- WEALTHY: Husbands, happiness, and wealth (Michael Masterson)
- HEALTHY: 40 bowls of spinach and a bushel of oranges for lunch? (Dr. Al Sears)
- WISE: Ella Maillart on travel
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Globetrotting on a budget (Steenie Harvey)
- Your first step toward success (Brian Tracy)
- Add "supine" to your vocabulary
How Would You Like To Turn $3,500 Into $50 Million?
Power and money decisively travel toward those who are persuasive. Marketing legend Gene Schwartz helped turn Boardroom Inc from a $3,500 idea into a $50 million powerhouse company with his persuasive ideas.
Many marketers who have since studied Schwartz have built multimillion-dollar empires using those same ideas.
What’s stopping you from doing the same? Why not get started today.
- Patrick Coffey
Notes From Michael Masterson’s Blog: Trying to Make Sense Out of Marriage and Money
For the first time in history, more than half of American women are living without a husband, according to a New York Times analysis of census data.
Is this a positive or a negative trend? Does it mean that more women are becoming independent… or that the institution of marriage is becoming shakier… or both?
In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse. That’s up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.
The numbers break down like this: 30 percent of back women are living with a man as compared with 49 percent of Hispanic women, 55 percent of white women, and 60 percent of Asian women.
It’s interesting that separate studies show that wealth and happiness break down along the same lines: Asians have the most of both. Whites fall in next, followed by Hispanics. Tagging way behind are African-Americans.
Trying to make sense out of a bunch of semi-related statistics can make you crazy. Still, I’m wondering what all of this means … and if it’s possible that there’s a direct connection between happiness, wealth, and staying married?
- Michael Masterson
[Ed. Note: To read more of Michael's unedited, uncensored (and sometimes unexpected) ruminations, check out his blog here.
This April, Michael Masterson will lead 25 to 50 ambitious businesspeople through an elite 5-day program that can help dramatically increase the profitability of their businesses. He'll reveal more than 100 ways you can increase your profits through direct marketing, the Internet, advertising, public relations, networking, front ends, back ends… You name it, he will find a new and better way for you to profit from it. Learn how you can be a part of this exclusive group and take your business to the next level here.]
"Not only does travel give us a new system of reckoning, it also brings to the fore unknown aspects of our own self. Our consciousness being broadened and enriched, we shall judge ourselves more correctly."
Ella Maillart
Living Rich: 8 Great International Getaways That Won’t Break the Bank
By Steenie Harvey
What makes for a great vacation? Magic, thrills, and adventure, yes. But for the budget-conscious globetrotter, what’s equally important is to find places where your dollars will stretch a long, long way. All eight of the following destinations fill the bill. As a travel writer, I’m lucky enough to have experienced them all – but I’d love to revisit every single one as a vacationer.
Vietnam
Vietnam packs a lot into its borders. Highlights include misty Halong Bay with its fairytale seascapes of limestone outcrops and islands; the Mekong delta with its floating markets; the old Vietcong tunnels at Cu-Chi near Saigon – now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City. Backpacker beds are exceptionally cheap, but decent hotels often cost less than $40. A filling bowl of pho bo beef noodle soup or six seafood spring rolls is less than a dollar. In local hangouts, Saigon Export beer costs 40 cents a bottle.
For the ultimate traffic tale to tell the folks back home, head for Hanoi’s old quarter. Any attempt to cross the road turns into a heart-racing adventure. Not only are you contending with psycho-cyclos (rickshaw bicycles), there are thousands of motorbikes and scooters with riders that regard a red traffic signal as a suggestion rather than an instruction. The best place to experience the utter chaos is from within a cyclo rickshaw.
Lithuania, Eastern Europe
Visitors usually combine Lithuania, the southernmost of the Baltic States, with Latvia and Estonia. However, you can easily spend a week in Lithuania alone. Quirky cities like Vilnius and Kaunas are steeped in art, music, and historical curiosities. Then there are the windswept sands of the Curonian Spit, where you can beachcomb for amber … mushroom-scented woods and farmers riding on haycarts … mysterious sites steeped in pagan traditions.
Mid-June would be a great time to go. A national holiday in Lithuania, the old pagan festival of Rasos marks the summer solstice. It’s an all-night affair, with singing, dancing, bonfire-leaping, hunting for "magic" ferns, and floating garlands down rivers. Despite some serious alcoholic partying, most people manage to stay awake to greet the sunrise. As for prices, how about $2.54 for three potato pancakes with smoked salmon and sour cream, and $1 for a glass of Svyturnys beer?
Granada, Nicaragua
From the laidback colonial city of Granada, you can do a lot in a week in Nicaragua: Tackle volcanoes … take Spanish lessons … visit the Masaya craft market and the villages where rocking chairs, hammocks, and pottery are made … explore the Selva Negra’s cloud forests and coffee plantations … chat with expats in the beach surfing town of San Juan del Sur … go to colonial Leon, where you might get to meet indigenous Indians.
Settling into a rocking chair with a cold Victoria beer is a pleasure that generally costs under $1, and spending more than $7 on a meal is difficult. The Alhambra Hotel on Granada’s main square costs a mere $30 a night.
Goa, Southern India
India is beyond fascinating, beyond anything you’ll ever experience elsewhere. The easiest introduction to this teeming country is the seaside state of Goa. Baking below a tropical canopy of banana, coconut, and mango trees, this drowsy world of Arabian Sea beaches, backwaters, and spice-laden breezes is stamped with more than a few reminders of Old Portugal. You’ll find sunrise yoga on the beach, full massages for $8, dolphin trips for about $6, and colorful hippie markets.
Including four beers, two people can eat in a beach shack for under $10. And if you want to cut your expenses to the bone, there are accommodations in simple beach chalets for as little as $8 a night.
Porto & Northern Portugal
Famed for its port wine lodges (yes, they do offer free samples), Porto is Portugal’s second city. A historic Atlantic trading port, its warren of laundry-hung alleys plunges down to a waterfront of boats, nets, and fish restaurants. Sheets of cod (bacalhau) hang outside grocery stores with original Art Nouveau tiled facades, and the church of Sao Francisco has a gold leaf interior that would make King Midas salivate. Don’t miss the Bolhau food market or the Torre dos Clerigos, Portugal’s highest belfry tower. From the top, you’ll get great views over the jumbled cityscape of churches, bridges, and red-roofed houses.
By EU standards, the price of dining, accommodations, and public transport throughout the region is astounding. Trains and buses are an affordable way to make exploratory day trips along the coast and into the interior of terraced vineyards and green river valleys. Don’t miss Braga and the thousand-stepped stairway of Bom Jesus church. On holy days, some pilgrims tackle these steps on their knees.
Montenegro
Since its split from Serbia, Montenegro has been Europe’s latest holiday hotspot – and also the world’s newest independent nation. Along with three-course meals for $7 and rooms in private homes for $10, you’ll find a land of craggy mountains with a switch-backed Adriatic coastline of bays, beaches, and villages of pale gray stone. The sea sparkles like blue topaz, and medieval walled towns with crumbling fortresses and palaces are often emblazoned with the winged lion emblem of the Venetian Republic.
Now paint in monasteries slotted into mountain crevices, and fishing villages of red-tiled roofs and deep-green shutters. Roman mosaics … olive groves … water-lilied lakes … deep canyons and the mighty Boka Kotorska, Europe’s southernmost fjord … the border town of Ulcinj with its minarets and tales of pirate slave-trading.
Austria
There’s no denying that Switzerland is one of the most scenically gorgeous countries on earth. But unless you’re armed with an expense account, I can promise you that exploring its mountains, lakes, and medieval towns will wreak havoc on your finances.
Winter or summer, neighboring Austria has just as much of the alpine wow factor … plus the city splendors of Vienna and Salzburg. And it’s a lot less expensive than you may think. For example, in the Tyrolean village of Fendels, you could rent a furnished apartment for two in a chalet next spring for about $225 per week. Surrounded by hiking trails, Fendels village makes an excellent base. The Tyrolean Oberland is close to the borders of Switzerland and Italy.
Chania, Crete
On the Greek island of Crete, Chania is one town that it would be criminal to miss. As Crete’s former capital, Chania’s history goes back 5,000 years. In the Old Town’s skinny alleyways, you’ll find icon workshops … lyres hanging in dusty musical instrument repair shops … bursts of white jasmine cascading from archways … cats snoozing on balconies … the unlikely sights of a pencil-thin minaret above church towers and a mosque squatting on the waterfront.
Strung with garlands of colored light bulbs, Chania’s old Venetian harbor at dusk truly is the stuff of romance. The water shimmers in waves of crimson, sapphire, and emerald; the Venetian lighthouse sends out its beady wink; and stalls do a steady trade in pistachio nuts. Alleys that were afternoon-silent become thronged with locals taking the volta – the evening stroll. Even in July and August, you’ll find studio apartments here for under $40 a night … plus, you can eat well for $10.
[Ed. Note: Steenie Harvey makes a living by exploring the planet as a freelance travel writer, and now she's added photography to her bag of profitable tricks.
Did you know that 80 percent of the photos you see in publications are shot by freelancers? And that a glossy magazine shot can earn you anywhere from $500 to $1,200 ... if, that is, you know what photo editors are looking for. Join the next Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop in historic Charleston, SC to find out how you too can profit from your photos. Get the details here. ]
3 Dividend-Paying Stocks You Should Buy in the Next 5 Days!
I’m urging everyone I know to buy three stocks in particular—three income-generators that offer you steady sources of income that could begin in the next 90 days.
Can You Stay Healthy Without Taking Supplements?
By Al Sears, MD
Ideally, you should be able to get all the nutrients you need from your diet. But these days, vegetables don’t soak up as many minerals from the ground as they used to, because commercial fertilizers and unnatural farming practices have created an "artificial turf" for them to grow in.
Over the last century, the level of nutrients in our food has plummeted. You’d have to eat 40 bowls of today’s spinach to get the iron that was in just one bowl 60 years ago.
Vitamin C is another good example of a nutrient that is much lower in today’s commercial produce than in the wild fruits and berries we evolved to live on. Nowadays, it’s practically impossible to get enough of it from food sources. You need 2,000 mg of vitamin C a day to prevent or reverse heart disease (and dramatically lower your risk of cancer and possibly add decades of healthy living to your life). To get that much, you’d have to eat a bushel of oranges.
Supplements are a fact of life in our modern age. They are necessary to help fill in the gaps and restore vibrant health to a body that’s been starved of vitamins, antioxidants, and other nutrients no longer available in our existing food supply.
[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure, is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]
Getting Started
By Brian Tracy
The hardest part of achieving any goal is usually getting started in the first place.
Do you want to be happy? Do you want to be thin? Do you want to work at something you really enjoy? Do you want to make money?
Whatever your goal is, write it down. Then take a few minutes to do a "Gap Analysis." Look at where you want to be, and then look at where you are. Examine the gap that exists between the two and think about how you could close it … like building a bridge or staircase across an open space.
"A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step," wrote Confucius.
What would be your first step? What would be your second step? Then what? Most important, what action would you take right now if you were guaranteed of success? What would you do if you had no fear of failure? What would be your first step on the staircase toward your goal?
All great accomplishments begin with a leap of faith into the unknown. They begin when you take action toward achieving your hopes and dreams before you have any assurance of success.
Most people are paralyzed by the uncertainty that surrounds any new venture. They hesitate. They stop. They turn back.
But not you. You know that if "nothing’s ventured, nothing’s gained." You know that you have to stick your head up if you want to get above the crowd. You know you have to go out on a limb if you want to get the fruit, because that’s where it is.
The familiar Nike commercial gives one of the best pieces of advice in the world: "Just Do It!" Take that first step and everything else will follow.
[Ed. Note: Brian Tracy, one of America's leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness, is one of 17 experts featured in ETR's Info-Marketing Bootcamp DVD Library. You'll find strategies for breaking into the profitable world of information publishing, secrets for building your customer list, techniques for using direct mail to grow your client base and spread the word about your business, tips about writing compelling copy, tactics for moving your business online, and much more. Order your copy now.]
Turn YOUR Brain into an Idea-Generating Cash Machine
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Word to the Wise: Supine
When you’re lying on your back, you’re "supine" (soo-PINE). The word is also used to describe someone or something that is inactive/passive/inert, especially from indolence or indifference.
Example (as used by Alain De Botton in The Consolations of Philosophy): "Such independence of mind was a revelation and an incitement. It promised a counterweight to a supine tendency to follow socially sanctioned practices and ideas."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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