Most of us need a little bit more balance in our lives. If you ever feel frazzled and you’re losing control over everything around you, you can probably relate to this need. The lack of control and balance in your life is something that happens gradually, and often you don’t realize how much balance you have lost, until you go to restore that balance. But not only do you need to restore that balance, but you need to redefine what it means to have balance in your life. If you don’t have a clear vision of the balance that your life needs, you will never be able to maintain it.

Work

When most people think about the balance of their life, work is the first thing that comes to mind. Work can look like so many different things, which is often why it is so difficult to balance out in your life. You may have a full time job that takes up most of your waking hours week after week. And many of us have a hard time truly leaving work at work, focusing on work problems and issues once we are home.

In addition to your career, there are household items that demand a lot of time, and this also constitutes work. Childcare is another thing that, while it feels unfair to label it as work, is absolutely work.

This is often just scratching the surface of the things in your life that are work. So, how is it possible to gain any balance when there are so many work related things that are pulling your attention in a hundred different directions at once? There will always be exceptions, but you should strive to have specific hours that you spend on work tasks. If you have a 9-5, leave that work there. Don’t bring projects home with you, and don’t answer emails regarding work issues when you are home. Specify certain hours that you will be doing housework. If you have hours set on a daily basis, it will be easier to keep your home clean and will not take more than your designated daily hours to keep things clean.

Down time

Down time sometimes feels like something you’ll never have again. You think back to the simple times when you were in high school, college, pre children, pre career, that you had time to do absolutely nothing. You will probably never have such an abundance of free time ever again, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to have some free time in your life. In fact, it is necessary in order for you to thrive and have an enjoyable life. Depriving yourself of free time is going to stress you out and make you less productive when you are focusing on other things. Every single day, no matter what deadlines or dishes you have, you need to let yourself take a break. Schedule it in before you start your day, so you don’t have an excuse to skip it when you are feeling overwhelmed.

Pleasure

It’s important to separate downtime from scheduled time to do things that you enjoy. Downtime should be time that you are able to sit and not worry about things. Spend that time catching up on your favorite tv show. But you should also schedule out activities of things you enjoy. Date nights, grabbing drinks with friends, brunch on the weekends, going to the movies. These won’t happen every day, but are important to have on a weekly basis.

Wellness

Your health is important, and often neglected when you are overwhelmed and busy. It doesn’t take a lot of time to plan out healthy meals for your week, but it’s important to do so, and to stick to it. Finding time to be active and workout, even if it is just going on a walk in the evening with your dog, will improve the quality of your life, and you’ll find that you have more energy for other things during the days.

Going back to school is a dream that many people have, nowadays. There are many reasons for this. For some people, they may not have even pursued higher education in the first place (not that there’s anything wrong with that), others may have left school to pursue a job opening or family goals, and others still may have gotten their degree in a field that isn’t bringing them the happiness or success that they crave.

Regardless of the reason, going back to school can be a great way to shift the current priorities of your life, but it has many drawbacks of whether it is feasible financially or timewise. Here are questions you should be asking yourself before you go back to school…

Will It Let Your Pursue a Career That Makes You Happier?

First of all, consider the reason that you are going back to school. One of the most valid reasons to go back to school is because it will enable you to get a job in a field that brings you far more happiness.

This happiness can come in different forms. Maybe you got a degree in accounting, but find that you hate the day-to-day work more than anything else and want to switch to a career where you can use your hands more. In this example, happiness comes from a desire to enjoy the actual work being done. Other times, getting a degree to work in a more lucrative industry may help bring happiness in the form of additional income. Consider what happiness looks like to you, and whether going back to school is a realistic way to achieve that happiness.

Does It Make Financial Sense?

Unfortunately, the biggest roadblock to going back to school for most people is whether or not it is financially viable. There’s no getting around it, school is expensive. Aside from medical debt, student debt is one of the most common forms of debt that drive people to declare bankruptcy. For some career paths, though, it’s simply not realistic to break into specific industries without an applicable degree. The good news, though, is that there are several key cost-saving measures to consider, listed below.

Is There an Online Option?

When you go back to school, you’re paying a premium price for instructors, buildings, facilities, amenities, additional staff, potential housing, and lots more. Online schooling options are able to cut out a lot of extraneous costs because there are fewer upkeep and startup costs per class, and thus they tend to be significantly less expensive than attending school on a physical campus. So you should consider if there is an online option that makes sense for the degree you are seeking to attain.

Is a Tech School Right?

People’s idea of higher education is often tied to a traditional 4-year college, but this isn’t the only option. Tech schools provide fast-tracked programs to work in a variety of advanced trades and technical industries. They are also available for a fraction of the price, and can almost always be done in less than two years, if not 6 months. This makes tech school a more affordable and realistic option for many people.

Will Your Work Pay for Your School?

Another way to make the option of going back to school more financially feasible is to see if your work is willing to help you pay the cost of attaining a higher degree. If you are going back to school to further excel in your current career field, then your employer has a vested interest in your training. Some companies already have programs set up to help their employees do this, but if that doesn’t currently exist, it might be worth starting a dialogue with your employer to see if that is a possibility.

Can You Learn the Same Skills Outside of School?

While higher education is a terrific way to develop an understanding of complex concepts and get training in many fields, there are some industries where you can get equal or superior training by learning on the job. If this option is open to you, you should do a quick cost-benefit analysis to determine if your specific goals are better met by jumping right into the field you want to work in, rather than going to school first.

Taking a fast-track degree course online is a great way for professionals to acquire higher education while in a full-time job. Also, online programs cost less than regular classroom-based college degrees, and they offer more flexibility in terms of completing assignments and time and location of study.

If you’re looking to acquire a college degree fast, here are five frequently asked questions that will answer your basic queries about degree programs available online.

Can I do an advanced course such as Master’s or PhD online?

Yes. Several reputed colleges offer advanced online degree courses in a number of subjects. You can enroll for an accelerated Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s, Master’s, and even a PhD.

Where should I enroll for an online program?

Many established colleges and prestigious universities now also offer online degree programs for working professionals. Choosing the right institution for an online college degree depends on a number of factors; however, the most important question you should ask is if the institution and the course being offered are accredited to a recognized accrediting agency.

Should I opt for a college that has regional accreditation or national accreditation?

It has been seen that regional accreditation is more respected that national accreditation. So if you have a choice, opt for a program accredited to a regional accrediting organization. For educational institutions it is harder to acquire regional accreditation because of the strict rules governing the same.

At the same time, studying with a regionally accredited college may cost you more, but it also has several advantages: If you’re a working professional, your employer may offer to reimburse your tuition; you can use your credits from a previous course (at a regionally accredited college) to the present course; and you can seek state license in different lines of work.

How can I fast-track my online college degree program?

One way to do this is to take an exam such as CLEP in a subject that you don’t want to study all over again. By taking this exam for a small fee, you can get up to 12 credits on your course. This not only accelerates your college education, but also saves you tuition money for those subjects.

Other ways to fast-track your online college degree is to take accelerated classes; receive credit for past education, work or life experience; or receive credit for military training.

What are the key points to consider when choosing a fast online degree program?

First and foremost, the college must be accredited to a respected accrediting agency. The other key factors that should influence your choice of an online course are: cost of the program including any hidden fees, length of the degree course, minimum admission requirements, start and end dates of the program, learner-faculty ratio, class size, and, last but not least, financial aid available for the said course.

For in-depth information on fast-track online degree courses, visit www.mydegreeguide.com, a trusted information resource that has been helping higher education aspirants find the right online course for over a decade.

For long-term parents who are either stay-at home parents, or else work very rarely, there can be a bit of a shock that comes when your kids finally reach the age where they all move out and start living their own lives. This time will probably be a mixture of sadness and relief, but the part that surprises most people is how much it shocks their sense of purpose. When you’ve spent the better part of 2 decades, at least, with raising children as your primary goal, then the sudden absence of that purpose can leave one feeling empty.

Typically, when considering where to go next with their lives, people consider two major possibilities: should I go back to school? Or back to work? This is a dilemma that honestly depends on the specific person’s situation, but there are some things to consider that make this decision a little easier…

Consider career happiness

First of all, if you are considering going back to work full-time, then you want to make sure that you will be able to do something that you somewhat enjoy, or at least something that you don’t absolutely hate! Because of this, it can make your choice rather easy if you find that you don’t necessarily have the qualifications to do something in a field that interests you. Oftentimes, people will find a way to get a position around something that they are in to, but other times they will need to go back to school for a period of time to put themselves in a position to do so.

Is it financially viable?

Obviously, the big question about going back to school is how much it is going to cost. It’s no secret that the price of higher education continues to climb, year after year. Do you really want to add that enormous expense to your pocketbook this late in life? Maybe you do. But the financial viability of going back to school is something you always need to consider. The good news is that there are many ways to get a secondary education for a relatively minute cost, such as applying for scholarships or taking classes at a community college.

Check out online school

Aside from cost, the practicalities of going back to college are easier than they’ve ever been for a lot of people. That’s because the landscape of higher education continues to change, particularly with how it interacts with the internet. Online classes have enabled countless people to get an education from a remote location, or take classes at a completely different institution than they go to, physically. It’s entirely possible that you’ll be able to work towards your education with online schooling, while at the same time going back into the workforce.

Consider a tech school

Higher education is a gigantic commitment of time and money. Sure, you may love the idea of going back and getting a degree, but several years of college is something that can be harder to justify later in life. For some people, though, with specific career interests, tech schools are a perfectly viable option. Tech schools tend to be very low cost, and can be completed within a matter of months, rather than years. Tech schools nowadays offer all kinds of programs, from metalworking, to cosmetology, to graphic design.

Look for an accommodating job

Again, there are a lot of different ways that you might be able to have your cake and eat it to, as it pertains to working while getting an education. Lots of the companies that are actually worth working for will have some degree of flexibility, in terms of letting you go to school while working there. If you are able to schedule your classes on one or two days a week, then it’s entirely possible that you will be able to find a job that is willing to work with that schedule while you are going to school.

Education is the best gift that parents can give their children. But providing education from any school is no longer enough. You need to find a school that provides quality education. This will ensure that your child is better prepared for the future. With this objective in mind, more and more parents are opting for private schools for their children. But how do you select the best private school from among so many of them out there? Outlined below are 5 essential points that you need to consider when selecting a private school:

Academic track record

The academic quality of the school is one of the most important aspects that you should look into when making your selection. Do not base your decision on the academic results of just one or two years. Look at how consistent the school has been in delivering academic excellence over a period of several years. This will help you to get an idea of the school’s ability to deliver quality education to its students.

The culture of the school

It is important to pay attention to the culture of the school before you send your child to study there. Talk to the school leadership and try to understand the school’s current culture. Ask what plans the school management and leadership has to improve the school’s culture and how do they plan to go about doing it.

Accreditation

The number of private schools is increasing by the day. If you search on the internet, you will get a long list of results even before you can finish typing properly find private schools near me. However, you have to act wisely before investing your money to provide education to your child in a private school. In this regard, do not forget to check the school’s accreditation. Make sure that it is accredited by an organization that is recognized by the Department of Education.

Student/teacher ratio

A school is often considered to be as good or bad as its students. This also offers an idea about how well the students are taught in the school. To understand how much care is provided to the students, look at the student/teacher ratio of the school. Get information about the average size of the classes. A teacher will be able to provide ample care to the students if their number is small. When a teacher has to manage a class with a large number of students, obviously it will be more challenging for him or her to look into the needs of every student.

Holistic development opportunities

For holistic development of your child, he or she must be exposed to extracurricular activities. Ensure that the school you are considering for your child’s admission offers opportunities to pursue other interests apart from studies. Check whether the school encourages the students to pursue their interest in sports. Are there opportunities for the students to go on field trips and learn new things? Make your decision after considering all such points.

As of 2015, there were reportedly 27 million working-age Americans who were running or starting their own small business. According to the same survey, over half of the population thinks that entrepreneurship looks like a good option, with great opportunities for growth and reliable income. Are you one of that number, equipping yourself with an education now that will help you to build a new company?

Well, if that’s the case, then there are some important things that you need to understand going in. Entrepreneurship is a risky path, which is half of the appeal. After all, no risk, no reward, right? However, you can greatly increase your chances of success by having a comprehensive understanding of different aspects of business. Here are a few areas that are worth some extra study:

Marketing

Often, the early marketing efforts of a new company will be the responsibility of owners and entrepreneurs. Thanks to the rise of new marketing, this responsibility often continues past the early phases. Now, when we say “new marketing,” we’re referring to the way that marketing has moved away from the days of Mad Men, when the whole goal was to have a hook, and to increase mass marketing exposure. Instead, marketing today is much more focused on hitting a specifically designated audience in order to get the most bang for your buck. It’s about catering your message to those who are most likely to become followers, customers, and clients. Furthermore, it’s less about manipulation and pandering, and much more about sharing stories, being genuine, and giving value. For example, if you’re familiar with the term “content marketing” you know that many companies are choosing to offer useful information for free–whether that’s in the form of how-to videos like these, shopping comparison guides, or tips for expansion–to help customers and potential customers to (1) get more effective use from their service, and to (2) build relationships of trust before someone even enters a professional relationships with the company. To learn more about how marketing has moved away from mass media, you can read this informative article.

What this means for you, of course, is that it’s your time to think like a marketer. Learn how to frame and share your story in order to effectively grow.

Hiring and Firing

One of the most difficult transitions for entrepreneurs comes when it’s time to hire new people to join your efforts. Transitioning from an entrepreneur to a manager isn’t for everyone, and sometimes you’ll have to hire someone from outside to do the heavy lifting and use their expertise in personnel management. However, knowing who to trust is really difficult. How can you be sure that they’ll catch and carry your original vision? Even worse, how do you know that they won’t take advantage of your trust?

Well, the first concern is addressed when you effectively grasp marketing. When you’re able to tell your own story, your purpose and mission, then new employees and managers are also able to reflect that story and purpose. The second concern can be mitigated when you take precautions to prevent fraud in your business. Although it might feel uncomfortable to put up measures that reflect mistrust, the truth is that many small businesses lose significant revenue because of internal fraud. Learn more about the precautions that you can take here.

Data and Reporting

Very few people like to spend their time looking closely at numbers. However, it’s an essential part of any business plan, big or small. Although you might prefer to spend your time on big picture things, you need to be able to quantify success in order to grow. This allows you to identify the areas of your business that are the most profitable, and whether the return on investment on many of your choices (i.e. purchasing new materials, hiring on someone to handle different tasks, investing in a marketing campaign, etc.) is enough to justify doing it again in the future.

Additionally, getting effective data on your business will help you to grow and advertise it. It will help you to wisely scale as you grow, and to better reach the audience that you need to support expansion.

Scaling

Speaking of growth, scaling is one of the most common impediments for small businesses. Either they hit a wall and they just don’t know how to transition from a small-scale operation, or they expand their production too fast, and it’s not properly sustained by revenue. Getting effective data will help you to know a thing or two about how and when to expand. The other key to scaling wisely is to work in some good wiggle room. That means that instead of investing a lot from the beginning, you’re making money decisions that can bridge the gap between small and large. This might mean getting a storage unit for extra equipment instead of moving to a huge office downtown, until you really have the revenue that can support that big office. It might mean hiring on part-time employees and interns rather than taking on a large crew of full-time employees, until you understand what the actual workload will be.

By Aurora McCausland

Moving out and living on your own, especially for the very first time, can be an intimidating experience. Most of the skills you need to survive on your own, aren’t things that you were taught in high school. You don’t really need to know anything about mitochondria, how to find the square root of most numbers, or how to format a paper in MLA format. For everyday existence, there’s an entirely different set of skills you should attain before living on your own.

How to take care of your car

A surprising amount of people have no idea how to change a tire. If they find themselves with a flat, they call roadside assistance, or wait and hope someone friendly will stop and help them change it. Avoid this situation altogether, by simply learning how to change a tire. And while you’re at it, learning a few of the ins and outs of simple car repairs for your car, isn’t a bad idea. Learning how to change the oil in your car will save you money every few months when it comes time to get it changed. It’s a job that you can do yourself, takes less than twenty minutes, and is incredibly easy to do. Learning how to take care of your car will help you save money and help you feel more secure when you drive your car.

How to budget and manage your finances

Unless your parents were really good at teaching you how to manage your finances, it’s very possible that you’ll find yourself lost and stressed about paying your bills on time, when you move out. Balancing a budget isn’t nearly as a difficult of a job as many people think it is, but it’s an intimidating task if you have no idea what you’re doing. One of the easiest things to do, is set up an allotted budget per month for different expense categories. Things such as eating out, groceries, gas, utilities, rent, etc. There are a lot of great apps, such as Mint, that will help you keep track of your spending habits. Just make sure that you pay your bills on time, and your income is always higher than your expenses.

How to check your furnace and AC units

There is little worse than being in the dead of summer in the middle of a heat wave, and your air conditioning not functioning. Just as bad, being in the middle of a snowstorm and your furnace breaking. Some things are really big jobs and will require a handyman who knows what they’re doing. But it’s worth your time to learn a few of the basic functions of how to work and fix your furnace and air conditioning units, as well as your water heater, so if something goes awry, you can make temporary repairs until a professional is available to come take a look at it.

How to do basic household maintenance

Some parents require a lot from their children, while others, require very little. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, it’s important that you know how to manage and take care of your household. Things like, how to wash dishes by hand, basic cooking skills, how to do laundry, and the most efficient ways to sweep and mop, are necessary to know if you’ll be living on your own. Some of these may seem basic, but if they’re things you’ve only ever witnessed your parents doing, and have never had to do for yourself, you may want to pay a little more attention and lend a hand next time your parents are making dinner.

How to manage stress

Living on your own is stressful. Whether you live completely alone, with roommates, or with a significant other, moving out of the comfort of your parents’ home is a stressful transition. No matter how prepared you are, and how many necessary skills you already know, you’ll feel stressed out during this time. That’s normal! Learn healthy coping skills so you can maintain your sanity and manage your stress when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Things such as self-care, breathing exercises, and time management, will help tremendously when you find yourself overwhelmed and stressed out.

Moving to another country can be one of the most exciting and fulfilling adventures of a lifetime. Going to a place that is strange and vastly different from your own home shouldn’t be a life goal for the faint of heart, but it can be a radically potent chapter of personal development. If you are considering moving to a new country, then it is important to sit down and go over some key aspects of what this will mean for your life. Here are some considerations you should make, if you are thinking of moving to another country…

Language barriers

First of all, for many places, language could be something that makes it difficult to integrate, for a while. Perhaps you already speak the language of the country (hence you planning to move there), or maybe many people there speak your native tongue. But if this isn’t the case, then you should plan on having this be a major hurdle for at least several months. However, the benefit of going somewhere that speaks a different language is that it forces you to learn a new language at a rapid rate. Honestly, this sort of trial-by-fire is the best way to adapt a new language.

Tax and insurance implications

If you are a United States citizen, then moving to another country and making that your residence is going to have implications on your taxes, every year. Depending on the country, and if your work is located within that country, then you might have to pay taxes to two different places, which can put on more of a financial strain. In addition to this, some insurance companies won’t offer insurance for expats in another country, or will charge high premiums for those that do. Truth be told, a lot of this has to do with which country you are planning to move to, so you’ll need to do some in-depth research on your own.

Moving will be difficult

Many people envision the glamour of actually living in a new country, but it’s also important to think pragmatically about how you would go about moving there. If you have a lot of things that you’ll want to take with you, then the moving process is going to be quite a headache. Moving is already difficult when you move between states, but going to a new country adds a whole layer of complications. For this reason, many people opt to get rid of most of their things when they move to a new country. However, if you do want to move with your things, there are some comprehensive moving service companies that can assist in this.

Purchasing large-ticket items

If you do move to a new country, one thing to consider is whether or not you should purchase any large-ticket items, such as a home or a vehicle. Usually, you would only want to purchase these things if you are planning on staying in the country for an indefinite period of time. Sometimes, depending on the country, turning around and selling these things can take quite a bit of time and paperwork. This means that you should probably avoid purchasing these commodities if you aren’t certain that you’ll be there for a number of years, if you can help it.

Can you make money there?

Sure, you might’ve always envisioned living in France, or in Japan, but the thing that is going to make or break these dreams is if you can really make a living there. Look at how each country treats foreign work visas, and then consider if you can actually find a way to make money in the country that you want to live in. The alternative to working within those countries is to have a job in the United States that you don’t have to be at, and can work for remotely. No matter how much cheaper it is to live in a certain country, you’re not really saving any money if you aren’t also making it.

By Christine H.

College is exciting. It’s the time when you decide who you’re going to be and what you’re going to do. It’s the first time that you’re away from your family and able to do things completely independently. It can also be completely and utterly overwhelming.

Here are a few things that I wish I’d known my first year of college, to get the most out of my experience:

1: Take classes that will challenge you

Don’t go for the easy A. This college thing is expensive, and you want to really make the most of the opportunities you have here. Sure, don’t overload yourself. But don’t slide through, either. Take classes that pique your interest at the beginning, even if they’re not perfectly on the path of your graduation plan. Take time to try new things, and challenge yourself.

2: Get involved in the fun side

It’s easy to get bogged down with the pressure of grades and finals. But the majority of your treasured college memories are going to come from outside of the classroom. Show some school spirit in your dress and activity, go to games, and join in on rivalries in good-natured fun. Make time for extracurricular activities, and practice saying yes to things that you’re nervous about.

3: Take the opportunity to travel

Student visas are pretty much the easiest method of traveling, and traveling deeply. I mean, the kind of travel where you’re not just a tourist, but a participant in the country that you visit. It gets a lot more difficult when you’re done with school. So, even though you don’t have money for it right now, seize opportunities to study abroad, or to backpack Europe during summer vacation.

4: Be friends with people from different backgrounds

Something about being away from home will make you gravitate towards anything familiar. That’s fine, at first, but the truth is that here at college is one of your biggest opportunities to understand people from completely different walks of life. Embrace that! Don’t think that you have to agree on everything in order to get along. In order to understand who you are and who you want to be, you’ll probably want to be exposed to a lot of different ways of living.

5: There are cheap grocery options besides ramen!

Seriously, if you can live off of rice, bananas, and potatoes, you can eat for under 100$ per month, easily. Your thriving young body might be able to run off of red bull and nothing else for right now, but you’ll see a marked improvement if you differentiate your diet with something a little more substantial. So learn how to cook for yourself. It really is possible to eat well without sacrificing too much money or time.

6: Your major doesn’t matter as much as you think

There’s a lot of pressure attached to finding your major. It’s terrifying! But what’s important to remember is that in the long run, WHAT your degree is in won’t matter near as much as the fact that you actually have one. Which major you pick right now doesn’t necessarily have to dictate the rest of your life. It can just be career #1 in a world where people change careers (yes, careers, not jobs) three times or more in their lifetime. You can still change your mind later down the road, and you’re guaranteed to learn and evolve a lot while you’re out there in the workforce. Remember, it doesn’t all have to happen right now.

7: Work

A lot of people are critical of working while studying, thinking that it will compromise your focus on academics. But the truth is, you’re going to learn just as much in the jobs that you find as you do in your classes. Taking full-time jobs during the off-semester can help you gain more direction about where you want to work and what you want to learn while you’re in school. Working a part-time job during the semester can help you be exposed to fascinating experiences, since work-study programs often give you a chance to work in different areas, with different mentors. In my personal experience, it also forces you to manage your time better.

8: Friends come and go

You probably hear that “during college you make friends that you’ll keep with you your whole life!” Well, that’s true. But it’s also true that you meet a LOT of people during college. Some will become great friends, others won’t. You might feel like you’re a rotating door of friend-groups and relationships sometimes. Don’t get too discouraged by this. The reason that college friends last is because you find people who truly share your values and interests, and because you share experiences that bond you together forever. Those friends and relationships with shine through over time, and even over moves. Don’t get anxious because someone gets wrapped up in a relationship for a little while, or because another friend transfers to another school. Learn to roll with the fluctuations and keep in touch where you can.