Author: Helen

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3 Self Care Tips for Busy Parents

For many people, it can be easy to get so caught up in the daily routine of parenthood that they fail to take the time to care for themselves. If this describes you, it’s likely that you are feeling symptoms of burnout and are in need of a break. No matter how much you love spending time with your kids, there’s no denying that you need time to yourself in order to function your best. If you feel that you don’t have the time for self care amidst all your familial responsibilities, you aren’t alone – here are 3 simple ways to take care of yourself as a busy parent.

1. Make Time For Fun

While self care for many people might mean spending time alone to catch up on rest, it can also mean spending time with friends and loved ones that you might not see otherwise. Many parents neglect their friendships or taking time to have fun with people who aren’t living in their household or associated with their children’s lives (ie fellow parents from your child’s school), so take an evening to intentionally spend time with old friends you haven’t seen in a while. This will help to switch up the monotony of your daily routine while allowing you to unwind and have some fun with loved ones.

2. Stay Active

One way to care for yourself even in the midst of a busy week is by fitting time into your schedule to move your body and stay active. If you don’t have time to hit the gym, try walking to work or doing some light exercise while your child is at dance class or soccer practice. Exercising and keeping your body moving is not only good for your physical health, but is shown to have positive effects on your mental and emotional health as well.

3. Treat Yourself

Many parents find that they spend so much money on their children and so little on themselves. If you’re usually the selfless type, splurge on a special purchase or item that you’ve been eyeing at the store for a while. Whether you treat yourself to some ink from Certified Tattoo Studios, tickets to see your favorite artist in concert, or the purse you’ve been wanting someone to gift you for the last 2 birthdays, you deserve to splurge on something that will make you happy every now and then.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

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5 Ways to Eliminate Capital Gains

Taxes are one of two certainties in life. Just because they’re inevitable, that doesn’t mean taxpayers can’t limit how much they pay the government. Capital gains taxes can significantly erode yearly earnings, but it’s possible to reduce or eliminate them. Here, we’ll offer some information on capital gains taxes, as well as some tax avoidance strategies and implementation tips.

What’s the Capital Gains Tax All About?

When people own real estate, stocks, land, businesses, and other assets and sell them for a profit, they’ve achieved capital gains. The government will want their share of the proceeds, which is known as the capital gains tax. Depending on the classification of gains and your yearly taxable income, the rate may vary.

Avoiding Capital Gains

No one wants to hand over a significant portion of their profits to the government. Fortunately, there are several ways to reduce the amount of taxes paid after selling assets, and we’ll go over them in the sections below.

Invest in Opportunity Zones

Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was established in 2017, qualified opportunity zone funds near me have given investors an incentive to work in distressed communities. By investing in underserved areas, you can potentially reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes. These savings are only available, however, when an investment is retained for the required timeframe.

Select Long-Range Investments

A capital gain may be short- or long-term, and each type has a different tax rate. Any asset held for a year or less is classed as short-term. These gains are taxed at the ordinary rate, which may be up to 37%, depending on your taxable income. To avoid that big hit, pick long-term investments when possible.

Start a Tax-Deferred Retirement Plan

For some investors, most assets and savings are tied up in retirement accounts. It’s best to optimize these accounts to the extent possible by using tax-exempt and tax-deferred plans to eliminate capital gains taxes. When contributing to traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, and other tax-deferred plans, you’ll get a deduction on all contributions made during the tax year.

Be Patient

With this tax elimination strategy, you’ll save now and in the future. Money put into retirement accounts will also grow with time. When you’re ready to make a withdrawal, account growth is taxed at the ordinary rate instead of being assessed a capital gains tax.

Offset Gains

Those holding a range of assets can sometimes offset some gains with losses, thereby reducing or eliminating the capital gains tax. For example, if an investment decreases in value by $5000, but another one is up by $4000, selling both assets would reduce capital gains. You’d only pay the tax on the difference, or $1000, instead of the full $5000 gain on the first investment.

Keep More of Your Hard-Earned Money

Reducing or eliminating capital gains taxes paid on certain assets will help you give less money to the government—and keep more of it in your own pocket. The capital gains tax may range from 0% to 28%, depending on the asset class, your income, and other factors. Tax-deferred retirement accounts, offsets, patience, and long-term investments are all effective ways to reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes. While taxes are an inevitable part of life in America, paying too much isn’t. By following these strategies, investors can reduce tax liabilities and save more of what they’ve worked for.

Image by Rob Owen-Wahl from Pixabay

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How to Get Your Child Comfortable With Water

It’s the weekend, it’s summer; what better time to go to the pool than right now? You don’t have to worry about filing documents or performing surgeries like the kind done at thebunioncure.com, because you’re taking your kid to the local aquatic center where they can practice their cannon balls and see how long they can hold their breath.

The only problem is that they’re scared of the water. But not to worry, because there are a few easy tips you can try to get them more comfortable.

Begin in the Tub

There’s no better way to practice getting comfortable with water than plopping your kid in the bathtub. If they’re terrified to even do that, then you’ve got a lot of work to do, but if their concern is targeted specifically at larger bodies of water like pools or the ocean, starting with the bathtub can help a lot. This is a small and confined space where they can work on holding their breath, dipping their head underwater, and learning to grow accustomed to water in general.

Dip a Toe

You can’t expect your child to dive head first into the deep end of the pool if they aren’t a fan of water. Instead, start small by just having them sit on the edge of the pool and dipping their feet into the water. If the pool has a shallow walk-in “beach” tide, they can slowly work on going out further and further over time until, eventually, they’re just standing in water.

Bubble Blowing Time

Standing in water is great progress, but it’s only the beginning. You can’t expect to ever swim without getting your face a little wet, so begin by getting them to blow bubbles. They won’t have to stick their entire head in the water or get any up their nose, and if you mimic it with them, they might even see that it can be fun. Then, over time, they’ll get to the point where they feel comfortable submerging the rest of their head.

Start With Gear

Lots of kids need gear when they’re first learning to get comfortable with water. This might include goggles, noseplugs, earplugs, and floaties. These essentially work to fight everything that’s scary about getting in the water. No water can get in their nose, eyes, or ears, plus with floaties, they don’t even need to be able to swim. If you just want them comfortable with being in the water and having fun, this gear is fine. They shouldn’t rely on it as a crutch forever, but it’s a good starting point.

Swimming in No Time

These are all great tricks and tips to get your child more comfortable with being in the water, and while they might not be ready to take off the goggles and floaties anytime soon, they’ll be swimming like a fish in no time.

Image by Jan Haerer from Pixabay

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Top 5 Cash Flow Problems Businesses Face and How to Solve Them

Cash flow is the number one thing to get right in business. You can’t keep the lights on if you don’t have money to pay the bills. And when 82% of businesses fail because of cash flow issues, it’s more common than you think.

You can’t afford cash flow problems if you want to set your business up for success. Keep reading to learn the typical cash flow issues and how to fix them.

  1. No Cash Reserves

It’s not enough as a business to have money coming in. If all you do is pay for expenses and invest in growth, you won’t be able to set aside cash reserves. What happens when something happens that requires an expense you can’t pay for?

While investing in growth is not a mistake, don’t do so without growing your reserves. Ensure you have a minimum amount of money in your business bank account to handle unexpected issues.

  1. Late Invoices

Invoices are a must when you sell to other companies. The problem is that those companies will generally pay using net terms. You may not see your payment for between 30 and 90 days.

While this isn’t an issue most of the time, it is when people don’t pay on time. Inevitably, you’ll run into companies that have problems meeting their payment terms. Come up with a way to track unpaid invoices and stay on top of the companies that are late.

  1. Excess Purchases

You probably won’t have a problem scrutinizing large purchases. You don’t make them often, so you do everything possible to vet the need for the purchase. The same isn’t always true for smaller items.

Small purchases can take away much of your net profit if you aren’t careful. You’ll need to invest in business spend management strategies to avoid too many small buys.

  1. High Overhead

You won’t get away with overhead in your business. You’ll need to pay for utilities, software, and other things to keep your business running. The problem is that many services will raise their price over time and drive up your monthly expenses.

However, you don’t have to accept those price increases if you have other options. Contact your vendors regularly to see if you can negotiate a lower monthly rate. If you can’t, start looking at other vendor options to switch to.

  1. Excess Inventory

Yes, it’s a wise decision to carry more inventory than you believe you need. You never know when you’ll get a surplus of demand. You need additional products to meet that demand.

However, there is such thing as too much inventory. Every dollar you put towards your inventory is cash tied up that you can use elsewhere. Keep your inventory levels only as high as needed to preserve your money.

Do Everything You Can to Fix Cash Flow Problems

You can’t afford to get caught off guard in business and not have the cash to deal with immediate problems. Without enough money in the reserve, you’ll suffer from devastating setbacks that put your business at risk.

You need to avoid all the common cash flow problems if you want to see business success. Keep the issues above in mind to make cash flow management easier.

Check out the blog for more insight into managing business finances.

 

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Taking a Break From Work? Bring Your Kids to Universal Studios

Has work been a lot lately? Need to use that accumulated vacation time to get away for a bit? If so, why not grab the kids and head to Universal Studios! This famous theme park is one of the best in the world, with a diverse variety of rides, games, shows, and dining options available that you and your kids will all enjoy. But what sets Universal apart from other theme parks that will leave your kids ecstatic?

Innovative Attractions

Most other theme parks have an abundance of roller coasters and other standard attractions that you could find at most amusement parks, and while Universal definitely has these classic rides, the area where they shine is their 3D motion attractions. These innovative rides blend 3D and 4D technology with motion technology to transport riders to any destination imaginable. Not only is it unique and engaging, but many of these attractions have low height requirements that younger kids can likely ride as well. This ensures that they won’t be restricted to the “kiddy” rides during the entire visit.

You’ll also want to wear comfortable footwear and take breaks throughout the day, as the day will be filled with standing in line and walking from ride to ride, and unless you want to develop blisters or bunions—in which case you’ll need help from thebunioncure.com—it’s important to be prepared.

Immersive Atmosphere

Universal’s atmosphere is one of the most immersive experiences available. Not only are the rides thrilling, but the environments themselves are so engrossing that you could walk around the park for hours without even jumping on an attraction. The insane attention to detail can be found throughout the park, whether it’s on a ride, observing a passing parade, interacting with characters, visiting the countless shops and stores, dining at a restaurant, or even just waiting in line! Regardless of if your child is getting their very own wand at Olivander’s Wand Emporium or getting your picture taken with Homer Simpson himself, the magic never stops.

Unforgettable Dining

The fun doesn’t end when you get off the coaster. Universal has some of the most unforgettable food options you and your kids will ever experience. Many of their restaurants are themed after a popular property, such as The Simpsons Fast Food Blvd, where hungry patrons can smash Krusty Burgers and wash it all down with Buzz Cola or a Flaming Moe. For Harry Potter fans, The Three Broomsticks or The Leaky Caudron feels like they were pulled straight out of the movies, allowing diners to order several wizarding food options. Your kids will simply adore all of the different settings, so much so that they won’t even complain about stopping from all the rides to grab a bite!

Fun For the Whole Family

All of these exciting features are what make Universal Studios such a hot spot, not only for kids but for adults as well. Your kids will love the wind whipping their faces as they ride looping coasters and cackle when you get soaked on numerous water rides, and by the end of the trip, you’ll find yourself reinvigorated for work and excited to tackle your next family vacation.

Image by pen_ash from Pixabay

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