Spring is here!
Welcome to Spring 2006. Get ready for your Spring Cleaning! As with every issue of our newsletter, this one is full of useful and interesting articles, tips, suggestions, and news about Almeda University. This month, it's all about Spring Cleaning your life. If you have an idea for future topics for articles, please send us an e-mail and let us know about it. We may even include your comment or suggestion in our newsletter.

Attention Alumni!
Is a new career a part of your personal Spring Cleaning strategy? Make sure to stop by our Career Center for help in your job search! Please log into our alumni status page for more information: Alumni Login

Architectural Spring Cleaning
How much should you spend redecorating or remodeling your home?

Ready for a new look for your home? Looking for a fresh way to increase the value and functionality of your home? Redecorating or remodeling your home may be just the project you've been waiting for. However, making the decision to renovate is only the first hurdle you will need to face. Next comes the ever-present question of money. How much should you be spending? How much is too much? It's extremely easy to go overboard on a redecorating or remodeling project, and this can be a very expensive mistake that you may never make up when it comes time to sell.

Therefore, when you're looking into a renovation project, your first question should be the following: Would it make better financial sense to remodel your home, or to sell it and buy a new home that better meets your needs and expectations? Also, will the renovations to your home pay themselves off when it comes time to sell, or will you be pouring money into your home that you will never recover at sale time. To answer these questions, there are a few things that you will need to consider...Read full article

Credit is more than how much money you can borrow and how many Visa and MasterCard cards you've got in your wallet. Credit measures your character. It tells stores and businesses how reliable, trustworthy, and successful you are. Can they trust you to pay back what they've loaned you? Can they expect you'll make the payments? Not only are you making enough money, but can you be relied upon to keep your job? Good credit is priceless; yet, ironically, you can buy it. The more money you spend on credit, the more credit you can get. But it doesn't come cheap, quickly, or easily. Good credit comes with years of borrowing money from a variety of sources and punctually repaying that money, not missing payments or stiffing anyone. So let's talk about how to get, maintain, increase, or restore (if you've lost it) your good credit...Read full article

Spring Cleaning, Without Lots of Time or Money

With spring upon us, the trees are growing new leaves, grass is greening up, and naturally the birds are singing. It also means that it's time to clean a winter's worth of dirt, dust, grime, and other nastiness out of our homes. But before you start cringing, you should know that it needn't be the dreaded time consuming and expensive event that it has been in the past.

One of the main problems about spring cleaning is the fact that the commercials tell us every day on television that we must buy a different product for every possible element of cleaning. By filling our cupboards, shelves, and under-sink areas with all of these different cleaners, cleansers, wipes, sponges, and other "miracle" products, we are only needlessly increasing the time it takes to spring clean, while substantially increasing the bill for getting it done... Read full article

Refreshing Your Salary - How to Negotiate a Raise

Spring cleaning isn't just for your home anymore; it's for every element of your life, including your career. Springtime is when things come back to life. They grow from where they lay dormant for a while. Has your career been lying dormant for a while? Maybe it's time for a raise.

Of course, before you march into your boss's office, you should ask yourself if your salary is ready for a spring cleaning. Ask yourself the following questions:

- Does your current contribution warrant a higher compensation?

- Do you know how other people in your position and industry are paid... Read full article

Sweep the Stress from Your Life

Spring cleaning is the best excuse for cleaning your personal life and working to sweep away your stresses.

The key to sweeping away your stress is simplifying. After all, the number one stress causer today is a lifestyle that is simply too fast-paced. If you find your life too difficult or impossible to keep up to, the stresses that you are experiencing now will only get worse, not better... Read full article

Unsubscribe:
We hope you enjoy our newsletter. We spent a considerable amount of time putting it together for you, but if you want to be removed from future mailings, please click here: Unsubscribe

Sponsor:
For information regarding sponsorship of future newsletters, please write to sponsor@almedauniversity.org

Submit:
To submit an article, please contact submit@almedauniversity.org. While we cannot compensate you for your writing, we will give you name credit.