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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

How to get a brand new start in the new year!

Hi everyone. I'm so sorry about the long hiatus. First we went on a business trip/family trip
and then upon coming back, we find out that my God-mother is very ill and not expected to
last through January. Although she is in her 80s, it is still a shock to see someone you love
go down so rapidly. I've been spending as much time with her as I could as I will obviously,
never be able to have this time with her again. Thank you all for your support and understanding during this time.........



Lets move on.... I think most of us want to make a fresh start in 2010. I know many of you are looking forward to that more than anything. In order to make 2010 a different kind of year you MUST set goals. Decide what you want in life, and make a plan to get it.

It sounds too simplistic, but it is the basis for all achievement. I wanted to give you ladies some advice that would really make a difference in your new year, so here goes. These are the things that most people want to change.



lose some weight.
Many of us want to drop a few pounds, and the easiest way to do it without alot of stress and strain, is to simply start to walk everyday.
Even if it's too cold to walk outside and you don't have a treadmill, then simply walk to your favorite shows, back and forth in front of the tv.
If you want to drop weight super-fast, then walk to your shows for I hour per day, and add lots of fruit/vegetables to your daily meals.
Don't worry about diets, just add lots of fruits and veggies to your meals. (especially fruit-because the only fruit that does not bring on weight loss
is banana. They are still very good for you but they don't cause weight loss like apples, oranges berries (all) pineapples, watermelon, -well pretty much all the rest do.
Citrus fruit is especially weight -reducing. The reason is that your body has to work so hard to break down the fruit for consumption, you end up with negative calories, and lose weight....


Learn something new!

Many people want to finish a degree or pursue some self-study. This is an
excellent idea because we should always keep learning.
And speaking of learning. Did you know that the more you learn the easier it is to learn more? The brain is like a muscle, the more you use it the more connections and neurons it creates. This facilitates learning, and in essence, you become smarter.
So even if you are finished with college and don't feel that you need any further schooling, always undertake self-study or pursue some type of learning.
One of the greatest area's of study for black women is to learn to speak a new language. Nothing seems to elevate one's sex appeal, and image like being able to converse in a new language.....


Change your habits-change your life

Some of us are stuck in a rut due to the bad habits we have engaged in time and again. The best way to get out of a rut, is to start with a list of 6-10 things you want to change. Take 2 of those things and put them up on your wall for the month. Every day work on those things you want to change. A new habit usually takes about 1 month (28 days). So in order to bring a new desired habit, all you have to do keep doing it! When it becomes entrenched, then move on to the next
habit you want to change, and repeat the process. The process for getting rid of bad habits, is to do the opposite. Simply refrain from doing those things until you no longer desire them. Think of habits like a path through a forest. When the path is seldom walked, it is difficult to discern, and unclear. But when it is heavily walked, it becomes more and more visible and grooved. Your
mind is the same way. Any habit that is done consistently will become more deeply entrenched and likely to produce after itself....


Get into a better crowd!

Drop whatever in your life that is NOT in your best interest. This includes people! Did you know that 95% of people make within 3-5000.00 of what their 3 best friends make? You see people rub off on each other. This is why wealthy people donot like to hang out with broke people. They are aware that the energy WILL rub off, and they are aware of how detrimental it can be to their finances. Whatever you are trying to be in life, get around those types of people. When a friend of mine was complaining about her daughter skipping school and getting into trouble, one of the teacher's recommended that she get her away from the people she hung with (delinquents) before it was too late. My friend immediately moved her child to a better school where she would not have access to her old crowd. She began to hang with a more studious crowd, and her grades, as well as her behavior, immediately improved. This dynamic will work
wonders in your life as well. If you are hanging with negative, mean spirited, spiteful, and angry people, you will find yourself acting the same way. And your life will be a reflection of this. Try putting yourself around a better crowd and hanging with winners, and you will immediately see how much better your life is turning out to be.....


Finally since for most of us, our finances are the main problem. I wanted to throw some really great info at you ladies. Since I'm a real estate consultant, obviously most of it will deal with real estate.....

How to get a FREE HOUSE in 2010!

Did you know that there is a law on the books called the Adverse Possession law. Now it varies
by state, but the gist of it is that abandoned houses are basically free for the taking. Let me explain.
Say someone named Donna walks home from work everyday. And everyday, she passes a boarded up house. She looks at it longingly because it's twice the size of the house she rents, and she desperately needs more space. As she's telling her friend Jane, about it at lunch the next day, her friend suddenly snaps to attention. "Why don't you check title and ownership? " she asks. "Perhaps the people are deceased, or don't want it. Donna had no idea what you was
talking about but Jane took the lead. The next day, she takes Donna down to the tax assessor's office, and armed with the address to the property-they look up the owner's name. Come to find
out, the owner had been missing for 3 years. No one knew where he was. Taxes had accumulated on his home and the city had boarded it and placed a lien on it. Jane immediately ordered a title report, and carefully went over it with Donna. Upon learning that it only had one lien and back taxes, Donna immediately began to pay the taxes. She ran an ad in the paper for several weeks. It announced that if anyone was interested in the property, they should contact her. (This is called giving constructive notice) afterwards, she had the boards removed, and began to repair the property. Several weeks later, she moved her family in. And even though she had to pay a few thousand for back taxes, and repairs. She was able to stop paying rent, and after the first year, and save a fortune. A few years later, she hired an attorney and was able to
obtain a 'quiet title'.
That's adverse possession in a nutshell. You can order a book on eBay or the 'net' if you feel you
don't have enough detail, but that's really the basis of it. The main thing to remember is to 'live openly'. That's why it's called adverse possession, because you are living 'adverse' to the owner's interests. Don't choose houses with extreme defects, because you'll eat up your savings making
extensive repairs. Easy ways to spot prospects are:

Boarded houses
neglected houses
overgrown lawns
broken windows
sagging porches
lots of notices left on door
high weeds
No electric (check box on side)
'feels vacant'
When you spot these signs, check for vacancy, and then talk to the neighbors. I guarantee you
they will know how long the owner has been gone, and probably, they will know what happened to them.



How to live in a Mansion and make 100.000 in 2010!

I love this plan. I actually didn't think of it. A realtor friend of mine has been using it for awhile.
It goes like this.

Go, and get a real estate license. Now if you go everyday, this will only take 2 weeks. If you go at night or only on Saturday, it will take longer. But you must have it to put this plan in action.
Market your services in the upper crust areas. Advertise in high end magazines, that you are a licensed agent, and that you will house-sit and sell their property for them.
Get them to sign an agreement that you will live in the house, take care of it, and sell it at the end of one year. You move in and run your business from the home. Towards the end of the year, you aggressively market it. 6% on a 2 million dollar home is 120.000. As long as there is
no listing agent, you will be able to keep the entire commission. If there is another agent, you will need to complete 2 transactions per year to make your targeted income.....


Hope this gets you all off to a great start-And Happy New Year!


25 comments:

Jodachrome said...

Hello Sara,

Thanks for the very sound advice. A lot of this can only take place once we start to think, live and breathe our goals. I particularly enjoyed reading the housing/finance advice. I believe the same ideas can be applied overseas too.

Have a fantastic 2010

Sunhun

Unknown said...

Happy New Year and welcome back!!! I appreciate your blog and find your writing uplifting, insightful and practical.

I am a real estate agent in metro Detroit and really like your suggestions that you posted in this and other posts. This is going to be my year.

Tee said...

I've been reading your blog for a while now. Thank you for all the hard work you do.

Happy New Year!

JSW said...

Happy New Year!!! So happy that you're back. Your God Mother is in my prayers! :)

Tiffany said...

Happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

Hello Sara,

I am so sorry to hear of the news of your godmother.

I will keep you and your family in my prayers.

focusedpurpose said...

Happy New Year Sara!

welcome back. thanks for the post and the great ideas.

prayers of healing i send up for your family.

blessings all,
focusedpurpose

SMH said...

Happy New Year Sara. Hope this new decade brings much joy, love, peace and blessings to you and those you hold dearest.

LaLuneBrune said...

The tips you gave are great, Sara. This is the decade to shine, indeed.

Happy New Year!

Welcome said...

Happy New Year and thanks for the tips.

Lavette said...

Welcome back and Happy New Year Sara!

Prayers to your God Mother. I missed blogging with you all last semester but I am on break from Graduate School so I can join in again.

I love all the suggestions especially about learning something new which is what I've always been about learning new things. I do want to learn another language myself so perhaps in between studies I can fit it into my schedule. BTW: I got A's in both of my courses so it was a really great early Christmas gift.

Hugs and Kisses to you.

bwdb said...

Sara

May God be with you and your family at this difficult time...

Besides that it was very nice hearing from you again...You have been sorely missed!

aann4950 said...

Congrads. Lavette

Lorraine said...

Bless you much Sara and welcome back! All the best to you and thanks for this very good advice.I am linking to Facebook now.

Take care and super Happy New Year to you and your family!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Happy New Year, and I will definitely pray for your family.

Welcome said...

I just came upon a story about a black women in the 18th century accused, tortured and hanged for allegedly burning down Montreal http://www.histoquest.ca/angelique1.htm

Clip of a short film about her http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTVvaxVMAeA Apparently someone is working on a future. Wow we have so much history that we have no knowledge about.

Lavette said...

@aann4950: Thanks!

Binta said...

Great tips Sara. Phew, I'm so happy you're back. So sorry to hear about the bad news. My prayers are with you.

The "get into a better crowd" advice is so true. I have experienced it myself and keep seeing it everyday, especially with young adults. When in the company of people with no serious plans for the future I also started having doubts about my plans i.e. going to France to learn how to speak French or taking some extra courses. They would say I shouldn't work/study so hard, make fun of me reading in my spare time or call me over-ambitious. This changed when I met my boyfriend (German), he encouraged and supported me, saying he knew I was capable of doing more. Now I speak French; not perfect but I can speak and read in French and I feel GOOD about it.

I always feel much better everytime I accomplish something new although it makes me sad to see I'm the only black woman (person) at class. I wish more black women would have the heart to do something new. The most difficult part is to come to a decision and stick to it but once you start carrying your plan out, you'll feel much better, prettier and confident in yourself and others will notice this positive change too.

I have more plans stored in for 2010, wish me luck ;)

Lena said...

Happy New Year Sara from Lena

aann4950 said...

Good for you Binta.

Aside from working full-time, I am taking five classes and one is Intro. to Spanish. Physically speaking I need an exercise class for my personal health.

Welcome said...

sorry meant to say someone is working on a feature.

Welcome said...

You should also check out Pimsleur Spanish the complete course. It's great. I did the short course a while back. It was the summer so with everyone out of school most of the language learning courses were at the library. I learned so much with the 8 course, but not as much as I would have like to. It was sort of an intro when you think about it. Then I found the complete course. I slacked off a little, but I am getting back into it. I also plan to do French as I was studying it in High School and planned to in college, but never got to it.

One thing I found with leanring a language is try not to to tell others. It's hard, but people like to try to embarress you infront of others by asking you questions in a language or what have you learned. I have no idea why. I mean seriously if someone is about to start say Spanish or French 1 then you know they don't know much yet and if they are in those courses it's introductory so duh.lol

Sorry for that bit of a rant.lol

Welcome said...

Oh yes here are some language courses from the Foreign Service Institute http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php

Anonymous said...

@ cool...that is a good language site. thanks I also have a few cds I need to focus on.

ann

Lena said...

I agree that jealousy is mostly due to insecurity. I feel bad for women who feel jealous and I agree that having a positive outlook on life changes things!