My personal concept of ‘hardships’ shifted again with Haiti disaster
Posted on February 2, 2010 - Filed Under Lifestyle News, World News
It's easy, for me anyway, to get so caught up in my life, my family, ... "me, me, me" ... that I lose sight of people in my world and the world in general who suffer real hardships.
But I think my personal concept of the whole idea of "hardships" shifted once again following the earthquakes and ensuing disasters in Haiti.
I am struck every time I see television coverage of the suffering nation and all that the people are enduring just to stay alive. Think about this aspect of it: The initial quake that caused most of the devastating death and destruction lasted for around 30 seconds, as I understand it. Can you imagine your world changing in such fashion in half a minute??
It's so easy to be caught up in our lives that we lose sight of the important things. I watch some of the commercials on television and heart pitches on the radio for everything from weight loss pills and skin creams to hair supplements and anti-aging schemes. And the good folks working hard to sell me such products really want to create an urgency in my heart, something that will motivate me emotionally to buy their product or service because I feel or see that it will solve some problem I have, or think I have.
Then something like the earthquake in Haiti comes along and suddenly I realize my problems are pretty small and not all that bad.
If you're going through a tough time or hardship, I do not mean in any way to minimize that. Personally, my family and I are going through a serious situation right now. But my family and I, and perhaps you, too, can take heart and be thankful that we aren't (probably not, anyway) being challenged to deal with hardships such as those in Haiti.
Then, out of gratitude or sympathy for the Haitians, or for whatever reason, we can give of our time and our money (no matter how much or how little) to reputable charities and aid organizations to help the folks of Haiti. That's what I would encourage you to do however and whenever you can.
Opinions please: Tell me about your life insurance
Posted on February 2, 2010 - Filed Under Lifestyle News, Personal News
I hope this little post doesn't get me a ton of life insurance agent responses. I'm really curious, though, about what sort of life insurance people have. I personally have a very low-premium accidental death and disability policy through a credit union offer. I think we're probably also insured so that our mortgage is paid off if either my wife or I die.
But, frankly, we don't actually have "real" life insurance, term life or whole life either one.
I know many years ago that term life insurance quotes always came in with way lower premiums and higher payouts than whole life. I don't have any idea whether that's still true -- nor do I really know the current trends in policy names and nature.
So -- do you have life insurance? What sort of coverage? Mind if I ask the range of your premiums? I doubt whether I'll be able to rush out and get a policy in the near future. For one thing, my need for adequate health insurance would have to come first.
But share your thoughts and your experience, if you wish. But, please, no insurance agents pitching your products. Thanks.
Do you still shop online even during ‘off season’ periods?
Posted on January 28, 2010 - Filed Under Shopping News
I'm sure everyone knows the peak retail shopping seasons, at least in America, generally run concurrent with holidays -- most especially just after Thanksgiving in November (the legendary Black Friday frenzy every year comes to mind) and just before and after Christmas.
What about the rest of the year? Do you do much shopping, especially online shopping, during "off season" shopping periods?
As I've mentioned here before, I rely on commissions earned from various online merchant partners which I link to. That provides a significant slice of our monthly income, so I'm always happy to find people shopping online via links to my merchant partners ANY time of the year.
Two very well-known and trusted online shopping sites are Amazon.com and the ever popular eBay. I happen to be an affiliate partner for both sites. The good news is, both sites have a steady flow of browsers and shoppers pretty much year around. The bad news is, I still haven't managed to drive steady, year around traffic to either site. But I'm working at it.
And part of that work is asking folks who visit my sites to tell me what sort of shopping they do and when so I can try to provide useful web links here and on my other sites for their (YOUR) online shopping convenience.
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