#or the 4 pump limit was increased to 10 pumps or something
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fun-adventures-travels · 25 days ago
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River Rafting in Rishikesh Cost: Invest with Us, Enjoy Bliss!
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Rishikesh is a hub of spiritual energy, serene landscapes, and adrenaline-pumping adventures. Among the thrilling activities available, River rafting in Rishikesh stands out as a must-try for adventure enthusiasts. Whether you are seeking to conquer the waves or simply soak in the mesmerizing beauty of the Ganges, river rafting here promises an experience like no other. Dive into the details and learn more about what makes this adventure so special and why you should invest in a memorable rafting experience.
Rafting Adventure: A Gateway to Adventure and Spirituality
Rishikesh is well-known for its serene landscapes, spiritual vibes, and numerous thrilling activities such as Bungee Jumping, River Rafting, Giant Swing, and more. The town attracts both peace seekers and adventure lovers, making it an ideal destination for a balanced getaway. If you want to do something adventurous and exciting, we highly recommend indulging in the river rafting experience in Rishikesh to elevate your trip. 
Riding the Waves: A Scenic Adventure
Take on the challenge of the Ganges' powerful waves and appreciate the breathtaking landscapes as you raft through the clean, flowing waters. The experience offers wide-ranging views of the surrounding mountains, lush greenery, and even occasional glimpses of local wildlife. It's not just about the thrill; it's about immersing yourself in nature's beauty while navigating through the river's twists and turns. This rafting adventure is an opportunity to bond with your friends or family while experiencing the exhilarating rush of the river currents.
Rafting in Rishikesh Timing
To make the most of your rafting trip, it's important to plan your time well. The ideal rafting in Rishikesh timing is between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM. During these hours, the water levels and the weather conditions are optimal for a safe and enjoyable rafting experience. This timing also allows you to capture the best of Rishikesh's scenic views as the sun rises and lights up the valley.
Best Time for Rishikesh Rafting
While river rafting in Rishikesh is available for most of the year, the best time for Rishikesh rafting is from September to June. These months offer pleasant weather and an ideal water flow, making the experience both safe and thrilling. Monsoon months are typically avoided due to high water levels and increased risks. Rafting during the peak seasons lets you experience the adventure at its best, with crystal-clear waters and a vibrant atmosphere along the riverside.
River Rafting in Rishikesh Cost: Choose Your Adventure
Investing in river rafting in the Rishikesh experience is all about choosing the right package that suits your thrill level. Here's a breakdown of the different River rafting in Rishikesh cost packages available:
 Rafting 9 KM with 3 Rapids
Price: ₹ 549 per person
Age Limit: 12 Years to 60 Years
This option is perfect for beginners or families looking for a fun and light adventure. It covers a shorter distance with moderate rapids, making it an ideal choice for first-timers.
 Rafting 16 KM with 7 Rapids
Price: ₹ 999 per person
Age Limit: 18 Years to 50 Years
For those who want to experience a bit more excitement, the 16-km stretch with 7 rapids is the way to go. It offers a good mix of challenging rapids and calm stretches to catch your breath and enjoy the surrounding beauty.
 Rafting 25 KM with 10 Rapids
Price: ₹ 1199 per person
Age Limit: 18 Years to 50 Years
A total of 8 pax is required to book this activity. This is the ultimate adventure for thrill-seekers. With ten rapids along a 25 KM stretch, it promises an adrenaline-pumping experience that will test your endurance and rafting skills. Gather a group of friends or fellow adventurers and take on this challenging yet rewarding journey.
Conclusion
River rafting in Rishikesh offers more than just thrills—it provides an opportunity to connect with nature, overcome challenges, and make lasting memories. Whether you are a seasoned adventurer or a first-timer, the experience is sure to leave you with a sense of accomplishment and joy. With competitive prices, varied options, and safety measures in place, there's no reason not to add this adventure to your Rishikesh itinerary.
Book now, and take the first step towards an adventure that's worth every moment!
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thedisneychef · 1 year ago
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Get Ready to Cook up a Storm with the Best Kitchenaid Grills
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KitchenAid is a well-known household name in the world of kitchen appliances, but did you know that they also produce high-quality grills? With a range of gas and charcoal grills available in various sizes and features, KitchenAid has something for every outdoor cooking enthusiast. Our team has had the opportunity to analyze several KitchenAid grills, and we have been thoroughly impressed with their overall performance and reliability. From their sturdy construction to their exceptional heat retention and distribution, KitchenAid grills consistently deliver delicious and perfectly cooked meals every time. In this article, we'll introduce you to the best KitchenAid grills based on our analysis. We'll explore the top features and benefits of each model, as well as any potential drawbacks, to help you find the perfect grill to take your outdoor cooking game to the next level. Whether you're a seasoned grill master or just starting out, our top picks will help you cook up a storm for your family and friends. Review Top KitchenAid Grills for barbecues 1. Best Overall: KitchenAid 740-0781 5-Burner Stainless Steel This grill is made for out door kitchen islands due to its 36-inch wide built-in grill head with 71,000 total BTU for exceptional grilling results. Noticeably, this product is made with 304-grade stainless steel and equipped with 4 premium-grade 10,000 BTU stainless steel burners, so we can say for sure about its long-term durability. To be specific about the features, One 13,000 BTU ceramic rotisserie burner (rotisserie kit not included) and an 18,000 ceramic infrared searing burner. Hence, you can use this according to your desired cooking style. Customer Review Although it is equipped for liquid propane gas, this KitchenAid Burner Stainless Steel also includes the NG natural gas conversion kit, which contributes to save the environment. Battery-operated electronic continuous ignition system offers quick and easy start-ups, so it's convenient to use. Reason to buy: ✅ Good durability ✅ Both ceramic rotisserie burner and ceramic infrared searing burner included ✅ Safe for environment ✅ Easy to use Reason to avoid:  ⭕ Decreased cooking space 2. Best Grilling Area: KitchenAid 740-0780 4-Burner Stainless Steel This item is highly recommended by previous users because of its 30-inch wide built-in grill head being suitable for outdoor kitchen islands with 61,000 total BTUs for exceptional grilling results. Besides, it is equipped with 4 premium-grade 12,000 BTU stainless steel main burners, and also a 13,000 BTU ceramic rotisserie burner for better grilling results. Customer Review You don't need to regularly check the product's durability because it contains 304-grade stainless steel construction that offers durability. Even better, the surface is very easy to clean. Similar to the previous item, this one is also equipped for liquid propane gas but includes the NG natural gas conversion kit as well, so it doesn't cause harm to the environment. Last but not least, the battery-operated electronic continuous ignition system is helpful for quick and easy start-ups. Reason to buy: ✅ Better cooking result ✅ High durability ✅ No harm to environment ✅ Easy to start up and use Reason to avoid:  ⭕ Rotisserie kit not included ⭕ High price tag RELATED: Best Infrared Grill 3. Editor's Choice: KitchenAid 3-Burner 48,000 BTU Propane Gas Grill I'm personally impressed by this item due to its removable catch pan, warming rack, locking caster wheels, and electronic ignition system included. Also, it contains three 12,000 BTU premium-grade stainless steel main burners backed by a 10-year limited. Therefore, if you have any problem about the main burners, you can contact the warranty crew for free fix. Customer Review Moreover, the side burner pumps out 12,000 BTU and doubles as a side shelf. And the angled flame tamers keep flare-ups under control, which increase the level of safety while cooking. The wasted gas by this product is also convertible to natural gas to help to protect the environment. Reason to buy: ✅ Removable catch pan ✅ Many accessories included ✅ Premium materials ✅ Safe for users and environment ✅ NG orifice included Reason to avoid: ⭕ Hose and regulator sold separately ⭕ Stainless-steel design limits heat transfer 4. Best KitchenAid Grill: KitchenAid 4-Burner 55,000 BTU Stainless Steel Propane Gas Grill You can effortlessly accommodate a huge amount of meat on the grill thanks to its large 696 sq inches of cooking space. Whilst, the powerful 15,000 BTU ceramic searing side burner helps your meal to be ready faster. Moreover, the design includes the grilling system equipped with (4) 10,000 BTU main burners. And the grates and body constructed of stainless steel resulting in better barbecues with red accents making your grill more colorful. Customer Review One more attractive thing is that this product is made with an advanced continuous electronic ignition system that keeps your food in a stable temperature. Finally, eco-friendly is indispensable thanks to the convertible to natural gas capability. Reason to buy:  ✅ Faster cooking, better taste ✅ Good heat retain ✅ Eco-friendly Reason to avoid:  ⭕ Stainless-steel design limits heat transfer ⭕ Cooking grates get messy easily Readmore: Best Kenmore Grills Conclusion After conducting experiments with Kitchenaid grills, we have concluded that the best Kitchenaid grill is the Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill. This grill offers a spacious cooking area, high-quality construction, and versatile cooking options. It features four stainless steel burners that provide even heat distribution and a side burner that allows you to prepare sauces and side dishes while grilling. The Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill also comes with a built-in thermometer that allows you to monitor the cooking temperature accurately. In addition, the Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill comes with several other useful features, including a high-quality ignition system that ensures reliable and quick lighting every time, a large warming rack that keeps food warm while you finish cooking other items, and a durable, stainless steel finish that resists rust and corrosion, making it a long-lasting investment for any outdoor cooking enthusiast. While the Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill is a mid-range option, its performance and features make it the top choice for anyone looking for a high-quality Kitchenaid grill that offers excellent value for its price. Its unique design and construction make it a long-lasting investment that is sure to impress any outdoor cooking enthusiast. Read the full article
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fittheorem · 2 years ago
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10 Reasons Why Cardio Kickboxing at Gym is Better Than Working Out at Home
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Are you looking for a cardio workout to help you keep fit and have fun simultaneously? If so, cardio kickboxing at the gym is an excellent choice. Not only does it provide an intense cardio workout, but it also helps with flexibility and coordination. Plus, cardio kickboxing classes are often offered in group settings which can make working out more enjoyable. So why should you choose cardio kickboxing over working out at home? In this article, we'll look at ten reasons cardio kickboxing classes are better than exercising alone at home.
1. Professional Instruction: Working out at the gym gives you access to professional cardio kickboxing instruction to help you get the most out of each class. Experienced instructors will provide guidance and tips on proper form and technique, helping ensure you get a safe and effective workout every time.
2. Variety of Programs: Many gyms offer cardio kickboxing classes designed to fit different fitness levels. From beginner cardio classes to advanced cardio programs, there's something for everyone. This variety allows you to challenge yourself and move up in difficulty as your fitness level increases.
3. Equipment Access: Working out at the gym gives you access to specialized cardio kickboxing equipment such as cardio machines, punching bags, and weights. This allows you to get a more effective cardio workout than possible at home.
4. Motivation: Group cardio kickboxing classes greatly motivate the instructor and fellow participants. The energy of an enthusiastic group can make it easier for you to push yourself during each class.
5. Stress Relief: Cardio kickboxing exercises at the gym are an excellent way to de-stress and reduce tension. Physical exertion releases endorphins that help you feel relaxed, energized and recharged after each session.
6. Social Connection: Working out can be more than just a physical activity; it creates opportunities to develop meaningful relationships with people with similar interests and goals. Instead of exercising solo, join others for a refreshing experience that could lead to lifelong friendships!
7. Affordable: With cardio kickboxing classes, gyms offer a fun and cost-efficient option to maintain your physical fitness goals. Exercise in a supportive environment while experiencing the high energy of boxing training - all at an affordable rate!
8. Convenience: Working out at the gym is convenient and time-efficient. You don't have to spend time setting up cardio equipment or finding a quiet space in your home. Plus, cardio kickboxing classes are usually offered at different times during the day, making it easy to work it into your schedule.
9. Safety: With cardio kickboxing classes, you can rest assured knowing you're getting a safe workout. Professional instructors ensure everyone performs the exercises correctly and provide modifications for any injuries or limitations.
10. Improves Coordination: Cardio kickboxing classes offer an opportunity to improve coordination and reflexes as you move through different cardio exercises and combinations. Your coordination and balance will improve as you become more familiar with the cardio movements.
Cardio kickboxing classes offer a variety of benefits that you can't get from exercising alone at home. From professional instruction and equipment access to improved coordination and stress relief, there are numerous reasons why cardio kickboxing is better than working out solo. In addition, cardio kickboxing classes allow social connection with like-minded individuals in a fun group setting! So if you're looking for an effective cardio workout that will keep your body fit while relieving stress - look no further than cardio kickboxing at the gym.
How to Find the Right Cardio Kickboxing Gym for You
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Are you looking for an exciting cardio workout to help you stay fit while relieving stress? Look no further than cardio kickboxing at the gym! Cardio kickboxing is a group fitness program designed to get your heart pumping and body moving. It offers numerous benefits, such as professional instruction, improved coordination, and social connection with like-minded individuals in a fun group setting. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced participant, cardio kickboxing classes provide something for everyone. But how do you find the right cardio kickboxing gym for you? Here we'll explore what to look for when selecting the perfect cardio kickboxing gym so that you can maximize your experience and get the most out of each workout session.
First, consider the instructors. When selecting a cardio kickboxing gym, make sure to inquire about the credentials of each instructor. Ideally, you want someone knowledgeable in cardio kickboxing and the experience necessary to lead a practical class. In addition, look for certified professionals with valid certifications that demonstrate their qualifications and expertise in cardio kickboxing.
Second, assess the equipment available at the gym. Ensure the cardio kickboxing class you are considering is equipped with all the necessary cardio equipment to provide a safe and effective workout. This includes cardio bags, mats, jump ropes, and other essential cardio accessories. Additionally, make sure that there are plenty of cardio options that can accommodate different fitness levels and cardio styles.
Finally, consider the group size of each cardio kickboxing class. Most cardio kickboxing gyms offer classes in small or large groups, depending on your preference. Smaller classes are great for personalized instruction and increased attention from the instructor. At the same time, more prominent groups provide a more social atmosphere with an opportunity to meet and interact with other cardio kickboxing enthusiasts.
By following these guidelines, you will be able to find the right cardio kickboxing gym for you that offers the best cardio experience. So if you're looking for an exciting cardio workout that will keep your body fit while relieving stress - look no further than cardio kickboxing at the gym!
To learn more about cardio kickboxing and to know how to get started, visit Cardio Kickboxing League City pages:
Socials:
Fit Theorem - League City Facebook Page
Fit Theorem - League City Instagram Page
Fit Theorem - League City YouTube Page
Fit Theorem - League City Twitter Page
Fit Theorem - League City LinkedIn Page
Citations:
Fit Theorem - League City Mapquest
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ziqitzasblog · 2 years ago
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Ziqitza - Driving Safely Through Fog
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While travelling through a deep fog may seem beautiful and like something out of a movie, one must actually proceed with great caution. Ziqitza Healthcare, one of India’s leading emergency healthcare service providers, driving is not at all safe when there is poor vision and you have to rely entirely on your instincts to move forward. So let's reveal some driving advice that will assure the highest level of safety on hazy roads.
 1.       Maintain your lane: Stick to the fundamentals; this is only the first driving lesson. Fog's main effect is decreased visibility. Therefore, you must always drive within your lane. According to Ziqitza, staying in your lane lowers your risk of veering off the road or colliding with another car. In this circumstance, lane markers are useful. Watch the lane markings and the approaching traffic. Try to drive on the left side of the road when there is only one lane to reduce crashes.
 2.       As you wait, park your automobile: If in doubt, avoid the area. According to Ziqitza Healthcare ltd, it is preferable to park your car carefully and slowly off the road in low visibility situations and wait for conditions to improve before moving on. Remember to secure a location for it and turn on the parking and danger lights.
 3.       Avoid Speeding: Speeding is never a good idea, but it is more dangerous when vision is poor. Even though it may make you feel more pumped up than usual, everyone is nonetheless in danger. Since there doesn't seem to be another car directly in front of you, you might decide that going a little faster is acceptable. But given how unpredictable fog may be, you're only asking for problems! It may be difficult for you to respond quickly and assess your surroundings if your car is moving at a fast speed. Therefore, Ziqitza Rajasthan advises that you maintain a moderate speed so that you can react quickly, assess the traffic, and stop the automobile as necessary.
 4.       Keep the low beam on the headlights: When travelling through dense fog, it is typical for vehicles to use their high beams. However, the high beam bounces off of objects and reduces the driver's visibility. We advise you to turn on your low beam headlights when there is less than 100 metres of road visibility. If your automobile has fog lamps, switch those on as well.
 5.       To warn others, use indicators: Considering other vehicles on the road is a sign of a responsible driver. During foggy circumstances, it's important to warn approaching and trailing vehicles, therefore utilise your parking or indication lights. Ziqitza Limited advises turning on the indication at least 10 seconds in advance of making any turns. In this manner, the vehicles following you have enough time to safely stop or turn.
 6. ��     Keep the windows and windscreens spotless: Your life can be saved by cleanliness. Really! Keep your windscreens, both front and back, clean. Ensure that your windows are also clean. You'll be able to see your surroundings clearly when driving thanks to this. The defroster (defogger) knob on your car could also be used to clean the windscreen.
 7.       The driver's seat should be adjusted: ZHL Rajasthan suggests adjusting the driver's seat to increase visibility on the road. The ability to modify the driver's seat height is a major benefit for vehicles that want to enhance the road perspective. If your car doesn't have a height adjustment feature, think about maintaining the seat back as straight as you can. You can see the road clearly beyond the car hood in this fashion.
 8.       Maintain excellent tyre and brake condition: Improve your car's reflexes. It may be necessary to suddenly hit the brakes while driving in fog. To shorten the braking distance of the car, Ziqitza Limited Rajasthan advises keeping the brakes and tyres in top shape.
 9.       Avoid overtaking: When driving on a foggy road, do not overtake. This may cause the driver of the other vehicle to become distracted and cause a collision. According to Ziqitza Health Care Limited, let patience guide you safely to your destination!
 Don't let fog obscure your eyesight the next time you drive in foggy conditions! Keep these driving advices in mind. Additionally, if you reside in a cold climate, make sure your car has the appropriate wheels.
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bostonbakeddeans · 2 years ago
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slkjsdflkjsdf i am. so sorry abt the block of text my fingers got away from me
(for readability here is the big block of shelley nonsense(tm) again except in smaller chunks)
shelley eventually gets himself an invite to a hardison family gathering (potentially the same one where he figures out that eliot does a minimum of three (3) dishes for every hardison family get together and IMMEDIATELY goes “you’re cooking for my next family gathering” and pulls out every trick in the book up to and including not dispensing blowjobs until eliot agrees. shelley can suck the chrome off a tailpipe. eliot does not need much more incentive than “cook or no blowjobs for you”) and just. fits right in. obviously. bc he’s Also From A Big Family and knows how these things work.
he’s the cool cousin (cooler than Alec sometimes bc he knows abt Guns and Cool Blowing Stuff Up Stuff until Nana gives him The Look and he has to backpedal into “don’t do guns” or whatever) he’s the fun uncle he’s the fun guy.
he’ll help you build a campfire and show you how to pour gasoline onto it safely and explains Why Making Napalm From Gasoline and Styrofoam is not a good idea. he will pick you up and throw you into things (kids LOVE being tossed into things and shelley typically aims for soft things when it’s kids) he gives HUGE pushes on the swings and will absolutely hang you upside down by the ankles and just shake the daylights out of you.
he also has souvenirs from all sorts of places and hands them out to anyone who wants.
he is brilliant at faces and does things like “oh marie how’s your neighbor i hope her hip is healing up okay you should ask eliot for his tuna casserole recipe since you said eleanor is a big fan of tuna” it is MAGIC.
okay more nonsense under the cut, surprisingly mostly quinn themed this time
i *love* that quinn has a minimum of 2 modes for one (1) alec hardison and that is Friend Mode and Job Mode (further modes may include but are not limited to Trainee Hitter Mode featuring Babusia-style encouragement) and that Hardison Family Gatherings initiate Job Mode out of self-defense. cherishing this.
SCHEDULED CHAOS HOURS MY BELOVED ohhhhh this is so GOOD kids need times to scream and chase each other with Large Sticks so obviously we Make Time For That and it is just. baffling to quinn. that those times seem to be All The Time at Nana's house. what is happening. help.
i am also holding "quinn's conscious memory control" to my chest and rocking it gently like a baby this is EXCELLENT. "oh this is a thing I'm not actually allowed to Do A Murder About time to erase it from my mind :3" i am in LOVE (platonic)
i love. quinn Yes Anding ideas in a way that makes them logical. he could out-twist a corkscrew in a tornado. this makes him a Joy and a Delight for the younger cousins and a Migraine for eliot. (eliot's not even there he just gets a migraine and is like *sigh* "quinn".)
hardison has to supervise at first - but sometimes it's hard to tell what's Child Hitter Training and what's Provincial Canada Entertainment at first glance. shelley also comes in useful at these times bc Rural Entertainment is pretty much the same whether you're in Bumfuck Canada or Bumfuck USA and therefore if shelley is like "i don't see the problem with children doing X" it's probably (not certainly) just Rural Entertainment. Probably.
hardison: wtf why are my siblings jumping off the ROOF
quinn: they are not just JUMPING they're PUSHING EACH OTHER OFF it's a test of their balance and situational awareness and landing ability. also improving their proprioception. or something.
shelley: besides, there's a snowbank like 6ft down. they'll be fine as long as they bend their knees
hardison: y'all are NOT allowed to babysit again holy shit
shelley: at least it's a snowbank and not just a pile of leaves - although for things to jump into I'd have to say a
quinn and shelley, simultaneously: pile of bodies is preferable
hardison, queasy: y'all are nasty.
quinn continues to delete any instance of shelley from his memory for Reasons. as soon as shelley leaves his line of sight he's like :3333 whomst. i don't know a shelley. what.
(i mean it helps that he is faceblind but. i imagine for self-preservation and also "is important to eliot" reasons he does. have some sort of catalogued way to recognized shelley.)
(walks like eliot but is leaner and more annoying? idk. how would quinn catalogue shelley. help.)
shelley thinks quinn is Fun and a Good Time. this is perhaps baffling to everyone except eliot.
oh god Quinn gets invited to a Nana Hardison family event and spends the ENTIRE time like “??????” he thought he had a pretty good grasp on how this event was gonna go, he was Wrong
quinn’s like “i’m a PROFESSIONAL at family gatherings i’m an EXPERT i’m a PRIZE-WINNING GRANDSON”
and then everyone is like. coming in for a surprise hug (harm-shaped-behaviour). laughing very suddenly. constant chattering and playful arguments and Noise. the kids are running around and no one is stopping them. nana wants to know all about him and quinn’s like *frantically digging through Con Persona Box for his Pleasant Unbothered :3 Face* my name. is. quinn. and i am fine thank you for ask,ing, the food is delicious can i make you some tea. no? can i—do you have cats. hardison please come back
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toadstoolgardens · 4 years ago
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25 Tips for Permaculture Living
Permaculture is a design system and approach that challenges us to engage in whole systems thinking to create a better world and a worthwhile, kick-ass life. These are just ideas, shape your permaculture plans to fit your life & community.
The 3 Ethics of Permaculture: Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share.
1. Grow food. Even just a little. A sprawling garden, a raised bed, and a little pot of basil in a windowsill are all accomplishments. Growing that food creates a relationship with the soil, the weather, and the ecosystem. It slows us down, increases our resilience, and helps us eat where we are.
2. Chop & gather wood. If you are able where you live, take responsibility for your fuel needs. I live in a rural area so this is feasible for me, but these skills can also be utilized on camping trips/when using fire pits/etc. Learn to gather wood regeneratively and how to cure, stack, and chop it. Use as little as possible in a well-kept woodstove and return the charcoal to the Earth as biochar.
3. Minimize. Pare down your closet, your kitchen appliances, your shopping trips, the number of devices you own, anything you recognize you have/do in surplus. Being happy with less is powerful, it increases gratitude and lessens want.
4. Catch and store water. If it's legal where you live to do so, catch rainwater. This can be done in many ways, for many reasons. To pump the water as the pressurized water in your home or to water your gardens and landscape. Recycled plastic rain barrels are a simple and inexpensive way to collect and store free rainwater.
5. Eat together. Slow down and eat with the ones you love, just eating, talking, and being. Give each other and the nourishment on your plate your undivided attention.
6. Buy secondhand. Commit to buying as much as you can secondhand. This slows down impulse purchasing and hugely lessens the impact of your purchase. You'll also likely end up with a higher quality item and a great deal! Since secondhand items already exist, no production is needed, no new footprint is created, better for everyone. There are online secondhand shops too if you're looking for something specific you can't find locally.
7. Stop shopping at big supermarkets. Avoid them as much as possible! They're full of plastic packaging, processed foods, and the illusion of choice. Almost every product on supermarket shelves is owned by one of 10 companies, and they certainly aren't environmentally friendly ones. For food, make basics from scratch and source whole foods from locally owned farms, markets, co-ops, and shops. Online resources like Vitacost and the Package Free Shop are great for healthier options you might not find locally.
8. Reuse all nutrients. Compost all you can. Kitchen scraps, garden scraps, yard clippings, tree prunings, charcoal & ash from the fire, and urine and manure can all be returned to the Earth and transformed.
9. Pack your lunch. We all love takeout, but packing your own meal to take with you saves money, eliminates waste, and can be eaten anywhere! Eat your lunch in the park, the woods, up a tree, get to know your local nature spaces while you eat.
10. Make your own bread. Bread is one of our most beloved basic foods. Baking it yourself will nourish you better, save money, eliminate packaging, learn a new skill, and use whole ingredients instead of mystery ingredients and preservatives in many store-bought breads.
11. Swap your gym workout for gardening. Keeping healthy and fit is so important and if you're able, working in the garden is amazing exercise. Turn a compost pile, dig a garden bed, pull weeds, prune trees, pot seedlings, chop wood, or go walking in nature and enjoy the wild garden she provides. All deeply useful tasks, a great workout, and fresh air too! Forest bathing, being and basking in nature, is extremely healthy for our bodies and minds.
12. Minimize meat. Purchase meats from local farmers & butchers and don't support factory farming whenever possible. Appreciate and respect the animal nourishing you, use every bit of the meat you purchase.
13. Take the train. If you have to take a long trip, consider the train over flying. One trip on a plane generates about 300kg of CO2, taking the rain generates 10x less. It's slower, sure, but you can relax, read, nap, enjoy the scenery, and reduce emissions.
14. Support community. In every way: shop local, eat local, support your local food bank when you have surplus, volunteer in the community, help out at the community garden, teach your neighbors a skill. Show up for your community's pollinators by caring for local lands, planting native species, and encouraging others to do so. If you're already a gardener, start a crop swap if there isn't one. Give where you can, help where you can, engage where you live.
15. Keep bees. Bees are beautiful to watch, they provide our gardens and local landscape with pollination, and provide you with honey and wax. The millions of flowers and incredible effort involved in each jar of honey garners a great appreciation for sweetness and the work of bees.
16. Sleep well. It really does make a huge difference in our moods, health, and energy we're capable of putting into the day.
17. Live small. Living in a small house means less heating, cleaning, furniture, energy costs, and housing costs. A small home also makes for an intimate space to spend time together.
18. Work for yourself when you can. Growing food and being involved in the non-monetary economy of growing, swapping, sharing, foraging, reusing is so good for our health and everyday happiness.
19. Forage wild food. If you live somewhere with natural spaces that aren't sprayed with chemicals, there's probably free food all around you. Foraging is a great way to fill your belly with seasonal freshness, for FREE! Each season offers it's own special goodies, so you also learn to live with the seasons and connect to your local nature in a new way. Be sure to positively identify all species before you consume anything!
20. Take care of your ecosystem. You are a steward of the land and every little bit helps. Pick up trash and plastic when you're out. If you own property, manage your land. Volunteer for clean ups, water testing, gardening projects. Manage invasive species if you find them and are able. Plant native species and species for pollinators. Anything, truly anything helps.
21. Build forts & tree houses. If you have space, a collaborative building project using recycled/gathered materials teaches us lots of skills and helps us appreciate everything it takes just to keep a basic roof over our heads. Plus you'll also have a nice hideaway in nature to enjoy.
22. Grow beans. Love you, beans! They improve the soil, can be grown as climbers even if you have limited space, and can be eaten fresh, frozen, or dried (which store for years, increasing resilience). Beans are self pollinating which makes saving seeds easy and they're one of the most climate-adaptable plant proteins you can grow.
23. Pass it on. Share abundance! Produce, clothing, knowledge, skills, eggs, yarn, anything. Pass it on, pay it forward, share your excess, it's a gift to both your community and yourself.
24. Share skills. A skilled community is able to look after themselves and each other. Are you a great cook? Host a cooking party and teach your friends to make their own yogurt. Love starting seeds? Hold a seed starting workshop outside your local library. It doesn't have to be complex or fancy, just have heart. Which you already have, so you're perfect. Skill shares build confidence, knowledge, and community.
25. Rise up. Silence = violence. Permaculture is about doing as little harm as possible and using our time on Earth to do the best we can, with our hands and our voices. Speak up, show up, rise up. Work for the world you want, not just the garden you want.
Keep Learning: Source
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charismaandcashmere · 3 years ago
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Energy, not time, is the basis for productivity. Having all the hours in the day won’t help you if you’re exhausted for most of it.
Your habits define your energy levels. If you have good habits, you’ll feel energized and be more resilient to burn out, both physically and mentally. If your habits are misaligned, you can get into a cycle where you feel worse and worse, until your it’s a struggle just to keep up.
Here are nine habits you can work on this year to increase your energy levels.
Habit #1: Go to Sleep Early
Sleep is the foundation of your energy. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll start to underperform.
While some people claim to work best on six or less hours of sleep, research says they’re kidding themselves. Seven to eight hours are pretty much mandatory if you’re going to stay cognitively sharp in the long-run.
For some people the sleep deprivation may have mentally plateaued, meaning they feel slightly tired all day, but they don’t think they’re getting any worse. An interesting experiment showed that sleep deprivation caused continuous declines in mental performance, even though subjects felt like they were holding steady.
Try this: Go to bed by 10pm every night, including weekends, for the next thirty days.
Habit #2: Exercise Every Day
Exercise is a long-term investment in your energy levels. It’s easy to cut in the short-term, but over time you’ll reduce your overall fitness, making it harder to think straight and stay alert throughout the day.
If you struggle to find time for exercise, don’t make going to the gym your prerequisite. Make a habit of doing some pushups or burpees every day throughout the day. These will get your heart pumping and blood moving, and they don’t require setting aside two hours from your already busy schedule.
You can add gym or fitness classes on top of this foundational habit, but this basic investment in exercise will keep you sharp when you can’t make it to the gym.
Try this: Do at least 10 burpees every day from your home.
Habit #3: Twenty-Minute Naps
Napping may feel lazy, but there’s research showing it has a range of cognitive benefits. This is particularly true if you’re doing a lot of learning, since the short burst of sleep can help with memory.
I used to feel guilty taking naps, believing it was a sign of weakness. Now, I think it’s definitely a strength. A short nap can turn you back on for work in the afternoon, when you’d normally be exhausted. Even if you work in an office that doesn’t encourage napping, you can use a slice of your lunch break, to quickly rest.
The key is to learn how to take short naps. Many people take naps which are too long, pushing them into deeper phases of sleep which cause them to feel even groggier when they wake up (although the benefits to even these naps often occur after the initial grogginess wears off). The key is to wake up immediately with your alarm. If you start adding more time, a quick nap can become a long sleep.
Try this: Insert a 20 minute nap after you eat lunch to recuperate your energy for the afternoon.
Habit #4: Do Your Hard Work in the Morning
Aim to get your most important work done in the first four hours of the workday, starting as soon as possible.
The benefits to your energy here are mostly psychological. My energy levels depend a lot on my mood. If I’ve gotten some important work done, my mood is usually good and I feel productive. If I’ve wasted time on emails, meetings, calls or failed to produce something valuable, I’m often frustrated and exhausted entering the second half of the day.
The other reason for this approach is that deep work isn’t always sustainable for the full workday. Better to concentrate it into a specific period than randomly insert it across chunks of time.
Try this: Make the first four hours of your morning a quiet, deep work zone.
Habit #5: Set Your Intention the Day Before
Energy is often about momentum. Start working hard and you’ll overcome procrastination and keep going throughout the day. Start slow and you may end up struggling against your own impulses, wasting the energy on things that aren’t productive.
One way to avoid this is to set a very clear intention of how your day will go, particularly in the beginning, the night before. Visualizing this intention and writing it down into your schedule can make it happen more automatically when you wake up.
Try this: Before you go to bed, write down your plan for the next day and visualize it.
Habit #6: Sell Yourself on Your Goals
Many people simultaneously hold two contradictory beliefs: that other people (marketers) are really good at persuading them to do all sorts of things they wouldn’t do otherwise, but that they themselves have no ability to change their own motivation to do the things they have to do.
The truth is, you need to become the salesperson for your own goals. Not for other people, but for yourself.
Part of that starts with packaging—how you frame your goals and projects can have a huge effect on your motivation. Is this something you have to do? Or an exciting challenge?
Next it comes from refreshing and reminding yourself of your inspirations. Why did you get started down this path? What were you hoping to achieve. Good marketers know to focus the customer on visualizing what they want to drive sales. You can focus yourself on what you want to have the energy to get it done.
Try this: Set aside ten minutes every day to think about what today’s actions are helping you build towards.
Habit #7: Get Better Friends
You may not be able to choose your parents, colleagues or your boss. But you do have some control over the friends in your life.
You know that some friends you leave a conversation with them feeling excited and energized. Others you leave feeling even worse than you did beforehand.
You don’t need to exclude friends who are going through temporarily rough times, but you should consider who you spend your time with when there are people who consistently create one-sided emotional exchanges as the basis for your relationships. Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on sometimes, but some people will expect you to be their permanent shoulder.
Try this: Set a time limit on friends who leave you feeling drained.
Habit #8: Read Better Books
One of the great benefits of reading books isn’t simply to give you ideas and information. Rather it’s to reinforce a mentality that often occurs at a subconcious level. The best books aren’t those that teach you facts, but those that subtly change your entire thinking patterns.
Audio books can be very useful for this, since you can listen to them and re-listen to them on the go every day. A good book for this is one that, when you listen to it, automatically adjusts your thinking onto the things you need to work hard on. Just like a good song can be the background for a particular emotion, a good book can be the background for a particular energy of thinking.
Try this: Always have an audio book that motivates you to work on your goals.
Habit #9: Align Your Life
The last habit isn’t a one-time process, but an ongoing effort to bring the different elements of your life out of conflict and into alignment with one another.
A lot of energy is squandered because the different parts of our lives, both internal and external, are in conflict with each other. That could be the colleague at work who doesn’t want you to get promoted, the friends who make fun of your goals or even the internal fears and assumptions that keep you hesitating.
Spend some time untangling the different conflicts in your life to see how you could resolve them. Sometimes that can be done in the short-term, by making a change. Sometimes, it requires a long-term plan to escape the toxic environment, social circle or belief system that holds you back.
Try this: Sit down for an hour and brainstorm all the things which assist your goals and all the things which hold you back. How could you resolve those tensions?
What habits have you built to give you energy to work hard on the things that matter to you? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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crystalelemental · 3 years ago
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Legendary Gauntlet - Entei/Azelf/Cobalion
Alright, first ever Legendary Gauntlet is set to drop on the 20th, and their selections were Entei, Azelf, and Cobalion.  We are...so blessed it doesn’t involve Moltres or Cresslia.  While some factors are unclear, I think it’s still a good plan to look at these fights and try to workshop what can clear them.  Because ultimately, this isn’t as simple as bringing your best team, you have to leverage your threats to clear them 3-4 times each.  So that’s what I’m going to do: workshop teams, trying to stay within the bounds of “general pool and commonly available,” to create four teams for each fight that seem like they should have pretty decent answers to what the fight brings.
Entei In my head, Entei is likely the toughest one here, because it’s weak to Water.  “I don’t get it, aren’t there a ton of Water units?”  Yes but mostly as support, not offense.  Main pool offensive threats include SS Misty, Kris, May, Barry, SS Grimsley, and Nessa.  Barry and Misty being only good for sync, and Kris not even being good enough to get her EX.  So that’s dire.  We also have a pretty even split between physical and special offensive units, with...oh my god, only Nessa can boost her own crit rate.  I mean, Grimsley can, but...yeah.  So this match is gonna be a delight.  Moreover, Water thrives with Rain, and Rain setters are...around, but not plentiful.  Winona, May (one of your offense threats), and Archie are the only Rain setters.  May is notable for covering both the Rain and offense, and at least operates independently in a team, but Archie is super limited, and you may not have him, meaning you’ve got two that are easy clears, and two that are not.  Make it count.
As for Entei itself, Hostile Environment 10 and Piercing Gaze on Heat Wave means you are going to be burned in the final bar.  The only ways around this are potential flinch, and finishing it off instantly in the last bar.  Easier for tech than striker.  It also means special threats are more devastating than physical, unless your team support includes healing off status.  I also know for a fact it sets sun halfway through the last bad.  I vividly remember this, so any rain setting needs to be ready for that.
Team 1: May, Sabrina, Cyrus Cyrus’ Hydro Pump and May’s Muddy Water makes an absurdly good combo for Water damage.  Sabrina can power up crit rate for the team, and each heal increases special attack, though really, May just needs Inclement Intellect for that 70% self buff to special attack each move under rain.  Also, Reflect.  Entei from my memory is mostly physical, and that’s a very valuable tool to have.
Team 2: Winona, Barry, Sycamore Sycamore is the god-tank, who cannot die.  Barry can buff his crit but not special attack, while Winona can set rain for his sync nuke to thrive.  Barry can actually deal good damage, he just needs this support to make it happen.  The major trouble with this is Winona’s rain being limited to 2MP, but Sycamore is the stall god and should be able to handle it, with enough gauge control that Barry can get his sync going routinely.
Team 3: Nessa, Misty/Psyduck, Brock/Onix This one’s weird, but Nessa can cap her attack and crit rate, while Brock offers speed drops and potential attack drops off of Rock Tomb.  He also packs Potion, which is great.  Misty/Psyduck offers great defensive benefits, but because this team has no rain and is slower acting, she has something important for phase 3: Full Heal.  Removing status is hugely important, especially when your damage dealer is physical.
Team 4: SS Grimsley, Leaf, BP Zinnia You ever feel stupid just talking about something?  This is it.  SS Grimsley self-buffs crit to max, at the cost of 90% HP.  But Leaf can heal him up, and each sync is +2 to all stats.  The dumb thing is having all three with the capacity to flinch.  So no rain, but consider: flinch.  At least up until you mega evolve Grimsley.  BP Zinnia also has the benefit of Status Shield, which can completely block Hostile Environment 10 Heat Wave in the third phase.
Cobalion Cobalion is weak to Fire, and that’s actually the easiest one to work with here.  While limited, Sygna Suit Red and Anni N are near win-conditions on their own here.  Other easily available threats include Silver, Ethan, Hilda, and Serena, who range from really good to Ethan.  Much like Water, Fire needs sun, but there are actually a lot of threats that work well with sun for this match.  Blaine and SS Erika are the big two that pack this naturally, but you have Silver and Lyra for setting on sync, which...actually means you have four sets of reasonably available teams ready to throw down with Cobalion.  The spread this time is much more specially offensive, but Silver and Hilda are more physically aligned.  Much like Water, the grand majority also cannot buff their crit rate, and may be inefficient about buffing their other needed stats.  Silver can buff crit, but needs support with his offensive stat of choice.  Lyra is a very notable support for this fight not just because Sun, but because she can apply crit and both offense buffs, as well as speed for the speed-based multipliers that Hilda and Silver pack.
Cobalion reduces a ton of damage unless statused.  Anni N could care less, because everything bypasses that check, but the rest need a status supporter involved.  Silver is notable for this fight, thanks to Sacred Fire having a 100% chance to burn after grid.  However, Coblaion is a DPS race, as the status does not last forever, it will dispel it, and when it does, it increases its resistance, shortening the time and eventually becoming immune.  It only does this, however, when it actively dispels the status; a change in HP bar does not seem to increase this resistance.  This means you really need to be ready to lay on the damage before applying the status, and then apply it so viciously that it ends the HP bar before it ends, something incredibly important to note for Serena, whose sleep is imperative for her dealing like any damage.  Also important to note is that flinch and trap do not count for status, so Serena really is a bit fucked here.
Team 1: Serena, Lyra, Dawn Lyra sets sun for Serena’s powerful attacks, and can buff all needed offensive stats for Serena.  They’re absolutely fantastic on their own, but Dawn acts as added insurance, cutting into Cobalion’s attack stat and boosting the team’s defense, while carrying Gradual Healing and a Full Restore.  This one definitely needs to be perfectly set up before trying to Hypnosis though.  If you try too soon, you’re only making the fight worse.
Team 2: Silver, Hilbert, BP Morty Morty can provide heals and defensive buffs, while Hilbert provides the offensive buffs Silver needs.  Silver also has 100% burn rate on Sacred Fire, making this incredibly valuable for the fight.
Team 3: Hilda, Sonia, Blaine/BP Erika This one’s a bit costly, but Hilda hits really hard with Sonia’s support.  Sonia can offer Hostile Environment if living dangerously with one Potion MPR.  In that scenario, take Blaine, he’ll do fine.  If you don’t want to take Blaine, take BP Erika and free up Sonia to double Potion MPR.  Hilda takes a lot of recoil from Flare Blitz so that’s likely safer.
Team 4: Ethan, Blaine/SS Erika, Falkner Falkner is literally the only general pool option left who can help him. Crit and offense buffs, potential healing on sync, and even covers SS Erika as needed. Ethan may not be great but I actually think this works.
Azelf Probably the hardest entirely by weakness to Bug, but otherwise its gimmick seems the least devastating.  Essentially, it cuts physical in half the first half of the HP bar, then cuts special in half the second half of the bar, and it’s not until phase 3 that this extends to Sync moves.  As a result, sync moves shred.  This is really important, since it means Lusamine, who can attack on both ends of the offensive spectrum, is in the clear, and can sync nuke to her heart’s content.  Guzma has it a bit tougher since it starts resistant to his moves, while Alder is in fantastic position as a special attacker.  Burgh is also there.  Notably, this is also heavily special-offense oriented.  It’s also the smallest pool, with three 5* options and one limited availability option.  As a result, if you need some cheese mons, this is your time.  Bust out Lear, bust out Knight Diantha, get the job done.  Because this little shit is otherwise trickier to hit with super-effective shots.  As an absolutely hysterical note, Alder sets up slowly, but the only other option that can buff both offense and crit is Guzma.  Lusamine needs support with her offense, and Burgh with crit.
There isn’t anything particularly complex here that I can find.  It’s pretty direct, just watch for damage reduction.
Team 1: Lusamine, Lillie, Elio Lillie can max Lusamine’s offense, and the accuracy buffs come with Catalytic Cure, meaning there’s a chance for heals.  Elio has Sparking Aria debuffs on either defensive stat, Fast Track, and the rare but possible application of Sing for a team heal, or at least disruption of the opponent.
Team 2: Guzma, Bugsy/Scyther, Skyla Bugsy can reduce defense, cap crit and attack to help, and Skyla has defense, speed, and double Potion MPR.
Team 3: Burgh, Kiawe, Viola Kiawe has double Potion MPR, and the ability to cap Burgh’s crit.  Viola packs Struggle Bug to reduce special attack, as well as her own gradual healing to play center tank for once.
Team 4: Alder, Cheryl, Misty/Starmie There are literally not enough bugs to do a clear using general pool options.  This last clear is a wild card.  Hopefully you can do the other two to 4 so this one isn’t too tough, if nothing else.  Cheryl provides great utility as a healer for this fight, thanks to massive special defense, and self-heals that can boost both defenses.  Misty gives the extra Sp Def right away, as well as some passive regen.  Alder nukes to high hell.
Final Thoughts Developing these teams was way harder than I thought, and pretty much convinces me every clear of any stage goes toward win rate, not clearing all three.  There’s no way.  More importantly though, trying to do this with just general pool options was...a challenge.  I blame Ethan, and the lack of Bug-types.  I expected Entei to be the toughest option, but Cobalion was really challenging, working around damage reduction while also keeping in mind the need for weather effects.  Without limited pairs, your options are constrained.  It’s technically possible, but looking at this, you basically need every BP pair 3/5, the limited time units in Swimsuit Misty and Bugsy/Scyther, as well as a ton of 5* exclusive options that hopefully are also up to 3/5, and all of them need grids.  This definitely lives up to the statement of “needing a lot of sync pairs,” because wow, it’s really hard to break the pattern of going to the same few old faithful supporters.
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grailfinders · 4 years ago
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Fate and Phantasms Far Side #5: Arcueid Brunestud
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Wow, Magical-Biche is getting a lot faster with these, huh? Today we at Fate and Phantasms bring you another Tsukihime build, and this time it’s the titular Tsukihime herself, Arcueid Brunestud! 
Check out her build breakdown written by Magical-Biche below the cut, or her character sheet over here!
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Poster girl is finally here! And damn, she was a challenge to build. As the moon princess, and the strongest agent of Gaia, hunting the dead apostles wherever they may hide, we don’t need any weapon or armor, limiting our choices. However, we’re an immortal being able to grow back from mere pieces of our own body. Finally, we also have a bunch of supernatural abilities that we can’t just skip over. We won’t be able to fit our Marble Phantasm into the build, as it would require a seventh level we just can’t afford to have. 
Race and Background
We are the princess of the moon, a being far removed from anything human, even though we look alike. We are a somewhat divine being, and our mere presence can disturb people. That makes the Aasimar quite the obvious choice for us. As for the subrace, we fit the Scourge Aasimar description quite well. This race allows us to see through darkness, like any vampire. As a being tightly bound to the planet, we get resistance against radiant damage, and our vampiric status makes us resistant to necrotic damage. Furthermore, True ancestors like ourself have tremendous healing capabilities, which we also get from our race in the form of healing hands, which we’ll obviously only use on our own body. Being a light bearer allows us to cast the light cantrip, but it won’t be of much use to us. Finally, we get our last race feature at our third character level, in the form of radiant consumption, a quite powerful transformation that makes us radiate radiant damage and add such damage to one attack per turn. For the sake of this build, we’ll have to use Tasha’s optional rule to change our ability score increases to a +2 in constitution and a +1 in strength. 
As our nickname clearly says, we are a princess, thus, a noble. This background grants us a proficiency with the history skill, a great way to include the information Gaia sends us when we awake from our slumber, and persuasion, so we can convince people we’re a totally normal girl. We also hold a position of privilege, so people will usually let us crash at their houses, hoping they’ll get something from us. 
Ability Scores
For this build, we need a total of three classes: Paladin, Barbarian and Fighter. Thankfully, all 3 need strength, so that’s our highest ability. Next, as a melee fighter, we obviously need a good constitution. Our next statistic should be our charisma, because we have quite the aura surrounding us, actually, and we absolutely need it to be at least at 13 if we want to multiclass into a paladin. Next, as a powerful being, we are quite dextrous, but that’s clearly not our forte. We may not be the most cunning, but having a bit of wisdom can’t hurt to see things coming, honestly. Last, we’re dropping intelligence, which we don’t need: we’re here to hit, hard and swift. The planet gives us our information and that’s all we really need. Using the standard array, with our passive, we reach comfortable stats of 16, 12, 16, 8, 10 and 13, and since we won’t need to have a high charisma to cast our spells, those stats are alright. 
Class Levels
Fighter 1: We start as a fighter, so we can start with our weapon of choice, nothing. As a level 1 fighter, we get a fighting style, and we’re definitely an unarmed fighter, letting us replace the puny 1 damage from our bare fists into a glorious 1d8 + our strength modifier, and the ability to crush opponents when we grab them. We also get our second of many ways to regain HP in second wind, a timeless classic that can save us in a pinch. Starting as a fighter gives us a bunch of useless weapon and armor proficiencies that we’ll never use. We also get proficient with the intimidation skill, so we can get what we want more easily and frighten people, and the perception skill, to help locating our targets. We are also proficient with the constitution and strength saving throws, making us quite solid. However, since we’re stuck with a laughable 11 AC at level one, we should not get too cocky for now.
Barbarian 1: We’re taking a single barbarian level so we have actual armor class, thanks to unarmored defense. With that, our AC reaches the alright number of 14, enough to brush off a few hits when raging. Because, yes, we also get two rages from the barbarian's first level, giving us a one minute transformation twice a day that blocks us from casting spells, but makes us resistant to physical damage and improves our physical capabilities.
Paladin 1: Next, we’re becoming a paladin. Half a paladin actually, as smites won’t work with our bare hands, sadly. Anyway, our first paladin level awakens our divine sense, or as we should call it, our vampire radar, allowing us to instantly smell evil, including filthy undeads like the dead apostles. We also get our lay on hands ability which gives us a hefty pool of hit points to distribute among the party (but we’ll only use it on ourself, obviously.) We also get our racial feature giving us a new transformation, radiant consumption, giving us nice damage as we level up.
Paladin 2: We start getting good stuff when we reach our second paladin level. First, we get the popular, but completely useless for us, divine smite. We also get a new fighting style, and since the paladin’s list is quite short, we’ll go with the only one that is absent from the fighter’s list: Blessed warrior. This fighting style gives us two cantrips from the cleric spell list, and we’re taking Toll the dead, as we damage the very willpower of any foe we decide to fight, and Resistance, so we can sometime get better saving throws when we need them. This helps with our survivability, so it’s great to have it nonetheless. Next, we get our spellcasting ability. We can’t ritual cast as a paladin, but since we can’t use our smites, we won’t really have much use of our spell slots anyway. We can prepare a number of spells we can cast with our spell slots equal to half our paladin level + our charisma modifier, so for now, 2. We don’t really need more, as we can’t really cast any spell that requires dice rolls thanks to our awful charisma stat. We should take the ever-powerful protection from evil and good, and shield of faith for encounters that are not against creatures covered by our first spell. We can also take the various detection spells, which can be a lot of help when tracking a creature. Finally, Command is the only spell requiring a saving throw that we should prepare from time to time, as it represents our mystic eyes of enchantment to some degree.
Paladin 3: As third level paladins, we become immune to disease thanks to our divine health, which makes sense, since we’re an immortal being. We also reach our first subclass, the Oath of vengeance. We’re a paladin of vengeance, dedicated to destroying all dead apostles. This subclass gives us new spells that are not too useful, as hunter’s mark only works with weapon attacks, and bane relies on a saving throw and doesn’t fit our playstyle. We also get the ability to channel divinity with our holy symbol, or  Harness divine power to regain a spell slot, if our DM allows us. Our subclass also grants us two more uses for channel divinity. We can abjure enemies, which frightens our target and works especially well on undeads, or we can use our vow of enmity, which gives us advantage on all attacks we make on a single enemy for one minute, another one minute transformation to add to the list.
Paladin 4: We get our very first ability score increase at level 6, finally: as we don’t rely on feats and need stats, we’re taking a +2 to our strength stat. We also can change our fighting style, thanks to martial versatility, if our DM allows it. But we won’t change it, obviously.
Paladin 5: We can catch up to everyone else’s damage, at last. We get our first extra attack, dramatically improving our damage per round. We can now also prepare second level spells, among which only lesser restoration is really noteworthy. Protection from poison might also help in some situations.
Paladin 6: Our sixth paladin level gives us and our allies a huge +1 to all their saving throws, thanks to our aura of protection and our bad charisma stat. It’s better than nothing, and we’ll at least pump this number to +2 soon.
Paladin 7: As we get our seventh paladin level, we become a relentless avenger, allowing us to stick to any target we set our sight on by moving from up to half our movement when we hit it with an opportunity attack. No one gets out of our reach.
Paladin 8: Our tenth level is our last in the paladin class, and it gives us an ability score increase. We’re investing 2 points into strength, and we reach the nice score of 20 in a stat for the first time. Our fists now hit quite hard.
Fighter 2: From now on, our levels aren’t too exciting, but they just make us better at doing everything. Our second fighter level gives us an action surge, essentially giving us another round of attacks. When we get mad, we can rage, consume our own life and use our action surge (it takes a couple of turns to set up, though), and dish out respectable amounts of damage.
Fighter 3: We get our second subclass: we become a champion, the classic but very powerful choice for a melee fighter. Being a champion, for now, only means that our critical hits are improved, and happen literally twice as often. It’s a shame that we didn’t have the space to fit a few more barbarian levels to get the brutal criticals…
Fighter 4: Our fourth fighter level grants us our third ability score increase, letting us improve our constitution and our charisma by one point each, which helps us cast spells, for now, as we reach an odd number on our constitution modifier.
Fighter 5: Eh. (Extra attacks from different classes don’t stack. Useless level, literally. We grab our HP and bide our time.)
Fighter 6: We reach level 6 and another ability score increase! This time, we take our first and only feat, crusher, giving us pretty deadly strikes with our already powerful fists, as well as improving our constitution score.
Fighter 7: We gain a new subclass feature this time, and we become a remarkable athlete, which quite simply improves our athletic skill.
Fighter 8: The eight level in the fighter grants us our ability score increase, and we’re now working on our constitution, adding it a +2. We are now quite sturdy with a 20 in that stat.
Fighter 9: This fighter level gives us a use of indomitable, allowing us to reroll a saving throw. A great survivability tool for our immortal body.
Fighter 10: Our tenth level in the fighter class grants us a new ability from our subclass, letting us choose a new fighting style. We don’t have much choice, since we already have two fighting styles and don’t use any weapon or armor, but blind fighting is a great option anyway, so we will gladly take it. We can now fight without our senses, a good way to show our natural abilities at combat.
Fighter 11: Since it would be a bit anticlimactic to end on an ability score increase, we chose to take one more paladin level instead of getting this feature early. The eleventh fighter level gives us a second extra attack, which this time isn’t useless because of a previous dip! We quite simply add one attack per turn, one more chance to score a critical hit to hit harder and have advantage thanks to crusher, to deal big damage while raging, while under radiant consumption. 
Pros: We’re quite sturdy, thanks to a great constitution stat, rage and access to some spells to mitigate our poor AC. We need a grand total of zero equipment, making us quite free to use any magic item we stumble upon, be it tattoos, enchanted jewelry or clothes. We also have quite consistent damage bursts, thanks to two rages and our racial feature. We’re also not too bad at fighting flying targets thanks to toll the dead. What’s more, our fists are quite deadly, dealing a decent amount of damage on their own, and thanks to our feat, we can shove people for free whenever we deal damage to them. The champion subclass makes us a really strong and overall useful fighter. 
Cons: We may have a few features that add up, but it will never be enough to replace the glorious paladin SMITES. Sadly, as per RAW, we need to hit with a melee weapon to trigger a smite, and our fists are not considered one. We could always talk about it to our DM, as 3d6 radiant damage with bonus to undead targets would fit our build perfectly, but that wouldn’t work in a more official context. What’s more, we can’t use concentration spells such as protection from evil and good and shield of fate while raging, which means we can’t become a real monster in terms of survivability. That still gives us many options to stay on our feet, they just don’t merge together. We also suffer from a very bad charisma stat, which means we won’t really be able to hit anything with our spells, including Toll the dead. We might hit things that have low AC or bad saving throws, so it’s not like our spells are a deadweight in any case. Finally, as we split into two martial classes, we face the big problem of having a 95% dead level. Our fourteenth level gives us an extra attack which we already have from the paladin levels, and our proficiency bonus doesn’t even raise at that level, so it’s literally just a level for the HP.
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tlwamerica · 3 years ago
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Real Estate Trends 2021: What You Need to Know
Real Estate Trend #1: Slim Pickings for Home Buyers
For perspective, inventory was down nearly 30% in the early months of 2021 compared to the previous year. There just weren’t enough houses for sale over the year to meet buyer demand.
What Slim Pickings Mean for Buyers
Low inventory means you need to be on your toes when you go house hunting—the best homes will likely be snatched up fast. At the start of spring 2021, most homes sold around 20 days faster compared to the past several springs.3 That doesn’t leave much time to hem and haw over your home search. If you want to find a good home in this slim market, here’s some advice:
 Sacrifice some wants. If you can’t find the house you want, be willing to give up some “nice-to-haves” for your “must-haves.” Find the least expensive home in the best neighborhood you can afford and upgrade over time.
 Expand your search. What if the location where you’re planning to buy is too competitive? You might be surprised at the gem you can find in a less popular neighborhood. Working with a real estate agent who really knows the area is the best way to find a home that fits your budget and lifestyle.
 Get preapproved ASAP. Getting preapproved for a mortgage before you go house hunting is a must in any market. But in a market with such a limited home supply, not doing this legwork ahead of time gives a preapproved buyer free reign to swipe the home you want right out of your hands.
What Slim Pickings Mean for Sellers
Low inventory means low selling competition! You can probably expect to see offer letters flooding your mailbox the same way Hogwarts sent Harry Potter his acceptance letters. Since your home will be one of the (relatively) few listed on the market, you could be in the driver’s seat. So enjoy possibly picking the best offer and moving at a pace that best suits your timeline.
But after your home is sold, you probably won’t be in the driver’s seat anymore (if you’re buying again). So decide on plans for your next home before you sell.
Real Estate Trend #2: Home Prices Are Still Rising
Next up: home price trends. In the early months of 2021, home prices grew by nearly 20% compared to last year—rising to a national median of $300,000–400,000!4 Sellers, this should put a big smile on your face! And hang tight, buyers—we have some advice for you too.
What Higher Prices Mean for Buyers
If you’re going to buy a home in this expensive market, you absolutely must find out how much house you can really afford. Commit to staying within that budget amount no matter how much pressure you feel watching competitors pluck good homes off the market.
To feel confident about buying a home this year, follow these tips:
 Limit your house payment to no more than 25% of your monthly take-home pay. This payment includes principal, interest, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance and, if your down payment is lower than 20%, private mortgage insurance (PMI). Plus, don’t forget to consider homeowner’s association (HOA) fees when preparing your budget.
 Save at least a 10–20% down payment. A 20% or more down payment helps you avoid PMI—an extra fee added to your mortgage to protect your lender (not you) in case you don’t make payments. Anything less than 10% will drown you in extra interest and fees. Saving a big down payment like this is possible! If you stay patient and motivated, you can save for a five-figure down payment by this time next year.
 Choose a 15-year fixed-rate conventional mortgage. The overall lowest cost home loan is a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage. Rip-off mortgages like the 30-year mortgage, FHA, VA, USDA, and adjustable-rate ones will charge you so much extra in interest and fees and keep you in debt for decades. No thanks.
Now crunch the numbers yourself with our mortgage calculator and figure out a monthly payment your budget can handle. And then work with an expert agent to find houses for sale within that budget.
What Higher Prices Mean for Sellers
A nice profit may be on the horizon! And that’s great news because you’ll really want that extra money when buying your next home. To get the best offer for your home, work with an experienced real estate agent who really knows your local market.
And be sure to wait for the right offer. Some buyers may try to gut punch you with a low number. If you aren’t in a hurry to move, wait for an offer that gives you the most profit. Remember, the less desperate person always has the upper hand when negotiating.
Real Estate Trend #3: Mortgage Interest Rates Are Still Super Low
What Lower Rates Mean for Buyers
Sure, interest rates are low right now—which can help with affordability. Just be careful not to let that pressure you into buying a house when you aren’t really ready. A super low interest rate on a house you can’t afford is still a bad deal. So remember to stick to our advice on monthly payment limit, down payment amount and mortgage type (see Trend #2) and you’ll be in great shape!
What Lower Rates Mean for Sellers
If interest rates stay low, buyers will be more motivated to buy your home sooner than later. But if interest rates do start to increase later in the year, just plan for your house to be on the market a little longer. If you don’t plan on moving anytime soon, you might still be able to take advantage of these super low interest rates and shorten your payment schedule by refinancing your mortgage.
Real Estate Trend #4: Online Real Estate Services Are Growing
No doubt you’ve heard of real estate services like Zillow that allow you to browse or list homes for sale online with the click of a button. But did you know that online services are now offering to buy and sell your house for you?
Third-Party Buyers
Here’s how it works: You tell companies like Zillow or Opendoor about the house you want to sell. They buy it from you, pump some money into it to resell at a higher price, handle all the home processing stuff like inspections, repairs, and home showings, and then charge you pretty much the same as an agent commission for selling costs—plus, some of these companies include an additional service fee (icing on their cake). They promise less hassle, but it may mean less profit for you than working with a top-notch agent who could sell your home for more money.
Using a “Virtual” Agent
Hybrid services like Redfin aim to reduce traditional agent commissions by handling things online. This gives you partial services that are similar to working with an agent, but for a fraction of the cost. Think of it as a middle ground between selling with an agent and selling by yourself. But when selling a home, be wary of the middle ground. Your home is your biggest asset, and you get what you pay for!
Mobile or Online Closings
In related news, digital technology is also making it easier to handle document-based tasks virtually. For example, many home transactions are using electronic signature apps and remote online notarization to streamline the process.7 In other words, there’s a chance you can buy or sell a house this year without getting out of your car or ever changing out of your bathrobe and slippers.
Real Estate Trend #5: Risky Buying Options Are More Accessible
Rent-to-Own
First, if you’re itching to buy a home but can’t quite afford it yet, some sellers like Divvy offer a rent-to-own agreement. In this deal, you agree to rent the home for a specific amount of time (could be several months to several years) before becoming the owner. The plus side of rent-to-own is that it allows you to bypass the time it takes to save for a down payment and get into a house fast. Also, it means you don’t have to qualify for a mortgage right away.
The downside of rent-to-own is that it makes your rent more expensive because some of your monthly payment will go toward future homeownership. But if you later decide you don’t want to buy the house or something breaks your contract, all those extra payments will have been a waste. Plus, you may be required to handle repairs and maintenance yourself even while renting! This option leaves you in a very vulnerable place financially.
Bottom line: If you feel like you can’t afford homeownership, it’s best to wait until your financial ducks are in a row.
Loans for Down Payments
Another risky buying option to avoid is taking out a personal loan to fund a down payment. Purchasing a home with no money down is never a good idea. Remember, you want at least a 10–20% down payment. Buying a house with anything less will rob you of your other financial goals by having you pay too much extra in interest and fees. Thankfully, not many mortgage lenders allow you to do this—plus, it can even hinder your ability to qualify for the amount of mortgage you need.
Origined from: https://www.tlw.com/news/view-121.html
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Tim Bratz - Building Legacy Wealth Through Apartments & Commercial Real ...
https://www.jayconner.com/tim-bratz-building-legacy-wealth-through-apartments-commercial-real-estate-investments/
Building Legacy Wealth Through Apartments & Commercial Real Estate Investments.
Legacy Wealth Holdings is a trailblazer in the commercial real estate investment world. We are headquartered in Cleveland OH and invest in apartment buildings nationwide by joint venturing with local operators and passive lenders. Our investment strategy is simple: only invest for cash flow, only buy at wholesale prices, and create (never speculate) appreciation through value-add improvements and sweat equity.
Legacy Wealth Holdings was launched in 2009 as a socially conscious real estate investment company. Founder Tim Bratz was drawn to real estate because he saw the long term benefits of a solid investment.
Tim began his career in the competitive New York City real estate market working as a broker leasing ground floor retail units. Here, he saw the true potential of real estate to transform lives. Although Tim was limited in means, he spent his time reading, attending workshops, and networking with accomplished entrepreneurs learning that being resourceful was the ultimate path to becoming successful.
With this knowledge, Tim embarked on building his real estate company in Charleston, South Carolina, where he had relocated in search of a better quality of life. Arriving in 2008, after the real estate bubble burst, Tim quickly adapted and using a credit card, increased his limit and then wrote himself a balance transfer check to acquire the cheapest property he could find. 
Armed with his personal investment and plenty of sweat equity, Tim transformed a rundown duplex and turned a profit on his first deal. He then took those proceeds and reinvested them, while seeking private capital to expand his growing company. 
Today, Tim still uses this formula for success, which all starts with being resourceful and having the right mindset. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Conner (00:02): Well, hello there! And welcome to another episode of Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner. I’m Jay Conner, your host. Also known as The Private Money Authority. And here on the show, we talk about all things that relate to real estate investing. Single family houses, commercial deals, self storage, land, small apartments, big apartments, flipping, rent to own, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We also talk about how to get your deals funded without relying on local banks or mortgage companies. How to sell houses fast. How to automate your business. To where you’re running your business and your business isn’t running you. And I have fantastic guests here on the show. Today is no exception. But before I introduce my guest today, I’ve got a free gift for you to check out. And that is if you’re looking for more funding for your deals, particularly here in the midst of COVID-19 and you don’t want to rely on banks, mortgage companies, or any kind of traditional funding, then I have got an on demand, free training for you right now on the internet.
Jay Conner (01:14): It’s only about 60 minutes long, but this training will show you the five easy and quick steps to get the funding for your real estate deals. Again, without relying on your, any of your own money, your own credit, et cetera. So you, after the show, you can check it out at www.JayConner.com/MoneyPodcast. That’s JayConner.com/MoneyPodcast. Well, my special guest today began his career in real estate in the competitive New York city. Can you believe real estate market? And he was working as a broker leasing these ground floor retail units. Well, in that experience, he saw and learned the true potential of real estate that can really transform lives. Now, although he was limited in his means and the amount of money that he had available to him at the time, he spent his time reading, attending seminars, networking, and hanging around very accomplished entrepreneurs, which by the way, is good advice for all of us.
Jay Conner (02:23): And he was learning that being resourceful was the ultimate path to becoming successful. What do you mean by resourceful? He’s going to tell us. So with his knowledge he embarked on building his real estate company and empire in Charleston, South Carolina, where he had relocated in search of a better quality of life. Now he got in Charleston back in 2008. Wow! After the real estate bubble had burst and he quickly adapted and he was using a credit card, increased his credit card limit, and then wrote himself a balanced transfer check to acquire the cheapest property he could find. We’re going to get him to tell us that story about how in the world he was able to use a credit card to buy his first house at only 23 years old. Well, anyway, armed with his personal investment and a lot of sweat equity. He transformed a rundown duplex and turned a profit on his first deal. Then he took those proceeds, reinvested them, and while seeking private capital to expand his growing company. Well, my special guest is the CEO and founder of Legacy Wealth Holdings, which was a real estate investment company that acquires and transforms distressed apartment buildings into high yield assets for their own portfolio. So with that folks, I’m so excited to have as my guest today, my friend, fellow mastermind member and real estate investor, Mr. Tim Bratz. Welcome to the show, Tim!
Tim Bratz (03:56): Hey, I appreciate you having me here, Jay! Excited to be here, man. I always looked up to you and I’m super pumped to be here and be chatting with you and sharing some knowledge with your audience. So appreciate you having me, man.
Jay Conner (04:08): Absolutely. Well, I’m so excited to have you on, because I mean, in just a few short years, you’ve got such a wide variety of experience. You have put your portfolio. I mean, my lands! Your current portfolio exceeds 4,000 units and is North with a valuation of about more than $350 million, Right?
Tim Bratz (04:32): That is correct. It’s kind of crazy. Right?
Jay Conner (04:35): So I’m not going to ask my questions in logical sequence. I’m just going to do stream of consciousness with you. How long did it take from you starting in commercial, doing commercial deals to going to a portfolio of 4,000 units? I mean, is that a 10 year stretch? Is that a five year stretch? What is that?
Tim Bratz (04:59): First started studying real estate and learning about it in 2005 when I was in college. I became a real estate agent 2009 or a 2007. Invested in my first property in 2009. Bought my first apartment building at the end of 2012. And it was an eight unit building.
Jay Conner (05:17): Wow. You answered my question. That’s fast!
Tim Bratz (05:21): Since I bought my first apartment.
Jay Conner (05:23): Yeah. And now you’ve got 4,000 doors or units, right? Yeah. That is amazing! So let’s start with, let’s start with your journey. Tell us your story of getting into real estate and how it has progressed your journey. And how has it grown.
Tim Bratz (05:44): Yeah, I think we all want it to go faster than it usually does. Right? And that was not any different in my case. I was going through college 2003 to 2007 when the market was going crazy before and everybody’s making money in real estate. And I was a money motivated kid at the age of 20 years old. So I had one of these painting companies in the summer rent a bunch of crews with my friends. We did a bunch of landscaping also. And then I interned for one of the largest home builders in the country and just realize I wanted to be a real estate investor, but I thought everybody got started in real estate and owning real estate by becoming a real estate agent. And so I’m from Cleveland, Ohio originally, but I moved out to New York city cause my brother was living out there at the time.
Tim Bratz (06:23): And after college I got my real estate license and I started brokering just like you had mentioned in the opening. Commercial and retail offices and retail spaces in Manhattan. And I, listen, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just kinda like doing the labor of going and finding, you know businesses that wanted to expand and then handing them off to somebody who knew what they were doing or finding a landlord who wanted to lease their space and then handed them off to somebody that they knew it was doing in our brokerage firms. So I was just really the workhorse, right? And so I knew enough that when I closed my first deal, it took about eight, nine months to close it. And it was 400 square feet.
Tim Bratz (07:06): And we signed a lease for $10,000 a month on this retail space. 12 year lease term, 4% annual increases. And I started doing the math and I’m like, Holy cow, this landlord’s gonna make almost $2 million from doing something once. And they’re gonna get paid on it for the next 12 years. Like I’m on the wrong side of the coin. I need to be owning real estate instead of brokering it. And so I moved down to Charleston, South Carolina for better quality of life and some good weather. And when I got down there is when the market crashed and everything was crumbling. And I was going through all these courses and seminars and learning as much as I possibly could. And when I was right, when I was about to pull the trigger on buying something that, you know, the market crumbles and I was like, I just showed up to the party and everybody’s leaving.
Tim Bratz (07:50): Right? And so nonetheless, nobody was giving money to a punk 23 year old kid. Who’d never done a deal before in the worst housing economy ever. And I had to get creative. And I think a lot of people say, Hey, I can’t do something because I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money, I don’t have the knowledge, I don’t have the resources. And I heard Tony Robin say, one time he goes, resourcefulness is the ultimate resource. You’re resourceful. You can find time and money and knowledge and all the other resources. And I think that’s something I’ve always kind of done is I don’t let somebody tell me I can’t do something. I asked questions about how can I do something. I think when you ask good questions that leads you down a path of getting good answers. It’s like Google, right?
Tim Bratz (08:35): I could Google search restaurants in Ohio. It brings up every restaurant in Ohio. And then I could Google search restaurants in Cleveland, Ohio, and it refines it to only Cleveland, then Italian restaurants in Cleveland, Ohio, it refines it even more. And so the more defined of a question that I think you asked, more definitive answer that you’re going to get. So I said, Hey, I can’t get money from the banks. I can’t get money from traditional lenders. All my friends are drunk in bars right now, cause they’re all 23 years old at the time. And not they’re blowing all their money at the bars. And nobody’s gonna lend me money. Like how can I get access to capital that I already have access? And I thought, well, I have a couple thousand dollars saved up in my bank account.
Tim Bratz (09:17): That wasn’t enough. But maybe I could get my credit card company to increase my limit. And I called them up and I said, Hey, I’m about to make a big purchase. Are you guys willing to increase my limit? And they said, how much do you need? I said, $100,000. And they said, absolutely not! Like, you’ve been a great customer for about 15 months, but that’s just not gonna happen. And I said, all right, well, how much are you going to give me? And they give me 15 grand. One five. And so I found the cheapest house in all of Charleston. This is after the market tanked in 2009 now. And I bought it essentially with a balanced transfer check on my credit card, bought it for $14,000 and put on sweat equity
Jay Conner (09:57): To make sure everybody understands, tell them about it. What is a balanced transfer check? Cause we’ve probably got some listeners that might want to use that strategy.
Tim Bratz (10:05): Well, it was, you know, it’s essentially something that credit card companies use in order to say, Hey, go from your MasterCard over to visa. And if you transfer your balance over to us, we’ll let you, you know, give you a balanced transfer check to go write a check over to your MasterCard. And then we’ll just put that balance to overhear on your visa. And so I don’t know if they still do it. I haven’t used one in a while, but that was like a big thing back in 2008, 2009. And so I was able to get my credit card limit increase. I got them to send me these perforated checks and I just wrote it to myself instead of like transferring a balance or anything like that. I just wrote myself a check for $14,900 and I maxed out my credit card.
Tim Bratz (10:48): I put all that money in my bank account. And then I went and bought this house. It was, they were asking 25 grand. I got it for, I offered 12, right? They came back at 20. I came back at 14, we ended up cutting a deal on it. So, and then I personally did all the work, you know, of YouTube and how to change out carpet and light fixtures and plumbing repairs, and all this stuff. And I turned around and sold it. And a little over a hundred days and I made about $14,000 on it net. And I was like, I don’t even know what I’m doing. I’m making money, the worst housing market ever. So then I got into wholesaling, right? Wholesaling. I learned a little bit more about that. And I met amazing people in wholesaling who had money and were buying deals from me.
Tim Bratz (11:27): I could make a couple of bucks on it. And eventually what happened was they said, Hey, this kid’s got a decent work ethic and he knows how to find a good deal. Hey Tim, I can’t, I don’t have the bandwidth to take on more projects myself, but I still have more money. How could I lend you money? We just come up with some sort of like equity split on the deal. And that’s how I started doing several deals. Probably. I don’t know, the first 250 deals I did with some sort of equity split with private investors. And so, built up a small portfolio and ended up moving back from Charleston, South Carolina, back up to Cleveland, Ohio, and partnered up pretty much exclusively with a couple of guys who had a traditional business, made a lot of money in it and invested with me.
Tim Bratz (12:09): And so from 2012 to 2015, built up a portfolio, I don’t know about 130, 140 units in Cleveland. That’s when I bought my first apartment building. That partnership though went South in 2015, 2016, and we ended up liquidating everything. So I had to press the reset button on my business and it’s not exciting to do when you can. You know, I think that takes a lot of work to kind of get the, get the plane off the ground. And I’m like, Oh man, I got to start all over. But really it was a blessing in disguise where it allowed me to really spread my wings and do some other stuff. And people came out of the woodwork saying, Hey, man, I want to wanting to partner with you and want to do some deals with you. I’ve been wanting to lend you money.
Tim Bratz (12:50): And it just, it opened me up big time. Started to got into a mastermind for the first time in 2015, and that was just like mind boggling the opportunities that, and the connections that came from that. And so I liquidated my whole portfolio and in August of 2015, I started building my current portfolio. Although they took all my property away or not took it all away, but we liquidated all. They couldn’t take the insights, right? They couldn’t take the mindset, they couldn’t take the information. And I think that’s a really a key piece of once you learn, you get educated to how to do this stuff, you could do it over and over and over again. So I started from scratch and in August of 2015 and here we are five years later and I have a $350 million portfolio. It’s 90% apartments. And about 10% of some other asset classes. Office, a little bit of mixed use like retail. I have several self storage facilities. And a couple of vacation homes too.
Jay Conner (13:46): So really these 4,000 units, you’ve built all that in just the past less well, less than five years?
Tim Bratz (13:54): Yup. Just shy of five years now.
Jay Conner (13:56): So you’re starting from scratch. Well, you’re not starting from scratch, cause you still own the real estate in between your ears. Right. And the experience you’ve got, et cetera. So tell us that story. How do you start from scratch? You know, looking for and attracting capital. So, you know, I’ve done a ton of that myself. I teach it myself. I really want to hear your story. So how do you start raising the capital and all these commercial deals? How do you start finding the deals? And then if you can keep it to the 30,000 foot level, what’s a structure of a deal look like? How do you structure a deal? And I’m assuming you’re looking, at this portfolio, this portfolio were those all existing apartments, et cetera, that were distressed and you turn them around?
Tim Bratz (14:48): For the most part, we do a little bit of new construction also, but most of it I’d say North of 70% of it is definitely existing property. Maybe 75%, 80% is existing.
Jay Conner (15:02): Let’s start with raising the capital. What’s your strategy on raising the capital? Cause that’s a lot of capital.
Tim Bratz (15:09): Yup, we’ve raised. I mean, I have, and I don’t raise money from institutions or hedge funds and REITs and stuff like that. I raised money from individuals, right? Somebody who’s got a hundred thousand dollars in 401k or some entrepreneur who just exited their business and they’re sitting on a couple of million bucks.
Jay Conner (15:24): Yup. That’s what I do.
Tim Bratz (15:25): That’s everybody that I raise money from. They’re easy to work with. They’re too busy to complain or like breathing down your neck about what’s going on with the deal. As long as their checks hit and their deposits are made. They like going back to doing what they’re really good at and they understand leveraging other people’s efforts. And they’re really good at making money. They’re not that good at investing it. So they put it with somebody who does know how to invest it and then I can help them deploy it, make a good return. So here’s what I found because I’ve done a lot of different things. I had a big turnkey business. We were flipping about a hundred. Like when I get out of that, that past a business partnership, I went back into wholesaling and I got into like turnkey of flipping houses because I needed to build up my cash reserves again. And so while I was doing that whole process, I learned that there’s some people, there’s essentially two types of investors out there, that are looking for two different types of returns.
Tim Bratz (16:18): One is like a debt return, which is a very predictable, I deploy my money and I make 12% return on my investment at like clockwork. And I invest a hundred thousand dollars with somebody. I make a thousand dollars a month and I make 12% annual return on my money. That’s great. It’s very predictable. There’s no surprises there. And, but at the end of the day, they’re not building wealth, right. They’re making a good return and their army of money has a bunch of other soldiers now that they can then redeploy and they can make more and more money. And that’s one way of doing it. And then there’s other people that I found that like the equity investment side, where there’s equity upside, they can sell the property, double their money, but there’s also equity downside where they could lose money.
Tim Bratz (17:01): And there’s not a lot of predictability in consistent monthly payments in that regard. So I’ve realized there were two types of people, two types of investments. And there wasn’t really anything in the middle. When I started doing on the single family side is I started structuring the way that was a no brainer. I said, Hey, listen, I’ll pay you either 12% on your money. Or 15% of the profit, whichever is greater. That’s a no brainer. Worst case scenario make 12% of my money and potentially there’s equity upside in this thing without any downside on the equity. So that was a no brainer. And then when I started investing in apartment buildings, I did something similar. I realized that I couldn’t pay somebody 12% cause we’re talking about big dollar amounts and it would really eat up the cash flow, especially on these not performing apartment buildings that are heavily distressed.
Tim Bratz (17:51): So what I ended up doing is I offered a little bit less, you know, 8% to 10% fixed return on their investment. And my whole model is based on flipping houses, right? Like I never went to a course. I never on commercial real estate. I never, I didn’t get a real estate degree from some Ivy league school. My grandparents didn’t know what a bunch of commercial real estate I just learned about it from the school of hard knocks. And so what I ended up doing was I took the formula of, I gotta be all in for 65% of the after repair value. And that’s what I needed to be able to buy and renovate these houses for in order to sell it and make a profit. I took that exact same philosophy and formula and put it into apartment buildings. So in apartment buildings, very predictable of what it’s going to be worth because it’s all based on the income approach, not on sales comparables.
Tim Bratz (18:35): So I know what it’ll rent for. I know exactly what the expenses are. And so I can just figure out if I improve it and I get a fully occupied, put good management in place. It’ll generate this much money of net operating income. And in that area, it’ll appraise it, this sort of cap rate, which is kind of like a multiple on the NOI. And so it’s very predictable. If it’s gonna be worth $10 million, I need to be all in for six and a half million. If it needs a million dollars worth of work, I need to be able to, my maximum allowable offer is five and a half million dollars. Does that make sense? So the difference is I don’t sell the property. I turn around, I refinance it. So I’ll go to the you know, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or an insurance company or CMBS.
Tim Bratz (19:16): And I’ll get a loan once the property is stabilized, meaning it’s fully occupied, good managements in place. And then I’ll put a loan on it for 70% of that new value. So if I’m all in, it’s worth 10 million, I’m all in for six and a half. My new loan is 7 million. That means I’m able to pay back my investors able to pay off my short term construction loan. And I just put longterm debt, fixed interest rate debt in place. And now all my chips are off the table. Right now we can just sit on this thing, let the tenants pay rent covers all the operating expenses covers all the debt service pays down our mortgage property appreciates over time. And that is how real wealth is built. So when I, when I got into apartment buildings, I took my investors and I just, I started paying them 8% to 10% of a fixed return while their money was invested.
Tim Bratz (20:03): And then they get all their money back at the time of the refinance. Let’s say it’s 18 months later. And then I give them equity in the deal forever. Even though all their money’s back in their own pocket, they keep maybe 20% of the deal forever. And so that then incentivizes them where now they see me as a longterm partner. They see me as somebody who’s like, you know what, if somebody dangles a 12% carrot in front of their face, they’re not going to go with it because they’re like, no, Tim’s my partner. Right? I have equity and deals with him that we’re gonna be partners for the next 10 years. And it allows them to just keep on rolling their money forward with me, where they make a good fixed return. Plus they have the equity upside and it’s a win-win all around them.
Jay Conner (20:43): So do you structure the deal with your private lenders? Are they investing in a fund?
Tim Bratz (20:51): Yeah, so it’s not like a general open-ended fund. Every deal that I do, every apartment building I buy is its own investment, a registered sec investment with the federal SEC, Securities Exchange Commission. So every deal I do is its own. It’s its own entity, it’s its own registration. So I only raise on a deal by deal basis. So people aren’t, you know, it’s not like a stock where it’s or a mutual fund where it’s spread across many different properties. It’s a single property. So one, two, three main street will be owned by one, two, three main street, LLC. Here’s what the numbers are on one, two, three main street. What it’s going to look like, and what’s going to generate for income to the LLC. And then the investors, they invest in that LLC and they’re actual equity owners in the LLC. So they get a K1 at the end of the year and yeah, works that way.
Jay Conner (21:43): So you raise capital for its own project every time. Right? So, does most of your capital for a project that you’re looking to do, do most of those funds come from existing private lenders that you might have recently paid off from a refinance deal?
Tim Bratz (22:08): Yeah, so you know, we were joking about it before we kind of came online and we said, Hey, you’re either deal heavy or you’re money heavy and very rarely both at the same time. Right? So I think, I think the most important thing you can be doing as a real estate investor, the only three activities that matter are Sourcing Deals, Sourcing Money, and Refining your Operations. Right? If you’re doing those three things at all times, those are the revenue generating activities that you need to be focused on all the time.
Tim Bratz (22:40): So we are always sourcing deals. We are always sourcing money. And we are always trying to refine our operations and tighten up that ship. And so, sometimes we have a refinance and we’re heavy on liquidity and we can roll all of our investors into that new project without having to raise any outside capital. Other times, like we got a bunch of refinance that were supposed to pop during this whole COVID mass. Right? And they all got delayed. And so now they’re all looking good, right? Knock on wood. But there was a timeframe where we were still buying some deals early part of this year. And we had these refinance that were supposed to pop it didn’t. So we had to raise a bunch of outside capital. But you know, it also happens where somebody invest with you in one deal, they have more money set aside. They want to diversify across multiple different assets, multiple different properties. And a lot of our existing investors came in on all those other projects, knowing that there are other funds are going to be pretty liquid over the course of the lateral this year.
Jay Conner (23:40): So, when you’ve got a project that you’re getting ready do, what’s your, the logistics of getting the word out to, like when you’re raising new capital? And what’s your funnel look like? Like with me, my funnel is all the time educating. In fact, you may have heard me saying that in the past time, I’ve never asked anybody for money. I raised a ton of capital without asking for money. I educate and I teach and once they get taught and enlightened and they know about self directed IRAs and they know about private money and how the program works, if they’ve got investment capital or retirement funds, they’re going to be chasing me. Right? But where do you go and what do you do?
Tim Bratz (24:28): Yep. So I’m very active on social media. So if you follow me on social media, I know we’re connected on social media. You’ll see me always talking about buying apartment buildings. How I structure the deal. What the returns look like for the overall project. When you’re syndicating capital, you gotta be very careful to stay in compliance with the SEC guidelines. You can’t just go out and tell people, Hey, I’ll pay you 12% because it’s not secured with a first lien position on a property. So because of that, you can’t go out and just generally solicit, you know, and as soon as you take two investors and put them into a single deal, you’re creating a security. So it needs to be registered with the SEC. Does everybody do it? No. Do I do it? Yes, because I have a lot of eyeballs on me cause I do the education stuff too.
Tim Bratz (25:13): But I think educating people is the purest way of showing what you do, how you do it, and just naturally building trust and building relationships with people. And confidence and respect that they respect you as the authority of private money. Right? And so those are the two keys in order to raise capital. You need somebody’s respect and you need somebody’s trust. If you don’t have those two things, it’s gonna be very, very difficult to raise money. And educating people, whether that’s through social media or through formal courses, creates both of those things. You’re spending time with them. They know you, they know your core values, they know what you’re all about. And you’re obviously teaching, you’re standing up in front of the stage. You must be an authority. You must be an expert at what you do.
Tim Bratz (26:02): So there’s a lot of respect that comes with that as well. So I think the whole education piece is a genius way of doing what you’re doing. So I do some of that on social media. I do have, you know, a coaching platform on teaching investors, how to scale from residential into apartments. And that generates a lot of capital. But I also just hang out in masterminds and I hang out with people who have capital who have money, who are really good at making money, but not good at deploying money. Right? Like most entrepreneurs are really, really good at making money. And then they blow it on stupid stuff. They’re not good at saving it. They’re not good at investing it. So I’m able to come in and be like, listen, man, you buy as many liabilities as you want, but first you gotta buy assets, right? Like here’s what system, what the process looks like to generate real wealth instead of just getting rich, let’s get you wealthy. And so that’s, that’s what I do.
Jay Conner (26:50): Yeah. You just said that you know, you just hang around people, that’s got money and you know, I’ve been saying for a long time, the more money you wallow in, the more sticks to you. So I planted this and I also teach people to go where the money is. You know, sometimes they’ll say, Jay, you know, you talk about your warm market or relationship money. All my people are broke. I don’t know anybody with money. Well, wake up and smell the roses. How about let’s go meet some people that’s got money. And so obviously along with the education piece, networking is critical. Networking is critical to you know, to speak to the point of what you just said. Well, Tim, we are just about out of time, but thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show here.
Jay Conner (27:38): And I know that there is a percentage of my audience that would like to follow you and learn some more from you. So let me ask you for two things. If people want to learn how to get into commercial investing themselves and learn from you and your education company, how would they, where would they go to learn more about that?
Tim Bratz (28:00): Yeah. Well, I appreciate it, Jay. Thanks again for having me, man. And again, I appreciate all the value that you continue to put out there and your abundance mentality. So thanks for having me here. Yeah, if you guys want to connect with me, I’m very active on social media. Find me on Facebook and Instagram. And follow me, connect with me, send me a friend request there. And then my website is LegacyWealthHoldings.com LegacyWealthHoldings.com. And you can learn more about the coaching side of things and how we can potentially do deals together. I’m always buying properties, selling properties, joint venturing on projects. So if you guys come across a good deal and want to talk about something or just need some insight, I mean, we’re happy to support and offer education any way that we can. So yeah, appreciate you having me, man.
Jay Conner (28:44): Absolutely! And for everyone that is listening in on iTunes, Google play and our other audio platforms, the spelling of Tim Bratz, his name, of course you got the TIM. But his last name, if you’re looking for him on social media is BRATZ. That’s TIM BRATZ. Well, Tim, I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming mastermind meeting, which hopefully is going to be in person. I haven’t heard the definitive word on that yet, but in any case, it’s been a pleasure to have you on, man. I appreciate you so much.
Tim Bratz (29:17): Thank you! Thank you for having me. Take care.
New Speaker (29:19): There you have it folks. Another show. I’m Jay Conner, The Private Money Authority. Wishing you all the best! Here’s to taking your real estate investing business to the next level. And I’ll see you on the next show.
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thedisneychef · 1 year ago
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Get Ready to Cook up a Storm with the Best Kitchenaid Grills
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KitchenAid is a well-known household name in the world of kitchen appliances, but did you know that they also produce high-quality grills? With a range of gas and charcoal grills available in various sizes and features, KitchenAid has something for every outdoor cooking enthusiast. Our team has had the opportunity to analyze several KitchenAid grills, and we have been thoroughly impressed with their overall performance and reliability. From their sturdy construction to their exceptional heat retention and distribution, KitchenAid grills consistently deliver delicious and perfectly cooked meals every time. In this article, we'll introduce you to the best KitchenAid grills based on our analysis. We'll explore the top features and benefits of each model, as well as any potential drawbacks, to help you find the perfect grill to take your outdoor cooking game to the next level. Whether you're a seasoned grill master or just starting out, our top picks will help you cook up a storm for your family and friends. Review Top KitchenAid Grills for barbecues 1. Best Overall: KitchenAid 740-0781 5-Burner Stainless Steel This grill is made for out door kitchen islands due to its 36-inch wide built-in grill head with 71,000 total BTU for exceptional grilling results. Noticeably, this product is made with 304-grade stainless steel and equipped with 4 premium-grade 10,000 BTU stainless steel burners, so we can say for sure about its long-term durability. To be specific about the features, One 13,000 BTU ceramic rotisserie burner (rotisserie kit not included) and an 18,000 ceramic infrared searing burner. Hence, you can use this according to your desired cooking style. Customer Review Although it is equipped for liquid propane gas, this KitchenAid Burner Stainless Steel also includes the NG natural gas conversion kit, which contributes to save the environment. Battery-operated electronic continuous ignition system offers quick and easy start-ups, so it's convenient to use. Reason to buy: ✅ Good durability ✅ Both ceramic rotisserie burner and ceramic infrared searing burner included ✅ Safe for environment ✅ Easy to use Reason to avoid:  ⭕ Decreased cooking space 2. Best Grilling Area: KitchenAid 740-0780 4-Burner Stainless Steel This item is highly recommended by previous users because of its 30-inch wide built-in grill head being suitable for outdoor kitchen islands with 61,000 total BTUs for exceptional grilling results. Besides, it is equipped with 4 premium-grade 12,000 BTU stainless steel main burners, and also a 13,000 BTU ceramic rotisserie burner for better grilling results. Customer Review You don't need to regularly check the product's durability because it contains 304-grade stainless steel construction that offers durability. Even better, the surface is very easy to clean. Similar to the previous item, this one is also equipped for liquid propane gas but includes the NG natural gas conversion kit as well, so it doesn't cause harm to the environment. Last but not least, the battery-operated electronic continuous ignition system is helpful for quick and easy start-ups. Reason to buy: ✅ Better cooking result ✅ High durability ✅ No harm to environment ✅ Easy to start up and use Reason to avoid:  ⭕ Rotisserie kit not included ⭕ High price tag RELATED: Best Infrared Grill 3. Editor's Choice: KitchenAid 3-Burner 48,000 BTU Propane Gas Grill I'm personally impressed by this item due to its removable catch pan, warming rack, locking caster wheels, and electronic ignition system included. Also, it contains three 12,000 BTU premium-grade stainless steel main burners backed by a 10-year limited. Therefore, if you have any problem about the main burners, you can contact the warranty crew for free fix. Customer Review Moreover, the side burner pumps out 12,000 BTU and doubles as a side shelf. And the angled flame tamers keep flare-ups under control, which increase the level of safety while cooking. The wasted gas by this product is also convertible to natural gas to help to protect the environment. Reason to buy: ✅ Removable catch pan ✅ Many accessories included ✅ Premium materials ✅ Safe for users and environment ✅ NG orifice included Reason to avoid: ⭕ Hose and regulator sold separately ⭕ Stainless-steel design limits heat transfer 4. Best KitchenAid Grill: KitchenAid 4-Burner 55,000 BTU Stainless Steel Propane Gas Grill You can effortlessly accommodate a huge amount of meat on the grill thanks to its large 696 sq inches of cooking space. Whilst, the powerful 15,000 BTU ceramic searing side burner helps your meal to be ready faster. Moreover, the design includes the grilling system equipped with (4) 10,000 BTU main burners. And the grates and body constructed of stainless steel resulting in better barbecues with red accents making your grill more colorful. Customer Review One more attractive thing is that this product is made with an advanced continuous electronic ignition system that keeps your food in a stable temperature. Finally, eco-friendly is indispensable thanks to the convertible to natural gas capability. Reason to buy:  ✅ Faster cooking, better taste ✅ Good heat retain ✅ Eco-friendly Reason to avoid:  ⭕ Stainless-steel design limits heat transfer ⭕ Cooking grates get messy easily Readmore: Best Kenmore Grills Conclusion After conducting experiments with Kitchenaid grills, we have concluded that the best Kitchenaid grill is the Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill. This grill offers a spacious cooking area, high-quality construction, and versatile cooking options. It features four stainless steel burners that provide even heat distribution and a side burner that allows you to prepare sauces and side dishes while grilling. The Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill also comes with a built-in thermometer that allows you to monitor the cooking temperature accurately. In addition, the Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill comes with several other useful features, including a high-quality ignition system that ensures reliable and quick lighting every time, a large warming rack that keeps food warm while you finish cooking other items, and a durable, stainless steel finish that resists rust and corrosion, making it a long-lasting investment for any outdoor cooking enthusiast. While the Kitchenaid 4-Burner Gas Grill is a mid-range option, its performance and features make it the top choice for anyone looking for a high-quality Kitchenaid grill that offers excellent value for its price. Its unique design and construction make it a long-lasting investment that is sure to impress any outdoor cooking enthusiast. Read the full article
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danremonsblog · 3 years ago
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Busy Exec, Niels Getting Lean, Fit & Focused: METABODI - Dan Remon Performance Coaching
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At one point in time, we thought it was impossible to run 1 mile under 4 minutes.
Because at that time, no one had ever achieved it before.
Until someone did.
After Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute barrier, 4 minutes has officially been broken more than 1,400 times!
Often when we think something isn’t possible, it prevents us from taking the action ourselves.
But when see other people achieve what we want to achieve, we forge ahead because we KNOW it is in fact, possible.
They are our limiting beliefs. And these limiting beliefs hold us back from achieving our full potential.
The same stands for our health and fitness.
We often think or ‘believe’ we are too busy.
We don’t have time.
Or ‘nothing ever works for me’ – which prevents us from being a true high performer and becoming our “ultimate self”.
I wanted to share one of my clients, Niels.
He ‘used’ to think the same, until he made a decision that was NOT the kind of life he wanted to live anymore and took control. He took responsibility just like in this work. And made himself his own project of success.
I’m sharing some of his own words:
For as long as I can remember, my goal was to be successful in the corporate world. Working 7/11 (7am – 11pm, 7 days a week), setting personal goals to pursue the next promotion, acknowledgement or ticking off the next must-have box to take that additional step on the corporate ladder. My business life was my private life.
The realization that a goal change has to start from a personal point of view in getting a more work smart methodology was needed.
I looked around to prioritize my personal goals. Fitness scored high as a means to get back on track. But like in my own line of business, I needed professional guidance. I had no clue anymore on how to make this transformational change as I did not see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was a leap of faith of Armageddon proportions for me. Simply ‘going to the gym’ was not what I was after, as this lacked the motivational push and professional guidance I needed so desperately.
Dan Remon, has exceeded expectations in setting new, sustainable and measurable goals in my private life. They have even made a positive impact on working smarter on the work floor. By using a strategic plan based on nutrition, power, strength, conditioning and rest, my life has really turned upside down. Pumping iron as hard and fast as one can is not their priority. Setting attainable goals, one step at a time, assures a path of measurable success and with a responsible way to grow further.
Increased my mental health by not taking medication, pills, vitamin supplements;
Sleeping much better (sleep is so important);
Do more work in less amount of time, beneficial for my own corporate goals;
Lost 30 kilos by fasting, regulating eating patterns and being carefully coached…in a period of 10 months;
No calorie counting, standing on scales to see progression (or getting depressed by not seeing progression);
Being appreciated for taking that step in becoming a better, healthier me;
The excuse of ‘I don’t have time / no energy’ to work on my health is no longer in my vocabulary.
Our clients speak for us.
You can read Niels’ own full story here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transformational-view-goal-setting-niels-steeman/
About the Author
Daniel Remon is the CEO of Fitcorp Global Group. A 20+ year veteran of the health and fitness industry, he has pioneered corporate wellness, executive performance programs and result driven health, energy and business systems for today’s busy executive.
Author and speaker, Daniel is the creator of the 28 Day Challenge, Fit in 15 for Women, Goal Setting for Life, 30 Day Rituals, 42 Formula, Corporate Wellness Blueprint – Solutions to maximize productivity, optimize performance and develop highly energized and engaged clients to achieve incredible success in business and life. The driving force behind his inspiration is the ultimate purpose to Impact Ten Million Lives.
For more information, visit www.danremon.com
Facebook: www.fb.com/danielremon
IG Motivation: dan.remon
IG Personal: danspiracy
Twitter: danremon
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96thdayofrage · 3 years ago
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“Special thanks to BitDefender for helping fix our issues,” DarkSide said. “This will make us even better.”
DarkSide soon proved it wasn’t bluffing, unleashing a string of attacks. This month, it paralyzed the Colonial Pipeline Co., prompting a shutdown of the 5,500 mile pipeline that carries 45% of the fuel used on the East Coast, quickly followed by a rise in gasoline prices, panic buying of gas across the Southeast and closures of thousands of gas stations. Absent Bitdefender’s announcement, it’s possible that the crisis might have been contained, and that Colonial might have quietly restored its system with Wosar and Gillespie’s decryption tool.
Instead, Colonial paid DarkSide $4.4 million in Bitcoin for a key to unlock its files. “I will admit that I wasn’t comfortable seeing money go out the door to people like this,” CEO Joseph Blount told The Wall Street Journal.
The missed opportunity was part of a broader pattern of botched or half-hearted responses to the growing menace of ransomware, which during the pandemic has disabled businesses, schools, hospitals and government agencies across the country. The incident also shows how antivirus companies eager to make a name for themselves sometimes violate one of the cardinal rules of the cat-and-mouse game of cyber-warfare: Don’t let your opponents know what you’ve figured out. During World War II, when the British secret service learned from decrypted communications that the Gestapo was planning to abduct and murder a valuable double agent, Johnny Jebsen, his handler wasn’t allowed to warn him for fear of cluing in the enemy that its cipher had been cracked. Today, ransomware hunters like Wosar and Gillespie try to prolong the attackers’ ignorance, even at the cost of contacting fewer victims. Sooner or later, as payments drop off, the cybercriminals realize that something has gone wrong.
Whether to tout a decryption tool is a “calculated decision,” said Rob McLeod, senior director of the threat response unit for cybersecurity firm eSentire. From the marketing perspective, “You are singing that song from the rooftops about how you have come up with a security solution that will decrypt a victim’s data. And then the security researcher angle says, ‘Don’t disclose any information here. Keep the ransomware bugs that we’ve found that allow us to decode the data secret, so as not to notify the threat actors.’”
In a post on the dark web, DarkSide thanked Bitdefender for identifying a flaw in the gang’s ransomware. (Highlight added by ProPublica.)
Wosar said that publicly releasing tools, as Bitdefender did, has become riskier as ransoms have soared and the gangs have grown wealthier and more technically adept. In the early days of ransomware, when hackers froze home computers for a few hundred dollars, they often couldn’t determine how their code was broken unless the flaw was specifically pointed out to them.
Today, the creators of ransomware “have access to reverse engineers and penetration testers who are very very capable,” he said. “That’s how they gain entrance to these oftentimes highly secured networks in the first place. They download the decryptor, they disassemble it, they reverse engineer it and they figure out exactly why we were able to decrypt their files. And 24 hours later, the whole thing is fixed. Bitdefender should have known better.”
It wasn’t the first time that Bitdefender trumpeted a solution that Wosar or Gillespie had beaten it to. Gillespie had broken the code of a ransomware strain called GoGoogle and was helping victims without any fanfare, when Bitdefender released a decryption tool in May 2020. Other companies have also announced breakthroughs publicly, Wosar and Gillespie said.
“People are desperate for a news mention, and big security companies don’t care about victims,” Wosar said.
Bogdan Botezatu, director of threat research at Bucharest, Romania-based Bitdefender, said the company wasn’t aware of the earlier success in unlocking files infected by DarkSide. Regardless, he said, Bitdefender decided to publish its tool “because most victims who fall for ransomware do not have the right connection with ransomware support groups and won’t know where to ask for help unless they can learn about the existence of tools from media reports or with a simple search.”
Bitdefender has provided free technical support to more than a dozen DarkSide victims, and “we believe many others have successfully used the tool without our intervention,” Botezatu said. Over the years, Bitdefender has helped individuals and businesses avoid paying more than $100 million in ransom, he said.
Bitdefender recognized that DarkSide might correct the flaw, Botezatu said. “We are well aware that attackers are agile and adapt to our decryptors.” But DarkSide might have “spotted the issue” anyway. “We don’t believe in ransomware decryptors made silently available. Attackers will learn about their existence by impersonating home users or companies in need, while the vast majority of victims will have no idea that they can get their data back for free.”
The attack on Colonial Pipeline, and the ensuing chaos at the gas pumps throughout the Southeast, appears to have spurred the federal government to be more vigilant. President Joe Biden issued an executive order to improve cybersecurity and create a blueprint for a federal response to cyberattacks. DarkSide said it was shutting down under U.S. pressure, although ransomware crews have often disbanded to avoid scrutiny and then re-formed under new names, or their members have launched or joined other groups.
“As sophisticated as they are, these guys will pop up again, and they’ll be that much smarter,” said Aaron Tantleff, a Chicago cybersecurity attorney who has consulted with 10 companies attacked by DarkSide. “They’ll come back with a vengeance.”
At least until now, private researchers and companies have often been more effective than the government in fighting ransomware. Last October, Microsoft disrupted the infrastructure of Trickbot, a network of more than 1 million infected computers that disseminated the notorious Ryuk strain of ransomware, by disabling its servers and communications. That month, ProtonMail, the Swiss-based email service, shut down 20,000 Ryuk-related accounts.
Wosar and Gillespie, who belong to a worldwide volunteer group called the Ransomware Hunting Team, have cracked more than 300 major ransomware strains and variants, saving an estimated 4 million victims from paying billions of dollars.
By contrast, the FBI rarely decrypts ransomware or arrests the attackers, who are typically based in countries like Russia or Iran that lack extradition agreements with the U.S. DarkSide, for instance, is believed to operate out of Russia. Far more victims seek help from the Hunting Team, through websites maintained by its members, than from the FBI.
The U.S. Secret Service also investigates ransomware, which falls under its purview of combating financial crimes. But, especially in election years, it sometimes rotates agents off cyber assignments to carry out its better-known mission of protecting presidents, vice presidents, major party candidates and their families. European law enforcement, especially the Dutch National Police, has been more successful than the U.S. in arresting attackers and seizing servers.
Similarly, the U.S. government has made only modest headway in pushing private industry, including pipeline companies, to strengthen cybersecurity defenses. Cybersecurity oversight is divided among an alphabet soup of agencies, hampering coordination. The Department of Homeland Security conducts “vulnerability assessments” for critical infrastructure, which includes pipelines.
It reviewed Colonial Pipeline in around 2013 as part of a study of places where a cyberattack might cause a catastrophe. The pipeline was deemed resilient, meaning that it could recover quickly, according to a former DHS official. The department did not respond to questions about any subsequent reviews.
Five years later, DHS created a pipeline cybersecurity initiative to identify weaknesses in pipeline computer systems and recommend strategies to address them. Participation is voluntary, and a person familiar with the initiative said that it is more useful for smaller companies with limited in-house IT expertise than for big ones like Colonial. The National Risk Management Center, which oversees the initiative, also grapples with other thorny issues such as election security.
Ransomware has skyrocketed since 2012, when the advent of Bitcoin made it hard to track or block payments. The criminals’ tactics have evolved from indiscriminate “spray and pray” campaigns seeking a few hundred dollars apiece to targeting specific businesses, government agencies and nonprofit groups with multimillion-dollar demands.
Attacks on energy businesses in particular have increased during the pandemic — not just in the U.S. but in Canada, Latin America and Europe. As the companies allowed employees to work from home, they relaxed some security controls, McLeod said.
Since 2019, numerous gangs have ratcheted up pressure with a technique known as “double extortion.” Upon entering a system, they steal sensitive data before launching ransomware that encodes the files and makes it impossible for hospitals, universities and cities to do their daily work. If the loss of computer access is not sufficiently intimidating, they threaten to reveal confidential information, often posting samples as leverage. For instance, when the Washington, D.C., police department didn’t pay the $4 million ransom demanded by a gang called Babuk last month, Babuk published intelligence briefings, names of criminal suspects and witnesses, and personnel files, from medical information to polygraph test results, of officers and job candidates.
DarkSide, which emerged last August, epitomized this new breed. It chose targets based on a careful financial analysis or information gleaned from corporate emails. For instance, it attacked one of Tantleff’s clients during a week when the hackers knew the company would be vulnerable because it was transitioning its files to the cloud and didn’t have clean backups.
To infiltrate target networks, the gang used advanced methods such as “zero-day exploits” that immediately take advantage of software vulnerabilities before they can be patched. Once inside, it moved swiftly, looking not only for sensitive data but also for the victim’s cyber insurance policy, so it could peg its demands to the amount of coverage. After two to three days of poking around, DarkSide encrypted the files.
“They have a faster attack window,” said Christopher Ballod, associate managing director for cyber risk at Kroll, the business investigations firm, who has advised half a dozen DarkSide victims. “The longer you dwell in the system, the more likely you are to be caught.”
Typically, DarkSide’s demands were “on the high end of the scale,” $5 million and up, Ballod said. One scary tactic: If publicly traded companies didn’t pay the ransom, DarkSide threatened to share information stolen from them with short-sellers who would profit if the share price dropped upon publication.
DarkSide’s site on the dark web identified dozens of victims and described the confidential data it claimed to have filched from them. One was New Orleans law firm Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann. “A big annoyance is what it was,” attorney Phil Wittmann said, referring to the DarkSide attack in February. “We paid them nothing,” said Michael Walshe Jr., chair of the firm’s management committee, declining to comment further.
Last November, DarkSide adopted what is known as a “ransomware-as-a-service” model. Under this model, it partnered with affiliates who launched the attacks. The affiliates received 75% to 90% of the ransom, with DarkSide keeping the remainder. As this partnership suggests, the ransomware ecosystem is a distorted mirror of corporate culture, with everything from job interviews to procedures for handling disputes. After DarkSide shut down, several people who identified themselves as its affiliates complained on a dispute resolution forum that it had stiffed them. “The target paid, but I did not receive my share,” one wrote.
Together, DarkSide and its affiliates reportedly grossed at least $90 million. Seven of Tantleff’s clients, including two companies in the energy industry, paid ransoms ranging from $1.25 million to $6 million, reflecting negotiated discounts from initial demands of $7.5 million to $30 million. His other three clients hit by DarkSide did not pay. In one of those cases, the hackers demanded $50 million. Negotiations grew acrimonious, and the two sides couldn’t agree on a price.
DarkSide’s representatives were shrewd bargainers, Tantleff said. If a victim said it couldn’t afford the ransom because of the pandemic, DarkSide was ready with data showing that the company’s revenue was up, or that COVID-19’s impact was factored into the price.
DarkSide’s grasp of geopolitics was less advanced than its approach to ransomware. Around the same time that it adopted the affiliate model, it posted that it was planning to safeguard information stolen from victims by storing it in servers in Iran. DarkSide apparently didn’t realize that an Iranian connection would complicate its collection of ransoms from victims in the U.S., which has economic sanctions restricting financial transactions with Iran. Although DarkSide later walked back this statement, saying that it had only considered Iran as a possible location, numerous cyber insurers had concerns about covering payments to the group. Coveware, a Connecticut firm that negotiates with attackers on behalf of victims, stopped dealing with DarkSide.
Ballod said that, with their insurers unwilling to reimburse the ransom, none of his clients paid DarkSide, despite concerns about exposure of their data. Even if they had caved in to DarkSide, and received assurances from the hackers in return that the data would be shredded, the information might still leak, he said.
During DarkSide’s changeover to the affiliate model, a flaw was introduced into its ransomware. The vulnerability caught the attention of members of the Ransomware Hunting Team. Established in 2016, the invitation-only team consists of about a dozen volunteers in the U.S., Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary and the U.K. They work in cybersecurity or related fields. In their spare time, they collaborate in finding and decrypting new ransomware strains.
Several members, including Wosar, have little formal education but an aptitude for coding. A high school dropout, Wosar grew up in a working-class family near the German port city of Rostock. In 1992, at the age of 8, he saw a computer for the first time and was entranced. By 16, he was developing his own antivirus software and making money from it. Now 37, he has worked for antivirus firm Emsisoft since its inception almost two decades ago and is its chief technology officer. He moved to the U.K. from Germany in 2018 and lives near London.
He has been battling ransomware hackers since 2012, when he cracked a strain called ACCDFISA, which stood for “Anti Cyber Crime Department of Federal Internet Security Agency.” This fictional agency was notifying people that child pornography had infected their computers, and so it was blocking access to their files unless they paid $100 to remove the virus.
The ACCDFISA hacker eventually noticed that the strain had been decrypted and released a revised version. Many of Wosar’s subsequent triumphs were also fleeting. He and his teammates tried to keep criminals blissfully unaware for as long as possible that their strain was vulnerable. They left cryptic messages on forums inviting victims to contact them for assistance or sent direct messages to people who posted that they had been attacked.
In the course of protecting against computer intrusions, analysts at antivirus firms sometimes detected ransomware flaws and built decryption tools, though it wasn’t their main focus. Sometimes they collided with Wosar.
In 2014, Wosar discovered that a ransomware strain called CryptoDefense copied and pasted from Microsoft Windows some of the code it used to lock and unlock files, not realizing that the same code was preserved in a folder on the victim’s own computer. It was missing the signal, or “flag,” in their program, usually included by ransomware creators to instruct Windows not to save a copy of the key.
Wosar quickly developed a decryption tool to retrieve the key. “We faced an interesting conundrum,” Sarah White, another Hunting Team member, wrote on Emsisoft’s blog. “How to get our tool out to the most victims possible without alerting the malware developer of his mistake?”
Wosar discreetly sought out CryptoDefense victims through support forums, volunteer networks and announcements of where to contact for help. He avoided describing how the tool worked or the blunder it exploited. When victims came forward, he supplied the fix, scrubbing the ransomware from at least 350 computers. CryptoDefense eventually “caught on to us ... but he still did not have access to the decrypter we used and had no idea how we were unlocking his victims’ files,” White wrote.
But then an antivirus company, Symantec, uncovered the same problem and bragged about the discovery on a blog post that “contained enough information to help the CryptoDefense developer find and correct the flaw,” White wrote. Within 24 hours the attackers began spreading a revised version. They changed its name to CryptoWall and made $325 million.
Symantec “chose quick publicity over helping CryptoDefense victims recover their files,” White wrote. “Sometimes there are things that are better left unsaid.”
A spokeswoman for Broadcom, which acquired Symantec’s enterprise security business in 2019, declined to comment, saying that “the team members who worked on the tool are no longer with the company.”
Like Wosar, the 29-year-old Gillespie comes from poverty and never went to college. When he was growing up in central Illinois, his family struggled so much financially that they sometimes had to move in with friends or relatives. After high school, he worked full time for 10 years at a computer repair chain called Nerds on Call. Last year, he became a malware and cybersecurity researcher at Coveware.
Last December, he messaged Wosar for help. Gillespie had been working with a DarkSide victim who had paid a ransom and received a tool to recover the data. But DarkSide’s decryptor had a reputation for being slow, and the victim hoped that Gillespie could speed up the process.
Gillespie analyzed the software, which contained a key to release the files. He wanted to extract the key, but because it was stored in an unusually complex way, he couldn’t. He turned to Wosar, who was able to isolate it.
The teammates then began testing the key on other files infected by DarkSide. Gillespie checked files uploaded by victims to the website he operates, ID Ransomware, while Wosar used VirusTotal, an online database of suspected malware.
That night, they shared a discovery.
“I have confirmation DarkSide is re-using their RSA keys,” Gillespie wrote to the Hunting Team on its Slack channel. A type of cryptography, RSA generates two keys: a public key to encode data and a private key to decipher it. RSA is used legitimately to safeguard many aspects of e-commerce, such as protecting credit numbers. But it’s also been co-opted by ransomware hackers.
“I noticed the same as I was able to decrypt newly encrypted files using their decrypter,” Wosar replied less than an hour later, at 2:45 a.m. London time.
Their analysis showed that, before adopting the affiliate model, DarkSide had used a different public and private key for each victim. Wosar suspected that, during this transition, DarkSide introduced a mistake into its affiliate portal used to generate the ransomware for each target. Wosar and Gillespie could now use the key that Wosar had extracted to retrieve files from Windows machines seized by DarkSide. The cryptographic blunder didn’t affect Linux operating systems.
“We were scratching our heads,” Wosar said. “Could they really have fucked up this badly? DarkSide was one of the more professional ransomware-as-a-service schemes out there. For them to make such a huge mistake is very, very rare.”
The Hunting Team celebrated quietly, without seeking publicity. White, who is a computer science student at Royal Holloway, part of the University of London, began looking for DarkSide victims. She contacted firms that handle digital forensics and incident response.
“We told them, ‘Hey listen, if you have any DarkSide victims, tell them to reach out to us, we can help them. We can recover their files and they don’t have to pay a huge ransom,’” Wosar said.
The DarkSide hackers mostly took the Christmas season off. Gillespie and Wosar expected that, when the attacks resumed in the new year, their discovery would help dozens of victims. But then Bitdefender published its post, under the headline “Darkside Ransomware Decryption Tool.”
In a messaging channel with the ransomware response community, someone asked why Bitdefender would tip off the hackers. “Publicity,” White responded. “Looks good. I can guarantee they’ll fix it much faster now though.”
She was right. The next day, DarkSide acknowledged the error that Wosar and Gillespie had found before Bitdefender. “Due to the problem with key generation, some companies have the same keys,” the hackers wrote, adding that up to 40% of keys were affected.
DarkSide mocked Bitdefender for releasing the decryptor at “the wrong time…., as the activity of us and our partners during the New Year holidays is the lowest.”
Adding to the team’s frustrations, Wosar discovered that the Bitdefender tool had its own drawbacks. Using the company’s decryptor, he tried to unlock samples infected by DarkSide and found that they were damaged in the process. “They actually implemented the decryption wrong,” Wosar said. “That means if victims did use the Bitdefender tool, there’s a good chance that they damaged the data.”
Asked about Wosar’s criticism, Botezatu said that data recovery is difficult, and that Bitdefender has “taken all precautions to make sure that we’re not compromising user data” including exhaustive testing and “code that evaluates whether the resulting decrypted file is valid.”
Even without Bitdefender, DarkSide might have soon realized its mistake anyway, Wosar and Gillespie said. For example, as they sifted through compromised networks, the hackers might have come across emails in which victims helped by the Hunting Team discussed the flaw.
“They might figure it out that way — that is always a possibility,” Wosar said. “But it’s especially painful if a vulnerability is being burned through something stupid like this.”
The incident led the Hunting Team to coin a term for the premature exposure of a weakness in a ransomware strain. “Internally, we often joke, ‘Yeah, they are probably going to pull a Bitdefender,’” Wosar said.
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mobilemechanicsabq · 4 years ago
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Best Mobile Car Repair Service and Cost in Albuquerque NM | Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque
More information is at:
http://mobilemechanicalbuquerque.org/mobile-car-repair-near-me/
Are you looking for Mobile Car Repair service near Albuquerque NM? Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque,We are able to provide an incredibly wide variety of services from reparative to emergencies at any location. Cost? Free estimates! Send us a message or call us today. BestMobile Car Repair Service around Albuquerque NM. We serve Albuquerque NMand other areas. Get a Free Quote Now!
 MOBILE CAR REPAIR SERVICE IN ALBUQUERQUE NM
ALBUQUERQUEMOBILE CAR REPAIR
 Top Mobile Car Repair in Albuquerque NM
Mobile Car Repair service near Albuquerque NM: Car owners struggling with a broken down vehicle in Albuquerque NMor the surrounding counties can now receive the most convenient auto repair services from Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque's highly trained mobile mechanics. We bring the shop to you so you can save time, money, and even stress! To book your appointment with one of our mobile mechanics, you will need to get in contact with us so we can ask you a couple questions about your vehicle. Once we have all the information we need, we will give your our affordable auto repair quote with absolutely no hidden fees! We are able to provide an incredibly wide variety of services from reparative to emergencies at any location. So don't miss out on your just because your car isn't running correctly, give Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque a call and you'll be back on the road before you know it.
 Why Choose a Mobile Mechanic
Mobile Car Repair service near Albuquerque NM: Mobile mechanics are successfully transforming the auto repair industry from something that once was a huge inconvenience to something that is as easy as ordering a pizza for delivery. Not only will we save you unnecessary stress, but we will also save you time and money. Since we bring our services to a location of your choosing, you won't have to deal with a tow truck or pay those avoidable expenses. Also, while our mobile mechanic is servicing your vehicle, you will have the freedom to do whatever you want with your time. You are more than welcome to watch our mechanic and ask all of your burning auto repair questions, but we also understand that people have busy lives. That's why you will also have the option of leaving and spending your time elsewhere. If you choose to leave during your appointment, you can be confident that our mechanic will be able to efficiently resolve any issue that occurs because, at Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque, we carefully select each mechanic in our team through our intensive hiring process. That process includes multiple background checks so we can ensure that our customers will be receiving the highest quality service possible. Book your appointment with us today!
How to Schedule an Appointment with Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque
To schedule your appointment, you will need to get in contact with us. You can either call us or fill out the short form on our website. When you do that, we will ask you to give us the year, make, and model of your vehicle as well as describe the problems you are experiencing. If you don't know what's wrong with your vehicle, no problem! We also offer diagnostic services where our mechanic would come out and take a quick look at your vehicle. Once they find the issue, they will figure out the best way to fix it! After we know what kind of car you have and what the problem is, we will calculate your auto repair quote. We will stand by our quote so the quote we give you will be completely accurate! Then you will be able to choose a good date and location for your appointment and our mechanic will meet you there on-time and fully prepared. Our convenient auto repair services are only one call away, so book your appointment today!
What to Expect From a Service Appointment
The service appointment will be super simple for you because the only thing we ask is that you make sure you are available during the start of the service so you can give our mobile mechanic the keys to your car. After that, you will be able to stay or go, whatever you prefer! All of our mobile mechanics have plenty of experience in the auto repair industry so you can rest assured that your vehicle will be in very good hands. If you do wish to spend your time elsewhere, we will be sure to send you a quick text when our service has been completed. Then our mechanic will clean up the area and you will be able to take your vehicle out for a cruise once again!
​Our Services
Our experience will keep your vehicle in top condition. We use the latest diagnostic technology to provide high-quality service and quick turnaround. We are highly skilled and have several years of experience working on foreign & domestic vehicles.
Foreign & Domestic Repairs
●      Complete Computer Diagnostics
●      ABS, Traction, SRS, ESP, Etc.
●      Starting and Charging Systems
●      Drivability Problems
●      Tune-ups
●      Oil Changes & Scheduled Services
●      Brake system repair, brake pads/rotors calipers, lines, shoes, ABS sensors
●      Mercedes Benz systems (90-2010)
●      Steering and Suspension
●      Drive belt, tensioners, pulleys
●      Fuel System Services, pumps, injectors, filters & cleaning
●      Coolant System leaks and repair
●      CV Axle & Hub bearing service
●      Air Conditioning Service
●      Electrical Systems
●      Fleet Maintenance E150 - E350 vans
 Mobile Car Repair Service – The Pros and Cons
Mobile Car Repair service near Albuquerque NM: Not too long ago, I was testing a car down Berger Road when I saw a man working under a school bus! He was changing the oil on the street! This got me thinking about mobile vehicle services. Some mobile automotive services are already common, such as mobile detailing and mobile windshield and glass repair; but what about mobile mechanics?
Mobile mechanics have increased in popularity over the last 8-10 years. This trend has likely been influenced by economic necessity stemming from the recession as well as the shift towards customer convenience.
A few companies in Albuquerque NM and throughout offer mobile mechanics. It’s easy to see what attracts people to this service, but how do the pros weigh against the cons?
Let’s take a look.
PROS
1. Price: Mobile mechanics do not have the added overhead of a facility and associated equipment. The resulting lower costs can save customers 20-30%.
2. Convenience: Mobile mechanics come to you at home or at work. This eliminates the need to take time from work, school, or other responsibilities in order to service your car, and can save you a significant amount of money.
3. It makes sense: This mobile option is ideal for certain preventive maintenance jobs that don’t take too long.
CONS
1. Limited access to the larger equipment needed to service vehicles:
Lifts: Mobile mechanics may not have access to the lifts that allow for inspection of a car’s underside.  This step is very important, so ask if they have a professional quality lift rather than a jack and stands as with the mobile mechanic featured in the photo below. A jack and stands  can be dangerous on uneven surfaces especially on the side of a road.
2. Fewer resources: There is no one around to provide help if the mechanic needs a second hand or a second opinion. (Though with smartphones this is not such an issue now.)
3. Lack of more complex tools: Some factory equivalent scan tools cost so much they are out of reach for mobile mechanics.
4. Limitations based on job size: Larger jobs- those that require removing the interior of a car, for example- would be impossible to do in a driveway.
5. Limitations due to weather: Limitations in emergency situations.
6. In general, mobile mechanics are a good option for consumers who are looking for convenient and affordable car servicing rather than repairs.
When searching for a mobile mechanic, remember to:
●      Check for certifications like ASE.
●      Read reviews on Google, Angie’s List, and Consumer Report.
●      Ask for references.
●      Confirm that the parts and labor have a warranty.
 TIPS
Create a full-service online auto repair shop for your loyal customers
Mobile Car Repair service near Albuquerque NM: There are hardly any apps that provide all-in-one vehicle servicing. Apps like Filld, Yoshi, Spiffy, Washe are refueling and car wash apps. The genre for fully-fledged mobile mechanics service is yet to be explored. With an app like Uber for car repair, you can offer everything from oil changes to tune-ups to brake jobs and no-starts.
Being an owner of a car repair business, your app for mobile mechanics should provide your user with a fixed quote, depending on their maintenance & service, with special requirements. With app development, you as a repair agent can easily streamline the job process, and can also allow other agents to take on the work.
Professional platform in the form of app for automotive technicians
There are many car repair experts and garage owners who are looking for new customers, so an online platform is the best solution to earn some extra income. With a mobile app for car repair service can be a platform that can bridge the gap between the customers and mechanics who need jobs to do.
Provide seamless feature integration for a successful user experience
The first thing that you should consider after deciding a car repair app idea is its features. To improve user experience for better mobile design, features play a major role. Consider features which are easy to understand and are user intuitive
 COST
How Much Is the Average Mobile Car Repair
Mobile Car Repair service near Albuquerque NM: They say if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it. That means tens of millions of Americans must be asking that question every year. According to a just-released study by travel-services giant AAA, the average auto repair bill comes to between $500 and $600 and 1 in 3 motorists can’t pay it without incurring debt.
Moreover, car owners are procrastinating on routine maintenance activities, which could lead to problems down the line that send repair costs even higher. A separate AAA study found that a third of U.S. drivers defer or neglect recommended service and repairs. Not only does this threaten to ratchet up repair costs later on, it also puts people at increased risk of a vehicle breakdown.
While it may seem that skipping maintenance and repairs can save money in the short term, staying on top of car care can save drivers hundreds of dollars in the long run, said John Nielsen, AAA’s managing director of Automotive Engineering and Repair.
The average cost of owning and operating a vehicle, AAA said, is about $8,500 and includes monthly payments, insurance and gas. But the cost, for example, of a new timing belt on average is between $400 and $900, an alternator or starter replacement is $400 to $600, and brakes are around $500.
Here’s what AAA recommends to keep your car and your bank account in good health:
●      Set aside $50 a month for emergency auto repairs.
●      Follow the automaker’s recommended maintenance schedule, which can be found in your owner’s manual or often online.
●      Get cozy with a mechanic you trust before you find yourself in need of one.
●      Get a written estimate for unanticipated repairs and confirm which repairs need to be done with the mechanic.
●      Get a second opinion if you can.
●      Take advantage of shop discounts or payment plans that help reduce out-of-pocket expenses, and see if there’s room to negotiate those costs.
How much should a mobile mechanic charge?
The mobile mechanic I use typically charges $70 an hour. Simple repairs can be done at my house but he usually takes it to his workshop where it can be hoisted etc. when it is serviced, pretty handy.
What do mobile mechanics do?
Mobile Car Repair service near Albuquerque NM: Both mobile mechanic services do dozens of maintenance and repair jobs, such as oil changes, batteries, timing belt replacement, brakes and air conditioning repairs, but they don't do internal engine or transmission repair or other jobs that require specialized eq
Most independent repair shops charge between $70-$90 per hour and most dealerships charge between $80-$125 per hour. If you find a good repair shop that you can trust to do great work and give you excellent service, then be happy to pay them their rate and take your cars to them whenever you need them serviced.
what is the average hourly rate for auto repair? Average hourly rate is $80 to $100 an hour. The going average hourly rate for a mechanic ranges from $80 to $100 an hour. After analyzing a bill that could also include expensive parts, many auto repair shop customers are left scratching their heads and wondering if they are being ripped off.
 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Will I know how much the car service or car repair will end up or will I get a big surprise?
After an initial inspection the mechanic will show you a written estimate of work required and associated costs - you are always in control of the cost and will not get a nasty surprise. If the job looks like it will go over our original estimate we will contact you first before proceeding, that's all part of our no surprise guarantee.
 How does your pricing work?
We have fixed price servicing and for any additional work we make a point of providing written estimates before work commences on your vehicle. If you know what is wrong with your car, we can give you an estimate over the phone - or you can contact us to see just how good our prices are.
This depends upon what you need. We always strive to give you a fixed price up front and let you be in control of costs. If you are unsure what is wrong, and need a mechanic to check, we have a Repair Call Out of  $80.50 (including GST) which includes 30 minutes of labor. After this, we then charge a reasonable hourly rate in 15 Minute increments. You won't pay any more unless you agree to our price estimate. (The Repair Call Out Fee doesn't apply to services or repairs with a service.)
 Do I have to pay on the day of the job?
Yes. Payment needs to be made at the completion of the job. We accept EFTPOS and all major Credit Cards, except for American Express.
 What is the warranty on your work?
Our services and repairs are fully guaranteed and covered by our 12 month / 20,000km warranty on all parts and workmanship, not just a patch up to get you going.
 Can Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque do all routine car maintenance repairs?
Yes we can and have the back up of our own central workshop for major repairs.
 Can Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque do all car repairs?
Yes ? we have fully equipped mobile workshops and only employ fully qualified and highly trained technicians who are equipped and ready to perform almost any car repair & car servicing on site.
 Are your mechanics all qualified?
Yes all our technicians are Trade Qualified to Albuquerque NM standards and have been in the trade for more than six years.
 Are your workers contractors?
All our technicians are employees, not contractors.They operate company vans to meet and provide the high customer standards of Mobile Mechanics of Albuquerque.
 Do you need to be a member?
No - we're not an automotive club. We're mobile mechanics. All you pay for is the work we do on your car.
 How soon can a technician come to me?
We endeavor to offer a same day or next business day service. The earlier you call or email, the better!
 CALL FOR US:
●      Mobile Car Repair Service Near Albuquerque NM
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 BEST MOBILE CAR REPAIR  SERVICE IN ALBUQUERQUE NM
MOBILE MECHANICS OF ALBUQUERQUE
REQUEST MORE INFORMATION. CONTACT US NOW!
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contentwriterposts · 4 years ago
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10 EASY Tips to Lose BELLY FAT With Fasting
Intermittent Fasting is a great tool to tap into fat burning and achieve a weight loss goal. But you have to be doing it the right way. Today I'm sharing 10 super easy tips on how you can lose belly fat with intermittent fasting. With these tips, you can lose belly fat with fasting.
Tip number 1
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The first tip is to set a good eating window to lose belly fat with fasting. But you have to keep in mind that it's not too late in the evening. Now, if you work night shifts, then you don't have control over this.
You mustn't be eating too late in the evening. Because most people tend to be a little bit more insulin resistant in the evening. Your body will need to pump out more insulin in response to your food. So if you're looking to lose belly fat with intermittent fasting, you have to set your eating window a little bit earlier in the day.
But it doesn't mean that you have to stop eating by lunchtime. You have to eat one to two hours before you're going to bed for when your eating window will stop. So for myself, my eating window tends to be around 10 to six or 11 to seven somewhere in that range.
Tip number 2
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You have to set at least one hour of fasting before you go to bed. When you sleep your digestion will be slowing down. So if you're eating right before bed, your food is going to kind of sit there. If you look to get bloated then this is a big problem.
Because it allows more time for bacteria to ferment. It will also cause you to feel more bloated the next morning too. So when setting your schedule, make sure it's not too late in the evening. You have to keep in mind that you're lying for at least an hour before bed for digestion. If you can get two hours, It will be great. If you can't get any fasting before bed, it's a good idea to go for a 10 or 15-minute walk right after your meal. That will help to stimulate digestion and help you to lose belly fat with fasting.
Tip number 3
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If you want to lose belly fat, you have to set your aim for about 12 to 18 hours of fasting. Some people like the 20 or 22 hours of fasting with one meal a day approach. But I found it's difficult to get enough protein in a body like this and the weight loss goals that you're looking for.
I found that a 2 or 3 meal structure works best to lose the belly fat. Thus you can split up the protein between those 2 to 3 meals and get enough of your body's needs to achieve your weight loss goals. And if you're having 12 or 18 hours fast this allows for time for those two to three meals.
Tip number 4
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To lose belly fat with fasting you need about seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Sleep is one of the biggest missing components when it comes to achieving a weight loss goal. Especially if reducing belly fat is something that you're concerned with.
Because Poor Sleep is responsible to increase stress hormone levels. The next day It will also increase the hunger hormone. So creating your intermittent fasting schedule, sound sleep should be your first priority.
Make sure that you allow your schedule to have 7-8 hours of sleep per night. If you can get a deep restful sleep, it will prevent those big spikes in cortisol and hunger hormones the next day.
Tip number 5
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Don't drink alcohol while fasting, if you want to lose belly fat. I know it's a liquid. So it seems like you should be able to have it. But it will not only break your fast but also mess with your sleep too.
We've seen that sleep is king or queen for achieving a weight loss goal. So if you are going to have alcohol, you have to make sure it is during your eating window. But you have to keep in mind that it should not be too close to the bed.
Tip number 6
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Don't drink energy drinks while you want to lose belly fat. A lot of people think that you can have it because it's a drink or a liquid. But it will break your fast because it is loaded with sugar.
Sugar-sweetened drinks are also one of the leading causes of obesity in people. And it's because it causes such a huge spike in our storing hormone insulin. So if you do need a little boost of caffeine and you want it during your fasted period, you can take unsweetened tea, or coffee, or keto tea, or keto coffee. Which are a great recipe that you can take to lose belly fat with fasting.
Tip number 7
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Eat enough. A lot of people don't eat enough during their eating window while they are trying to achieve a weight loss goal with intermittent fasting. It's a huge mistake for them.
Eating not enough can trigger the brain into thinking that there's not enough food available in the environment. This can lead to those same issues in calorie restriction. You must get protein, fat, and fiber at your meal. Protein and fat are key for turning on the satiety hormones. It will tell your body that you have the energy you need. Fiber also acts on the stretch mechanism in your stomach to tell your brain that you're full and satisfied.
Tip number 8
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You can take apple cider vinegar to lose belly fat with fasting. It's a great tool to help stabilize blood glucose levels when you go from a fasted to a Fed state.
Because when there are those big spikes in balls in blood glucose, you also get a big spike in the storing hormone insulin. So apple cider vinegar has been found to help reduce those fluctuations or help balance out those variations.
You have to aim for about one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar that's diluted in roughly eight ounces of water. It will help you to lose belly fat.
Tip number 9
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Walk during your fasted state. If you can go outside for a walk, it will help to expose your body to something called negative ions. It will help to decrease the stress hormone cortisol. Higher amounts of cortisol are tied to increase waking around the belly.
So, I like to aim for anywhere between 8000-10000 steps a day, but it's hard to overdo walking. So if you can get out walking as much as possible, the more usually the better. Unless you have an injury, then obviously be cautious with that.
Tip number 10
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Limit caffeine to lose belly fat with fasting. Later than 2 pm, caffeine can disturb your sleep. It can take many hours for your body to get it out of your system.
So you have to make sure that you get that deep, high-quality sleep. So that you can prevent hunger the next day. It's really important to make sure that you aren't having caffeine after 2 pm. I am a little bit more sensitive to caffeine. So, it's not going to disrupt my sleep, which is crucial to achieving a long-lasting weight loss goal.
Most importantly you have to set your mindset first that you want to lose belly fat with fasting.
You can check this also to make things easy for you.
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