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Financial Moves to Make Before a Recession Pay off high-interest debt. If you have credit card debt, personal loans, or other high-interest debt, the first task is to pay that off as quickly as possible. “Those need to be addressed immediately and prioritized over savings,” says Isabel Barrow, director of financial planning at Edelman Financial Engines. “The rates on these are usually higher than what you can make on your cash and the interest compounds....

Indeed, one of the biggest obstacles of social distancing has been figuring out how to safely feed ourselves and our families. Grocery delivery is a great option, but it isn’t a practical—accessible, affordable—option for us all. If you’ve been braving the supermarket, be sure to follow the CDC guidelines and recommended safety restrictions, and get in and out of there as quickly as you can. Means more time for Netflix too, you know?...

Want to upgrade your garden this year? Here’s everything you need to know about how to grow sunflowers, according to the experts. When to Plant Sunflowers According to Alice Raimondo, a horticulture consultant in the Horticulture Diagnostic Lab at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, soil temps should hit about 60 degrees Fahrenheit —usually a few weeks after your last frost date—before you plant sunflowers from seed. This timeline varies by climate; warmer regions reach this point before cooler areas....

Virtual Holiday Party Ideas

How to Prepare For a Power Outage If you live in an area where power outages are common, invest in an appliance thermometer that can let you know what the temperature is in your fridge at any time. A working refrigerator should be at 40 degrees or below, as bacteria can grow at any degree above this safe temp, called the “danger zone.” Any typically refrigerated food that’s been in the danger zone for a few hours risks being contaminated with a foodborne illness....

While you have the mattress pad off of the bed, give it a spin in the washing machine (check the care label to make sure it’s machine-washable). Bonus points for also vacuuming all of the dust bunnies lurking under your bed. RELATED: Why Do Dust Bunnies Happen? Try to stick to white sheets if you have them, because they can be bleached. Wash the sheets on the hottest water setting, using detergent with chlorine bleach....

Below are some science-backed techniques you can work into your everyday routine to help thicken your hair naturally. “A host of nutritional deficiencies can cause hair loss and hair breakage,” notes Dhaval G. Bhanusali, M.D., board-certified dermatologist and founder of Skin Medicinals. He adds you may want to seek input from a professional if the issue is ongoing. “Doctors and dermatologists look at things like iron levels, vitamin D, thyroid studies, and other medical data points to make sure we don’t miss any internal causes of thinning or weakening hair,” he says....

If yours have been looking more like the latter, there’s a simple reason why, and it’s a mistake we’ve seen time and again: You’re starting to scramble the eggs too soon and at too high of a heat. Don’t rush the process, remember? It’s the surest way to overcook them. This is why buffet-style scrambled eggs at hotels and conferences are often incredibly dry and tough—those poor eggs are sitting in that hot hotel pan cooking for hours on end....

An Acquired Taste Not everyone will love the messy bed look. It does have a certain relaxed, boho feel that may not fit into everyone’s preferred aesthetic—anyone attached to a crisp fold and carefully arranged pillows will likely want to stick to their bed-making ways. But anyone who struggles to remember to make the bed in the morning might appreciate a bed that is styled so it can be left as-is and still look fantastic....

You can often shave down that price a little bit by going to a cut-your-own tree farm, but it can still be a pricey endeavor. On the other hand, some Christmas movies may have you believe you can just go to a woodsy area and chop down a tree of your choosing for free (like when Buddy the Elf cut down a tree in Central Park) but, in real life, that’s definitely illegal....

That doesn’t mean you need to ditch your desk job, though. With the following tips, you can work on a computer while staying healthy and well. Here’s what good sitting posture looks like: According to the United States Department of Labor, it means keeping your body and spine in a neutral position. Your hands and forearms should be parallel to the floor, while your elbows should be at 90-degree angles, says Alyssa Kuhn, DPT, physical therapist and founder of Keep the Adventure Alive....

Reader question: What is the best step-by-step way to go gray? —Mary Fouladi As more women make the decision to go gray, a silver-laden style is getting sexier by the minute. But the problem with embracing gray hair lies in the fact that it doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with a pigment-deprived strand or two, or worse, the dreaded demarcation line (i.e., exclusively gray roots in particular sections of your head), making it all the more challenging to commit to the natural process....

Whenever your skin experiences trauma or a wound, it works to heal the area by laying down a protein called collagen, which forms a scaffolding with other proteins to support healing, says Erum Ilyas, M.D., board-certified dermatologist in Audubon, Penn., and creator of AmberNoon, a sun-protective clothing line for women. Yet in some cases, you can get a scar gone wild. “When the collagen is laid down in a haphazard fashion and grows beyond the areas of the wound, a keloid develops....

On This Episode Real estate prices are extremely high, and now mortgage rates are also rising. Has first-time homeownership ever felt more out of reach? On this week’s episode, host Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez talks to Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at real estate brokerage Redfin, about what today’s housing market means for prospective buyers, plus whether it makes more sense to buy or rent right now. Meet Our Caller “Isabelle” is a 20-something prospective homebuyer, living in a small rural community with her partner....

With so many different brands and flavors out there, the possibilities of sparkling water are endlessly appealing. After all, who can deny that partaking in a coconut-flavored beverage invokes a hint of your last beach vacation? But beyond the flavor selection, here’s what else you should know about your daily fizzy drink habit. It’s a Healthy and Smart Choice Sparkling water is an excellent drink to enjoy on a daily basis....

How Does the Coravin Work? There are three simple steps to using the Coravin Wine Preservation System: insert, tip, and pour. To use it, Place the tool on top of your wine bottle and push the needle through the cork. Tip the bottle as if you are pouring from an open bottle. Quickly press the trigger to pressurize the bottle. Release the trigger to pour into your glass. Tip the bottle back up to stop the pour....