5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Intelligence

Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to think and learn will deteriorate. Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more productivity out of the old gray matter.
1. Minimize Television Watching - This is a hard sell. People love vegetating in front of the television, myself included more often than I’d like. The problem is watching television doesn’t use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health benefits of exercise.
Don’t you feel drained after a couple hours of TV? Your eyes are sore and tired from being focused on the light box for so long. You don’t even have the energy to read a book.
When you feel like relaxing, try reading a book instead. If you’re too tired, listen to some music. When you’re with your friends or family, leave the tube off and have a conversation. All of these things use your mind more than television and allow you to relax.
2. Exercise - I used to think that I’d learn more by not exercising and using the time to read a book instead. But I realized that time spent exercising always leads to greater learning because it improves productivity during the time afterwards. Using your body clears your head and creates a wave of energy. Afterwards, you feel invigorated and can concentrate more easily.
3. Read Challenging Books - Many people like to read popular suspense fiction, but generally these books aren’t mentally stimulating. If you want to improve your thinking and writing ability you should read books that make you focus. Reading a classic novel can change your view of the world and will make you think in more precise, elegant English. Don’t be afraid to look up a word if you don’t know it, and don’t be afraid of dense passages. Take your time, re-read when necessary, and you’ll soon grow accustomed to the author’s style.
Once you get used to reading challenging books, I think you’ll find that you aren’t tempted to go back to page-turners. The challenge of learning new ideas is far more exciting than any tacky suspense-thriller.
4. Early to Bed, Early to Rise - Nothing makes it harder to concentrate than sleep deprivation. You’ll be most rejuvenated if you go to bed early and don’t sleep more than 8 hours. If you stay up late and compensate by sleeping late, you’ll wake up lethargic and have trouble focusing. In my experience the early morning hours are the most tranquil and productive. Waking up early gives you more productive hours and maximizes your mental acuity all day.
If you have the opportunity, take 10-20 minute naps when you are hit with a wave of drowsiness. Anything longer will make you lethargic, but a short nap will refresh you.
5. Take Time to Reflect - Often our lives get so hectic that we become overwhelmed without even realizing it. It becomes difficult to concentrate because nagging thoughts keep interrupting. Spending some time alone in reflection gives you a chance organize your thoughts and prioritize your responsibilities. Afterwards, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s important and what isn’t. The unimportant stuff won’t bother you anymore and your mind will feel less encumbered.
I’m not saying you need to sit on the floor cross-legged and chant ‘ommm’. Anything that allows a bit of prolonged solitude will do. One of my personal favorites is taking a solitary walk. Someone famous said, “All the best ideas occur while walking.” I think he was on to something. Experiment to find the activity that works best for you.
Conclusion - I hope you aren’t disappointed that none of the techniques I’ve proposed are revolutionary. But simple, unexciting answers are often the most valid. The challenge is having the will to adhere to them. If you succeed in following these 5 tips, you’ll be rewarded with increased mental acuity and retention of knowledge.

Boost Your Time Management Skills With These 9 Techniques

Having problems fitting it all in? Is a 24 hour day no longer enough?
If this is the case, here are 9 useful techniques that you can use to boost your time management skills:
1. Be Clear about Goals and Objectives
A sure way to delay in getting started or to make a job last longer than it needs to is being unsure about the objectives. You will often waste time doing work that doesn’t need to be done or spend too much time on other work. Before you set out get clarity on your goals and objectives.
2. Schedule your Time
If you want to have good time management skills, the first thing you will need is a calendar. Stuff has to get scheduled. If you don’t use a calendar then the dreaded jobs — like doing your taxes and cleaning the bathroom — will never get done. Start by scheduling the essential jobs, the appointments, meetings and any other responsibilities you are committed to. Then you will see how much time you have left over to populate.
3. Delegate When Possible
If you find after doing up your schedule that there isn’t much time left over, then think about delegating work. If you work alone, get a virtual assistant. Remember what David Allen says:
“Only do what only you can do.”
4. Monitor How you Spend Your Time
If getting a virtual assistant or anybody else to assist you isn’t an option, then you should start to monitor your time and see how you are spending it daily. You can use a monitoring program for this like Officemetrics or RescueTime. These programs can monitor all that you do on your computer and give you reports to show you how much time you spend on social media, email, Internet or any other work files. You may not like what you see…but it is always better to know.
5. Avoid Multitasking
Human beings can’t multitask (no, not even women). Our brains have become good at task switching, but cannot actually focus on two things at once. If we try to do more than one thing at the same time we lose time refocusing on the new task. If at all possible, focus on one job at a time and complete it before moving on to something else.
6. Do a Regular Mind Sweep
Do a regular mind sweep where you get a piece of paper and write down everything you need to do. Don’t categorize it. Just dump it all onto a piece of paper. Don’t separate work and home; they don’t have different compartments in the brain. Once you have done this schedule, work on any jobs that need to get done and put the rest into your task management system.
7. Exercise
Remember if Branson thinks it’s important – you don’t argue. Branson reckons working out every day gives him 4 extra hours of productivity a day. Get regular exercise to give you energy, reduce your stress and help you to focus.
8. Eat Healthily
Nutrition is also very important. During the day it is important to eat the right foods to keep you energized and focused. Regular small bites rather than a large meal will keep your brain more alert during the day. Don’t go large periods of time without eating. This will result in fatigue and poor mental abilities. Drinking water will also keep dehydration at bay and keep your body and mind happy.
9. Slow Down and Breathe
Lastly, don’t forget to slow down and breathe deeply as often as possible. Lack of oxygen will make you slow and sluggish, which will affect your performance. The more you rush about from task to task the less you will achieve.
Take your time, focus on the right things, and your time management skills will be top of the class before you know it.

causes of stress and how to get rid of stress

 
There isn’t a working person among us who doesn’t deal with stress — whether you’re an entrepreneur, a freelancer, working for a struggling startup, or clocking in working for a company, work stress is inevitable.
But where does this stress originate, and how do we deal with it?
Most guides to stress will give you some actions to take: exercise, sleep well, eat right, meditate, and do some yoga at your desk. These are all amazing, and you should do them.
However, I’m more interested in getting at the root of stress. Dig down, ferret out the cause, and work with that directly, rather than treating the symptoms. Only once you deal with the cause of stress can you truly be a master of it.

Cause of stress

Let’s take a look at some things you might be stressed about at work:

• Hard deadlines
• Difficult coworkers or boss
• Uncertainty about your job
• Uncertainty about whether you can succeed at this project
• Competition, office politics, interpersonal conflicts
• Not having enough time for family or personal life
• Being overwhelmed by too much to do

There are many more possibilities, but these are a good sampling. In all these examples, the cause is really the same thing:
We are attached to how we want things to be. We have an ideal about how each of these situations should be, and our clinging to this ideal is causing the stress.
Let’s take the uncertainty about the job. Of course, that’s not ideal, we would rather have a stable job that we don’t have to worry about. So reality is not matching our ideal (a stable job), and that causes us stress. We don’t like the present situation, and this not wanting uncertainty is causing us to stress out.
The same is true of each of the above examples — when a coworker is not meeting our ideal, when we have an ideal that we won’t have too much to do, when our ideal of having easy-to-meet deadlines isn’t being met … we get stressed.
Unfortunately, this happens all day long, every day. Our ideals about reality are constantly not being met, and so we stress out. It builds up. It becomes a health problem.
So what’s the way to deal with this? Let’s take a look.

Dealing with the cause of stress

If our attachment to an ideal is the cause of our stress, then can we just not have ideals? Well, that would be ideal, perhaps, but no, I’ve found it impossible to not have ideals. The ideals come up, unbidden, in our active and ever hopeful minds.
The way to deal with the cause of stress is to:

1. Notice that you’re feeling stress or frustration
2. Mindfully notice your attachment to an ideal, and
3. Loosen the attachment, finding love for the actual reality of the present moment

Let’s look at these in turn.
First, you have to notice the stress. Learn to see your frustration or worry about something as a signpost, a flag that tells you what’s going on. In this way, stress becomes a positive thing, because it’s letting you know that something is going on. It’s like a notification system on your phone — instead of ignoring the notifications, as we usually do (we don’t like to think about stress), we can mindfully drop into ourselves and deal with it.
Next, you have to mindfully notice your attachment to the ideal. That means dropping in and saying, "Hey, things are meeting my ideal and it’s stressing me out — what’s my ideal?" It’s probably something that is more secure, stable, comfortable, controlled than what you’re currently experiencing.
For example, if you’re overwhelmed by too much work, your ideal is probably that you have a very controlled, comfortable amount of work, and that you’re on top of it all. That would feel much more secure, stable, comfortable to you.
Unfortunately, comfort and control and security aren’t what life provides us. It mostly provides us the very opposite — something chaotic, unpredictable, uncomfortable, unstable. And we can be upset by this, or we can embrace it. We can hate all of this about life, or we can love it. This is a choice.
Finally, we can loosen our attachment to this expectation or ideal. We can say, "This ideal is not helping me. Clinging to wanting things this way is actually harming me. I hereby open my heart to many more possibilities."
That means we can be open to a less-than-ideal coworker, who isn’t perfect and is struggling with his issues. We can be open to loving having too much work, more than we can possibly do, and having to prioritize and just focus on the important stuff for now. We can be open to the possibility that we’ll do poorly, or lose our jobs, because even then we’ll figure something out and life will be just fine.
Loosening our attachments is about realizing that life doesn’t have to be one way, our way, that we can be open to life’s way. It’s about learning to love everything, s--- and all. It’s about being curious about life, about others, instead of judging life and other people as bad.
And then it’s about working from this place of peace and love. Have too much to do? Pick one task, and do your best with it. Have an annoying coworker? Find compassion for her struggles, and be curious about what she’s going through, and talk to her compassionately and empathetically about your conflict with her. Worried about losing your job? Focus on doing your best, while preparing yourself for the possibility that you might need to find another job.
Many people won’t like this solution, because it means that they don’t get the ideals they want. Most of us want to control life to be the way we want. And that’s fine, if it works for you.
What I’m suggesting is being open to the many other possibilities, opening your heart to what life offers instead of what you want it to offer, being curious about what’s really in front of you rather than judgmental, and learning to love everything as it is.

Read the original article on Zen Habits. Copyright 2016. Follow Zen Habits on Twitter.

More from Zen Habits:

• Get to the Root of Work Stress
• The Zen Habits Guide to Letting Go of Attachments
• Our Everloving Quest to Control Our Lives
• Opt Out: A Simplicity Manifesto
• Why We Struggle with Change

SEE ALSO: A minimalist shares 10 things we can opt out of to make our lives more simple

Rags To Riches 2016: Wealthiest Self-Made Billionaires

It takes money to make money, but nearly two-thirds of the 1810 entrants on Forbes’ 2016 World’s Billionaires list are self-made entrepreneurs who started with little more than a vision and some savings. Today their empires range from fashion and entertainment to real estate and telecom. These moguls are responsible for creating household names such as Google GOOGL +1.68% and Zara .
Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world for the 17th time, revolutionized computing with his idea of “a computer on every desk.” Along with fellow billionaire Paul Allen, the Harvard dropout founded Microsoft MSFT +2.30% in 1975 (originally “Micro-Soft,” the name is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software). The company’s big break came five years later, when Gates managed to broker a deal with IBM to couple its PCs with Microsoft’s operating system.  Yet the fledgling software firm had no operating system of its own at the time of the agreement. Allen reportedly bought a license from a Seattle business, and they scrambled to reprogram the system. Shortly after, Microsoft was shipping on IBM’s new personal computers, and the rest is history. Gates, who now focuses most of his energy on philanthropy, has a $75 billion fortune.
Other tech titans also dominate the top of the list. The year’s biggest gainer, Mark Zuckerberg, saw his wealth jump $11.2 billion as Facebook’s share price rose to record highs. The social media giant counts 1.6 billion active monthly users while its prized acquisition, Instagram, has surpassed Twitter in popularity. The hoodies-and-jeans kid genius is now a proud father of a baby girl, and has committed to giving away 99 percent of his Facebook stock — almost all of his $44.6 billion wealth — to celebrate the milestone.
Another big winner is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, whose fortune climbed $10.4 billion to $45.2 billion as the online retailer surpassed 300 million customers and $100 billion in annual sales for the first time in 2015. Bezos, one of the youngest senior vice presidents at hedge fund D.E. Shaw, decided to switch paths at age 30 after coming across a report that projected annual web growth at 2300 percent. The Princeton grad left his job in 1994 and drove across the country to Seattle with his wife, reportedly writing Amazon’s business plan along the way. Initially functioning as an online bookstore, Bezos took packages ordered to the post office himself and worked out of a garage with his first employees. Now, the Amazon chairman is setting his sights higher — his space travel startup, Blue Origin, has successfully launched a rocket into orbit before re-landing it just four and a half feet away from the original launch pad.

Gallery

Richest Self-Made Billionaires

Plenty of self-made billionaires built their fortunes in more traditional industries. Warren Buffett, the world’s most famous investor, remains near the top of the list with $60.8 billion. The famously frugal chairman of Berkshire Hathaway bought his first stock at age 11 and started a pinball machine business in high school. He still lives in the Omaha, Nebraska home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest man, hails from even humbler beginnings: he worked at a shirt-maker shop as a teenager before starting a quilted bathrobe business where he organized thousands of women into sewing cooperatives. In 1975, he opened the first Zara store in his native Spain and quickly became one of the pioneers of fast fashion, which aimed to get the garments from runways to store shelves as quickly as possible. Today, Zara stores reportedly order new clothes twice a week, and Ortega’s Inditex Group owns other popular brands such as Massimo Dutti and Bershka, giving him a fortune of $67 billion.

One of the most famous rags to riches stories in Asia, Li Ka-shing fled to Hong Kong with his family in 1940 after Japanese invasion of China in World War II. The reigning richest man in the former British territory quit school at age 15 to work at a plastics factory after his father died of tuberculosis. Li, now one of Asia’s top philanthropists, once pawned his late father’s clothes to help buy food for a poor relative. He eventually opened his own plastics factory, expanded to real estate, then bought Hutchison Whampoa, a conglomerate with interests in container ports around the world. Today, his empire spans from retail to tech, earning him a net worth of $27.1 billion.

Richest Self-Made Billionaires 

Rank	Name	Net Worth
1	Bill Gates	$75 billion
2	Amancio Ortega	$67 billion
3	Warren Buffett	$60.8 billion
4	Carlos Slim Helu	$50 billion
5	Jeff Bezos	$45.2 billion
6	Mark Zuckerberg	$44.6 billion
7	Larry Ellison	$43.6 billion
8	Michael Bloomberg	$40 billion
12	Larry Page	$35.2 billion
13	Sergey Brin	$34.4 billion
18	Wang Jianlin	$28.7 billion
19	Jorge Paulo Lemann	$27.8 billion
20	Li Ka-shing	$27.1 billion
22	Sheldon Adelson	$25.2 billion
23	George Soros	$24.9 billion
24	Phil Knight	$24.4 billion
26	Steve Ballmer	$23.5 billion
31	Lee Shau Kee	$21.5 billion
33	Jack Ma	$20.5 billion
35	Michael Dell	$19.8 billion
37	Leonardo Del Vecchio	$18.7 billion
40	Paul Allen	$17.5 billion
41	Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud	$17.3 billion
42	Joseph Safra	$17.2 billion
43	Carl Icahn	$17 billion

Eliminate the unnecessary !!!

Imagine the difference it would make if you could easily eliminate the things that get in the way of the life and results you really want. 

Imagine if you were able to create more time for yourself and feel less busy and less overwhelmed. 

Wouldn't that be great? What possibilities and opportunites would that open up for all areas of your life ands results? 

Well, to help you achieve those things, today I am sharing with you 4 powerful ways to eliminate the things that get in the way of the life and results you really want. They will help you create more time for yourself and reduce being over busy and feeling overwhelmed:

Clcik the link below to read the four tips:

4 ways to eliminate the things that get in the way of the life and results you really want

Once you have read the article and the four tips, have a think about which one you would benefit most from right now and start taking action to implement it so that the can reap the benefits.  

If you have any questions about this article and the tips hit reply and shoot them over. Happy to help if I can. 

please comment !!!

Best Investments!!! How to Find Low Risk, High Return Investments

It’s the classic financial puzzle: how to balance risks and returns. In a time of occasionally wrenching volatility and low interest rates, ace financial advisor Jeff Rose, the founder of Alliance Wealth Management in Carbondale, Ill., and also the founder of the website Good Financial Cents, has some good ideas:
Risk lies at the core of all investments. This notion reminds me of the first time I stood at the top of the high dive at the rec center pool. I was a nervous wreck. I never realized how afraid of heights I was until that moment. Many who never invested before have this same apprehensive feeling.
With the rising cost of living, it’s imperative that we invest, preferably with the lowest risk possible, to generate the highest yielding returns we can.
High rates of return on your investments are wonderful because you don’t have to invest as much capital to reach your investing goals. Yet the higher return you want, the more risk you take to get it.
As you near retirement, or your high school senior is about to enter college, your appetite for risk drops precipitously. You simply cannot afford to see a huge drop in the market right before the time you need to begin withdrawing funds from the investment accounts for retirement or college bills.
Instead, you need to shift to low-risk investments. These types of investments generate a lower return because you aren’t taking as much risk, but you’re OK with that. As the time to draw down the investments arrives, capital preservation is more important that astronomical growth rates. You need to know your account won’t drop 25% in a year and thwart your investing plans.

Best Low Risk Investments

Even those targeting low-risk, low-return investments face a wide array of options that can be confusing. Here are a few of your best low risk investment options for your portfolio.

Recommended by Forbes

1. Certificates of Deposit

There is nothing more boring than a certificate of deposit. You can get it through your bank, your credit union or even your investment broker.
With a certificate of deposit (CD) you trade depositing your money for a specific length of time to a financial institution.
In return, you get a set interest rate for that period and it does not change, no matter what happens to interest rates. You are locked in until maturity of the term length. You can withdraw from the CD early for a penalty that is usually equal to three months’ worth of interest.
Why are CDs at the top of our best low risk investment list? Because as long as you get a certificate of deposit with an FDIC-insured financial institution, you are guaranteed to get your principal back as long as your total deposits with that lender are less than $250,000. The government guarantees that you cannot have a loss, and the financial institution gives you interest on top of that.
How much interest you earn is dependent on the length of the CD term and interest rates in the economy. Interest rates are low, but if you lock in your money for many years you can get a little bit more interest.
You can open a CD with great interest rates with CIT Bank, Ally Bank and Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct). CIT, for instance, pays 1.15% annually for a two-year CD.
2. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS)
The U.S. Treasury has several types of bond investments for you to choose from. One of the lowest risk is called a Treasury Inflation Protection Security or TIPS. These bonds come with two methods of growth.
The first is a fixed interest rate that doesn’t change for the length of the bond. The second is built-in inflation protection that is guaranteed by the government. Whatever rate inflation grows during the time you hold the TIPS, your investment’s value rises with that rate.
For example, say you invest in a TIPS today that only comes with a 0.35% interest rate. That’s less than certificate of deposit rates and even basic online savings accounts. This isn’t very enticing until you realize that, if inflation grows a 2% per year for the length of the bond, then your investment value increases with that inflation, and gives you a much higher return on your investment.
TIPS can be purchased individually or you can invest in a mutual fund that owns in a basket of TIPS. The latter option makes managing your investments easier, while the former gives you the ability to pick and choose with specific TIPS you want.

3. Money Market Funds
A money market fund is a mutual fund with the main purpose of not losing any value of your investment. The fund also tries to pay out a little bit of interest as well to make parking your cash with the fund worthwhile. The fund’s goal is to maintain a net asset value (NAV) of $1 per share.
These funds aren’t foolproof, but do come with a strong pedigree in protecting the underlying value of your cash. It is possible for the NAV to drop below $1, but it is rare. The interest income is tiny, but your money is relatively secure.

4. Municipal Bonds

When a state or local government needs to borrow money, it doesn’t use a credit card. Instead, the government entity issues a municipal bond. These bonds, also known as munis, are except from federal income tax at the very least. Most states and local municipalities also exempt income tax on munis for issuers in the state, but talk to your accountant before making any decisions.
What makes municipal bonds so safe? Not only do you avoid income tax (which means a higher return compared to an equally risky investment that is taxed) but the likelihood of the borrower defaulting is very low. There have been some enormous municipality bankruptcies in recent years, but these are very rare. Governments can always raise taxes or issue new debt to pay off old debt, which makes holding a municipal bond a pretty safe bet.
The average yield, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is 1.8%. For someone in the 28% federal tax bracket, that is equivalent to a 2.5% taxable bond.

Recommended by Forbes

5. U.S. Savings Bonds

These are similar to TIPS because they are also backed by the federal government. The likelihood of default on this debt is microscopic, which makes them a very stable investment. There are two main types of US Savings Bonds: Series I and Series EE.
Series I bonds consist of two components: a fixed interest rate return and an adjustable inflation-linked return, making them somewhat similar to TIPS. The fixed rate never changes, but the inflation return rate is adjusted every six months and can also be negative (which of course brings your total return down).
Series EE bonds just have a fixed rate of interest that is added to the bond automatically at the end of each months, so you don’t have to worry about reinvesting for compounding purposes. Rates are very low right now, but there is an interesting facet to EE bonds: the Treasury guarantees the bond will double in value if held to maturity, which is 20 years.
If you don’t hold to maturity you only get the stated interest rate of the bond minus any early withdrawal fees. Another bonus to look into: If you use EE bonds to pay for education, you might be able to exclude some or all of the interest earned from your taxes.
Looking to purchase some Series I or Series EE Bonds? You can do that directly through TreasuryDirect.gov.

6. Annuities

Annuities have a bad reputation with some investors because shady financial advisors over-promoted them to individuals where the annuity wasn’t the right product for their financial goals. Annuities don’t have to be scary things; they can help stabilize your portfolio over a long period.
But talk with a good financial advisor first: Annuities are very complex financial instruments with lots of catches built into the contract.
There are several types of annuities. But in all cases, when you purchase an annuity you make a trade with an insurance company. They take a lump sum of cash from you. In return they give you a stated rate of guaranteed return. Sometimes that return is fixed (with a fixed annuity), sometimes that return is variable (with a variable annuity) and sometimes your return is dictated in part by how the stock market does with guaranteed basic level that gives you downside protection (with an equity indexed annuity).
If you get a guaranteed return, your risk is a lot lower. Unlike the backing of the federal government, the insurance company backs your annuity (and perhaps another company that further insurers the annuity company). Nonetheless, your money is typically going to be very safe in these complicated products.

7. Cash Value Life Insurance

Another controversial investment is cash value life insurance. First, this insurance pays out a death benefit to your beneficiaries when you die; a term life insurance policy gives you this. Other types, known as cash value policies, do that and also build up an investment account from your payments. Whole life insurance and universal life insurance are the chief cash value offerings.
While term life insurance is by far a cheaper option, it only covers your death. One of the best perks of cash value life is you can borrow against the accrued investment value throughout your life, but isn’t hit with income tax. It is a clever way to pass some value onto your heirs without either side getting hit with income tax.

Middle Risk Investments

If you don’t want to go all in on the riskiest class of assets, you can still generate higher returns by taking a few steps in that direction. Here are a few investments that add a bit more risk to your portfolio.

8. Dividend Paying Stocks and Mutual Funds

One of the easiest ways to squeeze a bit more return out of your stock investments is simply to target stocks or mutual funds that have nice dividend payouts. If two stocks perform exactly the same over a given time, one with no dividend and the other paying out 3% per year, then the latter stock is a better choice.
Of course, picking individual stocks isn’t easy. Use some of the trading tools at Scottrade or E*Trade to help you target dividend stocks. Stock-picking comes with risk that the company may falter and take your investment down with it. A safer bet is to invest money into a dividend stock mutual fund. With this fund type, the fund company targets stocks that pay nice dividends and does all of the work for you. You also get diversification so that one or two stocks can’t tank your entire investment.
9. Preferred Stock
This is a type of stock has both an equity (stock) portion and a debt portion (bond). In the credit hierarchy, governing which investors get paid first during a bankruptcy, preferred stock sits between bond payments, which come first, and common stock dividends, which come last.


Preferred stock is not traded nearly as heavily as common stock, but do have less risk than the common stock. It is just another way to own shares in a company while getting dividend payments.
You can track down preferred stock investments at Scottrade, E*Trade and Capital One ShareBuilder.
10. Peer to Peer Lending
P2P lending is a completely different type of investment. Instead of buying shares in a company and its future profits, you lending your money to someone else in hopes they will pay you back. This makes peer to peer lending risky if you screen poorly. If you fund a terrible loan, you might not get your money back.
On the other hand, having a solid borrower means you can earn some really nice returns. Thankfully, P2P lending companies have worked to offer screening tools and portfolio settings for your investment gain. Instead of going through every single loan, which you can still do, they allow you to target a certain rate of return, and the company takes care of lending out money to a group of borrowers.
Note that these companies, which lend money to strangers on the Internet, have a first-rate collection process. Lending Club in particular has done a great job in setting up its collection operation, thus protecting their investors.

8 steps to set yourself up to achieve your goals - free training video

I know some people prefer video to workbooks so I have turned the free training on how to set yourself up to succeed into a free training video for you. 

Think of it almost like doing a mini-workshop together. In the video I guide you step by step through a process that will set you up to achieve the goals and results you really want to create. 

Click the link below to watch the free training video:

8 steps to set yourself up to achieve your goals - free training video

If you have any questions at all or want any help implementing this, shoot me an email and let me know your questions. Happy to help if I can. 

Enjoy the free training video.

My very best wishes to you.

Mark Zuckerberg Leads List Of 2016's Biggest Billionaire Gainers

Thanks to sinking oil prices and rocky global stock markets, 2015 wasn’t the most lucrative year for billionaires. Although the number of ten-digit fortunes fell from 1,826 to 1,810 and majority of the world’s richest saw their wealth decline or stagnate, this year’s ten biggest dollar gainers added a collective $62.5 billion to their fortunes. While the typical billionaire’s net worth fell from $3.86 billion in 2015 to $3.58 billion in 2016, these ten best-performers gained $6.25 billion each on average.
Mark Zuckerberg led the way, adding $11.2 billion to his net worth as Facebook shares rose 35%. The ubiquitous social network grew revenues 44% to $18 billion as it added 200 million new monthly active users. Zuckerberg, the world’s sixth-richest person with $44.6 billion, seems to be more active than ever, using his profile to share company news and family photos of his dog and newborn daughter, Max. This might be the last time Zuck is the biggest billionaire gainer though: In December he and his wife, Priscilla, announced plans to donate 99% of their Facebook stock — nearly all of their wealth — to charitable causes during their lives.
Zuckerberg beats out Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, whose net worth climbed the second most — $10.4 billion this year — as the online retailing giant saw Prime membership rise 51%. It’s enough to place Bezos among the top five richest people in the world for the first time ever. He’s fifth-richest with a net worth of $45.2 billion.
Google, a third so-called “FANG” company (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) also propelled its founders’ fortunes this year. Shares of Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, rose 24%, helping boost Larry Page and Sergey Brin by $5.5 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively. Page, now worth $35.2 billion, is the fourth-biggest gainer; Brin, who has $34.4 billion, is the seventh.

Gallery

The 10 Biggest Gainers On The Forbes Billionaires List 2016

Being a tech titan is not a requirement for being a big gainer, though. Germany’s Heinz Hermann Thiele is the sixth-largest dollar gainer (up $5.3 billion to $11.7 billion) as his rail and commercial vehicle brake-maker, Knorr Bremse, boosted profits 53% to approximately $610 million. Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr., siblings who inherited a stake in German discount grocer Aldi in 2014, shared a $4.6 billion gain as revenues for Aldi Sued — which controls Aldi stores in southern Germany plus places like the U.S., U.K. and Australia — rose 14% to an estimated $52 billion.

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China’s Wang Jianlin added $4.5 billion to his net worth. Shares of his movie theater chain, Wanda Cinema Line, nearly doubled as profits increased almost 50% thanks in part to booming Chinese ticket sales. He surged into world’s top 20 for the first time with $28.7 billion. In January Wang agreed to purchase fellow billionaire Thomas Tull’s film production company, Legendary Entertainment, for $3.5 billion. It will be the first complete Chinese buyout of an American movie studio.
Wang ties former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg for the ninth-largest gain. Bloomberg, whose data software and media conglomerate, Bloomberg LP, saw revenues hit an estimated $9.3 billion last year, continues to make headlines as he mulls an independent bid for the presidency. He’s the world’s eighth-wealthiest person, with $40 billion.
Some fortunes, including those of Nigerian telecom tycoon Mike Adenuga and real estate developer Stephen Ross, are up due to new information obtained by Forbes that has allowed us to revise our estimates.

Clarity is the door tho success!!!

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Forbes Features America's Next Billionaire Business Ideas

1. Seamless Collaboration: Helping businesses improve internal operations and boost productivity by making communication easier.  Cloud productivity and storage firm Box, which has become the default for secured storage and shared workspace. The company has set the stage for an IPO that it hopes will raise in excess of $138 million.
2. Customer Stalking: Enabling companies to track potential customers almost everywhere, even as they go from one device to another.  Tapad generated $34 million in 2014 and allows advertisers to follow consumers from site to site and from device to device, stalking customers as they switch from their PC to smartphone.
3. Extreme Service: Apply for a small-business loan in the middle of the night and see the cash in your PayPal account in 15 minutes. Great customer care is not a dying art.  With a $2 billion valuation, Instacart, an app that picks up your groceries and delivers them to your door within an hour for a $5.99 fee, generated $100 million in revenue last year.
4. Luxury Commodities: Garden-variety products are given a luxury makeover, with a substantial price increase.  The good life doesn’t come cheap.  Krave generated $36 million in 2014 with its creation of gourmet beef jerky. The meat is silky- soft due to extended marinating and moist cooking, and comes in flavors like basil citrus, chili lime and sweet chipotle.
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5. Transaction Transparency: By aggregating data and drawing on the famed “wisdom of crowds,” businesses offer consumers clear information.  Seatgeek’srapidly growing mobile app helps customers find the best ticket deals for concerts, sporting events and other events. It generated $25 million in 2014.
6. Niche Niches: Companies will help you find new ways to buy, sell and talk about obscure interests. Panjo is an online and mobile marketplace for car fans, sports fanatics and other niche communities and generated $42 million last year.
7. ObamaCare Profiteering: A vast new law is a vast business opportunity for those who help doctors, patients and hospitals navigate America’s new health care landscape. Evolent Health, which generated $100 million in 2014, helps hospitals adapt to getting paid based on results instead of pure fee-for-service.
8. The Sony Effect: Companies are protecting precious proprietary business e-mails from hackers. Crowdstrike protects against your enemies’ targeted attacks and generated $13.8 million last year.
9. Empowering Underserved Communities: Opportunities exist for innovators willing to look for what’s right in front of them. Pangea Real Estate buys and manages affordable housing in Chicago, Indianapolis and Baltimore and generated $69 million in 2014.
10. Reinventing Hiring: Companies facilitate precision standard hires for industries of all kinds. Hired is a website designed to connect tech and startup professionals with prospective employers. When users accept jobs, Hired sends them a gift box, a $2,000 bonus and a bottle of Dom Pérignon.

The secrets to start up success: by 2 co-founders

In the startup world they call it the “secret sauce”; those unknown elements that help make a collaboration between 2 or more founders greater than the sum of its parts.
In Entrepreneur First’s case, they seem to have found the magic medicine. When Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford met at McKinsey in 2011, their first thought was that, in Alice’s words, “we wouldn’t have made the greatest corporate consultants”. After 2 years, and many intensive discussions, the two decided that the model for creating outstanding startup companies was broken – and that they were the ones who could fix it.
4 years later and EF’s 5^th cohort demo day took place this week in a conference centre at the heart of London’s “Square Mile” financial district. When Alice and Matt launched their first cohort, 9 teams pitched on demo day; this time there were 25 companies, making it, according to Bentinck, Europe’s biggest startup demo day. As many as 300 investors from the UK, India, the US and elsewhere were also in attendance. “We firmly believe we have changed the status quo”, says Alice.

Entrepreneur First co-founders Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford; now in its fifth cohort, the company wants to be known as the biggest creator of startup companies in the world.

EF is unique in that it invests in individuals, not companies. In fact, EF say that in 2015 a higher percentage of technical graduates from the UK’s top universities; Oxford, Cambridge, Kings, UCL and Imperial; applied to be on the EF programme, 11%, than applied for Financial Services jobs, 10% – an astonishing signal of how “entrepreneurship as a career” is becoming increasingly attractive to graduates, and what a job EF are doing of scouting the best talent.
Amongst the 25 teams pitching – mostly in pairs of co-founders – almost everyone had a post graduate qualification of some kind, usually a highly technical one. From James Williams, who has two Masters, one in Machine Learning from UCL, and Xavier Wilders, who graduated top of his year with a Masters in Computer Science, the founders of Beyond, a B2B budgeting platform currently being used by a multinational pharmaceutical company and trialled by 3 other businesses, to Alejandro Vicente Grabovetsky, with a PhD from Cambridge and Oliver van den Biggelaar, who built Machine Learning systems at the University of Brussels for his PhD, the team behind Avalon AI, who are helping to predict the onset of dementia using algorithmic studying of brain scans.

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For many of the founders pitching this was not just their first experience of running a company, but in some cases their first real “jobs” of any kind. Provided the more than 2,000 applicants display the correct levels of technical competencies, astutely judged by Programme Director Savitri Tan, they are welcomed onto the programme and, over the course of the first few weeks, they naturally find the partners they click with, or are carefully matched with other aspiring founders to form teams.
Often the newly formed companies go through several iterations, assisted by the EF team, which comprises a network of mentors, Head of Talent Zoe Jervier and Head of Programme Jade Read, supported by the Talent and Programme team, until they have the right dynamic and goals. After that, the hard work begins.

Stress Management

Proper stress management is crucial to wellness, but we put it on the back burner more often than not. Just because you might not see physical signs of stress, doesn't mean your mind and body aren't asking for a break. It's easy to get caught up with work and forget about yourself. Unwind and take a moment each day to relax with some of our ideas below.

1. Write: Maintaining a daily journal is a huge commitment, but the health benefits of writing can include lower stress and even better sleep. Writing makes you reflect and think out your issues, which is great for mental clarity.
2. Go to the movies alone: One of the best ways to get away from everything is to head to the theater solo. Think about it — you're not allowed to talk and you have to silence your phone. Perfect.
3. Yoga: Even if you're not much of a yogi, you can't deny the exercise's relaxation effects. A quick yoga routine for happiness will help you reconnect with yourself and forget the little things.
4. Talk to a friend: Relaxing doesn't always have to be done alone. You know how helpful it is to talk to your friends during tough times, so why not make it a habit to reach out when you don't necessarily need them? Even a quick call on your way home will balance out the stressful workday.
5. Color: Take it back to the Crayola days, because coloring can actually help you de-stress. It redirects your attention to the activity, and the nostalgia factor is a mental plus. Try pretty adult coloring books that can double as art.
6. Clean: Cleaning might be the last thing you want to do at the end of your day, but it's also a great stress reliever. Decluttering your space will create a better living environment and help clear your head in the process. Plus, not having a heaping mess on the floor can prevent potential stress triggers.
7. Listen to music: When was the last time you listened to music without any distractions? Turn off your phone and turn on a feel-good playlist or relaxing bedtime mix.
8. Go on vacation: This one may be obvious, but when was the last time you actually got away? Airlines offer deals all the time, so book a spontaneous two-day vacay to give yourself a break. For more-frugal travels, be a tourist in your own city or spend the weekend at a nearby destination. Any getaway will do the trick.
9. Sit at your window: Free yourself of distractions and take a seat with a cup of tea. Whether your view is bustling or scenic, being on the other side allows you to reflect and puts things into perspective.
10. Laugh: Laughter is an instant stress reducer and immune system booster. Surround yourself with fun-loving company or just browse the funniest videos for a quick remedy.

iPad Air 3 and 9.7-inch iPad Pro Mini news

It’s been more than a year since the iPad Air 2 launched, but finally, rumors are starting to emerge about the iPad Air 3. Apple is said to be releasing its refreshed 9.7-inch tablet in March 2016. So far, rumors hint that the iPad Air 3 will take several cues from Apple’s giant iPad Pro in order to make it more appealing to customers. In 2015, tablet sales began to decline for Apple and other manufacturers, but the iPad Pro has been something of a success in these troubled times for tablets.
Related: iPad Pro review
Although much is still unknown about the iPad Air 3, rumors have begun to pick up in early 2016. Here’s everything we think we know about the iPad Air 3 so far.
Updated on 03-10-2016 by Andy Boxall: Added in images showing what may be the case to a new iPad

New iPad to be an iPad Pro Mini?

Rather than playing the part of a sequel, it looks as though the latest Apple iteration will be part of the iPad Pro line. Think of this latest iPad as the 13-inch MacBook Pro to its 15-inch sibling — a 9.7-inch version would be a smaller alternative to the original 12.9-inch model.
Following on from reports the iPad Air 3 may support the Apple Pencil stylus, and have a Smart Connector for a keyboard, a set of images leaked on Twitter via Steve Hemmerstoffer, a regular device leaker. The pictures show a case for an iPad, which is referred to as the iPad 7, iPad Air 3, and the iPad Pro Mini. It’s notable due to cutouts for dual speakers on the top — there could be another two on the base, like the iPad Pro, but it’s not pictured here — plus the three-pin Smart Connector on the side.
The camera lens cutout is also big enough to accommodate a flash unit, which has also been rumored for inclusion on the next iPad model, whatever it may end up being called.

A new spring launch

Apple used to release new iPads like clockwork in the fall, but when the iPad Pro launched, the iPad Air 3 was nowhere to be found. Previously, a 9to5Mac report hinted at the possibility of a March launch date, and while that seemed to be reaffirmed by another report suggesting a March 15 unveiling, the latest news suggests that the highly anticipated product event will actually take place the week of March 21. Not only will the iPad Air 3 be shown off that week, but also the iPhone 5SE, and new Apple Watch band options. It’s still unclear as to whether Apple always planned it this way or if it had to move the date.

More speakers and design rumors

So far, we haven’t heard much about the iPad Air 3’s design, although Apple isn’t expected to change it too much. The iPad Air 3 will likely be all-metal, super slim, and sleek like always. This is reflected in a leaked image showing a supposed schematic of the future tablet, sent to Engadget. The body is a very similar shape to the iPad Air 2, but with several differences that echo previous rumors.
Four speaker grills are shown — two on the top and two on the base — there’s a connector which may link to a keyboard accessory, and also a hole under the camera lens for what may be the first LED flash unit on an Apple tablet. Apparently sourced from a reliable contact, the picture also has some dimensions, which show tiny increases in the width and thickness of the tablet.
Related: Read our review of the iPad Mini 4
The leak follows another from  Nowhereelse.fr, and matches it closely, except for the absence of the keyboard connector port. It was claimed at the time of the leak that it was a design drawing of the Air 3.

Nowhereelse.fr

In the drawing, the Air 3 clearly sports four speakers — just like the iPad Pro. The extra speakers would certainly provide a better audio experience than previous Airs have. The only other visible change seen in the drawing is the addition of an LED flash next to the rear camera. Of course, neither of these images may represent the actual design of the iPad Air 3, but both say their sources have been accurate in the past. For now, both remain unofficial, and therefore only rumor.

An Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard for the Air 3?

Accessories are a possibility for the iPad Air 3, considering the iPad Pro launched with the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. 9to5Mac hinted that the two accessories may hit the iPad Air 3, too. Tech site Macotakara spotted some third-party iPad cases with the same Smart Connector that the iPad Pro uses to connect to Apple’s new keyboard accessory and third-party ones. The cases appear to be intended for the iPad Air 3, so it’s possible that Apple will introduce a version of its Smart Keyboard for the new 9.7-inch Air 3. Of course, the cases could also be fakes and the source isn’t the most reliable, so it’s best to treat this as a rumor right now.

Macotakara/Alibaba

A late January report from 9to5Mac revealed that Apple is currently testing versions of the iPad Air 3’s touchscreen with the Apple Pencil. Although it’s not certain that the Air 3 will support Pencil, it seems like it’s a real possibility. Since Apple sells the stylus separately, Pencil support on other iPad models like the Air 3 would generate a nice bit of cash for the company.
Related: The 10 best iPad accessories to make more of your Apple tablet
We might see a smaller keyboard for the 9.7-inch tablet to interest professional types who want a smaller display, though this is nothing more than speculation for the moment.

Updated specs and iOS 9.3

Often times, the iPad Air sees minimal updates at best between models, but this year we might see a few big changes, as Apple tries to make the tablet appealing to customers that want similar performance to the iPad Pro in a smaller package.
The iPad Air 3 might come with a 4K display (3,840 x 2,160-pixels), 4GB of RAM, and a larger battery, according to a late January report from DigiTimes. That would be a huge leap in performance from the iPad Air 2, which comes with a 1,536 x 2,056-pixel display and 2GB of RAM. Before you get too excited, the report cites unnamed supply chain sources, and DigiTimes is sometimes wrong about Apple device news.
In September, MyDrivers also reported that the iPad Air 3 may feature an upgraded display, with a 2,334 x 3,112-pixel density. That is less than the DigiTimes report, but more in line with Apple’s oddball resolution choices.
Related: 7 must-have iPad Pro accessories for your new tablet
The iPad Pro features an A9X processor, Apple’s newest chipset, and we suspect the iPad Air 3 may run on the same chip. Apple hasn’t revealed the A10 processor yet, and we expect the iPad Air 3 to launch a few months before the iPhone 7, which is expected to feature a new processor.
Ming-Chi Kuo said in a December report that the iPad Air 3 will not feature Force Touch, Apple’s new pressure-sensitive display technology for iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. The iPad Pro didn’t have Force Touch, so it is unlikely the iPad Air 3 would receive special treatment.
Although iOS 9.3 is still in beta, we’ve seen several new education features, including Classroom, which might help sell educators on iPads for the classroom. There’s also the Night Shift mode, which lessens the amount of blue light your phone emits before bedtime for a more restful sleep. 9to5Mac claims that the new software will arrive right in time for the Air 3.
We expect a lot more leaks and rumors to arrive in the time between now and March, and we will continue to update this article as we receive more information.

Boost your brain power with these

 

You may choose certain foods to prevent bloating, avoid inflammation, and get glowing skin—but what about boosting your brain power every time you fill your plate?

The relationship between diet and brain health—from how to sharpen your mind and memory to starting Alzheimer's prevention super early—has been getting lots of attention lately, and Rebecca Katz, MS, author of the new science-based recipe book The Healthy Mind Cookbook, is at the forefront of the movement.

"It used to be that scientists thought that as you grow older your brain cells die," says Katz, who's also the executive chef at Food As Medicine and founder of Healing Kitchens Institute in Bolinas, California. "Now, we're actually seeing that our brain cells can regenerate—which is largely based on how we eat and exercise. If you're eating a whole foods diet, of course you're taking care of your body, but there are actually certain foods that are very important for the brain."

Want to know what they are? These are the 11 foods Katz says you should be eating to strengthen your mental muscles now.

Lentils

According to Katz, lentils are full of brain-friendly B vitamin folate, which helps keep your mind sharp as you age, thiamin and vitamin B6, which give you more focus and energy, iron, which is important for cognitive functioning in women during childbearing years, and zinc, which is said to be a memory booster.

"Silicon Valley has promised us that, someday, little nanobots will act like tiny microprocessors in our brains, helping to make us smarter," Katz says. "I say, why wait? We already have a teensy food that does that. It's the lentil, the vegetable kingdom's version of a Lilliputian flying saucer."

Mint

Katz loves mint because it's a good source of vitamin A, which can help boost learning skills and increase brain plasticity, vitamin C, which is said to protect against cognitive decline, and for other, unexpected reasons.

"There are fascinating studies out there about how the scent of mint affects brain functioning," Katz says. "In one study, the aroma of mint helped boost alertness and memory. In another, it helped test subjects perform better on basic clerical skills, such as typing and memorization. Just the scent of mint has been shown to increase alertness." Maybe start by taking a big whiff of your toothpaste in the morning?

Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds, AKA pepitas, deliver generous helpings of iron in addition to a mineral trio of potassium, magnesium, and calcium, which Katz says has shown to delay cognitive decline. "For this reason, I call pumpkin seeds nature's smallest antidepressant," she says.

Cauliflower

"Some foods just look like they should be good for the mind," Katz says. "Take cauliflower. Kind of like walnuts, it visually reminds you of the brain. And sure enough, cauliflower is a brain-boosting superstar." It's a great source of vitamin K, which is said to keep your mind sharp as you age and boost memory, as well as folate.

"It also helps in liver detoxification, and a happy liver—the body's vacuum cleaner for toxins—makes for a happy brain," she adds. Not to mention cauliflower makes a killer grilled cheese.

Sardines

Even if eating them isn't totally appealing, your brain loves these tiny fish. In fact, Katz refers to them as "Prozac in a can," since sardines are loaded with vitamin B12, which has been shown to boost memory and ward off depression. They're also a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which help keep your brain sharp, and are high in niacin, which can boost mental energy.

Almonds

According to Katz, almonds may help your body fight inflammation in ways that can boost mood and slow the mental decline that comes with age, as well as raise levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is "associated with fewer down moods and less depression," she says. Which is awesome since they're also delish.

Beets

"Beets are a brain food of the first order," Katz says. "They are high in nitrites, which have been shown to increase blood flow in parts of the brain related to executive functioning, have got lots of vitamin B9, which may aid cognitive functioning and delay a descent into dementia, and are rich in carotenoids, which may help boost brain functioning and stave off depression." Remember to order a salad the next chance you get?

Cashews

"Cashews are a great source of two brain-boosting minerals, zinc and magnesium," Katz explains. "Zinc is important because low levels of the mineral are associated with depression, and it may improve memory as well, while magnesium has been shown to help better regulate sleeping patterns and may improve learning skills."

Cashews also contain the B vitamin thiamin, which Katz says has been linked to more mental energy and better moods in women, plus vitamin E, which in low levels is linked to poor cognition. Not to mention their creamy, amazing taste.

Cinnamon

"Cinnamon delivers some anti-inflammatory benefits, which may well boost overall brain functioning," Katz explains. "It also unleashes in the brain some special proteins called neurotrophic factors, which can help the brain generate new neurons and keep old ones healthy."

Similar to mint, researchers found that the aroma of cinnamon can improve memory and focus on cognitive tests, says Katz, so don't forget to sprinkle a little on your coffee in the morning.

Dark Chocolate

"The cocoa that gives dark chocolate its haunting, addictive flavor is loaded with the memory-boosting antioxidant power of flavonoids," Katz says. "In two recent studies, cocoa consumption has been linked to higher scores on cognitive tests. Dark chocolate is also a boon to the cardiovascular system, and a healthy heart helps keep the brain sharp."

Be warned, though: Katz says that milk seems to interfere with the body's ability to access the power of flavonoids, so these benefits don't apply to milk chocolate, and it might even be best to steer clear of milk while you're enjoying dark chocolate.

Ginger

"Many women can experience a loss of mental sharpness as they get into middle age, but ginger has been shown to help keep that from happening," Katz says. "Another study on postmenopausal women showed ginger boosting memory skills and ability to focus." Stir-fry for dinner, it is.

The full Game of Thrones: Season 6 trailer has finally dropped

Game of Thrones: 9 Reveals from the Season 6 Trailer

 

The Iron Islands, Vaes Dothrak, Bran's visions, and more. Here's what the new Game of Thrones: Season 6 footage told us for certain.

The full Game of Thrones: Season 6 trailer has finally dropped, setting the internet ablaze with piercing and potent imagery involving boats, horses, the Night's King, and many, many shots of Jon Snow's lifeless body. Like, we get it. He's dead. So very dead.

And as with many a trailer, we have questions. In fact, considering that this season of Game of Thrones is the first not to easily correlate to any published Song of Ice and Fire book, the "unknown" now looms large and casts a formidable shadow. But instead of raising a bunch of "What's that?"s and "What if?"s, let's hone in on what the trailer actually confirms for us. The actual, (mostly) irrefutable information we get from it. Sansa and Theon survived the drop. Davos is in mourning. Melisandre has doubts. Thant sort of stuff. And much more.

Game of Thrones: Season 6 Trailer - IGN Rewind Theater

17:28

So here are 9 things the Game of Thrones: Season 6 trailer confirms for us...

More Flashbacks

The show gave us its first flashback last year with a brief Cersei prelude, but this year it looks like we'll be getting young Ned and some big battle moments...

Yup. Guy in the front looks pretty damn Ned-like. But we get it. This is still somewhat speculate-y. So here's Exhibit B...

That be Targaryen armor. And that doesn't exist anymore. So this all signs point to this being a glimpse into the past. So are there more flashbacks? You bet your butts.

Return to the Iron Islands

While Season 6 isn't following any particular book, there are still book elements from A Feast for Crows and A Dance of Dragons that were left out of the show. And a lot of that stuff dealt with the Greyjoys back on their rotten, jagged islands. And while we can only guess as to what's going on here (and with all the brooding shots of Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy)...

...we know for sure that Iron Island antics will be a big part of the season.

Yara, Y'all

As an extension of the previous entry, Yara will be back. Which one could assume since she's a Greyjoy. Though she's also a Greyjoy we've followed outside the particular, peculiar Pike goings-on.

It also appears Yara's found someone to help her forget just how cold, damp, and miserable her entire family is.

Vaes Dothrak is Back

Not only does Daenerys not get a warm welcome befitting a "Khaleesi" (or a "Breaker of Chains," "Mother of Dragons," etc), but she's trudged back to the Dothraki capital, Vaes Dothrak. Which, as you might guess, does not score very high on Yelp.

Sansa is Warm and Safe

Not that anyone thought Sansa and Theon fell to their crippling deaths at the end of last season's finale, but this shot (and the ones of Theon) confirm that they're okay. And that Sansa has been properly clothed. And placed inside someone's keep. And treated well enough that she doesn't look entirely depressed and forlorn. Not entirely.

Bran's in Deep S***

First off, Bran's back. He was gone all last season, but now the psychic Stark has returned with a beefed up storyline and and a sensible haircut.
Next? Bran's having what we presume are visions -- his ability to walk seems one big giveaway here -- of the Night's King. Last seen having a "Come At Me, Crow!" stare-down with Jon Snow. And, dream version or not, if you see that frosty fiend, you're not having the best day.

Good ol' Twincest

We can only speculate as to how Cersei feels upon hearing of her daughter's poisoning at the hand of Dorne, but apparently she doesn't blame Jaime for it. Well, not enough to stop them from engaging in their old favorite pastime of brother/sister face mushing.

Jorah the Explorer

Being overly, and perhaps creepily, familiar with Daenerys' scent, Jorah manages to locate Khaleesi's breadcrumb ring in the middle of dense grass.

Let's just hope it contains some sort of tracking devise or connects to a homing beacon. Because it's unlikely Jorah can Toucan Sam his way all the way to Dothrapolis.

Margaery Repents

This moment creates a lot of questions, for sure, but just on its own merit we see Margaery extending her hand out to the High Sparrow, looking for mercy.

Does this signal a new alliance? Does it, essentially, turn Tommen against Cersei (like the trailer seems to suggest with its editing)? That's all up in the air, but what we do know is that Margaery's sure as hell ready to get out of that dank, rank cell and make amends for all her sinning. Or, at least, go through the motions involved with repenting.