As someone who enjoys religion blogging/discussions, I've come to realize that it's a good practice to be aware of the general signs/symptoms of religious-OCD thinking (aka scrupulosity), because if the conversation is taking on all the hallmarks of scrupulosity, it's actually a definitive sign that we cannot meaningfully and compassionately engage in a conversation about religion in a healthy way. I've actually had this play out a significant number of times online, and when I realized what it was, I also began to realize that the intrusive thoughts/obsessive and compulsive thinking are only ever fed by continuing the discussion with that person.

[[ Important edit to clarify why I am saying it's not healthy — made after I went back to look for more concrete facts about OCD or anxiety (I have GAD, not OCD, but many resources overlap since they're both anxiety disorders):

When Reassurance is Harmful — this explains how/why reassurance-seeking specifically about an OCD fear is a compulsive behavior, and engaging with reassurance-seeking interferes with recovery/management/treatment.

This table from the Anxiety Disorders Center lists key differences between Information Seeking and Reassurance Seeking.

This IOCDF page on Scrupulosity info for Faith Leaders identifies "symptom accommodation" as enabling. Two of the examples of doing this by participating in the OCD behavior are: "Engage in excessive conversation focused on if-then scenarios (e.g., "If I did this, then would X or Y happen? And what if Z was involved? How about W?")" And, "Repeatedly answering questions about ‘correct’ religious or faith practices."

That page also goes on to outline more info about reassurance seeking. "Although providing answers to (often simple!) questions may seem harmless, providing reassurance serves to maintain the anxiety disorder cycle." (This BMC psychiatry article cites a lot of related studies establishing this.)

The IOCDF page on What is OCD and Scrupulosity? ]]

Imo, the responsible thing to do is to recognize that (even if the other person hasn't outright stated it/isn't diagnosed)* the conversation is not about religion, it is about needing mental health support from professionals and experts. Talking to me, the layperson who enjoys chatting theology and my religion — is not only not helping, but is actively harmful. I'm not just talking about the person who I replied to today, either. Like I've said, I've seen this happen dozens of times in various online forums.

*[while I am against diagnosing strangers on the internet, it's important to realize A) lots of people don't know what Scrupulosity is, so it's possible they've never considered this is a mental health concern that could be treated, and that B) for the purposes of my concern, it doesn't matter if they actually have diagnosed OCD. The only thing that matters is that their thought-process causes them genuine distress/fear, and every response given to them seems to only incite new/additional distressing questions/thoughts, or further entrenches the original distress.]

Ultimately, any discussion aside from "you might want to speak to a mental health professional about scrupulosity OCD" seemingly puts me in the position of feeling as if I am being used for their self-harm. I hate that feeling. I do not want to be leverage for fear and pain. I have GAD, I despise the idea that I am making things worse.

No matter how much I love religious discussion, the answer in these cases is always "please reach out to an OCD specialist/mental health professional. I am not qualified to discuss this." And then to stop there. I have never once seen anyone stuck in this compulsive thought spiral be reassured or feel any better by hearing from someone else's approach to theology handled with things like empathy, compassion, logic, or even atheism. It doesn't matter what we say, how we say it, or how we relate to our own religion. The urge to engage in this kind of conversation in order to chat about religion is a sign that we are not equipped to help.

You can't have a conversation here, because intentionally or not, ten times out of ten, you are adding fuel to the fire. Just like people can't simply tell me something that would erase/talk me out of my ADHD/depression/anxiety disorder, you also cannot simply argue/reassure/persuade people out of scrupulosity. We should not try. We have a responsibility to consider that it's outright harmful to do so, and to disengage.

dreams and other things | Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales x Reader

A/N: This is inspired by an episode of King of the Hill, a show I did not even watch of my own volition yet vaguely enjoyed sometimes. No tags since the subject of this fic is quite touchy.

Rating: T

Warning: Trying for a baby and not being very successful with it. Discussions of possible infertility. Many sexual references. Naughty words. Depression. Arguing.

Word count: 1,907, apparently!!

Summary: Trying for a baby is taking longer than you thought it would, so Frankie tries to cheer you up.

GIF credit: ^ Please let me know if you don’t want me using your GIF!

                                            ----------------------

When you and Frankie first talked about trying to have a baby, it was quite possibly the best thing ever.

Yes, your sex life was pretty damn healthy if both of you did say so yourselves, but the moment you were working towards something with no condoms, no birth control?

You barely kept your hands off each other, whether you were somewhere private or you needed to sneak off to somewhere that was only semi-private.

Frankie didn’t know shit about ovulation until you peed on those little sticks and told him that meant you were at your most fertile; which meant three days of as much sex as possible, which meant he now knew a lot about ovulation and considered it to be a pretty damn great invention.

The first month of trying resulted in an obscenely expensive pregnancy test blinking a timer at you before it said ‘not pregnant’.

You were obviously disappointed, but you kissed him on the cheek and told him that it was pretty rare for a couple to get pregnant so quickly and you would keep trying.

He didn’t mind that.

But then one month became three, and three became six, and six became eight.

If someone is wanting a baby, they can only deal with throwing so many ‘not pregnant’ or one-lined sticks into the trash before it starts to chip at something. Frankie would hear you sob in the bathroom when your period came and sit outside waiting until you were pulled together enough, but you would just start sobbing again in his arms anyway.

With how disappointed he was with each month that passed without you being pregnant, he could only imagine your disappointment.

Fuck, he’d watched you weep on the bathroom floor about what a failure you were, how you couldn’t bear him a child, how much you just wanted to see two stupid fucking lines, and he still wasn’t sure he understood the extent of your disappointment.

Those three days he’d loved were starting to become something he hated, sex now an effort you both made yourselves do three days a month when it used to be something you needed to be pulled apart from doing; would this time result in a baby? Was he shooting blanks? Was there something up with your uterus, or your ovaries, or something else?

All your worries made the two of you bicker, then cry, then apologize, over and over again, until you finally broke down and told him you just didn’t know what was wrong with you.

That, at this point, you knew each pregnancy test would say you weren’t pregnant and that you hated yourself so much you were taking it out on him.

He was pissed because this was supposed to be easy, damn it. Creating a family was something biological, something anyone should be able to do if they wanted to, and he couldn’t do that for you? He wanted to yell at whoever the fuck would listen each time you cried because something that should’ve been simple just wasn’t.

Any yelling he wanted to do was kept in for the most part, aside from one time when snippy bickering made him raise his voice with everything he was shoving down.

I don’t know how to fucking fix this, okay?!

The moment the words left his mouth, his face had softened and he moved to you immediately, dropping to his knees at the couch in front of you and rubbing his palms up and down your thighs.

I didn’t mean to yell, okay? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, baby.

Maybe he was apologizing for more than just yelling as he laid his head in your lap, letting a few silent tears fall with the way you were running your fingers through his hair, telling him that you were sorry too, that you never meant anything you said and you just wanted a damn baby.

You decided to ease off on trying since it was so stressful for you both, and Frankie watched your heart break.

He watched it break even more when, despite not really trying, you were weeping in the bathroom once again at the blood in your underwear telling you that you still weren’t pregnant.

He held you to his chest, and kissed your head, and whispered all the truths to you of how great you were, and he suggested you take the week off work to just take a little more stress off.

You spent each day laying on the couch with dried tear tracks on your face as you watched almost every sitcom that was streaming, but he didn’t care. He’d leave something for you for breakfast in the morning, call in for something to be delivered for lunch, then make you dinner when he was home.

Most nights, he’d bring you to bed and help you change into fresh clothes, smiling at you when you’d kiss him and say a little thank you.

And then you’d fall asleep and any smile he tried to keep on for you dropped.

You were so...sad. There was no other word for it. Empty, maybe. Longing for something that should’ve been yours.

Shit, maybe he wasn’t going to be the best dad in the world, but you needed to be a mother.

Wherever he would’ve failed, he knew that baby would be okay with you loving it, and nurturing it, and kissing it, and holding it close to you.

Seeing the way you yearned for a baby made him think of all the other things you’d talked about with him, all the little dreams and other things you hoped to do with him.

He thought maybe one of them would help, maybe he could find something to help fill that void even if it didn’t fit quite right.

Something that would occupy your heart until you were finally pregnant or you looked into adopting a kid.

He came home that Friday you’d taken off work with a box in his arms, setting it outside the door before he pushed it open and stepped inside. He took off his boots like always and walked over to the couch where you were watching an old show, bending down to kiss you gently.

“Can you close your eyes for me, baby?” He tugged on your bottom lip with his thumb as you gazed up at him.

“If I open them to find you naked, I’m not gonna find it very amusing.” The time off work brought back a bit of your humor, but you did close your eyes as you moved to sit up.

“Not doing that, but I really hope you like this.” He made sure your eyes were closed before he moved towards the still open door. “It’s, uh...it’s gonna be a little work, but I know we talked about doing this before.” He balanced the box in his arms carefully, kicking the door closed as he moved inside.

“I’m still convinced this is a sex thing.” You furrowed your brow, wringing your hands anxiously.

“It’s not a sex thing, hon.” He set the box at your feet and reached in to take out the furry, wriggling creature.

“It really sounds like it is.”

“Hold out your hands.”

You did with little hesitation because you trusted Frankie more than anyone, brow furrowing even more when something soft was placed into your hands.

“Open your eyes.”

You did, pausing when you looked down to find what looked to be a little mixed hound puppy staring up at you and wagging its tail, trying desperately to lick at any part of you it could.

The longer you stared at the puppy in silence, the more nervous Frankie became that this was a bad idea and that you were going to be offended by him trying to cheer you up with a dog.

Then you started sobbing, putting the puppy in your lap and reaching up to Frankie, who quickly moved to sit next to you.

He wasn’t sure if you were happy or not, but he wrapped his arms tight around you either way and let you cry against his neck.

“Is this good crying?” he asked tentatively, relaxing considerably when he felt you nod.

“Good, it’s good. Is it a boy or a girl?” For some reason, that question broke his heart a little, but he pulled away to watch the puppy paw at your shirt.

“A girl. Someone dumped her and her brothers and sisters at the shelter. But she’s ours now, if you want her.”

“Oh, baby. She’s so beautiful, Frankie.”

You held the puppy again and she wriggled around, teetering forward to lick at your chin which made you laugh loudly.

That was Frankie’s most favorite sound in the world and he’d been hearing it so infrequently that he was pretty sure he’d just fallen in love with you all over again.

He gently rubbed up and down your back, watching the puppy gnaw on your finger with those little sharp teeth. “You like her?”

“I love her. Thank you for...everything.” You kissed him gently, for loving you, for putting up with you, for wanting a baby with you, for doing his best to provide something else you dreamed of when your dream of a child wasn’t working out.

He pressed his head against yours and looked into your eyes in a tender moment that was quickly interrupted by the puppy leaping up and licking at you both. You both laughed and you set her down on the couch, letting her sniff around the new environment.

“You’ll need to pick out a name. Alright, alright, damn.” The puppy was trying to nose in behind him impatiently and he scooted forward a little, chuckling.

“Catfish,” you said so surely that Frankie looked at you with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re kidding me.”

“I want her to be named after her daddy.”

He shook his head, looking to his side to see that dopey little tan and black face staring up at him with her tail thumping on the couch cushion. “I guess there’s enough room for two Catfish around here, huh?”

She tilted her little head as he spoke, ears flopping around slightly, then dove right into his lap and started nipping at his hands.

You laughed, leaning over and nuzzling his shoulder. “We need to buy her some chew toys.”

“Uh, I did.”

“You sound guilty.”

“—I took off work early to grab her and we stopped by the pet store for food and shit, so I bought a few toys.”

“How many is a few toys?”

“Anything she wanted.”

“You softie.”

You watched him with adoration in your eyes as he playfully scolded the puppy for chewing on his jacket. “Put the puppy in the box.”

“Huh?”

“Put her in the box for a minute.”

Frankie looked confused until your hand slid between his legs, eyes widening when you squeezed him lightly. “Alright, baby girl, you hold tight and play with the ball I put in your box, okay?”

It was a month and a half later as Frankie stared at eight lines, two on each of the four pregnancy tests you’d taken, as well as the three digital screens that said ‘pregnant’ on the other ones, that you kissed Catfish’s head again and again and told her it was thanks to her that she was going to be a big sister.

How to manifest like a boss.

I’m a big believer in manifestation. In all areas of life we have the ability to call in what we so desire. The catch of this is, due to our natural inclination to be self critical, judgemental, and all round bullies to ourselves (thanks, social conditioning!) we have become masters at calling in the things which we don’t desire, and most of us are completely unaware. I want to share with you the three things I think are the keys to powerful manifestation.

First of all have you ever heard the phrase ‘what you focus on, expands’? I’d wager if you haven’t been living under a rock you probably have. Well, this phrase is one I like to keep in the front of my mind because if I’ve learned anything about manifestation, ‘The Secret”, and the Law of Attraction, is that it’s absolutely true. What we focus on is exactly what we bring about in our lives - in both the perceived negative and positive senses.

Manifestation is a skill we can all harness and it can be used across every facet of our lives. Let me give you an anecdote from my relationships. Before I got together with my current partner Nick (for the second time actually) I dated so many people who were emotionally unavailable. They were passionate flings that started off fast and ended just as rapidly, full of magnetism and bursting with chemistry. I kept meeting the same type of emotionally distant, non committal, no-strings-attached kind of guy, and deep down I thought I could “win them over”, woo them with everything amazing about me and suddenly they’d be keen as a bean to commit - right what I wanted! - but every single one of these passionate encounters fizzled out by way of ghosting or in an angry, tear stained crying mess. I persisted through so much resistance and at the end of it all I’d be left feeling lonely and pretty sorry for myself - as every fling ended I found myself asking “WHY DOESN’T ANYONE WANT TO BE WITH ME?!” Totally desperate stuff.

Let me tell you the truth. And this was a crappy lesson for me to learn. I was actively repelling the amazing qualities I craved in others because I had not yet owned them in myself. I’d been single for years but sat with this belief that dudes only wanted sex from me and that no one really valued me enough to consider a relationship with me. What do you think I attracted? Yep, you guessed it. Desperation is a stinky cologne.

One of the keys to manifestation is loving yourself first. Our relationships are our biggest cosmic assignments and are mirrors to show us what we need to address within ourselves. And we will keep encountering the same assignment (in my case the same type of doo doo flings) until we learn the lesson it’s trying to teach us.

I wanted deep love. But was I deeply loving myself first? I wanted loyalty and commitment. But was I being loyal to my Truth and wholly committed to myself? I wanted someone to honour me and love me for exactly who I was. But was I willingly to love others exactly as they were, without judgement?

The answer to all those questions was a firm NO.

Was I setting firm boundaries on what acceptable love was, or was I letting whoever was willing to get close to me dictate the way the relationship ran its course? You bet I was willing to throw myself at the first dude that gave me puppy dog eyes because I was so desperate for this idea of a dream relationship I created for myself that I was unable to set myself firm boundaries on healthy love. I hadn’t owned any of those amazing partner qualities in myself first so honestly I didn’t even know what healthy love looked like, and in addition to that I was looking externally for someone to fill the gaps I felt in myself. I was emotionally unavailable, so naturally that’s the only type of person I was able to manifest. It was a massive mirror that took me way too long to notice, and I did NOT like what I saw once I did. Does any of this sound familiar?

When it comes to manifesting the universe (or source, God, our higher power, the Divine, whatever you want to call it) needs to know you’re safe and reliable to work with. Have you ever tried to work on a project or complete a task with a Debby Downer or Negative Nancy? It’s painful and can feel like you’re dragging a dead weight - no thank you! Someone who is clear on what they want and is willing to take action towards achieving that goal with a positive mindset is SO much easier to work with! And the universe wants to work with you, she absolutely has your back. But make no mistake, manifesting does require some level of work - the universe needs to see you’re willing to make the effort for the things you desire. Once I committed to myself and put in the work the universe had my back and presented me my Nick - he mirrored all the qualities I wanted in a relationship because I’d worked hard to own them in myself first. I think a lot of people, especially when the Law of Attraction and “The Secret” became popular, seemed to gloss over this fact; it’s not as easy as simply wishing, praying and visualising something into existence, you have to put in the work too.

So that’s the second key to manifestation; putting in the work. Yep, sorry. You’ll have to do more than just say ‘yes!’ and hope you get what you want, some level of effort is required. When it comes to things like money and career we can absolutely manifest our dream job, our dream salary, or perhaps become a successful entrepreneur if that’s what our soul desires. But I’m not going to become a doctor just by doing my nightly meditation and hoping that someone will hand me a PhD. I need to do the work required to reach my dream career. In my relationships the effort required to attract my partner came down to me taking a massive interest in my own self care and working HARD on finding ways to truly love myself. It required a mammoth amount of effort. But the love we give is equal to the love we receive, and let me tell you it was absolutely worth all the discomfort.

The last key to epic manifestation is believing. This takes a certain amount of trust, which can feel very “fake it until you make it”. I mean, you have to trust that something is going to occur or show up for you without any tangible evidence that it will be so? Massive leap of faith, especially when dealing with matters of great importance. But if you really want to get the things you desire, absolute surrender and a knowing that everything you want is at your fingertips is what it takes. That knowing is a whole body feeling and this too requires practice. One way you can measure that feeling is to take a good hard look at the things you currently focus on. Are your thoughts and belief systems negatively or positively geared? Do you subscribe to the shitty and unhelpful stories your past experiences have told you about money, relationships, and your self worth, or have you recognised the beliefs you grew up with may not necessarily be yours and can be changed to support the narrative you want to engage in? Our emotions are messages to and from the universe, and tapping into this whole body feeling will tell you how supportive of your soul truths those belief systems really are.

When it comes to relationships, what do you hinge your self worth on? Do you believe all women are gold diggers, or men are only in it for the sex? What were the relationships you observed like when you were growing up? When it comes to the self, what is your inner dialogue like? Are you compassionate, loving and kind with yourself? Do you practice self care? What’s your relationship with food and exercise like? What media/books/music/news do you consume? How’s your ego? When it comes to money and career, what are the stories you tell yourself about money? Do you have an abundance or a scarcity mindset? Are you doing work that fulfills you or drains you of your energy? Do you feel passionate going to work every day? Are you taking steps towards living your dream career? Do you hoard money, have good investing habits, or do you spend it when you get it?

The things we believe and assign value to provide the guidelines the universe works with in order to bring about what we focus on. Surrendering to belief systems that don’t serve you is like trying to travel cross country while looking at a map without your glasses on - taking charge of your values and beliefs brings you the 20/20 vision needed so you can follow the path you’re destined to be on.

Being crystal clear on the things you want, believing wholeheartedly you’re destined to achieve them, and taking action towards making it a reality is what it takes to manifest your dream life. If there’s one important thing to remember in addition to all of this, it’s that you must let go of how you think it’s all going to turn out. Being firm on the way you want things to go will limit opportunities for it to happen in other, perhaps quicker and more beautiful, unexpected ways, and will only lead to disappointment when it doesn’t go exactly how you planned. The parable of the drowning man is an example of this - a man was stranded on his roof after a tidal wave crashed through and flooded his village. Soon a man in a rowboat came by and shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in, I can save you.” The man shouted back, “No, it’s okay, I’m praying to God and he’s going to save me.” So the rowboat went on. Then a motorboat came by. The man in the motorboat shouted, “Jump in, I can save you.” To this the stranded man said, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me.” So the motorboat went on. Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, "Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety.” To this the stranded man again replied, “No thanks, I’m praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith.” So the helicopter reluctantly flew away. Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. When he went to Heaven he finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you but you didn’t save me, you let me drown. I don’t understand why!” To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?”

The man was so firm in the ways he expected his saving to happen that he missed every other opportunity to be saved. Be fluid in the way you allow things to happen and enjoy the journey.

Going after the things you want in life requires balls and it requires practice. Let’s have a conversation. If you’d like to talk about epic manifestation and ways you can start to implement the three keys message me on my socials and let’s chat about it. I want to hear what you’re all striving for and if I can support, you bet your butts I want to help in any way that’s meaningful to you.

Share this post with someone who needs it!

xoxo

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FREE MAIL MARKETING: 4 FEATURES TO SEARCH FOR IN A FREE TRIAL

Free Mail Marketing: 4 Features to Search for in a Free Trial

There are various benefits to trying a service for free before making a purchase. Test driving a free mail marketing service like SendGrid can be useful for many reasons. In this post, I’ll lead you through the main decision-making points you should consider and will start by sharing how a free mail marketing service is a lot like a free food delivery subscription. Seriously.

I recently started cooking. After [insert an embarrassingly large number of years here], I eventually realized that I can’t live off of Velveeta macaroni and cheese and takeout forever. So, I concluded to ease my way into the kitchen, by starting with a home cooking and delivery service.

As a novice cook, I again didn’t want to fully commit to a monthly subscription from the start. What if there were remarkably many steps to follow or the recipes I wanted weren’t offered?

Fortunately, many of these services provide free trials, so I was able to try a few out to see what worked best for my (admittedly picky) needs.

As I was passing through my food delivery selection, I was reminded a lot of the process email marketers go through when evaluating a new provider. Sound like a logic leap? Bear with me because there are really a lot of parallels.

Just like I discovered my way to a quick and healthy food delivery service (I’m still a loyal subscriber!), I’ve learned many email marketers find their way to a stress-free and engaging free mail marketing experience with SendGrid’s free email marketing option.

Why Free Mail?

Like in my cooking examples above, there are many hurdles that email marketers face when assessing new solutions. Including:

The time committed to studying a new platform

Email design capabilities

Workflow changes

How to import and organize recipient lists and segments

Buy-in from our bosses and team members

Insight into our recipient engagement stats

Compatibility with our transactional email provider

Oh, yeah…and the budget

And this is just the time! How can you commit to figuring out all of these queries without giving your platform a test drive first? As marketers, we all are our own way (just like we all approach new recipes our own way) and we each have special time constraints and workplace pressures.

To accommodate that, you require a free email marketing service that works for you and with you.

Of all of the points discussed above, there are 4 that I think are the most important to focus on and are the ones that we often talk about with our fellow email marketers.

Email design and code editing

When investigating a free mail marketing service, ensuring that there’s an easy way for you to access customizable templates and to edit and build your existing templates is paramount.

Every click counts, so make certain that your email design connects with your recipients. (For more email design tips, check out this question with one of our experts!)

For those of you in a crunch (or for those, like most of us, who are email writer, designer, analyst, etc. and don’t have the time to design our own templates), assure that your email provider stocks you up with some pre-existing templates (SendGrid Marketing Campaigns offers 12 responsive, ready-to-use templates for free!). Also, make certain that their editor doesn’t break your code while you’re editing.

This can be one of the biggest worries for email marketers. You put in so much time perfecting your HTML—you have to secure it! To help, SendGrid’s dealt with this issue with our error-free code editor. Take a glance.

Issues like this are why it’s so critical to try a free version of your free mail marketing platform first. Don’t commit before you realize what your every day will look like!

Bonus tip: One point to look out for with free mail marketing trials is that many providers will insert their name and logo at the bottom of your templates as a “fee” for using their service for free. Most of us don’t need to advertise for another brand in our marketing emails, so be sure to vet this out during your search. (Fortunately, SendGrid Marketing Campaigns does no such matter! Your emails are all yours!)

Connecting your marketing and transactional emails

It’s constantly a plus to have your marketing and transactional email programs under one roof. It’s one login, one bill, and one collaborative process for your team. If you don’t see already, check with your developers, or whoever manages your transactional emails, and see what email provider they use. When you’re both working the same platform, you can share templates and analytics, and you can keep your program consistent.

Use your free trial period to determine how collaboration changes with your dev team.

Time!

Time. We don’t have a lot of it (hence the reputation of the meal delivery services!)—so understanding the ins and outs of a new email provider can be hard. That’s why it’s critical to look for a free mail marketing service that offers detailed resources and support to help you.

While it’s admirable to troubleshoot on your own, it’s a whole lot more efficient to get answers right when you need them. SendGrid offers a thorough knowledge center, a step-by-step in product tour, and ticketed support to help guide you.

Bonus tip: Run your way workflows! An even stronger way to learn a product is to test its features when and how you want to. Most email marketing services take you to follow rigid, pre-determined workflows and steps you have to complete before testing other areas of the product. But, what if you don’t need to do that? SendGrid’s Marketing Campaigns allows you to set up, design, and edit your way.

This is specially helpful when you’re first learning the tool—you don’t have held back by someone else’s rules. (Just like in cooking, occasionally you want to prep as you go, other times you want to do it all up front—but the decision is yours!)

Sending volume and contact storage

Most email service providers will give a free trial that then rolls into a paid plan after a specified period of time. So why not free forever? Many providers also provide this (SendGrid does too—after 30 days of 40k emails for free, you can send 100 emails a day for free to a list of up to 2k contacts, forever) but at some point, if your business is expanding, you’ll need to send larger volumes of email.

Larger email volumes require more care from your sending infrastructure, better insights into your sending behavior, and more control over your IPs (see bonus tip below). That care and insight will surely come with a cost.

Also, as your email program increases, so does your email list! At these higher stakes, it’s great to have a tool that allows you to segment your list and track historical engagement for each of your segments. These learnings help strengthen the foundation for a high-performing email program. When you arrive at this point, you know it’s time to move on from a free mail marketing service to a paid plan.

Bonus tip: Dedicated IPs are one of the strongest tools you have to positively impact your deliverability. They hold you in control of your reputation, instead of having you share with other senders at your ESP. (See more about shared vs. dedicated IPs here). But, dedicated IPs are not provided during free mail marketing trials.

There’s just too considerable at risk with test sends that happen during trials and IPs don’t grow on trees (though that would be awesome)! So dedicated IPs play an enormous role in why free mail marketing trials have an expiration date. You can (and should) only share IPs with other senders for so long before it’s time for you to set up your own reputation.

Takeaways

Trust and reliability are mean to making the right product choices. I prefer to know what recipes are being sent to me every week in my food delivery, just like I like to know what editing and support features will be available to me in my free mail marketing service. With so much on our minds and our plates (pun intended) at work, we have no place for surprises.

Use the tips above to help determine your choice of a free mail marketing trial and be sure to add SendGrid to the list. We’ve made a lot of thought into building our email marketing feature set that helps you as you grow your business. So you’re ready to advance from it right from the start.

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The Surprising Truth About Antibiotics, Factory Farms, and Food Recalls

Antibiotics are powerful drugs. Medical professionals often prescribe them. But the truth is, factory farms use the majority of antibiotics. And the overuse of antibiotics is causing antibiotic resistance — one of the most serious public health issues facing our world today. Learn more about the dark side of antibiotic use — and what this has to do with food recalls. And most importantly, learn what you can do about it.

When I was three months old, I came down with a high fever. Up until that point, I had subsisted entirely on breast milk. Although I lived in a relatively unpolluted environment, I’d picked up contamination from somewhere.

Before long my fever was raging at 104 degrees, and I was so weak I was unable to muster a cry.

I’m grateful that my parents took me to a doctor, who put me on antibiotics. Within hours, my fever was down, and my sickness had reversed.

That antibiotic prescription may have saved my life.

What Exactly Are Antibiotics?

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Alexander Fleming, a Professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, discovered the first antibiotic in 1928.

He’d been experimenting with colonies of Staphylococcus bacteria growing in Petri dishes. And Fleming noticed that one dish had a spot of mold with a clear ring around it. This ring was identified as a secretion from the mold that prevented further bacterial growth. It turned out to be penicillin.

Fleming and his colleagues worked to isolate penicillin, discovering its ability to attack other bacteria, like streptococcus, meningococcus, and diphtheria bacillus.

In later years, researchers developed new antibiotics that were effective in killing different classes of bacteria.

Together, antibiotics have saved millions of lives worldwide — overpowering such potentially lethal diseases as meningitis, tuberculosis, and cholera.

When used appropriately, antibiotics are a blessing and a welcome arrow in humanity’s medical quiver. But the reality is that they’re vastly overprescribed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as four out of five Americans are prescribed antibiotics in any given year — and many of these prescriptions are unnecessary.

Many health professionals prescribe antibiotics at an alarming rate. Sometimes, they prescribe them without making sure the drug will effectively attack the germ. Or without confirming that it is a bacteria and not a virus. (Antibiotics are completely ineffective against viral infections.)

Antibiotics are often dispensed like Halloween candy. Feeling under the weather? Here’s your broad-spectrum antibiotic prescription!

And this lax approach doesn’t come without consequences.

The Dark Side of Antibiotic Use

Antibiotics don’t target only the harmful bacteria in your body. They’re destructive to all microbes. And they leave your body’s natural microbiome imbalanced and damaged.

This ecosystem won’t always properly restore, either, unless you make conscious efforts to do so. Odds are, if your microbiome is currently out of balance, past antibiotic use has significantly contributed to your condition.

It’s also likely that the health professionals who prescribe them to you don’t discuss how to counteract the collateral destruction of good bacteria in your body.

A couple of years ago, I was considering taking antibiotics to fight a strep infection. I asked my doctor if he could recommend any protocol for repopulating my body with healthy bacteria.

He replied that he didn’t learn anything about that in medical school so he couldn’t offer me any advice. “My wife took a nutrition class online,” he told me, “so she’d be a better person to ask.”

It’s pretty crazy, if you think about it, that our medical system is so good at destroying a bacterial ecosystem but so ineffective at rebuilding it.

How Antibiotic Overuse Is Creating “Superbugs”

Antibiotics don’t only damage good bacteria. Their overuse encourages the widespread development of “superbugs,” or bacteria that display antibiotic resistance.

Bacteria, you see, are very much like accountants. No matter how much you change the tax laws, there will always be wily accountants who will find a way around them to escape taxes. Similarly, when you increase the dose of antibiotics or engineer new ones, some bacteria will find a way to mutate and resist them.

Our overuse and abuse of antibiotics risks creating “superbugs.” And we may suddenly find ourselves unable to defend against them. (I should add, in defense of accountants, that at least there’s probably no risk of a super-accountant destroying civilization!)

As a consequence of antibiotic overuse, we’ve had to start turning to “last line” antibiotics. Typically, these medications are only used as a last resort because the usual medications no longer work.

These drugs are meant to be used sparingly in human medicine to limit bacterial exposure to them, in the hope of preventing the development of antibiotic resistance. Unfortunately, because antibiotic resistance has increased, the prescription of last resort antibiotics has also increased.

Antibiotic resistance is leading to more and more deaths that once were preventable. That doesn’t sound like the kind of progress we’ve been led to expect from the field of medicine.

In the United States, at least two million people contract an antibiotic-resistant infection each year. And 23,000 people will die from them. Worldwide, antibiotic resistance is estimated to cause more than 700,000 deaths per year. And these numbers are rising.

Superbugs now threaten to make many common infections, such as urinary tract infections and pneumonia, once again lethal.

Many public health authorities fear that we could be on the verge of entering into a “post-antibiotic world” that threatens to kill millions of people annually by 2050. Antibiotic resistance already costs over $55 billion in medical treatment and hospitalizations. And this number is expected to rise dramatically in the coming decades.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the World Health Organization has declared antibiotic resistance to be one of our greatest global threats to health, security, and development.

But is the medical overuse of antibiotics really the primary cause of the rise of the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotics in the Livestock Industry

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The creation of factory farms, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), came about in the last century as a way to keep up with the enormous demand for animal products.

Modern farms look far different from farms of the past. The images that leap to my mind when many of us think of a farm — the iconic red barn or a green pasture full of animals happily grazing in the sun — no longer represent how most farm animals spend their lives.

To say that animals in CAFOs endure close quarters and overpopulation would be an understatement. The average chicken raised for meat has less than one square foot of space per bird. Modern broiler operations grow their birds so obese that they often become unable to walk. These birds spend their lives sitting in feces. Animals regularly get sick, injured, and even die as a result of these miserable conditions.

How do modern CAFOs cope with the threat of disease wiping out their livestock? Antibiotics to the rescue! They routinely administer antibiotics not just to livestock who are sick, but rather to every single animal living in these filthy and brutally inhumane conditions.

In addition to helping keep animals alive in an unsanitary environment, they serve another purpose, too. It turns out that antibiotics make animals gain weight faster — which increases producer profits.

How Do Bacteria Become Antibiotic Resistant in CAFOs?

When bacteria has continual exposure to low doses of an antibiotic, any of the microbes that are resistant to the drug will survive and reproduce. The rest die off, resulting in a new bacteria population resistant to the antibiotic.

Modern factory farms provide continuous low doses of antibiotics to billions of livestock. This creates the perfect conditions for breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

If for some diabolical reason, someone wants to create conditions that breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria, they would be hard pressed to do better than the conditions prevalent in industrial meat production today.

The Truth About Food Recalls

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Already, the breeding of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in modern meat production is hurting human health in many ways.

Did you ever get sick after eating at a restaurant?

It’s an experience that’s not easy to forget. Hours after eating a delicious meal you’re regretting ever leaving the house that day.

Foodborne illnesses — such as salmonella, listeria, and E.coli — affect one in six Americans every year. That’s more than 55 million people annually. About 128,000 of them will end up in the hospital for their symptoms. And 3,000 of these people end up dying.

Two of the most common foodborne pathogens are salmonella and campylobacter. They cause around 410,000 antibiotic-resistant infections in the United States each year.

Where do these bacteria come from? The truth is most pathogens that cause food poisoning originate with the intensive, confinement-based livestock production methods used in factory farming.

The truth is most pathogens that cause food poisoning originate with the intensive, confinement-based livestock production methods used in factory farming.

The U.S. federal government tests supermarket meats to track trends in bacteria and resistance. Recent findings show that 87% of bacteria that FDA testing found on ground turkey was resistant to tetracyclines. Tetracyclines is the most widely used antibiotic in farm animals. And it is a critical medicine to treat serious bacterial infections in humans.

Additionally, one in five strains of salmonella in chicken meat were resistant to amoxicillin. Amoxicillin is the second most frequently used antibiotic on farms. It’s also the number one medication doctors prescribe to children.

E.coli has been found to contaminate 80% of raw chicken samples tested. Beef is the most common source of E. coli exposure for humans, causing more than 55% of outbreaks. It’s also a major part of the salmonella risk.

In 2011, Environmental Working Group conducted its own study that found superbugs in 81% of the ground turkey and 55% of the ground beef in U.S. supermarkets.

What About Food Recalls from Vegetables?

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But, wait, you say! What about the E. coli that have been found in plant foods, like romaine lettuce or tomatoes? Aren’t vegetables as risky as animal foods?

It’s a reasonable question to ask, given the media coverage of E. coli outbreaks. But the truth is, E. coli live in the intestines of animals.

Last I checked, romaine lettuce and tomatoes don’t have intestines. The only to link any vegetable to E. coli is by the contamination of animal feces.

Usually, this contamination happens because there’s a factory farm upstream (or up-manure) from a vegetable farm. It’s remarkable how often media coverage of E. coli scares does not convey these plain facts.

If you want to protect yourself and your loved ones from the majority of foodborne pathogens, the quickest and most effective step you can take is to adopt a plant-based diet.

Pathogens, like E.coli and Salmonella, are abundant in animal waste. They can run downhill during a rainstorm or seep into underground aquifers. And ultimately, they get into nearby water systems that spread the pathogens elsewhere.

These hardy pathogens can spread not only to raw meat products, but also to produce through water or soil contamination. And they can spread to cooking surfaces where you or someone else prepares food. When you consume this contaminated food, that’s when you may get sick.

The largest multi-state E.coli outbreak in over a decade, related to romaine lettuce, occurred in the spring of 2018. It ended up affecting people in 36 states, resulting in 210 illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and five deaths. What caused it? All evidence points to a large industrial cattle farm near the affected romaine crop in Arizona.

The November 2018 romaine recall doesn’t appear to have any relation to the one earlier in the year. However, the strain of E.coli has the same DNA fingerprint as a recall in late 2017 that spread to Canada and 25 states. The odds are, the origin is a CAFO somewhere.

If you want to protect yourself and your loved ones from the majority of foodborne pathogens, the quickest and most effective step you can take is to adopt a plant-based diet.

Avoiding the top contributors (meat, fish, and dairy products) significantly reduces your risk of exposure to potentially life-threatening foodborne illnesses.

And what about produce? Washing leafy greens thoroughly before eating them is a good habit to put in place. And cooking helps, too.

How Factory Farming Drives the Problem with Antibiotics

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It’s true that antibiotics are overprescribed to people, and that is a problem. But antibiotic use and abuse is even more egregious in animal agriculture.

According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015, the world uses about 63,000 tons of antibiotics each year to raise cows, chickens, and pigs. That’s roughly twice the amount of all antibiotics that doctors prescribe to humans globally.

In fact, 80% of the antibiotics used in the United States are not given to sick humans, but to animals in CAFOs.

And antibiotics are typically NOT used to cure disease on CAFOs. Rather, they’re used to promote growth or to prevent diseases that so often result from animals kept in unsanitary conditions.

What’s worse, last resort antibiotics for humans are commonly used in CAFOs. So it’s no wonder that resistant bacteria are rampant in industrial meat products.

Regulatory Efforts Have Been Botched

Attempts have been made to regulate antibiotic use in CAFOs better.

In January of 2012, the FDA prohibited the use of cephalosporins in food animals. This didn’t make much difference, though. That class of drugs makes up less than 1% of the antibiotics used in the U.S. on food animals every year.

A 2016 study published by researchers at Ohio State University warned of the very real potential of a post-antibiotic age after finding bacteria that was resistant to last line antibiotics on a Midwestern hog farm.

The FDA eventually took action in 2017. The rules state that farmers can no longer give antibiotics to animals for the purposes of weight gain. They also can’t buy antibiotics without the oversight of a veterinarian. Will this help? Probably. But not as much as you might hope.

Even after the 2017 attempt to crack down on CAFO antibiotic use, testing conducted at meat packing plants shows that not much has changed.

Testing on thousands of meat samples by the US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) found that antibiotics categorized as critical for human health are still in use on farm animals.

One reason for this is that, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, growers can easily exploit an abundance of regulatory loopholes.

Antibiotics: Not Just for Land Animals

Just as we’ve industrialized agriculture for land animals, we’ve done the same to aquatic animals.

And although fish don’t typically come to mind when we envision factory farms, that doesn’t mean that farmed fish are living in better conditions.

Antibiotic use runs deep in the aquatic environment, too — and so does antibiotic resistance.

Fish farms often pack fish tightly together in huge, unsanitary pools. Just like factory farming of land animals, the fish receive antibiotics (and other drugs, like pesticides) to prevent the spread of disease.

A 2015 study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials sheds light on this hidden problem. Researchers looked at 27 fish from 11 countries. The researchers found residues of five antibiotics — including tetracycline and other drugs used to treat human infections.

Remarkably enough, they even found residues in farmed fish with an antibiotic-free label. It turns out that farmed fish don’t have to get antibiotics directly to carry them. That’s because many are eating antibiotic-contaminated fishmeal.

Levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in seafood have exploded in the past 30 years.

(For more on the true cost of farmed fish, see this article.)

What Can You Do About Antibiotic Resistance?

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The hope, of course, is that one day, governments will take stronger action against antibiotic use on factory farms.

Some countries have done so already, including Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. And they are seeing significant reductions in antibiotic overuse.

Whether or not government policy grows more enlightened, we can all take positive actions now to help preserve the efficacy of antibiotics and to support better industrial food practices.

The most significant contribution we can each make is to transition to a plant-powered diet. If enough of us do so, we’ll drastically reduce consumer support for industrialized animal agriculture — the inhumane industry that brings factory-farmed meat, dairy, eggs, and fish products to plates everywhere.

If you do choose to eat animal products, opting for wild, pasture-raised, and antibiotic-free can help ensure you aren’t unintentionally contributing to this enormous problem.

How to Change the Future Right Now

Antibiotics are a miracle of medicine. But now, thanks to factory farming, antibiotic overuse has become a driver of what could become one of the most terrifying public health emergencies in history.

Unless we take action to preserve the viability of antibiotics for future generations, we will lose millions of lives.

The problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria isn’t one that any of us can solve all by ourselves. Slowing its spread is going to take collective action from governments, farmers, and concerned citizens around the world. It’s also going to take reducing the frequency with which doctors prescribe antibiotics to humans.

But just because you and I can’t solve it all by ourselves doesn’t mean we should refuse to do what we can.

As a concerned citizen who wants a safe future for humanity, the #1 step you can take is to boycott antibiotic-contaminated meat. You can also go a step further and urge restaurants and supermarkets to do the same.

We should ensure a future in which, if a crisis arises, every baby’s life can be saved by these miracle drugs the way mine was when I was three months old.

Tell us in the comments below:

Have you ever encountered antibiotic-resistant bacteria?

Does this help you understand antibiotic resistance and how antibiotic use on factory farms affects humans?

What did you find useful, interesting, or surprising in this article?

Read Next:

[Video] The truth about factory farms and animal abuse

[Read More ...] https://foodrevolution.org/blog/antibiotic-resistance-factory-farms/

An Alternative Look at the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) Movement

The following is a guest post from Kevin at Next Level Finance.

One of the biggest trends in the personal finance world in recent years has been the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. At its best, it’s a passionate group of individuals seeking independence from traditional employment and a healthy work/life balance. At its worst, it’s a group of bloggers with unrealistic financial projections that are a bit too caught up with finding that perfect Instagram shot while traveling.

The movement seems to be more popular in the world of bloggers compared to the offline world of coworkers and neighbors. Personal finance and FIRE bloggers often tout the income their blog is generating, and how that has led them to financial independence. Some of these folks have quit the corporate gigs and now focus fully on blogging and deriving income from their online activities.

Let’s be clear: this is great! Entrepreneurial activities and finding independence outside of more traditional work arrangements can be a great thing. I’ve been in this camp for years, so I can certainly appreciate it.

However, I believe there’s a bit of a leap from generating enough side income to quit a job to the idea of early retirement, and I believe the messaging around it is faulty. So, I find it important to consider alternative views of the FIRE movement. Even if you’re pursuing early retirement, hopefully you still find this discussion fruitful.

Let’s dive into some specifics...

We’ve had a historic bull market in stocks.

It’s no surprise that the FIRE movement has taken hold in the latter stages of a historic bull market run in stocks. The decade long run in stocks has had a myriad of effects.

First, people feel wealthy. The values of their investable assets have gone up dramatically. With a larger set of assets in the bank or a brokerage account, it’s more tempting to pull the trigger on early retirement.

Second, we’ve had very low volatility. The bull market (the S&P 500) has nearly gone straight up since 2009, and naturally, this has made investors complacent.

Low volatility and consistent year-after-year returns makes everyone feel like an above-average investor, and it can be tempting to think that the party will go on forever.

Bull markets are great for everyone, but the prudent investor has a bit of skepticism and plans for worse days. If you’re considering early retirement, and the amount of assets you have exposed to the stock market is to be a major source of security and/or income, you should be asking yourself a number of questions such as: What if a quick, market correction of 20% or 30% occurs? How exposed am I to market fluctuations? If I had to, could I go a few years without touching the money in my stock market accounts?

A 401(k) shouldn’t factor into early retirement

One of the strangest parts of the FIRE movement is when 401(k) balances are cited. Here’s an example from an article on MarketWatch:

Earlier in her 20s, she set a goal to retire from full-time work at age 35, but she later decided to move that date up to 27.

She wasn’t going to “retire” completely, but work flexibly after quitting her job. At that time, she planned to move to Minneapolis to be with her boyfriend. She saved more than $130,000 in a 401(k), about $25,000 in a Roth IRA and kept $20,000 in cash. She also had about $5,000 in a taxable investment account and $10,000 in a health savings account.

If you withdraw money from a 401(k) account before the age of 59 ½, you are not only taxed, but you get hit with a 10% withdrawal penalty. Withdrawing money early on a 401(k) and incurring the 10% penalty is viewed by just about everyone as a really bad idea.

As such, the above example becomes ridiculous quickly. The individual’s $130k in the 401(k) is now irrelevant for the early retirement scenario. Sure, that balance will grow on its own between the ages of 27 and 59 ½, but this person has 30 years until then to figure out how to get income.

So, the person basically has $20k in cash, $5k in an investment account and $10k in an HSA. You can early withdraw contributions from a Roth, so to be generous, let’s just say this person has $60,000 in savings across these accounts for her FIRE scenario. A 4% withdrawal rate on $60,000 is $2,400 per year.

It’s not really a surprise that you read the following later on in the article:

Now, she’s living with her parents until she finds a new, full-time job, back in the IT world where she started.

Withdrawal rates

Since we touched on the topic of withdrawing investment or retirement money, let’s discuss withdrawal rates briefly.

If you’re an investor, there are very few things you can control. They are things such as asset allocation or diversification, contribution levels and withdrawal rates. Everything else is pretty much up to Mr. Market.

In very serious market corrections that occur every so often (e.g. the 2008 crash), even asset allocation or diversification doesn’t hold up very well. In 2008, essentially everything got hit (there was nowhere to hide). While asset allocation is an important consideration, it needs to be held in its proper place.

As such, for a retired individual or someone considering retirement, withdrawal rate becomes the most important factor for your portfolio. Most often you’ll see the 4% number cited as the safe withdrawal rate for a portfolio. It’s reasonable, but even the 4% level can bring about risk. In a prolonged period of time, if your portfolio goes through a major correction due to a larger market event (such as 2008), the 4% withdrawal rate will severely hamper your portfolio survivability.

It's important to always recall the mathematics of loss. Bear markets hurt your portfolio more than bull markets help your portfolio. If your portfolio goes down 30%, you then need a 40%+ gain to get back to even. If you’re withdrawing 4% through a down period in your portfolio, some losses become permanent.

How’s this apply to the FIRE discussion? Risk is a crucial element of any long-term financial planning, especially in a retirement scenario where regular income is either taken off the board or reduced. The amount of money you withdraw from a retirement portfolio is a major element of risk to consider.

If you want to retire early, be conservative in your estimations of withdrawing money from investments and think through in advance possible scenarios where you may need to cut back on the withdrawal rate in order to maintain the long-term viability of your portfolio.

Re-examining the idea of work

It seems like much of the FIRE mentality is about escaping a mundane work environment. That might mean getting away from a 9-5 job or getting away from being an employee where you’re at the mercy of an employer.

Whatever the reason behind the motivation for early retirement, a broader discussion of work seems important.

Here are a few principles I tend to embrace regarding work:

Working simply for the ability to make a living and provide for yourself and your family is not only okay, it’s an admirable thing. One thing that can get lost in the pursuit of more fulfilling work is the idea that work in and of itself is still a worthwhile thing. The person who works a mundane job day in and day out while providing for his or her family is worthy of our respect just as much as a jet-setting entrepreneur managing his or her business from exotic locales.

If you seek more enjoyable or fulfilling work, awesome! But realize that nothing is easy. There’s a misconception often in the FIRE community that it’s super easy to get a few passive income streams up and running, and then, you’re off! The real world doesn’t really operate this way. Other than things like simple index funds, there are very few passive income streams. For example, a friend of mine that derives his income from real estate rentals (often cited as passive income) works harder than anyone I know. You should always expect that generating income is going to require hard work.

Beware the promise of online income streams. I’ve made a full-time living off of online audiences now for the last seven years, so I can say with first-hand experience that it’s not for everybody, and it’s likely much harder than you think. If online income is your goal, then go for it, but plan to work very hard for little to no money for years. Even if you get over the initial multi-year hurdle, for most people, it’ll likely never be any substantial money. Could it result in a hobby you enjoy and make a little extra cash? Yes! But for many, if they examine the hourly wage they’re earning for the time put in, they’d have been much better off working a second job elsewhere.

I wish I had more patience when I was in my 20s. Since much of the FIRE conversation occurs around young people, I’d encourage anyone in their 20s (or maybe 30s) that is reading this to be patient. I was a very impatient 20-something always seeking the next thing, the next business, the next way to make a buck. While things worked out fine for me, I wish someone had sat me down and encouraged patience. You have a long career ahead of you. You will be able to do many, many awesome and fulfilling things. It’s okay to be patient, earn a paycheck and learn from your company, your co-workers, your bosses. Work your way up in your company for a few years and take on additional responsibility. The experience is extremely valuable and will aid you down the road when you want to be more independent.

Family considerations

I’ve observed that discussions of family are often missing in the FIRE equation. “Retiring” early on a relatively small asset base gets pretty difficult when you start factoring in children. Or, what about aging parents?

I can tell you from first-hand experience that kids are expensive! Even when you’re trying to “do things different” from maybe the wider culture, there are still a large number of expenses that can be difficult to avoid.

While many FIRE participants maybe don’t have kids, or plan to never have kids, I’d also remind folks that things change in life! Priorities change, circumstances change, and you might find yourself with kids ten years after you assumed that you’d never have kids.

Regardless of your situation, I encourage you to consider (at least to a small degree) the chance that your perspectives on family may change down the road. And if they do, having the flexibility to adjust financially will be paramount.

A better path for those looking for an alternative work/life situation

I’ve spent roughly 1500 words poking holes in the FIRE movement.

I don’t want to just throw cold water on a movement which has legitimate intentions and goals, so perhaps I can offer some suggestions for a better path forward for people looking to change their work/life circumstances? Here are 5 tips for those intrigued by the FIRE movement but want to consider alternative paths:

Plan to work harder than anyone else. The first tip is a basic one, but it’s often overlooked. Spend a few years working harder than anyone else setting up a business or additional income streams. Don’t quit your job, but spend your free time working. There are no guarantees, but you CAN build something valuable in your spare time without destroying your current financial picture.

Don’t dismiss your experience and skills. Use them! The best way to grow additional income streams is to leverage your existing skill set and network. An easy transition from traditional employment can often be consulting in the same space. This sort of transition has the following elements working in your favor: You have skills in this space, you have a network in this space, and you have a track record you can point to which should help you land clients (often the hardest part of being on your own).

Expand your skills so you can wear multiple hats. When you go out on your own, you’re going to be doing everything yourself. You’re going to selling and trying to land clients, providing the service or building the product, creating invoices, managing the books, and handling things like insurance and taxes. While you’re getting a paycheck, why not try to expand your skills so that such a transition will be smoother? Ask your employer if you can help out in other areas. This not only makes you a more valuable employee (and maybe help land a raise), but it’ll give you valuable experience in a number of areas that will help you later.

Always be more conservative in your projections. Almost every entrepreneur who “takes the leap” is too optimistic with regards to projections. Initial sales and revenues are almost always lower than you think. Whatever you’re projecting to make in your first year, cut it in half and then consider how that will impact things. Additionally, make sure you have a cash cushion for personal emergencies. There’s nothing more stressful than deciding whether to pay for fixing your car or funding your business. While you’re struggling to generate revenue, life is still happening. Things break, people get sick, etc.

Don’t forsake saving for “real” retirement. Probably the biggest problem with early retirement is that it means you are no longer saving money. If you’re under 40, the reality is that you might have 50 years of life left to pay for. Having enough money for all circumstances that life can throw at you over such a length of time is not a simple matter. If you transition out of traditional employment to a more entrepreneurial setup, make sure you’re still socking away money for later in life.

To conclude, if you’re someone drawn to the FIRE movement, congratulations! It means you want more for yourself. I encourage you to consider your future situation from a number of angles and remind yourself that what you’re doing now still has tremendous value. There’s no rush to escape it. Seek to find fulfillment in your current situation while you prudently pursue the next phase of life. Good luck.

  from Money 101 https://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2019/01/an-alternative-look-at-the-fire-financial-independence-retire-early-movement.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

An Alternative Look at the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) Movement

The following is a guest post from Kevin at Next Level Finance.

One of the biggest trends in the personal finance world in recent years has been the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. At its best, it’s a passionate group of individuals seeking independence from traditional employment and a healthy work/life balance. At its worst, it’s a group of bloggers with unrealistic financial projections that are a bit too caught up with finding that perfect Instagram shot while traveling.

The movement seems to be more popular in the world of bloggers compared to the offline world of coworkers and neighbors. Personal finance and FIRE bloggers often tout the income their blog is generating, and how that has led them to financial independence. Some of these folks have quit the corporate gigs and now focus fully on blogging and deriving income from their online activities.

Let’s be clear: this is great! Entrepreneurial activities and finding independence outside of more traditional work arrangements can be a great thing. I’ve been in this camp for years, so I can certainly appreciate it.

However, I believe there’s a bit of a leap from generating enough side income to quit a job to the idea of early retirement, and I believe the messaging around it is faulty. So, I find it important to consider alternative views of the FIRE movement. Even if you’re pursuing early retirement, hopefully you still find this discussion fruitful.

Let’s dive into some specifics...

We’ve had a historic bull market in stocks.

It’s no surprise that the FIRE movement has taken hold in the latter stages of a historic bull market run in stocks. The decade long run in stocks has had a myriad of effects.

First, people feel wealthy. The values of their investable assets have gone up dramatically. With a larger set of assets in the bank or a brokerage account, it’s more tempting to pull the trigger on early retirement.

Second, we’ve had very low volatility. The bull market (the S&P 500) has nearly gone straight up since 2009, and naturally, this has made investors complacent.

Low volatility and consistent year-after-year returns makes everyone feel like an above-average investor, and it can be tempting to think that the party will go on forever.

Bull markets are great for everyone, but the prudent investor has a bit of skepticism and plans for worse days. If you’re considering early retirement, and the amount of assets you have exposed to the stock market is to be a major source of security and/or income, you should be asking yourself a number of questions such as: What if a quick, market correction of 20% or 30% occurs? How exposed am I to market fluctuations? If I had to, could I go a few years without touching the money in my stock market accounts?

A 401(k) shouldn’t factor into early retirement

One of the strangest parts of the FIRE movement is when 401(k) balances are cited. Here’s an example from an article on MarketWatch:

Earlier in her 20s, she set a goal to retire from full-time work at age 35, but she later decided to move that date up to 27.

She wasn’t going to “retire” completely, but work flexibly after quitting her job. At that time, she planned to move to Minneapolis to be with her boyfriend. She saved more than $130,000 in a 401(k), about $25,000 in a Roth IRA and kept $20,000 in cash. She also had about $5,000 in a taxable investment account and $10,000 in a health savings account.

If you withdraw money from a 401(k) account before the age of 59 ½, you are not only taxed, but you get hit with a 10% withdrawal penalty. Withdrawing money early on a 401(k) and incurring the 10% penalty is viewed by just about everyone as a really bad idea.

As such, the above example becomes ridiculous quickly. The individual’s $130k in the 401(k) is now irrelevant for the early retirement scenario. Sure, that balance will grow on its own between the ages of 27 and 59 ½, but this person has 30 years until then to figure out how to get income.

So, the person basically has $20k in cash, $5k in an investment account and $10k in an HSA. You can early withdraw contributions from a Roth, so to be generous, let’s just say this person has $60,000 in savings across these accounts for her FIRE scenario. A 4% withdrawal rate on $60,000 is $2,400 per year.

It’s not really a surprise that you read the following later on in the article:

Now, she’s living with her parents until she finds a new, full-time job, back in the IT world where she started.

Withdrawal rates

Since we touched on the topic of withdrawing investment or retirement money, let’s discuss withdrawal rates briefly.

If you’re an investor, there are very few things you can control. They are things such as asset allocation or diversification, contribution levels and withdrawal rates. Everything else is pretty much up to Mr. Market.

In very serious market corrections that occur every so often (e.g. the 2008 crash), even asset allocation or diversification doesn’t hold up very well. In 2008, essentially everything got hit (there was nowhere to hide). While asset allocation is an important consideration, it needs to be held in its proper place.

As such, for a retired individual or someone considering retirement, withdrawal rate becomes the most important factor for your portfolio. Most often you’ll see the 4% number cited as the safe withdrawal rate for a portfolio. It’s reasonable, but even the 4% level can bring about risk. In a prolonged period of time, if your portfolio goes through a major correction due to a larger market event (such as 2008), the 4% withdrawal rate will severely hamper your portfolio survivability.

It's important to always recall the mathematics of loss. Bear markets hurt your portfolio more than bull markets help your portfolio. If your portfolio goes down 30%, you then need a 40%+ gain to get back to even. If you’re withdrawing 4% through a down period in your portfolio, some losses become permanent.

How’s this apply to the FIRE discussion? Risk is a crucial element of any long-term financial planning, especially in a retirement scenario where regular income is either taken off the board or reduced. The amount of money you withdraw from a retirement portfolio is a major element of risk to consider.

If you want to retire early, be conservative in your estimations of withdrawing money from investments and think through in advance possible scenarios where you may need to cut back on the withdrawal rate in order to maintain the long-term viability of your portfolio.

Re-examining the idea of work

It seems like much of the FIRE mentality is about escaping a mundane work environment. That might mean getting away from a 9-5 job or getting away from being an employee where you’re at the mercy of an employer.

Whatever the reason behind the motivation for early retirement, a broader discussion of work seems important.

Here are a few principles I tend to embrace regarding work:

Working simply for the ability to make a living and provide for yourself and your family is not only okay, it’s an admirable thing. One thing that can get lost in the pursuit of more fulfilling work is the idea that work in and of itself is still a worthwhile thing. The person who works a mundane job day in and day out while providing for his or her family is worthy of our respect just as much as a jet-setting entrepreneur managing his or her business from exotic locales.

If you seek more enjoyable or fulfilling work, awesome! But realize that nothing is easy. There’s a misconception often in the FIRE community that it’s super easy to get a few passive income streams up and running, and then, you’re off! The real world doesn’t really operate this way. Other than things like simple index funds, there are very few passive income streams. For example, a friend of mine that derives his income from real estate rentals (often cited as passive income) works harder than anyone I know. You should always expect that generating income is going to require hard work.

Beware the promise of online income streams. I’ve made a full-time living off of online audiences now for the last seven years, so I can say with first-hand experience that it’s not for everybody, and it’s likely much harder than you think. If online income is your goal, then go for it, but plan to work very hard for little to no money for years. Even if you get over the initial multi-year hurdle, for most people, it’ll likely never be any substantial money. Could it result in a hobby you enjoy and make a little extra cash? Yes! But for many, if they examine the hourly wage they’re earning for the time put in, they’d have been much better off working a second job elsewhere.

I wish I had more patience when I was in my 20s. Since much of the FIRE conversation occurs around young people, I’d encourage anyone in their 20s (or maybe 30s) that is reading this to be patient. I was a very impatient 20-something always seeking the next thing, the next business, the next way to make a buck. While things worked out fine for me, I wish someone had sat me down and encouraged patience. You have a long career ahead of you. You will be able to do many, many awesome and fulfilling things. It’s okay to be patient, earn a paycheck and learn from your company, your co-workers, your bosses. Work your way up in your company for a few years and take on additional responsibility. The experience is extremely valuable and will aid you down the road when you want to be more independent.

Family considerations

I’ve observed that discussions of family are often missing in the FIRE equation. “Retiring” early on a relatively small asset base gets pretty difficult when you start factoring in children. Or, what about aging parents?

I can tell you from first-hand experience that kids are expensive! Even when you’re trying to “do things different” from maybe the wider culture, there are still a large number of expenses that can be difficult to avoid.

While many FIRE participants maybe don’t have kids, or plan to never have kids, I’d also remind folks that things change in life! Priorities change, circumstances change, and you might find yourself with kids ten years after you assumed that you’d never have kids.

Regardless of your situation, I encourage you to consider (at least to a small degree) the chance that your perspectives on family may change down the road. And if they do, having the flexibility to adjust financially will be paramount.

A better path for those looking for an alternative work/life situation

I’ve spent roughly 1500 words poking holes in the FIRE movement.

I don’t want to just throw cold water on a movement which has legitimate intentions and goals, so perhaps I can offer some suggestions for a better path forward for people looking to change their work/life circumstances? Here are 5 tips for those intrigued by the FIRE movement but want to consider alternative paths:

Plan to work harder than anyone else. The first tip is a basic one, but it’s often overlooked. Spend a few years working harder than anyone else setting up a business or additional income streams. Don’t quit your job, but spend your free time working. There are no guarantees, but you CAN build something valuable in your spare time without destroying your current financial picture.

Don’t dismiss your experience and skills. Use them! The best way to grow additional income streams is to leverage your existing skill set and network. An easy transition from traditional employment can often be consulting in the same space. This sort of transition has the following elements working in your favor: You have skills in this space, you have a network in this space, and you have a track record you can point to which should help you land clients (often the hardest part of being on your own).

Expand your skills so you can wear multiple hats. When you go out on your own, you’re going to be doing everything yourself. You’re going to selling and trying to land clients, providing the service or building the product, creating invoices, managing the books, and handling things like insurance and taxes. While you’re getting a paycheck, why not try to expand your skills so that such a transition will be smoother? Ask your employer if you can help out in other areas. This not only makes you a more valuable employee (and maybe help land a raise), but it’ll give you valuable experience in a number of areas that will help you later.

Always be more conservative in your projections. Almost every entrepreneur who “takes the leap” is too optimistic with regards to projections. Initial sales and revenues are almost always lower than you think. Whatever you’re projecting to make in your first year, cut it in half and then consider how that will impact things. Additionally, make sure you have a cash cushion for personal emergencies. There’s nothing more stressful than deciding whether to pay for fixing your car or funding your business. While you’re struggling to generate revenue, life is still happening. Things break, people get sick, etc.

Don’t forsake saving for “real” retirement. Probably the biggest problem with early retirement is that it means you are no longer saving money. If you’re under 40, the reality is that you might have 50 years of life left to pay for. Having enough money for all circumstances that life can throw at you over such a length of time is not a simple matter. If you transition out of traditional employment to a more entrepreneurial setup, make sure you’re still socking away money for later in life.

To conclude, if you’re someone drawn to the FIRE movement, congratulations! It means you want more for yourself. I encourage you to consider your future situation from a number of angles and remind yourself that what you’re doing now still has tremendous value. There’s no rush to escape it. Seek to find fulfillment in your current situation while you prudently pursue the next phase of life. Good luck.

  from Money 101 https://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2019/01/an-alternative-look-at-the-fire-financial-independence-retire-early-movement.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

9781478766674_cov.ai

Stations: Changing Your Life – Changing Your Career by Dr. Lynda Mubarak

The current global workforce has changed tremendously during the past decade and your workplace is part of that change. Labor trends, increased use of technology for goods and services, and the reduction of workers at all levels has generated a need to view employment and self-sufficiency in a new light. If you have children, they will need to be able to work in a 21st century work environment with a diverse workforce, which will entail jobs which are being developed as they enter elementary grades or high school. STATIONS is the quick resource guide that offers suggestions and time-proven strategies for parents and professionals who interact with children and young adult workers.

STATIONS is a collection of essays that provides food for thought as we make our way through the different situations, events, stages, circumstances and parental decisions that will ultimately affect personal lifestyles and career options.

STATIONS examines childhood academic and social skills, and addresses the challenging task of teaching children to be healthy and financially sound while preparing them to thrive and survive in a global workforce driven by cutting edge technology and ongoing competition.

STATIONS is concise, amusing, informative and frank in its discussion of life’s everyday circumstances, including social media and proactive workplace practices that affect all of us from childhood through adulthood.

  Review from Amazon

“The aptly titled STATIONS is probably best appreciated as an extended Public Service Announcement on personal, social and professional fulfillment and wellness from the perspective of a visionary educator and citizen invested in the survival of present and future generations. The fact that the experience opens with a shout-out to grandmothers is creatively deliberate, as the persona compares her world with that of her grandchildren and mentees. But this grandmother is not a despairing, garment-rending fossil lamenting the passing of the good old days. Rather, she rejoices in the new social, cultural and technological realities that were unimaginable in her youth, exhorting millennials and older folk in transition to employ these new realities on the journey toward healthy self-realization.

In reading Stations, three sayings from my own childhood were reinforced: “An old man sitting down can see farther than a young man standing up” (African proverb); “The child is the father of the man” (Freud); And gladly would he teach, and gladly learn’ (Chaucer, describing the divinity student in The Canterbury Tales). And while each station on the narrative journey dispenses advice, it is never preachy or condescending. In fact, Mubarak, an experienced educator, skillfully combines personal narrative with a somewhat controlled stream of consciousness, revealing her own vulnerabilities and past mistakes along the way. The result is a light-hearted, easy-to-read exploration of the relationships between skills identification, education and training, fulfillment, project commitment, success, and personal and communal responsibility. The tone and structure of each chapter, or vignette, is designed to reach a generation where sound-bytes and images are the preferred mode of communication. Advice and encouragement are underscored by non-intrusive statistics, anecdotal accounts, imagined scenarios, and resource references.

As an educator in global languages and cultures, advisor and mentor, I recommend Stations to all students, parents, teachers, employers, and friends. School Guidance Counselors, and college Student Affairs and Career offices would do well to include this tome on their lists of recommended readings.” (Ezra S. Engling)

  STATIONS EXCERPT

Are Your Kids Competing in STEM?

You spent too much money and time in Lost Wages, Nevada, purchased the latest versions of Kindle and the iPhone, and shared your summer vacation report with anyone who cared to listen to the back lot or front office at work. Now what? You have used up your bragging rights for the summer season. How about something new, exciting and educational for the kids?

Do you know that the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are begging for sharp young minds with fresh ideas and innovative thinking? Your child represents one of those young minds. You don’t need to be reminded that your children are highly intelligent. They can name every space-related cartoon character, identify their mutant friends or foes and describe the planets they inhabit. Do you notice how their eyes light up when an enemy craft is landing?

Their toy boxes are filled with action figures that represent long, hard battles and conquests. In other words, your children are already playing games containing futuristic models and know which channels to surf on Saturday morning to find the leaping, flying creatures!

So, instead of the usual Disney World, SeaWorld, Six Flags, or the expensive, tropical island family trip, consider enrolling your child in a NASA Summer Day Camp next year, and make it a family affair. This unique hands-on experience will put your child in touch with several categories of STEM and open another world for career investigation.

The online interactive activities will also teach them to appreciate the world of internet technology on a different level. At NASA your children can actually explore the many occupations connected with space exploration and meet the people behind the scenes who plan and execute the missions.

It’s also important for children to know that behind every highly visible occupation there are hundreds of people in the background who work very hard to make the overall project successful. Just think, after this trip your daughter (yes, daughter) might announce that she will be designing space suits for future astronauts instead of fashions for movie stars. Likewise, your son may decide to create the next generation of transformers or robots used for planet exploration or spaceship repair. It’s even possible that the little cook in your family may consider a career as a nutritionist for space travelers. Who knows? Your youngsters may even develop a new interest in astronomy.

When your coworker brags about his trip to the islands, smile and tell him about your five-year-old daughter’s NASA Camp Kennedy experience and her new aerospace vocabulary. If your coworker is still standing, tell him your sixth grade son loves basketball and soccer, but is also involved in the U.S. Army’s eCybermission competition. His team has a chance to win $5,000 in cash if the members can identify and resolve an issue in the community using the classic scientific method. Checkmate. Blast off!

( Continued… )

© 2016 All rights reserved. Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author, Dr. Lynda Mubarak. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author’s written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.

Purchase STATIONS: Changing Your Life – Changing Your Career by Dr. Lynda Mubarak  Urban Education, Elementary & High School Student Success College & Workplace Readiness, At-Risk Youth Programs, Displaced Worker Programs https://www.amazon.com/STATIONS-Changing-Your-Life-Career/dp/1478766670

      Intimate Conversation with Dr. Lynda Mubarak

Dr. Lynda Mubarak is a native Texan, Army veteran, and grew up in Waco and Ft. Worth. She is a retired teacher and special education facilitator with 37 years of experience in special needs instruction, ESL education at Tarrant County College, and developmental writing at Strayer University. Lynda is a graduate of P.L. Dunbar High School, Ft. Worth, TX. She earned her BS in Elementary/Special Education from Texas Christian University, M.Ed. from Texas Wesleyan University, and Ed.D in Higher Education from Nova SE University. Dr. Mubarak is an active volunteer with several Ft. Worth organizations. She loves crossword puzzle competitions, live theater, contemporary music history and traveling with her husband.

Dr. Lynda is currently a Co-Host on The Author’s Lounge Radio Show, airing on Tuesdays at 3:00pm – 5:00pm CST on the Fish Bowl Radio Network. Listen to the show: Go to the Grey Stream – http://fbrn.us

Could you tell us something about STATIONS? STATIONS is my debut book. It is available on Kindle and also published in paperback at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The book is composed of essays I have written over the years. Each essay covers a phase, decision, transition, pathway, or challenge that ordinary people experience during the course of a lifetime as children and later as adults.

STATIONS: Changing Your Life – Changing Your Career is my book of essays and my way of assisting you in making life decisions now that will affect your quality of life later. The 21st century is very fluid. You and your children are part of it!

If you are caught in the gridlock of making a transition in some area of your life, the first thing you need to consider is: whatever you need to do to reach maximum success in any category is located in two places; your head and your heart. But change also means there are some things you need to begin and some things that you will need to end, and involves both head and heart. Both areas are connected, very powerful, and one will eventually affect the other. STATIONS will guide you through some areas using common sense suggestions that you have heard from family, friends, associates or even a stranger.

What inspired you to sit down and actually start writing this book? I have always wanted to write a book, but only discussed it briefly (and quietly) with a few friends over the years. I assumed that my thoughts and ideas had been written and discussed many times over and there was no need to ‘repeat’ what others had done. I began to write down my observations and thoughts several years ago and decided to publish them after a chance meeting with a former colleague in a restaurant. She and I were teachers at the same middle school over twenty years ago. During those years, she told me weekly about her desire to write a children’s book. When I asked if she had accomplished her dream, she explained that she had published four books and that I should move forward and contact a publisher. I did, and the rest is history!

Introduce us to STATIONS FOR KIDS. STATIONS FOR KIDS is dedicated to early literacy and community service. The best way to ensure your child’s personal and career success is to begin the learning process as soon as possible. Academic success is always necessary, but your child also needs to see how he or she fits into the world community. A combination of community service and applicable educational concepts will give your child a balanced view of the world. CARVER PARK provides a view of a young girl’s early learning experiences about the world. SHORTY and THE SULLIVANS, CARVER PARK and STATIONS can be purchased at Melanin Origins, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

How does your book STATIONS relate to kids and their care-givers? It relates to the various circumstances that families face when raising children from early social skills and financial responsibility, to proactive soft skills and behaviors required of students, new workers or tenured employees.

Are there any under-represented groups or ideas featured in your book, STATIONS? Yes. STATIONS addresses many issues and concerns of young parents, first generation college students, at-risk youth, adults in job transition, and ex-offenders in re-entry programs. Some persons have not been exposed to the nuances of a college campus, support group interaction, workplace protocol, or even networking practices. STATIONS attempts to cover these areas in a simple, but practical manner

How does your book relate to your present situation, education, spiritual practice or journey? I think my book is a condensed version of the positive and negative experiences of my life and the lives of persons I have encountered over the years. The topics I selected were the ones that had the most profound effect on me as a child, parent, educator, college adjunct, observer, confidant, advisor and caretaker of aging parents.

Did you learn anything personal from writing your book, STATIONS? The personal lesson I learned from writing this book is acknowledging that we often have things (gifts) in us that we do not investigate, promote, develop or expand. Many times the hesitation stems from fear and doubt. My husband had been trying to persuade me to publish for over 20 years. I simply had one excuse after another to delay my dream of writing a book. After my parents died, and I talked with my former teacher, colleague, I realized that I had run out of excuses. Finally, I learned that often when it is time to act, we create reasons or hurdles to slow down or hinder the decision to move forward. My excuse had been my parents’ declining health.

What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them? My goals and intentions of this book were to encourage and inspire others to move forward while making better decisions, utilizing time wisely, and identifying those skills and competencies necessary for living a life filled with achievement and personal success. Most important, teach all children the concepts and behaviors required to survive in the fast moving world that becomes more competitive each day. In the end, they will be working on jobs that were not created during your lifetime. I think I wrote in a way that was thought provoking and parent friendly!

What projects are you working on at the present? I am currently working two projects. The first one is about my childhood memories of living in segregated Waco, TX during the 1950s. The name of the book is “Carver Park”. Carver Park is an African-American community area east of the Brazos River and downtown Waco that was designed years ago by public officials for people of color. The second project is a handbook for novice writers who are seeking a theme or focus for a book. My objective is to provide strategies for identifying the plot and planning the initial phases of a novel.

  Readers can find out more about Dr. Lynda Mubarak at: www.lyndamubarak.com Visit Dr. Lynda Mubarak on Facebook at:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011551415498

  Purchase STATIONS: Changing Your Life – Changing Your Career by Dr. Lynda Mubarak First Generation College Students, Urban Education, Elementary & High School Student Success Parenting, College & Workplace Readiness, At-Risk Youth Programs, Displaced Worker Programs https://www.amazon.com/STATIONS-Changing-Your-Life-Career/dp/1478766670

      Author’s Lounge Radio Show

Tune in: Tuesday Evenings at 3PM – 5PM

Listen: Go to the Grey Stream – http://fbrn.us

Hosts: Sheryl Grace and Lynda Jones-Mubarak

Dr. Lynda Mubarak is a native Texan. She was born in Mart, TX and raised in Waco and Ft. Worth. Lynda graduated from P.L. Dunbar HS in Ft. Worth. She is a retired special education teacher and facilitator and has served as a crisis intervention teacher, student teacher supervisor, and private school administrator. She earned a BS in Education from TCU, M.Ed. from Texas Wesleyan University, and a doctorate in education from Nova SE University. She and husband, Kairi, live in Ft. Worth, TX. She loves to travel, live theater, and crossword puzzles!

Sheryl Grace is a Louisiana native currently residing in North Texas. Sheryl began her love for writing in high school. Her inspiration to become a writer was prompted after reading Maya Angelou’s, “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. She continued her love for writing in college where she wrote fluid poetry. After graduating with a degree in Mental Health Counseling, she began her career as a Licensed Professional Counselor. Through her life and work experiences, characters begin to formulate in her head that she had to share. The desire to create a female character that could overcome even the worse of life events, filled her day and night dreams. Her debut novel “He Calls Her Blue” has received numerous five star reviews and this is just the beginning.

Author’s Lounge Radio Show Show page: http://fbrn.us/shows/authors-lounge

  Stations: Changing Your Life – Changing Your Career by Dr. Lynda Mubarak Stations: Changing Your Life – Changing Your Career by Dr. Lynda Mubarak The current global workforce has changed tremendously during the past decade and your workplace is part of that change.

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So dreadful much too -.- You're (if that's the actual situation) a horrible items premium critic, produce recognized as a product Minecraft… WTF have you been 5?! Its recognized as VOXELIZED!!! you dumb amount of garbage… Then telling it's a game for kids… THE FUCK!? You're in all probability without doubt definitely one of consumers individuals is certain pokemon and yugioh will likewise be “only for kids” basically because its excessively for you personally. Dialing it Minecraft… I also cant think how retarded that's -.- Steady utilizing the general concept using the (first-rate) story, I personally don't like myself personally for bothering to answer. you’ve not I welcome the digital tossing of tomato facilities and gemstones. This can be a page brimming with ancient nerds who escalated up trying bargains put together by adolescent fans without the funding. Once you get linked to numerous whiners you simply will not have fun with this. Potentially Rock and roll, Report, Wizard? Nevertheless I not surprisingly I am just aware there's a significant area of the RPS’s crowd that delights in DOTA-likes, thus i don’t expect to see that to |You simply arrived at discover how to exercise the selling and buying surface as a result. Was not it? For… A lot of time? Yay, snobbery! If potentially there exists a websites which only catered during my preferences - that happen to be pretty the best preferences, anyone who doesn’t disclose them a product a product cess-pit - because of this creating sure which i not desire to just click a product about a product We do not without a doubt like. Thrilled to listen for you are weaned from that craving, hesitant that point hasn't arrived but in my view privately FWIW, also to lose a small number of a great deal more of time on earth, whence you experienced been caused by was exceedingly understandable during my suffer from while I figured you experienced been also mastering Air conditioning. If it constantly requests bucks to achieve products, end mastering, remove it and go on to |Though I disagree getting a great area of the story, even I can not services that nonsense. I listen to it basically because Cube Entire world is within limbo. may perhaps on top of that The MMO aspect is usually seeking at events, inside the slew of host factors they have endured because publishing on Steam not long ago to the chitchat worthless junk e-send and other maddening actions live life person connection can draw with the aid of it. Also, the only real products you should buy are makeup products, which just alter the will look using the identity or simply your position, as all position (besides the beginning single) have very same circulation quickness (90). It genuinely is found as if you just logged in, watched the store, walked all-around a little after which dropped, whilst not honestly mastering it. inside the save are credits only, you do not get most zero cost credits. disagree using the Trove Fishing Bot Ahk is undoubtedly an rpg items premium exactly where the only solution to pass on is cleaned out by competitors, fall wreck, or dangerous body fluids (life threatening rainwater and lava) Not from food craving or other survival points. Never the less , your basis isn't long term. You drag it all-around, plop it smaller, use its services, and believe that very few other vagrants maintain from and mooch.Membership worlds, alternatively, provide a alternative suffer from. With a lot of shades and easily a considerable number of heart shades, not simply will procuring |a sufficient In a very much less tough awareness, Trove Fishing Bot Ahk isn't compensate-to-earn in any way. Whether your straight-forward hack ‘n slash “lootfest” with lively shades and custom enclosure is exactly what you are looking out for, Trove Fishing Bot Ahk is unquestionably seriously worth a glance. This options by constraining in instances where pinata intruders can spawn, so all 10-15 minutes single pinata adversary will spawn for each person provide, nearly 8. Passive Retribution - Immediately after considering wreck prices all of the following attack with added potential. much faster, and Activated Spit Fireplace - Your familiar spits a fireball if he’s been billed up sufficient. Passive Fireplace Hiking Sprint very easily via lava without having to be hurt (extremely). All development from Start Beta can offer in the filled items premium when Trove Fishing Bot Ahk officially comes out for Playstation 4 and Xbox Another. The possible lack of story does nothing to injure the sport total, but when exactly the developers could possibly have additional a The essential items premium play the game loop is similar to those of Diablo’s. |{Those who are provided with working dungeons, you can actually rest and prepare that conservatory you possess been longing for. I would suggest having fun with friends nonetheless. Trove Fishing Bot Ahk, like a large amount of MMOs is created that need considering a perpetual suffer from and also that i will 100 % see myself personally logging around some events weekly to have for a longer time timeframe. {}Should you have not practiced the Shovel Black night-time range in the past, we'll temporarily rest smaller points to predict. The 2 expansions incorporated in Cherish Trove Fishing Bot Ahk adhere to the stories of two series' bad guys Trouble Black night-time and Specter Black night-time. Above these new inclusions you've about three chapters of Shovel Black night-time, basically because both of these adaptations can be a efficient stand alone items premium without treatment, with enormous replayability as a result of top quality for each giving. A second constructive may very well be the The game also functionality creating, family pets, mounts, ships, boating, mag riders and you may even produced your very own new houseOrfoundation where one can rest, art and view your desired realms. Such as I'd like some double xp week-ends for dungeons in particular. Even Rift and Defiance designer Trion Worlds does this, with zero cost-to-play the game via the internet venture RPG Trove Fishing Bot Ahk. pixels. been able to get.

How to understand Search Engine Optimization

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How to understand Search Engine Optimization

There are individual pages on your website that you in all likelihood don’t want the crawlers to index, consisting of login pages or personal directories. You may block files, pages and directories by specifying them as “disallowed,”

you may additionally prevent certain crawlers from gaining access to your site the usage of the following (replace “BadBot” with the actual bot call you’re seeking to block):

Just be careful while blockading crawlers from your complete web page; in fact, don’t do it except you recognise a reality that a particular bot is causing you trouble. Otherwise, you may end up blockading crawlers that need to have to get right to entry to in your website, which could interfere with indexing.

If you are using WordPress, some plugins assist you to do that. In case you aren’t using WordPress, you may also without difficulty set up a robots.Txt record to your server. Examine greater approximately robots.Txt right here.

Once you’ve created your robots.Txt, it’s important to ensure Google can crawl your site. To accomplish that, you’ll first need to create a domain map. This will be Accomplished manually or with 0.33-birthday celebration gear. (If you have a WordPress website, there are numerous plugins to be had to create website online maps for you.)

After you’ve created your web page map, log in to Google search engine Console. (If you haven’t set your website up on seeking Console, check this out.) You’ll want to add your web site map by way of going to “move slowly,” then “Sitemaps” inside the left-hand navigation, ten clicking on the “Upload/Check Sitemap” button in the top proper hand corner. From there, you could Test the website map and put up it to Google for indexation. (Be aware that it’ll make an effort for Google to move slowly and index your site.)

search engine optimization

When you have already submitted a sitemap and just need to check/send a person page on your site online, you could use the “Fetch as Google” feature, which is also beneath “crawl” in the left-hand navigation. And you could search people.

As soon as logged in, click on “crawl” inside the left navigation. Then pick “Fetch as Google.” From there, enter the URL path of the page you want to check and click on “Fetch.” (Leave this blank In case you want to test the house page.) Test fame. It has to have a new test and say “Complete.” click “Request Indexing” if available. Ensuring that Google can move your site slowly is vital to get indexed. Without having your website online listed, you may now not rank no matter what you do. This ends optimization problems.

In today’s cellular-first, person-obsessed web way of life, we from time to time forget the smooth and realistic. While I’m taken with a great consumer experience and a huge believer in being cellular-first, I additionally trust we can’t forget about the search engines like google and yahoo. Having a secure website Shape will Add on your user enjoy and will help you rank higher.

At the same time as this seems like a simple concept, building an excellent web page Structure takes time and planning. No longer most straightforward does it affect your navigation and site links; it also allows the crawlers better understand your content material and context. Website online Shape is all about Placing your content collectively in a logical fashion. Don’t make your users or the search engines dig to find what they got here to your website for. Learn how to create a superb website Shape here.

Crawler get entry to If seek engine crawlers have a difficult time crawling your site, they’ll have a hard time indexing and rate your pages, too. As a domain owner or Seo, your first and an essential process are to make sure that your site is crawlable. Using the robots.Txt report, you could help direct and assist the net crawlers which can be crawling your website.

Titles and meta descriptions Titles and meta descriptions are some of the maximum primary factors of Seo. While “titles” are considered inside the rating algorithm and outlines are not, they each are nonetheless very essential. Google may not use descriptions as a grade sign, But that doesn’t suggest they Forget about them. The crawlers nevertheless study the reports — and any danger you have to tell the crawlers about your page, you should take it.

The title and the outline are regularly the primary things your capacity traffic are available in contact with inside the Search engines like Google. Here are a few hints for developing higher titles and descriptions.

Titles

Optimize you identify tag around the core consciousness of your web page. Don’t “keyword stuff.” Live within 50 to 60 characters. Make it relevant to your users. Don’t have duplicates. Descriptions

Make it action-oriented. Upload your number one keyword. Make replica easy to understand. Live inside 135 to a hundred and sixty characters. Don’t have duplicates. Having better titles and outlines can lead to the better click on thru charges and boom the visibility of your web page in search. It’s critical to Note that if Google thinks your provided meta facts doesn’t meet the users’ motive, they may adjust it.

Earlier than leaping into the contemporary and greatest Seo tactic, ensure you do the fundamentals first. It’s exquisite what a few simple tweaks and changes can do on your web page and conventional on-line advertising method. Make certain your website is crawlable, create a Structure this is each user0 and search engine-friendly, and take the time to create better titles and outlines. Doing the fundamentals will assist you to build a sturdy foundation for lengthy-time period achievement.

Search engine optimization has made an introduction to the world of Net advertising and is right here to Stay for a long time. From big and medium firms to new entrants, everybody is keen on knowing the intricacies of Search engine optimization strategies to make their commercial enterprise advantage visibility in the on-line global. An enterprise can be well-installed inside the natural world, But on the Net area, it needs to start constructing its popularity halfway- if now not from scratch.

Search engine optimization

To ensure that your agencies find its personal area of interest inside the Internet world you first need to expand a well-designed website. You have to make it handy, without problems loadable, controlled through a server web hosting and providing excellent content material. The remaining one is possibly the maximum vital one to attract visitors or ‘site visitors’. The exceptional content material, rich in the major phrases, focused at potential clients, is the essence of on-line Search engine optimization advertising and marketing techniques. Targeted keywords are the basis of powerful Seo strategies. You can seek masses of articles on the Internet which might give you valuable pointers on the way to enhance your search engine ratings. Articles on Search engine optimization can be found on dedicated websites or on ‘article directories’, having Seo articles written via extraordinary professionals from all around the international. You may even see hyperlinks to downloadable substances or Seo books that may be purchased on-line. Allow’s communicate approximately some Seo hints and clues.

The first online Seo approach would teach you about Search engine optimization keywords; which key phrases to apply, whether or not to head for public ones or long-tailed ones and so forth. Then comes the choice of suing primary and secondary keywords. Both are important, if not over-used. You will get to understand of article submission procedures that could make your hyperlinks appear to an fascinated Target audience. Title tags, Meta tags, utilisation of keyword in the title, duration of the keyword used in precise regions within your internet site content material are all mentioned in Search engine optimization hints online. Different methods encompass % plans, cell advertising and marketing, lead generation, neighbourhood listings and plenty of greater. There may also be a few not to do’s of Search engine optimization strategies, and you would get to understand to distinguish between ‘white hat’ (moral) and ‘black hat’ (wrong) Search engine optimization ways.

Besides Search engine optimisation guidelines on websites, you could visit webmaster boards and discussion forums that permit you to meet Seo specialists, financial enterprise experts, geeks, customers and fascinated traffic who be a part of the conference and speak Search engine optimization hints and tricks with like-minded humans.

Search engine optimization

The problems at gift are added forth and taken care of out in centred threads like how frequently search engines move websites slowly and a way to cope with changing algorithms of giants like Google and Yahoo! Seo specialists can usually be inquisitive about giving advice on these boards.

In fact, you may read all the threads and retain relevant info, even In case you aren’t able to pitch for your cents. Customer evaluations about the Services of precise Seo Services may additionally assist you to gauge higher which company to join.

Finally, you should recall all of the Search engine optimization guidelines and hints you locate online and healthy it along with your list of requirements to get a customised answer so that you put in your efforts, time, and cash wisely.