Jun
21
2009
The Road to Mediocrity
I’ve been fortunate to witness the birth of 5 children. All of them boys and all of them incredibly unique. Cheri didn’t have one mediocre birth. Each birth was unique, difficult, and wonderful.
The process of raising each boy was challenging and different. Each boy has a unique personality that is filled with character and talent as individual as their fingerprints.
I pray that none of them ever settles for less than what he can become.
I pray none of them ever settles for mediocrity.
May
13
2009
The book is almost ready for e-print. Charles will have it ready in about one week or so. Here is a sneek preview of the questions answered by the book.
The Talking Millionaire:
A Guide to Eliminating up to 91.7% of Financial Frustrations
Questions answered by The Talking Millionaire
Book Cover:
· The first by-product of reading and learning from The Talking Millionaire will be more time with your spouse and family.
Prologue
· Why the assembly line can save your marriage?
Apr
27
2009
Market Update
More than 3 out of every 5 American adults (61%) do not have an emergency savings account equal to at least 3 months of living expenses (source: Money Magazine).
Although only 40% of American adults currently pay their outstanding credit card balances each month, 63% of Americans surveyed in early March are committed to eliminating any monthly credit card debt in the future (source: Consumer Education Services Inc., Money Magazine).
The average family is able to save over $300 a month using Wealth Tracker. If you are not giving each dollar a rule your dollars will rule you. Sign up for Wealth Tracker online by clicking here.
Apr
15
2009
The Great Depression:
The Decade We Sold Our Souls to Security at the expense of Freedom
“History books and politicians in both parties sing the praises for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency…What goes unappreciated is the fact that [his) measures exacerbated and extended the economic downturn of the 1930s. While President Roosevelt was a great man in some respects, his economic policy was a disaster. What’s worse is that public ignorance of those policy failures has lent support for similar policies in later years.”
-Walter E. Williams-
Mar
18
2009
Mark to Market
With a balance sheet that showed assets in the billions how does a company like Washington Mutual go bankrupt over night in September 2008? WaMu was the largest bank failure in American history. How does this happen?
There are many factors that contribute to a bank’s failure, but part of the answer to why many banks were brought to their knees in 2008 is mark-to-market accounting (MTM), in which a security’s value is recorded in a company’s books at its current market value, rather than its book value.
Mar
09
2009
I am passing along an article written by a colleague of mine. John and I met years ago in the mortgage industry and his knowledge and understanding of business principles is greatly appreciated.
Cash Flow 101
By: John Fogliani
I don’t know about you, but I am not a big fan of budgets.
If you are new to the Balanced Living System™, you have been asked to use Wealth Tracker and I am sure you are saying to yourself “oh no, here we go again – a budget!”
Mar
04
2009
What does the Balanced Living System™ Sell?
The entire purpose of the Balanced Living System™ is to sell you three things:
1. Clarity
2. Confidence &
3. Capacity
At first, this may seem foggy because the words are ambiguous. Let’s start with the current financial market and review the 3 C’s through your financial lenses:
Clarity
· Do you know your retirement number? How much will you need during retirement?
· Do you have enough?
· How much time will it take? What do you need to change?
This is a preview of
What does the Balanced Living System™ Sell?
.
Read the full post (512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)
Mar
04
2009
The Balanced Living System™
If the average person were asked to list off their assets, they would say things such as: retirement accounts, cars, equity in the house, jewelry, and money. These are financial assets from your Financial Quadrant. But if you were asked ‘What means more than anything in the world?’ What would you answer?
Family! The family is an asset from your Human Quadrant. Within your human quadrant you’ll also find health and relationships. What is your human quadrant like if your financial quadrant is out of balance?
Mar
04
2009
What’s a System’s Malfunction?
If you follow this blog at all, you will have seen the following Deming quote repeatedly:
‘94% of all failure is a systems malfunction.’
In short this means that people rarely cause an error. This includes your husband, ma’am! People are usually no more than unwitting symptoms of organizational problems. Your family is an organization. Your marriage is an organization. How you talk with each other and your children is a system within your organization.
Mar
03
2009
Problem Solving vs. Simplifying
Early in my marriage every time my wife would tell me about a problem, I felt obligated to solve it. I was a needs based, problem-solving husband. It seemed however, each time I tried to solve her problems, I seemed to get in trouble with my wife.
I soon learned the most important question of my marriage: Husbands, this question is worth thousands in marital coaching: “Am I listening or am I solving?” I just simplified the process. She rarely wanted me to solve, because she didn’t need me to.
