Walking With God - Blog

RESPs = Free Money From The Government

James Meyer — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:37:00 GMT

This morning we started Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP) for our children. I’m a little surprised to write that, because I was always of the opinion that you should pay your own way in school. I paid for my tuition, my wife paid for hers. It’s just the way we were raised. But recently something changed my mind: The government will give you money to save for your kids. How much? Well, that depends (as always). Keep in mind these are all stats for Canada, in the US and other... Click here to read the rest

Getting Noticed By Google Search

James Meyer — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Something has changed on my blog in the last couple of months. All of a sudden, Google seems to have noticed that I exist. From March 1st, 2011 until February 29, 2012 (my first full year) I totaled 165 visitors through search traffic (about 8% of total traffic). Now, that may sound like a lot (165 people I don’t know read my stuff!), until you look at the stats for March and April 2012. In April and March, it exploded increasing by 128%. 377 visits via search engines in 2 months! Now, what ... Click here to read the rest

Increase Productivity By Going Back To A 40 Hour Work Week

James Meyer — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:11:17 GMT

I’ve been off of work this week since my wife delivered our 4th baby this Sunday, which means I’m only working a few hours a day instead of devoting the 12+ hours a day I have been lately. I’ve spent the time playing with my kids, watching them while my wife feeds the baby or naps, or, when they are entertaining themselves, by reading. Books, blogs, articles, whatever. I like to read, and since I’m considered a knowledge worker, reading just about anything is professional development. This week ... Click here to read the rest

Net-Out: Grace-Based Living

James Meyer — Thu, 03 May 2012 01:27:26 GMT

Author: Crystal Lutton Quick Summary Grace-Based Living is the continuation of Biblical Parenting. It includes expanded details of the Grace Based Parenting model, more examples and specific guidance for different situations. Key Insights Compliance is not the same as obedience. Compliance is for parents, obedience is for God. Because of obedience to God, you should comply with your parents. Discipline is the opposite of punishment. Discipline is designed to avoid punishment. The family is a... Click here to read the rest

My Job Is To Produce Email

James Meyer — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:57:13 GMT

I had a startling revelation this morning: I’ve been working the wrong job. My boss has been trying to tell me for years, but I needed a paradigm shift to understand it. All this time, I thought, as a software engineer, my job was to product code, functionality, websites, programs, etc.. Turns out, I’m wrong. My primary job is to manage email. Now, you may think I’m being silly, but looking back, every time I’m told off/get into trouble/disciplined/yelled at/whatever you want to call it, it’s... Click here to read the rest

Patient During Pregnancy

James Meyer — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:05:41 GMT

39 weeks... so close, yet it still seems so far. The last week has seemed like an eternity, but you would think I would have been able to get lots done in a week that has felt so long. But I haven’t. There is laundry that needs folding, diapers that need sorting (we use cloth), bedrooms that need cleaning – desperately. Yet I have no huge strong urge to do these things. Does this mean I still have more time? Or am I just not ambitious? (I’m thinking of that strong nesting urge that women get at ... Click here to read the rest

Introducing Baby #4

James Meyer — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:59:53 GMT

Born 11:06pm, April 29th, 2012 Weight: 9.5 lbs. Home birth, while the kids were upstairs sleeping Still all gooey from birth. Last night at 11:06pm, the newest addition to our family was born. She is yet to be named, but she was born 9.5 lbs., is very healthy, and sleeping a lot. We contacted the midwives just after 8pm. By 9:00pm, our primary midwife was at our home and broke Christina’s water shortly afterwards. Christina at 9:45pm. Having contractions and still smiling through... Click here to read the rest

Biblical Finances: You Have To Plan

James Meyer — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:55:11 GMT

This is the fourth post in a series on Biblical Finances. So far we’ve done: Introduction It’s God’s Money Work Leads To Wealth This time we’re going to tackle the need for planning. I’m not going to get into the actual process of planning and budgeting in this post, but rather show the biblical advice regarding planning and budgeting. We’ll save the actual leg work for another post. Budgeting The first thing that comes to mind when talking about financial planning is budgeting. When dealing... Click here to read the rest

Net-Out: Your Money Or Your Life

James Meyer — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:36:06 GMT

Author: Vicky Robin, Joe Dominquez, Monique Tilford Quick Summary This book is a distillation of most of the basic financial advice we should be learning in school and at home, but aren’t, instead of what’s being taught through the media, which we do learn. They are simple, common sense items that lead to financial independence. Key Insights Your financial goal shouldn’t be “rich”, because that is relative. Your goal should be “enough to cover my expenses without working.” Income – Expenses... Click here to read the rest

Single Father: Day 3

James Meyer — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:10:23 GMT

As I wrote in Day 1 and Day 2, for the weekend I have all 3 kids to myself as my wife is away on a mothers retreat. Today was the last day, and nothing terribly exciting happened. My friend came over to help me with my taxes which took half the day, after that it was lunch, then nap time for the youngest while the rest of us played on the Wii. By 3:00 pm, we were all missing mom and getting cranky. My patience was wearing thin, I was forgetting my playful parenting tricks, and I think my kids’ ... Click here to read the rest

Single Father: Day 2

James Meyer — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 03:31:58 GMT

As I wrote in Day 1, my wife is off for the weekend, leaving me at home with three kids under 6 years old. Today was fantastic, I never thought I’d have as much fun as I’m having. First off, the day started off good because they slept in. Ronan (always the first up) slept in until about 7:30. This was helpful for me, because I slept terribly. I mean, who can sleep in a king sized bed by themselves? It’s just too empty. We started off the day with a decent breakfast. Zoë decided she wanted eggs, ... Click here to read the rest

Single Father Of Three For A Weekend

James Meyer — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:24:57 GMT

Twice a year, for the last couple of years, Christina, my wife, has been going off on a weekend retreat. This weekend she’s off again for 2 nights and 2 days. She left today (Friday) at 4:30pm and will return Sunday night at 5:00pm. Now, before we had kids, if Christina went away for a weekend, it would mean I was living the bachelor life for a while. I could go out whenever I want, eat what I want, when I want, watch what I want on TV, stay up all night playing computer games and sleep in... Click here to read the rest

Biblical Finances: Work Leads To Wealth

James Meyer — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:34:06 GMT

If you’ve just found this page, I suggest you go back and read the first two posts in this series: Introduction and It's God's Money. They will give you a context for what follows. This is probably the shortest principle I’m going to discuss, and I think it’s becoming taught less and less. In order to attain wealth, you have to put in some work, be it physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, whatever you do, you have to do something. God’s Example In the beginning God created the heavens and... Click here to read the rest

Quarterly Update: Q1 2012

James Meyer — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:17:00 GMT

I thought I’d write an update on how the personal finance front is going. I do this more to keep a record for myself, so I can look back and see how far we’ve come than anything else. If it motivates someone else, then that’s good too. Personal Debt This year we cleared up 2 long standing personal debts: Employment Insurance Payback – I wrote about this earlier in my post Repaying Employment Insurance. We finished a $2077 loan this year owing to the government due to them changing their ... Click here to read the rest

MyC4 Update: How Micro Lending In Africa Is Working For Me

James Meyer — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:58:00 GMT

I thought I’d write an update on how my African investments are going. Lending to Africa has been an exciting venture. While my stock choices are ultraconservative, long term, low risk, get rich slowly choices, this aspect of my investing is the opposite. Short term (2 years max, 6 month min), high risk (it’s Africa), high gain. When I tell people I’m trying micro-lending in Africa there are typically one of three responses: Indifference Interest in how it works Condemnation for... Click here to read the rest

Mission Trip To Cuba Shrinkathon: Your Help Needed

James Meyer — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:15:00 GMT

On November 1st of this year (2012) I will be going on a mission trip to Cuba for 10 days with 5 or 6 teenagers to help build in an yet undisclosed village. This is an amazing opportunity for our teenagers. Mission trips teach them a variety of life-altering values such as: A better understanding of people’s lives and situations in other countries A better appreciation for what you have and the country you live in Fight the entitlement attitude that is gaining so rapidly in our... Click here to read the rest

Biblical Finances: It’s God’s Money

James Meyer — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:16:00 GMT

This is my second post in the Series on Biblical Finances. The first post can be found here. If you haven't already, I suggest reading it before continuing so you can understand the context for this post. This post will deal primarily with what our fundamental relationship to finances should be. In later posts, we'll be dealing more with the specifics of management, but this is going to deal more with the underlying philosophy. There is a growing culture of entitlement in our world. Our... Click here to read the rest

Mind Mapping: Memory And Brainstorming Tool

James Meyer — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:44:00 GMT

I’ve been reading about mind mapping for a couple years now. Nothing steadily, just little bits of information here and there. If you don’t know what mind mapping is, and most people don’t, here’s the definition from Wikipedia: A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Now, that’s a little vague, but the concept of mind-mapping is fairly fluid, so it works out well. There are 10 sort of... Click here to read the rest

Biblical Finances: Introduction

James Meyer — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:00:00 GMT

A couple of years ago, Christina and I took a hard look at our financial situation and decided that enough was enough. We had to crush our inability to handle money, or it would continue to crush us. Since then, we’ve come a long way. After learning, studying and putting into practice a lot of new (for us) principles these past couple of years, I’ve come to a single overriding conclusion: God knows what He’s talking about when it comes to finances. I’ve spend nearly all my free time in... Click here to read the rest

Eleven Grace Based Tools For Toddlers

Christina Meyer — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:01:00 GMT

First I want to say that these items I’ve learned and obtained from my favourite site. None of them are really my idea, I have my own thoughts about the tools, and how I use them, but they are something that I’ve learned from fellow GBD (Grace Based Discipline) families. So dealing with toddlers can be difficult, they require so much attention and devotion at this age to build that foundation for the rest of their lives. Sometimes I wonder, if I had known this method to the extent I know now... Click here to read the rest