Thoughtful Anniversary Gift Ideas For Married Couples

When you have been married for a long while, it’s important that you remind one another of your love. If you don’t make the effort, it’s easy to fall into a bit of a rut. Your wedding anniversary is the perfect opportunity to do that, and that’s why it’s important that you find a meaningful gift that shows your love for them. But after all of those years, you probably find that you’re running out of ideas. If you have an anniversary coming up and you’re struggling to find a meaningful gift, here are a few great ideas. 

Image From Unsplash CCO License

A Photo Album 

Remembering your time together and looking back on all of the amazing times that you have had is a great way to celebrate your anniversary, so why not put together a photo album? You can get some great photos of you when you first met, some of your favorites from the wedding, and pictures of family days out with the kids. Looking through it together is a great way to celebrate your anniversary and you can leave some blank pages at the end for you to fill in the future. Each year on your anniversary, you can get it out and add some of your favorite pictures from the last year. 

Love Charms 

A symbol of your love that you can both wear is another great way to remind you of one another on a daily basis. For example, Calastrology's celtic love knot is a charm that is designed to improve your chances of finding love if you are not in a relationship or enhance your love if you have found the person that you want to be with. It’s a great way to carry a piece of one another round with you every day and remind yourselves of the love that you share. 

Customized Illustrations 

Photos are a great memento but what about an illustration of the two of you? There are plenty of great artists out there that you can commission to do a custom drawing or painting of you as a couple. Think of a great memory that you have together and maybe find an old photo that you like, and then have somebody recreate it on canvas. 

Date Night Idea Cards 

In a marriage, it’s important that you set aside quality time for you and your partner. Just because you become parents, that doesn’t mean that you should stop being a couple. If you allow that to happen, that’s when the marriage will run into problems. That’s why you should schedule regular date nights and try to experience new things together as much as you can. But when you have been with somebody for a long time, it can be hard to think of things to do together. If your date nights end up being the same every time, they become another part of the routine and you don’t see the benefits. But you can get some great sets of date night idea cards as an anniversary gift. Every time you have an evening alone, you can pull one out and do whatever it says. It’s a great way to make sure that your date nights are new and exciting every time. 

Picking an anniversary gift is always tough, but hopefully, you should be able to find the perfect gift on this list. 

What You Should Know About Racial Health Disparities Now

                    Despite efforts to provide universal healthcare for all Americans, racial health disparities unfortunately still persist. Many studies have tried to bring the causes into focus but little has been done to close the gap significantly. The high cost of insurance, the higher cost of healthcare and the lack of resources to the poor or uninsured are all contributors to the widening health gap between Caucasians and Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians.

Access to Healthcare

Over half of all uninsured Americans, excluding the elderly, are people of color. Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, and American Indians and Alaska Natives have a harder time getting health care as compared to Whites. Ethnic minorities also tend not to seek preventive care, leading to higher mortality rates among races who are more prone to high blood pressure and diabetes. Between 1990 and 2005, mortality rates between black and white increased even though overall mortality rates decreased for heart disease, breast cancer and stroke. The difference is thought to be a combination of factors that are endemic to policies that fail to focus on race and inequality.

Systemic Racism

In the late 1990s, David R. Williams, Ph.D., MPH was asked to serve on a committee of The Institute of Medicine. Conclusions from their studies, scientifically proved the existence of implicit bias, meaning that unconscious discrimination affects how people are treated. This can happen with the best of intentions as it is so ingrained as to be subconscious. When all people are not treated equally it can prevent whole groups of the most at risk from having opportunities that put them in a position of greater income, better benefits and cleaner, safer living conditions.

Poverty

The racial breakdown of families, as indicated by the 2016 census, shows that Native Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics each double the percentage of Caucasians living below the poverty line. People living in poverty don't have the resources to get healthcare, preventing them from basic care and treatment afforded to those of more substantial means and covered by health insurance policies.

Much is left to do to try to eradicate the additional health risks and reduced opportunities for healthcare to people of color. Whether it is placing more quality healthcare in areas that are underserved, increasing education, providing low-cost healthcare insurance coverage options or a combination of all, there has to be a solution. Failing to focus on the disparity seemingly only leads to a perpetuation of it.



               

Three Reasons You're Holding Back from Traveling (and Three Better Reasons to Pack Up And Go)

Many people who used to travel a lot when they were younger end up giving up on their passion because of the pressures of modern life. Whether it's for work or ideological reasons, here are some of the most common factors that stop people traveling.

But are they good reasons? Not always. If you miss your foot-loose travel days, it may be high time you dusted off your suitcase.

Image Source: Pexels CC0 Licence

Travel is Expensive

Budgetary constraints are one of the main factors that stop people from heading off on adventures when the mood takes them. It does make sense that once people get older, and their lives become more settled, they have less financial freedom. When you have kids and a mortgage, it becomes less and less likely that you'll splurge on flights for the whole family to Brazil, or a boat trip around the Galapagos islands. But while this argument holds some water, it's important to recognize that travel does not have to be terribly expensive.

If you're looking at Instagram as your only source of travel inspiration, you'd be forgiven for assuming that you have to be rich to travel, but this is not the case. Firstly, it depends where you go: Bangkok is guaranteed to be cheaper than New York. Secondly, business class flights, expensive hotels, and restaurants are only one way to see the world, and traveling in style isn't necessarily better than traveling on a shoestring. In fact, living like a local, eating street food and using public transport will mean you have a much more authentic and memorable experience.

Travel is Bad For The Environment

These days, people have become more aware of the environmental impact of their travel footprint, and this is a good thing. While it is true that air miles add up, it's important to recognize that without tourism, many of the world's natural treasures would have been spoiled a long time ago. Tourism is one of the main sources of funding for conservation efforts around the world, so if you're worried about the ecological impact in Galapagos, it's worth reminding yourself that tourism to the region can be sustainable. A similar logic applies to your African safari: the money you pay to see those incredible animals in their natural habitat plays a crucial role in the conservation efforts required for their continued survival.

Image Source: Pexels CC0 Licence 

My Career Will Suffer

Sometimes you go away for a week and find the destination of your dreams and just want to stay. But you can’t quit your job. Or can you? When someone advises you that taking time out to go travelling might be the end of your career, they are simply misinformed. Believe it or not, an extended globe-trotting period can actually enhance your resume and give you an edge over people who have stayed home, working hard, but failing to gain other experience. When you arrive back home and re-enter the job market, the incredible experiences you've had (and the challenges had to overcome with creativity and foresight) will stand you in good stead. Far from holding you back, your travel experiences will have broadened your perspective on the world, which will come across in an interview. So go and enjoy your travel, and get ready to be highly sought after when you get back!

Whether you want to travel for a week or a year, adult life poses many barriers to setting off on your adventure. These common reasons might help you work out what's really stopping you.

5 Smart Holiday Shopping Tips That You Should Follow

Holidays are a great time to shop because you have all the time in the world to explore your favorite shopping hangouts. You can step into your favorite brand stores or browse the sites you love. The festive mood may even coax you to shop impromptu and buy some stuff that you had not planned. The excitement never seems to end with holiday shopping but there is a flip side as well. You may not want to be in the overcrowded malls on the big sale days. Also, online shoppers may find that websites load slowly due to excess traffic. But this does not mean that you should skip shopping at the favorite time of the year. Here are some smart holiday shopping tips that you can follow.

Plan in advance

If you think that you will have plenty of time to shop during the holidays, the truth is that you won’t. The best way to prep up for festive shopping is to plan well in advance. Have a list of stuff you want for yourself and for holiday gifts ready and penned down. Beyond just listing your favorites, draw up a budget as well because you would not want to overspend.

Keep track of prices

Once you know all the products you want to buy, keep track of their prices. Brands often start dropping prices well before the holidays and products may go out of stock sooner than expected. So it is always good to follow your favorites as you would not want them all to be gone because you waited too long. Go for the pick when you think that the price is optimal and within your budget.

Explore online and in-store

Even if you have a preferred mode of shopping, don’t confine yourself during the holidays. Do explore online and in-store because you never know where you may find an amazing deal. It is a good idea to check https://mersgoodwill.org/ because of the endless options you can access them. They have retail stores that give you the option to buy great products at budget prices. Plus, you can explore the website to shop from leading online marketplaces as well.

Avoid credit card debt

You may be at your generous best during the holidays but the best advice is to steer clear of credit card debts. You may end up buying useless stuff and piling on the debt that may be hard to clear later. The best approach would be to set some cash aside and stick to the amount you have decided for shopping. After all, the holidays are all about happiness, not stress.

Don’t shop on weekends

Holidays and weekends make a woeful combination for shoppers. You may find it tough to squeeze through the aisles on Black Friday. Moreover, the traffic can be troublesome on the big sale days. The best days to shop during the festive season are weekdays because you will probably find smaller crowds outside.

Be sure to follow these smart holiday shopping tricks and you will have a great time. Also, these will help you shop smarter and get better deals this season!

Tips for Better Small Business Cash Flow Management

If you are trying to run a small business without looking at or managing your cash flow, then it can be like trying to shovel your driveway when it is still snowing. Even if you get to do it all, it is going to be a lot of hard work and a lot of wasted time. Cash flow is important for all businesses, but for small businesses that are just starting out, it is something that is really critical. If you can’t manage your cash flow well, then it can be hard to keep the business afloat, as that is what you need to keep things going. 

When thinking about cash flow for your business, there are a few key elements to be thinking about. These include:

Image - CC0 licence

• Accounts receivable: the money that customers and clients owe to you.
• Accounts payable: the money that you owe your suppliers and others, like insurers.
• Shortfalls: this is something that you want to aim to not have, but they can and do happen.

In order to effectively manage all three of these elements then you need to navigate your business to be a success. Your business is going to be much healthier when you are looking closely at the cash flow and can help steer it towards profit. So here are a few tips to help you to manage cash flow much more successfully:

Break Even Point

You need to know at what point your business is going to start to become profitable. This is  not only because it will impact your cash flow, but because it helps you to have something to work towards. If you’ve not worked out how much more your income needs to be compared to your outgoings, then you won’t know where to start with business. Negative cash flow and having negative profits can make for a pretty grim combination. So instead, focus your efforts on being better at managing your cash flow, and having a focus on what that number needs to be for profit.

Encourage Customers to Pay up Faster

When customers pay late, then it can be really difficult for you to then pay people on time. So you need to look for ways to get your customers to pay faster, before you start to look at a collection agency for help. You could offer your customers a discount, for example, if they pay by a certain date in the month. Just make sure that whatever you choose, you enforce the standards rigidly. If you’ve said that you will charge late fees, then make sure that you charge late fees. 

Use Technology to Your Advantage

It is such a good idea to have a spreadsheet of cash flow, as that will be helpful on a daily basis, as well as for when tax return time comes around. But use some accounting software and it can really make a difference. Also, make sure that you keep your files as secure as possible, as it will help keep things protected.

At the end of the day, as long as your cash flow stays in the positive, your business can survive turbulent times much more easily.