Improve Your Standard of Living This Year

How can you improve your standard of living when times are tough? It seems contradictory, especially if you have lost much of your retirement or, worse, your job. But, here's a beginner's checklist:

• Use the economic trouble as an excuse to re-think what really matters. If your 401K has lost 10 years' worth of growth, maybe those 10 years could have been better spent on family, health, or loved ones.

• Make it your goal to truly LISTEN to your partner with no defensiveness or challenge. Probe her statements and (as Stephen Covey says) seek first to understand, then to be understood.

• Without fail, carve out 2 or 3 hours weekly to volunteer in your church or synagogue or some other cause that matters to you--and do it without taking time from the family.

• Read your Bible (preferably one with lots of help notes) or some other spiritual book that challenges your higher self and gets you thinking about the BIG questions.

Add your own ideas to this list and tackle it NOW. The payoff can be mended relationships, a new sense of spiritual well-being, and a higher standard of living.