The First Rule of Finance is to live within your means by spending no more than 80% of your take-home pay．If you take home $ 100 per week, spend no more than $80．

    But ever look at what people spend their money on? I have relatives and friends deeply in debt, spending $ 12 for every $ 10 they earn instead of the $ 8 you know they should be spending．When I see them, they're proud of their new whatever．"What do you think of my new truck?" asked one from the driver's seat．"Do you like my new shoes?" asked another on high heels．"Check out my new big screen．" said a third while holding the remote in his living room．We've all heard people fishing for compliments on their new toys ．

    Every one of them was proud of what they'd financed．They seem to have bought it for the purpose of being proud, of showing off, of keeping up with the Joneses．"Look at my new …?"is everybody's favorite phrase, even when the object in question isn't theirs at all and won't be new when they've finally paid for it, if they ever do．

    They're proud of being stupid．They think it's cool to drive the financed car, wear the financed shoes, and watch the financed TV, but to smart people, whose opinions are the only ones we should respect, these people look dumb as rocks．

    The Joneses, nine times out of 10, are financially stupid．That's why they have all that stuff on borrowed money．Why try to copy them? Worse, why try to impress them? Copy and impress smart people, the ones who own their stuff．If you want to impress smart people, debt is the last way to go about it．Trying to impress a money-smart person by going into debt is like trying to impress Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps by drowning in a pool．Michael Phelps is impressed by good swimming and a money-smart person by good money management．

    Guided Walking Week April 2016

    Dates: April 30^th-May 7^th 2016

    Location: Abdet, Costa Blanca

    A week of guided walking in the mountains around Abdet. Highlights include the climbing of Valencia's highest summit (Sierra de Aitana), traveling completely around the impressive Puig Campana, and several explorations in the Sierra de Aitana. Ancient trails lead through spectacular canyons(峡谷) to abandoned settlements situated high in the mountains. You will discover the snow trader routes which lead from the incredible snow holes high in the mountains down to the villages and towns on the coast. These years, golden eagles have made a return to this area, and you may also see other animals—wild goats, foxes, wild pigs and red squirrels.

    As part of the week you are invited to help clear some local walking paths. This involves clearing collapsed （坍塌的） walls and rocks, cutting back fallen trees. This is of course optional and is just for half a day, it's actually great fun!

Price:$499

Includes:

    Accommodation in the beautiful mountain village of Abdet

    All food-good home cooking

    Beer, wine, soft drinks

    Snacks and post walk treats

    Packed lunches & drinks(except café/bar visits)

    Expert guiding

    Photos/Videos of your days in the mountains

    Airport pick-up/return $25 each way(fly to Alicante)

    Single room supplement $75

    To book or get further information, please contact info@abdet.com.

    My motivation for starting our family tradition of reading in the car was purely selfish: I could not bear listening to A Sesame Street Christmas for another 10 hours. My three children had been addicted to this cassette on our previous summer's road trip.

    As I began to prepare for our next 500-mile car trip,I came across a book Jim Trelease's The Read Aloud Handbook. This could be the answer to my problem, I thought. So I put Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach into my bag. When I began to read aloud the tale of the boy who escapes the bad guys by hiding inside a giant peach, my three kids argued and wrestled in their seats. But after several lines, they were attracted into the rhythm of the words and began to listen.

    We soon learned that the simple pleasure of listening to a well-written book makes the long miles pass more quickly. Sometimes the books we read became highlights of the trip. I read Wilson Rawls's Summer of the Monkeys as we spent two days driving to the beach. We arrived just behind the power crews restoring(恢复)electricity after a tropical storm. The rain continued most of the week, and the beach was covered with oil washed up by the storm. When we returned home, I asked my son what he liked about the trip. He answered without hesitation, “The book you read in the car. ”

    Road trips still offer challenges, even though my children now are teenagers. But we continue to read as we roll across the country. And I'm beginning to see that reading aloud has done more than help pass the time. For at least a little while, we are not shut in our own electronic worlds. And maybe we've started something that will pass on to the next generation.

    Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, texting or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new "species" of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name — phubbers（低头族）.

    Recently, a cartoon created by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities bury themselves in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie（自拍照）in front of a car accident site, and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually leads to the destruction of the world.

    Although the ending sounds overstated, the damage phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. "Constantly bending your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck," Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying. "the neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching." Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report.

    But that's not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people tend to stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.

    It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight.

    I'm big into reading, and since you're on this page, I guess you like reading as well. This page is an ongoing log of books I find to be awesome or useful. If you're looking to create a well-rounded, successful college experience, you can't go wrong with any of these.

    The Power of Habit

    This book is absolutely amazing. As it turns out, habits shape much more of our behavior than we realize. The habits we do have largely determine the progress (either good or bad) we make in life. Luckily, the way habits are formed can be understood—which means they can be changed—and The Power of Habit is the best overview of how habits work that I've ever read.

    A Mind for Numbers

    If you're looking for practical techniques you can use to increase your ability to learn new information effectively, you should read this book. Contrary to what the title would imply, Dr. Barbara Oakley's A Mind for Numbers is applicable to any learning discipline--not just math and science. This book will quickly give you an understanding of how your brain learns and encodes (编码) new information, and will also equip you with strategies for learning more while studying less.

    Brain Rules

    If you know how the brain works, you'll be better equipped to manage your own and understand the ones contained inside the heads of the people you know and meet In Brain Rules, John Medina expertly shows us how the brain does things, and lays out 12 rules that form a basis for using that pile of mush (糊状物) more effectively. It's not just an excellent brain book—it's an excellent business book and an excellent college success book as well.

    Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

    I firmly believe that a solid foundation of nutrition, exercise, and sleep will help you succeed in college better than any study hack, which is why I recommend this book. Reading it will educate you on how exercise affects your brain, which in turn will give you more mental ammunition (弹药) that you can use to shoot down excuses when you're feeling lazy or “busy”, and don't want to work out. By the way, how much exercise have you gotten today?

    University of Pennsylvania researchers say that for the first time they have linked social media use to increases in depression and loneliness. The idea that social media is anything but social when it comes to mental health has been talked about for years, but not many studies have managed to actually link the two. To do that, Penn researchers, led by psychologist Melissa Hunt, designed a study that focused on WeChat, Snapchat and Instagram.

    The study was conducted with 143 participants, who before they began, completed a mood survey and sent along photos of their battery screens, showing how often they were using their phones to access social media. "We set out to do a much more complete study which attempts to imitate real life." Hunt said.

    The study divided the participants into two groups： The first group was allowed to maintain their normal social media habits. The other, the control group, was restricted to 10 minutes per day on social media. The restrictions were put in place for three weeks and then the participants returned and were tested for outcomes such as fear of missing out, anxiety, depression and loneliness.

    The results showed a very clear link between social media use and increased levels of depression and loneliness. "Using less social media than you normally do would lead to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness," Hunt said.

    Social media invites what Hunt calls "downward social comparison." "When you're online, it can sometimes seem that everyone else is cooler and having more fun and included in more things and you're left out," Hunt said. And that's just generally discouraging. "Every minute you spend online is a minute you are not doing your work or not meeting a friend for dinner or having a deep conversation with your roommate." And these real life activities are the ones that can encourage self﹣esteem and self﹣worth, Hunt added.

    "People are on their devices, and that's not going to change," she said. But as in life, a bit of control goes a long way.