Money Green Life: Save Money. Go Green. Improve Life.

If you’re like me, I hate to carry loose change around. Whenever I need extra coins to pay for an item in exact amount, I always ask my girlfriend if she has a quarter or a nickel and she never fails me. Women have it so easy since all they have to do is throw the change into their purses and be done with it. Guys, on the other hand only have their pants pockets to put their change in. Couple that with your wallet and cell phone, your pockets are unattractively and uncomfortably bulging out, hindering the way you may walk, not to mention the clanging noises made from your coins. It’s just not a comfortable situation to be in.

At the end of the day, I put all my coins in a jar or some kind of collection plate where they are easily accessible for future use. I think over the past 10 years, the total value that accumulated is almost $1,000. That’s a lot of  loose coins. With the recent state of the economy, it seems like every penny matters. What good ‘ole Mr. Franklin said couple hundred years back seems true and logical nowadays, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

I’m currently in the market for a new laptop and a new LED TV, so this money will help me offset the costs. I know it’s still my money, so technically speaking, I haven’t “saved” any money, but it sure does feel like it to me. It’s almost like finding a $20 bill in your pant’s back pocket.

Now, when you’ve collected as much coins as I have, you need to figure out how to cash in these coins. One easy option is to go to a grocery store where they have a Coinstar machine. These machines are very easy to use. All you have to do is dump all sorts of coins in there and it automatically counts the value for you. Then they give you cash, of course minus their fee which is 8.9 cents for every dollar counted. So for my case, if I have exactly $1,000 in coins, they will give me $911 back. If this fee is too much for you, another option Coinstar provides is to convert your coins into gift certificates for select retailers, such as Amazon.com. In this case, the conversion is 100%.

Additionally, you can always go to your local bank and have them convert them for you for fee. Not all banks provide this service so make sure you call them first.

Perhaps, you can start “saving” money by collecting your loose coins today.

I was playing my usual cash game poker at Pokerstars the other day and I saw this one particular player at every one of my tables. I was curious and did a player search on this guy and discovered that he was playing 41 tables at the same time!! Talk about trying to maximize your hourly winning rate!

When I first playing poker at Pokerstars, I obviously played only 1 table at a time. The thought of playing 2 tables never came to mind as I was trying to figure out how to play each hand optimally. But as I got used to playing just one table, I slowly added another table, then another table, and now I can comfortably play 9 tables at the same time. Sure, it becomes complicated at times and you might even time out occasionally or even miss a value bet, but your hourly rate  can double or even triple as opposed to playing just one table.

For example, if I have a winning rate of $5/hr playing just one table at the limit of $100NL, I can win $10/day by playing 2 hours. If I play 2 hours every day, that will equate to $300/mo. Now, by adding another table to the mix and playing two tables at the same time, I can double that amount and earn $600/mo. If I play 9 tables, I will earn $2,700/mo. Now, that’s a nice chunk of change. However, the caveat is the more tables you play, the less optimal you will play each hand. Most likely, unless you’re a super robot, you will not be able to decipher each hand to play optimally since you’ll need to react quicker during each hand.  Due to this nature, you will probably decrease your hourly winning rate per table. If you assume that you will be 50% less optimally playing 9 tables as opposed to 1 table, you will still earn $1,350/mo. That’s a lot more than $300 if you were to play 1 table.

I can play 9 tables comfortably without timing out or losing a value bet on Pokerstars and 6 tables at Ultimatebet. I got there by slowly adding additional table as I became comfortable. I suggest you trying adding one table at a time and find your comfort zone. Then start increasing your winning rate exponentially. I dunno if I’ll ever reach a point where I’m playing 41 tables at once, but I will continue to seek out way to maximize my winning rate.

The truth is we are currently living in personal hand-held gadgets era. If you own a cell phone, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own an ipod, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a Playstation PSP or Nintendo DS, you are an owner of a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a kindle, yes you own a personal hand-held device. The truth of the matter is wherever you go, you will see dozens of people carrying their own personal hand-held device. Sometimes, people even carry their own personal laptops wherever they go. Admittedly, I am a proud owner of iPhone and I carry it around with me everywhere I go. Without it, I feel so lost and confused and empty. If you own an iPhone as well, you probably know what I am talking about. One of the worst thing that could happen to me is running out of battery on my iPhone when there is no charger nearby to be found. I’ve been in countless situations when my phone died and I couldn’t charge it back up. It’s just an awful feeling. It’s those moments when I wondered about the battery inside my phone that allows me to take advantage of its many features.

iPhones, like most of the modern hand-held gadgets are juiced by lithium ion batteries. Because of these batteries, gadgets nowadays last more than a few hours with just a single charge. Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries have come and are now pretty much gone. The properties of lithium ion batteries are just more superior than these other counterparts and thus have dominated the rechargeable battery market. Because the average consumer have gone through so many technological generations of rechargeable batteries, we are often confused about how lithium ion batteries work.

How many times has someone told you to drain your batteries completely before recharging because it’ll last longer? Do batteries really last longer when you drain them completely? Unlike NiCd and NiMH batteries, Li-ion batteries have no memory effect where discharging completely is recommended to prolong its life.

Li-ion batteries last about 2-3 years from their birth independent of use. So make sure that when you buy these batteries from the store, the batteries are brand new and fresh and has not been sitting on the shelf too long. These batteries also can hold their charge much longer than their nickel based counterparts. Li-ion batteries will only lose about 5% of the charge in one month as opposed to 20% from nickel batteries. Moreover, the battery life can be maximized when stored in cool temperatures, such as inside a refrigerator. At higher temperatures, the batteries will tend to degrade at a faster rate.

So, now that you know how lithium ion batteries work, you can take advantage of this knowledge and make maximum use out of your batteries. However, due to the make-up of these batteries, along with every other batteries, practice of proper disposal methods are recommended to protect the environment from hazardous chemicals that may leak from the batteries. Please check with your local recycling center and inquire about their recycling programs for batteries. You may also go to your local stores to drop off you batteries there. These stores include Batteries Plus, Best Buy, Black & Decker, The Home Depot, Radio Shack, Sears, Staples, Target, and Wal-Mart. If none of these retail stores are available to you, you may visit Call2Recycle.org website for more information.

If you’re like me, I hate getting sick! I always cringe when people are sneezing and coughing, and blowing their nose near me. The last thing I want now is to catch whatever they have! If my coworker is feeling ill, I want her to stay home and not spread whatever she has onto me. Getting sick sucks and I hate every aspect of it.

I have been able to avoid getting the flu for the past 3 years…that is until this year. I know the rampant growth of the infamous Swine Flu, or H1N1 virus is on everyone’s mind these days and I’m sure you’ve already researched at least a little about it to become more knowledgeable of it. That’s a good thing since we’re right smack in the middle of the winter season. For the past several weeks now, it has been the coldest of the season so far here in the suburbs of Maryland and learning ways to stay healthy this summer is not a bad idea. I’ve already been sick with the flu earlier this year and I do not want to catch it again. Here are some of the extra precautions I practice whenever I am outside or in public area:

1. Always Wash Hands: When I arrive at work, I will wash my hands. Before I eat anything, I will wash my hands. After using the restroom, I will wash my hands. When I come home from work, I will wash my hands. When I’m out to the grocery store, I will wash my hands when I come home. When I shake many people’s hands, I will wash my hands. And when I don’t have a chance to wash my hands in between these activities, I will never touch my face with my hands. I will never eat any food with my unwashed hands, unless I’m using utensils. See where I’m going with this? Wash hands whenever possible. I also keep a bottle of hand sanitizer on my work desk. That helps too.

2. Wear Gloves: I don’t just wear gloves outside when it’s cold, I wear them indoors too. I try to wear them when grocery shopping. The shopping cart is used by dozens of different people every day and I doubt the shopping centers sanitize the carts at all. So by using my bare hands to push the carts, I’m contracting all kinds of germs on my hands. If I accidentally rub my eyes after pushing the cart, the chance of contracting those germs into my body becomes very high. If i’m wearing gloves, I will minimize that chance. I also wear gloves when riding on the bus or the metro. Those handrails are full of germs and holding onto them bare hands is illness waiting to happen.

3. Wear A Hat and Scarf: My mom always told me to wear a hat and scarf when going outside when I was a kid. I hated wearing them because I got too sweaty too quick. But my mom knew what she was talking about. Most of the body heat escapes through our neck up, so by covering our necks, faces and heads, we retain heat in our body. Being exposed to cold itself won’t get you sick, but your body’s immune system becomes more vulnerable at chillier temperatures and you become more prone to contracting germs and viruses. So keep warm and keep germs out!

These are a few simple tips that I practice everyday. You can also exercise more to become more healthy and drink lots of citrus juice to boost your vitamin C intake. They’re good tips as well. So stay warm, stay clean, and stay healthy and avoid getting sick this winter!

When I first started my blog Money Green Life, the direction of the blog I was hoping was to write articles about saving energy and saving money at the same time. Since I have extensive knowledge about saving energy, I figured it was a good match. I still have visions of carrying out such hope as I will continue writing about the topic. However, I also have been having visions of expanding and writing about other topics that I am passionate about. I love the topic of energy, I’m always in the lookout for money saving/making opportunities, and I love playing poker. If these topics were to be combined together, you get a single common denominator in personal finance.

In this new direction of the blog, I plan to write about tips, advice, and reviews of products that help save energy thus saving money as I have been doing currently. In addition, I will also write about poker strategies that I have learned over the course of a few years I have been playing. With the money saved and money earned from saving energy and playing poker respectively, personal finance will come into play and I will write about tips and strategies that help to optimize money savings.

I am very excited with this new direction of this blog. I hope that you will find it useful.