1. Driving in stormy or snowy weather.

Living in a place where it never rains, it can be difficult to become accustomed to driving in stormy weather, but it’s definitely important to keep ourselves in check when rainy days are upon us. Driving in snowy weather is a little more tricky, but it’s still important to learn a couple tricks when you find yourself in a situation where the road could take control of your car. Here are a few tips for driving in stormy weather to avoid a serious injury.

• Give yourself extra time to maneuver.
• Avoid sudden stops and lane changes, as your car will not have the traction to safely complete these maneuvers.
• Leave at least twice as much space between your vehicle and the cars around you.
• Take your time stopping, starting, and switching lanes, maintaining a slow and steady speed.
• Control your vehicle through a skid. If you start to skid, turn your wheels in the direction the rear of the vehicle is traveling. This will help it recover traction and straighten.

2. How to change a tire.

There might come a time when you can’t call AAA to help you out -- maybe your phone is out of battery or there could be no service. Best practice is to know what you are doing and get back on the road as soon as possible. Here are a few steps to follow; you can find a list of the materials you’ll need and more detailed instructions here.

• Find a safe spot to pull over.
• Remove spare.
• Put up cones or reflective triangles.
• Remove hubcap.
• Loosen (but don’t remove) the lug nuts using a wrench.
• Use a jack to raise car about 6 inches off the ground.
• Unscrew lug nuts.
• Remove flat tire.
• Align spare with exposed lug bolts.
• Replace lug nuts and tighten by hand.
• Lower jack.
• Tighten lug nuts with a wrench.
• Replace the hubcap.
• Check the pressure in your spare.

There are times when you will need to call help, for example, if you are missing equipment, if the weather is unsafe or when the road conditions aren’t ideal.

3. How to check your credit.

The older you get, the more important credit becomes. There are a plethora of things you will not be able to do easily unless you have good credit. For example, if you are renting an apartment, leasing a car, or trying to get a good insurance rate, you will need to have good credit. First, you'll have to know where and how to check your score. You will need to understand what good credit looks like, scores range from 300 to 850, anything higher than 780 is good news, while anything below 600 is considered fair to bad.

• Check your credit card or loan statement -- many companies are now giving customers their credit score on a monthly basis. It can be found in your account under your monthly statement.
• Check with the three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
• Pull a free report from Annual Credit Report -- You are entitled to get a free report from the website once a year, but remember to check for errors.
• Buy a score -- you can do this directly through a credit report agency, a popular one is FICO.

4. How to write a check.

This might sound like a simple skill, but you might be surprised at the number of people who don’t know what a proper check looks like. We can blame it on paperless bills, etc. But regardless of the situation, you should always be prepared to know what goes in what blank space. Just follow these easy steps:

• Date: Make sure it is in the right format month/day/year.
• Payee: Name of the person whom you’re paying money to, make sure it’s legible and clear, if this information is not clear, the bank could reject the check.
• Amount in words: Write out the amount like in grade school, right down to the cents. Whatever space is left in the blank space should have a line through it, to avoid someone adding more money.
• Memo: this is for your records, you can write June Rent for example or groceries. Think about it as a Venmo description, same thing.
• Signature: Pretty self-explanatory.

5. How to use Google effectively.

We all use Google every day for almost all answers but have you ever looked something up and it took a few different searches to find exactly what you were looking for? Well, believe it or not, research skills come into play. Make your life more efficient by not typing in a full question. Want to find costume ideas? Get specific and think of keywords (type of costume, men or women).

You also have to understand what good results look like, what an ad is and what is considered a trustworthy reference. For the most part, .edu, .gov, .org can all be trusted. Don’t believe everything you read just because it’s on the first page of Google -- always double check where you are getting information from, especially if it’s a medical or technical question. Get more tips on using search consoles to your advantage here.

6. How to drive a manual transmission.

Fewer people are buying manual cars. However, it’s still a valuable skill to have in case of emergencies. You need to escape a serial murderer, only car available is a manual transmission, what do you do? OK, maybe that won’t be the case, but here are some good reasons why learning how to drive stick shift can be beneficial.

• Manual transmission avoids distracted driving.
• You can drive any car in the world, especially when you travel.
• Manual transmission cars are cheaper to repair and maintain.
• Fuel-economy is better.

7. How to prepare basic meals.

You don’t have to become a gourmet chef, but it is important to have some cooking skills. For starters, you should know how to work a stove. Once you get that out of the way, you're golden. Here are my top five meals you should be able to prepare.

• Pasta: Boil water, add pasta, cook for 20 minutes (try before pulling from boiling water), add store-bought sauce, voila!
• Scrambled eggs: Heat up the pan to medium, add butter or oil, mix eggs in separate bowl, add a pinch of salt and pepper (your choice) add to pan, don’t walk away from the pan.
• Pancakes: Make life easier, buy the just add water brand. Don’t heat up the pan too much and you’ll pass with flying colors.
• Cake: Same advice for pancakes, buy a pre-made mix, make sure you follow directions properly, be patient after it’s done, wait for it to cool and the frosting part will be a piece of cake.
• Chicken Breast: Cooking chicken is important because you always have to make sure it’s fully cooked. If you are taking a stab at it, I suggest cutting it into little pieces first so that you can tell how cooked it is. With a little practice, you’ll eventually graduate to baking, frying, etc. The options are endless.

8. How to parallel park.

This is undeniably one of the most important skills when it comes to driving. The best way to nail this skill is to understand the size of your car -- this will make it easier for you to determine where you can fit before you attempt and fail. With that said, practice makes perfect. Go out there and try -- you can do it.

9. How to budget.

This is an important skill to have because it will make your life a lot easier and your pocket fuller. It can be daunting at first, but figuring out how much money you can potentially save every month, can make a huge difference in your finances. Learning how to budget can help you save money faster and more efficiently. You want to vacation, budget, you want to see if you can afford a new apartment, budget.

You can start by recording your expenses, how much is gas per month, how much are groceries, how much is rent, cable, etc. After all the necessary expenses are recorded you can figure out how much of that money you can cut out. This includes coffee runs, eating out, etc. Regardless if you need to save money or not, knowing how much you spend and save each month is extremely helpful.

10. How to negotiate a salary.

Everyone in the workforce will eventually face this situation no matter what career you are in. The most important factor in a situation like this one is confidence. Make sure you are confident with your skills, how much they are worth and how much your company values you. It only takes a little research to figure out the limits of your salary. Take the time to find out and come up with a number that you are comfortable with.

Be prepared and professional, it can make a big difference if you come ready. The best part about negotiating is that there is no harm done, whether you are just starting a new job or moving up in your company, if you are confident when negotiating a salary, the worst that can happen is you get turned down. What happens after could determine several things, are you not ready for a promotion, or is your company not valuing you enough?

11. How to jump-start a car.

This predicament can surface at any time and may catch you by surprise at the worst of times. First thing is to make sure you have the equipment. If you have your own cables and know how to fix the problem, all you need is to ask someone for a quick favor.

If you don’t have cables and you have no idea what to do, this problem may take longer to solve. Just remember this... turn off both cars, red goes on positive, black on negative after you attach the cables turn on the car that is working.