Visualize a Relaxing and Tropical Vacation

I woke up with a kink in my neck today and thought about how nice it would be to get a luxurious massage. Then as I was going through my YouTube subscriptions, I came across this video from Pierce Mattie PR. I get some of my fashion info from them, but when I saw this video, I thought I’d share it here for those of you who are visualizing a relaxing, tropical vacation! Heck, I know I need it!! I’m so close to Mexico - there’s no excuse not to visit Dreams Spa & Resort...and what a perfect name to boot ;)

Blog Redesign Time!

Lindsay, the very talented artist over at Splat Designs is having a contest for a free blog template which comes right on time (see the power of the Law of Attraction!) because I've been wanting to redo this blog and make the sidebar more clean and easy to navigate.

So, thank you Lindsay for having this contest!

And thank you, dear friend, for reading!! In the next couple weeks this blog will have a complete makeover ;)

The Million Dollar Projects

For those of you who don’t know, I’m working on the Double Your Way to a Million project in which I have accumulated $8.13 in change plus a foreign coin worth ? For a month I hadn’t found any coins, but it was just this past weekend that I started thinking about it again and attracted so many pennies! One penny even came in the mail from Bank of America (it was some type of promotion)!

One of my buddies in this project is Xinfinitum who has been very active in his plan. There is a list of other “Doublers” over at the blog Double to a Million Plan.

If you would like to have some fun and try out this project for yourself, click on the banner at the bottom of this blog. You can also support me in my own project by donating as little as a penny! Every little bit counts!

Somebody who is doing something similar to this is Grant Pierrus from South Africa. He has a blog titled Million Dollar Project and is donating 60% of each dollar he gets to the Childrens Fund in South Africa.

So, today, I leave you with a quote to ponder...

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want”. - Zig Ziglar

Good Life Thought For the Day

Here's a great quote that I came across today....

We don't accomplish anything in this world alone ... and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something."
--Justice Sandra Day O'Connor,
first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court

Money and Savings Accounts

After my mother passed away when I was at the young age of 14, I vowed to live for the moment and not think about the future. I didn’t really believe in having a savings account and money flew out of my pocketbook at the speed of lightning. After all, I was “seizing the day” and following my hearts desire - which meant spending hundreds of dollars shopping for things I really didn’t need.

Little did I know I was spending all that money to fill that void of losing my mother. In retrospect, I probably would have kept that money in a savings account or CD and used it to pay for college. Who knows, I could have been a billionaire by now ;)

To this day I still live by the philosophy of living in the moment, however, there are a dozen projects that I would like to do and of course, these things require money. I could do the stock market thing - which I’m learning about day by day over at my other blog, Fully Stocked - however, I would like to keep some my money in a more conservative venue like a savings account for stability and liquidity reasons.

At the same time, I'm torn between this and another idea that we should always know that The Universe will provide for all our needs, so there is no need to worry about the future and saving for a "rainy day". The resources we need will come to us in due time, so there really isn't this need to save. Is there anybody else that feels this way?

Anyhow, I was asked to review a website called SavingAccouts.com - a website that lists different banks with savings accounts and their going rates. Little did I know that it was possible to get an account that gives you 6% (HSBC) - not the greatest if you compare it to stocks and real estate, but it certainly beats leaving it in a checking account or under the mattress ;)

SavingsAccounts.com is for the consumer and right now they’re in the beginning development stages. However, they’re working on helping people get better rates in the future. Consumers have a right to higher rates! After all, we’re the ones loaning money to the banks when we deposit our money into savings accounts. When they lend money to us, they want high interest rates, right? A company that will help negotiate better rates is all good for me ;)

I’m curious. Where do you invest in your money and what are your thoughts on savings accounts?

How To Be A Rich Person

If you just started on this journey to more wealth and prosperity in your life and have learned about the Law of Attraction, you’re probably wondering how you can go about elevating yourself to a whole new level of thinking. Many people I know have complained to me and said Well, it’s not working for me. I want more money and happiness, but I’m still in the same place. Come to find out - they’re still hanging out with the same negative people and still listening to what these negative people have to say.

In order to be rich, you need to think like the rich and learn from rich people. The Blogger Lounge has a great post on this. I like these two beliefs of rich people that Blogger Lounge mentions:

• Rich people are always thinking about winning while most people are just thinking about not loosing, this attitude gives rich people an advantage, because if they fail in something they are going to try again and again until they succeed, remember that rich people do not surrender.

• Rich people are constantly learning and growing. Rich people are willing to learn from other people without looking at others’ education, age , gender etc.

I would like to add that rich people take action whenever opportunity presents itself. There’s no room for doubt. They are very observant and grateful of the opportunities that come their way.

So, what are you doing today to become a richer person?

Recommended Reading:
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - the man who studied rich people for 20 years!

"The Secret": The Whole World's A Buzzin'

The whole world is a buzzin’ about The Secret and The Law of Attraction. When I first wrote about The Law of Attraction last February, it was a rare thing to come across someone who was familiar with the concept. The other day while in Target, I was browsing through the book, The Secret, and a woman runs up to me asking me if I had seen the movie (yes, a handful of times!) and The Oprah show that featured it. She was so excited and jazzed! I could see the sparkle in her eyes...

I’m certainly jazzed and excited that more and more people are learning the concept. This is exactly what I wanted - for people to be uplifted and more conscious about their thoughts. Before Oprah even talked about it, I was talking with my boyfriend about LOA and telling him, “Wouldn’t it be great if everyone on earth knew about this?” Now everywhere I turn someone is asking me, “Have you seen The Secret?”

There are many naysayers out there and I pretty much ignore them. Some say that there’s gotta be more to it than what the movie says. Some feel short-changed because the people in the movie left out all the details regarding all the “hard work” they had to go through to get where they’re at. The thing is...nothing is “hard work” when you absolutely love what you do! I have been writing pretty much every day since I quit my corporate job, but that’s what I wanted - to be able to do something I love and make money doing it. I love it!

I’d love to hear your story about how The Secret has changed your life! Read Rob's thoughts over at Leave the Office...

Listening To the First Voice Within

As a writer you would think that I would be pretty good at listening to the “voice within”. The voice within tells me things that I should write down, but those other voices of self-doubt create too much noise asking me, Is that interesting enough? Do you think people want to know about that?

Other times the voice within will guide me to take action on a particular project like contacting a particular person to help me, but once again the voice of self-doubt asks, Will they really think that idea is a good one?

Then there are times when the voice within tells me that I should just take a break from writing and do something else. However, there goes that other voice telling me that if I stop writing I won’t make any money.

What I’ve learned is that first voice - that first gut instinct - is always right. Do you listen to that first voice that is guiding you? Is it time to shut out the second voice of self-doubt?

Kristine Oller has written a great article about Trusting Your Gut Instincts...

Dave Lorenzo's Proof That the Law of Attraction Works

One of my favorite business blogs to read is Dave Lorenzo's Career Intensity Blog. He shares his own Law of Attraction story and I just wanted to pass on the story for those you who are still skeptical!

Money Stories To Share

Welcome to those of you who are visiting here from Money, Matter, and More Musings! I submitted one of my posts to the Carnival of Money Stories, Don't Eliminate Debt, Attract Abundance! By the way, for all you bloggers out there, carnivals are a great way to meet new and interesting bloggers!

There were a few posts from the carnival that caught my interest including Adaptation: Lessons Learned From Being Unemployed by Amy Lin. Reading Amy’s story reminded me of the time when I was laid off after 9/11, I took a position as a part-time pre-school teacher. The money wasn’t great, so I basically had to do with what I had - which meant no shopping for clothes and having to eat Top Ramen every day for lunch.

If you’re a college student wondering how you can live on $600 a month, check out this post over at Getting Green. Matthew lives in rural South Dakota, but I think it can be done if you live in any major city. It just takes alot of will-power and creativity!

Debra Moorhead shares a story that will inspire in her post "The Science of Getting Rich" Evaluated, Part Two. I’ve been practicing this attitude of gratitude for some time now and have seen so much goodness come into my own life.

Living a Dream: Multiple Streams of Income

I’ve been receiving some requests about my blogging secrets and how I came to be a “problogger”. Well, I’ve decided to do a series of posts over at Online Business Resources that will provide some very useful tips about blogging and making money online. Starting next Monday I’ll be sharing all my “secrets” ;)

It’s was a few years back that I read Multiple Streams of Internet Income and after reading it, I told myself that I was going to do just that - create multiple streams of income. Funny, but as I’m writing this I’m realizing that wow, I’m here! I’m doing it! Hey, you can too! So if you’ve always wanted to start making money on the internet, tune in Monday!




Thought for the day: I create abundance!

Learning, Teaching, and Trying Something New

As we head into a new month I reflect on the past couple months and think about some of the things that I have learned. The time seems to be zooming by and it only seems like yesterday that I was expanding my creativity and doing things that I’ve always wanted to do - like learn Photoshop, for instance.

The other day I sent away for a course in Spanish. I took three years of Spanish in high school, but I feel the need to brush up on it. Even though I live in San Diego and a vast majority of the population is Latino, I sometimes clam up when I start speaking Spanish to someone. Oftentimes I have to tell them to slow down in order to understand them.

Anyhow, what’s so fascinating about life is that there is so much to take in. There’s always something to see, do, and learn. At the same time, there are so many things to teach as well. That’s another reason why I love to blog. Hence, the start of yet another blog! Yes, you read right, I have started another blog. I haven’t even counted how many I have now!

This new blog is about the stock market and investments. Up until now I’ve only invested in mutual funds, but have been very curious about purchasing individual stocks and playing around with foreign currency. If you have any tips to share, I’d love to hear about it. Shoot me an email (maria [at] salondemaria.info]! Also, if you have some experience in this area and would love to contribute a post, let me know as well.

Have you learned anything the past couple months? Anything life changing that you want to share? Is there something you’d like to do but haven’t started yet? Why not? Go do it today! Try something new! What are you waiting for? You never know, I may have a blog that covers something you've always wanted to learn!