Thinking about building your dream home? Be sure to do your required research beforehand and check out these tips for building a new home.

The idea of building a brand new home can be exciting. Imagining yourself living in a home no one else has ever lived in is a comforting thought. It’s the ultimate sanctuary for you and your family alone.

However, without proper planning and the right mindset, building a home can be incredibly challenging. It’s vital that you go into it with all of the information. It’s also important that you take all the right steps, rather than diving into headfirst and blindfolded.

Take a look at our top seven tips for building a new home before you start the process!

Tips for Building a New Home

Reading through these tips for building a new home will put you in the right mind space to begin your journey. Additionally, it may help you remember something you were forgetting!

Keep in mind, building a home for you and your family is a big investment, both of your time and your finances. However, it’s also a big emotional investment. Your whole family gets ramped up about it.

The last thing you want to do is let important things fall through the cracks or create a long stall before getting the house complete. Take a look at these essential tips to avoid headache and heartache in the future.

1. Plan Well in Advance

First, and most importantly, you need to plan ahead. Obviously, when building a new home rather than just buying one that’s prebuilt, there’s a lot that goes into the creative process.

This also depends on if you’re designing it room by room or hiring an architect to do it for you. Regardless, you still need to have some prudent planning in place.

For example, you need to consider your family. Will it be growing? How much space will you all need?

Additionally, you need to think about other factors. How often will you be entertaining? Do you need guest rooms?

There are countless factors to consider comfort and convenience as well. These include where you want your laundry room, how many bathrooms you need, where you want plugins, if you want a large deck or patio, how many common area rooms you want, where the garage is going to be, etc.

The list goes on forever, and you need to have it all planned out!

2. Know Your Budget

After you’ve got a good idea of what you’re home is going to look like, you need to get a lockdown on your budget. Knowing how much money you want to spend is one of the most practical tips for building a new home.

We recommend creating your dream home, then scaling it back where necessary to meet your budget. However, we also recommend creating an extra room within your budget as things will inevitably come up throughout the process.

Remember also that you never want to max yourself out. For example, just because you can afford a $400,000 home, it doesn’t mean that you should.

You need to factor in your monthly costs to include all the factors such as land, taxes, insurance, and utilities. Can you afford those monthly payments without breaking the bank? Most Americans make this mistake and live paycheck to paycheck, endlessly trying to catch up financially.

3. Find the Right Land

Next, you need to find the right plot of land to build your home on. Location is an incredibly important aspect of where you decide to live, especially if you have children. It’s also one of the most important tips for building a new home.

How close do you want to be in town, schools, and work? Do you want to have parks nearby? How safe are the neighborhood and surrounding areas?

These factors all play into your quality of life and the potential resale value of your home, should you ever decide to move.

4. Save Money Where You Can

Next, you need to be willing to compromise when necessary. As we suggested before, things will inevitably come up over and over again. Some of it will be time delays and some of it will be financial setbacks.

Learning how to scale back on certain things to save money where you can really help you stick to your budget. This can also apply to things that can always be changed later, such as expensive fixtures, doors, windows, etc.

5. Hire the Right Builders

One of the most important tips for building a new home is finding the right builders for the job. The contractors you hire will determine everything from price, efficiency, communication, quality and more.

Make sure you do your research before hiring a contractor. Look up reviews online, ask for recommendations, etc. Never pick the first company you find. If you do plenty of research can come back to the first company, no problem.

You may also want to consider a prefab home company. Prefab homes are cost-efficient and are more stylish and high-quality than ever before. Learn more here about the ever-improving industry.

6. Keep Communication Strong

Next, it’s important that you keep a strong and open line of communication with the builders. You need to be as available to them as you expect them to be to you.

If anything goes wrong or needs to change during the build, you need to be in the know. Additionally, if things change on your end, you need to know that you can get ahold of your contractor.

Communication is essential for a smooth build.

7. Roll with Setbacks and Changes

There’s a popular saying that it takes a strong couple to build a home together without breaking up. That’s because the process can be incredibly frustrating. Things come up left and right.

Being able to roll with the punches is one of the most vital tips to building a new home, especially if you want to make it out with your sanity intact. Don’t take anything too personally and remember that your home will be beautiful no matter what.

Good Luck

Now that you have all the essential tips for building a new home in your tool belt, you’re ready to get started.

Remember to take your time and plan everything out before anything else! Also, make sure you put plenty of wiggle room in your budget for emergencies and setbacks. Otherwise, have fun and enjoy the process of creating your new home!

Good luck and remember to check out the rest of our articles about family, lifestyle and more!

Are you thinking about applying for a joint credit card with your spouse? Check out this guide to learn the top tips for opening a joint credit card.

You’ve thought about it for some time now, and after plenty of discussions, you and your spouse decide that it’s time to open a joint credit card account. It’s a big step in the relationship, and it should take some serious thought. This account will join you and your spouse together financially for as long as it’s opened for.

Are you ready to make this big commitment? Keep reading for a complete guide on the top tips for opening a joint credit card account!

Know the Multiple Types of Shared Accounts

There’s not just one type of shared account. And in many cases, people tend to use the term “joint credit” very loosely. However, it’s important to know that different lenders and banks offer different types of shared accounts.

It’s important to know the difference between them. 

Authorized User

As an authorized user, you have permission to use the credit, but you’re not responsible for paying it back. The account holder is responsible for making the payments because it’s their account and they’ve simply given you rights to spend money on it. 

You, as an authorized user, never filled out or signed an application for the credit. However, do keep in mind that even though the account holder is 100 percent responsible for paying the credit back, if the account holder fails to make payments, some lenders will come after you for payment.

Joint Credit

With a joint credit account, you’re a partner on the account. This means that you’re 100 percent responsible for the bill and making payments. In this situation, you sit down and fill out and sign an application for the account.

This means that the account is in your name and the credit you use goes towards your credit score. The other person on the account, your spouse, is also 100 percent responsible for making payments and handling the bill. 

Co-Signer 

As a co-signer, you’re signing to be responsible for making payments, however, the account is in someone else’s name. Because it’s in someone else’s name, you cannot use this credit or loan and you most likely won’t have access to the account’s information.

The account holder will be the one receiving and paying the bills for the account. But if the account holder fails to make the payments, or is late on a payment here and there, the bad credit behavior can affect your credit score. 

Know Joint Debt Is Your Debt

When opening a joint account, any debt that is accrued is 100 percent your debt. It’s not split 50/50. You’re responsible for paying all debt off. 

Joint credit history does not exist. This will affect you and your partner equally. The entire debt is put onto your credit history as it is put on your partner’s credit history as well. 

This can either be a good thing or a bad thing. If you have a credit card account in both names that’s never used and always kept paid off, then it’ll significantly boost both of your credits. However, if one spouse is using this account and maxing it out without paying it back, then it’ll significantly drop both of your scores.

If you have weak credit and don’t want to bring your spouse down, then there are other options. There are guaranteed approval credit cards as another option. This is also true if you have great credit and don’t want to add your spouse with weaker credit to your account. 

Even those with bad credit can apply, and you don’t have to worry about it affecting your spouse. 

Discuss a Purchase Limit

Once the joint account is opened, it’s ideal that you and your spouse discuss a purchase limit. Talk about what the max amount of money is that either of you can charge to the card. Be sure not to go over this limit and always keep the credit card at least at 30%. 

If you set spending limits and stick to them, then trust is built and credit scores remain healthy.

Communicate Effectively 

Always communicate about the credit card account effectively. Aside from discussing purchase limits and setting them in place, you want to be open about any spending associated with the account. Even if it’s a purchase made below the discussed limit. 

Keeping your partner in the loop helps both of you stay on top of the spending and payments. If a situation calls for a purchase to be made that’s larger than the purchase limit, discuss this with your partner. You should seek out other alternatives first.

But if there aren’t any, be sure to have a payment plan in effect for paying this large purchase back. 

Always Check the Balance

At the very least, always check the balance. Communication is key when dealing with a joint credit card account, but it’s still important that you check the balance and monthly statement regularly. It’s easy to forget all about that $22.93 purchase at the grocery store, and the $15.72 purchase at the drive-thru, and that $10.99 transaction at the car wash.

These small purchases add up quick, so be sure you’re constantly checking the balance to ensure you’re not over-spending.

Ready to Apply for Your Joint Credit Card?

Are you ready to begin the application process with your spouse for your joint credit card account? After reading these helpful tips above, we hope you’re now better prepared than you were before. 

Interested in more topics on love and relationships? Be sure to visit us daily for more!

Good old procrastination! Everyone experiences this at least once a month. However, some people have overcome the strong urge to postpone things, and now they work on important and urgent activities and get them done effectively before a deadline while many still wonder why they battle with laziness and procrastination. You really want to study and ace that exam, but you spend your time with Netflix munching a bag of potato chips. We’ve all been here, are we right? And that’s precisely what you end up doing.

There are days you don’t feel like studying at all, and days you don’t feel like going to school. At one point or another, the school stress must have made you feel like quitting. These are days when you have no set goals, no passion, and all you want to do is eat, drink, sleep, and do other pleasurable things. Those days, which may lapse into months or years, you can as well be referred to as lazy.

Getting important tasks done effectively and in time is the exact opposite of procrastination. Actively setting a goal and pursuing it with passion, while putting in all your effort and commitment is the opposite of laziness.

One of the primary reasons for procrastination, especially among students, is the overwhelming workload in school, such as writing many essays and assignments that must fit a long list of requirements. Your professors or tutors want your work hard to write error-free and plagiarism free essays. One proven way to solve this is to delegate responsibility or seek help online. By seeking help online, we mean get reputable services that help with writing customized and original essays. If you have already written the assignment, you could use some online services to check for plagiarism your work. Using this checker https://phdessay.com/online-plagiarism-checker/ you will save a lot of time, and it may help you avoid postponing your responsibilities unnecessarily.

Differences Between Procrastination and Laziness

1. The origin of the words is different

Though procrastination and laziness may seem to be the same thing, they are not. Procrastination is derived from the Latin word ‘cras’ which means ‘tomorrow,’ while the origin of the word laziness is gotten from the Latin word ‘indolent’ which means ‘painless’ or ‘without taking the trouble.’

2. The pattern of the behavior

Procrastination is the urge to put things off until the last minute while focusing on less important, less urgent, and irrelevant plans. The procrastinator waits till the last minute to get things done, and most times underperforms or does something that is below par. The lazy person generally is passionless about life, goalless and has the ‘I don’t care attitude.’ The lazy person hardly or seldom gets anything done; every job or work done is carried out slothfully.

3. The cause of the behavior

Different factors cause laziness or procrastination. The reason for laziness can be attributed to lack of motivation. Slothfulness being synonymous with laziness means disclination to action or labour, which is as a result of an individual seeking the least resistant path to get something done. Procrastination is mostly caused by fear. A person sees tasks as complicated; the fear of taking on such responsibility leads to a subconscious decision to defer it for as long as possible. The fear of underperformance, the fear of potential rejection and failure, causes us to postpone indefinitely until the eleventh hour, which most times prove to be detrimental.

How to deal with Laziness and Procrastination

The cure for laziness generally, is for an individual to find something about what they are passionate.

Dealing with procrastination requires you to obtain clarity about what is causing you to be afraid. Also, listing out those things, including the worst possible scenarios that may play out if you don’t take action. It requires a firm understanding of the items you want to get done. Get a detailed explanation of why you don’t want to do it and how exactly you are going to overcome the resistance to do those things.

Laziness and procrastination can be helpful at times. Feeling lazy after a hard day’s work and only wanting to relax can be refreshing and help to boost your drive and morale for future tasks. However, over-indulgence can be harmful to you.

Postponing things until the appropriate moment does not equal procrastination. Having the judgment to procrastinate rightly is helpful to us. Everyone procrastinates, yet, some do it to their benefit, others – to their detriment.

After a long summer break with a nice long rest away from books, it is definitely challenging getting back into your study or work mode. Thinking of going back to school after a summer break was one of my most dreaded thoughts. If the thought is giving you a cold spine as well, this paper is here to help know how to get into study mode fast. The tips worked for me!

The first thing that will give you a shiver when you get back to school is writing assignments. Most people opt to choose assignment writing service websites to help. However, you don’t have to seek for help from assignment writing service websites when you are back in your right study mind. Without further ado, let’s jump into it.

Why is it so difficult to return to study mode after a long summer break?

During summer breaks, you have a lot of time at your disposal to travel or work on things you like. It is when to live out loud and bask all day. How do you recover from that? Sounds unnatural! I used to be among the mob desiring that each summer break be extended.

It is challenging clicking back to study mode after a long summer break because it means your time freedom is over. Back at work and class, you have to make sure that you meet all assignment deadlines and attend all the essential trainings and classes promptly. Remembering the freedom you have had in that break makes it harder to click back to serious routine work.

How to click back to studying effortlessly after the end of summer?

How to get into study mode fast after a long summer break is a concern for many students. Well, here are some practical tips you can use resume your normal life with ease.

1.    Plan ahead

You adapt quickly if you plan your schedule way before you resume your semester. Organizing my study schedule always worked like a charm for me back in college. After such a long rest, this is the only way you can get back on track with zeal.

2.    Have a positive attitude

How fast you bounce back into study mode depends on how positive you are. You need to look forward to the reopening and think of it positively. Don’t you miss your friends and crazy colleagues? Then at least you miss sleeping in class or lunch. Look forward to something.

3.    Consider finding a study buddy

On your own, it can be very hard to follow your already organized study schedule after summer. However, you can make it easier to get back the study groove by involving a friend. The trick is to find someone who will encourage you to study.

I remember how challenging it was for me to stick to my study schedule, especially at the beginning of the semester. For me to gain momentum, I always had to involve a study group of one or two people. We spent a lot of time talking about the nice breakaway but got to study as well.

4.    Do not overstay your vacation

You often find that most students overstay their vacation up to about a week or less to the opening dates. This is not advisable since it gives you a harder time adjusting.

From experience, I know it is important to give yourself some time to get over the experience of your vacation. You need at least two weeks to prepare for school before the actual opening dates to be psychologically prepared. This is when to check emails and complete pending assignments. Take it as a chance to count your failures if all motivation strategies do not work.

5.    Get enough rest

When preparing to resume your studies, you need to make sure that you are well-rested. The summer break is supposed to give you adequate time to rest and enjoy yourself. Therefore, you need to get as much rest as you can. This ensures that your mind is fresh, active and ready for the new challenge.

6.    Start small

After such a long rest, it is absurd to think that you can jump right in and continue from where you left. Instead, you need to take it slow by starting with short and simple projects before you can start on the bigger ones. You can never start climbing a tree from the top; it is practically impossible.

7.    Attend all your classes from the start of the semester

Make an effort of not missing a single class, especially at the beginning of the semester. Some lecturers will hand out assignments in these classes, and you might not be aware. This may eventually make you seek help from assignment writing experts, thus costing you money.

8.    Organize your wardrobe

Summer is over, and so is the dress code. When you put back in order what needs to be used at work or school, your brain begins to accept that the summer fun is over. It totally works. You will find yourself going shopping for more official clothes after so that you can kill the looks when back to work/ school.

No matter how long or short the break was, it will take some time before you can completely get back into study or work mode. However, it can take a very short time if you have the right attitude and will. All you need to do is follow these simple tips highlighted above. Good luck as you prepare to get back to your life.