Moneywise24 Personal Finance

Looking at life as a whole, life is generally defined by three major areas: finance, health, and relationships. What ever we do, who we are, or where we are, we encounter these three areas which define every single day of ours.

Finance mainly focuses on money. It concerns career, it means business, it includes the money you earn, and the money you spend. It includes all investments, all stocks, bonds, mutual investments, retirement planning, insurance payments, debts and savings. Read the rest of this entry →

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I like to stumble over a lot of weird and funny articles. Today, when I was sitting in the train on my way to work, was one of those days. On my Android phone, I scanned the ‘weird story section’ and found an article on Bleachorexia. Bleachorexia is a term which derives from the US, and it basically describes a compulsive need and desire to bleach one’s teeth.

Often, bleachorexia patients define themselves according to models, superstars, and what the media makes them believe what is normal. Similar to anorexia, bleachorexia patients already have extremely white teeth, but often have a distorted self-image, and have the desire to keep bleaching their teeth in order to keep up with the media standards.

However, too much bleaching can do a lot of harm to one’s teeth. It can cause the glaze of the teeth to get thinner, and the the teeth can become much more sensitive due to the aggressive substances used. Although originally a US phenomenon, bleachorexia has been introduced in Europe recently, with an increasing number of patients.

I can’t help of having the impression that lifestyle disorders and diseases are becoming more and more, especially in the western world. I was already very surprised, when my doctor told me in a colloquial conversation we had, that psychologists in my city already have extremely long waiting lists, and the patients are simply piling up.

But honestly, just looking at the behavior of some random people on the street doesn’t really make me wonder…

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The challenge of having flexible working environments for their employees is a hot topic in some companies. Other companies keep prefer to regulate everything. Personally, I find the idea of having flexible working hours, and being able to work from home when needed a good idea. Actually, I wanted to try it out, now that my company is introducing flexible working hours more and more.

So, I took my laptop on a fine Monday morning, went to work around 10 a.m., then left the office at 2 p.m. Of course, I still have so much of my day left, that I decided to do some groceries and to go to the health club afterward. At 6 p.m., I put on my laptop and work for a few hours. This, I have been repeating for the rest of the week. During the weekend, I work for one or two hours, knowing that I will have this time available in the upcoming week.

I have done this only for one week, and come to the conclusion that having flexible working hours creates a lot of freedom, but at the same time I had to catch up with that ‘lost’ time during impossible hours, such as during the evening and during the weekend. As a result, I might have enjoyed my day, but I was not able to enjoy my evenings; I had to tell my friends that I was not able to come along for a beer, since I still had some work to do… and during the weekend, I had to make sure that I had some hours available, with a working internet connection, to catch up with some work.

What was even worst, is that in the end, I worked much more than during a regulated working day. Besides that, doing home office means that some of the time, I was not even being productive. I quickly checked my private e-mails on my private laptop, or did some dish washing. As a result, I had to keep working even longer.

I still find that flexible working hours is a good thing, it allows you to take care of some urgent business, and log onto the company network at a later time. But it does take a lot of discipline not to turn into a workaholic. Also, having such flexible working hours makes little sense, if your friends, girl-friend or wife, or family does not have the same flexibility. I often found myself spending free time during the afternoon when my girl-friend has to work, but then I was working when she wanted to spend some quality time.

Perhaps a flexible working environment makes more sense for singles?

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I will simply assume that most people out there are hard working, responsible, and loyal employees. At least I am, and most colleagues I deal with are so to. When I get sick, provided it is not something too serious, I know from experience it is a hard task to actually call my employer and call in sick; I’d rather still go to work, do something productive, and above all demonstrate my company that I am someone, who my company can build on. I know many people do the same thing.

Lack of quality

Still, when sick, often going to work is not the right thing to do. Even when having a slight cold, your concentration can suffer. After some time, your eye sigh may get blurry, you might not be able to think that fast. Especially task, which demand a great amount of precision and concentration, may not get executed with the high quality, that your employer might know your for.

Contagiousness

Depending on the type of disease, it might be contagious. Perhaps you do not know what type of disease you have, and you do not know whether it is contagious or not. Even with a slight cold, you may not see the problem. But still, having a cold is contagious, and it might infect others.

The risk is not only, that half of the people you deal with on a daily basis might become sick in the next few days, but perhaps also that you are getting the blame for it. No matter how unpleasant it is, especially when the disease is at its peak, it is best to stay home. And if you really need to work for whatever reason, you may want to verify your options for doing home office.

Regeneration of the body

When the body gets sick, it will need more available energy to regenerate. In other words: rest.

Going to work while sick may prevent your body to find that energy it needs for you to get better. The result may potentially be, that either you get more sick, or that the sickness prolongues, and that the healing process is delayed.

Going to work when being sick while still being able to work might seem the right option, and perhaps staying at home would conflict with your feeling of loyalty, and being a hard working employee. However, it is important to remember that we are all still human beings, and that we all need time to regenerate. Especially immediately after a time of great stress, the chance of becoming sick increases. Here it is important to rest, or at least ensure that the bacteria are spread throughout the company.

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Being from The Netherlands originally, I have grown up with my bicycle. In The Netherlands, on average there is one bicycle per inhabitant, and there are more bicycles than cars. Yet I have managed to lose touch of using the bicycle as a main form of transportation when I went abroad; especially here in Germany, where people are pretty car-crazy.

Still I enjoy using the bicycle, and there are actually 3 main reasons, which I want to suggest here, why it could be a good idea to use the bicycle as an alternative form of transportation, at least partially.

It’s cheap

Let’s face it. Since this is a money-related blog, the first benefit of using a bicycle is that it’s cheap. Bicycles come for a few hundred Dollars already, and for a bit more you’ll be able to purchase a bicycle of good quality; it really does not have to cost more than 1,000 Dollars or Euros. The maintenance costs are also low: I had my bicycle maintained before last winter for around 60 Euros. I do this every year, so that I know everything is in good order, nothing is broken, and that I can fully enjoy riding it. I find nothing more irritating than having to deal with something that is half broken.

Perhaps the most important cost-savings factor is the money saved on fuel, road tax, and insurance.

If you have a bicycle of good quality, with a bit of precaution you would be able to ride for 10 years perhaps. I have mine for 12 years now… but it does need replacement.

It’s healthy

Getting some exercise is healthy. I feel we spend too much time behind our laptops, getting too little exercise. Even if it’s for 5 minutes per day, still it’s 5 minutes. I use the bicycle during summer to get to work, as an alternative to the metro. That makes 30 kilometers (or 18.7 Miles) per day. It took around one month until I was starting to get some very powerfull results. At winter, when I am not using the bicycle, I exercise one additional day per week at the gym, in order not to lose the beautiful results of summer.

You always get a parking space

The last benefit to using a bicycle is that you’ll always get a parking space. No more driving around blocks for hours, waiting for a parking space to become free, paying loads of money on fuel, or paying enormous amounts on parking fees (in the Amsterdam city center, you pay an average of 5 Euros per hour for a parking space on the street… if you are able to find some). You can virtually just hop on, go where you want to go, and leave your bicycle right in front of where you want to be.

All in all, I find cycling an excellent way to stay fit, healthy, and save some money in the process. Surely I won’t go through this trouble when I have to carry things around with me. But when I know that I am traveling lightweight, and I don’t need to go very far, and the weather permits it, the bicycle is my way to go.

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