Life Can Be Simple.blog
DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. Living the Laptop Life in 2024 What comes to your mind when you think of the laptop life? Depending on your age, I figure it could mean a lot of things. If very young, it may not hold the same high value as it does in my advanced age. But would it not be great to run your whole life with just a simple laptop and be able to travel and do what you desire? With the internet available almost everywhere nowadays, there is little you could not do with a laptop. If you have cell service, you can toggle your cellphone and use it for wireless connectivity. You can find things you need on eBay or Amazon and have them delivered to your current location. Life could not be much simpler, which ties to our blog site LifeCanBeSimple.net. Being free to travel and do what you want has to be close to the ideal situation. I have thought a lot about what my perfect retirement life would be like. After some reflection, I think my current life might be close to what I would consider the perfect retirement. To only work a few days a week and have money to do what I want to do, that sounds very ideal to me. To live a full life, we need to be able to do several things. No life is worth living without a close relationship with God. In Master Successful Personal Habits by Zig Ziglar, Zig Ziglar says that when you have your eternity set knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the rest of this life is a piece of cake. I totally agree with his assessment. Having good relationships with your family is high on my priority list. Good health is a blessing from God. And to be able to travel and handle all my investments easily makes living the Laptop Life a perfect way to have all things in control. With the right laptop and setup, you can monitor your investments and do all the needed research on new investments. I love the research available on Schwab Investments and Fidelity Investments. I did articles on both of those and explained what I loved most about them. My Favorite Brokerage: Fidelity Investments Schwab Investments My favorite website to give me leads on Preferred Stocks and Closed End Funds is the Preferred Stock Channel. Each week I take the Preferred Stock Channel’s best Preferred Stock list showing the 10 top highest returns and review them for those that are quality companies just out of favor with the market. Don’t get wrapped up in the one with the highest paying dividends. Be sure that the stock is being sold at a discount to par value (below $25 per share) and paying above 10% in dividends based on lowered value. This is all explained in the article Understanding Preferred Stocks. (click here) My laptop of choice in 2024 is the Dell Latitude 7420 with the Intel Eleventh gen Core I7 Processor. I use the various laptops I have for sale on eBay, so the one pictured at the top of this article is a 16gb model with 512gb SSD. Memory on this model is not upgradeable, so always buy the amount of memory you need. I explained about how my grandson Paul Culver, and I refurbish and sell these Dell Laptops on our Internet Direct eBay store . Each year I move up another year or two to the next I7 generation. I really love the 7420 2 in 1 Model. It is lightweight and very efficient. It has a 14” screen which I find ideal. Sometimes I use the 12.5” models or the 13.3” models, but the 14” is my favorite screen size. Large enough to read, but the laptop is slim and trim with minimal weight. (Approximately 2 3/4 lbs.) I upgraded to Windows 11 about 18 months ago and am very pleased with Windows 11. I can move back and forth between it and Windows 10 easily now. If you are familiar with Chromebooks, I think they designed Windows 11 around that concept. Below is how my start window appears on my work laptop. I do most of my Visual Programming using various Visual Studio Versions. I do computer consulting work in my business focused on programming and networking. I write a lot of articles for my blog, so I need the ability to jot down notes when I think of them, whether working on my laptop, my backup living room laptop (also a Dell 7420 2 in 1 Latitude), or my Google Pixel 5 cell phone. I accomplish this by using Microsoft OneDrive. You find the OneDrive icon on the right side of the taskbar. The little cloud is OneDrive. You must have a Microsoft Account to use OneDrive. You can setup one for free and you get 10gb of free space. If you purchase the Office 365 package like I do yearly for $65, you get 1TB of space. (That is 1000 GB). I have tons of stuff on my OneDrive, and I have yet to use up 10gb. When you setup OneDrive, there are many options as to whether to keep the files on both your laptop or in the cloud. Normally you have a local copy in your USERS file in the OneDrive directory. You can mark directories to always maintain a copy of files on the local drive. On all my websites and documents, I keep a local copy. This is your decision. By having your files on OneDrive, you have multiple copies of your documents and pictures and they are available on all your devices including your smart phone. What is great is I can start an article like I did today on my work laptop, and then come in and continue working on it on my living room Laptop. If you have never used OneDrive, I urge you to try it. Google offers Google iDrive as an alternative. If you use a Chromebook, it is a good alternative. I don’t have the costs to compare it with OneDrive. Back when I started working with computers, we had a room full of equipment that had only 8K of memory that cost over $100,000. Nowadays, you can get 128gb of Ram on a cell phone. Things have changed tremendously, and we have so much flexibility today. If you write or use a computer at work, consider using a laptop. It will give you a lot of flexibility and takes up almost no room. I will plug the Dell Latitudes as a great value for the money. We normally have 30 to 50 different configurations listed for sale on our eBay Store. Investment Articles Minimalism Articles Internet Direct Laptops
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FOCUS In the busy times we live, sometimes we have to stop and assess what we are doing and how we are doing it. To accomplish things as easily as possible, we must learn to focus. The dictionary defines focus as: A center of interest or activity Close or narrow attention with concentration To direct toward a particular point or purpose. Notice how all 3 definitions point to the same thing. Get something in your mind and concentrate on that one thing. With all the distractions of life, it is truly not easy. Some people have dinging sounds go off each time an email comes in or their phone beeps as messages come in. Social media updates can keep you distracted all day. These probably need to be minimized or eliminated, particularly when at work. In the book “Limitless”, Jim Kwik talks of how we are covered up in what he calls digital distraction and digital deluge. No one can take in all the information being shoved at us from all directions. I do not have sounds come in each time a new item comes into my email box or a new message comes in. I receive approximately 300 emails a day, and that is after using spam filters are used to forward from one email service over to Gmail which filters it again. If I stopped to look at every email that came into my inbox, I would not accomplish one thing during the day. Do I miss some important emails? Perhaps a few, but I don’t spend time watching emails. I check them in the morning, at noon, and then again between 3:30 and 4:30 in case of any major issues at work. If it is important and I miss a message or email, the phone will ring. So try to turn off many of the distractions and constant advertisements that bombard us from television, web browsers, and social media. Not all of this is bad, but we can be quickly overloaded with all these attempts to distract us. I read recently that the average person who watches 2 hours of tv and browses the internet and social media 1 hour a day is faced with approximately 3,000 advertisements. This includes those on the radio and the billboards you see as you drive down the highway. To get things done, we need to funnel our attention to the thing at hand. Whatever it is, we need to really put our full power and concentration into the thing we are doing. When working, I try to always remember the admonition in scripture to do things the very best we can. Col 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; To get our full attention on the task at hand, we must learn to shut off distractions and focus on what is important. Work deserves our full attention, but we can’t be doing 5 things at once. The human mind was never designed to multitask. We are not like computers who can switch back and forth and keep up with where we were. Each time you are interrupted, your productivity goes down. I was the data processing manager for a large hospital for 10 years. A lot of people were employed over those years, and many were very disorganized. I particularly remember this one lady who could not be effective at work. All she could do was discuss her family issues with her husband and 3 kids. When she went home at night, she was ineffective there as all she could do was complain about the work and the people at work. One day we discussed her issue and I explained that when she was at work, she needed to focus on work. And when she went home, focus on family and forget work. After our discussion, her productivity increased and she was a much happier person both at work and at home. All of us are tempted to let distractions defeat us. We need to put everything to the side and be in the moment. When with your kids, don’t be texting or watching television. (unless doing it as a family). So if you are out shopping, don’t be concerned with work or other concerns. If you are having time with your kids or grandkids, be in that exact moment. When at church, put your full attention to worshipping the Lord and keep your mind on God, and don’t think about what activities may be going on after church. And when working, concentrate on the task at hand. List out your to-do list, prioritize, and pick out the specific thing that needs to be accomplished. Always keep in mind that most likely you will only accomplish 2 or 3 things in a day. Be sure you are on the important things. And then only focus on the task at hand. By minimizing the distractions, and putting our focus on the one thing at hand, we can accomplish more and have a more successful day. Try cutting off the digital distractions and see if your productivity is not improved. It will settle your mind and you will not be nervous about all the things pending to be done. Perhaps you can turn off your phone during certain hours of the day. Not everyone can, but if possible, it can help you to focus at a high level. What will be the results of minimizing distractions and focusing on the task at hand?
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Differences in Faith and Fear I try to constantly learn more to increase my Spiritual relationship with the Lord. Anything that really touches my heart makes me study the topic even more. Last week, Stan Clines, my good friend and fellow church member, brought a super devotion on Fear and Faith. He pointed out that they are totally unalike. Faith is from God; Fear is from Satan. Definition of FAITH: Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Definition of Fear: an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger anxious concern reason for alarm caused by listening to liars We all have heard the words Faith and Fear all our lives. However, I had never realized that the two words are polar opposites. They are 180 degrees apart. If Faith is the north pole, then fear is the south pole. How many verses do you think the word “fear” appears in the bible? 385 verses. “Feareth” is in an additional 20 verses, while “faith” is found in 231 verses. God’s desire for his people is to spurn fear and turn in trust by faith to him when we face weak times. God does not want us to be people of fear. In every instance when God or an angel appeared to men in the Old and New Testaments, some of the first words they spoke were “Fear Not.” Here are some verses from the Old Testament Gen_15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Gen_26:24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. Exo_20:20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. Jos_8:1 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land: Same Words Found in the New Testament Mat_1:20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Mat_28:5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. Luk_1:13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. Luk_1:30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. Luk_2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. When you look at the men and women of faith in the bible, you see people that exhibited little fear. Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Heb 11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: Heb 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Heb 11:11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Heb 11:12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. Time does not allow us to review the dozens of examples of faith in the bible. Chapter 11 of Hebrews covers many men and women who God commended for their faith. You look at young David facing Goliath on the battlefield with a sling and a rock. You see men like Daniel thrown in a den of lions but by faith coming out unhurt the following morning. What sets these people apart from others? Undying faith in the omnipotent Jehovah God. Let’s all get rid of fear in our lives. Let’s get up each day, look to the Savior of our souls, Jesus Christ, and seek help each day so that we too can live without fear. Fear is from Satan and is not for the child of God. 1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. So, if fear is overtaking us, we need to develop a higher level of faith in God. Read your bible. Be in constant prayer on a daily basis with the Lord. Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
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David ParhamChristian Minimalist and Investor. God guides and helps me everyday. Archives
May 2024
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