LivingReal

Are you beyond thinking about coaching and ready to jump in?  Not everyone is actually ready to be coached or even ‘coachable’.  Not everyone is serious about creating a life of their own design, to make deliberate and conscience decisions that will make major +positive + changes to how they live and enjoy who they are and how they interact with the world around them.

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment.  When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”  Art Turock

If you are ready – use the coment section below to contact me and we’ll set up a free phone session to give you a sense of where we can go together!

Do It Now!

My wife and I recently attended a fantastic seminar for couples. Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage was straight to the point on so many important issues, presented in a fun, laughable and easily digestible manner, for both men and women.  check out this video clip: “>

Actually all of us would do ourselves well to spend more time in the water. I took up swimming as a part of my work out program three years ago. For a few months I had access to a pool and took advantage of it each morning. It didn’t come naturally! It still doesn’t

I remember a friend in college who used to go out to a small lake and just swim. Not just swimming out from shore for a distance and head back – I mean he would swim for an hour or two, around and around the lake. It amazed me – it still does. Even after making the pool a regular part of my week I wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, and that really isn’t the point. I am not trying to keep up with anyone. My only goal is to keep improving myself. Do a little better today than I did yesterday.

Swimming pools at most health clubs are under utilized, and that is a shame. When you consider the purpose of physical fitness and the goal of working out, swimming should be right there as a top pick. It provides not only a good work out but a zero impact work out. Now that may not be important to someone who has not experienced an injury but it all adds up and the pounding we give our bodies eventually catches up to us.

Swimming also provides a workout that lengthens and stretches the muscles, increasing muscle strength along the whole muscle fiber. This is in comparison with resistance training with weights. Done right, meaning lifting the weight through the full range of motion does build a longer muscle fiber. Compare this with a muscle that has exerted a force to lift a larger weight through only a small portion of the range of motion, (think of doing a chin up and not coming all the way down or going all the way up) and the result is a muscle that is short and bulky. Picture a tennis ball in the sleeve of a shirt. Now look at the long lean body of a swimmer.

Swimming provides an environment that encourages the stretching and lengthening of all of our limbs in a weightless atmosphere. It is a great way to finish off a weight training work out by adding a little cardio and providing the important stretching of the muscles we so often rush right past.

If you are new to the pool, or new to working out at all – fear not. First of all congratulate yourself for taking the plunge and be ready to celebrate the little victories. For many of us the idea of getting into a bathing suit is a victory in itself – Good For You! Stick with the promises you made to yourself. Notice the feelings that come with each work out. A little pain here or there is a sign you are working new muscles – fantastic! A good idea here is to find something you can track.

When I first got back in the pool I counted laps. Five was a good start. Then I added one or two more until I was up to 12. It was about then that I inquired and found out how many laps equaled a mile. Then I focused on a quarter mile and found I could do that! At this point I switched to watching the clock and worked at swimming for 30 to 40 minutes. This gave me another target and alleviated the need to try and keep track of laps, which does get difficult.

Sure – there is always that person that glides by effortlessly, doing two to three laps for every one of mine. In response to my inquiry I am told me how they have swam their whole life. I am sure some of us are built to imitate fish while the rest of us are more like the manatee. Good thing I am not trying out for a swim team or practicing for a triathlon – I am just out to have fun and get a little better each day.

It is a Jungle out there and with millions of Americans out of work the job market has become even more competitive.

Whether you are searching for a white collar, blue collar or no collar type of career it is survival of the fittest where Only The Strong Survive!

Don’t jeopardize your chances at an interview and a job by messing up on the basics!

I have combined my 12+ years working in the employment industry into a How-To manual for the job hunter. This is a no holds barred Field Guide explaining the what why and hows of a successful job seeker.

The Job Hunting Field Guide discusses the basics and guides you through setting up the consistent daily activities that create a structure for success.

Go to http://book.jobhuntingfieldguide.com/ to order your copy today.

If you order your Field Guide through this website – email me back at Steve@livingreal.net and we will spend 45 minutes in a phone coaching session to help you get started.

Let’s make this happen!

I have a great employee. She almost never complains, at least not about the work, does the little work I have for her after about the third time I remind her and although most folks would say I am paying her too much – it all works out for the best. At 12 years old she is the youngest employee on our staff of two, but she has been with the firm for almost 6 years and that gives her some seniority.  Since her food and lodging is completely covered I know she is making good use of her paycheck, putting it toward clothes, school supplies and a growing college fund.

And that is only one of the many benefits of my home based business. Hiring my daughter, and previously my son, are part of the benefits of owning my own business. Home based or not family members can be employees of your business and you can avoid certain rules and paperwork requirements needed for regular employees. While the salary I pay my children can not be outrageous the IRS rules are perfectly okay with this hiring practice. Whether emptying the garbage, sweeping the floor, filing or making bank deposits it is both a good learning experience for them and a great way to transfer profits out of the business and into the hands of deserving family members. Since these dollars are now removed from the net income for the business they are not taxed and staying within the limits of income for your child can make them tax free to him or her also.

In order to set up a relationship like this – (no tax advice being given here – please check this over with your accountant)
you must actually have work that your child will perform.
your child must actually perform the work
set up a written schedule of worked performed and hours worked(good for them and good paper trail for taxes)
Open a bank account for your child. While a savings account is all that is really necessary we found that by opening a checking account and getting a debit card we were now ready to help our children spend their tax free dollars on clothing, school supplies and other parent approved items
And the most important – you must actually pay them. You can only claim salaries that were actually paid. And it would of course be best if you paid those salaries on a regular basis throughout the year. This is not an end of the year tax reduction idea. Make regular paychecks out to your employee for actual work performed. This is good for their learning the value of work, it is good for your business and it is good for the IRS.

This is only one of the many benefits in owning your own business. But for many of us the idea of opening a business is both scary and over whelming. It is also a concern about where to open the business, what type of business and who has the time for such a thing as business ownership.  Fortunately  there are a lot of good answers to all those good questions.

The cost of opening a business can be anywhere along a wide spectrum – from little or nothing to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  On one end of the spectrum is the lemonade stand and on the other is a manufacturing plant. Since my guess is that you are closer to the lemonade stand of thinking  we’ll address a few points here and more in later articles.

A lemonade stand is usually set up with items you usually already have around the house. A table, some chairs, markers and paperboard for signs, pitchers, water, sugar, disposable cups and frozen lemonade. If you care to upgrade to a classier clientle the investment into real lemons is a possibility but lets assume we are working on a shoe string budget for capital expenditures.

Now that you have your products and location set up it is important to set up a marketing department. This would usually consist of a few friends who take your carefully designed marketing signs, stand close to the curb and yell at passing cars.  If business doesn’t take off according to plan you can increase marketing by getting more friends, yelling louder or send them down to the corner where traffic is heavier.

In all seriousness – it is possible to set up just such a business in the adult world. Internet marketing has a lot of similarities. You can start with items you already have at home. A computer, a place to work, an internet connection and a glass of lemonade. When it comes to marketing, rather than yelling at folks to stop and see what you have to offer, you can move your lemonade stand to a place where a lot of thirsty people are looking for something to drink and have them come to you, money in hand.

And once your lemonade stand is up and running the kids can  work around you, emptying the garbage, filing the papers and making bank deposits. Want to put up a lemonade stand?

I recently wrote (okay – I signed an on-line message that got sent) to my congressional representatives asking that the health care discussion not be lost in political in-fighting and party politics. Here is what I received back in an email from one of my senators:

Dear Mr. Fine:

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about health care reform.  I have heard from thousands of Wisconsinites on this issue, and I want you to know that I understand both sides of the debate.  I would like to take this opportunity to let you know what is going on in the Senate regarding health.

Congress has been working together for over a year to change America’s health care system for the better.  On November 7, 2009 the House passed the “Affordable Health Care for America Act,” and on December 24, 2009 the Senate passed the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”  Work remains to be done before we pass a final health reform bill.  Now that both the House and Senate have passed their respective bills, we will be tasked with merging the two versions of health reform.  I hope we can come to a bipartisan solution to improve health care for all Americans and also in getting our economy back on track and more Americans back to work as soon as possible.

If you want to learn more about what I am working on regarding health reform, please visit my website at kohl.senate.gov for more information.

Thank you for your comments.  Feel free to contact my office again about issues that are important to you.

Sincerely,

Herb Kohl
United States Senator

Reality is that in our post modern western world carrying a little debt is almost unavoidable – so we believe.  But when whole industries are created to separate us from our hard earned money – well,  something is just not right.

Banks make money on Mortgages – and the more often they can convince us that refinancing is a good thing the more money they can make. Just like when financing an automobile our focus is drawn to the monthly payment by the lender. Imagine how different it would be if we as a population simply re focused our  paradigm to the Total Payments  section of the lending agreement.

A 30 year mortgage equates to paying the bank twice the purchase price of the home and then a little more.  Does the interest rate or the monthly payment really matter? It does if you are only a shortsighted person, but as long as you plan on living in a home (as opposed to your car, a tepee or a retirement home) your cost of putting a roof over your head is a long term financial obligation.

Too good to be true is the constant phrase used by folks who have begun the process of getting 100% out of debt, mortgage and all, using the Money Merge Account.  You owe it to yourself to find out more.  Click Here to learn more about the company United First Financial and to get your F*R*E*E personal analysis.  My family will be out of debt in 6.2 years as opposed to the way we were going which would have kept us paying the lenders for 17+ years.

I have been in the financial services industry for 27 years, testing and researching debt since 1996.  While many other methods can be used – the Money Merge Account is the surest way to experience true financial freedom.

Go to www.MyLifeIsDebtFree.com and click on the free analysis button right now.

A not too often used phrase but one with as much meaning today as it was long ago is Making Your Nut. Simply put it means that a person has the money that will be needed to pay the bills that are due. But where do terms or phrases like this come from? Here is the accepted version of the origin of this one:

Back in old England is the origin this phrase. There were gypsy circuses that would travel from county to county entertaining the townspeople. Before the city fathers would allow them to set up camp, they would come to an arrangement as to how much the circus would pay the city in taxes for the privilege of setting up. Once this amount was agreed upon, the city sheriff would take the large nut that secured one of the wagon wheels on the biggest circus wagon.

Until the circus was able to pay the amount, they would not get their nut back. This way the traveling entertainers could not sneak away at night without making payment.

Today this phrase is used when discussing whether or not there is enough cash coming in to pay your bills. As in ‘Because of too little work this month, it will be difficult to make our nut.’

Although we don’t often hear this phrase being used the situation is probably more common to most of us than we want to acknowledge. While taxes are inevitable (Another common phrase even today: ‘Only two things are certain  Death and Taxes’) we do have control over our other financial obligations: bills, loans, credit cards etc.

Here is the question Would you be willing to pay more taxes if you didn’t have to? I can’t imagine anyone answering Yes to that question.

Question Two  Would you be willing to pay more to your credit cards and loans (auto, student, personal) than you have to? Again  who would say Yes? And yet so many of us do pay more, everyday, month after month.

While the things that make up taxes are sometimes hard to break up (schools, city, county,etc) and we have no choice but to pay what we owe, the same is not true with our loans. Any loan mortgage, auto, student, personal  is made up of principal and interest. The principal is a true obligation that needs to be met. But the interest is money we agreed to pay in order to stretch the payments out over time. Now I am not telling you something that you didn’t already know. And yet it is all a matter of focus.

In today’s world our focus is directed to the monthly payments. Buy a car and the salesperson asks what you can afford monthly. Qualifying for a home loan is based upon your monthly payment ability. Can you make the Nut? What is just as important to our financial well-being is another number we have chosen to not focus on is the total cost of ownership  or the total amount you will have paid by making the monthly payments as they are laid out in the loan agreement Principal plus Interest.

Most loans allow prepayment of the loan without penalties which simply means pay it off early and reduce the overall total cost of ownership. Pay less interest. After all if we would not voluntarily pay additional taxes why are we so willing to pay additional interest. It is money you will never see again, your hard earned dollars going into someone else’s pockets and it just makes it harder to Make Your Nut each month.

Recently recognized by Forbes Investment Guide as one of the Leading Providers of  Wealth Management in the Central Region of the United States, heres what Wealth Expert Terry C Kingsberry, Owner of Financial Counseling Services, had to say about the Money Merge Account

One of the main reasons my clients validate my recommendations is because of the success they have concerning the Money Merge Account system, which they are using to reduce their debt, especially their mortgage debt. I spent numerous months conducting due diligence on United First Financial and the MMA software before actually producing an analysis for my own home. Since that exercise revealed the strength of the UFF
organization and the positive effects the program was having on consumers, I finally enrolled into the MMA program myself. To date, my 30 year mortgage has been reduced to around 8.7 years. Even though I am not the most proficient user of the software, I am still very pleased with the results and I look forward to always sharing them with people who question the validity of the MMA.  5/22/09