, I suggest choosing something like a cruise where all your expenses are included in a fixed rate. This makes it a lot easier to plan your budget and to not overspend, ensuring you maintain your savings goals. If you’re thinking about booking a cruise, click here to get some inspiration.
4. Figure Out What are Your Essentials
Once you’ve got at least a month’s worth of data, you’ll be able to see what parts of your spending is essential – things such as rent, groceries, petrol etc tend to fall into the essential category and what is additional spending, such as entertainment, clothing, your Starbucks bill and so forth. Everyone’s budget is personal to their income and spending, so while I wont make specific suggestions on how to cut down on spending and increase saving, I suggest listing out all your categories and deciding what’s essential and what is a luxury. You might find it helpful to set specific budgets for each category so you can control your spending and ensure you are saving a good amount of money each month.
Buying your first property is an exciting financial decision. The more you can save, the better off you’ll be financially as you’ll be able to purchase with a smaller mortgage, saving you considerable money in the long run. Use these 4 simple tips to get your house savings off to a good start.
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3 Simple Ways to Adjust to Home Life After Traveling
I wont lie, coming back from a trip and sliding back into a normal routine can be challenging. The longer you’re away, the harder it can be and ‘reverse culture shock’ is a real thing! If it’s your first time coming home, you might be surprised by how hard you find it. Most of my friends weren’t super interested in hearing about my extended travels, it felt like the entire thing faded away into a long distant memory fast. I’ve gone on many long trips and come back home each time, so I’ve found these three simple ways to adjust to home life after traveling that really help me adjust faster and feel happy about not being on vacation – well as happy as you can be!
1. Order Things Online
It can be a bit of a bummer getting home and getting stuck into errands, supermarket runs and paying bills. Nothing says “my vacation is over” like spending an hour in the bank. I like to do some online grocery shopping before I even get home so I know I’m going to have food coming and I can get back into a healthy eating routine as soon as possible. There are also more interesting things you can order online, such as freedomjars.com which are delicious jar-meals that can be delivered to your home or office. I also really enjoy having good quality wine regularly delivered as I love to have a glass of wine after a long day, or having a spare nice bottle of wine that I can gift to someone if I’m invited to dinner. Check out Naked Winery custom wine club for your wine delivery needs!
2. Plan Fun Things in Advance
I always feel like when I come home that my friends and family are busy and I get it. Modern life is busy – we each have to balance our time between our significant others, children, friends, family, work, fitness and then any other social commitments. It can take me a few weeks to catch up with a friend, even if we both keep trying to find time to see other. I like to plan some fun things in advance to do with my friends and family before I even get back into the country so that I’m excited to see them and have things to look forward to. Try different things like an escape room with a group of friends, or maybe heading to a local music performance with your parents. I find when we’re traveling we’re more open to new experiences, but doing these things at home is a great way to keep the adventure alive.
3. Make a Photo Book
At some point it may feel like your trip didn’t even happen, that it was just a distant dream. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably good at uploading a few pictures online to either Facebook or Instragram, but somewhat useless at printing out photos. That’s OK, I completely understand! Taking the time to make a photo book is a wonderful way to remember your trip, but also a special way to keep it around so you can look back on your favorite memories. I like to make a photo book for each trip and I keep them laying around on my coffee table, so that guests can browse through them too.
These are my top tips for making the transition back home as easy as possible. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.
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Top 3 Delicious Drinks to Try Around the World
If you’re anything like me, then part of traveling the world is trying new food and drinks around the world. I feel like drinks are often overlooked, but the truth is there are a ton of different drinks around the world that are unique to the region or have their own flare on a common drink. Here are some of my top 4 favorite drinks I’ve tried around the world.
1. Cambodian Coffee
You’ve probably heard how wonderful the coffee is in Italy, and it really is. I didn’t have a bad coffee my entire time there. However, I was expecting that. A surprise for me in the coffee world was when I was in rural Cambodia and tried iced coffee. It seemed to be a perfect mixture of about 50% condensed milk with the other 50% being coffee. It was served over ice and the perfect blend of sweet milk with delicious coffee. Although I tend to avoid sugar in my coffees usually, in the Cambodian heat it was a welcome treat. You can try to make this at home (maybe don’t use 50% condensed milk, I would probably start with a lower ratio). If you don’t have a coffee machine, why not buy a commercial espresso machine now so you can make delicious iced coffees whenever you like!
2. Elderberry Syrup
You’ll either love it or loathe it, but the truth is Elderberry is widely considered a magic remedy for the flu and other illnesses. It’s commonly used in Europe and the United States, and if you’re from somewhere else in the world – like me – you might have not tried it. I actually really love it and was introduced to this magical plant while living in the Czech Republic as an au pair. You can easily make elderberry syrup at home, perfect for the flu season. You’ll need to get some whole elderberries, which you can find here https://www.botanicuniverse.com/products/elderberry-whole and you’ll need to cook them down into a syrup which is fairly easy!
3. Michelada
If you’re a beer lover who also likes a good bloody mary then I have a feeling you’ll like the michelada. Considered a staple in Mexico and Guatemala, it’s the perfect summer drink. It’s made from mixing tomato juice with beer, lime, hot sauce, worcestershire sauce, salt for rimming and in the mix and some lime wedges for garnishing. Here’s a great michelada recipe to get you started, but as with everything it’s best to experiment to see what ratios you like most!
While these drinks are best enjoyed where they’re from – with these handy tips you can have that ‘traveling feeling’ at home while sipping on your beverage of choice – cheers!
