“Buy land. They’re not making it anymore.” – Mark Twain

Property is valuable and mostly becomes more valuable as time goes on.

This idea is not lost on today’s legion of real estate investors or the average person.

According to the Financial Security Index Survey released in July, 54 million Americans consider real estate to be the preferred cash investment for funds not needed for more than 10 years.

A survey in 2012 by the National Survey of Residential Real Estate Investors found there are about 28.1 million real estate investors in the country spending a total of $9.2 billion on real estate renovations.

It is a great time to invest in real estate with interest rates are historically low.

Owning rental property is one way to invest and immediately get return on your money.

The key before you start is to ask yourself what you need to make on a rental.

Enlist a real estate agent to help you analyze rental rates and apartment prices in the neighborhood.

Scour the classifieds to get an idea of what rents are in the area you would like to buy. Also, learn what properties are selling for.

Before you buy, know what your costs will be for taxes, maintenance, and profit. Can you be competitive at this location and still make a profit? One landlord writing in ConsumerismCommentary.com said she must make $500 profit on each rental per month.

Pick the right neighborhood. High crime areas will cost you money, according to Consumerism Commentary. High rent areas probably will resist rentals. Sturdy middle-class neighborhoods are often best.

One useful talent is a flair for DIY. If you like doing general repairs, you can usually save on expected expenses. If you don’t have such a flair, develop ties to handy-people who are skilled and available. You might be able to hire someone on demand for a low hourly rate.

Finally, once you have done the math and purchased your rental, find the right renter with a strict application. You must make your money back on a property so your three questions have to be: Can they afford the apartment? Will they pay the rent? Will they keep the property nice? To find out, check previous landlords. Verify income. After that, run a civil and criminal background check.

One landlord even calls the mother or father of younger people who want to rent.

Just two weeks after President Woodrow Wilson signed the congressional document creating Lassen Volcanic National Park (August 6, 1916), he set up the National Park Service on August 25.

Previously, the 14 other national parks were not uniformly serviced under the Department of Agriculture; now, the NPS, a bureau of the Department of the Interior, would create enforced standards to conserve and protect treasured areas for future generations.

Since its inception in 1872 with Yellowstone National Park, the system has grown to over 450 natural, recreational, cultural and historical areas, including parks, battlefields, memorials, monuments, military parks, seashores, scenic rivers and trails, parkways and the White House.

Every state has a park. Find yours and celebrate this special birthday on August 25. From concerts and special tours, to scavenger hunts and birthday cake, parks will party in different ways. The NPS has worked to ensure attendees know the Centennial is “more than a birthday.”

“We want people É to embrace the opportunities to explore, learn, be inspired or simply have fun in their 407 national parks, as well as understand how the É Service’s community-based recreation, conservation, and historic preservation programs positively impact their own communities.”
An engaged citizenry now will set the course for the next century.

* The U.S. Mint is commemorating the Centennial by issuing three limited-edition coins, a five-dollar gold coin, a silver dollar, and a half-dollar clad coin with various iconic images and the NPS’s logo, the Arrowhead.

* The U.S. Postal Service is issuing 16 new Forever stamps featuring national parks.

Suppose there were five people who live within two blocks of you who were all going to work at the same time and roughly the same place.

It would be so easy to share a ride. But so hard to get that group together.

Enter ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. The companies are developing algorithms to locate neighbors headed to the roughly the same place at the same time.

The strategy has already reduced some congestion in larger cities.

A recent report by the American Public Transportation Association suggests that ride-sharing trips are replacing personal vehicles and public transportation.

Look for discounts on smaller cars this summer. Industry analysts say lower gas prices have shifted buyers to SUVs and trucks. This has created a glut of compact cars. Manufacturers have offered big cash back incentives, according to Bottom Line Personal.

Census data show 18-to-34-year-olds would rather live with parents than start their own households.

Census data won’t tell us why. Are they less romantic? Can’t find a job or hold one? Have they just decided not to live on their own until they reach 35? Or do they just want help to pay off student loans. A study by Pew Research Center is delving into the situation.

It was in 2014 when living with parents (32.1 percent) passed living with a romantic partner (31.6 percent) as the top arrangement among young adults.

The rest lived alone, with roommates or as single parents. It was the first time since 1880 that so many decided to live with their parents. The researchers said there was a dramatic drop in the share of young Americans choosing to settle down romantically before age 35 or with a spouse or partner. For whatever reason forming a new family is not nearly as important as it used to be for young adults, according to Richard Fry, senior researcher at the think tank.

He found that half those 18 to 34 were living with their parents while 25 percent of those 25 to 29 were. But both groups were much more likely to live at home in 2014 than in 1960.

Apparently, the young adults and their parents get along pretty well and often share the young person’s goals.

This month marks the 47th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic flight into outer space. It’s mission? For astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to become the first humans to ever set foot on the moon. Pilot Michael Collins remained in the Command Module. They achieved this feat on July 20, 1969.

In May of 1962, President John F Kennedy expressed concern that our country was falling behind the Soviet Union in both technology and prestige. Putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade would change that. He was right. When the command module Columbia returned safely to earth, on July 24, 1969, the president’s objective was accomplished.

The Lunar Module, nicknamed the “Eagle,” touched down on the moon’s surface at Tranquility Base. Armstrong reported “The Eagle has landed.” After taking his first step, he said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The Apollo camera broadcast this event to the world.

It created an ecstatic reaction. More than half the world’s population was aware of the mission’s success. The Soviet Union tried to jam Voice of America radio broadcasts, but word spread through newspapers and TV.

The crew spent 2.5 hours conducting experiments and collecting lunar surface material, then unveiled a plaque affixed to a leg of the descent ladder and read aloud, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” It was signed by Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin, and President Richard Nixon.

The astronauts also planted an American flag on the moon and received a call from President Nixon, who called it the “most historic telephone call ever made.”

The National Air and Space Museum holds approximately 3,500 space artifacts from the historic Apollo moon-landing effort, with 400 objects related specifically to the Apollo 11 mission.

Excitement has risen again for space fans. Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and a self-described space enthusiast, has used his personal finances to search that Atlantic Ocean for the five engines that thrust the Apollo 11 astronauts into space.

Bezos’ salvage team found five of the Eagle’s engines 14,000 feet below the surface of the sea on March 28, 2012. He hopes to retrieve at least one of them so it can join other artifacts in the museum.

It is the computer age. We can make a phone call, play a game, save a report, and send data to Japan with about four words to our smartphone assistant.

Why are we still folding laundry?

Answer: There is just no app for that. But there could soon be a machine and, failing that, there are new strategies.

All the newest clothes dryers helpfully steam, de-wrinkle and freshen but somehow when they come out of the machine, they are not folded. According to the Wall Street Journal, most of the major appliance makers have not solved this problem. Same with unloading dishes into cabinets; it doesn’t happen.

During a lifetime, people spend 18,000 hours (375 days) doing laundry and half that time is manually handling each piece and folding.

A Tokyo-based company is developing the Laundroid to address an annoying gap in the market. The size of a refrigerator, the Laundroid takes several hours to fold a load of laundry. Drop shirts, pants, and towels into the machine and overnight they are folded.

Another strategy being developed in California, FoldiMate is a folding machine about the size of a washer. Users clip a dozen items to the outside of the machine. Folding takes 10 seconds per garment. Dewrinkling takes 30 seconds per garment.

Neither the Laundroid nor FoldiMate is on the market yet, but plans are to start production in about a year.