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Steve Gillman Profile and Articles
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1). Riddle Answers - How To Get Them
What can you do to get riddle answers? This depends on the type of riddle. Consider the following examples of a few different ones, and the simple "rules" or techniques you can use to solve them.
Find The Key Element Of The Riddle
Suppose your sock drawer has 6 black socks, 4 brown socks, 8 white socks, and 2 tan socks. How many socks would you have to pull out in the dark to be sure you had a matching pair?
With riddles like this, the fastest way to an answer is usually to find the "key element.
2). How To get Rid Of Brain Fog
Brain fog is that sensation you have when you just can't think clearly. Perhaps you can't concentrate, or even figure out what you need to be concentrating on. You might stare at the paper in front of you or at the job you need to do. There may be thoughts swirling in your head, but they aren't organized or helpful. What can you do about this? Try the following quick tips, and then the powerful techniques that follow.
3). Real Estate Math - Do You Know These Simple Formulas?
How much real estate math do you need to know if you are investing in real estate? There are computers and calculators for calculating interest rates or amortizing loans. What you need to know is a few simple formulas for determining if a property is a good investment or not.
The Real Estate Math You Don't Need
The gross rent multiplier is one formula you don't need.
4). Jokes and Riddles - How To Write Them
Just listening to or reading jokes and riddles may "wake up" your brain, but it is creating them that really exercises your brainpower. The process requires you to use both logical and lateral thinking skills. How do you do it, then?
Jokes and riddle don't come to mind randomly. In fact, after watching how many comedians create their routines, I am convinced that they use what I call "humor algorithms," even if they do so unconsciously.
5). Mortgage Cycling Secrets Revealed
Have you heard about mortgage cycling? Maybe you've seen the ads for books on this "secret technique" for paying off your mortgage sooner. Is there some useful information in them? Yes, especially if you are not familiar with the basic premise that you can pay extra principle every year and you'll pay off the loan sooner and save thousands on interest.
6). Worry - Five Ways To Eliminate It
We all worry at times, and there is probably no way to stop worrying forever. There are some specific ways to stop right now, however. The following tips on how to stop worrying come from experience, because I've always been a bit of a worrier, and I had to learn some good techniques for stopping this energy-sucking habit. Here are five of the best.
7). Survivorman - A Review
Survivorman is a television program about wilderness survival. It can be seen on the Discovery Channel (and others?). It's all about one man against the elements, and the man in this case is Les Stroud. He is put in various environments to survive for seven days while filming himself.
Having no camera crew may be the most novel idea in the show. You are sure the danger is real - there won't be a cameraman slipping food or water to Les when the camera is off.
8). Do You Create Good Luck?
Good luck? Maybe you have heard that luck doesn't exist, but you can see that some people seem to always have better things happen to them than others. Whatever you call it, would you like to have the secrets that these people have? Here is one of them.
Be In The Right Place For Good Luck
Good luck is often the result of simply being in the right place at the right time.
9). Earnest Money - What You Need To Know
You include earnest money with an offer on a house to show the seller that the you are serious about purchasing the house. It becomes part of the down payment if the offer is accepted, is returned if the offer is rejected, or is forfeited if you pull out of the deal for reasons other than those stipulated in the offer. A financing contingency is an example of the latter - if your offer was contingent on getting a loan, and you can't, you can cancel the contract and get your earnest money deposit back.
10). How To Find Cheap Outdoor Clothing
Outdoor clothing needs to function to a higher standard than everyday clothes. This makes it more costly to manufacture, and so more expensive for you. What can you do to find those quality hiking and backpacking clothes for less? You can watch for sales. You will save money, but that "extremely expensive" waterproof/breathable coat may still only be marked down to "very expensive.
11). Why You Buy
Behavioral economics is a new science that sheds light on some of our most important decisions. It is the study of how and why people make money-related choices. Here are some of the things the studies have shown thus far:
Decision Paralysis
One study showed that customers spent more when given four samples of jam to taste than when they had twenty to choose from.
12). Ultralight Backpacking - How To Start
Want to run up that ridge, just to see what's there? Want to easily carry your pack up those fourteener's, so you can go down by any route you choose? Want to feel good at the end of a twenty-mile day? It's time to liighten your load.
Ultralight Backpacking - The First 3 Steps
1. Buy a light backpack. Mine weighs 14 ounces, and I've used it on week-long trips.
13). How To Win At Roulette
I can tell you how to win at roulette, but do you have the patience? You'll have to sit patiently for thousands of spins before you start to make money. You see, it's all about "charting" the roulette wheel.
How To Win At Roulette? Biased Wheels
Years ago, when I ran a roulette table, one of my favorite players and I would talk philosophy all night while he patiently made his simple bets.
14). How To Raise Your Credit Score
Is it really that important to raise your credit score? Maybe. Lenders have "break points" between scores that get you one interest rate or another. Suppose you have a score of 688, and the lender drops the mortgage rate by .5% at 690. Those two points can cost you an extra $20,000 in interest on a $170,000 loan (over 30 years at 6.5% instead of 6%).
15). A Motivation Theory To Try Right Now
A good motivation theory has to recognize the fact that we each get motivated differently. In the practice of neuro-linguistic programming or "NLP" this is taken into account in many ways. One of the more useful NLP theories is the concept of "away-from" and "towards" personalities.
Of course, we each have both modes of operation as a part of the way we function, but often one is dominant in each of us.
16). House Selling Tips
There are hundreds of good house selling tips that can help you when the time comes to put that sign in the yard. Some are more important than others though. Here are three of the most important points.
1. Understand Value. Your home is not worth more because you like it, and it may not even be worth more after you spend $10,000 making it the way you like it.
17). How To Lose Money On A Fixer Upper Home
A fixer upper home seemed like a good investment, but we had little experience. We had bought, fixed and sold a home in Montana for a profit, and completed the project in only a few months. However, we were new to the Tucson area, and didn't quite have a grasp on the home values. In Tucson, two identical houses can be $50,000 apart in price if they are three blocks apart.
18). Four Enduring Truths
There are enduring truths about ourselves that we sometimes don't see or remember. What are they? They are truths that were recognized thousands of years ago, and have stood the test of time. Here are a four of them, and some ideas about how to use this knowledge.
Enduring Truths About Self Interest
We are self interested. When we sacrifice for others, even this is motivated by our own desires.
19). Creative Loafing
Have you tried creative loafing? It is a good excuse to relax, and also a great way to come up with new ideas and solutions to problems. How does one creatively loaf? Just relax, open your mind, and use one of the many idea-generating techniques.
A Creative Loafing Technique
My favorite technique is one that is best for generating new ideas rather than solving specific problems.
20). Useful Lie Number One
What are useful lies? They are not necessarily lies, but beliefs that benefit us, yet cannot be proven. You don't even need to believe them in the traditional sense. You can use them as "operating principles." Calling them lies refers top the fact that we essentially pretend to believe what we have no real evidence for. It is time for an example from the true events of the day.
21). Make Extra Money - Six Unusual Ways
I was young and wanted some way to make extra money - something other than another fast food job. A friend of the family owned a small insurance agency. The owner decided to get into the business of process serving, and I applied for the job. Tracking people down and handing them their court subpoenas sounded like fun.
It was more interesting than most of the jobs I have had.
22). Robbed On A Bus
We knew better. Both me and my wife had a strong feeling we shouldn't get on that bus in Cuenca, but neither of us said anything. A taxi was t
23). Arguments Steal Mind Power
Have you ever noticed that arguments are rarely "won?" Even if you think you won an argument, what did you win? If there really is a loser, he at least learned something, right? What did you get? Ego satisfaction, debating practice, and diminished mind power.
Arguing Diminishes Mind Power?
There are times when things need to be debated, but most of the time, it really isn't productive.
24). Brainstorming Techniques
Have you been in a "brainstorming" session where each person just defended their own ideas? Worse is when people don't suggest ideas at all, for fear they'll be attacked. That's no way to brainstorm. Brainstorming is using the power of many minds, and ideas should flow freely and trigger other ideas. How do you make that happen?
The Key To Good Brainstorming
You have to have a good leader to have good brainstorming.
25). Hiding Travel Money And Documents
Travel money belts are still a good way to carry cash. They're common, and thieves know of them, but it isn't easy to tell if your belt has a hidden compartment, and it isn't easy for a robber to get at it quickly. It is a good way to carry some of your cash when you travel. Here are some more ways.
There are travel options other than money belts for hiding cash and important papers.
26). Alternative Medicines - Why The Silence?
If there are alternative medicines and natural treatments that really work, why don't we hear more about them? I don't think there are many true conspiracies around, but this is one of those areas that makes me wonder. The movement between government posts and positions in the pharmaceutical corporations is well documented. This easy movement between the boardrooms and the FDA and other agencies certainly leaves room for abuse and "back door agreements.
27). Stalking Alligators In Florida
Alligators were the furthest thing from our minds as my wife Ana and I traveled along the coast of northern Florida. We had paid $23 to camp in our conversion van at a beautiful state park on the beach the night before. In the morning we saw a dolphin swimming near shore.
Then we heard we could camp for free at the isolated campgrounds which dotted the Apalachicola National Forest.
28). Treasure Hunting - The Unusual Ways
When you think of treasure hunting, maybe gold coins and precious stones come to mind, but it doesn't end there. You can start in your own attic to see what treasures you find. Then you can check out some of the more unusual ways to go treasure hunting.
Diamonds In Parking Lots
Temperature changes getting in and out of cars and buildings cause diamonds to come loose from their settings.
29). Opportunity - How To Invite It Into Your Life
Opportunity only knocks once, the saying goes. It's a terrible thought, designed to scare you into trying something that may or may not be right for you. A better use of the metaphor is to say that opportunity knocks many times, but we choose not to answer the door for various reasons, both good and bad. On the other hand, why wait for anything good to come knocking, when you can simply invite it over?
How do you do this? There are many specific techniques you can use to generate more opportunities and "good luck" in your life.
30). The Best Backpacking Foods
Maybe your favorite backpacking food is a freeze-dried turkey dinner. There really is no "best" backpacking food. There are reasons to bring certain foods, though. Here are ten foods, and the reasons you might want to consider them.
1. Nuts. This is one of the most calorie-packed foods you can take. That means less weight to carry. With lots of protein and other nutritonal benefits, nuts are one of the best backpacking foods.
31). Innovation Is A State Of Mind
You probably know the myth of innovation as a sudden flash of insight that comes from nowhere. We read about that "aha" moment, or that light bulb turning on in the mind of some inventor or innovator, and this is true to an extent. Einstein really did get flashes of insight while shaving in the morning. However, he was of course working on the particular problems he had insight into, and he didn't suddenly have ideas for new kitchen gadgets or movie plots.
32). Sell Real Estate Notes For Top Dollar
People sell real estate notes to raise cash quickly. A real estate note is just the loan document created when you financed the sale of your house or investment property. It could be a mortgage note, or a land-contract or contract-for-sale. The point is that the buyer is making payments to you, and you want to cash in.
You can sell the entire contract, or just a certain number of payments if you want.
33). Money Making Hobbies - Which Ones?
Which ones can be money making hobbies? A friend made a life-sized cow out of plywood once. He painted it, put it in the yard, and people started asking if he would sell it. He soon had a waiting list of customers for his plywood cows. With a profit of about fifty dollars each, he wasn't getting rich, but isn't making money with your hobby more fun than a job?
Money Making Hobbies - Two Approaches
The first approach is obvious: Look for ways to make money with your existing hobby or hobbies.
34). Treasure Hunting - Part Two
Treasure hunting begins at home. People regularly find famous old books and valuable antiques in their attics, so get up there and look. One couple tore open their walls while remodeling, and found them insulated with thousands of old and valuable movie posters, put there by a theater owner in the thirties. The couple sold $200,000 worth of posters, the last I heard.
35). Backpacking Food - What To Bring
Weight is always a concern with backpacking food you'll be carrying everything on your back. Some will tell you to find your weight savings in other areas, and argue for the necessity of healthy, meaning heavy, food. My experience, however, tells me that we can enjoy lighter loads and worry less about healthy food on short trips.
In the Sierra Nevada I ate more than 60 granola bars in five days with no ill effects.
36). Stress Relief - Ten Easy Ways
Sometimes we don't just need stress relief, but fast and easy relief. A complicated relaxation technique or elaborate meditative practice would be just one more thing to be anxious about. Here are ten much simpler solutions. Try them out, and keep in mind which ones work best for you, so you can use them regularly.
1. Deep breathing. Try six or seven deep breaths through your nose, with your eyes closed.
37). Using Overture For Keyword Research
Many of us who build websites get in the habit of using the Overture "Keyword Suggestion Tool" to do keyword research. It's convenient, and one of the few remaining such tools that is free. Be careful, though, because there are four problems you may run into with it.
1. Singular and plural forms are lumped together. I once optimized a site for "mountain hiking" based on the search traffic indicated by Overture.
38). Why Try Meditating Outside?
Meditating outdoors? Does it really matter where you meditate? I think it can. For some of us, being outside makes for not just a different meditation experience, but a more profound one. There are some good reasons for this.
perhaps meditating in a quiet room with no sounds and nothing to distract is the easiest way, especially for beginners. It's hard enough to quiet your mind without constant input from your surroundings.
39). Rental Properties: 10 Ways To Increase Income
What if you want better cash flow from your rental properties? You can't just raise the rents arbitrarily. If tenants leave, income goes down, not up. There are other ways, though, including the ones listed below.
1. Install coin-operated washing machines. Even if you don't have the money to do this yourself, you can find a company that will do it for you, and share the income with you.
40). Is Debt Consolidation A Good Idea?
Is debt consolidation really necessary? Perhaps. It certainly can seem like the easy way out of the problem of too many payments every month. When credit card and loan payments add up to $900 every month, why not pay all of these debts off and have a nice easy payment of say, $300? There are two reasons why it may be a bad idea.
Debt Consolidation Ignores Causes
Why do you have too much debt? Entirely unforeseeable circumstances? That's rarely the whole cause.
41). Zero Down Real Estate Investing
Zero down? Why would a seller want to walk away from closing with nothing? Well, they wouldn't, and that brings up the most important point about real estate investing with no downpayment: The seller almost always needs cash at closing, but it doesn't have to be YOUR cash.
A Zero Down Example
I'm selling a small rental property right now, with payments of $400/month.
42). Three Time Management Tips
I am applying the first of these time management tips right now. You see, there was a time when I tended to do all the "busy work" in the morning, while putting off the important things. I might have gotten to the important stuff later in the afternoon, or maybe not. Now, I get up and I write an article, because this is what is most important for my business right now.
43). My Left Brain Wrote This Article
The terms "left brain" and "right brain" refer to the left and right hemispheres of your brain. They each tend to process things differently, as explained in the following two paragraphs. However, the following are generalizations. They hold true for over 90% of right-handed people, and only 70% of left-handed people. In the cases where they aren't true, the division of labor and processing styles is usually still there, but reversed, with the right side handling the things that most people's left side handles, and vice-versa.
44). Real Estate Appraisal - Do It Yourself
For single family homes, there are two basic methods used in real estate appraisal. They are replacement cost analysis, and using comparable sales. A third appraisal method, based on capitalization, is used for income properties, and is covered in another article.
In figuring replacement cost the question is: What would it cost to buy this land and put this house on it? If the land (improved) would cost $40,000, and the house could be built for $150,000, the value indicated would be around $190,000 - if the house is fairly new.
45). Real Estate Investing By Mail?
One of my favorite real estate investing stories is about a man in California who used to just send out offers on a hundred MLS listings at a time. He never looked at the properties. He just offered 25% less than the asking price on each one, trusting that the listing agents were pricing these homes somewhere near the actual value, and so assured that he had a good deal if the seller accepted.
46). Five Romantic Vacation Ideas
What makes a vacation romantic? Let's start with examples before definitions. Here are a few romantic vacation ideas.
An ocean cruise is certainly a classic romantic vacation. Why not escape it all - even the sight of land. Isolated together out at sea, in the comfort of a cruise ship - that can be very romantic. There are a couple things to consider, though, if you want to keep the romance going.
47). A Beach Vacation Unlike Any Other
I never cared for the idea of a beach vacation. Most people love the idea of relaxing in the sun and maybe swimming in the surf, but I am just more into exploring a wilderness or even a city. Sitting at the beach has always just sounded boring. Salinas, Ecuador changed my mind.
When my wife Ana and I were visiting her family in Ecuador, her father took us to the coast for a beach vacation.
48). 10 More Tips For Selling Your Own Home
Selling your own home can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Sometimes, though, in the right market, it makes sense to save thousands of dol
49). Ask "What If?" To Solve Problems
To creatively solve problems you need to get your mind looking in new directions. You can systematically do this by using a list of words, primarily
50). Boost Brain Power By Learning A Language
Hablas Español? Do you speak any other languages? Maybe you've considered how good it would feel to be able to speak to people in
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