Citizen Minute

As a New Yorker I am always deterred from living in the city due to its ludicrous rent prices. I am baffled tat New York does not make the #1 spot for expensive rent, its even more shocking that its not in the top 10.

Instead, the highest rents are found in San Francisco, California, where a two-bedroom apartment costs an average of $1,905 a month. San Francisco is deterred from building new buildings due to strict zoning laws. The social media boom has created jobs that pay well above 90k, in fact San Francisco families make an average of $93,400 a year and explains why housing is so expensive and the demand to live there.  TheIncome to Rent Ratio is below 30% explaining the market and high prices.

The Top 10 Most Expensive Rent Cities: Based on a 2 Bedroom Apartment

1. San Francisco, California: $1,905 — $76,200 — $93,400
2. Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut: $1,769 — $70,760 — $104,300
3. Honolulu, Hawaii: $1,767 — $81,700 — $70,680
4. Nassau-Suffolk, New York: $1,682 — $67,280 – $78,300
5. Orange County, California: $1,652 — $66,080 — $68,200
6. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California: $1,623 — $64,920 – $103,500
7. Westchester County, New York: $1,580 — $63,200 — $78,300
8. Bergen-Passaic, New Jersey — $1,515 — $60,600 — $78,300
9. Danbury, Connecticut: $1,512 — $60,480 –    $78,300
   
10. Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria, Virginia: $1,506 –     $60,240 — $103,500

Source: Daily Mail

Chewing gum is delicious, helps with your breath, and now can help you do better in the classroom.

Scientists from the University of Northumbria, in Newcastle upon Tyne discovered that chewing gum improves memory recognition by 35%.

The scientists have come up with two theories as to why chewing gum helps in memory recognition

1. Heart beat goes up, as a result more nutrients and oxygen is pumped up to your brain.
2. Insulin level’s go up, which in return help stimulate the area of the brain associated with memory.

There is also a clever trick when it comes to chewing gum.

• It will improve your memory for about 20-25 Minutes.

What can you do if you don’t have gum? Imaginary gum:

Another study that involved three test groups found that gum does help your memory recognition and pretending to chew gum works to a certain degree. The test subject with the gum scored highest on the tests, the subjects who pretended to chew gum scored better than the students who didn’t chew/pretend to chew at all. Their hypothesis also came down to heart rate. The Gum chewing group had a heart beat of 3x more than the students who didn’t chew gum. While the gum chewing group only had a heartbeat of 1.5x more than the students who pretended to chew gum.

There are many online resources that have vast articles explaining how to be more productive. How to do it, when to do it, why you should do it, and so on. The list goes on and on. Visuals work just as well as well thought out 5 page essays. Plus, who has all that time to read so much when you’re trying to be productive?

“The Simply Business Productivity” charts are a new way of solving your productive problems and pinpointing the root of your procrastination and distractions.

 

 

 

Original Source of news “http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2012/05/2012-05-04-improve-your-productivity/”

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iOS 6 is Apples next operating system that will be included on its iPhones, iPads, and iTouch’s. There are many new features to rave about and some that are expected.

Siri: Siri has received an update to its concierge services. Apple has updated Siri to integrate seamlessly with a host of new Apps:

• Yelp: Its reviews are now integrated into Siri’s services, you can ask for a restaurant and Siri will give you a restaurants name and its ratings.
• OpenTable: Siri can now make reservations for you at your favorite restaurant!
• IMDB: Siri has access to its reviews and upcoming movie information, you can ask away about Prometheus and Siri would give you rating information, such as.. that its an OK movie.
• Fandango: Fandango will be able to locate tickets and times, and even allow you to purchase them once Siri finds your time and showing.
• Rotten Tomatos: Want to know about the actors in the Avengers? No problem! Ask Siri and it will get you information on all of its actors and directors.
• Siri also has the ability to get the score for a game, or the statistics for the entire league.

Facebook Integration: Not much to say here. Apple has incorporated Facebook into its mobile operating system. You can now post a picture directly to Facebook with out loading the Facebook app or going to m.Facebook.com, its integration is similar to Twitter. Calenders and contacts are now synchronized as well, you will get notifications of your friends upcoming birthday and contact info from their Facebook profile. The Facebook integration API will be given to developers as well, so they can utilize the integration advantage in future versions of Apps.

New Phone Call Features: New phone call features have been announced. You will have the option to ignore phone calls politely by responding with a simple message such as “I’ll call you later” “whats up” or a custom version. There will be a do not disturb option that will ignore phone calls at the time you specified, which should come in handy if you are at a meeting or at church.

Safari Live SynchronizationHave you ever found something really cool on your iPhone or iPad and wanted to see it on a bigger screen such as your iMac or MacBook? Or have you been on a flash website not accessible through the iPad or iPhone? Well many people have and Apple has heard their voices. Safari will now have Live Synchronization of internet tabs. If you stumble upon a flash website and receive its mocking rejection page because your iPhone does not support flash, don’t worry. The tab will be saved and you can jump onto your MacBook and load that page up!

Look how it just mocks you and your iPhone

Other update include landscape full navigation (no address bar and such). There will also be the ability to download web pages to read when you have no internet access, which should come in handy in dead zones or the subway.

Photo Stream on iCloud

Your iCloud can be now utilized to include your own personal photo stream that you can access across all your apple devices. You will also have the ability to preselect certain people to be allowed to view your photo stream.

VIP Mail

You have the ability to add certain people’s emails to the VIP folder and all their emails will be readable from that folder. Its a clever way to avoid spam and make sure you don’t miss your VIP’s messages.

Passbook

Passbook is technically your mobile wallet. You can track how much money you have left on your gift cards such as your Starbucks and Target. It will also have the ability to alert you on your flight, train ticket, games tickets and so on. Any QR code can be scanned and it will keep track of any events or gift card balances.

Okay, what we’re going to talk about is plain and simple as the title states. We’re not going to go into the finance of getting an apartment we’re just going to talk about the simple straight answer as to whether or not it would be a good idea to get one. Magic Formula: Income = Rent * 3 

Situation 1: You are a Walmart cashier making $12 an hour. You work full-time 40 hours a week. You want to rent a cheap apartment that cost around $700 per month. Are you able to afford it? Bi-Weekly Paycheck: 80 hours x $12 = $960. Now take 25% off that from taxes and you are left with $720 every 2 weeks. Your monthly income after tax will be $1,440. Okay now lets look at this. Your monthly hard gain cash will be $1,440 and you want to spend $700 of that money on rent. That’s almost half of your money gone! That’s not even including groceries or utilities. At the end of the month you are left with $740 which is not including groceries, utilities or other expense for your self. Using the magic formula [$700 * 3 = $2,100] you should be making at least $2,100 each month if you want to pull living off of $700 in rent. At the moment you can only afford $480 in rent. [$480 * 3 = 1,440]  

Situation 2: You are a financial analyst working at Goldman Sachs on a $100,000 salary. You want to rent an apartment in Manhattan for $2,000. C an you afford it? Let’s break this salary down. $100,000 Salary After Tax: $75,000 (Deduct 25%) Monthly Salary After TAX: $6,250 ($75,000 / 12) Magic Formula : $2,000 * 3  = $6,000! Yes YOU can afford it….. by a thin line…. Okay let me explain those calculations for those who are a bit slow. You work $6,250 a month after tax so that means you have $6,250 in your pocket! You take out $2,000 from your pocket to pay for the month’s rent and now you are left with $4,250 cash in your pocket. With that money you can pay for groceries and utilities. You can also live comfortable buying clothes going on dates and even saving! But remember that $2,000 is gone for good….. by the time the year ends you will have lost $24,000 hard cash on rent.

So is it smart to rent or should you be thinking about BUYING instead? Stay tune for the next article!  

The new line of Apple’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have been announced. MacBook Air

Spec bumped

Apple has remained with the same overall design of thin, long battery life, and light work load usability. The new MacBook Air has received a set of updated features. The processing chip has been upgraded to Intel’s 3rd generation ivy bridge which works more efficiently and faster on its 32nm design. The customized ivy bridge chip runs up to 2.0 Ghz compared to the MacBook’s Air 1.7 Ghz on Intel’s Sandy Bridge. The ram has been upgraded to 4GB across all options. SSD options are up to 512GB. Facetime camera has been updated to be able to play 720p and USB 3.0 are other goodies packaged in the new Air. Oh yeah the starting price has received a $100 price reduction. 11” MacBook Air’s now start at $999 & 13” $1199 MacBook Pro + Retina Display

More options! Power to the consumers! 

Apple announced its long awaited MacBook Pro refresh today. The Retina/ High Pixel Density Display trend continues, announcing its new Retina Display MacBook Pro with a display of 2800 x 1600. The announcement is actually of two different MacBook Pro’s for sale. The normal 1440 x 900 and the Retina Display model. The new MacBook also has a new infamous thickness of .71 inches following in the foot steps of its MacBook Air cousin. Aside from a new HPDD display the guts of the Pro have been updated, Here’s a list of the new features: Retina Display

• Intel ivy Bridge Processors up 2.7 Ghz Quad Core Processor
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• 8GB Ram up to 16GB
• 720p FaceTime HD camera
• 256GB SSD, Up to 512 GB SSD

New Features for: MacBook Pro: Normal Display

• Intel ivy Bridge Processors up 2.7 Ghz Quad Core Processor
• Intel 4000 HD Graphics, Optional NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• 500GB 5400rpm HD, or SSD Options
• 720p FaceTime HD camera
• 4GB Ram up to 8GB

Other features are the loss of an optical drive, fire wire ports, and Ethernet ports. The Thunderbolt port will have adapters for people in need of a fire wire connection and/or Ethernet port.  

will most likely cost $100 or so

Prices start at: Normal Display: 13” $1,199 15” $1,799 Retina Display: 15” $2,199

A recent study conducted by Morgan Stanley finds that potential Tablet buyers will flock to Microsoft Window 8 Tablets once released. According to the survey people intending to buy a tablet soon will mostly flock to the iPad(46%) then Windows 8 Tablets (25%) and Android Tablets (22%)

Better Late Than Never

The key features attracting buyers to Microsoft tablets are the inclusion of Microsoft Office, more importantly products such as Word, Excel, Power Point and Exchange. Other key features are synchronization of their files and media. Microsoft is planning to make a very tight knit Eco system with the Windows 8 Platform that will include the Xbox, Windows 8 Desktop/Laptop, Windows Phone 8, and other services such as their cloud program SkyDrive. The other significant factor in Tablet Operating System selection is the quality/availability of Apps. Windows 8 will launch with more than 100,000 Apps from its Windows 7 Platform and any new specific Windows 8 Apps. The quality of some Windows Phone 7 Apps are questionable, but the majority are big hits on iOS and Android.

Somewhere Steve Ballmer is Smiling Proudly

Well, I’m sure we all know what certificates of deposits are. They work basically like a savings account however, there is a minimum amount that you can deposit and after you deposit it, you won’t be able to touch it. If you touch the money before its time period, you will lose money. So let’s look at the interest rate and decide if CD’s are really worth it or not. Citibank / JP Morgan For a 1-Year CD from a deposit of below $10,000 to $1,000,000+, the interest rate you get stands the same from 0.25%. Now let’s look at this really carefully. 0.25% means 0.0025. Let’s say you have a CD of $10,000 at Citibank for 1 year. After that 1 year you will earn only $25! Is it worth not touching that $10,000 to get just $25 dollars at the end of the year? You decide for yourself. For 2-3 Years CD’s, you can earn around 0.40% - 0.50% interest rate at the end of each year. But is it still worth it? Let’s say you deposited $100,000 into CD’s for 3 years for 0.50%. At the end of the first year you will earn $500 interest on that $100,000. The second year interest will be $100,500 * 0.0050 which will earn you $502.5 and the third year interest will be $505. The total interest you will earn in 3 years will be $1507.5. Now let’s look at this number real carefully and compare it. Would YOU be willing to put aside $100,000 for 3 years without touching or using it, all just for $1507.5? That’s up to you to decide :)

Many people out there are just sitting at home, wasting time and not making any money. Time is precious and those who can put time to use can reap the benefits later on with a little bit of motivation and hard work. If you are one of those people who don’t have a job, after reading this article you should be on your way to having one soon. Career Services If you are a college student or a high school student. Check online for your school’s career service. Just simply go to google.com and type in [“Your school name” Career Service] and it should take you to your school’s career’s page. On that page learn how you can apply for the thousands of available jobs and internship there. You don’t have to do it alone, get in contact with your school advisor for guidance now! USA Jobs This is a government site that has updated job opening positions that anyone can apply to depending on the requirements. You have jobs from varies industries and millions to choose from. Go on the website, look for jobs that are interested to you and create a profile now! http://www.usajobs.gov/ Monster This is another great site for job search! On this site, you can build your own resume with some really professional templates. It will make your resume stand out from the crowd. Then after you build your resume you can submit it to different jobs that interest you. So don’t just sit around, start applying now! http://www.monster.com/

This section is mainly for people who have a net worth of $1M or higher. People who are CEO’s, VP, Actors etc. People who have some kind of reputation that sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.

Emporio Armani: You have accomplished something not many other people have accomplished if you are in one of these suits. They show power and prestige. Getting one of these suits means you have a reputation of some sort. Emporio Armani suits are designed from the best materials in the world and it can last for ages! Get on hands on a good Emporio Armani suit and you won’t be looking to buying another suit for quite a while.

Ralph Lauren Black Label: Perfect suit for a CEO of one of the fortune 500 companies. It’s perfectly designed and tailored. Also made with the best materials in the world along with an expert designer. The price of these suits ranges from $1,500 - $3,000.

Gucci: One of the best suits out there in the world. Get your hand on one of this and you’re a star. If you have ever watched White Collar, the main character Neal always wears one of these suits. It’s well made, slim fit, and it makes you look outstanding.

This section is mainly for people who just started working or for people who just started their own business. Someone who has a net worth below $1M could be consider an audience for this article.

Stores:

Charles Tyrwhitt: There suits are awesome. They are designed perfectly especially their Black Label Collection. If you are in one of their Black Label Suits, you will be instantly recognized as someone with some sort of reputation.

Macys: Macy’s higher end suits are great especially their Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren selection. With a bit of tailoring, these suits can make you look like a million bucks!

Men’s Warehouse: Another great place would be Men’s Warehouse. Although these suits aren’t very slim fit, you could easily take it to a tailor to rearrange the size. Their suits are good quality and can last for years!