How to Save Thousands Of Dollars in Interest

Feeling fed up with credit card companies and all the ways they manage to get your money? You can win at their game – and pay down your card faster. Interest accumulates daily whenever you carry a balance on a credit card. Because federal law requires credit card companies to process payments when they arrive, when you send your payment in sooner, you pay less interest.

One way to really mow down some of that interest is to stop charging on the card, make payments every other week rather than every month, and never decrease the payment amount until the card is paid off.

Notice that by following the biweekly schedule rather than the monthly schedule this card would be paid off almost 10 months earlier while saving $339.01 in interest.

Notice that it would take more than 25 years to pay off that card by simply sending in the ever-descending minimum payment each month. Not only would it take you 25 years to pay the balance off, but it also would cost you $6,332.19 in interest.

If you can only manage to pay the minimum due, you may still consider the biweekly pay-down method. It will help your money go toward more principle and pay the card off faster. Finally, if you must use a credit card, try to put purchases on a different card while you pay this one down.

Date Your Mate

Making the effort to keep your marriage romantic takes more planning than it used to, when you now have bills, kids and several schedules to consider. But working parents accept the reality that private time has to be scheduled if it’s to occur at all.
It turns out that busy parents have found creative ways to keep their romantic fires burning.

The Basics of Dating: Keep some basic rules about what qualifies as a date and what doesn’t. A date is a commitment to spend time together to relax, recharge and romance. A trip to Home Depot to select new towel rods while the children play at a neighbor’s house is not a date, even though you may be alone in the car on the way there and back.

The Perfect Date: What makes for a perfect date? Naturally, that varies from couple to couple. But here are some tips for getting the most romantic mileage out of your precious time together. First, a date should involve joyful anticipation of being together. Think back to before you were married. Didn’t your Saturday night date actually start on the previous Monday or Tuesday? If you were in charge of planning the date, that’s when you made reservations, purchased tickets, selected a destination and confirmed details. If you were the one being treated to the date, you chose your attire and planned your Saturday schedule around the upcoming date.

Be Original: Try not to do the same things too often. Movie dates can be interspersed with outings to art gallery openings, concerts and plays. The more advance preparation required, the greater the anticipation.

Date Night: Dates are not just for Saturday nights, either. Some couples go on mid-week dates. Dinner out breaks up the long workweek, and can give you a much-needed chance to talk. You may also get into that great restaurant that is booked every weekend.

Take a Longer Date Occasionally: However wonderful your date is, romance sometimes takes a little longer than four or five hours. To nurture relationships, couples need to plan a longer date occasionally. This can be a weekend getaway or just a day or two at home without the children.

Lose Winter Weight Naturally

BEFORE LOSING WINTER'S LAYERS, shed the season's extra pounds. Confront unhealthy eating habits, exercise daily for at least 30 minutes, and try these natural weight-control aids suggested by NATURAL HEATH advisor Elson Haas, M.D., author of The New Detox Diet, and herbalist Linda Page, N.D., author of Healthy Healing.

(1) Studies show that people who eat breakfast are less likely to overeat during the day. A high-fiber, low-fat bowl of oatmeal with apples and raisins fills you up for a while, so you won't nibble before lunch.

(2) "Expert dieters drink eight glasses of water a day," says Page. Water curbs appetite, promotes digestion, and supports good hydration. Add a packet of Emergen-C to help your body deal with the stress of dietary change.

(3) Keep your stomach from grumbling with daily doses of St. John's Wort (900 milligrams), 5-HTP (300 to 600 mg), and evening primrose oil (3 grams). These suppress hunger and help lift your mood by stimulating serotonin, says Page.

(4) Changing your eating habits can lead to a day or two of detox symptoms like irritability, anxiety, and headaches, warns Haas. Freshwater algae is a protein-rich superfood that can help support your body: Take a to 3 grams of spirulina or chlorella.

(5) Dieters who consume dairy products and calcium experience greater weight loss, according to a study at the University of Tennessee. Take calcium with an equal amount of magnesium (up to 1,000 mg a day) to calm the body and enhance sleep.

(6) Green tea contains caffeine and antioxidant catechins to promote thermogenesis, the process by which the body converts fat into energy. Enjoy a cup after each meal.

(7) While saturated fats are difficult for the liver to metabolize, omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats found in coldwater fish, nuts, and flaxseed oil that healthfully satiate and provide valuable energy.

(8) Free-form amino acids provide an array of weight-loss support. Supplements that may energize metabolism include L-Carnitine (500 to 1,000 rag), L-Glutamine (1 to 3 g), L-Tyrosine (1 to 2 g), and L-Phenylalanine (1 to 3 g), says Haas. - Adapted from Natural Health

Joking Matter: Philosophical Thoughts On Joking Matters

THE ONLY SUBJECTS worth joking about, said G. K. Chesterton, are serious subjects--like being married. On that score, religion should be a rich source of jokes--provided you take it seriously. Chesterton's theory helps explain why so many of the jokes and cartoons that cross our desks at the CENTURY are not amusing: they don't take religion seriously enough. Most seem to regard the church as the venue of juvenile cuteness and the home of long-winded, money-hungry buffoons. If that's the assumption, then there's nothing to joke about. Humor arises only in the tension between the sublime and the ridiculous, the serious and the profane.

Shared assumptions are crucial to all jokes. As Ted Cohen points out in his "philosophical thoughts on joking matters," jokes begin "with an implicit acknowledgment of a shared background," and this commonality sets up the satisfactions of a shared response.

Consider the assumption in this old minister-goes-golfing joke:

A minister woke up on a beautiful Sunday morning and decided to squeeze in a round of golf before services. St. Peter observed the man headed for the golf course and gave God a nudge. "He should be punished for this." God said, "OK, just watch."

The minister proceeded to play the best golf of his life. His club selection was precise, and he hit every shot perfectly. He was shooting par for the first time. "I thought you were going to punish him," said St. Peter. "Just watch," said God.

The minister continued to play flawless golf, and on the 18th hole he shot a hole-in-one. "What kind of punishment is this?" complained St. Peter. "Just think about it," said God. "Whom can he tell?"The minister continued to play flawless golf, and on the 18th hole he shot a hole-in-one. "What kind of punishment is this?" complained St. Peter. "Just think about it," said God. "Whom can he tell?"

I recall this joke as very successful, but I suspect it no longer works as well as it did because the assumptions don't hold. The joke assumes that it is scandalous for a minister to play golf on Sunday morning, and that he would naturally want to conceal his activity. But reverence for the Sabbath and expectations of pastoral piety have waned. Now the minister's pre-service outing is rather unremarkable, and might be regarded as a healthy bit of stress management. Whom couldn't he tell?

When we laugh at the same thing, Cohen says, it confirms that we share not only the same assumptions but the same feelings about the world. Laughing together satisfies a deep human longing for intimacy.

The intimacy-fostering element of jokes explains why many public speakers, including preachers, like to begin with a few jokes. Their aim is not so much to loosen up the crowd as to establish a connection with the audience. The tactic can backfire, however, if the jokes are so bad or so generic as to reveal that the speaker and listener do not share a particular set of assumptions. - Adapted from Christian Century