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Archives for February 2015

Our Final Gutsy Move

February 9, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 2 Comments

2013-04-09 15.37.48

“Our Gutsy Final Move”

“My Gutsy Story®” Barbara Hammond

Moving is daunting under any circumstances. I grew up moving, like gypsies, attending fourteen schools in twelve years, four of them in sixth grade.

When I married, my husband’s career involved moving regularly. With a young family it was stressful, but we managed ten moves in the first ten years.

We weren’t particularly savvy with money, but we made smart Real Estate investments over the years. Someone once told me, “Put your money in Real Estate. They’re not making any more land!” It was good advice.

We’ve lived up and down the northeast corridor of the U.S. for forty-six years. Being near the ocean was a priority.

In 1992 we moved to Philadelphia, which has felt like home to me since I first explored it in 1974. I’d never had such an emotional and compelling tug on my heart before. I literally felt I’d lived there in another life.

113_Catharine_St.
House in Philadelphia

 

My first trip to the Jersey Shore was also 1974. Oh, how the ocean grasped my soul and said, “Welcome home.” I think I knew then I would live there one day. My husband always felt it would be out of reach.

The new millennium proved lucky for us. The stars aligned and we found the perfect beach house for our family in Ocean City. I envisioned it being the family compound for the rest of our collective lives. That worked for about ten years.

Our two sons met their mates and set out on their own journeys. They still visited, but as their families grew their time became focused on the children’s needs and activities.

In the meantime we were maintaining two homes. I’m not complaining. I know this is a ‘First World Problem’, but it can be costly.

When it was a friends and family every weekend OC was worth it. With only the two of us, most of the time, it became less so.

At the very tip of New Jersey is the quaint, beautiful, town of Cape May nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay.

We made day trips occasionally, especially in the fall when it’s less crowded and even more beautiful. We stayed in many charming B&B’s over the years and loved it.

In the fall of 2013 we spent a fun day in Cape May, walking down tree lined streets, strolling along the beach, and enjoying lunch at the Ugly Mug, a local restaurant that’s great for people watching.

As we headed out of town I said to my husband, “Why don’t we sell both houses and move to Cape May?”

Within seconds he said, “I like it! Let’s do it!”

And the adventure began!

We loved our home in Philadelphia. It was built in 1760. In a home that age there’s always something to fix. Historic charm doesn’t come cheap. We knew there’d be work ahead of us before we put it on the market.

We closed the shore house for the season and decided to wait until spring to put it up for sale. It needed work, too.

In the meantime we weeded out and donated things daily. We had lived in the city for twelve years, the longest ever in one place. It’s amazing what you accumulate over time.

We discovered wiring issues, and assorted other problems. It took time and money, but we had it ready for market by late April.

Our realtor in Philly was amazing. We sold in three days! Then we began the search for our forever home in Cape May. It was exciting!

We had driven around all areas and knew where we wanted to live. I spent hours on Real Estate websites searching.

We hired a great realtor to work with and as we toured homes I’d seen online we were often amazed. Photographs can be very deceiving. But, we weren’t deterred at all. I knew in my heart this was the right time and place for us, and the perfect house would find us.

We had seen so many homes and nothing seemed right. Finally we felt we’d found the one. We made an offer contingent on selling the OC house. Nothing went smoothly and the deal fell through.

As our closing date in the city neared we were working in earnest on the shore house. It looked so beautiful we wondered why we hadn’t made these improvements years before.

When we closed on the house in Philly we needed two storage spaces in Ocean City until we could sell there and make the final move. It was expensive and it was getting scary. I was concerned but never lost faith. My heart and gut knew the perfect home would appear. And it did!

I was checking my phone before I even got out of bed and saw a message from our Cape May realtor. She sent a photograph with one line…”Look what popped up overnight!”

I squealed, which woke my husband. I showed him the picture and he almost squealed, too! It was a Monet painting with an arbor over the gate and a picket fence all around, with a spectacular garden.

cape_may_cottage
Cape May Cottage

 

It found us!

We saw it immediately and began negotiating. The inside needed work, but the bones were great. It was a fresh canvas for us to paint our own dream home.+

The OC house sold the same week and we were on our way. We had to delay the closing in Cape May for a week, which meant putting our OC furnishings in storage. This made for the most expensive move we’d ever experienced.

We’ve put lots of work into the house and it is a labor of love. Many tell us how lucky we are, but I will tell you luck had nothing to do with it. We were focused, and never doubting. The entire process felt so right, no matter what obstacles got in our way.

Keep your eye on the prize and stay gutsy. You are the architect of your life!

BARBARA HAMMOND is an artist, author, blogger, who celebrates the journey that has been her life, so far. You can discover her work at:
Her Social Media Links:
Website: http://zeroto60andbeyond.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/zero.60.beyond
Twitter: @hammondartbiz
Her Books:
The Duffy Chronicles

While You Were Sleeping
Her Artist Website: 
http://barbara-hammond.artistwebsites.com/

 

SONIA MARSH SAYS: So true, Barbara, we are the architects of our lives, and I can tell that you found your piece of treasure in Cape May, a place I have never visited, but now that you’re there, I may have to stop by.


 

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ATTENTION AUTHORS

Here is an article I wrote that has received many Tweets and Comments

I’m Not a Celebrity, So How Do I Sell My Books? Six Steps to Becoming a Successful Indie Publisher

I Discovered a Way to Pay Less On Airfares

February 6, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 4 Comments

shutterstock_223815058

 

I love to plan flights, especially when I can outsmart the high costs, and often inconvenient times, offered on sites like Travelocity and Orbitz. 

I treat the process like a giant puzzle, taking each piece, one step at a time, until a clear image emerges.

We all know how expensive flights and hotels can be, so how do you minimize costs and keep a sane schedule, without sacrificing comfort?

Here’s how I booked my flights to Europe and kept my costs way down.

  • I use Google flights and save money.
  • I book each segment separately, rather than try to book the entire trip in one go.
  • I open several Google flights on my browser at the same time, and play around with the segments and airlines so I can compare costs.
  • I managed to book my entire trip to Europe for a TOTAL PRICE of $1, 596. (see all the segments below,)

 

 

April 2015:

  • Austin, Texas – Athens, Greece
  • Athens – London

May 2015

  • London-Paris
  • Paris-Madrid

June 2015

  • Madrid – Los Angeles

TOTAL PRICE of $1, 596.

 

When I tried to book the entire trip in ONE SEGMENT, with multi-stops, the price was substantially higher.

The cheapest route on Travelocity was $2,392, but the times were inconvenient. Prices went up to $7,300, in coach.

Travelocity
Travelocity

ORBITZ 2 Capture

Orbitz couldn’t quote me a fare with the exact same dates and countries I listed above.

GOOGLE FLIGHTS DONE IN ONE TRIP
Google flights

 

Google flights shows more expensive flights when I punch in all the dates and countries as a multi-flight trip. As I said, I managed to get my entire

  • US-Europe-US For only $1,596, compared to the prices above.

 

Seth Kugel, the Frugal Traveler, wrote about Google Flights in his article in the New York Times,  “How to Choose and Air Travel Search Site,”

“If you’re focused just on flights, there are other considerations. Most straightforward is the amount of time it takes each site to process your searches. The clear winner there is Google Flights (a different offering from Google Flight Explorer), with shockingly instantaneous results — you’d almost think they’d invented the modern search engine.”

  • Credit Cards offering 50,000 travel miles. 

It wasn’t until my recent divorce, and my new-found independence, that I plucked up the courage to go for credit cards that offer bonus travel miles. I figured that I should give it a try.

One of my favorite bloggers/authors/travel hackers, Chris Gullebeau, has a list of his preferred travel credit cards, and I know he’s been able to fly for free around the world, using his acquired miles. So I signed up for two of the credit cards he recommends, and found that I could indeed get a free trip with my miles.  I’ve already received one free trip, and am now a believer, that if you use your card wisely, it can benefit you in many ways.

The Chase Ink, also allows me to use the Club Lounges at a discount rate, something I never allowed myself to think about using in the past.

Next Friday, I shall write about how I saved a tremendous amount of money by booking accommodations with Airb&b. Come back and see how.

Do you have tips to share about your travel plans and ways to cut costs?

 

 

Finding the Guts to Change

February 2, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 1 Comment

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 “Finding the Guts to Change”

“My Gutsy Story®”-Donna Friess

One of the truly gutsiest things I have ever done was become brave enough to give up my college teaching career after 45 years.  Across the years, when I asked my colleagues if there was life outside the hallowed walls of my college, Cypress College, they thought I was kidding and laughed at me, but I wasn’t  kidding.  I knew my life worked.  I adored the students and they adored me, but the 75 mile-a -day commute was getting to seem longer with each passing decade.   One year, far past when I was eligible for retirement,   I got up my courage during our summer vacation at Catalina. I promised myself that for sure in September I would turn in my retirement papers for the next year.  Then one day I was on the swim float in Avalon harbor getting ready to dive when I noticed a little blonde six year-old boy standing next to me.  I saw him gulp a huge breath of air. He was scared to dive in, to swim into shore.  He squared his shoulders, took another  big inhale. I could feel his fear. As I watched him tears sprang to my eyes. Suddenly I could see him ten or so years in the future, gulping air, squaring his shoulders as he plunged in to give his speech in my public speaking class. The tears streamed down my face and my stomach knotted.  In that instant I knew that I could not give up my eager, scared-to-death students.  By the time I got to shore I decided against retirement. Clearly I did not have the guts, I was not ready to leave the students.

More busy happy years passed in the classroom, but the drive got longer, and if I were truthful, I was getting tired.  There were other things I wanted to do; more travel, maybe paint, write.  I had taught so long that retirement pay would be significantly more than I was taking home as I qualified for longevity bonuses and more, still I did not have the guts for it.

Finally in the summer of 2009 my husband said, “I think you are missing the boat here. I think you should pay attention to you writing.” It was a flashpoint for me.  I saw a way to reinvent myself. I felt excited as I thought,  Maybe there is life outside of my classroom.

I was stuck in my good old way of living my life, and it was now time to get brave enough to reinvent myself.  Perhaps an element of empowerment is having the ability to adapt to life, to reinvent oneself.   Joan Rivers was a master at reinventing herself.  Last year’s media coverage surrounding her death illustrated her genius.  Imagine going from stand-up comedy, to late night host, to the Red Carpet , to Fashionista and more. At the time of her death she was working on a new show. Imagine she stayed in the spot light for decades because she kept evolving and changing.

So  how do we get unstuck? The answer must be to live mindfully.  These days I see how we are living our lives as our creative challenge.  When I finally found the courage to change my ways I found a new way to live life, an exciting robust way.  I have been out of the classroom for four years now, however, people have not quit laughing at me!  When I say, “and I was so worried about a different kind of life…” They can’t stop laughing for they know that it is a big huge world filled with unlimited opportunity if we have the guts to grab hold and look at the wonder of it all.

We cannot not change. We age. Life moves forward.  Albert Einstein liked to talk about how important imagination and creativity are.  I like to think of my life as my canvas, and the way I am living it, as my creative endeavor.  The world out there is just waiting for you. What more do you want to do? What more do you want to be? I’d love to hear about it. Right now, though I might be out on the trail with my three Golden Retrievers or at my desk writing my next novel.

 

Psychologist Donna L. Friess, Ph.D., is a life coaching, grief counselor, and author.  She is an advocate for children’s rights, currently serving on a U.S. Justice Department Office for Victims of Crime Consortium. As a best selling author she has written seven books. With appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and others,  her award winning autobiography Cry the Darkness has been published in seven languages. Donna’s debut novel The Unraveling of Shelby Forrest is now available at Amazon.com. www.drdonnafriess.com.

SONIA MARSH SAYS: Donna is the real “Gutsy” woman of today. She is a rocket on a mission, helping everyone she meets along her path. I’ve had the pleasure of participating in her coaching “women in transition,” as I went through my own divorce process. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more energetic and enthusiastic woman who is a role model for all of us. I’m reading her novel (see below,) and recommend it to my fellow writers and readers.

Cover_Front_Final
Click on cover to go to Amazon

 

 

Get your copy of Unraveling here.

  • Join Donna on Facebook here.
  • Check out Donna’s website: www.drdonnafriess.com
  • Join Donna on Twitter 
  • Donna on LinkedIn

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