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Showing posts from November, 2024

Electric Vehicles and How to Take Advantage of Current Financial Benefits

I recently leased my first electric vehicle (EV)—a Toyota bZ4X. I love the responsive acceleration and panoramic moonroof, and I definitely don’t miss having to stop at gas stations. But another great advantage to having an EV, aside from helping the planet, is the various financial incentives associated with it. Let’s take a look at a few. Federal tax credit basics The New Clean Vehicle Tax Credit is a federal credit available to individuals or businesses that purchase an EV between 2023 and 2032. To take advantage of this up to $7,500 tax credit, you need to own a car that is a new, qualified plug-in EV or fuel cell electric vehicle for your own use (not for resale) in the United States. A federal credit of up to $4,000 is available for the purchase of used EVs, but some restrictions apply. To find out which cars qualify, you can visit the U.S. Department of Energy website. Limitations To claim this credit, married couples who file their tax return jointly cannot have an adjust...

Giving Tuesday Is Around the Corner—Does Your Nonprofit Have What It Needs to Reach Its Fundraising Goals?

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Giving Tuesday is coming up, and it’s time for nonprofits to start reaching out to request donations. But after a strenuous election season during which donors have been giving left and right, are people ready to respond to more solicitations? And what can nonprofits do to make sure they meet their income needs for the end of the year? Several experts have weighed in to discuss the current environment and how nonprofits can thrive this year. Despite potential election ‘donor fatigue,’ nonprofit donations may increase Many people donated during the recent presidential election—but they may still be interested in donating to their favorite charity this winter. They might even donate more than usual, according to Ben Miller, senior vice president of data science and analytics at Bonterra , a social good tech company. “Because [certain] topics [are] very much at the center of politics,” he says, “people who are supporting candidates who are trying to protect [certain] rights also simi...

How to Say No to Prevent Burnout at Work and Home

NO: Two little letters with big meaning when used correctly. The word “no” has the power to prevent burnout by helping us draw boundaries and set priorities in our personal and professional lives. Saying “no” allows us more time to say “yes” to what matters most to us so our schedules better reflect our values. Arivee Vargas, a certified executive coach in the Boston area, works with women on burnout prevention and uses the word “no” to do so. She speaks from a place of experience. “Burnout isn’t just ‘I had a stressful week.’ It’s a chronic stressful period, meaning it is a long period of time. You become ineffective. You become nonfunctional,” she says. “It was a very dark time for me because it was coupled with depression and anxiety. I would say I’d been through depressive episodes before, like postpartum… but nothing as dark, as bad as burnout.” Though she had some potential support, such as parents who lived nearby as she navigated work and parenthood, she says she wasn’t one...

Beyond Ballots: Navigating Holiday Gatherings After a Divisive Election

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After nine years of divisive election rhetoric, many families are hanging by a thread as we head into the 2024 holiday season. Regardless of which side of the political aisle you are on, we can all agree that over the last decade, politics have taken a new direction. Who you vote for has become synonymous with what you value—and even with who you are as a person. When those closest to you have different perspectives on candidates and policies, it can be jarring to realize that their values no longer align with yours.  In 2016, I found myself with political views that opposed my family’s for the first time in my life. I felt conflicted and confused—how could people I had spent so much time with and thought I knew so well have values that were so different from my own? As a result, the thought of spending the holiday season arguing about politics filled me with intense dread and anxiety. What I discovered was that if you have the right tools, your holiday season doesn’t need to be ...

Author Caroline Miller Uses Science to Upend Old Formulas on Setting and Achieving Goals

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Goal setting is broken, and Caroline Miller wants to fix it. The author of Getting Grit and Creating Your Best Life , Miller says the problem is that too much of goal setting is based on anecdote-based “magic,” as she calls it, when there is science to back up a more productive way to set, pursue and achieve relevant goals. Her latest book, Big Goals: The Science of Setting Them, Achieving Them, and Creating Your Best Life , has been nominated for the Next Big Idea Club . It lays out her BRIDGE methodology—brainstorming, relationships, investments, decisions, grit and excellence—“to improve your pursuit of goal accomplishment and establish more effective pathways to success.” Her goal for the book is nothing short of disrupting goal setting to helping readers “make their lives happier and feel more meaningful.” She spoke with SUCCESS writer Matt Crossman about her book. This interview has been edited for length. SUCCESS: You’ve read just about everything there is to read on this t...

Is Your Business Culturally Sensitive? What Businesses Can Learn From the Simu Liu Boba Tea Controversy

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Canadian entertainment network CBC has a Shark Tank–like show called Dragons’ Den , where investors hear pitches from businesses looking for funding. This season, Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu—who starred in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings —was a guest “dragon” and prospective investor on an episode.  The owners of a Quebec-based bubble tea company called Bobba came to Dragons’ Den on this episode, seeking a $1 million investment to grow their brand. As they pitched, the tension between Simu Liu and Bobba founders Sebastien Fiset and Jess Frenette became apparent.  Boba tea is a Taiwanese tea drink that has recently risen in popularity in the United States. However, Frenette described boba, or bubble tea, as a “ trendy, sugary drink ” and suggested that consumers are “ never quite sure about its contents .” Liu took issue with the founders’ plan to “disrupt” the market with their product and raised questions concerning the company’s supposed cultural a...

How to Recover From Burnout And Rediscover Balance In Your Life

We’ve likely all been there. Overflowing inboxes at work, household chores piling up at home or overbooked social calendars can make you feel drained, overwhelmed and exhausted. Burnout affects so many of us. A survey by Indeed found burnout on the rise, with over half (52%) of respondents feeling symptoms. Similarly, a May 2024 Research Series found almost half (44%) of respondents suffered from burnout, while the 2023 Work in America Survey indicated 57% experienced negative impacts associated with burnout. Burnout can affect anyone, as I experienced firsthand when balancing a remote job and a brand-new baby. I always found great pride in my work, but juggling daily responsibilities while changing diapers made me feel lost, overwhelmed and exhausted. Setting boundaries, sticking to them and practicing self-care helped me separate my job from my home life. As a result, I felt more energized and happy, and I rediscovered my passion for work. There’s no doubt about it—dealing with ...

10 Products That Will Help You Achieve a Better Work-Life Balance

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Is work taking over your personal life? Or do you constantly deal with personal thoughts, tasks and interruptions while you work? If you are one of the lucky ones to answer “no” to these questions, you may have already achieved the Holy Grail of the 21st century—“ work-life balance .” In a world where employees are increasingly reporting burnout , mental health concerns and dissatisfaction with their work, this type of balance just might be the secret to lasting happiness. Workers who are centered, happy, healthy and have all their basic needs met are much more likely to achieve their work goals. While products alone won’t get you there, here are a few to help you move in the right direction, or at least have a little fun along the way. 1. Olive & Cocoa succulent arrangements Courtesy of Oliveandcocoa.com Just because you don’t have a green thumb doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the benefits of reduced stress and purified air that plants can provide. These succulent arrangemen...

How Happier Employees Give Your Bottom Line a Boost

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It’s been said time and again: Employees can make or break a business. But could the way management treats those same workers make a noticeable difference in the bottom line? New research suggests that it could. A report showed “for the first time” a positive correlation between a company’s use of worker-centered strategies and its financial growth.  Workplace policy research Researchers at the Future Forward Institute, including Harvard lecturer Dr. Angela Jackson , compared workplace policies and practices with financial data for 355 companies on the Fortune 500 list. Their goal? Determine the financial costs and benefits associated with the strategies used in Jackson’s Win-Win Workplace framework, which focuses on centering employee needs and creating an equitable work environment.  A number of promising results came out of the research, including strong profit performance among businesses that ranked high in centering their workers’ voices .  In fact, nearly hal...

5 Tips to Reintroduce Harmony Between Work and Home

When publicist Kari Torstenson and her husband decided they were ready to start a family, she wasn’t sure if she could stay in her career. The 9-to-5 lifestyle of commuting to an office, managing a team and maintaining a busy calendar filled with client projects wasn’t going to be sustainable once she became a mom, or so she thought. Growing up a millennial, she never witnessed more than two options for mothers. “You either worked and your kid went to day care all day… or [you were] a stay-at-home mom… I never really saw anything in between,” she says. Early in her first pregnancy, Torstenson decided to figure out a new path. She reconnected with a friend with whom she’d worked as an intern in her early 20s who offered her a contract role. Her pay would be influenced by the number of clients she helped to bring on, and she wouldn’t have an official maternity leave, which made the move risky, but she’d be able to work from home as a mother and control her own hours. “It didn’t take ...

Why OpenAI Is Paying Millions to License Content

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The announcement of OpenAI’s ​​​​​​ $16 million licensing deal with Dotdash Meredith sheds light on a pivotal shift in how AI systems like ChatGPT are trained: by leveraging high-quality, human-generated content. This agreement signals a deeper collaboration between AI developers and media organizations, reshaping the relationship between technology and publishing while raising critical questions about ethics, economics and control over intellectual property. AI’s appetite for licensed content Training advanced AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT requires vast amounts of high-quality data. Human-generated content—like the articles, reviews and tutorials produced by Dotdash Meredith—offers precisely the level of nuance and accuracy needed to improve AI responses. Licensing this content ensures OpenAI has access to reliable datasets without infringing on copyright, a growing concern among publishers. Dotdash Meredith isn’t the first media company to ink such a deal. The Associated Press...