Rants and Raves of a Bum

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There are many benefits to a holiday home. You will always know that your holiday accommodation is going to be just how you like it; you can go away more often as you don’t have to pay to stay in a hotel; and you have the option of renting the house out while you’re not there -- an attractive money-spinner should you choose to utilize it.

However, it would be naive to expect that owning a holiday home would be trouble-free. While the issues that can arise from holiday homes shouldn’t stop you from investing in them, you do need to plan ahead and think about how you’re going to cope with the potential problems. Handily, some of that has been done for you; here’s a guide to the most common issues -- and the solutions.

ISSUE: Unoccupied For Long Periods Of Time

One of the major issues with a holiday home is that you can’t be there all the time -- no matter how much you might want to be!

SOLUTION: A variety of different solutions help to address this issue.

Good Security

When it comes to security for your holiday home, you’re going to need the best. Peruse advice on https://homesecuritysystem.co and be sure you’re fully furnished with all the facts before buying. You’re going to be relying on this security system to be your eyes and ears when you’re not there; make sure it’s up to the job.

A Relationship With Neighbors

Introduce yourself to the neighbors near your holiday home and ask if they will keep an eye on the property when you’re not there. Technology is useful, but having human eyes on your house will be beneficial too.

Timed Electronics

Invest in timers that can control the lights of your holiday home being switched on and off, giving the impression to anyone monitoring the house that there is someone home -- even when you’re hundreds of miles away.

ISSUE: A Holiday Home Still Needs Maintaining

When you’re on holiday, the idea of having to settle down to maintenance tasks is… unwelcome. You want to be able to kick back and relax. So how can you prevent your holidays from becoming another long list of chores you have to work through?

SOLUTION: Employ an occasional maintenance person to go and check the property, carrying out work as and when necessary. This is an expense, yes, but you will still be making a saving on not needing to pay hotel costs every time you want to go on holiday.

ISSUE: Problem Tenants

If you decide to let your holiday home out while you’re not there, then there is always the risk of problematic tenants who cause damage. How can you cope with this?

SOLUTION: Managed Lettings

The likes of airbnb.com are part of the mainstream now, giving everyone the chance to let properties out for short-term lets with relatively little hassle. However, there’s next to no help to be had from these services if a tenant misbehaves; they rarely accept any responsibility. On the contrary, managed lettings might not make you the most money, but you will have some recourse if there’s an issue. Contact local agents and see how they might be able to help you.

While a holiday home is not without its problems, at least you should now have a decent idea of the techniques you can use to combat them.

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The word chemical scares a lot of people. They think that anything man-made is unnatural and shouldn’t be put into the body. That’s not quite true, there are plenty of chemicals that are good for you, and plenty that occurs naturally. Trying to rid your life of any kind of chemical entirely is impossible and not good for you. However, there are a lot of chemicals that are bad for you which you should be trying to avoid. Swapping out a lot of your cleaning and beauty products for natural alternatives is a great way to reduce the number of harmful chemicals that you’re ingesting, but that’s only a small portion of what you come into contact with on a daily basis. Harmful chemicals are hiding everywhere, in places that you would never have thought of. These are the secret hiding spots of dangerous chemicals around the house.

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Mattresses

Everybody is going crazy for memory foam mattresses. They’re the latest innovation in mattress technology and widely considered the most comfortable and healthy mattress that you can use. But there is another side to the story. A lot of people complain of a strange chemical smell when they first open their mattress. This happens because there are a lot of chemicals that are used in the manufacturing of the mattress, like glue for example, that are released from the mattress over the first couple of weeks. If you’re sleeping on the mattress straight away, there is some danger of inhaling these chemicals. Opening it in a garage or another well-ventilated area and letting it air out for a while should get rid of most of it before bringing it inside. It’s also worth visiting Choose Mattress to learn about the different alternatives to a memory foam mattress and look into some of them instead. Chemicals are a big problem in memory foam mattresses in particular but they are in almost all mattresses. Regulations state that they need to be fire resistant so you can never avoid chemicals entirely. That’s why it’s best to play it safe and air out any mattresses before you use them.

Carpets

You get the same problem with carpets as you do with mattresses in that some of the materials used can release harmful chemicals into the home. The materials used to make the carpets themselves are fine, but the glue that is used to stick them down isn’t. They cause a lot of health problems if you inhale too much of them, luckily they will fade after a few days. When you get a new carpet put in you just need to make sure that you have somewhere else to stay for a couple of days until all of the fumes have aired out.

Pressed Wood

Pressed wood products were a popular construction material in the 1970’s and they’ve left a nasty legacy behind them. Wooden panels that were used for insulation in houses were made from lots of old wooden offcuts that were pressed into large sheets. The problem was, the glue that they used is often made from something called urea-formaldehyde which is a nasty chemical that can cause watery eyes and a burning sensation in the throat. Newer pressed wood products are fine because there is more regulation now and the materials that are used are safer. If you’ve got an older house, it might be worth getting it checked to make sure that the house is safe if you’ve been experiencing some of the symptoms.

Laser Printers

Anybody that uses a computer at home regularly is likely to have a laser printer in the house. You’d be surprised at the amount of chemicals that some of them pump out. A lot of them are fine but certain models put out a lot of toxins. Studies into the dangers of laser printers in the home found that some gave out emissions that researchers said were comparable to the levels in cigarette smoke. That’s only in rare cases but you could still be filling your home with toxic chemicals. Printing photographs, and using a new cartridge both contribute to the levels. The particles that are given out can easily be inhaled and stick in the lungs causing respiratory problems. As a general rule, you should try to avoid using it as much as possible, and keep the printer in a well-ventilated room, especially when you’re using it. Printer manufacturers have only commented to say that they are looking into the results of the research at the moment.

It’s easy to remove chemicals from your home when they’re right in front of you, but it gets a lot harder when they’re hiding.

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If you long to no longer have to worry about money; if you want to be financially secure in your future; if you want to be one of the 1 percent, then there’s no getting around the fact that you need to whip yourself into shape and get into the business of cultivating wealth-making habits.

Obviously, in order to be really wealthy, you’ll have to either get lucky or work hard to get a great job or start a successful business, but it’s only healthy-wealth habits that will ensure you don’t fritter away what you do have, and these same habits will help you to, at least, be a bit richer, no matter what your financial circumstances are.

So, without further ado, here are some key financial habits that will make you richer:

Change Your Mindset

When you see your paycheck before taxes and how much lighter it seems after the deductions are made, it can leave you feeling like you don’t have enough, and that you’ve already lost a fair chunk of your income, making you less willing to give even more of your hard-earned over to savings. However, saving for the future is one of the best habits you can have if you want to be richer. You can get around this feeling of scarcity, by changing your mindset, and instead of looking at savings as another deduction, start looking at them as part of your wealth creation scheme; a way of increasing your riches in the future. This should make it a little easier for you to build up a nest egg.

Saving Credit for Real Emergencies

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You’re unlikely to boost your wealth if you use your credit card like it’s going out of fashion or take out loans to make unnecessary purchases. Although things like cash advance loans online and credit cards can be absolutely essential, most of the time they are not, and unless you reserve the use of them for those times when you really have no other option, your debts, and the interest they accrue, will drag you down and prevent you from being the richest you can be.

Setting Goals and Writing Budgets

It can be difficult to save money and accumulate wealth when you have no end goal in sight. After all, if you don’t have plans for all of that money, why not just blow it all now when you can have a good time?

That;’s why it’s vital that you, in the first instance, set some solid financial goals. These could be anything from saving for a downpayment on a house to accumulating $20,000 in five years so that you never have to worry about being short of cash in an emergency - all that matters is that the goal is sufficient enough to motivate you. There are lots of great budget apps that can help you with that, so it need not be hard. Just make sure that you keep track of your spending and keep updating your budget on a regular basis, to ensure you don’t end up wasting anything and your wealth can accumulate.

Once you’ve got into the habit of making and reviewing goals every 6-12 months. You’ll want to get into the habit of also drawing up a budget that will enable you to meet these goals while still living well right now.

If you do just these three things, you will soon notice that your wallet is thicker and there are a couple of extra zeroes on your bank balance!