Problem: Article: Sometimes people, including your parents and siblings, won't always ask for your help. Instead, you can keep an eye out to see if they might need it. For example, if your dad comes home with groceries, ask if you can help carry them into the house. Or, if your mom is cooking, ask if she needs you to do anything else that will help get dinner ready. Your family may tell you they don't need your help, and that's okay. The important thing is that you thought to ask, which they will appreciate. Make sure you have all the plates, cups, and utensils you will need to eat your meal. You can also look up proper ways to set the table or fold napkins for something nicer and more creative to look at. After meals are over, you can also be helpful by clearing the table. Get all the dishes and silverware into the sink or dishwasher for cleaning. . After meals, you need to clean off dishes and make sure they get put away. Nobody likes cleaning the dishes, so you can really help your parents out after they've put in a lot of work to make meals. Start by scraping off all food scraps, which will make the dishes easier to clean. Remember to use warm water and soap to clean off the whole dish. Clean all the dishes, silverware, cups, anything that you used to eat or make food with. Remember to clean food scraps out of the sink drain when you are finished. Throw them away so they don't clog the drain. Empty the dishwasher. If your house has a dishwasher, unload it after it finishes. Just give it a few minutes to cool down first, as dishes can be hot. You don't want to accidentally burn yourself. Be careful when handling sharp objects like knives and other utensils. If you aren't careful, you can cut yourself, so always pick things up by the handle, and watch where you are reaching. Dirt, dust, crumbs, and other things gather on the floor and can attract bugs. Help by sweeping up crumbs into a dustpan and throwing them away. This is especially important after meals, both where you ate, but also where you or your parents made the food. If you are older, and your parents let you, use a vacuum to help give the floors a better clean. Taking the garbage bag to a can or bin outside lets someone come and take it away. This is an easy chore, even for young kids. If you notice the trash can getting full, especially in the kitchen or bathroom, take it outside. Just remember to replace it with a new one. These usually come once a day, though there is no mail on Sundays. It can be a quick walk down to your mailbox to grab whatever you got for the day. Don't hide bad news or bad grades. This is not a chance for you to keep your parents from seeing stuff like that. If you make a mess somewhere, or you are trying to do things like cooking or projects on your own, take care of it yourself. This can mean garbage, crumbs, a spill, or dirty dishes. Cleaning up where you were is a good way to show your parents that you are mature and responsible. There are plenty of other types of messes that can appear around the house. Piles of books, papers, clothes, toys, and dishes can appear at any time. You can be a big help by cleaning them up. There will always be plenty of things that need to get done around the house, including stuff you might not think about. Asking for a set of regular chores can be a good way to make sure you are helping things to get done. It will also be easier on your parents because they won't have to remember to ask you to do something, you will just know to do it. Doing regular chores is good for you too. It will help give you a sense of responsibility, and prepare you for the things you will need to do when you are older and don't live you're your parents anymore. You can help here by giving your parents suggestions of things you would like to do. These can be chores you know you would be good at, or things you would like to get better at doing. In talking with your parents, you may decide that you will have a set list of chores, or maybe you will rotate a list of chores with your siblings. Create a chore chart. This is a good way to help everyone remember what you are supposed to be doing. The chart should explain what you need to be working on, and how often you should do it. For example, setting the table could be every day, but taking out the garbage would only happen once a week. You can even be creative with the chart, and make something that has fun designs and ways of checking things off. Just remember that it needs to make sense to everyone who uses it. Remember that chores may not always be divided fairly. If your siblings are too young to do something, you will need to do it until they are old enough. The important thing is to not whine about it, and do what needs to be done.
Summary: Ask other people if they need help. Set the table for meals. Do the dishes Clean the floor. Take out the trash. Get the mail and newspaper. Clean up after yourself. Ask for regular chores.

Problem: Article: Your real estate investment can be active or passive. Active investment, such as trading properties or flipping houses, is more risky because property isn't particularly liquid. If you need to get rid of it, you may not be able to find a buyer. Passive investment is less risky, and may be a good place to start real estate investment. A popular option is to buy shares in a real estate investment trust (REIT). Each share represents a diverse bundle of properties, kind of like a mutual fund for real property. You can purchase shares through a broker. Forex, the international currency exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world. Currencies rise and fall in relation to each other, primarily based on the strength of each country's economy. To successfully trade currency, you need a strong understanding of geopolitical trends and events. Be prepared to read a lot of international news every day so you can spot opportunities. It's usually smart to focus on one or two currencies so you can thoroughly research those countries' economies and keep up with the latest news. An option is a contract that gives you the right to buy or sell an asset at a certain price at a set point in the future. Since you don't have the obligation to buy or sell at that point, your potential losses are limited to the price you paid for the contract. To trade options, open a brokerage account, either online or with a traditional broker. The brokerage firm will set limits on your trading ability, based on your experience investing and the amount of money you have in your account. If you get into riskier investments, a solid hedging strategy will help protect your portfolio. The basic concept of hedging is to offset a possible loss in one security by simultaneously investing in another security that is likely to move in the opposite direction. Most passive investors, who are simply investing for retirement or a long-term goal (such as money for their kids' college), have no use for hedging. However, if you're making aggressive or risky investment choices, hedging can provide a sort of insurance that lessens the impact of losses, particularly from short-term market fluctuations. A financial planner or advisor is essential if you start to move into more aggressive, shorter-term investment strategies. They will help design your hedging strategy and make sure the bulk of your portfolio is protected. Commodities can be used to hedge against risk, because they tend to behave differently than stock markets and currencies. However, they are risky because they respond to a variety of different factors, many of which are completely outside of human control. There are hard commodities, including precious metals, and soft commodities, such as wheat, sugar, or coffee. You can invest in commodities in 3 different ways: physically buying the commodity itself, buying shares in a commodity company, or buying futures contracts. You can also invest in commodities more passively through investment funds. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may have shares in commodity companies, or may track a commodity index.
Summary:
Dive into real estate for longer-term investing. Move into the currency market if you like a challenge. Trade options to limit your exposure. Practice hedging to lower your risk. Diversify your portfolio with commodities.