What I've learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0166

8251.  It’s okay to stretch a little, but don’t stretch beyond what you can actually pay.  If you make a poor financial decision up front, you’ll end up struggling and it can compound and become a bigger problem throughout the life of your loan.  It can undo all the hard work you’ve put into the other areas of your financial life;

8252.  To make a sound decision about buying a house: 1.  Check your credit score. – The higher your score, the better the interest rate on your mortgage will be.  If your credit score is low, it might be a better decision to delay buying until you can improve your score.  Good credit translates into not only a lower total cost, but lower monthly payments; 2.  Save as much (money) as possible for a down payment. – If you can’t save enough to put 20% down, you’ll have to get Private Mortgage Insurance (“PMI”), which serves as insurance against you defaulting.  PMI typically costs between .5-1% of the mortgage plus an annual charge.  The more you put down, the less PMI you’ll have to pay.  If you haven’t been able to save at least 10% to put down, stop thinking about buying a house; 3.  Calculate the total amount of buying a new house. – Even small surprises will end up costing you a lot of money.  Ideally the total price shouldn’t be much more than 3 times your gross annual income.  You should ask your parents and other homeowners for surprise costs or just research “surprise costs of owning a house;” 4.  Get the most conservative, boring loan possible. – Get a 30-year fixed-rate loan.  You’ll pay more in interest compared to a 15-year loan, but a 30-year loan is more flexible to repay; 5.  Don’t forget to check for perks. – Many state and local governments offer benefits for first-time home buyers.  Don’t forget to check with any associations you belong to including local credit unions, alumni associations and teacher’s associations.  You may get access to special lower mortgage rates.  Even check your Costco membership.  They offer special rates for members too; and 6.  Use online services to comparison shop. – Check Zillow.com, Redfin.com and Trulia.com for home prices and information about buying a house including tax records and neighborhood reviews.  Check Insure.com for homeowner’s insurance.  And don’t forget to call your auto insurance company and ask them for a discounted rate if you give them your homeowner’s insurance business;

8253.  Myths about owning a home: 1.  Prices in real estate always go up. – Net house prices haven’t increased when you factor in inflation, taxes and other homeowner fees.  They appear to be higher because the sticker price is higher; 2.  You can use leverage to increase your money. – True, but leverage can work against you if the price goes down; 3.  I can deduct my mortgage interest from my taxes and save a lot of money. – Tax savings are great, but people forget they’re saving money they ordinarily would never have spent.  The amount you pay out owning a house is much higher than you would for any rental when you include maintenance, renovations, higher insurance costs, etc.;

8254.  Set up an automatic savings plan.  Assume you’ll spend $35,000.00 on your wedding, $20,000.00 on a care, $20,000.00 for the first 2 years of your first-born child and however much you’ll need for a typical down payment for a house in your city and then figure out how much you need to save;

8255.  You can’t have the best of everything so prioritize;

8256.  (I can say) I’ve been to a (National) League Championship Series game (with 43,975 other people);

8257.  (I can say) I’ve seen a (National) League Championship Series clinching-win;

8258.  The 2019 Washington Nationals became the 4^th team in baseball history – after the 1914 Boston Braves, the 1973 New York Mets and the 2005 Houston Astros – to go from 12 games below .500 in the summer to the World Series in the fall;

8259.  The 2019 Washington Nationals held a lead in 31 of 36 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals and became (just) the 7^th team to never trail in a best-of-seven playoff series;

8260.  The Minnesota Twins used to be the Washington Senators;

8261.  The “patatas bravas” (i.e., fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce & aioli) at Jaleo are (pretty) tasty . . . and so is the “espinacas a la Catalana” (i.e., sautéed spinach with pine nuts, raisins & apples);

8262.  Wow, I actually do like cauliflower (specifically the “coliflor salteada con aceitunas y datiles” (i.e., sautéed cauliflower with dates & olives) at Jaleo);

8263.  Apparently, giving someone the “cold shoulder”/”silent treatment” is considered psychological abuse . . . and it’s passive-aggressive;

8264.  You don’t have to be rich to be a philanthropist just as you don’t have to be rich to invest;

8265.  Top leaders of 200 of the nation’s biggest companies were carefully studied.  Corporate leaders were exceptionally good at academic knowledge, technical skills and the ability to manage their own emotions;

8266.  Emotional intelligence contributed twice as much to their success than all other 3 factors put together;

8267.  Intelligence alone doesn’t take us too far in life unless it is backed by the ability to understand and manage our (and other people’s) emotions;

8268.  While intelligence and technical ability can ascertain if you will be a good fit for a particular industry or role, it is your ability to manage emotions that will determine how good you are at performing the role;

8269.  A study conducted on students by the Yale University Center for emotional intelligence concluded that adolescents who possess high emotional intelligence are less anxious, are seldom bogged down by depression and are less likely to resort to addictions (i.e., alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, etc.).  They are also less aggressive and less likely to display signs of becoming a bully.  Their attention span is higher; they tend to be less hyper and are known to display leadership skills.  These students also excel at academics and the ability to cope with challenges related to it;

8270.  Intellectual prowess without the ability to manage emotions won’t lead us on a path to success because at the end of the day we have to deal with people all the time;

8271.  Emotional intelligence without technical skills and IQ will not lead us in the right direction;

8272.  Emotional quotient and intelligence quotient both complement each other to ensure overall success in different spheres of an individual’s life;

8273.  No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care;

8274.  According to a study conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership, 75% of all careers go astray owing to emotional incompetency, the inability to deal with interpersonal issues, unsatisfactory leadership skills during crisis or conflicts, the inability to inspire people’s trust and failure to adapt;

8275.  Your emotional quotient is not etched in stone.  It isn’t something that can never be altered;

8276.  You don’t need to give natural childbirth to a good idea.  You can adopt!

8277.  A huge component of emotional and social intelligence is being open, agreeable and flexible;

8278.  Social intelligence is about accepting and respecting other people’s perspectives even if it is different from your own.  It is about being flexible enough to identify and incorporate the good in other people’s suggestions;

8279.  People who lack social intelligence often become increasingly anxious in a social situation which hinders their ability to connect with people;

8280.  Signs that you lack social and emotional intelligence: 1.  You often think people are being too sensitive to your humor or jokes and are overreacting; 2.  You jump into any conversation with absolute assertiveness and refuse to budge most of the time.  You are also quick to defend your stand with gusto should anyone even question it reasonably; 3.  You think social popularity and being liked in your workplace is grossly overrated.  As long as you do your work and deliver results, it shouldn’t matter whether people like you or not; 4.  You have extremely high expectations of yourself and others many times bordering on unreasonable and impractical; 5.  You get irritated and frustrated when others expect you to understand how they feel.  Your thought process is, “How am I supposed to know or understand someone else’s feelings without them talking to me about it?”; 6.  Most of the time you feel like people don’t understand your point or know where you are coming from which makes you annoyed and upset; and 7.  You always find yourself blaming other people and circumstances for your shortcomings and failures.  You seldom accept responsibility and accountability for your acts and you pass the buck elsewhere;

8281.  Self-awareness is the ability to identify or understand one’s own emotions;

8282.  Self-awareness is also being able to manage your emotions and understand their impact on other people.  It is about knowing how your mood, behavior, attitude and feelings can affect others around you and, therefore, managing your emotions to create the desired effect on others;

8283.  Self-aware people have a wonderful sense of humor, can view the positives in any situation, are self-assured about their abilities and are fully aware of the impact they have on others or how others see them;

8284.  Emotionally intelligent people can regulate, control and manage their emotions.  They seldom react on impulse or give in to involuntary responses.  Their responses are more well-thought and considered;

8285.  Emotionally intelligent people are smart enough to understand the right place and time to express those emotions in an appropriate manner;

8286.  People who are high in self-regulation are more flexible, agreeable and have the ability to adapt effectively to change.  They are wonderful at conflict management and diffusing potentially volatile situations.  The increased self-regulation also leads to a greater sense of conscientiousness.  These folks have a good grip on the impact they have on others and accept responsibility for their behavior;

8287.  Emotionally intelligent people are intrinsically motivated by elements that go beyond recognition, rewards, money, fame and other similar things.  They are driven by an inner desire to fulfill their objectives and passions.  They crave internal rewards and gain their high from doing things they love;

8288.  People who are intrinsically motivated are more action-oriented when it comes to setting and fulfilling goals.  They have a high need for accomplishment and are constantly looking for ways to improve their performance;

8289.  Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes to understand things from her/his perspective;

8290.  Empathy is about recognizing and understanding the other person’s emotional state as well as knowing how best to respond to the person’s emotions based on the available emotional information;

8291.  Being empathetic allows you to be a good leader and understand the feelings of your team or followers without much effort;

8292.  Practice observing and identifying your feelings all day.  How do certain experiences at various points in time during the day make you feel?

8293.  Labeling emotions makes it easier to identify specific emotions because even emotions like anger can have several different forms.  It can be anger out of humiliation, anger induced by a feeling of jealousy or anger owing to expectations that are not met;

8294.  Naming your emotions makes it easier to identify and manage them.  This practice also lets you take a step back from reacting impulsively and focusing on the cognitive parts of the brain for resolving issues.  It will help you understand and make sense of your feelings more effectively;

8295.  Consciously pay more attention to your emotions and link them to everyday experiences;

8296.  When you kill physical stress, the mental stress naturally melts away;

8297.  Each time you find yourself feeling stressed or tensed, take a slow, deep breath.  Focus completely on your breath and practice deep breathing.  Pay attention to how it feels to have oxygen enter your lungs.  Notice how your mouth, throat, lungs and abdomen feel when you breathe in and out.  Concentrate on the flow of air in and out of the abdominal cavity.  Taking even a few deep breaths will make you feel better and you will be in a positive frame of mind while interacting with other people;

8298.  Each time you find yourself diverting focus away from your breath, gently acknowledge the feeling without judging it and move the focus back to your breath.  Stay in the present moment in a purposeful manner.  Avoid thinking about the past or future and focus only on the breath;

8299.  Practice mindfulness (i.e., focus your attention on the present moment in a purposeful and nonjudgmental manner) in all spheres of life to calm down your spirit (especially if you happen to be hot-tempered or easily irritable);

8300.  Even though you may completely believe that your perspective or way of looking at things is right, get into the habit of considering it from different angles rather than giving in to knee-jerk responses;