A Letter to Reconcile Your Marriage - What it Should and Should Not Include

I recently heard from a wife who asked for my help in "writing a letter that will help me reconcile my marriage with my husband." The two had been having problems for a while, but in the past few weeks things had escalated to the point where the husband had been hinting that he was going to move out and eventually file for divorce. So, the wife felt pressured to come up with something to prevent this from happening. She hoped that the right letter might do the trick.

I very much understand the appeal of a letter. You can pour out your heart without having to worry about being interrupted or tripping over your words or becoming too emotional. Sometimes, it's easier to write touchy words than it is to say them. But unfortunately, far too often I see people make some serious mistakes with these types of letters. I will discuss these common mistakes in the following article, tell you how to avoid them, and discuss what the letter with the highest chance of success should include.

Understanding Basic Human Psychology Before You Write The Letter That Will Hopefully Reconcile Your Marriage: Before you get started, it helps to understand exactly what you want the letter to accomplish. In most cases, people are hoping that the correspondence will help to get their spouse on board with saving the marriage. They're hoping to change their spouses perceptions and feelings from negative to positive.

To that end, it's so important to understand how your letter is going to be perceived. Probably the biggest mistake that I see people make is that they focus on themselves in the letter (rather than on their spouse.) They place most of their attention to their own feelings and their own fears. Examples are phrases like "I don't know what I would do if I lost you." Or, "my heart is breaking and I pray that we can work this out." It's OK to sprinkle some of these phrases in the letter, but be very careful that the whole tone of the letter isn't one of negativity and fear.

It's very important to understand basic human nature and psychology. People will move toward those emotions, things, and people that make them feel more positively and upbeat about their situation. And, people will move away from and have negative perceptions toward those things that bring them down. Make sure that your letter isn't overwhelmingly negative and based on dark emotions like fear, jealousy, or possession. Proofread it several times to make sure that you aren't constantly mentioning yourself, how you feel, or what you want.

Keep in mind who your audience is. It's your spouse or significant other. So, the letter should mostly be about them and what you're now going to do to make things better for the both of you. Keep in mind they want to know how and why things are really going to be different. Pretty words are nice, but most people will see right through this and are most interested in how your actions are going to directly affect them.

It's just human nature for people to want to know what is in it for them rather than what is in it for you. Focus on painting a picture of how you're actually going to make things better. Of course, this requires that you have a workable plan before you sit down to write the letter. But, that's OK because it never hurts to really think about how you're going to make some real and lasting improvements in your marriage.

It's so often your actions over time and not your fleeting words that matter. And so often, if your marriage is in trouble, your spouse is already going to be somewhat reluctant to what you have to say anyway. So yes, a letter can open doors for you, but in order to walk through that door, you'll usually need to rely on your swift, measured and decisive action.

Lastly, don't dwell too much on how you're going to "work" on your marriage. Sometimes, when spouses hear this phrase, it paints a very negative picture. Many people don't look all that forward to slogging through their feelings and clocking into the marital time clock. You can usually say the same thing in a different way to make it sound so much more appealing.

You'll often have much better luck if instead of telling them that you're going to "work through the issues" with them, that you're going to focus on bringing back your hot, steamy, and connected relationship to where it used to be. This gives them more to look forward to and gives them an incentive to get on board.

Here's another hint. Men or husbands will often respond better to references to improving your physical relationship. They crave the physical intimacy that means you are attracted and appreciative toward them. Women or wives wants to be appreciated also, but emotions will typically mean more to them than the physical (although this is important to us also.) So, if you're writing a letter to your husband, you're better off focusing on a physical connection rather than alluding to how you're going to "work" on your problems. Actually, both spouses often want the same things, but they will often demonstrate this in very different ways. So, it's important to keep these things in mind.

At the end of the day, these are just empty words on a page. If you don't make good on your promises and follow them up with action, then you're almost better off not even the writing the letter because your spouse will come to doubt your sincerity even more and your job will be that much harder in the end. But I've seen several carefully written letters be the catalyst for reconciling the marriage so long as they were followed up with the right actions.

Physical Security Of Laptops With Computer Locks

Laptops and computers attract thieves quite like magnets. From dishonest employees to cheap thugs to hi-fi robbers they find computers and laptops easily accessible and ether steal and run away after vandalizing the systems.

Over one million laptops are either lost or stolen every year approximately. While FBI recovers a 2% of the lost or the stolen laptops, they are still clueless on the 300+ laptops they'd lost during hearing of the 9/11 commission. FBI must have lost information which is more valuable than the laptops itself.

A majority of the laptop thefts are due to reckless misplacing alone. While you may have the theft insurance for your expensive Apple iMac, you'd still hate to see your company's business secrets and information reaching into the wrong hands. Do you?

Physical security of laptops and computers

While password locking does help to safeguard critical information reaching wrong people, physical security of computers should be top priority.

Is computer locks or laptop locks the best modes of physical security?

Computer lock or a laptop lock is the best way of securing system or laptop physically. Approximately, about four-fifth of laptops available on the market comes with a Universal Security Slot (USS). The USS will facilitate the laptop to be attached to a laptop cable lock or even a laptop alarm.

No wonder determined thieves and bolt cutter experts will not stop at this, the laptop cable locks should deter the casual laptop lifters who'd be waiting to take advantage of you when you fall asleep at airport lobby or a hotel lounge.

While there are a variety of computer locks including cable locks to LCD monitor and desktop locks to Maclocks to iMac security locks, the best part is that you don't have to spend a fortune on purchasing any of these. The locks that secure single systems and laptops will be in the $30-50 range and those that secure many laptops at a time such as carts fall in the $100 through $1000 (high end will be the feature-rich portable mini classroom like laptop carts)

Most of the computer locks are usually available at regular office stores or these days at several online stores. If you purchase from an online store, you have certain advantages; check and look at the variety of designs and specifications then make selection that suit your requirement and then look for best deals or offers around that otherwise you have no choice to play with if you opt to buy from an offline store.

Consider and check for quality of the cable as well as quality of the computer lock; ask for replacement warranty and ask if the lock facilitates locking of computer and laptop peripherals too.

Debt Management Plan Advice Company!

Many times, borrowers avail loan that they can not payback on time. Excessive loans create debt problems. Borrowers find it difficult to manage their debts as a result. Seeking help from professionals can help such borrowers get over the problem. Making use of debt management plan advice company can help immensely.

These companies provide expert guidance on handling debt problems efficiently. Dealing with debts is made easy through these companies. These companies can suggest alternative means of dealing with debt problems. A borrower can manage his or her finances better by incorporating the plans recommended by these companies.

Before the situation gets worse, a borrower can try to stabilize the financial situation. A team of experienced financial experts provide excellent guidance on how to manage debts. Outstanding debts can create serious financial problems for you over a period of time. Such problems should be handled appropriately. Over a period of time, they can also affect the credit score of the borrower negatively. Here, it is very important that these problems are handled well.

A borrower can also get free advice from a team of financial experts. One can also look online for help. This will help a person resolve solve problems quickly. One can choose from the best advice available online. The online mode helps a borrower get advice quickly and put an end to all the debt worries. Moreover, one need not pay any fees for the service.

An increasing number of borrowers have already benefited from these loans. Borrowers with debt problems can easily put their finances in order. The sudden increase in the number of people availing loans has led to the debt problems.

A borrower can choose from these options to overcome debt problems:

Debt Consolidation Loan - This kind of loan can help a borrower overcome debt problems fast. With this loan, a borrower can consolidate multiple debts into one single loan and make a single payment for all the debts. It also helps a borrower make a lower monthly payment. Moreover, the interest rate being charged is also less than the average rate on the current debts.

Debt Management - A borrower can also opt for this plan to get expert advice on debt problems. This plan involves a series of steps which helps you to reduce your monthly payments. This is the most effective way to get over the debt problems.

The term, full and final settlement means an offer to repay the percentage of the debt, on the condition the creditor agreements to write off the remaining amount. Borrowers, who have numerous debts and are finding it difficult to make payment, can make use of this option.

Sadhana Dhanyal, Expert Author

Transaction of Property Through a Real Estate Company

When it comes to transaction of property, even the wisest, boldest, smartest and the 'know it all' becomes nervous. After all you wish to make either a great investment or a profitable sale. Property matters are always stressing. Yes, they do cost your peace of mind. The process of selling and buying of property is complex as well as tiring. There are minor fears and doubts' regarding everything till the transaction is not done. When selling a property your ultimate goal is to complete the sale at a profitable price and hand over your property in the right hands. When buying a property you aim to get a property which satisfies your needs at an affordable and right price. But how to do that?

The long and tiring process

Lets us first talk about how to sell your property yourself. The first obvious step is to know the market value of your property and then set a price which is convenient to you. The next move is to get a buyer. But, how? Put hoardings, pamphlets and banners to advertise your property and tell people it is for sale. Inform your acquaintances that you wish to sell your property as they might get you buyers in their contact. Buyers will approach you when they get to know that your property is for sale. They will check your property and if they are impressed by your offer they will buy your land / house. Then comes the paperwork which concludes the deal. When buying a home, you need to collect information about properties for sale either from advertisement on different platforms or from friends and family. Visit the property and check it in the next step. Then comes the negotiation for price with the seller and the purchase concludes with paperwork.

Why do you need an agent?

Well! All this may sound easy, but it is not buyers have to wait for the type of property they want for long. Sellers too have to wait as long as 6 months on average to find the right customer. Even the legal work required in papers makes it mandatory for you to visit Law attorneys dealing with property matters, making the process all the more cumbersome. It is exactly here real estate companies and agents come to your aid.

Perks of contacting a Real Estate Company

Many a times you need to buy / sell homes in a hurry. Like if you have got transferred to a new place you would like to sell your previous home quickly and buy a new one as soon as possible. As already mentioned the process of transaction of property is complex and time taking. But this tiring burden can be reduced to a great extent when you contact and associate with a real estate company or agent. They have all information about which house is for sale at what price and who are people looking for a house in what location and at what price. So you see the first work of finding and waiting for customers when you wish to sell your property is eliminated. When looking to purchase a house you do not need to hunt anymore. Your property agent will let you know. Not only they end the hunt, but also assist you with legal paperwork relating to the deal.

The Secrets to Finding a Financial Advisor

1. How often do they meet with their clients?

It is important to know how often your financial advisor expects to meet with you. As your personal situation changes you want to ensure that they are willing to meet frequently enough to be able to update your investment portfolio in response to those changes. Advisors will meet with their clients at varying frequencies. If you are planning to meet with your advisor once a year and something were to come up that you thought was important to discuss with them; would they make themselves available to meet with you? You want your advisor to always be working with current information and have a full knowledge of your situation at any given time. If your situation does change then it is important to communicate this with your financial advisor.

2. Ask if you can see a sample of a financial plan that they have previously prepared for a client.

It is important that you are comfortable with the information that your advisor will provide to you, and that it is furnished in a comprehensive and usable manner. They may not have a sample available, but they would be able to access one that they had previously designed for a client, and be able to share it with you by removing all of the client specific information prior to you viewing it. This will help you to understand how they work to help their clients to reach their goals. It will also allow you to see how they track and measure their results, and determine if those results are in line with clients' goals. Also, if they can demonstrate how they help with the planning process, it will let you know that they actually do financial "planning", and not just investing.

3. Ask how the advisor is compensated and how that translates into any costs for you.

There are only a few different ways for advisers to be compensated. The first and most common method is for an advisor to receive a commission in return for their services. A second, newer form of compensation has advisors being paid a fee on a percentage of the client's total assets under management. This fee is charged to the client on an annual basis and is usually somewhere between 1% and 2.5%. This is also more common on some of the stock ports that are discretionarily managed. Some advisors believe that this will become the standard for compensation in the future. Most financial institutions offer the same amount of compensation, but there are cases in which some companies will compensate more than others, introducing a possible conflict of interest. It is important to understand how your financial advisor is compensated, so that you will be aware of any suggestions that they make, which may be in their best interests instead of your own. It is also very important for them to know how to speak freely with you about how they are being compensated. The third method of compensation is for an advisory to be paid up front on the investment purchases. This is typically calculated on a percentage basis as well, but is usually a higher percentage, approximately 3% to 5% as a onetime fee. The final method of compensation is a mix of any of the above. Depending on the advisor they may be relocating between different structures or they may alter the structures depending on your situation. If you have some shorter term money that is being invested, then the commission from the fund company on that purchase will not be the best way to invest that money. They may choose to invest it with the front end fee to prevent a higher cost to you. In any case, you will want to be aware, before entering into this relationship, if and how, any of the above methods will translate into costs for you. For example, will there be a cost for transferring your assets from another advisor? Most advisors will cover the costs incurred during the transfer.

4. Does your advisor have a Certified Financial Planner Designation?

The certified financial planner (CFP) design is well recognized across Canada. It affirms that your financial planner has taken the complex course on financial planning. More importantly, it ensures that they have been able to demonstrate through success on a test, encompassing a variety of areas, that they understand financial planning, and can apply this knowledge to many different applications. These areas include many aspects of investing, retirement planning, insurance and tax. It shows that your advisor has a broader and higher level of understanding than the average financial advisor.

5. What designs do they have that relate to your situation?

A Certified Financial Planner (CFP) should spend the time to look at your whole situation and help with planning for the future, and for achieving your financial goals.

A Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) typically has more focus on stock picking. They are usually more focused on selecting the investments that go into your portfolio and looking at the analytical side of those investments. They are a better fit if you are looking for someone to recommend certain stocks that they feel are hot. A CFA will usually have less frequent meetings and be more likely to pick up the phone and make a call to recommend purchasing or selling a specific stock.

A Certified Life Underwriter (CLU) has more insurance knowledge and will usually provide more insurance solutions to help you in reaching your goals. They are very good at providing techniques to reserve an estate and moving assets on to beneficiaries. A CLU will generally meet with their clients once a year to review their insurance picture. They will be less involved with investment planning.
All of these designs are well recognized across Canada and each one brings a unique focus on your situation. Your financial needs and the type of relationship you wish to have with your advisor, will help you determine the necessary credentials for your advisor.

6. Have they done any extra courses and for what reasons?

Ask your prospective advisor why they have done their extra courses and how that pertains to your personal situation. If an advisor has taken a course with a financial focus, that also deals with seniors, you should ask why they have taken this course. What benefits did they achieve? It is fairly easy to take a number of courses and get several new designs. But it is really interesting when you ask the advisor why they took a certain course, and how they perceive that it will add to the services offered to their clients.

7. Who will be meeting with you?

In future meetings will you be meeting with the financial advisor, or with their assistant? It is your personal preference wherever or not you wish to meet with someone other than the financial advisor. But, if you want that personal attention and expertise, and you want to work with only one individual, then it is good to know who that person will be, today and in the future.

8. Are you the ideal client for the advisor?

Are your financial needs similar to many of their clients? What can they show you that indicates a specialization in your area and that they have other clients in your situation? Has the advisor created any marketing pieces that are client friendly for those clients in your situation, over and above what they offer other clients? Do they really understand your situation? Once you have explained your personal needs and the type of client you are, it should be easy to determine if you are an ideal client for the services they provide.

9. How many clients do they work with?

It is important to know how many clients your prospective advisor works with. Are you one of 100 clients or one of 1000? Based on your assets are you in the top 15%, or the bottom 15% of their clients? These are important things to know. Ask if you are one of their top clients or one of their bottom clients, if you will receive more attention or less attention?

10. Do they have a network of professionals that they trust and can refer you to when you have a need?

It is valuable for an adviser to have a strong network of professional individuals available to their clients, in which they have full trust. Your advisor should know and trust these individuals completely, so that if an issue arises with them, your advisor will be able to go to bat for you.

11. Ask the financial advisor for a list of clients that you can contact.

Are there any clients that have given testimonials and who would be willing to speak to you about the advisor and the services provided? Ask these individuals how they enjoy working with the advisor and their staff. Ask some of the questions that you have asked the advisor, such as, who do they meet with when they have their meetings, the advisor or an assistant?

12. How does the financial advisor contribute to the community?

Whether or not this is important to you, it is a good question to ask. You will discover if the advisor has given back to the community and if they are doing things over and above the day-to-day job to give back and help others.

13. How do they feel they will best help you and support you in achieving your goals?

This may be a question that you want to ask the advisor in a second meeting, if you have a two meeting process. Ask: How can they bring value to the relationship? What do they feel they can help you with? What will they do to ensure that you achieve your goals?

14. Do they have any tools that they have developed specifically for their clients?

I have touched on this earlier as well. This is really where you can see if a financial advisor is pro-active and if they specialize in a specific area or a specific type of client. An advisor who is pro-active should be creating some tools or have some processes in place to support their clients in their target market. Some of the tools will be used behind the scenes, but should be able to be explained to you, and provided to you during your relationship, to help you achieve your goals and keep you on track.

15. Do they prefer to meet at their office or are they willing to come to your house and why?

It is a great idea to go to the advisor's office to meet with them initially if you are able to do so. This will allow you to see their office and their working environment; and, it will give you a sense of what type of an adviser they are, and the clients, with which they work. In the same respect, if you do not live close to their office, you should question if they are willing to come to meet with you at your home. If not, you will want to understand why they want to meet only in their office. Likely, they believe that they can provide the best possible service where all of their paperwork and resources are available available, which may questions arise. They may prefer to come to your home once to see your environs and to get a better understanding and feel for the type of client you are. But, if you are unable to get out to meet with them, or if your situation in this regard changes in the future, you will want to know how this will be managed.

16. Do they do financial planning, and if so, do they charge for it?

If you are looking for someone who is going to look at your overall situation, and who is going to spend the time to help you plan how you meet an advisor who is profitable at financial planning. If you are looking for a broker who just want to be able to phone to have them place a trade for you, then you will not need financial planning. Understanding whether financial planning is provided is a key component. Be very careful that you are actually getting financial planning when you ask an advisor if they do financial planning. Also, you must understand whether or not there are any fees associated with the planning service. Some advisors may charge an additional fee for the planning on top of everything else that they do, while others will provide you with an actual financial plan at no additional cost.

17. Do they look at the whole picture or only one area?

It is important to know if the prospective advisor has a particular focus. Are they proficient with investments, insurance, financial planning, retirement planning, taxes, and estates? Will this one person be able to take over all of these areas for you? Will you be able to establish a relationship with one solid individual who understands all aspects of your financial situation? Or will they only help you with your investments and have someone else do your taxes, your insurance, your estate planning and retirement planning? Will you need to go out and find the others who do that? It is important to understand if the advisor can look at the whole picture or only one or two areas. You will be able to achieve your goals more quickly if an adviser can service your entitlement financial portfolio, because each of those areas mentioned, needs to understand and complement the others, while not under them, which may occur if various individuals are working on different aspects of your financial plan.

Things to think about during the process

Is it convenient to meet with the advisor? Are they able to meet with you at a time of your liking, or did you have to go out of your way to set up the initial meeting? Are you comfortable with them and their staff? Do you get a good feeling from what they do and what they say to you? Do you sense that they have your best interests in mind? Is their office setting efficient and comfortable?

Interview a number of different advisors before you make a change. This will help you to understand what each one does differently, and it will give you a good idea as to how they will help you to determine exactly what your goals might be. You might even come to realize that your present situation is the best for you at the moment. Talking to several potential advisers will help you develop a path toward the achievement of the goals that are most important to you, and help you to understand who is best to partner with, in order to achieve those valued goals.

Computer Optimization

PART I - INTRO & FRAGMENTATION

Many people are under the impression that a computer's performance deteriorates with age. I'd like to dispel that myth: computers are mostly solid-state technology that is large unaffected by age. I'm not saying that older computers do not run more slowly, but once we correct the notification that the slow-down is caused by its unalterable age, the problem becomes one that can usually be remedied without buying a newer computer.

First, let's understand what does not cause a computer to slow down:

• Computer processors are digital electronic transistor-like switches, sealed in a hard plastic package; These are solid-state devices that either work or do not. They may get fried if exposed to a power surge, but otherwise, they do not slow down.
• Computer memory is comprised of similar components and works or does not work, just the same.
• A computer motherboard is nothing more than wire tracks on a piece of plastic, usually with more solid-state devices plugged into it or soldered to it. Motherboards do not slow down, either.
• Computer power supplies are exposed to some of the most extreme conditions a computer experiences. That's why they burn out more frequently than most other parts, but even they do not cause performance reductions; they either work or they do not.

So what does cause a computer to slow down with age?

The largest culprit is data storage. Imagine trying to look for something in a file cabinet if it was the only item in the drawer; it would be pretty easy to find, right? If there were even just a few items in the drawer, it would still be simple to thumb through them to find the one you wanted. What if the drawer was completely filled? It might take a little longer, right? That's what happens on a hard drive when you install an operating system, applications, and data on it. Every time you download more.mp3 songs, import more.jpg photos from your camera, or type up new word processing documents, you're stuffing more things in the file cabinet which is your hard drive.

Unlike the processor or memory, the hard drive is typically not a solid-state device; it has moving parts. Consequently, the time it takes to read or write hard drive data is on the order of 1,000 times slower than solid-state devices like RAM or a USB thumb drive. Couple that with the fact that you keep adding more and more stuff to it, and you can begin to understand the problem.

In reality, it's even worse than you imagine. When you save a document to the hard drive, it gets stored in a specific space on the drive. The computer tries to allocate hard drive space as efficiently as possible, so if more stuff gets written to the drive after that, it's stored in the next-available sequential space. (For the hard-core techies reading this, yes, I know that this explanation severely oversimplifies the process.) Unfortunately, that means that when you next edit that initial document, there is not any contiguous space on the drive for the new data to be stored, so it ends up getting stored elsewhere, separated from the first part of the document. Later, when you try to read this document back into memory, it takes a little longer than it would for a contiguously-stored document because the computer must make a jump in the middle of reading it to find the rest of it. This is known as separation. Another cause of fragmentation is when files are deleted, as that creates holes the computer tries to fill with sub -ently-saved data, but the holes are almost never the right size for the new files being saved, so the newly-saved files also get broken up into noncontiguous pieces.

Do not think your use is the only force causing fragmentation on your drive, either. Virtual memory, points to recent files, various cache files, and updates / patches use and release hard drive space all the time, causing fragmentation, even if you never intentionally save another file to your computer. Fortunately, fragmentation is reliably easy to cure. Microsoft Windows comes with a tool that does it for us - all we have to do is use this tool from time to time, and it rearranges the files on the disk to do its best to store them all contiguously. Lucky for us, a lot of the stuff we store on our hard drives does not change all that frequently. Operating system files, installed applications, and even our music and photos rarely change in content or size, so once they get defragmented into less-dynamic areas of the hard drive, they should be fine.

PART II - DIGITAL HOARDING

After fragmentation, the next issue to discuss about how hard drives slow down our computers is the increasing volume of data being stored on them. If you've seen a phonograph turntable, you have a rough idea of ​​how hard drive operates, but imagine it spinning much faster. Instead of 33 or 45 revolutions per minute, hard drives operate at 5,400, 7,200, 10,000, or even 15,000 revolutions per minute. For even the slow hard drive to spin around to the complete opposite side of the disk may take under 1 / 100th of a second, but like a phonograph turntable, rotation is not the only motion the drive makes; the head also moves in and out, radially, and that motion is significantly slower. When a hard drive has little data on it, that data is generally stored close to the center, so the head only needs to traverse a tiny fraction of the radius of the disk, but as more and more data get stored, more of the radius of the disk is used, so the portion of the radius that the head must travel gets longer, making data reads and writes slower.

Fortunately, this type of performance degradation can frequently be mitigated, too. People tend to be terrible pack-rats about what they store on their computers. Hard drives become like black holes, collecting years of data that may never be used, needed, or even seen again. If the computer was faster when it was new, before it had all this data on it, you may well be able to restore it to that level of performance if you could clean out some of this data. There are countless ways to identify and remove unneeded data from a hard drive. Windows comes with a few tools that may help:

• Disk Cleanup searches for several categories of junk left on your drive and enables you to remove them.
• Add / Remove Programs helps you find and remove old applications and Windows Components that you no longer use or need.

Even your old documents, music, movies, and photos can be attributed and either deleted or moved to offline storage (such as burned to CDs / DVDs or uploaded to network or even Internet storage facilities).

In extreme situations, you can also reduce some of the cache sizes, such as the System Restore cache size or even the Recycle Bin. By default, these take up 12% and 10% of your hard drive, respectably, and unless you're sorry to deleting things you should not have, cutting these in half frees up 1/9 of your hard drive, immediately and without undue risk.

Professionals may also be able to help you identify more ways of freeing up space, such as disabling Offline Files if the feature is not needed, deleting old user profiles, removing old printers, reducing Internet cache settings, etc. Frequently, programs leave remnants of themselves behind on your hard drive, even after being uninstalled; these may also be deleted. Misconfigured virtual memory settings may also hog up more of your hard drive than is actually needed.

PART III - APPLICATION CREEP

Beside hard drive data storage, there is another area in which computer performance may become degraded, looking to be due to age: increasing demands on the processor and memory. We must divide this issue into two categories, though. One may be resolvable without upgrading your computer, whereas the other likely would not be.

The resolvable category is what I refer to as "Application creep." Your computer probably came with a bunch of free and free-trial programs installed that you've never used. Most of these lie dormant on your hard drive until invoked, but some, like printer drivers, malware detectors, and hardware and software updaters load into memory every time you boot your machine. On top of these, you've probably installed more, whether you realized it or not. If you installed Adobe Reader, there's a little piece of code that probably loads up on every restart of your PC - it makes it quick for you to open.pdf files because part of the Reader is already in memory, but what about the 99% of the time that you're not using it? Well, it still sits there, taking up resources, making other operations slower. Lots of other common applications have such components that automatically run when you boot your PC (aka "AutoRuns"), such as iTunes, Safari, QuickTime, Java, and more. Beside these AutoRuns, other unwanted programs sneak in, piggy-backed along programs you use. Those extra toolbars in your Internet Explorer window were the carefully-understood payloads of lots of other programs you installed, and guess what - they use up resources unnecessarily every time IE is running. It's not a big reach to realize that when unneeded things are using up resources, desirable operations work less efficiently.

The category that's more difficult to resolve is the result of technological advancement. You bought your computer eight years ago, before Netflix ever started streaming movies, and now you expect it to do things it was not intended to do. You finished the games you were playing and bought newer games, even though they demand more RAM, more hard drive space, and faster processors. You had a film camera before, but now you're importing your digital cell phone photos from all of your trips, and you've started taking short videos, too! ... and even if you do not actively update any of your software or increase your utilization of it, updates may be happening behind the scenes. Microsoft Windows can update itself automatically, and in fact, many Microsoft software titles can be configured to do so. Adobe, Java, Real Player, iTunes, and Quicken prompt you for updates, and you just click "OK" without even thinking about it. Bug fixes come out, updated drivers are released, and you do not want to be left vulnerable or outdated, so you accept them. Each of these updates places additional statements on your computer's resources.

Look, we do not all still carry around our first, brick-sized, analog-only, battery-guzzling cellular phones - we want the latest features, so we upgrade. At some point you have to make the decision to do that with your computer, too. Ultimately, you may find that even after thinning out your data, eliminating your unwanted applications, and cleaning up your AutoRun programs as far as you reasonably can that your computer is still too slow for your taste. At that point, either upgrade or replace it. Hopefully, following the advice above will at least increase the amount of time between computer upgrades, saving you money.

PART IV - WHAT TO UPGRADE

So you've tried all the optimizing you could, and you're still unsatisfied with the performance of your computer. Now what? Maybe it's time to upgrade, but what should you upgrade? The whole system? Just some components? If time and money was no object, you'd just go buy the latest great system out there and hire someone else to reinstall and reconfigure all of your applications and transfer all of your data. Unfortunately, for many of us, that's not the case. When faced with limited resources, we have to make decisions about the best ways to employ them. You've hated to spend four-digits on a whole new computer system if all the old one needed was a memory upgrade. However, you're also hate to waste money on RAM only to find that you're still unsatisfied and still faced with the need to buy a whole new system. How can you tell what to do?

Windows comes with several tools to help us identify bottlenecks. Armed with that information, we can make better decisions about what to do to resolve them. Here's a list of several of the more common bottlenecks:

• Network Connection - a low-speed network connection will make Internet access and any other network resource utilization slower.
• Main Memory - having insufficient RAM forces the PC to use a swap file on the hard drive instead, slowing down processing, task switching, and read / write operations.
• Processor - having too slow a processor or too few processors will impact the performance of all operations. Less-expensive processors also lack L1 cache, which reduces their performance further.
• Hard Drive - slower hard drives affect the speed of all read / write operations, including cache files and virtual memory. Space utilization is also a consideration; the guideline is to utilize less than 50% of any hard drive's capacity.

To diagnose these issues, first try to notice patterns. If your performance complaints predominant specifically to the speed at which Web pages load, they're more likely indicative of a problem with the speed of your Internet connection. If performance gets sluggish when you have more applications running, you may have insufficient memory or a slow processor. If the hard drive activity indicator light stays lit frequently, it may indicate insufficient memory or too slow or too full a hard drive. Once you have your guess as a starting point, you'll want to find evidence for or against your thesis. A good place to start is the Windows Task Manager. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del, and you should see the task manager or a link to it, depending on which version of Windows you're running. The Performance tab shows processor and memory utilization and the Networking tab shows network connection utilization.

Let's start with the performance tab; it provides lots of good information. First, the number of pans of CPU Usage History shows you how many CPU cores your system has. Utilization should normally be low unless you have a ton of stuff actively running. If any of the graphs are pegging the needle at the top of the chart, there is more demand being placed on your processor than it can handle. The PF Usage charts show how much RAM is being used. Ideally you want this to be low, too. The more applications you have running, the more RAM is required. As we mentioned, once the computer runs out of actual memory, it makes more room by moving less-frequently-used data into "virtual memory," which is actually stored on the hard drive. When it needs it back, it swaps the next-least-frequently-used data to the hard drive to make room to swap the needed data back in. All of these operations take time, so if the PF Usage is up at or near the top of your graph, you have insufficient RAM to meet your demands.

Another helpful tool to see the processor and RAM that are installed in your PC is the System Properties in the Control Panel. Press Windows-Break as a shortcut to bring that up. The Pentium-4 processor is today's standard, and if you have an older one, I would not bother trying to upgrade - just replace the PC. Different operating systems have different memory requirements, but having at least 1 GB of RAM is pretty common nowdays.

Back to the Task Manager, on the Networking tab, do not be surprised if your network utilization is frequently at or below one percent. A typical desktop computer has a network interface card (NIC) capable of communicating at 100 or even 1,000 million bits per second - even older NICs could communicate at 10 Mbps. A typical broadband Internet connection (such as a cable modem, high-speed DSL, or fiber optic connection), however, operates in the vicinity of 1 Mbps, and that's only when downloading large files under perfect conditions. If you're connected to other local network resources, such as servers or network printers, you may be able to use more of your available bandwidth, but if your sole network utilization is your network access, the bottleneck will always be the Internet connection rather than the computer's network connection. Now that we've cleared that up, if you find the graph showing utilization at or near 100%, your network card may be too slow for your requirements, but if you're uncomfortable with the speed of web pages loading a small low network connection utilization, you need to upgrade your Internet connection instead of your PC.

PART V - UPGRADING

Now that you've identified the problem, you need to decide how to deal with it. Some issues can be overcome by minor upgrades, but others are not worth the cost or trouble, and are an ideal opportunity to replace the PC.

If you've decided that you do not have enough RAM, that's usually the cheapest and easiest upgrade you can make to your PC. Depending on how much you have and how many slots your motherboard has, you may be able to install additional DIMMs or you may need to replace existing lower-capacity DIMMs with larger-capacity ones. There are dozens of incompatible varieties of memory, so if you're not sure what you need, the best thing to do is to check the owner's manual that came with your PC when you bought it. You still have it, right? If not, either take a DIMM out and bring it with you to the store or if you're buying online, search by the make and model of your PC, rather than for the type of memory.

If you've decided that your network card is too slow, you can probably install a faster one into a slot or even a USB port - this, too, is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade to perform. Most PCs built in the last 10 years have PCI slots, so you can probably look for a PCI-technology network interface card (NIC) at your local computer store or online. They come in wired or wireless varieties, depending on how you'll be connecting your PC to your network. If you're probably not open your PC, both wired and wireless NICs come in USB variants nowdays, too. If your Internet connection is too slow, you will not have to do a thing to your computer - just contact your ISP and discuss your options for upgrading your service to a higher bandwidth - or shop around to see what the other ISPs are charging.

If you decide that your processor is insufficient, it's usually best to just replace your PC. Motherboards are designed to work with a small range of different model processors, and even if yours was the low-end model, the cost and trouble to upgrade to the high-end processor would not produce a noticeably-worthy improvement; trade up for a PC with more processor cores, instead. The only exception to this rule might be if your motherboard allowed you to upgrade from a processor without L1 cache (such as a Celeron) to a processor with L1 cache - that could produce a noticeable-enough improvement to warrant the cost and difficulty. If so, check your owner's manual (or specs online) to see which experts your motherboard will accommodate, and if you decide to do it, once you factor in the cost of your time and effort, it's probably best to just upgrade to the best and fastest one available - you do not want to have to do this again in a year when you outgrow a tiny incremental improvement.

Historically, when a computer's hard drive became the bottleneck, it was usually a point at which we recommended replacing the entire system. In some cases, however, the rules have changed today. Replacing a hard drive involves reinstalling the operating system and all the applications, as well as transferring all the personal files and data, so it's typically such a labor-intensive process as to make it the ideal time to upgrade the rest of the PC along with it. Today, however, with the popularity of digital photography, .mp3 music files, videos, and other space-hogging multimedia data, it's frequently able to optimize an existing hard drive by offloaded all such personal files and data to external storage. USB flash drives are now available in 64 GB or more, and external USB hard drives exceeded 1 TB (which is 1,024 GB). It's a pain in the butt to have to change the installed location of most applications and Windows components, but to move data files is significantly less trouble. In fact, to further improve performance, you could even offload your PC's virtual memory file to a second (internal) hard drive without too much trouble. As we discussed earlier in this treatise, the more stuff you have on your hard drive, the less efficiently it operates, so by moving all this type of non-system-critical data off of the hard drive that contains the operating system and the applications , you may be able to restore most of the PC's youthful performance without too much trouble.

Ultimately, all of these optimizations and upgrades are only stop-gap measures. Software patches and updates will continue to require increasingly-more space on your main hard drive, and you'll probably add more features and applications over time. Even if you're terribly miserable with space on your main hard drive, there are still increasing demands. It's also one of the few mechanical components in your PC, so its lifespan can already be expected to be shorter than any of the solid state components. At some point you're going to need a new main hard drive, and at that point, I'm still stick with my position that it's a good opportunity to replace the whole PC.

Debt Management Programs - Steps For Securing Your Future

There are a number of ways in which you can ensure that you are saving a decent amount of money of the future. Many of these involve actually taking measures and making some changes in your spending habits. While not all of them are as dramatic in terms of implementation, some do have very good results despite not making you change much in what you do. Here, it is important to identify these debt management programs so that you can implement them and recover your money before it is too late.

Going By Experience

A known way in which you can be sure that you are opting for a reliable debt management program is if you look at the past experience and ensure that the individuals that tripped this out in the past have actually succeeded in reducing or eliminating debt completely. It may seem a little too far fetched to think about debt elimination at this point, but it is a suddenless a possibility. Here, do not think that there is no way out, as almost always, there will be a legitimate way out. You might just need to look around and find the right solution to implement!

Giving It Enough Time

For any solution to produce worthy results, you might have to give it a sufficient amount of time and ensure that it is in fact changing things slowly. Here, regardless of how good the debt management programs might be, it will never really be of use if you do not place faith in it and actually try your best in ensuring that you stick to what has been recommended. Many people give up way too early when they opt in for these, effectively thinking that it never really did work like how they expected it to. Do not be one of these people and do give your new program a good amount of time before trying out something else.

Imbibing New Habits

If things are not working out in your financial situation like how you want it to, sometimes you might want to try things differently. Many of these debt management programs encourage you to take a close look at your spending habits and rectify any impulsive expenses or unnecessary purchases. You should take this advice seriously and actually look at how you might be spending your money. If you feel that you can cut back on costs in any particular area, you should go ahead and do so. Do not simply take things for granted and then worry about them later on. Remember that small drops make a mighty ocean and your debt was not bought up by some decision that you took overnight; it was a cumulative result.

Here, in this manner, taking all these things into account and then opting in for debt management programs that can help you recover over a period of time is highly recommended. Not only do you stand to gain quite a bit from doing so, but you can also be assured that you will get your credit score back and will be able to spend money like you used to in the past.