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Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Part I

May 14th, 2012 . Posted in Little Luxuries | 1 Comment »
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Another gorgeous California mountain view

“I love sleep. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”-Ernest Hemingway

 

I entered adulthood in the eighties. It was popular to always be on the go and not get much sleep. I remember sleeping very little in college and being proud of it. When I moved to New York shortly after graduation, young ambitious people such as myself got up at the crack of dawn and worked and socialized ourselves silly till we finally hit the pillow for a couple of hours of really bad sleep. Then we got up and did it all over again. I kept up a similar pace in the nineties until I finally said ENOUGH! This is ridiculous! It’s a wonder I survived at all.

I’ve been a big fan of sleep ever since. Sleep is not some sort of luxury for those who don’t have to work for a living nor is it a vice for those people who are just too lazy to do anything else. Sleep is a necessity and a vital ingredient for a healthy prosperous life. Your body can’t function properly without it. We’ve been made to think that those who sleep too much are unproductive. There’s a huge distinction between sleeping till noon each day just because you don’t want to get out of bed and getting a healthy 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Read the rest of this entry »

Investing in your Health is Investing in Your Wealth

May 7th, 2012 . Posted in Alternative Forms of Wealth | 3 Comments »
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Another Gorgeous Sunset over the Pacific

 

Most of us probably have some sort of investment plan for our money but do we have a plan for our most valuable asset of all – our health? I’m constantly amazed at how most of us can find time to put in extra hours for our employers, follow the stock market, and fret over whether or not our money is growing yet we don’t have time to chop up fresh vegetables for a salad. Perhaps if we started to invest just as much if not more time in our well being, many other areas of our lives would fall into place.

Think of it this way. Is excessive monetary wealth worth it if we are overweight, undernourished, depressed, and can’t move very well? For me feeling good is where it’s at. I’m not averse to having lots of money but no thank you if my health has to suffer! I can’t control what the markets do or whether or not the dollar is strong. What I can control is the quality of food I eat, how much I exercise, and to a certain extent who and what I allow into my life and how it affects my peace of mind.

I find it fun to take some of the same advice for investing your money and apply it to investing in your health. When investing money you want to get the best bang for your buck and investing in your health is no different. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting Back on Track

April 30th, 2012 . Posted in Commentary | 2 Comments »
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Enjoying myself and relaxing in Mexico

 

Somewhere along the way this past year I fell off the simplicity train and got a bit off track. In all honesty I de-railed! Many people have contacted me and wondered if I was still blogging. I was especially touched by this. Yes, I’m still blogging but since I allowed the last several months to become so chaotic I felt in all honesty that I had nothing to say.

How could I be writing about simplicity and seeing wealth in a different light when my life was in turmoil. In hindsight it probably would have been helpful to have blogged about what I was going through because I’m sure many people could relate. But like I said I felt ridiculous writing about something I could barely practice myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Embracing Change

February 22nd, 2012 . Posted in Alternative Forms of Wealth | 1 Comment »
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Kitties who are ok with change as long as it doesn't disrupt their naps

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” –Jim Rohn

It’s been several months since I have posted on this blog. What was meant to be only a few weeks break suddenly turned into a whole month, then two months, and before I knew it almost 4 months had passed. As human consciousness moves forwards and speeds up maybe time is doing the same thing? Who knows? It’s fun to contemplate though.

Once again my life is on a new path and once again I have no idea where it will take me. I do know I will now have time to write more. Other than that, I don’t know what’s in store, which is exciting and scary at the same time.

I like the unknown. I’ve learned to embrace it. Change is actually something I now look forward to because change is going to happen no matter what. Change is the only thing in life that’s guaranteed. Change is inevitable. Change keeps us on our toes and moves us forward and opens our mind to all kinds of exciting possibilities. Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the Best Investments I’ve Ever Made

November 3rd, 2011 . Posted in Alternative Forms of Wealth | 3 Comments »
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David and Me on our Wedding Day in Studio City, CA

A while back I was interested in the stock market and various other investment opportunities. Then one day it occurred to me that I had better things to do with my time. Bottom line, investing money bores me. I don’t have the patience for it which I know is probably too bad given we live in such a money oriented society.

My brother used to work in finance and he balanced all my retirement accounts. He was damned good at it too and I rode through some fairly rough times without losing  much money. Then he got sick of the whole industry and quit. He now works on an organic farm.

The other day I got a 401K statement from a previous job and it had lost $3,000 in the last quarter. To be honest, I can’t bother with worrying too much about it. Yes, I should probably move some things around but would it really matter? There’s so much in these retirement accounts that are not transparent and I don’t really trust the system. Read the rest of this entry »

Water is Rising

October 25th, 2011 . Posted in Commentary | 2 Comments »
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Beach in Costa Rica

“What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”
- Henry David Thoreau

The last couple of weeks have been super busy for me. Stray Cat Alliance, the cat advocacy organization I work for, had its annual Stray Cat Club fundraiser this past Saturday night. I and many others put in countless hours and worked our butts off but our labor paid off. The event was a huge success and I’m so happy for the cats!

Needless to say I have not had much free time to do anything that has not been “cat” related in the last month. I did however manage to fit in a night with my husband and another couple we are friends with when we attended the world premier of Water is Rising at UCLA Royce Hall. Although very moving the content of this beautiful song and dance production did more than just entertain. It put a human face on the damage the more developed countries of the world are doing to our more vulnerable brothers and sisters. And it’s not pretty.

Water is Rising is performed by 36 artists from the tiny Pacific islands of Kiribati, Tokelau and Tuvalu. These islands are located where the equator meets the date line and they are remote, isolated and vulnerable to changes in the environment. Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking all the Rules

October 9th, 2011 . Posted in Commentary | No Comments »
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Another Beautiful Day in Marina del Rey, CA

I decided not to blog last week. My thoughts were all over the place and I didn’t want to bore anyone with an incoherent rambling session. So instead I took a break.

Breaking rules has been on my mind lately. You know, breaking all the rules held sacred by conventional wisdom that we rarely question. Taking a break from blogging was actually very apropos for me last week. When I started blogging I was given advice by several other bloggers and various other so-called experts who suggested blogging at least once a week or better yet several times a week in order to be taken seriously and create a following. I was going to post something just for the hell of it but I asked myself why? Because there’s some rule out there that some people say I must follow? Read the rest of this entry »

Things I Can Do Without

September 27th, 2011 . Posted in Simple Living | 4 Comments »
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Three little beings I definitely can't live without!

 

A friend of mine recently forwarded a blog post to me from a site called Inside Higher Ed. It’s a great post called  5 Things I No Longer Wish to Own. I love it that simplifying and paring down is a topic that seems to be on more and more peoples’ radars these days.

Blogger Joshua Kim says, Is this desire to shed ownership of things a life cycle story, a digital story, or something else? Do you share my desire for life as a service? Has owning stuff also lost its appeal to you? The five things he no longer wishes to own are: software, hardware, books, a car, and a house.

What about you? Has owning stuff lost its appeal to you? I know it has for me. What are some things you could live without? Read the rest of this entry »

Saving vs. Hoarding vs. Spending

September 19th, 2011 . Posted in Saving money | 6 Comments »
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Japanese Garden in California

I’m a big believer in saving money. Amy Dacyczyn’sThe Complete Tightwad Gazette is one of my all time favorite books because she made me look at saving money as an art form and a game and not a deprivation practice.  Ever since I read her book I often find myself asking “What would Amy do?” Would Amy go out to dinner or would she whip up a scrumptious feast from the leftovers in her fridge? Would Amy buy the knit black top on sale for $20 at Ann Taylor or would she scout the thrift stores for one that cost a dollar?

If you spoke to my husband he would probably say I’m a bit too cautious when it comes to spending money so he loves it when I do because he thinks I should treat myself from time to time. I always joke with him that he hit the jackpot in finding a life partner because I have cost him very little money. He recently wanted to buy me something as a treat and all I could think of (other than a trip to a foreign country) was a pedicure. I do a lot of yoga and I stare at my feet quite a bit. I like having a fun color painted on my toenails but I usually do it myself which is a real pain in the ass. What a treat to have a professional paint my tired little toes and massage my feet. It was worth every bit of the $28 he spent which included the tip.

Having been in major debt when I was younger, I have no desire to sing that sad song again so yes I have a tendency to live in the fear mode sometimes and to not want to spend money on anything but the bare necessities. Read the rest of this entry »

Reflections on Downsizing

September 12th, 2011 . Posted in Simple Living | 6 Comments »
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Pippy: the little lady of leisure!

I have been downsizing for many years now. A great lavish lifestyle where all of the sudden I sold the Mcmansion and started taking the bus to work is not my story. I’ve been living somewhat simply since the late 90s when I began the process of getting rid of things that I no longer needed and searching for ways to make everything in my life from managing my work and social schedule to doing the grocery shopping as simple as possible. Below I list and reflect on some of those changes that have made the most difference and others that I aspire to in the future.

Our One Car Household: It’s been well over six years now that my husband I have gotten by with one car. We live in Los Angeles and cars are a big deal in this town. I’ve never been much of a car person nor been very impressed by anything that anyone drives. As a matter of fact, I react oppositely to how many people react when they see an expensive car. Instead of automatically thinking that person is loaded and successful, I immediately wonder whether or not they are in a lot of debt or if they got a really bad deal on a lease.

Being a one car household has saved us more money that I could ever have imagined. Another plus is not having a car payment and of course I feel like we are doing our part to help the environment in our own small way. I can’t say how long we will continue to be a one car household. We tell ourselves we will do it until it doesn’t make sense for us anymore. So far it’s made sense. There’s a certain amount of finagling of schedules and compromise but the benefits have definitely paid off.

My aspiration is to one day be completely car free but until Los Angeles gets its act together in the public transportation dept, I don’t know if being a no car household would work for us. Read the rest of this entry »

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