Money can buy Happiness

Money can buy you happiness - if you spend the money right. Instead of buying material things, purchase positive experiences; for example go dancing, buy tickets for a concert or make a boat trip at sunset. According to a recently published study, such experiences will boost your happiness. Read more.

Rising Happiness

Good news: the level of happiness is rising around the world. People are happier these days than 25 years ago. This is the result of a study published by the University of Michigan. The United States ranks 16th on the list of 97 countries.
More: http://www.coach4u.net/blog/rising-happiness-around-world.html

Back to normal

Big relief - we are back to normal. The past couple of days have been brutal. With outside temperatures close to 100 degrees, there were not many places to escape the heat. One of them, the beautiful Crane beach, north of Boston. Something we never experienced before: Parking lot full on a Sunday in early June, and even the water looked tempting despite 53 degrees ocean temperature.



Unfortunately, on Monday and Tuesday the kids had to go to school. No AC there. The superintendent of our schools told parents they could keep their kids home. It would count as excused absence. The college, where I'm teaching, also has no AC and it felt even at night like being in a baking oven. A few students left early because of the heat - to be honest, I envied them....

Weather extremes: heat wave after days of rain

After days of rain,

we in New England will probably experience the first heat wave of summer in the coming days. The weather is way more extreme here than we were used from Austria, and I can only brace myself for having to sit through my son's soccer game tomorrow in more than 90 degrees.

First SAT exam

Our son Sascha will take his first SAT exam tomorrow. He took biology in his sophomore year, and will take chemistry and physics in junior and senior year. Since he is now finishing biology at school and is studying for the final exam, he figured, he would take the SAT subject test in biology right away so that he won't have to study the material again. It definitely has not been one of his favorite subjects.

His friends told him all kind of horror stories about the exam, and now he is a little nervous about getting a low score and messing up his college prospects. He studied from a prep book for the test and says that some of the topics they never did in class.

From what I read on various websites, this seems to be one of the main hurdles for many students. The content of high school biology courses varies, and therefore many students encounter material on the test that they didn't learn before.

For us this is a new situation. In Europe, each country has a relatively uniform curriculum and all students of the particular country have the same level of education at the end of their school career. In Austria and Germany, students must pass to graduate one big final exam called Matura (Austria) or Abitur (Germany). If you pass, you can go to any university. The test is supervised by the federal department of education of the country and basically the same for all students. Therefore, it's not necessary to do additional testing to compare the ability of students.

In the next two years, my son will encounter many more tests before he graduates. Aside from the SATs, he must also take four AP tests in his senior year if he wants to study in Austria (which we would of course prefer because a semester there would cost only 500 Euro = $770). Without AP exams in math, sciences and one foreign language, Austria will not recognize his high school education as equivalent to an Austrian one. At the moment, Sascha tries to keep the doors open to both possibilities: College here in the States or university in Vienna. We will see....

Websites about SAT:

History of SAT: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/where/history.html

Official Collegeboard website with information about mean scores: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/scores/understanding/average.html

American Dream - preferably inland

What is one of the tangible results of living the American dream? For many people to own a house.

Well, we haven't been different after we moved from Austria to Massachusetts. First, we rented a house in a nice suburbanian neighborhood approx. 8 miles away from downtown Boston. Quickly, we realized that for the same amount we paid for rent we easily could afford a mortgage and own a house. A few months later we bought a house nearby a lake where we can swim in summer.

Although we love our house, we secretly nurtured a bigger dream: A house directly at the coast. Listening to the sound of waves when falling asleep, admiring the rising sun over the ocean in the morning - could there be anything more perfect than that?

A few days ago we experienced a rude awakening: Not only are the insurance rates for coastal property much higher than for inland property, now the state of Massachusetts officially recommended that all homeowners along the coastline raise their houses for up to three feet to protect them against the rising sea level due to global warming: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2008/05/mass_urges_coastal_homeowners.html

List of online Shopping Helpers

In economic difficult times like now, every buck saved is important. Checking out prices online before heading to the store is therefore a must for me.

After we moved to the US, I learned quickly that here prices can be very different. For example, recently I bought a new digital camera that was offered at $ 230 in one store and at almost $ 400 in another. In both cases, the price was only for the camera body, no extras involved.

Like many people, I don't like so much buying online (though I do it); it's for safety reasons and because I like to see what I buy. However, price comparing websites help me to find the right stores - and sometimes, after having seen the product in a store, I still end up buying it online.

Some of my favorite websites:

www.pricegrabber.com

www.bizrate.com

www.pricescan.com

www.pricingcentral.com

www.bestwebbuys.com

And for those of you, who are hitting the road during the summer, check out the best gas prices at www.gasbuddy.com

Haggling 101

Did you ever go to a big box store, set your eyes on a product and then tried to bargain for a better price? If not, try it next time. Chances are hight that you will save some money.

Recently, I watched a special report on the evening news. Reporters tried to negotiate the price for TVs, refrigerators or even t-shirts. In more than half of the cases, they have been successful and saved hundreds of dollars. Sometimes, the salesperson couldn't help with the price but offered something else, like free delivery or free installation.

I would have never thought of trying to bargain in a store. To save money, I look out for sales or use coupons, but I never haggled - until now.

Consumer experts advise to be always polite and discreet, and not pushy. Further, it's important to offer a price that is fair and reasonable. If your offer is too low, the salesperson will just reject it without even considering it or making a counter offer. Also, make sure that you are bargaining with a salesperson who has the authority to offer a discount. If you are not sure about that, ask for the manager.

And last but not least, don't bargain if you are not ready to buy the product.

Stick to your goals with web contract

Are you good at achieving your goals, or are you like me? I make plans to get up earlier in the morning, to read more, or to eat more often fruit, and then after a few days, I'm back to the old me. Some goals, I just can't achieve by myself. Mostly because I'm not really passionate about them. It's more a "you should" thing than what I really want. I understand that an apple is good for my health, but chocolate, or a cookie tastes better. I should eat apples, but I want cookies. A couple of days ago, I read about a new website that seems promising for people like me. Apparently, I could increase my goal success by making a public pledge. Read more http://www.blog.coach4u.net/

Tax Day for Newbies

Today is Tax Day, which means, today are your statements about income taxes due. The Federal Government and all the US states requires this information to make sure that everyone paid taxes.

For Americans, this is not new. Since 1955 Tax Day is on April 15 of each year. However, for many immigrants Tax Day is unusual.

In Germany and Austria for example, where I lived, worked and paid taxes before, many people never file a tax return. Reason being: It's the employers duty to deduct the tax before handing out your pay check. They must make sure that everyone pays the correct amount. Those, who throughout the year have the same employer and no big changes in their personal situation don't need to file a tax return. Taxes are paid, they are all set.

Only those, who work two jobs, join pension funds, or became parents may need or wish to file a return. If you owe tax because you worked two jobs, you must file ( in Austria, within the next 5 years). However, if you may get a refund because you became eligible for special deductions, filing a tax return is voluntary. (Of course, the governments hope that in refund cases , some people may be too lazy or uninformed to do the paperwork). In Austria, we also don't know "joint filing" of tax returns for spouses. Everyone is responsible for his/her own tax based on individual income.

Now, if you are new to the American tax system, you may have already done your tax return with the help of an tax accountant. We hired one this year - for the first time, because I started last year my coaching business Coach4U.net . In the years before, we did our return with the help of tax software and the informative IRS website. As we found out this year- we have done it correctly and saved a lot of money. The tax accountant did the return exactly the same way as our previous returns have been, which means: next year, we will go back to software, which costs much less.

If you are still struggling with your return, and need some help, check out the IRS website. Filers, with income below $54 000 even get free help and support for e-filing. The website provides information about how to file or how to apply for an extension, and info about the rebate check that will come sometimes in May: http://www.irs.gov/ .

A few post offices have extended hours today. Info about the mailing of tax returns and office hours are posted on http://www.usps.com/tax/welcome.htm .

Finally, a beautiful spring day in New England

Today was a beautiful early spring day, and I enjoyed being outside doing the first garden clean up work. While my husband repaired the deck, and my son played baseball with his buddy, I was raking leaves. Our neighborhood cats Romeo and Blue paid us a brief visit.

When I discovered that two beautiful rose bushes didn't survive the winter, I was a little sad. Well, on the positive side, now I can buy myself new ones.

Spring is always so late here. My friends in Austria are sending me already pictures of their blooming spring gardens, and here I just have 2 small yellow crocus. Being an outdoor person, the Massachusetts spring weather is hard on me. During nights, we still have temperatures in the 20s. It will probably be for three more weeks like that, sometimes nice, sometimes rainy and cold at night; then we will have approximately three weeks of really beautiful spring weather and in mid May the hot summer could start. At least, the birds are already coming back and enjoying us in the morning with their beautiful songs.



By the way: Recently I read an interesting article that donating to charity will increase the level of happines for the giving person. Read about it on my other blog: http://blog.coach4u.net

Difficult beginnings

When we first came to the US in 1999, I often felt overwhelmed with all the changes in my life. The biggest obstacle at the beginning has been the change from a big farmhouse countryside in Austria to a suburb 2 bedroom apartment near Boston. While my husband was in his office, my boys and I felt like being locked up in our small apartment. Soon, we started house hunting. We were looking for a house with a small, nice garden to rent. Turned out to be quite difficult, since we also had two cats that would move in with us. All ads stated clearly: No Pets.

After several weeks trying to find a house, we almost were ready to give up and return to Austria. Then, one day, we found it: Not the nicest of all houses we had seen, but with a garden and the permission for gardening as much as I like, and a lake with private neighborhood beach close by. Even the cats were welcome. That settled it, we stayed.

I learned from this experience that persistence and not giving up hope pays off. Today I learned about another person, who lived by the motto "there is no defeat, only temporary setbacks that are learning points". I blogged about the "Power of Persistence" on blog.coach4u.net

and coach4u.blog.de (in German; "Macht der Beharrlichkeit")

Getting started

So, this is now my first posting on the new blog. I'm planning to write here about typical issues expatriates, who are new to the US, are dealing with.

I remember like yesterday how it has been for me and my family when we first arrived in Massachusetts almost 9 years ago. It was a completely new world, and my two sons, 7 and 4 years old at that time, didn't speak any English. My husband went to his office every day, and I spend the day in our small, rented apartment with the boys. I felt sometimes lonely - nobody there to help me figuring out even simple stuff of life like where to buy rubber boots for the boys.

Today, I'm a professional Life Coach and my passion is to help other newcomers to the United States designing their new life in this country. I hope this blog will become a useful tool.