Random Thoughts and Readings for the Week: The Heat Continues!

Hope that everyone is enjoying the heat, though looks like there might be a bit too much of it, with the current drought in the U.S.

Here are some recent posts that you may have missed:

• What’s Up With All the Life Insurance Choices?
• Are People Shooting Themselves in the Foot With Income Reports?
• Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #244 – July 6, 2012
• Are You Going To Burden Your Children?
• Happy Canada Day Weekend Reading!

In case you haven’t yet passed by, you might want to also give these posts a read:

• How Much Do You Pay in Payroll and Income Taxes? Here’s an Overview of Canada’s Income and Payroll Taxes for 2012, by Province
• Zen Personal Finance: My Philosphy, and What It Means to Invest It Wisely

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND READINGS FOR THE WEEK

It’s been nearly six months since I left my job. So much has changed since then: the snow has melted, it got really, really hot, and I got used to the idea of working for myself. I’ve even enjoyed a measure of success, and I really enjoy what I’m doing. It might not be long before I’m able to surpass milestone #2. I even know a few guys that are starting to go into working for themselves, so it’s going to be really cool to be able to share in the journey, together.

However, there’s a couple of things that I’m afraid of. The first is that the majority of this success is coming from a single product, and my mind is running a bit dry at the moment, so I really don’t want to be a one hit wonder. The second is that I’m afraid of letting myself slow down the pace, as it’s too easy to get comfortable!

I know that I’m responsible for my own success, so it’s time to plot out the course for the next six months. Fear is a healthy emotion when it leads to action and planning, rather than paralysis. I can also say that I’m very happy with the way things have gone so far, and thrilled to see that the Financial Samurai has also taken the jump. Me and him come from opposite ends of the spectrum in some ways, but when we met up, he was a very normal and down to earth guy, and very friendly as well! I think he’s going to do great on his adventure, and wish him the best of success.

MONKEY WRENCH

The book Lifebulbs: Bright Ideas & Simple Solutions For Building Your Better Life is currently on a book tour, and I was asked if they could stop by Invest It Wisely. I was happy to oblige. 🙂 Below is the tour:

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” If there ever was anything learned during our childhood that was more wrong than that, I don’t know of it. Words absolutely did, and still do hurt us. Whether it was a bully on the playground or other kids in class when we were of school age, or a current friend, co-worker, or family member, the things said or done with malicious intent have a way of piercing straight through to the heart. You could be minding your own business, doing your best to build your Better Life when, zing! Out of nowhere comes a phone call, email, text message or a full-on face-to-face confrontation that knocks you for a loop.

Having a monkey wrench thrown into the middle of your life by someone you regularly trust is even more devastating than dealing with random acts of rudeness. Undoubtedly, your heart hurts, you may shed some tears and feel a bit numb as you wonder, “Why me?” But whatever the reason for the attack, which may never actually be uncovered, after the natural emotion of feeling sorry for yourself has run its course, you have a decision to make. As trite as it may sound, it really does boil down to deciding whether to get bitter or (BE)TTER. You have to ask honestly yourself, “Do I want to allow myself to get really angry and start planning my revenge? Or do I want to turn this incident into a school of hard knocks training course on how to grow through adversity?”

No matter who or what attacks, don’t get bitter, (BE)TTER.

By: Randal Smalls

Randal Smalls is a recovery specialist, life coach and author of the newly released “LIFEBULBS: Bright Ideas & Simple Solutions to Building Your Better Life” . Since 1988, Randal has traveled to more than 25 nations coaching and encouraging people from all walks of life including some of the world’s most recognizable faces in business, religion, sports and entertainment. His Better Life Courses are currently being utilized in various rehabilitation facilities, colleges and churches worldwide. Get more info at BetterLifeCourse.com or follow Randal on Twitter @MrBetterLife.

On to weekend reading:

PERSONAL FINANCE

• Why Personal Finance Blogs Became a Cliché – A controversial writeup by Aloysa, who generally doesn’t mind stepping on a few toes to get a great point across.
• Cost of Romance – Ladies Night – check out this neat podcast by Latisha Styles, from Young Adult Finances.
• We PF Bloggers Are a Self Centered Bunch – I agree that the generic topics can get old, fast. We can always inject some of our own personal experiences to make a dry topic more interesting and relatable.

CAREER

• How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye – I quit my job, did not collect EI, and I still think that this was the right choice for myself, but this isn’t the right choice for everyone. What if you could get laid off, instead? It all depends on your personal circumstances.
• What Not To Do When You Land Your First Grown-up Job. I can relate to Marissa about spending on things that, in hindsight, cost you more money than you would have preferred to spend once the initial euphoria wore off! For me, it was spending money on new cars.
• Salary Starting Point – what are your salary negotiation tricks?

MISCELLANEOUS

• How I ended up back in school on the first day of the Egyptian Revolution – Forest shares an awe-inspiring story about his personal experiences during the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution.
• Dealing With the Neighbor From Hell — As we live in a condo, we are so grateful that we don’t have neighbours like this!

MOTIVATION

• To Achieve Greatness, You Must First Acknowledge that You Suck. It’s not always easy to acknowledge our weak points, as doing so can hurt our egos. However, when we take responsibility, we can finally stop blaming others and learn to take action to improve things for the better.
• When is YOUR Independence Day? Are You Free to do What You Want? – What are you doing to get closer to personal independence and freedom?

RETIREMENT

• Top 16 Reasons I’m Retiring Early – these are a lot of great reasons that anybody might have for retiring early, and I can relate to many of them. I still wonder if the future is going to bring more financial freedom or more financial slavery. It really could go both ways.

INVESTING

• Best Way to Invest Money in This Economy – Shilpan takes on some of the conventional investing wisdom. I personally still think that both buy & hold and dollar cost averaging have their place, but they have to be tempered with reason rather than blind obedience.
• Pinecrest Energy: Highlighting One of the Best Junior Oil Stocks in Canada – Mich takes a look at another great junior oil play.
• June 2012 Dividend Income Update – My Own Advisor has been working hard at building up a dividend warchest.
• Youngandthrifty’s July Net Worth Update +1.02% – Y&T also has good news about her net worth!

GOVERNMENT

• Am I Taxed Enough? — I do know that Canadians are definitely taxed enough.
• What is Freegold? Or, Can the Debt Grow Forever? Every fiat monetary system has had a rather short and limited lifespan, at least as measured against the march of history. Every single one. What do you think’s going to happen when the current system reaches its close, and how are you preparing for the change?
• How Gold is Going to Recapitalize the World’s Banking Systems and Restore Sanity to Our World Going with this theme, it seems that both banks and governments are starting to make preparations for the shift to come.
• The Government and your Wallet. What will it take to bring the government back down to Earth?

CARNIVALS

• Amazon Smart Phones, Queen Elizabeth Isn’t the Queen and a Carnival
• Best of Money Carnival #162 – Heat Wave Edition
• Canadian PF Happy Hour at Canadian Personal Finance
• Carnival of Fin. Camaraderie at The University of Money
• Carnival of Financial Planning at Master The Art of Saving
• Carnival of Money Pros
• Carnival of MoneyPros at Portfolio Princess
• Carnival of Retirement at Good Financial Cents
• Festival of Frugality
• Festival of Frugality #343: The Freedom Edition
• Fin. Carn. for Young Adults at 20s Finances
• June 1 Yakezie Carnival – Canada Day Edition
• Kids Don’t Want To Drive, I Want an Island and a Link Carnival
• Totally Money Carnival at Money Reasons
• Y & T’s Weekend Ramblings at Young and Thrifty
• Yakezie Carnival at Tackling Our Debt

Hope you all have a good week!