Most of us think of charity as one of those things which happens to other people. It’s far away enough that we can care about it, without coming into contact with those who suffer. And, it’s no accident that we view charity, poverty, and suffering in that way. Keeping it at a distance makes it easier to swallow, and the government are more than happy to keep it that way. In truth, though, problems like these may not be as far from home as we think. This is a point brought home by the fact that the United Nations held a study into poverty in the United States earlier this month. The results were a harsh wakeup call. Many were wondering why the UN was looking into poverty in the fourth most prosperous country in the world. But, the issues they stumbled across more than justified the effort. You can read more about the extent of the findings on sites like https://www.npr.org. It makes for some harsh reading. Of course, for those who have been following the issue, this should come as no surprise. The 2016 census revealed that a shocking 40 million people were living in poverty. That’s more than 1 in 8. Half of those were living in what is deemed as ‘deep poverty’.
Alston, who carried out the report, went as far as to say that the American dream was nothing more than an ‘American illusion’. He also claims the situation is set to get worse with Trump’s upcoming policies. Again, this should be no surprise. Trump has made no secret about his fight against Obamacare, the only real chance low-earners had for receiving medical treatment. And, that’s certainly not the only place he’s hit the poor. Planned cuts to welfare also look set to plunge low-income families further into poverty. Alston painted a bleak but realistic picture when he said, ‘If you are born poor, guess where you’re going to end up — poor.” So, with all this in mind, why is that we look further afield, and donate money to help those in other countries? All the while, our fellow citizens are struggling to earn a living in an increasingly tricky country. For the most part, the issue is that American citizens seem increasingly unable to face these problems. In part, that’s because they’re often hidden. But, we also prefer to bury our heads in the sand than get out there are do something about it. We could take a leaf out of Canada’s book. As can bee seen from sites like https://www.habitathm.ca/restore, they have policies in place to help low-earners and those struggling make a living. Such charities are sadly lacking from our own efforts. All we can hope is that Alston’s report makes it much harder for us to ignore the truth. That said, no changes seem afoot as yet. And, with Trump seemingly on a one-track agenda, it may be down to us to do what we can on a personal basis
The weather might not be the biggest worry playing on most entrepreneurs’ minds, but it is certainly something that you should start to think about. Bad weather can make things dangerous for your employees, and it could also damage your office building. Add to Flipboard Magazine. To ensure that your company doesn’t suffer too much the next time it snows, make sure you take these important winter precautions.
One of the biggest threats that the winter weather brings is frozen and burst pipes. This problem occurs a lot in exposed pipes as they don’t have enough insulation to keep them above freezing temperature. Once the water freezes in the pipes, it expands, which can weaken the pipe and cause it to burst. This then means you have a huge leak on your hands. So, if you have any exposed pipework in your area, you should invest in some good quality insulation.
Buy Some Salt And Grit
If you have a carpark and a long walkway to your main entrance, you have probably heard your employees complain about ice during winter. It’s really important that you ensure no one gets hurt from a fall on your property as they would be within their right to sue. To prevent your car park or walkways getting too slippy, you should buy some salt and grit to spread over them. This will melt the ice and make it easier to walk on. You should be able to find salt and grit at your nearest hardware store. If not, contact your local authority or council.
During the winter, most companies close off rooms or areas that they don’t use on a regular basis. This is so they don’t have to waste any money heating them up. However, as no one is using them all the time, some issues might go unnoticed for a fairly long time. For instance, if there is a burst pipe in one infrequently used conference room, the problem could grow until someone notices it. So, make sure that all areas of your workplace are regularly checked for potential winter damage and problems.
Install Roof Snow Guards
Sure, snow is super pretty when it is falling outside your office, but have you ever thought about the damage that excess snowfall might do to your roof? It’s a good idea to get your roof reinforced, so it can hold up under all that weight. You should also install some snow guards so excess snowfall doesn’t slide off the roof onto someone! If you go through a very cold spell and notice icicles hanging from the roof, you should remove these as soon as possible. They can get dangerous when they start to melt and fall from the roof.
Follow these precautions and don’t get burnt this coming winter!
When Bill and Melinda Gates combined forces in their health foundation, nobody gave the former head of the Microsoft empire the benefit of the doubt. In fact, it’s only when the malaria vaccine received the green light two years ago that the press began to take his desire to eradicate the deadly disease seriously. In fact, there is no comparison globally to the investment that the Gates Foundation has made to the world of health. The foundation commits several hundreds thousands million of Dollar to the research and development of a life-saving vaccine. You don’t need to be looking at this kind of wealth to consider investing in health, yours and the health of others. Health is not a topic to take lightly: Without it, you are pretty much doomed. There can be no life without health, also while there are plenty of cures and treatments available for a variety of issues, ultimately health is what keeps your body and your mind functioning. Everything breaks if you choose not to invest time, energy and money in improving health issues. So this invites an important question of life and death: How do you invest in health? Add to Flipboard Magazine.
Because health and fitness can be so complicated it is a good idea to seek help. That help should include professionals but reflect the breadth of health demands. A primary health care physician is a good idea, but don’t neglect more specialized needs as well. MDs are valuable, but when it comes to nutrition, and fitness, those who are immersed in their fields can be real assets. A nutritionist can guide you in creating a personally beneficial diet, while a personal trainer can guide you to the most effective routines to gain fitness that is healthy and effective. Before considering a variety of health investment options, it’s essential to define what health actually means. Is health what you have when you can pass through the winter months without catching a cold? Is health that special gift that keeps dark thoughts at bay when you are on your own? Is health the absence of physical pain or does it relate to emotional pain? Or is health another word for wealth? So many questions, and so few answers! What we’re interested in, here, is the physical and mental health. Your physical health relates to your bodily functions. In most cases, troubles are easy to identify as they leave a physical mark, Mental health is a more complex topic that focuses on your emotional well-being. It’s not about measuring how happy you are in your life, but how you function at an emotional level and whether psychological factors are handicapping. Looking after your health is the combination of these both elements. Unfortunately, as you have probably guessed, mental health can easily go unnoticed. Emotions do not have a physical sign that marks them as an issue. Contrary to breaking an arm or catching a cold, a mental disease doesn’t always show.
Getting the basics right
Investing in your health is a matter of maintenance. If you don’t take care of your health, you can bet that it will not last very long. But thankfully for you, investing in your health doesn’t have to be synonymous with spending money. It is about establishing the rules of a healthy lifestyle. Being healthy starts with looking after yourself and doing everything you can to give your body the nutrients it needs to stay strong. In other words, however boring it sounds, following a healthy diet is actually good for your body. Not specifically because it means that you can drop a dress size, but because it means that you are feeding your body the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and carbs that it needs. In short, processed foods, sugary and fatty foods might sound delicious, but they do your bodily functions no good. They build fat cells around your organs; they slow down your metabolism; and more importantly, they increase the risk of developing heart and brain diseases. The least you put your body under unnecessary risks, the healthier it will keep you.
The necessary body maintenance
Giving your body the right kind of food is a kind of health investment. But there are many others that you can make. Think of your body as a machine that you need to keep in a good state if you want it to work. Forget the steampunk imagery about wheels and steam, and focus on more basic functions: Physical activity is key to support the production of hormones, and the blood flows to your organs and your brain. It’s no wonder that doctors recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity per day. It keeps things ticking properly in your body. Unfortunately, most people struggle to find the necessary motivation to work out. In fact, workouts are too often associated with a form of fitness desire. You should train not because you want a slimmer body, but because your body needs physical activity to maintain its functions. Investing in physical activities means blocking the time in your diary and seriously sticking to it. It demands dedication and efforts. You can also choose to buy exciting fitness gear to motivate your efforts, but in the end, body maintenance is about investing time in your health.
Your mental health is a little more difficult than just training. It’s about being able to take care of your mood. Naturally, you can’t force yourself to be happy when you are not. But you can make sure that you do everything you can to maintain your mental health. This starts by ensuring that you have a good night sleep, as lack of sleep can decrease the production of essential mood managing hormones. Additionally, developing positive habits can help your mind to stay focused on good vibes. Being grateful for the good moments in your life supports emotional growth and mental strength.
Keeping up with your health appointments
Even with the best care, there is no guarantee that your health will always be good. External factors can have a significant impact on your physical and mental health. Consequently, you still need to stay up-to-date with essential medical appointments to ensure that you are not taking any chances on your health. You need to rely on health specialists to help you to look after your teeth, skin, and your overall health.
What if you want to help others?
Looking after your health is one thing. Looking after the health of others is a way of investing your skills for the benefit of most. From dental nurses positions – you can find many here – to surgeons; there is an infinity of ways in which you can help to maintain the health of other people. As surprising as it might sound, personal trainers are just as important as they accompany people on the path of health by encouraging physical activities. Creating a healthy path for others to follow demands a lot of patience and specialist skills in addition to the necessary motivation and time.
The external health factors that others control for you
Unfortunately, investing in your health is not just a matter of dedication and wanting to make it work. You can’t control external factors, such as the weather, or more importantly the legislations and marketing of products that are controlled by the government. In fact, your health is nothing but another comma in a governmental budget. As a result it’s not uncommon for governments to choose money over individuals. The latest building fire in London – Grenfell Tower – revealed that governments preferred the cheapest over the safest option. And that, sadly enough, wasn’t an exception. In the great scheme of things, Bill and Melinda Gates are an exception in choosing people over money.
Investing in your health can be challenging at times. It’s a mixture of time, lifestyle choices, physical activity, and medical checkups. In other words, it often sounds like a chore. But if you don’t look after your health, you can’t expect anyone to do it for you. At a governmental level, economic arguments often win when it comes to decisions that could impact the health of others. Gradually the voices of environmentalists and those who want to look after the health of the planet will be heard. But in the meantime, looking after your health starts with looking after the flora and fauna around you.
Making it in business takes a lot of work. You have to dedicate a lot of your time and energy to achieve what you want. However, it’s not just putting in the hours that makes you a good entrepreneur. There are a number of factors that can influence how well you do and the amount of success you experience. If you want to be a good entrepreneur, you should always be looking for ways to be better. If you think you can’t improve, you’re almost definitely wrong. There are always things you can do to achieve better results and be more successful. Here are just a few of the things you could be doing.
Further Your Education
People often think that the best way to learn about doing business is to practice it. While that’s true to an extent, ignoring the value of a formal education could be a big mistake. You might already have a bachelor’s degree and wonder whether there’s any point in continuing your education. An MBA could be the ideal way to keep learning and to add some further credentials to your name. There’s no need to start going to school again either. When you take a triple accredited MBA distance learning course from Aston University, you can do it all online. It makes it easier to fit your studies around your business activity.
It’s always important to have an open mind and be willing to learn. One of the things that will quickly become apparent when you’re an entrepreneur is that you can’t get everything right. It’s inevitable that you’ll make a variety of mistakes along the way, and some of them can have harsh consequences. However, don’t let that stop you doing good work. The important thing is that you’re able to learn from your mistakes and that you don’t pretend they never happened or even repeat them.
Spend Less Time Working
Trying to grow a business takes a lot of work. However, it’s not a great idea to work all the time. If you spend all your time working, you neglect other areas of your life, including your education and learning. You need to make sure you have time to look after yourself and to do things like networking with others or keeping up with what’s happening in your industry. You might spend some time doing things that are helpful for your business, but they don’t have to be proper work.
Look After Your Team
Sometimes it can seem like a lot of entrepreneurs only make it in business by treating other people badly. But it’s vital that you’re able to not only choose the right employees but also look after them. Your core team, particularly when you’re just starting to grow your business, are important people. In fact, everyone who works for you makes a difference to productivity and the quality of your products or services.
If you want to be the best entrepreneur you can be, you have to keep trying to be better. There’s always something new to learn, even when you’ve found success.
Property investment, whether it be in your country of residence or international, is a highly lucrative game. Well, just look at success stories such asInvitation Homes, a real estate investment trust (REIT) that made over a billion in its stock market debut! Yes, property investment is a form of investing that gives investors the chance to make some serious cash, and best of all it is a type of investment that gives investors the chance to control the ROI they make. Yep, through the way changes can be made to the property in repairs and design upgrades property investors can actively better their chances at investment success when they choose to invest in property, and that is what makes it such a lucrative game.
You can own a place in the sun
When you choose to invest in property abroad you give yourself a reason to travel abroad. And, if the property you invest in is in a hot country then you afford yourself the opportunity to escape the cold winter of your country of residence and enjoy the hot sun of somewhere else. If that’s not enough of a tantalising prospect, then what is?
You would expand your investment portfolio
When you prove that you can not only invest in property but that you can invest in property in somewhere other than your own country, you willexpand your investment portfolio no end. This is because you will show yourself to be able to handle the pressures of dealing in a foreign currency, and that will only ever look good on you as you seek to forge a name for yourself in the world of property investment and investment in general in the future.
If nothing else, it will provide you with a passive income
If you’re investment venture isn’t designed to provide you with a wage or salary in order to attain the standard of living that you need, then it can provide you with a passive income or a bit of money on the side to top up your monthly wage. Yes, investing in property abroad can just be done to provide you with a bit of extra cash as you seek to do something else in your life to make money; maybe it could be done tofund your next business venture? And, when your overseas property investment venture is set up in this way you will find that there is no pressure attached to it and you will subsequently enjoy it more.
There you have it, four reasons as to why investing in property abroad is a good reason; to find some more reasons (not that you should need to), headhere.
So, get investing and get making some money abroad and do it before somebody else does!
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