Archive for July, 2010

What Can Career Coaching Do For You?

Living (and Working) in Abundance

Guest post by Ed Burns

Have you ever asked yourself the question: “What the heck am I doing in this job?” We all go through it. Tomorrow morning as you sit in traffic or slowly make your way to your cubicle, and look around—you will realize that you are not alone. Do the faces staring back at you look like they are living their passions and callings?

Probably not, yet millions of people each day are convinced that work and one’s passion are two entirely different things. Many brush this issue aside claiming “work is work and it was never meant to be enjoyable.”

China is the No. 1 energy user – what does that mean for your car?

By Kevin M

What does energy use in China have to do with your personal financial situation here in the Western World?

Many of us prefer to believe this is an issue best left to politicians or economists, but hardly worthy of serious analysis or concern by the rest of us. After all, things will play out the way they will right?

Maybe not. We spend time and money planning for any number of future outcomes—our retirement, our health, our careers, paying off our mortgages, our children’s futures—why not map out and plan a viable energy future? World leadership hasn’t done such a good job of this so far, and if energy follows the pattern of the last few years with steadily rising prices over the long term, it won’t be politicians and economists who will suffer the brunt of the problem—it’ll be us.

Should You Give Even If You’re In Debt?

By Kevin M

Is it OK to give money to charities and religious institutions if you owe money? This isn’t just a question for people of faith (which I am myself) but for anyone who gives charitably and is in debt at the same time.

I recognize that there are different kinds of debt, and even different types of giving, so it’s hard to be general with an answer to this question. But I think that—at a minimum—giving needs to be considered in light of the different types of debt.

Generally speaking, there are four different kinds of debt that may have an impact on our giving:

Entertainment For Less

By Kevin M

There’s a “stealth expense” that chews through budgets and often leaves us with an empty bank account or even a little deeper in debt each month; its called entertainment expense, and at least part of the problem may lay in the fact that we’re usually reluctant to even view it as an “expense”.

Maybe this is the case because entertainment has a way of defining us—it’s often who we are, which has to be something more significant than just an ordinary expense, doesn’t it?

We can be meticulous about budgeting for housing, groceries, utilities and a host of other expenses, but entertainment is often—to borrow a political phrase—“off budget”.

Why Bundling Services Might be a Bad Deal

By Kevin M

Companies are always trying to get us to take their bundle plans, neat packages that promise a veritable one-stop shopping trip for all of our communication needs. Cable TV, internet, land lines, cell phones—they’ll load them all into a pretty little bundle for us and provide a nice discount for dealing in bulk.

It’s easy to see why we’re drawn to these arrangements. Not only do we get the lower rate for the package deal, but we can also consolidate several monthly bills into one and, we might reason, with so much of our business placed with one provider, we’ll have clout! After all, surely a provider won’t want to lose ALL of our business if we’re unsatisfied with any single service.

As attractive as that might sound—especially from a life’s simplification standpoint—my experience with bundles hasn’t been terribly positive. As good as the bundle plans might look from time to time, I’ll keep my communication services spread over three or four different providers.

Here’s why…

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Archive for July, 2010

What Can Career Coaching Do For You?

China is the No. 1 energy user – what does that mean for your car?

Should You Give Even If You’re In Debt?

Entertainment For Less

Why Bundling Services Might be a Bad Deal

Financial Management