Time For Change

Time for a short break. This picture was taken in London while visiting there on business with my wife. It can also serve as a reminder to you that now is a good time to start. A good time to begin your change for the better. A good time to start working towards your vision. Don't put it off any longer, start today.






"They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." - Andy Warhol

Seen Your Family Lately

Today was probably another day for everyone. Possibly up at 5:30 am and getting the kids off to school. On the crowded road by 7:00 am for an 8:00 am start at work. The day is full of business with a short amount of time for lunch. At 5:00 pm you are hustling to get out the door for the same crowded ride home. By 6:00 pm you have made your way into you driveway. Exhaustion and stress from the day weighs heavily upon you, but now your family and home await.

There it is, family life down to one hour at most in the morning and maybe four in the evening. Difficult at best to keep your family life in order when only five hours can be devoted. For many it is probably less then that. How can we keep this part of our life in balance?

There are many places containing information about this subject but one should start with understanding why it is important. From one such place, Soul Purpose Academy, they offer the following.

"Family is the foundation for human beings. No matter what age we are, we are always seeking the "experience of family". The primary purpose for family is to provide an environment in which the members can have their primal needs met to feel safe, loved and wanted and to have their essential needs met in order to be seen, heard and recognized. When any of these primal or essential needs are missing our heart continues to seek this level of comfort and nurturing even beyond the genetic family into the extended family of our community, work, religion etc."

So one can see that without a well balanced family life such that your job over whelms all else in your life, troubles will begin to creep in. Losing touch with your children, divorce and many other issues can start to make your family and home crumble. How one can avoid this is to research and read about different ideas to work this part of your life out.

In an article from the Wall Street Journal, they offer some suggestions from job scheduling changes to readjusting your career. One also needs to make the most of the time they have. This is easy to say because many come home very tired. Yet you can try different methods to help you in this area of life. In example, evaluate what it is you feel is success. In an online article at eZineArticles.com, you can learn how to start towards balancing this spoke on your wheel of life.

“The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you.” - Kendall Hailey

Reacquaint yourself with your family and strengthen an important area of your life.

Do You Believe?

In many polls, most show that nearly 90% believe in the existence of God in one form or another. It is a subject that can spark tremendous debate and also cause others to scornfully reject those that speak openly about it. Those that regularly read my articles will note that I have faith in God. But I keep the writings secular in nature, although the real meaning of secular was distorted to mean "distance from, or lack of, religion". But the word serves its purpose and I'll use it here.

The fact remains that I am driven or influenced by my choices in life, one of which is religion. Most everyone that is reading this has some form of religious background or experience. There is also in most everyone's life the idea of being spiritual. The term spiritual is a synonym of religious so on one hand you may say they are the same. Yet others deem the two very distinct and different.

So I don't wish to debate the two here but to say that being spiritual is very important in keeping your life well balanced. Being spiritual and moral is one of the six spokes of your life. Now don't shy away, I'm not going to start preaching religion. There are others better suited to do that. My aim is more simple, to let you know that part of your life requires a set of personal values.

Have you thought about what it is you believe in or don't believe in? This encompasses not just religion but things relating to money, job, sex and politics are all items to consider. If you don't know where you stand, how will you know how to conduct yourself. If you are spiritual in nature, then you likely believe in the idea that some higher form or power exists. And if that higher power exists for you, then you most likely have some level of values to live by.

Can you be both religious and spiritual at the same time? My belief is yes, because one does not have to believe in a narrow doctrine of one religion or another, but in the idea of larger possibilities within the context of my religious faith. It provides a grounding for me, gives me values to live by and to treat others. It is in establishing a spiritual belief under which your values can be drawn and acted upon.

Patricia Megregian is quoted as saying, "Spirituality is where people find meaning in their life. It's something higher than themselves, though not necessarily attached to religion." Keeping this part of your life well tended will improve your life. Tend to it as often as you can to keep your life in balance.

Adjust Spending - Adjust Your Life

When it comes to your financial 'spoke of life', there are many things one can do to improve their situation. TOne place to start is working on the debt you have accumulated. In a USA Today article (September 5, 2006), an example is given for one particular family. Advice is then given on how to control their debt.

Coming up with ways to control and then eliminate your debt isn't as simple as earning more money. The basic issue is that people will typically spend to their level of income. If someone has an income of $20,000 or $200,000, their spending habits will reflect that same. All of us have this tendency as our society has done an excellent job on the marketing side.

The commercial comes on and the spokesman sells you on the idea of a new car, more fuel efficient with the latest 'needful' gadget. All of us will fall for things that are truly 'wants' and not really 'needs'. If you don't have the latest this or that, then you are not person aspiring for the greatest things in life.

The key is to not spend all that we have. One way to accomplish this is to sit down with a pen and paper. Write down what your average 'take home' pay is for the month in one column. Then write down in a second column what each of your bills are on a monthly basis. Subtract column two from column one - simple but very eye opening when you do this.

To get to a firmer financial position, goal yourself to the 10/10/80 rule. Give 10% to charity, save (long term savings) for yourself and only spend 80%. The hard part is to get the monthly spending under control. More on that in a minute, the charity amount is historical in nature and many will disagree with me. But giving to others will ultimately benefit you, even at its most base level benefit - tax deductions.

Saving for yourself is very important. It helps protect against future expenses that you may normally use that credit card for or keep you from having to take out a loan. Remember, credit cards and loans can be good. But never believe that companies that extend credit are in the business to help you or give you a great deal. Plain and simple, they are in the business to make money. The more you borrow from them, the more money they make. It is in their best interest to keep you in debt.

One suggestion about saving is if your company provides automatic payroll deposit, see if the deposits can go to different accounts. Then set up a 10% automatic deposit to a savings account and the remainder to your checking account. If possible, keep the two accounts seperate so that you are not tempted to continually pull money from savings into checking.

Now the hard part as I said previously. All of those monthly items in column two have to be examined. One another sheet of paper, create two columns and label them NEEDS and WANTS. Like I said, here comes the hard part. In the column labeled NEEDS, place the necessities in life such as your rent or mortgage, the utilities and a car loan to get you back and forth to work.

The column called WANTS is where you place the TV cable bill, the gym membership and other similar items. You have to be honest with yourself about what a WANT is versus a NEED. You can lie to yourself but it only hurts yourself...so again, be honest about this.

Now that you have a list of WANTS, eliminate those bills from your life. Learn to live without them for now. The savings should go to paying off short term debt. Some financial experts say to pay off the high interest debt first. My belief is to pay off the one with the smallest amount first. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and then you can start taking that money combined with the WANTS savings - apply both to the next debt.

But let us think about what happens if we can not make the income exceed the expenses. You have eliminated the wants but a deeper look at the needs is required. You have that nearly new car that is costing you $350 - $450 per month. Sell this one and get a more used car for only $5000 and maybe a payment of $200 per month. It could also be that the big house with the yearly association fee is too much of a mortgage.

Those are tough choices to make but ones you should consider before you become forced into a decision. Being able to have a choice in the matter will save you money as opposed to being required. In being required, it usually means foreclosure or repossession - not the choice you want in your life.

Some of the simple things are keeping lights turned off, maybe not using the air conditioning as much. Saving on water, generic brand food and less of the 'designer' brand clothes are other ways that you can make a change.

The key here is to lower your expenses to 80% of your income. Once you have done this, work to eliminate debt, work to a point of being able to pay in cash as opposed to credit card. Your stress will go down, you will be able to enjoy more things since your savings will grow. Life will be better all around. I am confident that each of you can do this.

David Bach is quoted as saying, “Before you can really start setting financial goals, you need to determine where you stand financially.” He has several books out but one that caught my attention was Start Late, Finish Rich. It helps to take away any doubts that you are too old to help your situation.

His book is good but know that there are several out there. Go to your local library or look online, maybe go sit in your local bookstore. The key is to find something that you are comfortable with, find easy to understand and will get you on a path to improving the financial spoke of your life. Just do it tonight, don't think about it, just get started...you've been putting it off too long.