Here are this week’s Life Pro Tips.
1. If your company offers 401k matching, do it. That’s an instant 100% return on investment.
That’s better than any stock, bond, mutual fund, etc in existence.
2. When you have no cell service (multiple bars of service but nothing works) at a crowded event, turn off LTE in cellular settings.
The phone will revert to a slower, but less crowded, 3G signal. Carriers use multiple completely different frequencies for different generations of cellular technology. Since the vast majority of people have phones that support LTE (the fastest available now) this network will get clogged first, but the legacy network on the different spectrum is indifferent to congestion on the LTE network.
3. When tightening your budget, commit to simultaneously raising your quality of life by every means available to you.
Talking about things like taking advantage of everything that’s free (libraries, museums, galleries, national parks, whatever floats your boat), tidying up and shifting things around in your home so it looks better, making time to hang out with people who lift you up, preparing the food and playing the music and wearing the clothes you like best. It helps the whole experience to be positive and uplifting and empowering instead of just feeling like deprivation.
4. If someone is explaining something and keeps repeating themselves, there’s a good chance that it’s because they feel that you’re not understanding them.
By summarizing what they are trying to say, it will either reassure them that you do understand or it will highlight exactly where the miss understanding is.
5. Revise your budget every 6 months to keep it in line with changes to your income and expenses.
If you don’t already have a budget, create one now to help prevent major financial issues in the future.