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The sooner you realize this sad but true fact, the sooner you can get on with finding Mr. Prince Among Men or Mr. Close-Enough-To-Right, or at least, Mr. Not Wrong All The Time.

Prince Charming, riding on a white stallion, lost his way or found his princess and got married long before he ever found his way to your castle. And think of Charming in Shrek. Could you stand to be with HIM for the rest of your life? Geez, I’d rather have Donkey!

Get over it the girlish fantasies, and get on with it. You are going to have to actively seek the man of your dreams, and you won’t find him scaling the walls of your ivory tower.

You’ve already pretty much come to the conclusion that he isn’t among the men that you’re already acquainted with, so now what should you do?

WHY NOT TRY ONLINE DATING?

Online dating has become the main tool of the single person in every developed country in the world for finding people worth getting to know. Forty million people and counting can’t all be wrong.

Ask your girl friends if they have ever used online dating or are using it now. If they’re honest with you, most of them have been, or are now members of at least one online dating site, maybe more than one. Some of them may have even been fortunate enough to meet some really nice guys, for dating, or even for friendship. After all, a girl can never have too many good solid guy friends, if only to learn how the other half of the species thinks. Especially if you’ve never been blessed (or cursed!) with brothers.

Online dating is one of the easiest ways you’ll ever find to locate the kind of eligible men who really do want to meet a girl like you. Or similar to you. And vice versa. Your profile gets matched to theirs, and the personal information they put down is matched to your preferences. So you are pretty much pre-screened from the word go, which can save a lot of time, effort, small talk, and beer money.

Online dating is the great equalizer too. It doesn’t matter what any of your numbers are like, for example, age, height, weight or income. You don’t have to be a perfect 10, and neither do they. The main thing is that your likes, dislikes and values are being filtered from the moment you join, and these, along with communication, are seen to be the ‘deal makers or deal breakers’ in any relationship. Compatability and then chemistry are prioritized–not the other way around!

To read more, visit: There is No Prince Charming or Mr. Right, Part 2.

We have a new series on Puppies for all you dog lovers our there at http://www.pet-goddess.com

Before you consider investing in any type of market, you should really take a long, hard, realistic look at your current financial situation.

Investing in the future is a good thing, but clearing up bad–or potentially bad–situations first is actually far more important.

Pull your credit report.
You should do this once each year. It is important to know what is on your report, and to clear up any negative items on your credit report as soon as possible.

If you’ve set aside $25,000 to invest (you wish!), but you have $25,000 worth of bad credit, you are better off cleaning up the credit first!

YOUR BUDGET

Budget? Huh? What’s that, you ask?
Well, if you haven’t already got one, GET ONE.
Write done all your essential monthly expenses: rent, electic, phone, car payment, gas, transportation, and so on.
Look at what you are paying out each month realistically, and get rid of expenses that are not necessary.

If you are not sure where all your money is going, try writing down everything you spend in a week, cash AND credit/debit cards.

There is nothing worse than impulse spending when you are trying to plan for your future. In the America’s Debt Diet program, at:
http://www.oprah.com/money/debtdiet/money_debtdiet_main.jhtml
talks about the “Latte Factor”: how much are you spending every day on things that you could easily sacrifice for the sake of your financial future, and that of your family?

Take the Latte Factor quiz; it is amazing how a whole bunch of ‘little things’ can really add up to one big chunk of cash, which you can use to either pay off debt, or invest.

THE DEBT DIET: STARVED FOR CASH?
How much of your money every month is going on the interest and financing on car loan payments, credit card payments, department store cards, and so on.

If you buy $100 of items, how much are you REALLY paying for them on a store card? Some credit cards have interests rates as high as 50%!

Do you even know your interest rates? Take the time to study your statements?

If not, you need to do it now. You’re going to be in for some surprises.

Do you always pay only the minimums? Is that all you can afford?

Or do you think that you’ll get away with that and invest the money in order to be able to get rich quick?

WRONG.

Take care of the credit card debt FIRST.
This article is continued in Stabilize Your Current Financial Situation First Before You Invest Part 2.

The Great Girl’s Guide to Online Dating Part 4

So, after reading the first three parts of this article, are you getting more eager for online dating? Here’s a brief thumbnail guide for you so you can dip a toe in the water safely and easily.

HOW TO GET STARTED
Write a profile that grabs attention, to show what a great girl you are.
Remember, guys are very visual, so you’ll need to post recent pictures of yourself. If you’re at all self conscious about your figure, go for the head shots. Make sure that you don’t post any group photos either. It may tell people who you are, and what you care about, but like I said, guys are very visual, and you want them to focus on YOU.
When you do put up your profile, try to be fun and interesting and uniquely memorable, without seeming like a nut job.
While communicating with the men you meet on line, try not to be too quirky, personal, or rude. We recommend setting up a special email account from one of the free services like yahoo or hotmail so nothing personal can be gleaned about you from,say, your work email address (pretty much a bad idea to ever use your business email for personal stuff anyway).
Online courtesy means answering your emails promptly. If you’re going to be out of town, or away from a computer for any length of time, there should a vacation setting that will put your matches on hold.
Try to be open-minded about what you see in terms of photos, and what they write. Sure, you might wish for a man with the writing eloquence of an Ernest Hemingway, but just remember he was gay and preferred the company of grizzly bears to people.
Keep all your communications light and friendly. Never convey anything online that you wouldn’t be happy for everyone in the world to know.
If the man or men you are communicating with express an interest in talking on the phone, decide for yourself, but don’t stay on for too long–save something for the next time.
If you do take it all the way to the level of actually meeting in real life, make sure you take all the correct safety precautions. We suggest starting out with coffee, a lunch, rather than a dinner date. Whatever plans you have, no game playing–common courtesy means being on time for a pre-arranged meeting. You should know what each other looks like from the online photos, but it’s good to confirm on the day and say something about what you think you’ll be wearing.
Don’t just not turn up. It is extremely rude and hurtful-they are probably just as nervous as you are, if not more so. If you get there, and the person turns out to be someone you really don’t want to see again, that’s fine too. Be honest without being hurtful. The whole point of dating is to explore your options, not jump in with both feet no matter what warning signs you might have cautioning you that this guy is not the one.
Finally, is there really such a thing as ‘the one’? Well, we don’t just have ONE friend, do we? So be open to the possibility that there are a lot of great guys out there that you could have a really nice time dating and getting to know, without adding the stress of some sort of standard of imaginary perfection to live up to.
Above all, when you are online dating, be yourself, the great girl you are, and your great guy should be just a click away.

4 parts, 1665 words

Investing Basics: What Are Your Investment Goals? Part 3

Where can you find money to invest? It will be what you manage to save left over once you have got out of debt and curbed any bad spending habits you might have identified in part 2 of this article. So what next?
YOUR BUDGET, AND BEYOND

If after you have worked out your budget and your strategy for getting out of debt, you feel you have money to not only save, but invest, then you can start learning more about the various options open to you.

If your investment goal is to get money quickly, you should focus your attention on high-yield, short term investing as you possibly can before you invest. Consider Treasury bills, for example, which guarantee a yield and can be taken out in a variety of sums, for relatively small increments.

Consider also any broker’s fees, transaction fees, and any penalties for early withdrawal, for example, from a CD.

With stocks and shares, you need to consider the volatility of the market, and again, all those hidden or not so hidden fees involved. Trading in FOREX, or foreign exchange, has become very popular recently because there are far fewer trading options between foreign currencies like the American dollar and the Euro, but you need to study what you are doing carefully before you invest.

You should strongly consider talking to a financial planner before making any investments. Your financial planner can help you determine what type of investing you must do to reach the financial goals that you have set.

He or she can give you realistic information as to what kind of returns you can expect from each option, and how long it will take to reach your specific goals.

Again, remember that investing requires more than calling a broker and telling them that you want to buy stocks or bonds.

It takes a good amount of research and knowledge about the market if you hope to invest successfully, and on-going effort every day to make sure you are on target, and are winning the investment game, not losing your shirt.

Goal-setting before you invest can save a great deal of time and money in the long run. So get out your pen and paper, and start doing the math!

3 parts, 983 words