As I strive to live my own life to the best of my ability and enjoy family and hobbies time becomes a key factor. My intention is to keep the blog running with two or three high quality posts per week.

Regular posts should resume late this week or early next week.

photo credit: law_keven

You see I know change
I see change I embody change
All we do is change Yeah, I know change

We are born to change
We sometimes regard it as a metaphor
That reflects the way things ought to be

In fact change takes time
It exceeds expectations
It requires both now and then
See although the players change
The song remains the same
And the truth is
You gotta have the balls to change

- Vinnie Jones

What does change mean to you?

I actually read your blog, and I’m waiting for your next post!

Btw, I think you are doing a great job, it has actually inspired me to get off my lazy butt and get started on my own blog.

Take care!

This Email got me thinking. I’ve given consideration to my readers, I try to write what I think will inspire and help people. Over the past few weeks, posts have been slow and then I stopped. I honestly needed a break. However, I didn’t take my readers into consideration when I took the break.

All of this led me to question who I was accountable to. Over the past few days I’ve given that some thought and here is that list.

Myself

First and foremost I am accountable to me. I need to ensure that I am happy and that I have balance in my life. If I’m not happy with what I’m doing it really does beg the question what’s the point? Fortunately I am happy, I’ve just required some time to refocus.

My Family

One of the reasons I established this blog was to be a better father and husband. I’m accountable to my family, they are most important to me. They are my light and my inspiration.

My Friends

A wise man once said that the truly fortunate can count their closest friends on one hand.  I’m fortunate to say that I fall into this category and that I have known many of those friends for over twenty years.

My Employer

In these difficult times I’m fortunate to be employed. I’m accountable to my employer to work to the best of my ability.

My Readers

Finally I’m accountable to you the people who come to Be 4 Success and read what I have to say. I have a debt of thanks to you for your support and  I am accountable to you.

Who are you accountable in your life? How do you view and treat your responsibility? I’d love to hear from you!

I’m a big fan of The Bold Life and Tess’ writing. She always manages to find a way to challenge and inspire me. Her ebook Flying By The Seat Of My Soul is an informative read. I don’t mean informative as in Tess is going to provide the meaning of life to you.

The book is informative in that it will cause you to question yourself. Not in that doubting, or did I lock the front door way. Rather Tess asks that you take an honest look at aspects of you life.

In one section on Soul Stretching Tess writes,

Fill in the blanks. When I spend time with ______I feel drained
of life energy. When I spend time with ________I feel alive and
I know I am a better person because of their company. I know
my friendship with __________ isn’t good for me. What I need
to do in order to release this relationship is ________________.

See what I mean about being challenging. How often have you asked yourself that question? My thought is you haven’t done it often enough.

One of the things I like about Tess and her writing is she includes many personal stories to demonstrate her point. I’ve always felt that if you are going to coach people on how to live a better, bolder life you need to have walked the walk. That’s Tess in a nut shell, she’s been there and she’s not afraid to talk about it. She writes about leading a positive life and living that life to the fullest. She finds no use for negativity and will challenge you to vision for the future.

I encourage you to visit The Bold Life and follow along with Tess. You’ll find that it is well worth your while.

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photo credit: foundphotoslj

How do you make money? When this blog was first started I thought it would be an interesting way to earn some passive income. Over that last couple of months I’ve learned that I was sorely mistaken in this thought.

Now fortunately for me I had other intentions other than earning revenue from Be 4 Success when I launched it. The blog is my digital resume, full of my thoughts and rants on the subjects that matter most to me.

However, it does raise the question of where does your money come from? How do you make money?

Nothing would please me more than for my blog to make it to the big time. Allowing me to work at home deriving my income from Be 4 Success. I realize that this dream is a long way from becoming a reality and indeed may never become a reality. I’m ok with that, as the blog still serves a purpose beyond making money. Which is good, because Be 4 Success doesn’t really make any money at all.

Now I know that I can change that. I can implement a marketing plan that could see Be 4 Success become a dominant blog within the personal finance and growth niche. It is entirely possible.

Yes, Be 4 Success is in a popular niche with lots of competition. However, I believe there are ways to differentiate myself from the competition. Do I plan to follow this course of action?

Absolutely. Be 4 Success is about living a more successful life, on all levels. Personally, professionally, financially, this blog exists to provide sound advice towards living a more successful life.

I digress, I started this post out by asking How do you make money?

For most of us we make money by working 9-5 for the man, that faceless corporation that pays us our daily wage. Now, there is nothing wrong with this. The vast majority of people earn their living this way. But what if you could change that? What if you could take hold of your own financial destiny and earn a living on your own terms?

Would you take the opportunity?

I would, assuming the opportunity appealed to me. Which gets me back to writing at Be 4 Success. I enjoy it. It’s a constant challenge to improve myself and share with others. If one day Be 4 Success got to that level of providing for me, I believe I would embrace it and take the opportunity.

What about you? What opportunity are you waiting for?

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The article focuses on retirement and raises some valuable points. Key amongst them are that there are still a great deal of companies that have value. As I mentioned previously there is a great deal of value in the market which can be bought for a bargain right now.

One of the other points mentioned in the article is that Canadian bank stocks are paying an average dividend of 7 percent. Given the current pricing of such stock it makes an attractive purchase at this point in time.

Retirement strategy is all about buying and holding your portfolio. Ensuring that you have good diversification between assets and geographic regions. Stick with your strategy, remember why you developed it in the first place.

If you aren’t currently in the market and are waiting for the stimulus plan to kick start the recovery, my advice would be to slowly starting buying back in. As the article mentions, if you wait on the sidelines until things start to happen you could miss out on the first 10 – 20 percent increase.

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Include the fact that many economists think that the US Stimulus Bill was introduced to late to have an effect during 2009 and we have an interesting set of circumstances.

For the past few months I’ve been of the opinion that the present market conditions represent an excellent buying opporunity. Stock and mutual fund prices are surpressed which means that good, solid companies can be bought at bargain prices.

Over the last few months I’ve been advising clients to start buying back into the market. What we’ve seen on a daily basis is up one day, down the next. Eventually, the market will recover it’s a question of when not if. Unless of course we fall of a cliff.

With the news today I wonder if perhaps that cliff is approaching? With GM seeking more money and the possibility of bankrupcy being considered how will the market react? If the stimulus plan isn’t going to deliver until 2010 how will the market react? Is another cliff, another dive in the market approaching?

One thing I do believe when it comes to investing is that the doom and gloom often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When the news media starts reporting on negatives in the market people listen and pull their funds. It’s all about confidence, if everyone thinks the market is going to drop, then the market is going to drop.

If people believe the market is going to go up and they start investing, the market will go up. It’s the same with rescissionary periods. People stop spending because they are worried about jobs, about having enough money. If we keep spending money, we create demand for goods and therefore jobs.

To answer my question of should you keep on investing; Yes, absolutely. I’m not saying dump your life savings in now. I do believe that buying into a balanced mutual fund portfolio on a regular basis is a solid strategy to building wealth.

Time will tell if I’m right or not. However, my belief is that the market is not going to fail. The economy is not going to crash and never recover. To believe that indicates that you have no faith in the western way of life and if these idea’s do come to pass we all have bigger problems to deal with.

Ryan McLean from Smarter Wealth is giving away a brand new Flip Mino HD to one lucky reader. This will be the easiest Flip Mino HD to win because barely anyone is going to enter meaning more chances that you can win.

The Flip Mino HD is the coolest gadget around. You can shoot one hour of video in HD (so you can play it on your plasma) and you can even edit your footage right on your device. This device is so small that it will fit in your pocket so you will never miss capturing a moment ever again.

To enter all you have to do is sign up for Ryan’s newsletter and post about the competition.

Check out all the details of how you can enter the Win a Flip Mino HD competition now.

photo credit: azrainman

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It’s the mushy feel good, buy stuff for that other person in your life holiday. Let’s be honest though, it’s expensive. I mean it can be really expensive; dinner, a show, a bottle of wine, that nice ring I keep seeing advertised.

Given the economic times it makes sense be a little bit more frugal this Valentine’s day. As today is Friday the thirteenth I decided to pull out Jason’s top 13 ways to slash your Valentine’s budget.

1. Do nothing. Valentine’s day is a commercial holiday, designed to get you to spend money. Rebel against the system and show what an individual you are. If your significant other doesn’t kill you, Jason will.
2. Do the card thing. Jason isn’t normally into the mushy aspects of things, but if you need to spend some money, spend it on a card. Just write something nice inside or Jason will track you down.
3. A home cooked meal. Rather than going out and dropping some significant money on an overpriced meal, show how much you love (or hate if you’re a bad cook) that special person by preparing a meal for them. If the meal is good they just might do the dishes for you. Jason likes spaghetti and meatballs, extra sauce please.
4. Set a limit on your spending. If you must buy a gift, pick a reasonable dollar figure to spend. Doing so encourages creativity in your gift giving. Jason needs a whetstone.
5. Go for a romantic walk in the park. Nothing says I love you like holding hands while walking through a misty park just after sunset. Did you hear something?
6. Make a gift from scratch. Again if you must give or are expected to give a gift, why not be creative and make something yourself, perhaps a mix tape.
7. Rather than spending money on Valentine’s day, why not plan a vacation later in the year. Then use the money you would have spent on Valentine’s for the trip. Jason knows of some cabins that are for rent.
8. Rather than giving a gift, make a donation to a charity on each other’s behalf. When times are tough charities often suffer from a lack of funding. Jason recommends you donate blood.
9. Jason recommends you read Neil’s article on 25 Affordable Dates.
10. Be social and invite another couple over for the evening. Break out some board games and have some fun. Just don’t invite your single friends, that makes Jason angry.
11. Rather than spend money on one another buy a gift that you can both use. Perhaps something around the house needs fixed. It might not be romantic, but it is practical. Jason’s a fan of practical things.
12. Visit the museum or the art gallery. They are usually low cost and it’s a great way to kill a few hours.
13. Rent a scary movie and cuddle. Nothing more romantic than that. Jason recommends…

Do you have any idea’s on how to make Valentine’s Day an affordable occasion? Please share, Jason likes it when the other children share.

The strategy is really, really simple. In fact do you remember the old slogan K.I.S.S? Keep It Simple Stupid, that’s what you need to do. There is nothing wrong with having large year long goals, however it’s easy to loose focus this way. It helps to break the large goal down into smaller tasks. It helps with getting things done.

The key to accomplishing your resolutions and ensuring your goals are met is to plan weekly. Every Monday morning set your goals for the week. Rinse and repeat every week. By breaking down the larger goal this way you increase your chances of success. The New Year’s Resolution that you make now has a higher chance of success.

If your goal is weight loss, pick a target amount of pounds you want to shed each week. If the goal is increased productivity creating weekly targets will assist with keeping you on track.

As you consider what you want to accomplish on life, break the target down to weekly, manageable units.