In the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of attending a few classes taught by several instructors. While it is usually me in the front of the room, I relish the opportunity to learn from my peers and observe their techniques. Over my lifetime, I have understood several lessons that have served me well in specific times: salespeople make the worst buyers, doctors make the worst patients and teachers… Read More »Teachers Make the Worst Students
The Campaign for Learning in the U.K. recently compiled research on an age-old topic: learning. Basically, the article was focused on sharing some statistics in order to get people to see the UP-side of learning. Some of the information they shared was: 95% of people think that learning about new things boosts your confidence. (National Adult Learning Survey, DfEE, 1998) I am guessing that every one of us could use a… Read More »Better Than Sex?
“Don’t think, React!” That was the daily advice of my Junior High School basketball coach, Mr. Korowin. He believed that if we spent too long pondering the next move on the court, we would be prone to mistakes, indecisiveness, and poor judgment. For us, gangly eighth graders, it may well have been excellent advice. Better advice might have been to learn to be proactive rather than reactive. Being proactive means we’re taking… Read More »Wayne Gretzky and Customer Service
Homeowners should recognize that the same trusted professional who helped them buy or sell their home can be a valuable resource while they own their home too. Think of your REALTOR® as an indispensable homeowner’s resource who can make recommendations about a variety of services that homeowners will use throughout the tenure in their home. This experience far exceeds personal experience because of the day-to-day activities working in the industry.… Read More »Resource Central
One of the important things as a parent is to plan for their children’s education. Let’s look at two different approaches: a savings account or investing in rental real estate. Assuming your child is five years old and you start putting $250 a month in a savings account earning 2%, in 13 years you’d have $44,497.41 to pay for their college. Anticipating that isn’t going to be enough, you’d have… Read More »Get Ready for College
There is a frequently quoted expression “more money has been lost from indecision than was ever lost from making a bad decision.” Regardless of the extent of its accuracy, most people can recall when procrastination has cost them money. There are markets so short of inventory that buyers have become frustrated after losing bids for several homes and have decided to wait until more homes come on the market. In… Read More »Wait a Year…It Won’t Matter?
It’s been one of those weird weeks. Torn. That’s what I’ve been. Torn. Yes/No, Too Old/Just Right. Shoulda/Coulda/Woulda. What’s he talking about? I’ve been doing two things this week: booking classes for the rest of 2015 and trail running lots of miles while focusing on getting extremely fit. Outside of those things and my wonderful evenings hanging out with my wife, Linda, not much else is happening. In a lot… Read More »George/Mary Ann Was Right!
Mortgage rates below 5% since 2009, you’d think any homeowner who should refinance would have already. However, it is estimated, there are approximately 6.5 million borrowers who would benefit with significant monthly savings by refinancing. Rodney Anderson of Supreme Lending, on his weekly radio program, described a recent pipeline meeting where they reviewed every pending mortgage application his company was processing. They had seven refinancing applicants whose current mortgage was… Read More »It’s Hard to Imagine
More people grill in July than any other month. While grilling is all about good food, fun, friends and celebrations, it is important to make sure that accidents don’t interrupt your activities. Approximately half of the injuries involving grills are thermal burns. If you work with fire, there’s a chance of getting burned. Only use BBQ grills outdoors and in ventilated areas. Place the grill away from home or anything… Read More »Grilling Safety
Imagine that after checking www.SSA.gov to see what you can expect when you retire and estimated what your minimum required distributions from your retirement accounts will be, you’ve discovered that you’re not going to have enough retirement income to cover your living expenses. Ideally, it would be perfect if the extra money you need would just come to your mailbox each month with the same certainty as your social security… Read More »You’ve Got Money!