GeekSugar

A New Website Asks: What Matters to You?

GeekSugar — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:00:51 PST

By visiting 1000 Things That Matter, you are encouraged to leave a couple of sentences, or a video, or a picture, to express what matters to you. The blogger who started the project hopes to take the responses and create a short film about the future of telecommunication. Here's what he had to say about his latest venture:

If meaning is created through language then our society is created through its communications technology.

The film is intended to inspire and motivate people to do something that matters. So get busy and tell the world what matters to you!

Everything You Need to Know About Retirement

LearnVest — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:02:28 PDT

Does the topic of retirement make you scratch your head? LearnVest breaks it down for you in simple terms.

You know what’s awesome?

Retirement.

No, really. Imagine it: Waking up every day to head to your favorite yoga/art/synchronized swimming class. Catching up with friends daily. Starting (and finishing) every book or movie that catches your eye.

It’s the ultimate extended vacation, and the best part is, by the time you get there, you’ve already paid for it. You know how that happened? You started today.

No, really, today. There’s an important deadline you need to know: April 17th. This year, it’s the deadline to contribute money to a Roth or traditional IRA for 2011-in other words, if you didn’t get around to saving the maximum you could for retirement last year, you still have this window to do so. (The maximum contribution for 2011 is $5,000-unless you’re over age 50, in which case you may contribute up to $6,000.)

Now that you know that, want to make sure you’re on the right track for retirement? Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know, right here and now.

So go ahead, start stocking up on sketchbooks.

Your Options

To set the stage, let’s refresh our memories about the main types of retirement accounts available to us. There are three: the 401(k), the traditional IRA and the Roth IRA.

401(k)

A 401(k) is a free retirement account you can only get through an employer, and it holds money taken directly from your paycheck. Sometimes, said employer also contributes money to your retirement fund-that’s called “matching.” Traditional 401(k) plans grow tax-deferred, meaning that you’ll pay taxes when you take the money out, not when you put the money in.

Read on for more.

Why You Shouldn't Eat at Chain Restaurants

Wise Bread — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:15:17 PDT

Think twice about eating at that chain restaurant. Our pal Wise Bread gives reasons why you shouldn't eat there.

I’ll reveal my bias upfront - I can’t stand chain restaurants. From their oversized, cheese-topped portions to the excessive use of adjectives in their menus, grabbing a bite at a big-box just doesn’t hit the spot for me. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the amount of food that people are consuming outside of their own kitchens has been growing pretty steadily since the 1970s, which may account for why chain restaurants seem to keep on multiplying. But despite chains' obvious popularity, I also believe that there are some sound reasons to skip them in favor of smaller local eateries.

There's Too Much Food

One of the top reasons that many people give for favoring chain restaurants is the portion sizes. I get it. When you go to a restaurant, you want to actually eat. I definitely don’t appreciate being presented with a pretentious morsel of an entrée any more than the next girl. If that bite of food is really tasty, it’s almost worse - as if I could be satisfied by taste alone, even when my stomach is empty! At the same time, many of the top chain restaurants boast dishes that top 1,000 calories each. I mean, let’s be honest here - most people could do without those “stacked” and “stuffed” caloric monstrosities. And while many restaurants now offer lower-calorie menus, it’s pretty hard to order those calorie-labeled little offerings when the guy at the next table is ordering a steak that could feed a family of four.

Read on for more.

Barry's Bootcamp's Joey Gonzalez on Why Your Workout Isn't Working

Shape — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:05:07 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Barry's Bootcamp (BBC), the high-intensity workout that helps celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Jessica Alba, and Jake Gyllenhaal stay in amazing shape, has opened its first East Coast location in Manhattan! The studio is known for its nightclub-meets-boot-camp-style during hour-long classes that mix strength training with treadmill intervals. The result is a high-intensity workout that burns fat (up to 1,000 calories per class) and tones muscles.

In an exclusive interview with Shape.com, Barry's Bootcamp co-president Joey Gonzalez reveals where he thinks most women's workouts go wrong - and what they can do to fix it.

Common Misconceptions: Where Your Workout Goes Wrong

1. You do one or the other: cardio or body sculpting. "Don’t get me wrong, half of our class is cardiovascular, but the strength training is equally as important, and that's really what helps kick metabolism into high gear," Gonzalez says.

2. You ignore weights. "What you're doing when working out is building muscle, and muscle is an integral part of actually burning calories throughout the day. With weights, your body is burning 'x' amount of calories more an hour than it was before you did it - and that’s not true of cardio. That’s why women who tend to use weights and bring it into their regular exercise program are not only stronger and healthier, but on average have better bodies. If you touch their arms they're strong, they're not soft. Women complain about 'flarm' (laughs), the flabby arm area, and, really, the best way to target that is working your triceps."

See the rest of Joey's tips after the break!

Tax Hangover: The Cure For Next Year

LearnVest — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:15:19 PDT

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Tax season officially end[ed Monday] at midnight. Care to join us for a celebratory cocktail? OK, maybe you’re still planning to run to the post office tonight (if so, check out our last-minute tips). But if your return is already filed, grab that martini and treat yourself to a massage. No matter how many times we do it, tax season is always, well, taxing. And immediately after filing, we do everything we can to forget about taxes…at least until next April.

But we started to wonder–if preparation and planning are some of the best tools in conquering your personal finances, can this approach help with taxes, so they’re not a new scramble every year?

The answer is yes. We asked Cindy Goldstein, a certified public accountant and tax attorney in New York, for ways to make next year’s tax time less stressful and less expensive with things you can start doing now. Well, okay…tomorrow.

You Couldn’t Find Your Paperwork

Either you wasted time rifling through papers, or you dumped them on your accountant and she charged you accordingly. “The more organized a client is, the better fee I can offer them,” says Goldstein, “because then I can just do my job instead of sifting through their receipts.”

This is what you need to save.

Combat "Lethal Sitting" With These Tips

Leta Shy — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:55:09 PDT

We all know that sitting at a desk all day is not exactly the best thing for our bodies, but a recent New York Times Magazine article posits that not only is it bad, it could be lethal.

James Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, has been studying the effects of sitting and says that it can lead to earlier death - up to 20 percent, according to his and others' research.

Why is being sedentary so bad? As soon as we sit, Levine says, our muscle activity, insulin effectiveness, and good (HDL) cholesterol levels fall, and our calorie-burning rate drops to a third of what it is when we walk. All of this also increases our risk for developing Type 2 diabetes and becoming obese. Sitting is so bad for you, Levine says, that an otherwise active lifestyle can't combat the negative effects of sitting at the office for nine hours a day.

But since we can't all have a job that keeps us moving and in shape, the researcher suggests that we do little things - "non-exercise activities" - to combat the effects of excessive sitting when we can. Read on for some of my non-exercise suggestions after the break!