Joes Map

I found several people talking about ways to custom skin maps from yahoo to match the site you are using them on. I love the Google and yahoo maps, but I am not a big fan of the standard colors that they are bordered with. Today I found that other people have had this issue as well, and there is a way to change the look of the yahoo maps for your site with flash 8.

Now I have flash 8, but I have used it very little. I’m not the artist I wish I was, and the first few flash tutorials had me wishing for a vacation in Siberia. I love what flash does, but the small time lines and scripting languages are just not my cup of tea. If anyone would like to draw up some flash maps that focus on a coffee theme, I’d love to have one!

I have helped many people choose new places to live and work, a real estate choice is a big decision to make. The first thing I do is make a list of the places that people travel most often. For many people it is the drive to and from work, the grocery store, etc. Some people have specific things they do often as well, if you travel to a particular country club, or golf course every weekend, jot that down.

When you are considering a new place to move, consider the travel distance and time it will take you to get from work to home, if you move 20 miles away, certainly you can find a new grocery store, but will you have to travel even further to get to your gym where you have a 3 year membership?

Consider these things, plot them out on a map, add up the gas, add up the time, and you may find that a pricier piece of real estate is actually saving you money and time.

I often use yahoo maps for distances like these.

The cost of gas will probably not get back to the 99 cents per gallon that I once remembered it being. It’s funny to me to see people complaining so much about money spent on gas when most people don’t do much to save money is their automobile fuel expenditures. It also surprises me that most people probably don’t really realize how much money we are all really spending on gas. I could go into detail about how much More percentage wise and pull some average figures, but I encourage you to simply add up how many gallons you use each week, and multiply that by how much gas is. Then take that figure and consider that gas was about a dollar per gallon not long ago. You look at how much more you are spending each year. Then take into account how many people are doing the same. That’s a lot of people spending a lot of money.

Of course you should also think about the delivery of goods at and services that we all use and how it is costing more to transport all of the food and supplies that we all use.

There are several good things we should all do in order to get better gas mileage and save on gas in general. Everyone should have their cars and trucks engines and exhaust systems checked out, tuned up and or fixed. There are real savings when it comes to having a well oil machine working for you rather than against your bank account. Small issues like new spark plugs, a replaced oxygen sensor and clean fuel and air filters can make a big different difference throughout the year. Also cost keep up with your tire pressure, especially when the temperature change, having the wrong air pressure in your tires costs you more money at the gas pump.

There are many more things most people can do to use less gasoline, I suggest people start finding ways to drive less, there are many ways to make this a reality. More on that in another post.

Traveling with other people, carpooling, even finding ways to save when you go on vacation will all make a big impact on the gasoline we consume. Also consider when you are looking for a new place to live, that real estate is often priced according to amenities nearby, sometimes it saves you more time and money ti live in a place that is a little more expensive with the monthly payment. If you travel a lot with your vehicle, living closer to the places you travel most makes the most sense.

Saving money saves life.

This is the car that is probably the coolest thing to hit the road since cars were invented, it is named Tesla and runs entirely off electricity or batteries. The car is super fast going from 0 to 60 in less than 4 seconds and looks super cool. The price tag is a little steep for the average Joe like myself but i am looking forward to seeing this technology put in all automobiles here in America because we need to get off our dependence on foreign oil here otherwise our economy may collapse but definitely a recession if nothing is done to get America off oil.

And if what ever the next fuel source is needs to be environmentally friendly, people talk about how we should grow our next fuel source and some suggest making something from our food supplies as a fuel source and to all of them I say no, we need to have our cars run of electricity and have solar panels recharging the batteries for our cars. IF people in the north east want to heat there homes with bio fuels i say for it but our cars need to run off batteries that can be recharged from solar panels or other solar means.

Technology, innovation, saving money, and doing it in style. That’s what I’m posting about!

This is something that I make all of my clients do, and everyone should do it at least once a year. Look into your insurance. Are you paying for insurance that you really don’t need? I was paying for earthquake insurance for years, and I love far away form any major fault lines.

Is your insurance enough? Believe it, you can save a lot of money by having more insurance too. If you have a lot of jewelry, or guns, or a home office, make sure that those things are covered by your current policy. I have heard weeping horror stories about entire collections that were destroyed by a fire, and the people who lost it all thought that everything in their home was covered, but their policy did not cover more than $1,000 for jewelry, and their collection would of cost for than $10,000 to replace.

Be sure to find out what your policy covers, is it replacement value, or current value? This could cost you in several ways, it is good to know before you need to replace computers for your business that you will be able to replace them if something happens.

Another thing to keep an eye out for is coverage for your land, home or business itself. Many people are surprised to find that their policy only covers 80% of the value of the home, this is common, it protects your mortgage holder, but it doesn’t do much for you if have $50,000 in equity, yet your insurance will not pay you a dime of that.

Most of my clients end up adding some coverage to their policies, and it costs very little, but it’s the only way to get the peace of mind that they thought they should already have.