#wrpartorp

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 From our very own, Rick Konopka:

 Like so many people, my mornings revolve around a few things, and most importantly of those, is coffee. I am not a “don’t talk to me before I had my coffee” person, but I’ve made that joke before.

 Living in Brooklyn comes with its own set of challenges, and one of them is counterspace. I simply can’t have any of that precious real estate constantly occupied by a device used once per morning to make one cup of coffee. I have artisanal pickles and hot sauces that need to live there!

Enter the Aeropress by Aerobie (Yes, that Aerobie).

This conveniently hide-able-in-any-cabinet, tube-like device, produces some of the best coffee I’ve had, and does so on a regular basis. How? I have no idea. I know there’s some science to it—maybe something about vacuums, I don’t know. I’m no engineer or barista—just a coffee-drinking enthusiast.

Each time you brew, you’re basically making super concentrated coffee—almost a double espresso. Add some hot water for an Americano, or add it to some frothed milk for a latte. There are plenty of ways to brew your life-giving beverage, so experiment and find what you like most. Go down a YouTube rabbit hole, or stick to the standard.

The bottom line is that, after boiling water and grinding your beans, you can go from no coffee to relaxing on your sofa, sipping a visibly steaming beverage, within a minute or so. Or if an iced beverage is what you crave, that is just as easy. It’s a near perfect device for my always on-the-go New York lifestyle. Plus, it basically cleans itself just through normal use.

 TL;DR: Skip the daily coffee shop visits (but keep the special occasion trips, because treat yo’self) and brew your own café quality coffee at home.

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Not most people. What they really need is to feel comfortable and confident in how they present themselves to the world. There’s a hard way to do that, and there’s an easier way. Introducing this next recommendation—by a real person, for a real person. Just like you.

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 From our very own, Katherine Dorosk:

My new favorite thing is the clothing curating and delivery service, Stitch Fix. The service works by connecting you with a personal designer via a quiz that allows them to get a sense of your style and curate a box of select pieces to be sent to you. When you receive the designer’s selections, you can keep what you like, return what you don't, and send feedback so that the next delivery is an even closer approximation of your style.

I love Stitch Fix because it makes it easy for me to build my personal and professional wardrobes with great new pieces without wasting time at a mall or shopping online. My stylist sends me quality clothes that I love, and the $20 cost of the box even goes towards the pieces I decide to buy. Out of the dozens of subscription services popping up every day, Stitch Fix is definitely worth it.

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 From our very own, Lee Friedenthal:

A soothing, refreshing shower.  

A relaxing walk with my dog.  

An ice cold beer on my patio after a long day. 

 I’m all about the simple pleasures in life.

 The hustle and bustle of being a working professional with a commute in Los Angeles can be harrowing at times, and these little things help keep me sane.  But to me, the most important simple pleasure of all is a good night’s sleep.  

So, my wife and I recently purchased a king-size Casper mattress. And it has legitimately been life-changing.

Casper claims that its mattresses are made with “technology you can feel.”  When I lay down on my Casper, the way I feel is in no way comparable to how I felt on my old mattress.  Here’s the best way I can describe it: on my Casper, it feels like I’ve been caught by a baseball glove made entirely of clouds. I am now sleeping deeper than I ever have and having dreams so lucid I am practically living them.

A major gripe I had with my old mattress was its tendency to trap in heat.  I would frequently wake up in the middle of the night dripping sweat, no matter the temperature in my room.  Aware of this issue with traditional mattresses, Casper designs its mattresses with an “open-cell top layer” to promote airflow and keep the body cool. My overheating problem is now a relic of the past.

The purchase process is also quite literally a dream.  Gone are the days of going to an old, musty warehouse store that hasn’t been updated since the early 90’s and haggling with a salesman wearing a terrible toupee. Can I interest you instead in a service that ships your mattress within 24 hours, with the ability to arrange for it to be delivered as early as the same day?  They will even take your old mattress and recycle it for you, rather than have it end up in a landfill.  Not to mention you have 100 days to test it out, and if you don’t like it, they will pick it back up free of charge and with a full refund.

If you’re in the market for a mattress, do your mind and body a huge favor and get a Casper.

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 From our very own, Steve Swanson:

 When the management of a company sets policies that put their customers first, it shows.

It could be as simple as picking up the phone when someone calls instead of an automated attendant telling you that your call is important, or that they are experiencing unusually high call volumes. It could be empowering their front-line employees to handle situations without hesitation. Or, maybe they hired and trained their employees so well, that each customer not only feels like their issue is important to the person on the other end of the line, but that they have a friend helping them get it resolved.

Charles Schwab is one company that seems to have put all of these pieces together, and has been my gold standard of customer service over the past decade. I use them for online banking, and no matter the issue, no matter the agent, empathy seems to be the common thread that ties it all together. Whether dealing with a fraudulent charge, identity theft, or just a question on my account, they listen, understand and have a solution for me in less time than it takes for other companies to pick up the phone. Instead of telling me why they can’t do something, every statement and action is geared toward what they can do to help resolve whatever issue is at hand.

I have commonly recommended Charles Schwab to all of my friends and family because I have no doubt that if they choose to use them, they will be very well taken care of. Even in conversations with acquaintances, if it turns to customer service, Charles Schwab will always be the example I share as the organization committed to their customers. In the electronic age of FAQ and blog customer service, automated responders, and off-shore call centers, Charles Schwab has opted out of the short-term financial gain that digital alienation appears to give. Instead, they focus on the long-term investment in customer service and retain their customers for a lifetime.

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 From our very own, Jenny Bremer:

Well folks, it’s happening: Starbucks PSLs have given way to Peppermint Lattes, the ice skating rink is open at Rockefeller Center, and “Sweater Weather” advertising is in full swing.

As any good Game of Thrones fan would tell you, winter is here.

And for me and many other poor souls, winter is synonymous with Dry Hand Season.  Every year it’s the same—no sooner do I bring my scarves out of storage, then my poor knuckles start to crack and my cuticles get as parched as the Sahara.  But all that’s about to change, because I’ve discovered the best kept secret of hand therapy: Trader Joe's A Midsummer Night's Cream!

Here I thought Trader Joe’s was just a place to stock up on delicious Chocolate Brooklyn Babka or mind-bogglingly refreshing Organic Moroccan Mint Green Tea; I’ve been naively passing by the personal care aisle on my way to raid the Syrah-Soaked Toscano Cheese.  But this summer I read about this moisturizing hand cream, and knew I had to try it.  Not only am I a fan of a good Bard-based pun, but the formula contains all the good stuff you’d expect in a moisturizer (aloe vera, avocado oil, jojoba oil), and it’s all-natural, vegan, and of course, never animal-tested. And at $3.99 for a 16oz. bottle, the price can’t be beat.  

Before I learned about the TJ’s cream, I had recently been swindled into buying a $100 bottle of luxury hand balm from a NY boutique.  Don’t ask me what came over me, but good news about this bad decision was that I had the opportunity to do a side-by-side comparison! Over-Priced Hand Balm smells nice and makes me feel like a Parisian princess when I lather it on, but Midsummer Night’s Cream leaves my hands feeling just as silky smooth with no oily residue.  It’s billed as “unscented,” but it actually has a very mild, fresh scent with no perfume-y odor.  All-in-all, Midsummer Night’s Cream is a great product for an incredible value, and it gives Over-Priced Hand Balm a run for its money.  I’ll be sticking with it long after the snow has melted and the Peppermint Lattes have cooled.  

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 From our very own, Mike Farkas:

“Dreams are universal. Opportunity is not.”

This simple, six-word truth is the first thing you read when you visit Kiva.org, and it’s the foundation of one of the most revolutionary ideas in modern charitable giving.  But that’s the thing—it’s not really charitable “giving;” it’s charitable “lending.”  Kiva’s mission is simple: “To connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”  The company connects people like me and you with people around the world who have dreams of improving their lives through entrepreneurship or education but do not have the opportunity or capital to make those dreams come true.

The process is simple.  The borrower, an impoverished entrepreneur or student, applies for a zero-interest microloan through Kiva.  (Think $200 to buy fertilizer for a small family tea plantation in Uganda, or $1000 for supplies to set up a noodle cart in Myanmar.)  Once the loan is approved, it is posted on Kiva.org for crowdfunding. Lenders (me and you) can then give as little as $25 towards the loan, or any other opportunity of their choice.  If the loan gets fully funded (from one or several lenders), the borrower gets to use the funds to start or improve their business or education.  The borrower then repays the loan to the lender over time. Once repaid, the lender is encouraged to use the repayment to fund other microloans, continuing the cycle of economic advancement.

 Since 2005 over 97% of all Kiva microloans have been repaid at a value of over $1 billion dollars.  

That’s over $1 billion dollars into struggling economies—struggling people’s lives.

Over 2.5 million lives, 81% of which are women, in 86 countries.

 The microloans facilitated by Kiva.org bring true economic opportunity to impoverished people the world over.  The impact these microloans have on communities is seismic; they create opportunities not just for the recipient of the microloan, but also their family, friends, and community.  Next time you’re thinking about making charitable donation, I’d highly recommend you consider getting active on Kiva.org. It’s an amazing way to improve the lives of real people all over the world.

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 Want to share your recommendations, too? Tell us here.                      

Or you could forget about conventional procrastination and just start today. We’d recommend that.

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 From our very own, Colleen Abel:

In my daily quest to eat better, live better, save money, save time, and be more responsible, something usually has to give. With Thrive Market, I come a lot closer to having it all. Thrive Market is like an online Costco for healthy and natural products. You pay a yearly fee which gives you access to loads of items at deeply discounted prices—usually lower than Amazon or any grocery store sale. Everything is delivered right to your doorstep and every week there is a different promotion (free Justin’s peanut butter!). The best part is that for each paid membership they donate a membership to a low-income American family, because Thrive believes everyone should be able to afford healthy groceries and household goods.

One of my favorite parts of their website is that it can be sorted by values (paleo, vegan, gluten-free, cruelty-free, etc.), and each product has a list of what values it includes. As I’ve switched my household over to more natural personal care and cleaning products, this site has been an invaluable resource of information and savings. Plus, they have a great blog with healthy recipes, cleaning and organizational tips, and ingredient spotlights. Recently I learned how to make vegan copycat Snickers bars plus the benefits of magnesium. I highly recommend Thrive Market to anyone looking to clean up their life!

Shamelessly adding my referral link: http://thrv.me/HpCQtX

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 Want to share your recommendations, too? Tell us here.                      

(PSA: If you are indeed like Debbie and are bombarded with unwanted credit card offers and all kinds of other junk mail, do yourself and our forests a favor and remove yourself from all kinds of lists.)

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 From our very own, Debbie Kreger:

If you are anything like me, you are bombarded with “pre-approved” credit card offers on a weekly basis.  Credit card companies are all vying for us to use their cards to make our purchases, and with the multitude of card options available to us, it’s not easy to determine which one(s) to go with.

Well, I have found *THE ONE* for me!  It’s the Capital One Venture Rewards VISA card, and I have wholeheartedly recommended it to various friends and family, who have since had similarly positive experiences with it.  So, why this one?  There are a lot of reasons! Let me break them down for you:  

REWARDS

For those of you who appreciate receiving valuable rewards for your loyalty, I received over $1,200 in cash back credit rewards the first year alone—about 3x what I had been earning with my previous card! The card also has no cost for the first year and only a $59 annual fee for subsequent years.

SECURITY & CUSTOMER SERVICE

On top of that, their security measures and customer service are in a class of their own. Imagine leaving a very generous tip on a credit card purchase at a restaurant, and moments later receiving an email message saying “We noticed you gave an extra generous tip for your service at Restaurant X, and we hope it was because your service was exceptional. However, we wanted to check in, in case this charge needs to be reviewed.”  They are constantly on the lookout for fraudulent activity, and they proactively verify anything that looks suspicious.

THE APP

On top of this, their app is so easy to use for balance updates and to redeem rewards at the touch of a button!  There are also the additional benefits of purchase protection, extended warranty protection, lost/damaged luggage protection, and rental car damage protection!

What else can I say?  I feel like I can count on Capital One Venture VISA to save me lots of money, make my life easier, and have my back—protecting me from a wide range of potential hazards… and YOU can experience these same benefits as well!  

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 TL;DR: !!!!!