Tag Archives: Summer Blog Challenge

Business Travel

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BusinessTravelBefore I came into my roll where I am now as the Director of IT, I knew a lot of friends who travelled quite a bit for business.  I looked at it and how long they were away from their families and just the sheer amount of travel they were going on.  Fast forward to now and I’m seeing first hand how travel takes away from the family.

However I’ve seen how long the other guys were away and their travel schedule and I’m thankful that I can ask my wife when the best days for me to travel are, and I also 80% of the time make my trips day trips.  Its much more difficult day trips sometimes because my days are much longer but in the end I’m back with my family before bed.  Sometimes my trips take me on overnighters however I come back home by noon and I’m working from home the rest of the day. 

There are lots of choices for travel and to be honest I think a lot of people will extend their trips a little longer then they really need to be as a matter of convenience.  Convenience at the expense of family is how I see it and that’s not something I want to compromise when possible.  I say this because of the comments I hear with some of these guys that travel in my industry.  I also hear this because I like to chat with people when I travel and people will open up to perfect strangers and sometimes it’s shocking the things people say, just crazy!

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

Just a Little Debt Update

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Well more news today on the debt front.  To no surprise many Canadians are going to find themselves in debt many years longer than expected.  CIBC held a survey which found Canadians holding some form of debt feel they will be deb-free by age 55.  However, only 35 % in the 55 to 64 age group are actually debt-free.  Is anyone actually surprised by this?  With the many debt related news articles that have come out over the last year I don’t know why this is new news.  I think it could be coming out now as we are on the brink of another recession, the double dip recession.

Jim Yih some financial expert says “the older you are the more you’re going to deal with the necessity of debt”.  That is such a load of BS.  Who says that debt has to be a necessity?  It doesn’t HAVE to be and the more that people keep saying it’s OK to have debt the more society is just going to keep accepting that.  Okay so a house is your “necessity”, I’ll *maybe* buy into that, but even still you don’t HAVE to have a mortgage.  There are many ways to go about not having a mortgage, and no I’m not saying you have to do what we do to make that possible.

The moral of all these stories and news related items is focus on your debt repayment, and focus on staying out of debt.  At the very least focus on your consumer credit and remove it.  People who are 10’s of thousands in consumer debt are that way most likely because they are instant gratification people who have no self control on their spending.  It’s the now mentality, I MUST have that new pair of jeans that I cannot afford, or I MUST have that new XBox, or whatever.  How about have some restraint and delayed gratification and SAVE for it.  Now there’s a novel idea!

Lastly towards the end of the article they say how getting out of debt is a slow and steady approach, it doesn’t have to be.  Depending on where you are at, what you can streamline, what you can cut out, you can actually hit your debt hard and repay a lot faster than you think.  It all depends on how serious you are.  We paid off over $100K in consumer debt in less then 2 years, it doesn’t need to be a 10 year journey.  We got serious about it and streamlined and cut back, we did it because we had huge goals and being debt free by the time we had kids was one of them.  Kids are expensive enough let alone having a huge debt load on top of that.  Sometimes you need that motivation to change and that was ours.

Interest rates are not going to last this low for long, once they go up that’s when you’ll be in a world of hurt.  You’ll have nobody to blame but yourself.  So what are you doing today to get out of debt?  What did you do to get out of debt?  Feel free to share.

CTV News Article – http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20110829/debt-poll-cibc-110829/

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

Last Sunday of August

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thankfulWell this is the last Sunday of August and well the last weekend of August and I would be lying if I said I’m a bit sad at that.  It means the inevitable changing of leaves from green to yellow and then to nothing.  Edmonton is one ugly city once all the leaves are off and just before the snow falls.  Its quite a depressing sight and I can see why people have the need to get the heck out of here during the winter and regardless if they have the cash for it they will go into debt just to flee. 

However, there is a silver lining to this almost depressing state of season change here in Edmonton, its the fact there is change.  Change is good, it gives us a clean slate sometimes so that we can move forward.  While I would much rather have a longer summer, we need to deal with what we have and make the best of it.  Embrace the change and move forward.  Look at the bigger picture and be thankful to have another day on this planet and embrace the things that come. 

So on this last Sunday of August I’m thankful for a lot of things.  I think I’ll take a digital page out of Kim’s blog on Happy and write on what I’m thankful for.

  • I’m thankful to have a loving family who has the patience and grace to see me off to work each day.
  • I’m thankful to have my health of which I’ve been working at so that I may stay on this earth long enough to see my kids grow up and my wife grow old with me
  • I’m thankful for my family and extended family of who we try and see as much as we can, no matter the distance.
  • I’m thankful for my chosen family and friends
  • I’m thankful to be out of debt and no longer have those shackles in our lives
  • I’m thankful to have a wife that loves me and works on our relationship each and every day. 
  • I’m thankful I’ve been able to raise a ton of money for Easter Seals and my thanks goes out to all those who have donated thus far.
  • I’m thankful for so much more but those are the key ones that are on my heart right now

I highly recommend that you take some time and reflect on what your thankful for. 

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

10 Days–Easter Seals Update

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Thedropzone

So 10 days until I take the plunge over the 28 story Sutton Place here in Edmonton all for the Easter Seals Drop Zone.  I have been very fortunate to have raised $2,590 so far however I still have $910 more dollars to go.  I’m currently sitting at 74% of my goal and am working by butt off to get the rest of the money to reach that goal.

Just to give people a quick refresher on what it is I’m raising money for here is a quick run down.

Easter Seals Alberta is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of Albertans with disabilities and special needs. Proceeds from this event help fund each of our three main programs:

  • Easter Seals Camp Horizon, where every summer, over 1200 kids and adults challenge themselves and have fun through participating in various activities that develop personal skills and build self-confidence and self-esteem.
  • Easter Seals McQueen Residence, a fully staffed group home for disabled adults, where residents are encouraged to learn the necessary skills and develop the confidence to live in the community on their own.
  • Equipment and Support Services (ESS), a last resort agency supplying assistive and mobility equipment to Albertans with disabilities and special needs, thus allowing for greater freedom and independence within our community.

This is a great charity and one of the few of the larger charities that are able to keep all the money raised in Alberta to stay in Alberta.  Most charities end up going to the larger foundation and then get spread out evenly which may or may not be fair.  This way all my efforts stay within the province which is one of the reasons why I’ve decided to dedicate my time and some of my money to this worth wild charity.

Now I’m putting out a challenge in the next 10 days to everyone that reads this and to everyone else I’ll contact in other methods to see if they are able to part ways with $20 dollars.  Typically that’s say a lunch and a coffee which most people who work downtown do.  I can tell you at work I hardly see anyone brown bag it, and if they could just give up one lunch that would be $20 dollars which would also be a tax receipt and doing something selfless instead of buying a lunch.

So what say you Edmonton and beyond?  Would you be willing to give up $20 dollars and brown bag it for one day? As the slogan says, Challenge yourself and change lives, I challenge you to give up a lunch for one day. Can I at least challenge those on the Summer Blog Challenge?  You’ll get more awesome points!

For those who don’t have the link here it is again. http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1042653&langPref=en-CA

 

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

Networking

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Tonight’s blog post by Kim titled A Night Of Love has actually helped me frame a blog post for tonight.  Networking, and in this case business networking is a socioeconomic activity by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities.  Its a great way to expand your own personal circle or “network” by getting as it says like-minded people.

I’ve joined many networking groups in my days within IT and as I’ve moved up in my day career I continue to look for new groups to join.  Networking is an important skill I think people may not always take advantage of.  Sometimes we need to get around others that are in our field of interest to bounce ideas off, get advice, or just get a different perspective.  If your an entrepreneur you definitely want to learn some networking skills.

As with Kim I too love working with the people side of my business.  I just love people, and I think in order to be a great networker you need to have that.  If you don’t like people, well networking is going to be pretty tough!

Networking

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge