The Flood hit my Province Hard

A seemingly innocent season of gentle rains pummelled my small town with a deluge of water that it just simply didn't know what to do with.......


A gentle wee park located in the north end of the city was so inundated with the storm water that the trees  that were obviously planted by the city were up to their ankles in sun warmed rain water for weeks....


My daughter and I took the plunge to peel our socksoff and see what it would be like to wade up to the chins ...and to our delight and surprise, discovered that the sunshine had baked the temp in to "dish water warmth"..


Nope, no fish swimming yet through the sculpted grass filled pond, but a unique pleasure for us who usually see such drier summers. The foliage and forests are overgrown and sprawling with glee up  across and over every fence that isn't monitored or weekly manicured by it's careful owners. Weeds have grown amuck! What a hoot!


There's something so lush and rich about living in a damp dewy foresty town. It's as if the howler monkeys are just waiting to come visit us and quite possibly make our suburbs their permanent home.
Perhaps wishful thinking on my part....buy hey....a girl can dream.


Enjoy the pics below of our city trees swimming for weeks in a wee public park.
Peace..C.

 

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Which Financial Tool is Most Important for Success?

Let's discuss this calmly shall we?

Which financial Tool is THE most important for your financial success?

Is is tithing? ( giving 10% of your income to church or charity)

Is it saving? (taking a preset portion of your income and hiding it away where you won't use it for other purposes other than savings and/or investing for the purpose of securing a future income streams)

Is it investing?(And no, investing is not necessarily the same as saving....but the two are very much connected)

It is reducing your personal COST of LIVING? ( mastering how to lower your monthly bills such as housing, utilities, insurance and food costs )

Is it paying off and down all debt? ( for this illustration I am lumping together all kinds of debt....both mortgage debt as well as consumer debt)

Is it putting aside funds for your own, your spouse's and your children's education?

Is it about "Asset Allocation" .....( deciding precisely where and what investment product you put your money into)

Is is about having sufficient funds set aside separately just for emergencies?

Is it about saving cash to finance a prepaid vacation, so that you won't be tempted to use debt to pay for a vacation?

Is it about delaying the purchase of a home and renting for more years so that you may build up a greater nest egg?

Is it about refusing to finance a car by saving up and paying cash for a second hand modest vehicle?

It is about learning to live without credit cards?

Is it about learning to live without the trendy "stuff" that your friends and neighbors seem to say are "sooooo important for appearances"?

Is is about being aggressive in business opportunities/investment opportunities when we find them?

Do we work hard to make our money work hard?

How much risk is reasonable?

Have your given someone else control over your finances? How trustworthy is that person or organization? Can that person or organization be trusted to protect your best interests?

Are we investing in ways that limit and/or reduce our taxes?

Have we done a will to protect our assets for future generations after our passing?

Are we reading something daily/weekly/monthly which will add to our personal arsenal of accurate financial information?

Are we getting to know people who have succeeded financially and humbling ourselves to learn and listen from their example?

Are we reading books or listening to audio books regularly written/recorded by those who are well respected in the arena of personal finance and/or investing?

When we  come up with "unknowns" do we write down our questions and seek out the answers? Or are we content to live in ignorance because we have become comfortable with living passively?

Are we teachable......or do we live as if we have "arrived" and no longer need to learn more about personal finance?

Or is it all of the above? Who is going to lead us into wisdom in these arenas of life?

It is possible to get God's wisdom, as He gives wisdom to those who ask it of Him, according to the scriptures "who giveth to all men liberally".

May God's Spirit use these questions to stir up some good and important discussions in your home and family.

The more you talk and read about personal finance, the more questions you may have. But don't get overwhelmed.... Don't get discouraged. Becoming educated about personal finance is a journey......not a one stop destination.It is going to bear great rewards for you and for your future descendants who may, depending upon your choices, be able to learn simply by following your excellent example.

Peace,
C.













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Atmospheric Natural Learning

It's as good as it sounds....maybe even better!



Yes, you can learn without "trying".



It's called what I like to say is "atmospheric learning" or  learning by "osmosis".



What is that you say?



It's about taking your "learning target" and applying it gently to your environment and putting it on a loop for as long as you wish, in order so that you will "absorb" the data casually as you are going about your daily activities.



So what does that look like? Well, let me give you a few specific examples.



Let's say you are trying to memorize the elements from the periodic table. You could, go to your favorite musical device, go to Youtube and find the best version of the "Periodic Table song"

 press "play" and then put it on a loop ( to repeat over and over and over until manually cancelled.) You wouldn't have the volume too high. The idea is to have the data flowing continuously into your personal environment until your unconscious mind is so saturated with the information that you have "learned" it and perhaps even "mastered" it ......without even trying. You continue your regular activities like doing laundry or the dishes or cooking or cleaning all the while you are keeping the chosen data flowing into your environment. You will be listening intently even without trying. It is literally "natural learning"......and as easy as listening to the birds singing.



You can do similar things with other things you may want to memorize, such as scripture verses or classical poetry, or the multiplication tables.



We have so many hours in the day during which we do mundane activities. Well, we can pump up their impact on our lives by filling the ambient atmospheric sounds to include data that will become an asset to our lives and/or careers. Yes, it is that easy.



So how often will I need to listen to something before I have "naturally" memorized it? That's a personal thing, that will be uniquely different for each human being.



You can experiment and see how long it takes for you to incorporate one piece of new information merely by pressing "play" and keeping it on a loop. Will it take one hour, one day? or seven weeks of 20 hours per week? You won't know if this is a feasible learning style for you unless you try it.



May God bless your learning and the fulfillment of those goals that please Him.



Peace,

Carla.