Get Organized

Financial Fitness

Beginning a new year means setting goals, making resolutions and, of course, celebrating New Year's Eve. These sites may aid you in celebrating and in keeping your promises...

Entering the New Millennium

Worldwide Observatory of the Year 2000: From the top of the Eiffel Tower, everything you've always wanted to know about the Year 2000 around the world, or join the Millennium Society at an extravaganza that will rival the Ball Drop in Times Square.

Are you celebrating 2000 as the start of the millennium or are you a purist celebrating in 2001? Either way this JavaScript countdown clock works off your computer's clock and you can check your computer's time against the US Navy Atomic Clock.

The United Nations has invited the world to create One Day In Peace, January 1, 2000 as the beginning of the (International Year for the Culture of Peace)! 1000 organizations in over 130 nations are spreading the word.

Time/CNN says that 75% of Americans will be staying home for this New Year's Eve. If you're one of those families, try take a look at the Family Game Night site.

Find out the History of the New Year from Babylon to Times Square and what millennium it is, anyway.

Where else is there a celebration like this? New York's Times Square is the place!

When does the new millennium begin? Check out the polls. Countdown 2000 is packed with the latest news, hype, and countdown clocks and is the place to buy your I Survived The Millennium T-shirt.

Which was your favorite year? The Millennium has a review of the 20th Century "year by year" or "decade by decade"

Chinese New Year

Beginning February 5, 2000, Chinese or Lunar New Year is the longest and most important Chinese festival of the year. The celebration usually includes repayment debts, purchasing new clothes, thoroughly cleaning the house, enjoying sumptuous family feasts, offering sacrifices to the gods, and giving friends and relatives red envelopes containing "lucky money". For fun, information, greeting cards, your Zodiac horoscope, lots of links, and a look at the Postal Service's "Chinese New Year" stamp check out the Chasso website.

Calendars

For all kinds of calendars (celestial, geographical, historic, or religious), CalendarZone is the place on the web to look first. And for calendars for almost every religion or world region, Infoplease.com has an extensive selection.

Twinkle, twinkle little star, tell us what our futures are! Check your tech horoscope at Astrology-Numerology.com site. Remember, today may just be the day to back up your hard drive!

Fitness and Diet

If a grip on fitness and diet is in your New Year's Resolutions, these sites might help you chart a course of action...

• Healthy Living - Online health and fitness resource.
• Lifelines - Resources for improvement of health, productivity, and effectiveness.
• HealthFinder - Gateway to consumer health and human services information.
• The Mayo Clinic's Index - Information on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease and more.
• Tufts University Nutrition Navigator - The fastest, most reliable way to find sound nutrition information.
• Stress Reduction from Dr. Andrew Weil - Brought to you by Dr. Weil himself.
• Diet Analysis - After entering food you've eaten, this site generates a reports based on the Recommended Dietary Allowances.

Getting Organized

Being organized means more than filing papers, using a daily list, and knowing what time to be where. It's a habit, much the same as any other skill you master. Tips from Everything's Organized will help you organize your home office, get ahead, take control of projects and maintain balance in your life.

Achievement Solutions is a new program that uses technology for effective goal setting. Consistency is the glue that keeps actions powerful, goals on track, and life in balance and PowerGoal gives you a graphical representation of your achievements in 7, 14 and 21-day graphs.

Financial Plans & Strategy

How do you invest to meet your goals? There are no one-size-fits-all investments. Of course, the best investment you can make (and enjoy) is in your home. Today's interest rates are the lowest in 30 years and the Tax Reform Act of 1997 has added some extra benefits to home ownership. Now might be a great time to buy a larger or newer home.

Having said that, we've included some sites to help you manage your all your assets...

Infoseek's Finance & Investment section will help you chart your financial future. This site features calculators, quizzes, news, articles, and links to sites to help you plan everything from your monthly budget to drawing on your retirement assets.

From the National Association of Investors Corporation Investment Education for Individuals and Clubs (whew) comes this mantra: invest regularly, regardless of the market outlook, reinvest all earnings, invest in growth companies, and diversify to reduce risk with the bottom line being find stocks that will double your money in five years. Peruse their site to learn more about these techniques.

The American Association of Individual Investors is a nonprofit group that educates individual investors on how to become effective managers of their assets. AAII has chapters around the country and offers publications, seminars, home study texts, and educational videos and software focused on investment techniques.

For additional information, subscribe to one of these time-tested magazines:

• Money
• Kiplinger's Personal Finance
• Smart Money

They all publish articles about and helpful tips on managing your money and investments.

Just For Kids...

With a little help from an older family member, some younger children are choosing to invest beyond the tried-and-true savings account. The Young Investor can help get parent and child started by locating funds with initial investments of as little as $1, and Money magazine's Money.com has a section for tracking your child's savings and allowance online.