Couch Time
This time of the year when I say “Couch Time” we probablythink of the playoffs and the upcoming Super Bowl, hanging out with the guys,eating some snacks, drinking some cold beer on a lazy afternoon.
But the couch time I am referring to is with our wives. This is a simple but very effective techniqueyou do daily that will greatly increase the intimacy and happiness in yourmarriage. 9 out of 10 wives approve.
Couch time is simply this, 15-30 minutes per day, when the kidsare still awake or getting ready for bed; you and your wife sit on the couch and talk. You tell the kids that this is your couchtime and that there will be no interruptions. You then talk about your day, your dreams,your problems, whatever.
Note: When you talk,you must talk feelings not superficial chit chat. You must express yourself in a way that womenfeel connected; this is by talking about your feelings or your true inner selfwith them. This creates intimacy.
This simple technique, done daily and in the way describeddoes wonders for your marriage. It alsohas a calming affect on your children, your children see that mom and dad haveoneness and this ensures your children of family security.
My wife and I don’t make it everyday, but we sure striveto. Every wife who has had her husbandtry this has had raving reviews. And ifyou need more of an incentive to try this guys read this: Talking + Feelings = Intimacy with wife. Intimacy with wife + Flirting = Sexual Wife. Do you get the picture?
Try it for 2 weeks, it works.
Happy Birthday
On this day, Jan. 11, 1999 at 05:51AM
The Lord blessed me with the birth of our first child, a beautiful baby boy.
Although I had no idea what I was doing at first and some days I still don't, we have become best buddies. We wrestle together, watch football, fight bad guys with swords and drive the girls in our house crazy with our singing.
You make me proud in so many ways.
I am truly blessed to have you in my life. Happy Birthday Chancellor.
I love you.
Daddy
Wordless Wednesday: Italy
Great Post from Guy Kawasaki's Blog
Evangelism: Eternal Life, Forgiveness, and Operating Systems
A little known story: When I was writing Selling the Dream—How to Promote Your Product, Company, or Idea—and Make a Difference Using Everyday Evangelism, I attended the Billy Graham School of Evangelismto learn from the best. It was a very interesting experience. Some ofthe finest speakers that I’ve seen (and tried to copy) were on apulpit—not an operating system or music-player pulpit—but a churchpulpit.
Fast forward a few years: I am on the board of directors of a para-church organization called Hawaiian Islands Ministries. Its mantra(if I can help it, no organization that I’m affiliated with has amission statement) is to “train the trainers”— that is, pastors,ministers, deacons, elders, etc. Twice a year it runs a conference featuring some of the best Christian speakers. If you like to watch and hear the sessions from this Fall’s conference, click here. For example, streaming video is available of these sessions:
-
Bill Hybels: “Give God Glory in Our Leadership.”Founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek, Bill is well known for hisrelevant and insightful Bible-based teaching. He is the author ofseventeen books, including Rediscovering Church and Fit to Be Tied(co-authored with his wife Lynne), Too Busy Not to Pray, Becoming aContagious Christian (with Mark Mittelberg), and The God You’re LookingFor. He is chairman of the Willow Creek Association’s board ofdirectors. Bill holds a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and anhonorary Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College.
-
Juan Carlos Ortiz: “Supernatural Experiences Are For Today.”Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Juan Carlos was ordained in theChristian Assemblies of Argentina and is presently a minister in theReformed Church in America. His vast experience in discipleship andsmall groups has taken him to conventions, congresses, universities,seminaries and churches on five continents. He has founded sixchurches, was professor at Instituto Biblico Rio de la Plata inArgentina, and at present is professor at the Robert Schuller School ofPreaching in Los Angeles, CA. Pastor Emeritus of the Crystal Cathedralin Garden Grove, California, Juan Carlos’s world renown books include Discipleship, Call to Discipleship, and God Is Closer Than You Think.
-
Francis Chan: “Give God Glory in Our Calling.” Francis is pastorof Cornerstone Church and president of Eternity Bible College in SimiValley. He is a highly sought after and gifted speaker, engaging adultsand youth throughout the U.S. and challenging them to deepercommitment. He can be heard on his radio program “Truth Be Known”.Francis has a great sense of humor, a genuine love for Christ and acommitment to teach straight from the Word of God. Francis and his wifeLisa have been married for twelve years and have four children. He is agraduate of The Master’s College and Seminary.
-
Brenda Salter McNeil: “Give God Glory in Our Relationships.”Brenda is a gifted communicator who has a wealth of knowledge andexperience in the area of racial and ethnic reconciliation. She isfounder of Overflow Ministries, a nonprofit, faith based organizationdevoted to the ministry of racial reconciliation. She continues thiswork through Salter McNeil & Associates, LLC, a racial and ethnicreconciliation training, consulting and leadership development companybased in Chicago. She earned an M. Div. at Fuller Theological Seminaryand a D. Min. from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
-
Dan Chun. Dan is president of Hawaiian Islands Ministries (HIM),which he founded with his wife Pam in 1983. He has been senior pastorof First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu since 1994. Prior to that hewas associate pastor with singles at Menlo Park Presbyterian Churchfrom 1985 to 1992. Born and raised in Hawaii, Dan left an early careerin television broadcast journalism with the Honolulu, Hawaii CBSaffiliate KGMB-TV to commit to full-time Christian ministry. Dan hasbeen a speaker at national Promise Keepers stadium events and ispassionate about bringing revival to the Bay Area and Hawaii by unitingthe Church of Jesus Christ through equipping church leaders.
Even if you’re not a Christian, you should watch these sessions outas examples of great speaking and evangelism although this isn’t a faircomparison because eternal life and forgiveness are far better productsthan most operating systems. :-)
Permalink Here: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/12/evangelism_eter.html
Will It Last?
Kimber over at No Limits Ladies posted today on guidancefrom Jim Cramer, Cramer’s advice is to be heavy into equities or aggressiveinvestments in your 20’s and 30’s and then start moving more towards FixedIncome investments closer to retirement.
My only complaint with Cramer’s advice is that those of uswho retire in our 40’s or 50’s will need this money for the next 30-40years. Will fixed income investmentscontinue to grow as we start to withdrawal funds? Will our nest egg last because of our earlyretirement? Will inflation eat away thefixed income over time?
I talk with many retirees who are now living off theirinvestments and most of them are still 60/40 or 70/30 between stocks and fixedincome simply because they know they will need to continue to retain growthduring retirement.
Work Less, Live More talks about this same issue and how toovercome it. Using the 4% Withdrawal Rule and Proper Asset Allocation, your egg will not only last butthrive.
Just another opinion :)
Finances Part II: The Not So Secret - LBYM
The One (Not So) Secret of Legacy Wealth
Wealth can be attained be anyone at any income level usingfour magic letters LBYM. LBYM stands forLiving Below Your Means. It is the oneprinciple that everyone must learn to become financial independent andwealthy. It also relieves financialstress and puts us back in control of our finances.
Now, it is very easy to read this and you have probably evenheard this before, yet most Americans simply do not master this first step towealth. I have never met anyone who iswealthy who has not mastered this principle and because I am such afinancial genius, it took me 5 years to learn this principle and instill it inmy family!!! Talk about hard headed?
Let me simplify this principle for you. LBYM simply means that you are saving moneyevery month and increasing this savings yearly. You are living on less than you make and investing and saving thedifference. This is how all wealthcreation begins.
Why does everyone not practice this principle? I believe it comes down to priorities and thelies we believe. You have to make it apriority to become wealthy and master your finances. In a moment, I will share with you some statistics(for all you analytical types) of how this breaks down but from all the data here isthe bottom line:
Those whomade it a priority to save, built wealth, regardless of their income level,individual circumstances or choice of investments.
Here are some key findings:
- There’s a huge variation in wealth at every income level. Many low-income families have almost nothing. But the same is true of many high-income families.
- Income alone doesn’t explain wealth disparities. Some of the lowest-earning households had managed to accumulate significant wealth.
- In fact, income differences explain just 5% of the wealth dispersion the researchers found.
- What the researchers called “chance events” -- inheritances, medical bills,marital status, and number of children -- explained about 4% of the dispersion.
- Investment choices explained about 8% of the variations.
- In other words, the vast majority of the differences in wealth had nothing to do with income, chance events or investment choices.
- What did explain most of the differences in wealth? Venti and Wise concluded it was this: How much the families chose to save. Those who made it a priority to save built wealth, regardless of their income level, individual circumstances or choice of investments.
Here it is again…
Those whomade it a priority to save, built wealth, regardless of their income level,individual circumstances or choice of investments.
Crazy? Makingit a priority to build wealth is 80% of the battle.
“80% of Success if showingup.” - Woody Allen
So we now know that simply making finances and wealth a priority is halfthe battle, what is the other half?
We need tostop believing the lies.
Hollywood, The Dot Com Craze, TheMedia and even Financial Advisors have been selling us a lie. The lie is that when you’re wealthy, youdrive a Mercedes SL600, you live in a $5M Mansion, you only buy Gucci, Pradaand Armani and if it’s practical and cheap, you don’t want it.
We buy into this lie and try to look the part, try to live up with theJones. We spend our hard earned money onthe one thing that will never help us become wealthy…liabilities.
Not only do we spend our hard earned money on crap but we also use ourcredit and buy more crap to get us deeper in debt. Here are some debt facts:
- More than a third -- 36% of those who owe more than $10,000 on their cards have household incomes under $50,000, according to the VIP Forum analysis.
- 13% who owe that much have household incomes under $30,000.
- The percentage of disposable income used to pay debts is still near record highs.
- The median value of total outstanding debt owed by households rose 9.6% between 1998 and 2001.
- Bankruptcies set another record in 2003, with 1.6 million personal filings, the American Bankruptcy Institute reports.
More…
· Sixty-two percentof Americans report that they are saving and/or investing. However, more than40 percent of all Americans save lessthan 5 percent of their annual household income. Sixteen percent savebetween 5 and 10 percent. Only nine percent save more than 20 percent of theirannual income (Jean Chatzky, You Don't Have to Be Rich,2003).
· Theaverage personal savings rate is now less than 2% of income, and theaverage household has a net worth of just $264,000 at retirement, not includinghome equity (Money, December 2004, pg. 94).
So what are we doing? We are taking our hard earned money and buying new cars, boats, jetskis, snowmobiles, charging vacations on credit, financing Christmas, gettingthe latest gadgets, hooking up 141 channels of cable, eating out everyday andbuying Starbucks every morning at $4 a pop instead of making wealth a priority andsaving money first.
Have you ever looked at those pictures of wealthy people yousee on the walls of old estates? Theydecided to make building wealth a priority; they built a financial legacy that influencedmany future generations.
So what are we doing for our future generations? What will our great, great, greatgrandchildren say about our legacy?
Again, financial wealth is not the only aspect of a legacyand it is certainly not the most important but, it is a factor and needs to beaddressed. Ignorance is not anexcuse.
If everyone was given a financial report card on our networth, what would our grade be?
Take all your assets (investments, retirement, and cash) andsubtract your liabilities (mortgage, debt, loans) and see what your grade mightbe?
A = Net Worth of $2 Million or more
B = Net Worth of $1 – 2 Million
C = Net Worth of$500,000 - $999,999
D = Net Worth of $100,000 - $499,999
F = Net Worth of $ Negative - $99,999
Using this grading scale and statistics, a majority of usare getting D’s and F’s?
Statistics show the average American spends 120% of theirannual income. That means all theirincome plus 20% using credit and debt.
Okay so what do we do instead?
You put your money in the one area that hasmade all the wealth in the history of our world, from J. D. Rockefeller to BillGates to Warren Buffet. This one area toput your money creates wealth for you. Assets
The reason we don’t now of this great secret is because theydon’t teach it in school and unless you’ve made it priority to find out, itremains elusive to us. First, somesimple definitions.
Liability – is anything that depreciatesand/or takes money out of your pocket sometimes reoccurring monthly.
Asset – is anything that appreciates in value or puts money back into yourpocket hopefully on a reoccurring basis.
In his best selling books “The Millionaire Next Door” and“The Millionaire Mind” Dr. Thomas Stanley does research on America’s wealthy households. He found that there are two types of wealthypeople.
Income Statement Wealth and Balance Sheet Wealth
Income Statement Wealth is people who havelarge incomes but spend a majority of their incomes on liabilities. Theyhave big houses, nice cars and look wealthy but have no real wealth becausetheir money is in depreciating liabilities. They are tied to their incomes (jobs) tomaintain their income level.
Balance Sheet Wealth are people who don’tnecessarily look wealthy, they have modest houses and modest cars yet they havemost of their money in appreciating assets and our normally financial independent,meaning if they quit their jobs, they would be able to live off their assetsand in most cases make more money.
Now please understand this, there are some people who are sofrugal that they do not spend money on anything, they deny themselves of simplepleasures and rewards and make it their life’s work to be stingy, miserlypeople. This is not the lifestyle I amtalking about. I am talking aboutreducing unnecessary costs, lowering liability debt and redirecting that moneyinto assets that will put money back in your pocket.
Like I said, it is easy to read but much harder to “get offthe liability wagon” and put this into effect. It took me 5 years of reading, struggling and failing a few times tofinally learn this principle. Hopefullyyou are much smarter than me and will chose to draw a line in your checkbookand stop these habits.
For some help in this area and to go into much greaterdetail I recommend the following books:
TheFour Laws of Debt Free Prosperity – This is the first book on finance thatI read and lead me on this journey to creating wealth.
YourMoney or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and AchievingFinancial Independence – This is the “financial bible” on frugality andLBYM. I have heard countless accounts ofthis book turning peoples spending habit around.
A Quick Recap of what we need to do to LBYM:
Make it a priority to master your money and create wealth. This is the first step in setting an example for your children, then teaching this process to them. It also relieves financial stress on your marriage and starts the process towards your children’s financial legacy.
Reduce spending and liability debt. Stop living the lie of income statement wealth. This sometimes takes a little pressure from God and others to get us to do. It takes a level of maturity on our part as well. It was hard for me at first to see friends driving BMW’s they financed on credit and other friend’s spending money on liabilities. I would be lying if I told you I didn’t slip back to my old habits a few times when I first started. The books listed will give you a more in depth game plan of how to make this step easier and automatic.
The third step once you’ve reduced spending is to start Paying Yourself First. This is a simple beginner principle to get you to save 10% (for starters) every month. The idea is to set up an automatic withdrawal from your paycheck of 10% and have that money transferred to a savings account. This forces you to live on the 90% that is left over. As you progress, I will show you how to start saving more and more. I am currently saving around 30% of my monthly income and to be honest, there is plenty left for extras and entertainment. It is all in themindset.
So your next question is going to be “Where do I put this10% of my income?” This we will answerin future posts and I will take you through the simple savings account to verycomplex investment choices.
First we crawl, then walk, then run and finally soar. Until next time, God Bless.
-Esse Quam Videri-
"The only thing that standsbetween a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try itand the faith to believe that it is possible."
- R. M. DeVos
Some additional links for statistics:
Debt Statistics - http://www.mdmproofing.com/iym/hfstats.shtml
Here is somescientific information on this subject from Money Central
Investing Strategy: Options
I have been following Roseman's Eruptions for some time andalso
subscribe to some services he writes for. Recently, he spoke of the Japanese Yen andhow he expects the Yen to rally soon.
Intrigued,I reasearched it more and then purchased some call options on EWJ (Which indexes the Japanese Index) sincemy purchase, the option has been up as much as 20% and currently down -9%. This option ends in March and we will see howthis pans out. I am looking for a 30%gain on these options as my exit strategy.
Options are a leveraged way to capture large gains on a stock even if the actual stock price only moves a little. See this further definition - Options Investing
NOTE: This is anadvanced investing strategy and is posted strictly for learning purposes. Those not familiar with options investing should not try to duplicateresults.