#if I had a Spotify in 2016 it would have looked the exact same except kobk and waff would be replaced with animals and muscle museum

[wildwoodart]

I love checking the Spotify sites when I’m in a phase musically because my last receiptify looked like this

Hmmmm I wonder what my favorite band is…

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Cyprus brings shampoo to Rotterdam 2021

I FELL IN LOVE, I FELL IN LOVE, I GAVE MY HEART TO PRODUCT PLACEMENT.

Though I do see where they come from. Everyone from Panik Records, from her to Eleni Foureira featuring Perfectil on the “Fuego” MV, gonna need that sweet sweet money all of the time. But has Greece’s economy not really recovered for them to constantly need to advertise products on music videos or am I just losing my mind overthinking things?

Eitherway, this review may or may not appear before or during their rehearsal day, so see how do I make a fool of myself by trying to estimate Cyprus’s chances!

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

This year we have a 26 year old Elena Tsagrinou from Greece here (the way they were last represented by a somewhat Cypriot on 2017?). She did music early on in her age, also participated in the Greek version of Got Talent. Though, before breaking out as a solo pop sensation in ways you cannot imagine, she used to be in a pop band OtherView. Strangely enough, I’ve heard of them because of this song below but I could’ve NEVER estimated it was her and never could have I predicted she would land herself a Eurovision entrance all alone:

The band has had quite a few successful enough singles with her, she did some music shows participation and hosting, her band switched labels midway through (guess into which one they eventually landed, hint: some of the screenshots in this review have this peculiar logo), and in 2018, she had to “withdraw” from the group to go ahead and pursue the aforementioned solo career, somewhat. She continued doing a lot of shows (particularly seen on the MAD music channel related events), and doesn’t have as many singles as she had with OtherView right now, but she’s possibly well on her way to blossom as an artiste. Some of those reading (lol who am I kidding who even reads these) may be familiar with this little song of hers:

You’ve heard way too many things about “El Diablo”, her 2021 entry, so idk if I feel like explaining the technical side of things all by myself or you already know everything. But in these reviews I repeat everyone else regardless, so let me just say that “El Diablo” is an obvious pop song, with a lot of Swedish related touches to it, because at least one person on this song also worked on Alvaro Estrella’s Melodifestivalen 2021 entry that glorifies at least a handful of the same cliches that “El Diablo” does lyrically. Dear Eurovision lyricists, you can use more foreign languages than Spanish for your obligatory foreign language incorporations, thanks~

Although I’m not sure about whether it is more Laurell Barker’s fault as much as it is Joker Thörnfeldt’s, but it’s easier to blame them equally, because the former probably came up with “ta-taco, tamale” and the latter couldn’t get enough of the word “mamacita” they used for the aforementioned Melodifestivalen entry. Anyway, the lyrics, from what I get, is that she’s in love with an eeeevil guy because he’s sweet talking her, they do some sexy stuff together (presumably), pour sauce on their bodies for no explicit reason other than “obligatory-foreign-reference-itis”, she’s breaking the rules (and idk if it was “mama-mamacita” telling her to do it), got the icy edges that the spicy is melting for her, throws eyelashes on the floor when she’s got no wigs to throw (but that doesn’t matter because even without a wig, she can flip her hair and make him look twice), and there’s as much as you need to know about the song’s lyrics as I feel like I should show to you, because eh. Eurovision has suffered from worse cookie-cutter lyricism through the years, “El Diablo” is painful but not the worst.

REVIEW

But I do like the song somewhat!

“El Diablo” was initially compared to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” upon release, and I totally kind of see why, because in all the right spots you can absolutely hum over the chorus to that over the one of “El Diablo”’s, it just exchanges gratuitous French translation of one of the already sung lines on the bridge for obligatory inserted Spanish terms just for the sake of being trendy with the crowds of the nowadays, because as we learned nothing these days, having a lot of Spanish in your song is apparently trendy. And Elena does nothing absolutely batshit insane on the music video (other than advertising) - no lapdance for the devil Lil Nas X style, no being forced into a bath, no person to sell her body to (not even the titular diablo), no dancers that rise out of their Christian sleep pods. Just Elena singing behind lots and lots of trash bin bag wrap.

Honestly the bigger issue for me than the song being “sAtAnIc because it is called “the DEVIL!!!”, aside from the lyrics, is that the MV does not come with any forewarning whatsoever for the people that are seizure prone when they see strobe lights? And that happens for some extended periods of this clip? I know you are indulged in your advertising and good for you but don’t just care for the companies that pay you if you use their products, do care about people’s wellbeings too, sometime.

But enough about the MV.

The song is decently sounding. It has interesting uses of what sounds like hi-hats during the verses (e.g.: a moment when this happens for the first time on the song is after Elena sings “tonight we’re gonna burn in a par-tY” the second time, and then there’s something that sounds soaring - that’s what I think that the hi-hats did.). It also has some sort of a synth piano on the second verse to boost the song’s sound rather than just relying on 808s and beats. I quite like how the chorus is so instant somehow, idk why but it is for me. Might have a gripe with that childish choir singing “I LOVE EL DIAB-LO” in the tune of standard kindergarten children teasing tune (aka ”NA NA NA BOO BOO”), as well as the constant breathing sounds, but they don’t distract me from generally “fucking” with this song, lol. It’s just that likeable imo.

I just can’t cope with the fact that Cyprus can’t seem to dare to go at least a little bit original with their song, yanno? Ever since 2019 they were called out as being a ripoff of something... hell, everyone since 2016 except Eleni was a ripoff of something. Alter Ego? “Somebody Told Me” by The Killers. Gravity? “Human” by Rag’n’Bone Man. Replay? “Fuego” itself. Running? “Lose Control”, Meduza x Becky Hill. Now we have a Lady Gaga song wannabe that even caught the attention of another singer that the music video looked like it was ripping off, and the Eurofandom caught up in hysterics:

Heads up, folks: not EVERY short haired blonde with messy hair, silvery tank top and shortpants that writhes on the floor is a Zara Larsson clone. And I don’t know who stirred controversy first - her or the fans - but this was ridiculous to see, even for me.

Although for a second I saw where they were coming from.

Now see why I want Cyprus to go original for at least once? Because I guess that the way “Fuego” was conjured up, it brought Cyprus so much success with how the package was, how Eleni sold it, and how the song sounded. You know the first thing of everything potentially going wrong for you later on is if you find the formula you’ve been looking for, but you proceed to be using the exact same formula that got you this far in the first place, without realizing what was it in the formula that you needed to bank on to further to make it click, but instead proceed to copy everything like it was an easy, fill-in-the-blank form. You can and should do better than that.

Though that doesn’t stop me from ranking it 11th this year.

Thing is, I really expected it to be the one female pop song of the year I would have the constant impulsive need to replay, replay, yeah. Ever since the chaotic entry MV drop that occured on some random-ass Cypriot TV show where three guys talked a lot (and before that, we got a cooking show), and kept growing increasingly agitated that no one is liking their show, until at some point one of them erupted in “IN TWU MEENETS... EL DIABLO... ON UR TEEVEE”; I was really devastated I couldn’t be able to break the replay button because of Panik Records deciding to rather benefit for themselves to have the MV on their app, then on Youtube, THEN on Spotify in that order. So I listened to a few video rips that I received / had for myself, and it was a fun time... until I realized the desire to play it declined much faster than I thought it would when it actually dropped on Spotify, oops. So I can’t really let myself rank it higher, when there are at least some catchier female bangers with better overall sound, better lyrics, and better multiple-replay factor. But I can’t really settle for a much lower rank for her than 11th, anyway. Girlbanger 2021 power y’all!

That and vocally she’s actually not that bad, even if she has shown up singing her song drunk in a handful of Instastories for some event of some party house, and at the time people overreacted, but I think that at least a large audience of those same people has collectively dropped their “Cyprus obvious NQ” talks come the pre-parties.

Panik Records, when will you put the yeehaw El Diablo on streaming? Now THAT’S a version that has replay value, and I might never get bored of it instead :(

Approval factor: Yeah, there exists some for me in it Follow-up factor: CyBC did one of the nastiest in terms of following up their 2020 arc of “Bring Your Artist Back for Revenge Year” that was 2021, straight up ditching Sandro probably right after Eurovision was done (well it doesn’t look like the case because CyBC published a statement later, but I sense that it might’ve been the case), because “Running” wasn’t doing so well with the “YAS QUEEN” branch of the Eurofandom. Which sucks because Sandro would’ve actually been down to be asked again for Eurovision, as he revealed it to NikkieTutorials during many of her interviews with last year’s class of. “Agreement from both parties” my ass, unless Sandro secretly realized that like Tom Leeb, he was too busy for 2021 Eurovision, which I doubt. It actually sucks imo that Sandro can probably be considered as even a forever non-returnee, because Sandro is more of German roots than Greek, and if we learned anything about the Mukuchyangate 2021, is that Germany will never send a returning artist, at least one that didn’t represent their country first and foremost. So Greece could only ask Sandro nicely only if the contest comes on to Germany, I guess? How do you think they decided on getting Stefania, who still ever so regularly appears on Dutch music, to represent them this year? So on that regard the follow-up from CyBC stinks, eventhough I think that entrywise the follow-up was rather decent, at least in the usual Cypriot way of sending female pop (going from “Replay” to “El Diablo” which I like more than “replay”), and eventhough I’m falling out of the hype for Cyprus I once used to have, their 2015-2021 entry streak had entries that I largely feel positive for overall, so in that regard, the follow up is decent. Qualification factor: In a year of Semi 1 Female Banger Slaughterhouse, Elena goes out in my eyes with several scratches, but not enough to completely kill her chances. If anything, given the divisiveness of Ireland’s rehearsals, Elena is likely to obliterate any last memory of Lesley Roy any first time viewer has ever had, except for her stage graphics. Even if Elena’s staging will not be as mindblowingly cartooney as the last, once a bop comes on, everyone forgets the slower song and gives into the bop, at least that’s how the draws work when choosing what insignificant song to put on 2nd and wedge in between the opening banger and some lesser-key banger, right? I know that “Replay” barely qualified, but I find “El Diablo” slightly better, and it all goes well, it will barely just as qualify as well. Because in a Semi 1 Female Banger Slaughterhouse, she can’t be the losing one, really.

INTERNAL CORNER

I already told everything that was noteworthy about Elena’s journey in previous sections, honestly.

• That I said that CyBC likely ditched Sandro right after cancellation just like Hooverphonic ditched “Release Me” should they have had a chance to keep or toss their entry. It doesn’t present itself as the case, but I just feel like it is.

• That the song was revealed on a Cypriot talkshow where three dudes were aware that we were waiting for “El Diablo”, trying to throw some gratuitous English our way, hating that we didn’t like our show, but promising that “El Diablo” MV will be shown in “TWU MEENETS”, which wasn’t but worth the wait eh?

• That people were cackling at Zara Larsson joining in the talks of Elena’s MV having aspects of her own song’s MV plagiarized.

• That Elena performed her song in a private-ish event when drunk and having heaps of fun and people cried that it was gonna be a NQ.

And do I really need to elaborate about the local Cypriot church scandal? It just so happened that a bunch of people read into a song’s title so much, thought it was rude of their country to sing about the devil (eventhough the bigger offenses made here is the gratuitous Spanish more than anything), and hoped that the broadcaster will disqualify the very song they okayed to be internally chosen because they are displeased with it - and if it’s not disqualified, they even threatened to burn the headquarters down. No, really. That’s like the most amusing part of that whole spectacle. Imagine burning a broadcaster headquarters down for a song... if I did it for every favourite of mine that lost to other broadcasters, the broadcasters would run out of locations to rent, because everything else good is pre-occupied or the ashes of their lost headquarters staring back at them.

Imagine being toxicly Christian in 2021... How long until Elena’s face gets photoshopped on the main protagoniste of The Unholy?

ANY LAST WORDS?

Even if I’m with this song, part of me kind of wants me to fail to make Cyprus realize that their formula is starting to wear thin and they got to be somewhat of a versatile nation in Eurovision if they want to be on the radar of not just one specific niche. But then again, they learned nothing when they flopped with Tamta, because she sneakily qualified as opposed to failing even harder than Tulia, ah well. Will they ever learn?

But why would I openly wish this to a top 11 song of mine, oh dear. Good luck Elena, may God be on your side, I guess. :P

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

CHERIE

John Pinck (JP) is the drummer of Aylmer-based indie rock band Cherie. The band is rounded out by Child (vocals), Jeff Gleeson (guitar), & Jimmy Major (bass). We chatted about the trade-offs between recording and gigging, their love for the Black Sheep Inn, and their upcoming shows in Summer 2017 (even opening for 50 Cent).

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cheriemusic/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cheriemusicca

Web: https://cheriemusic.ca/

Latest Release: Stay tuned! (2017)

Upcoming shows: Sunday, June 4 - Cherie, Roxanne Potvin. Black Sheep Inn, Wakefield, QC. 4:20PM. $12. Saturday, July 8 - Ottawa Bluesfest

SA: How did Chérie first start playing music together? JP:  It was the classic story of Boy meets Girl, Boy and Girl incorporate more band members, Boy and Girl split due to irreconcilable artistic differences, Girl and band keep making awesome music. Tale as old as time, really. Pretty certain that exact same thing happens like 3 times in the Old Testament.  

SA: What bands or musicians would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? JP: Daughter's album "If You Leave" is probably where Cherie started. But I think our sound has been pulled at since then by Sylvan Esso, Milk & Bone, Emilie and Ogden, Wilco, Hey Ocean, and whatever it is that Jimmy listens to in order to make him bass like he does.

SA: Thus far in your career, what has been the band’s biggest success? JP: Sorry man, I gotta get sappy on this one: Our local dedicated fanbase is our greatest success. They let us know that our work is appreciated, and in turn end up amplifying everything we do.

SA: Conversely, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? JP:  Budgeting, which I think has got to be the number 1 killer among indie bands. Both budgeting of time and money, and the way those two play off each other. We would love to have released an album last fall, but we gigged too much to be able to put in the time. But if we didn't gig, then we couldn't afford to produce an album. So where do we draw the line? We have such an admiration for these indie bands that are releasing incredible debut albums. It's really hard to listen to your own works, with a thousand possible tweaks that could still be made, and judge whether it's even on par yet with what you aspire to release. Trying to budget how much time and money you want to invest in a track until it's *shudder at the words* "good enough" is by far our greatest challenge. How do we deal with it? Well, I'll let you know once we get this release out!

SA: How do you guys approach the song-writing process? JP: We write extremely quickly. Our vocalist, Child, pulls beautiful lyrics and melodies seemingly out of thin air every practice. We have to have something recording at all times just to be certain to capture so that we can reproduce. Jimmy (bass), Jeff (guitar) and I (drums) all have strong listening improvisational skills (although the drummer lacks attention span), so we're usually able to build ideas on the fly in reaction to the lyrics and melodies. It really is something to behold, and probably one of our greatest strengths as a group.

SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa/Gatineau music scene? JP: Lots of bands, lots of venues. I think, however, the "on-demand" music consumption model is causing havoc to the live music model and Ottawa/Gatineau is no exception. It used to be that you'd go listen to live music at the Black Sheep on a Saturday night because it was the Black Sheep and you know that Paul Symes curates a certain style and caliber of musician for his venue. Now you check out the roster, look up some YouTube videos, check other venue rosters, try to organize consensus with friends on where to go, and then give up and binge watch Netflix. And I can't fault the patrons, the venues or the musicians. It's just the system we're stuck in right now. But what this means for indie musicians and venues is that most of their exposure comes from largely revenue-negative streams. A local band will never pay off the bill for a decent music video from ad revenue gained from YouTube, or pay off the production costs of an album from Spotify plays. It's another Catch-22 like the time/money budgeting conundrum. I wish I had some answers for this, but unfortunately, I don't.

SA: You guys played the 2016 editions of both the Megaphono Festival and the  CityFolk Festival this past year. What were those experiences like for you as a group? JP:  Megaphono is a great event for the Ottawa scene in general, with loads of artist development opportunities beyond the well promoted concerts. It was great to be a part of that for sure. CityFolk was our first big scale festival and it was unreal. Leading up to the festival we were practicing together almost every day to nail down that set. I think all in all we did ourselves proud, and won over some new Ottawa fans. Plus, even just attending a festival like that as a musician is inspiring both on a musical level and in the delivery. That was one of our big takeaways, was to find ways to augment our music through managing flow, soundscapes, lights, banter. We're pretty ambitious, but we're making positive steps in that direction.

SA: If you could narrow it down to one, what would be your favourite Chérie live performance thus far, and why? JP: Definitely one of our Black Sheep Inn shows in Wakefield, but I'm not sure I could pick a specific one. There's something about that room and audience that elevates our sound. We're not a loud band so I think our music touches all four walls gently, to which the walls offer back subtle warm reverb. The audience there is usually much the same, where we hit them at just that right level where they are gently moved and offer warm response.

SA: If you had to choose, what three records would you cite as most impactful on your sound? JP: Daughter's "If You Leave" has some overall stylistic influence over our sound. Sylvan Esso's self titled debut drives a lot of the electronic influences you're starting to hear in our latest songs like "Dainty".  And I think Jimmy (bass) and I secretly slip in OK Computer vibes when no one else is paying attention.

SA: What comes next for you guys in 2017? Good luck this coming year! JP: We're off to another show at the Black Sheep in Wakefield playing with our friend from Montreal Roxanne Potvin. That's on June 4th, a Sunday matinee. After that, it's polishing off our EP in hopes to have a soft release by the time we hit Bluesfest on Saturday July 8th. We'll be opening for 50 Cent. On a different stage... multiple hours before he goes on...

[runionnayrb]

How to Move and Do What You Want

When I was about nine years old, my parents decided to move my family of six across the country from Placentia, California to Hot Springs, Arkansas--quite a different place for anyone making the transition, but definitely for a nine year old who didn't exactly understand what was happening when my parents first told me about the move. It seemed exciting and new, so of course, I was happy to be on the road trekking 1600 miles from what I called home. For most of my childhood as an Arkansas resident, after the "honeymoon phase" of it all faded away, I loathed having to be there. So much, in fact, I promised myself to move away from Arkansas because it didn't have what I really wanted: a big city, the hustle, and bustle with all of the sounds and people it had to offer. Don't get me wrong, my childhood was fine. I didn't experience anything out-of-the-ordinary (other than southern accents, Republicans, and crazy Christian people who would try to scare me into following Jesus Christ).

All of that aside, I moved back to California when I was nineteen years old with my car full of stuff and a huge heart full of ambition. I wish I could say I had help from friends and family to aid in my journey to become my own person, but unfortunately, I didn't come from a well off family with even an ounce of being close to being a wealthy family. What we had was for necessity and everything extra was up to me to provide for myself including my car, cell phones (when they came around), gas, food money, etc, etc. I learned to work for what I wanted and that it wouldn't be handed to me like some more fortunate people. I feel like my having to work to provide for myself created the drive I have today to make it happen, no matter what blocks me from getting there. Just ten short months later, I made the difficult decision to move back to Arkansas on the last few hundred dollars I had. It was a combination of not having enough money to do anything except go to work and back, being lonely, and feeling hopeless. My time there from July 2009 to May 2010 taught me so much about myself, my limits and what I wanted to do, or rather what I didn't want to do and how to evaluate who I was as an individual. I still had a lot to learn and still do even today.

When I arrived back in Arkansas, I decided to give myself a fresh start in a different city other than where I had grown up and gone to school. I really disliked living in Hot Springs--it is a small tourist town where people get stuck there; they don't leave. I didn't want to be one of those people. After moving, I didn't feel like a failure deciding to move back because I wasn't in a position where I had to move back like I was homeless or about to be evicted. It was a choice. I took a pretty decent job as a manager at a local fast food chain and got my own place. I began to work a lot of hours. After a few months, I decided to leave the job due to the long days and lack of compensation to make up for the job.

I took a series of several serving jobs over the next few years until, in 2011, my car stopped working--it literally broke down at a stop light and I had to push it off the road. With no way to get to my job, which was at least 5-10 miles away from where I lived, I had to quit the job and find something closer to me. Luckily, I was positioned quite well to succeed. My apartment and the new job I found, which was a local coffee shop that also served a full breakfast and lunch menu, had everything I needed in between. The grocery store, bank, and gym were all in between my 10-15 minute walk from home to work every day. I lucked out! I continued to work at the coffee shop for about a year. Coming up to the end of working there, I had gone to a local car dealership, which was also near my apartment, to see if I could afford to get a used car to be able to get around easier. My mother was gracious enough to help me co-sign for the car. I had a car again, a newer car, probably the best car I had every owned up until this point in my life. Over the past few months, I had really started to resent my job, mostly because of the lack of joy I was getting out of going to work early each morning or staying late at the end of the night. The owners weren't as supportive in the operation of their business as I had hoped or maybe I just didn't see their support for what it was. Either way, I really wanted to go back to school since I wasn't able to continue school while living in California. I owed a few hundred bucks to the school because I didn't take enough hours to make me eligible for financial aid, rendering the costs as out-of-pocket, which I definitely didn't have at the time. My account was put on hold and there I was.

So, I worked my ass off to pay off the fees to get my transcript released so I could transfer to a school nearby, get my financial aid up and running again and go back to school. I worked hard, picking up hours, staying late, anything I could to make extra money to pay off the fees. I was finally able to pay them off in April 2012. I registered for full-time summer classes and made straight As--something I had never done up until that point. The classes I took replaced low grades with higher grades to raise my GPA and then I transferred to The University of Arkansas at Little Rock where I graduated in May 2016 with a Bachelor's in Theatre Arts.

In the last year of my undergraduate studies, I was contemplating what I wanted to do after school. As a stage manager, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in stage management, but I didn't quite know how to go about it. I wrote my mentor and chair of the department to help me through the process. He guided me to several professional internship programs and graduate school options. The longer I began to research the two very different options, I was led to pursue grad school more eagerly than the other. I still applied to a few internships and got calls for interviews--after I had already been accepted to grad school. I was accepted into The University of California, San Diego for their Masters in Stage Management program. It is a huge honor and very competitive program. Some days, I still cannot believe I'm in grad school.

Once my wife and I knew we were moving to San Diego, we had 6 months to save money, sell things, pack things, figure out our moving situation in order to get out to San Diego and find a place to live once we arrived. Because I am really great a budgeting and saving money, I created a budget and found places for us to cut and how to maximize our earnings so we could have some money set aside for us once we got to San Diego. We used a moving company called U-Pack, which is a place where you pack your stuff into a trailer or cube and the company ships it to wherever you are moving. We saved over $1,000 using their service. We were able to use those savings to go towards our fuel, food, and lodging.

The lessons I've learned from the time my family moved from California to Arkansas are embedded in my personal skills, a knack for budgeting, and go-getter attitude. Those experiences are what shaped me to be able to go after what I really wanted to do in addition to my parents and family being supportive about what I was dreaming about. You can move and do what you want, too! Take a look at some tips below for how to get started. To learn more about my tips or to get advice, feel free to contact me!

5 Quick Tips to Help Make Your Move Successful!

1. Planning is essential in order to make a successful move.

If you are thinking about moving to a new place, especially to a place where the cost of living is considerably higher, creating a plan for how, when and who will be coming along with you is essential to making your move as smoothly as possible.

When planning, figure:

the difference in your income where you are now and where you will be moving,

the difference in cost of the expenditures you currently have and what they will be in your new destination, especially rent, parking, insurance, and fuel cost. Most other costs won't be affected by much. Even the items I listed may not be affected at all.

Plan your spending habits in order to maximize savings. Saving money is hard enough, but when you are trying to move, you have to go into survival mode. Think about anything you have in your budget that is extraneous and is unnecessary such as a Spotify premium account, Netflix, the best level of the internet, going out to eat, etc. Many of these things seem like must-haves these days, but hearing/watching commercials or eating out are not things you need. If you really want to save money, you'll have to sacrifice the small things to save big!

How are you going to move your stuff? Are you going to get an old-fashioned Uhaul and make stops as you go? Are you going to fly and ship your stuff? When my wife and I moved across the country, we were asking ourselves the exact same question. We ended up going with upack, a great company that will ship your stuff for you after you pack the items by either drop-off or pick-up.

See more in "Budgeting can maximize your savings" into the right places below.

2. Researching will give you insight and smart decision-making.

Take some time to research where you want to move. Start with where the city is located. What other cities are around it? Is there a hot tourist attraction around? What's the weather like?

Look into the cost of living by doing a basic Google search. Be sure to look at rent, utilities, fuel, groceries, transportation, etc.

Does your new city have public transportation? Is it good? Is it affordable?

What do people on forums like trip advisor, yelp, google maps, and other third party websites say about the atmosphere and condition of the city?

3. Make a list of goals.

Goal setting is one of the most valuable assets you can have when planning a move.

How much do you want to spend on moving expenses?

How much do you want to save?

How much to you need to save?

When do you want to get certain moving goals done?

Do you want to get rid of unwanted stuff? If so, how will you do it?

Make realistic deadlines for you to reach your goals. If you know you are unable to save $5,000 in six months, don't make it a goal. Maybe you can save $500 in six months. That's ok.

Making goals can really bring the process of moving into perspective in terms of whether it is feasible for you in 6 months or a year from now.

4. Budgeting can maximize your savings into the right places.

Figure out how much money you're bringing in then figure how much money you are spending, not including credit cards. Once you figure those numbers out, subtract your spending from your income and that is your excess (or net) income. It is what you are able to save each money. You might be asking yourself, what about my credit cards?

If you are not using your credit for you, but against you, here are 2 helpful pointers. This will also allow you to eliminate your credit card payment while building your credit and freeing up your money to save.

"Pay your credit cards off" each month. What I really mean is pay your statement balance off every month. Credit interest is calculated every 30 days or each at the close of each statement period (30 days). If you pay your credit cards' statement balance off, you don't pay interest. Pay your payments ON TIME. I would recommend having it be an auto-payment.

Once you pay your credit card bill(s), use your credit cards to pay for what you need such as gas, groceries, bills, etc. etc. By using your credit cards in this way, it "eliminates your credit card bill," since you are paying the statement balance. It doesn't actually eliminate your credit card bill, but instead of paying the minimum and having it be another expense to your budget, you are paying the balance on the account and turning around to use the available credit on the account without adding the amount of the minimum payment. If you use your credit cards in this manner, then the amounts you would pay for a minimum payment on your accounts can then be rolled into savings each month.

Once you figure out what you can save each month, make it a goal to save a certain amount by a certain time. Try breaking up how much you need to save daily, weekly and monthly to give yourself more specific goals, depending on what your spending habits are currently.

Evaluate your spending habits. What are you currently spending money on that you can eliminate for the time being? Roll those $5 a month you might be spending on Spotify or Apple Music. $5 adds up over a year, not by much, but add it to other small savings and you could increase your savings by $250 or more!

5. Don't second guess yourself.

The biggest mistake I hear people making when they are talking about wanting to move or do something they want to do, it's they aren't sure they can even do it! You must believe you can do the things you want. If you take my advice for how to move and do what you want, you will be able to achieve your goals, budget, save money, use credit wisely and do what you want!

Share your thoughts with friends and family, but don't let them talk you out of your goals. Sometimes, you have to take risks to grow. Chances are if you want to move from where you are, you need a change. Take a risk!

The only reason you are not moving to where you want to live or doing what you want is you. You have to decide it is what you want and go after it. Make it work and never give up.

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