| Little secrets can be useful. An example is knowing | | | | websites that claimed "cheap international airfare." The |
| that hotel mattresses are less worn and more | | | | cheapest from Traverse City, Michigan (where I lived |
| comfortable on the side away from the phone. Or | | | | at the time) to Quito, Ecuador, was $1720. Out of |
| knowing that listening to Mozart's sonata for Two | | | | curiosity, I checked Miami to Quito: only $404. Traverse |
| Pianos in D Major, K. 448 for ten minutes can raise | | | | City to Miami: $299. $703 total! Book two separate |
| your IQ 9 points.They can also be just interesting. Did | | | | flights and save more than $1000! The discount sites |
| you know that the furthest point from the center of | | | | aren't set up to check in this way for you, so you have |
| the earth isn't Everest, but the top of Mount | | | | to do this on your own.- If you have good credit, you |
| Chimborazo, in Ecuador (due to the bulge in the planet | | | | don't have to pay annual fees on credit cards. Call and |
| near the equator)? Here are some little secrets that | | | | ask for the fee to be removed. I first did this years |
| are a little of both.- Find money in bibles. Hotel owners | | | | ago. On three out of four cards, they dropped the fee. |
| report that visitors tuck money in the bedside bible, and | | | | For the fourth, I dropped the card. In fact the threat of |
| forget to take it with them. Check those bibles!- Find | | | | closing the account is what got the fees dropped on |
| treasure in hotel rooms. Treasure hunters have found | | | | the others. There are many of these little secrets that |
| that businessmen take off and hide their wedding rings | | | | credit card companies don't want you to know.- An |
| in hotel rooms, before they head to the bars. They | | | | energy transfer motivation secret. Talk about anything |
| sometimes forget them when they check out. Where | | | | you're passionate about, and then transfer the energy |
| would you hide something? There may already be | | | | created to what you need to work on. If talking politics |
| something there.- Reduce debt with a letter. In a truly | | | | gets you going, for example, do that, and then work on |
| tough situation, write a nice letter to creditors, asking | | | | your goal. It's even more effective if you can connect |
| them if they would accept 30% (or 50%, or whatever) | | | | the two in your mind. If making money is your goal, for |
| of your balance as payment in full, if you can raise the | | | | example, you could tell yourself, "With more money, I |
| cash before filing bankruptcy. They know they'll get | | | | can find ways to change things politically."- In a book of |
| nothing if you file. I have seen more than one person | | | | little health secrets I read that tee tree oil might remove |
| eliminate a large chunk of their debt in this way. A | | | | a growth I'd had for ten years on my nose. I applied a |
| lawyer or "representative" can write it for you, and | | | | drop to the lump each day. In six weeks, the lump was |
| they may pay more attention.- To always have | | | | gone. Coincidence? I don't think so. I later had a larger |
| something interesting to say, train yourself to look at | | | | growth on my neck. Unfortunately, for several years, I |
| things from other perspectives. What would the | | | | couldn't remember what I had used the first time. |
| Buddha say about this? How would a Martian view it? | | | | When I finally found my old notes, I used tea tree oil |
| What's the opposite perspective? The point is to see | | | | again, and the lump was gone in about six weeks. |
| what interesting ideas result. Do this until it's a habit, and | | | | There are reasons that doctors don't tell us these little |
| you'll always have something interesting to add to a | | | | secrets.Steve Gillman has been hunting down obscure |
| conversation.- Book two flights to save big bucks. | | | | knowledge and useful secrets for years. |
| When I was going to Ecuador, I checked several | | | | |