I saw this article in another publication and just had to include it in my blog. We spend lots of time and energy searching for and deliberating about which property to buy. But what about our decisions to bring a pet into our homes. With holidays fast approaching, this information and advice seems timely, whether we're a first time pet owner or an experienced one. Hope you enjoy!

In the market for a dog? It pays to look around in order to find the right dog that fits with your lifestyle. Picking the right dog to bring into your home take planning and work. Here's a game plan for someone seeking to bring a dog home. 

Think it out
The worst mistake that people make, says Karen Okura, manager of behavior and training at The Anti-Cruelty Society (anticruelty.org), is impulse adoption.

Don't pick an animal because it reminds you of your old dog, she says, or because you pity the animal, or because you lost your job and need to feel loved, or because the kids want one, or to save a marriage or relationship. 

There are plenty of good reasons to adopt. "The No. 1 objective is to save a life. People don't realize the number of amazing dogs being euthanized," says Rochelle Michalek, executive director of PAWS Chicago (pawschicago.org). "Dogs make great companions. They're great from a social perspective. Nothing breaks the ice like a dog when you're out meeting people." Once you have a good reason to adopt, use your head. "People should look at practical things," Okura says. "Does someone in the home have allergies? How prepared are you to do a minimal amount of grooming?" Also ask yourself: Do you have the time to feed, train and exercise a new dog? Okura figures a puppy needs two years of intensive training; older dogs, a year. Can you afford the financial investment? Even routine medical care isn't cheap. Does the entire family approve, not just one or two members? Everyone will need to pitch in. Will a new dog get along with other pets in the home? 

If you're looking at a puppy, know how big it's going to get. If it's from a shelter or one of those "free-to-good-home" ads, take your best guess and be prepared for an adult dog that's 10 to 30 pounds plus or minus that estimate. 

Choosing a breed
Figure out what you want: big, small, male, female, energetic, laid-back, etc. Every factor should be considered. Is there a purebred that appeals to you? Study up and learn more about that breed's dogs, from how big they get, to their temperament, to how much they shed. Talk to a rescue group that deals in that particular breed. They can tell you a breed's quirks, and they might even have an animal that would be a good fit. 

If you have no particular breed in mind, consider a mutt. There are a lot more mixed-breed animals needing homes. They also tend to be less prone to breed-specific health problems and they're also going to cost a lot less, in most cases.

"And their personalities might tend to be a little more diverse," Michalek says. 

Go for the perfect fit
Don't rush it. Okura says to do your homework and find the perfect fit. Not an OK fit, not a good fit. The perfect fit. "One of the things I tell people is to be picky. Lots of people feel guilty in a shelter, looking at homeless animals. ‘It's bigger than I wanted,' or ‘Look at all this hair.' We actively advise people who say, ‘He's just not right' to keep looking. Because somebody will take the dog you said no to." 

I came across these tips recently, which were directed towards teaching children financial responsibility. If the current economic recession has taught us anything, it's that financial education and responsibility are critical in today's fast-paced, wired world. All too often, however, children grow up immune to the financial world around them. As a result, they're often ill equipped to manage their own finances when they become adults and leave home.

With the economy in the news almost daily, now seems like a perfect time to start educating our children about how to manage money more responsibly. The tips below can help:

1. Give an Allowance

If your children don't have money of their own, it's hard for them to really grasp the value of it. So if you don't pay your children allowance, consider starting. You don't need to pay a lot-a little goes a long way. The most important thing is that your children learn the value of completing even small chores around the house to earn their own money.

2. Make a Plan and Set Guidelines

Before you start giving your children an allowance, sit down with them and set some expectations. Discuss the specific chores and timelines for completing those chores, as well as the amount of money they'll earn for each chore and when they'll be paid. This helps instill a strong work ethic in children as well as drive home the message that money is earned, not given.

3. Save for the Future

As part of your financial discussion, consider implementing a savings rule for your children. For example, make a rule to save half or one-third of their allowance. You can go with them to the bank to establish a savings account in their name and then take them to make their deposits. Or, if your children are still young, you can set up a special savings bank. Let your children decorate a jar or can to give it some personality and then have them deposit a portion of their money in that special bank whenever they receive their allowance.

4. Educate on Interest

Talk to kids about savings accounts and the value of interest. If you start a savings bank at home, offer to pay your kids a small amount of interest on their savings. Once a month, sit down with your kids and count how much they have deposited, how much interest they have earned, and how much they have as a result. Compare the amounts each month, so your children can see the benefits not only of saving, but also the benefits of compounding interest.

5. Save for a Big Purchase

The next time your child shows you an expensive toy or big-ticket item that he or she wants, consider striking a deal where the child saves up for half of the cost. For instance, consider a "match plan" in which you match every dollar your child saves for the item. This will not only teach the value of saving, but also help your child learn to budget and plan for expenses-which is a lesson that can pay off in the future when your child becomes a credit-card-carrying adult.

6. Take Your Children Shopping

Take your children grocery shopping with you. As you go down your shopping list, have your children help you compare the prices of the different brands, sales, and quantities per package. You can also have your children try to keep a running tally and make a guess of what the total cost will be.

7. Set Them Free to Shop

Once your children have a sense of money matters, you may want to take the lesson up a notch. For instance, when your children need new school clothes, you try giving them the money and putting them in charge of what to buy. Then, as they shop, help them compare the prices and number of items they can purchase within their budget. You could even purchase a Visa gift card with a specific dollar value on it. That will help your children not only learn about the value of a dollar and making smart purchases, but it will also introduce them to the credit card system, in which money may not seem real because it's unseen. In today's electronic financial world, this lesson will become more and more important as your children get older.

8. Teach by Example

Remember, children are always watching. So if you educate them on saving for purchases and budgeting but make rash decisions on big-ticket items yourself, you may find them learning a different lesson than you intend. So make sure you follow your own rules when it comes to spending, saving, and fiscal responsibility. You may even want to consider discussing your donations to help your children understand the importance of supporting charities.

9. Be Consistent

Teaching children about money isn't something that can be done in a short period of time. Children are always re-experiencing their environments and testing their boundaries. So make sure that once you implement an allowance, savings, and budgeting plan that you stick with it. Over time, you may decide to raise your child's allowance or change the terms of their savings. But those shouldn't be quick decisions. Instead, if you and your child want to revisit the financial plans or to add a new element, take the time to sit down, write out what the changes will be, discuss how this will impact the child's level of responsibility, and make sure you end the conversation with agreement on what will happen going forward. Then, be consistent; don't waiver.

Even though there may be times that our children beg for an exception, hopefully, by being consistent, our children will be much better prepared to deal with the real financial world that they'll face when they grow up. And these tips seem like good advice for children of all ages!

Here's an interesting article courtesy of Diane Stafford of the Kansas City Star, that really got me thinking. Having recently returned from a 9 day trip across country, during which I checked and responded to email and voice mail every single day, I wondered if the idea of a real "vacation" from one's job was no longer valid. The ability to stay in touch no matter where we are-and our obsession with doing that-has significantly changed our vacation habits. See if the following scenario rings some bells . . . .!

"Sunshine glowed on patches of mountain snow. An occasional trout broke the sparkling Maggie Pond. A gentle breeze stirred the fir tree outside our Breckenridge, Colo., window.

Inside, five laptops hummed. Welcome to summer vacation, 2009.

Thanks to a free WiFi connection, we were tethered to our jobs back in Kansas City and Dallas. Two CPAs, a lawyer, a geographic information systems specialist and me: We kept up.

Here's where rational thinkers say: Stop. The point of vacations is to get away, refresh, refuel. It's counterproductive to even think about work when you're supposed to be gone.

Here's also where rational thinkers say: Get away? In your dreams. In today's fast-paced, do-more-with-less workplaces, you can't cut ties. It's harder to get back in gear if you don't keep up while you're gone, and that's particularly true for the self-employed. Nobody worked more "on vacation" than the self-employed worker among us.

Of course, many workers this year couldn't take a vacation at all. No time. No money. And even the idea of a "staycation" was farfetched for the thousands of unemployed job hunters.

Workplace consultants have noted that even the safely employed - if there is such a thing - worry about taking time off. They fear falling victim to the next layoff round if they don't stay visible and productive.

As the United States wrestles with what to do with its health care and health insurance systems, analysts note that other developed nations, especially in Europe, take more time off from work than we do. And their middle-aged citizens are about half as likely to have heart disease, hypertension or diabetes. Many Americans eat unhealthy diets, don't get enough exercise and are overweight. Some smoke. All those factors contribute to poor health. More than three dozen developed countries now report longer average life spans than the American average.

These health factors are fueling a push for vacations - mandatory, paid vacations - because it's clear that time off for many workers isn't happening on its own.

There's a bill in the U.S. House, the Paid Vacation Act of 2009. Odds are that it won't get much traction this year with the larger economic and health-care issues on the table. An organization, Take Back Your Time, is backing the bill for all the stress-reduction reasons mentioned above. But critics of the bill abound. Many business owners are against any more government mandates and any more employee benefit expenses.

Meanwhile, it's unlikely that a week or two of summer vacation, paid or not, will be the stress detox needed for busy workers."

I saw this article recently and was really captivated. Not sure I'll ever get to have a waterfront home, but it's sure fun to dream . . . .

With open water views that astound and delight, along with deep, protected water dockage that accommodates boats of more than 100 feet or sailboats needing deep water anchorage, this striking contemporary home in Key Biscayne, Florida, provides the perfect setting from which one can truly enjoy the wonders of boating.

This six bedroom, eight and one half-bathroom home has been impeccably maintained and updated to reflect the amenities necessary for 21st century living: a walled and gated location covering more than 27,000 square feet on Key Biscayne's most prestigious, private street; 114-foot dock with 10-foot-plus water at dock and davits, impact windows and sliding doors; a 60KW generator that provides the security of knowing activities will continue regardless of the elements; expansive entertainment spaces, marble floors, soaring ceilings and teak finishes.

The kitchen setting is in the round with bay views that will delight any gourmet cook. Home has a four-car garage, billiard room, wine cellar, racquetball court with viewing area, gym, sauna, and steam shower. Pool overlooking the bay and outdoor dining area.

This is a home from which a serious yachtsman can enjoy luxurious living on one of South Florida's most prized water locations. Listed at $24,950,000.

Visit http://www.luxuryrealestate.com/1036872 for more information or the listing agent's site at http://www.miamirealestate.com/.

Here's a really interesting and informative article by Goerge Smith and David Compton that has real meaning and value in today's world. Although the focus of this article is on business interactions, the suggestions presented certainly apply to our personal relationships as well. See what you think:

With the influx of foreign investors in today's market, it is important that you properly prepare to effectively interact with them. To pursue these investors, we suggest that you go to www.google.com and type in "Consular Offices, California," (or whichever state you are in) to advise them about the wonderful investment opportunities in American properties. We also suggest that you search under the category "Foreign Trade Offices" in your state.

Let's talk specifically about developing "multi-cultural" manners. When interacting with a person of another culture or ethnicity, it is important to apply the "Platinum Rule" as opposed to the "Golden Rule." The "Platinum Rule" says that you should treat the other person as THEY (not you) want to be treated. This means respecting the traits and traditions that have been infused into their behavior by their culture. While one can always apply the phrase "When In Rome...", the real estate profession and the N.A.R. have recognized the need to go the extra mile to create that zone of comfort essential for effective interaction.

The following "Norms" are, for the most part, universal in their application.

•·        Learn at least a few phrases of their language if different from your own.

•·        Show appreciation for the other's customs, music, and art; do not criticize them.

•·        Be sensitive and non-judgmental on politics and religion; avoid discussing these if possible.

•·        Build on the other's cultural heritage to enhance communication, rather than trying to impose your own.

•·        Show good intentions and consideration and follow-up on promises.

•·        Extend respect to those who the customer cares about - for instance, the elderly, children, family, religious affiliations, and whatever groups the customer identifies with.

•·        Use common sense and credit the other person for having it as well.

•·        Acknowledge mistakes and apologize when appropriate.

•·        Minimize talk about the United States.

•·        In general, try to listen more and talk less.

•·        Do not tell the other what to do; you do not know what is appropriate.

•·        Do not talk about family unless they are present or the other person mentions them.

•·        Help the other see the "Big Picture" by sharing information.

•·        Seek to share the other person's ceremonies and celebrations.

•·        Recognize that you will need to be more formal and take more time in doing business than is your normal practice.

•·        Be punctual, even if it does not seem to be customary for the culture you are dealing with; many cultures regard tardiness as a character flaw, and they know that in American culture we would be insulted if another person was late for a meeting.

•·        Get names and contact information correct.

•·        Take the blame for language barriers and difficulties.

•·        Do not tell jokes; they have a very high probability of being misunderstood.

•·        Show deference and respect to the elderly; stand when they enter, wait for them to speak or when they extend their hands in greeting.

•·        Treat members of the opposite gender with respect. Always err on the side of formality.

•·        Be patient and forgiving if a member of the opposite gender has trouble determining how to treat you; remember that other cultures differ on the roles of men and women in business relationships and may have difficulty adjusting to the expectations in the United States.

•·        Skip the efforts to try to create an "instant friendship".

•·        Respect the concept of "face" as in "saving face" - never do anything to embarrass another person, either in that person's eyes, in the eyes of others, or in your own eyes. In the same way, do not sacrifice your own "face" in front of others as well.

•·        Try to fit in and be comfortable without making a fool of yourself.

While these are important behaviors to embrace, there are other behaviors that you will want to avoid. Just to be on the safe side, and until you learn better from your customer, avoid the following behaviors:

•·        Standing with your hands in your pockets

•·        Using first names

•·        Asking personal questions

•·        Asking about their family

•·        Crossing your legs

•·        Showing the soles of your shoes

•·        Fleeing or invading the other's personal space

•·        Seeking direct eye contact

•·        Initiating any physical contact

•·        Showing impatience

Putting positive attitudes, communication skills and multicultural manners into action with the varieties of people in your marketplace is certainly necessary on a personal level each and every day. Be aware that you may also need to make some changes in the way you and your office deal with specific business situations that involve multiple cultures.

George Smith and David Compton are the Sudden Success Team. David Compton is Vice-President and Director of Education. With 22 years as a real estate trainer/speaker, he has trained over 15,000 new real estate agents. Previously he was Director of Education for one of the nation's largest brokerages, Regional Trainer/Speaker, Senior G.R.I., A.B.R., and C.B.R. Instructor and developed over 200 real estate courses. George Smith is President and CEO, with more than 27 years of experience producing and promoting educational training programs. As General Manager, he was responsible for directing one of the nation's leading real estate training companies through a period of explosive growth in sales, membership enrollment and staff development, resulting in the company being recognized as one of the leading training institutions for real estate and lending professionals in North America. Practical Resources, 2588 El Camino Real, Suite F-197, Carlsbad, California 92008, Phone: 760-752-1709, Fax: 760-752-3192 For more information, go to www.practicalresources.net

Courtesy Brave New Traveler

Now is

Now is the time of year when many of us are thinking about escaping to a different place and removing ourselves from the daily grind. Even if the escape is to our backyard, patio, deck or balcony, it's nice to get away for some kind of "R and R" (rest and relaxation). I recently came across these quotes and even without taking a vacation myself right now, I instantly felt renewed and invigorated, just reading them. So here they are. Hope you enjoy . . . .  

1. "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain

2. "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine

3. "There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." - Robert Louis Stevenson

4. "The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are." - Samuel Johnson

5. "All the pathos and irony of leaving one's youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time." - Paul Fussell

6. "Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." - Jack Kerouac

7. "He who does not travel does not know the value of men." - Moorish proverb

8. "People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home." - Dagobert D. Runes

9. "A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." - John Steinbeck

10. "No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." - Lin Yutang

11. "Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure." - Aldous Huxley

12. "All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it." - Samuel Johnson

13. "For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." - Robert Louis Stevenson

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - Henry Miller

14. "Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." - Cesare Pavese

15. "One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - Henry Miller

16″A traveler without observation is a bird without wings." - Moslih Eddin Saadi

17. "When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in." - D. H. Lawrence

18. "To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world." - Freya Stark

19. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

20. "Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard

21. "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." - Martin Buber

22. "We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." - Jawaharial Nehru

23. "Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going." - Paul Theroux

24. "To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted." - Bill Bryson

25. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by." - Robert Frost

27. "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." - Lao Tzu

28. "There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it." - Charles Dudley Warner

29. "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." - Lao Tzu

30. "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." - James Michener

31. "The journey not the arrival matters." - T. S. Eliot

32. "A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles." - Tim Cahill

33. "I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." - Mark Twain

34. "Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." - Pat Conroy

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." - Lao Tzu

35. "Not all those who wander are lost." - J. R. R. Tolkien

36. "Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen." - Benjamin Disraeli

37. "Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." - Maya Angelou

38. "Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation." - Elizabeth Drew

39. "Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe"......Anatole France

40. "Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind." - Seneca

41. "What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road." - William Least Heat Moon

42. "I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within." - Lillian Smith

43. "To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries." - Aldous Huxley

44. "Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art." - Freya Stark

45. "The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it." - Rudyard Kipling

46. "Travel is glamorous only in retrospect." - Paul Theroux

47. "The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." - G. K. Chesterton

48. "When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable." - Clifton Fadiman

49. "A wise traveler never despises his own country." - Carlo Goldoni

50. "Adventure is a path. Real adventure - self-determined, self-motivated, often risky - forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind - and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white." - Mark Jenkins

It's no big secret that a college education can cost you or your children years of debt. But guess what? More and more universities, and not just the US military academies, are now offering some students everything from free tuition to free room and board. Check out some of the sweet deals offered by these unique universities.

1. College of the Ozarks - Students pay no tuition in exchange for at least 15 hours a week at a campus work station at this top liberal arts school in the Midwest.
2. Deep Springs College - This two-year, all-male liberal arts college in California offers free tuition, room and board in exchange for at least 20 hours a week of hard work on its ranch.

3. Berea College - This Kentucky college provides a full-tuition scholarship to every student, in exchange for at least 10 hours a week in one of the school's 130 labor departments.

4. Olin College of Engineering - One of the top undergraduate engineering programs in the country, this school provides every admitted student free tuition for four years.

5. Cooper Union - Located in Manhattan, this school offers degree programs in art, architecture, and engineering, and every admitted student receives four years of free tuition.

Other more specialized schools with similar deals include: Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Alice Lloyd College in Kentucky, the City University of New York's Teacher Academy, and UC-Irvine School of Law (this year only) in California.

We all know what a major role one's credit history, commonly referred to as FICO scores, plays in real estate, so here are some basics, courtesy of a local lender, to enhance your FICO knowledge. Good borrower credit scores help make it possible for buyers to qualify at better rates. For those with lesser FICO scores, however, there are still loans available but different parameters may apply.

 This is how FICO scores are weighted and structured:

 35% by payment history

 30% by balanced owed

 15% by length of credit history

 10% by new credit

 10% by type of credit in use

 And the overall calculated ranges:

 720-850  Excellent, A-paper credit, the "good guy" rates available

680-719  Good, not much of a compromise on rates

620-679    OK or Fair, clearly in range for FHA consideration

580-619  Low, bottom of the range for FHA consideration, "alternate credit" comes heavily into play

500-579  Poor, truly nothing can be done without credit rehabilitation