Mary Nhin is the author of a new children’s book series called Ninja Life Hacks. In it, she teaches children valuable life skills about anger, positivity, kindness, perfection and anxiety to name but a few. Although they were written for young girls and boys ages 3-11, I can assure you their lessons are just as valuable for adults. As was the case during a recent reading of Compassionate Ninja. My 8-year-old nephew received the entire Ninja Life Hacks series as a Christmas present this year and has been eagerly devouring each book and its messages. When visiting my wife and I, my nephew often brings a stack of books with him for us to read out loud together. It’s so inspiring to watch him develop his reading skills, getting better…
Many residents around the country are faced with quarantine restrictions – forcing us to isolate inside our homes for an unspecified duration of time. For those who are otherwise healthy, the isolation can be a heavy burden as one-week blurs into another with virtually no change to one’s environment. While anxiety is understandable, we shouldn’t overlook the time we’ve been given. While my wife and I (thank God) are still employed and working from home, we knew we needed to come up with ways to break up the monotony of any given day – especially come the weekend – during quarantine restrictions. I didn’t want to spend my time mindlessly watching television, for even that gets boring after a while. So, we made a to-do-list filled with a handful of…
“When someone tells you I'm too busy… It’s not a reflection of their schedule; it’s a reflection of YOUR spot on their schedule.” - Steve Maraboli The other day, I learned that a co-worker’s husband had passed away suddenly. He was in his early 30’s, was healthy and yet fate dealt him and his wife a hand neither deserved. It’s been several days since learning that news and yet I still can’t rid my thoughts of this unfortunate reality. Perhaps not surprisingly, I’m thinking of my own mortality - I’m ten years the young man’s senior – and of course my wife and how awful it would be if I were to leave her too soon. I’m also thinking of something we all say far too often and far too easily.…
“Poor people are, as a rule, a bit more generous. We understand what it might be like to have to beg even if we have never done it ourselves. In fact, there’s data to back me up. The latest research shows that people of low socioeconomic status are more likely to be altruistic than their higher-class counterparts. In 2011, the bottom 20 percent of earners gave a higher percentage of their wealth away than the top 20 percent.” ― Linda Tirado, Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America During these times of staying close to home, I’ve been trying to educate myself more on so many of the problems which plague our great country. I’ve gone through four eye-opening and profound books on racism before turning my attention to homelessness and poor…
During this global pandemic, many financial experts have offered advice on how much money should be in your emergency fund. Popular responses range from three to six months, with famed personal finance expert Suze Orman bucking that trend and recommending eight months. In her recent LinkedIn post, Orman says, “I have long told everyone to build an eight month emergency fund. And my goodness, I get plenty of blowback for that. The critics say it is too much and too impossible.” I offer the following statistics from a CNBC article on why Americans struggle to save for retirement, by contributor Steve Adcock. Adcock says, “A 2019 report from Ladder, a life insurance company, found that the average adult spends $1,497 per month on non-essentials. That’s roughly $18,000 a year on things…