Hope you all had a wonderful day! Are any of you getting your application together to apply to be the next Young & Free Alberta Spokester/Segment Specialist?

Not sure if you're going to apply? Check out this video to find out why this is literally the best job ever and how this can be a life-changing opportunity for you!

Apply soon! Application deadline is THIS friday, May 24!

Kelsey

1. Donate! So many options like blood, clothes, or bottles! Blood requires minimal time and no cost if you can stand the needles. AND they give you cookies and juice after. Plus you literally save lives, no big deal. Clothing and household items cost nothing extra and requires minimal time and effort. Women’s shelters, homeless shelters, and youth shelters can always use what you don’t. Bottles are easy too! It will save you the trip to the depot and some kids that came to your door will get to play a sport or be able to attend a trip with their team. 

2. Cause! Is it the environment, kittens, health, or tribute that is important to you? Many of our lives have been touched by an illness or tragedy. This could be inspiration or give us motivation to join the movement. Cancer has a multitude of organizations and events; some that are specific to type. You can run, ride, or skip to help raise funds and awareness. Choosing isn’t always fueled by a direct influence on our lives, just our hearts. Animal shelters, Alberta Highway Clean Up, or children’s hospitals could all use our help too. 

3. Fun! Doing a good deed doesn’t have to be a drag. You can dye your hair pink for children’s illnesses, grow a nasty ‘stache in Movember, run 5K while having color bombs fired at you across the nation, or sleep in a ball field for the homeless. Some of these things are geared for the experience and fun while also doing a good thing for someone else. 

What is your favourite way to give back and why? 

Amy

Well Young & Freer’s, my time as Spokester is almost up! It’s been a year, and I’ve had a blast! This job has literally changed my life. 

I’m not going very far though, as I’ve landed a new awesome gig with Servus Credit Union, in the marketing department as a Brand Specialist. Yippee for me!

Young & Free Alberta is great training ground for a young professional starting their career. As the Young & Free Spokester/Segment Specialist, I got the opportunity to mix public relations, with communications, marketing, advertising, writing, filming, editing and producing videos, working at events, and participating in a business environment where I’ve learned to work with people in all parts of the company.  This has been an amazing experience for me, and now someone else gets to have the job!

So, if you think you’ve got what it takes to write, film & edit videos, and direct the Young & Free program with other marketers on the team in a business environment, then APPLY! If you are a recent university grad, this may be the door you’ve been waiting for.  Check out the details here, and if you have any questions, please email me at youngfreealberta@gmail.com :) 

Check out this video we made a while ago when looking for the Alabama spokester!

I’ll still be running the show until my replacement can start. Is it you?

Kelsey

Hey all,

This blog is pretty simple. Stay SAFE this May long. I’m not too sure how much of an effect it will have but it’s always top of my mind this weekend. The upcoming weekend is one of my favorite times of year! Usually it involves camping in the rain or snow or winters worst blizzard. But every May long we tend to do it again! However, I’m changing it up this weekend with three golf games planned! Whatever your plans may be this weekend the most important thing is to stay safe. Let’s keep all the memories positive, so go out, have fun but always remember to stay safe.

Happy May Long!

Brett

I am happy to report that it’s that time of year again where the days are getting longer and thankfully all that snow is gone after another loooonnngggg winter season.  In this province it seems one of the first signs of the weather change is the emergence of RV’s on the road.  Bumper-pull trailers, fifth wheels, tent trailers, tents, motor homes… You name it and you can see it on any given day here in Alberta. 

Camping is great, being outdoors & spending time with family rank high on “favorite things in life” list and I would imagine those are the reasons many weekend warriors love taking to the wilderness on any given weekend.  What I want to speak about is the financial side of the equation as it relates to camping and purchasing one of the units mentioned above.

I always get a kick out of the radio/television spots created by various RV/vehicle dealerships at this time of the year.  The underlying message always seems to be very consistent and it usually sounds like this: “...Come on down this Saturday we have brand new 2014 units ready for you to drive off of the lot, the best news is you can drive away with no money down and payments as low as $85.00 bi-weekly….”.  The scariest part about these ads is they are TRUE!!!!  The even scarier part is very few people read the fine print and the small details when they sign the financing contract at the dealership.  Similar to when you are purchasing anything, lots of times the excitement of the moment and the “plans” that have already been made with your new purchase can tend to “cloud” your vision.  Just “sign here” and “here” and “here” and here are the keys…. Enjoy.  15 minutes later and you may have just entered into a financing agreement that spans over 20 years!!!!!!  That’s right, TWENTY YEARS….  Max amortization for mortgages in Canada is 25 years!  The pitfall of course with financing a $20,000 RV over 20 years is really you are making an interest payment of $85.00 bi-weekly and that is it.  Very little principal will be paid down on that borrowing.  Thus when you go to upgrade that unit in 5 years time there is a very strong possibility that you will owe considerably more then what you can sell the unit for.  Sure you enjoyed the convenience of an insanely low payment for 5 years but now you may end up having to put your own funds in just to sell the unit because it is now “upside down” in banker terms.  The problem with finance manager’s at dealerships (and no fault to them) they are in the business of selling RV’s, not providing sound financial advice…..

Here is my “banker conscious” recommendation…. 

Keep in mind camping & boating season in this province is relatively short (May, June, July, August & September if you’re brave) so it’s hard to justify tying up $50-60K in an asset that you can only use half the year. 

RV’s & boats are no different from automobiles in that they are a “depreciating asset”.  Keep in mind that as soon as that RV leaves the lot it leaves substantial value as well.  If you are able to put money down towards the purchase it will make it a lot easier for you to sell when the time comes…

Watch for hidden fees and long amortizations- that low monthly payment is nice, until you go to sell or trade-in the unit in 4-5 years and realize that you haven’t hardly paid the loan attached to it at all...

The “used” trailer market with new sites like Kijiji can be really great as there are plenty of people that purchase boats & RV’s with the intention of frequently using them but never do…  In addition you don’t have to pay GST on used purchases.

Keep in mind things like fuel mileage when deciding on a given unit.  Fuel costs don’t seem to be going down so a smaller, easier to pull unit may make more fiscal sense.

As mentioned these are just a few tips that I have come up with given my experience in the industry.  My wife and I purchased a used trailer in 2010 (2006 trailer) and we have been extremely happy with our purchase.

Enjoy the camping season!

Chad

Since I’m a complete newbie to this, I did a few things first. One, was develop a basic idea of what kind of deck I want to build, so that two, I could go to my city and see if I need a permit for the type of structure I wanted to build. Since my particular deck does not require one, I headed out to my local hardware store, and had a chat with a gentleman there about building a deck. He gave me some drafting paper and recommended I buy a “How To” book. The book has given me a ton of knowledge, plus I’ve been looking on You Tube videos for extra tips :) Some other good ideas are to check your local zoning areas to make sure there aren’t any restrictions to your designs! This can be a problem, believe it or not! Some restrictions could include not being able to remove siding from a home to attach a deck, kind of crazy right? This will at least help you plan your deck well, and not bump into any problems on the way. 

Some cool ideas I found on Pinterest for the garden are pretty neat to do actually. One includes making your own bricks with engraving, or your own stepping stones! I’ll post the link for these at the end :). Another neat idea that I’m definitely going to try is creating a rock border around my deck, and maybe even alongside my driveway, then bury rope lights underneath so they light up and create a nice ambience. I also found an idea to make your own rain barrels, rather than buy them for a couple hundred dollars, so I’m definitely posting that one later! Pinterest is one of my favorite spots for DIY stuff, mostly because it’s something that someone has tried before, and they are quite cost effective. If you like fresh food for recipes, planting your own herb and/or vegetable garden is also a great idea! As I’ve mentioned before, my roommate goes through a lot of ginger, so we’ve actually talked about growing our own. Herb gardens smell really nice too, so whether they are in your home for that spa smell, or outside in the sun, or in a greenhouse, they are definitely a great idea! Hopefully you have been inspired to create and get your hands dirty, see below for links!

Victoria

This episode of the Living Young & Free Show, Austin in Michigan and Kelsey in Alberta, share their go to tips and tricks on making summer easier on your wallet.

M.O.O.C: Massive Open Online Course 

Basically this is a university level course (some are 100’s and some are post grad) that anyone, anywhere in the world, can take via the web. Due to the breakneck speed of technological advancements in bandwidth and data handling it’s possible to participate in video blogs with other students, professors, industry experts and others just like you would in a physical class. The difference is this is all online and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. One more thing…..it’s free. 

I came across this just earlier this week when I was watching The National on CBC. Mr. Duncan McCue does a way better job explaining it than I ever could.

A few details: Hundreds of real brick and mortar universities across the world are already on this buzz – Stanford, UBC, and many exciting others. 

Free for now: Since the potential audience base is so enormous the cost of these are likely to be heavily subsidized by advertising, corporations looking for the next whiz kids, or industry advocates .This idea is still in its infancy so evolution will take place. The concept of free education in whatever field you desire is incredible and revolutionary. 

Credentials: Take the course, pass their exams, get a ticket or proof of completion or whatever. Not as good as a degree but hey, it’s only one course! Put it on your resume: successful completion of the Harvard Business School basket weaving MOOC, whatever. If it gets you in the door let the education speak for itself. 

Classmates: No limit on the number of people who could take a course at any one time. Why should there be? The prof makes videos of their regular lectures, assigns the reading (probably have to buy books or pay for online PowerPoints – I’m not an expert ok?) Online exams marked by computers. Pretty exciting stuff IMO.  Downside: hard to impress girls in your class when you’re not actually there; for the average guy I guess. 

Courses: You might need to take a couple in a row to get the pre-req’s for the 400 level rocket scientist courses, but basically you can take whatever you want to beef up your knowledge. No more “History of Modern Art” required for an accounting undergrad (seriously, who puts these programs together….?). I should also note, as a friend pointed out to me, some of these courses will work as college prep courses. Also,  California is the first state to propose a bill to allow these MOOC credits to count toward degrees - not legislation yet however.  

This blog today is a mess, I apologize. I hope I have got you thinking though. Please take a look at the CBC story and then look at Class Central for some courses.

Stay thirsty my friends, 

RB

To be honest, this speech can usually make me cry.  I love the messages about being true to yourself, loving your family, and not getting too worried about things beyond your control.  And the sunscreen part is quite important – I’m writing this from Hawaii with a wicked burn.

Congratulations to all of our Young and Free Graduates of 2013!

Jillian

We have not set the exact dates for the 2013 program, but it will most likely be during the same time period as last year (August and September).  

To be eligible for this year’s Servus Young & Free Scholarship you must:

• Be between the ages of 17 - 25 during the application time period
• Be attending a post-secondary institution in Alberta for the 2013/14 school year
• Reside in Alberta
• Have achieved a minimum 70% grade point average in your last academic year
• Be a member of Servus Credit Union

The best way to get up to date information about the scholarship would be to sign up for the Young & Free E-Updates below!

Click here to check out our 2012 Young & Free Scholarship winners!

AND if you have any questions, e-mail me at youngfreealberta@gmail.com!

Kelsey

On McHappy day, McDonalds raises money for local charities and Ronald McDonald House Charities. The RMHC® program is dedicated to helping sick children and their families in times of need. Ronald McDonald Houses provide accommodation and support for 10,000 Canadian families each year.

For everyday Big Mac you buy, they give $1.

For every Happy Meal you buy, they give $1.

For every hot McCafe beverage you buy, they give $1!

Last year they raised $8,000,000 which is amazing!

Check it out!

Make your meal count today and grab yourself a Big Mac!

Kelsey

“Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo.”

Show me someone that likes air travel and I will show you someone that hasn’t experienced 13 hours of travel through 4 airports spending the entire last 5 hour flight staring into the eyes of a broken television.

Over the years, I have slowly been accumulating a list of tips and tricks on how I can make this necessary evil as smooth and painless as possible.  

And I would like to share them with you.  Some of them are provided to you by Captain Obvious, while others may be a revelation.  Enjoy!

1. When travelling by shuttle, always be the last one to load your bags.  In return, your bags will be the first ones removed from said shuttle and you’ll either be the first one to check into your hotel or the return flight home. 
2. Wear comfy clothes.  There is nothing worse than wearing a tight pair of jeans on a long flight and getting an itch.
3. Bring your own headphones.  Some airlines, particularly one sharing the name of our country, are charging $3.00 to purchase headphones.   No point to waste money when we all have headphones at home.
4. Find your water balance.  We all know that we need to stay hydrated on flights.  The side effect can be constant trips to the bathroom which is never pleasant on a plane.  Find your body’s balance of proper hydration that limits your visits to the washroom.
5. Eyes open for plug-ins.  If layovers are in your flight itinerary, keep your eyes peeled for these little holes in the wall.  This will ensure your iPad is fully juiced for the 3 hour game of Angry Birds you plan to play during your flight.  
6. Bag down.  I always put my carry-on bag underneath the seat in front of me.  It allows for quick departure out of the plane versus waiting your turn to pull your bag down from the top compartments.
7. Use a passport holder.   I like to use a passport holder on flights.  Makes it easy to have your passport and boarding passes readily accessible.  It also allows me to keep the different currencies I am carrying separate.  To keep our customs friends happy, be sure to store all of your receipts in the holder for easy calculation when the time comes.

What tips or tricks do you use for airline travel?

Tweet us up at @youngfreeab and let us know! 

Devin

Photo credit: kokorowa (Creative Commons)

Jeff Goins makes some really great points in this blog, and I agree with nearly all of them. Traveling has become extremely accessible in comparison to 20 or 30 years ago. So why not travel now? Why not experience the beauty and wonders of the world? Why not share in the magic that happens every day without us knowing? 

The world is truly an amazing place, and most of us have only experienced small pieces of it. Be young. Be free.

Like Jeff says, you will have some regrets, but they will have no comparison to the benefits you will encounter. “Be careful of the yeah-but. The yeah-but will kill your dreams.” This was the statement that really clicked for me. How does it make you feel? 

Traveling has been a popular topic lately with the Young & Free bloggers, so there are tips and tricks that you can take from all of the posts, but I think all of us are trying to say the same thing… Who’s ready for an adventure?! 

Until next time, let’s drop the but, and just keep with the YEAH’s!

Nate

1. Clean Something – In my house as a kid, and in my house as a mom, the boss lady does the majority of the household chores. Wake up before she does and clean something for her. Mop the floors, clean out a closet, or scrub a bathroom. Or get her a gift certificate for a maid to come in a give her some more time to herself. Either way she will appreciate it.
2. Have something delivered – At work or at home. Have some cookies, or flowers, or a singing telegram (yes this is still a thing) sent to let her know you are thinking about her. We all like treats or surprises showing up at the door.
   
3. Cook for her – Make breakfast in bed, a picnic lunch in the park, cupcakes, or a fancy dinner. Even if you burn the food and set the smoke detector off, she will still love it. Moms love the effort you put in regardless of the outcome.
4. Make something – Write a poem, put a nice photo in a frame, or put your handprint in a cast (she can compare it to the one she has from when you were five. There is probably a box of items like this that she kept from when you were little because these things meant so much then too.
5. Plan a date – Spend some time with your mama! Go to a movie, bowling, shopping . . . any where will work. Chances are she is just happy to spend time with you.

Enjoy your Mother’s day!

Amy

P.S. Mother's Day is on May 12 this year if you were wondering. :)

Above is the popular artists page but like I said there is also a similar page with emerging artists. They also have a suggested tracks page, and the last page will show tracks that have been tweeted by people you follow. You can also quickly tweet what you are #nowplaying.

Like a song or artist? Just click and follow them, just like that! It's a pretty cool site and a great way to find/hear new music.

Check it out! I love it!

Let me know what you think about Twitter #Music! You like?

Kelsey

So, as you can imagine, we give LOTS of money back each year... but have you ever wondered how much JUST our Young & Free members get back? Well, over $500,000 dollars actually!! And that was just last year! I wonder how much we'll be giving back in 2013! 

For more info on Profit Sharing and other Servus products - click here!

Kelsey

But let's be real here. Sure, the idea sounds great but between work and school and my busy schedule in general, there was no way that I would actually take five minutes every night and write a little something in a bed-side journal. It sounds easy but it is much harder than you think to keep it up! Sometimes you just want to jump into bed, get cozy and fall asleep!

Journal writing can't seem like a chore because then it's no fun anymore!

But I've found the perfect solution and I just haveee to share! If you are like me, and every other Gen Y'er, you probably check your phone/e-mails/texts before bed. Well, that is where OhLife comes in! They send you an e-mail every night asking, 'How'd your day go today?' and you hit reply, answer the question, click send and BAM! You've got yourself a new journal. 

It really is that simple!

I started off promising myself that I would write at least one sentence a night. I kept that up for about six months! Some days I would start off by just writing a sentence and then I'd end up diving into all these other things just because I felt like it! Now, I don't reply as often, but still a few times a week! It's almost TOO easy and that is why I love it so much! And at the end of the emails it says, remember when you wrote this... and shows you an old entry! It got one last night that said, 501 days ago you wrote this. It was an entry I wrote coming up on Christmas time and it brought back really nice memories. Put a smile on my face before bed.

And when you reply to your OhLife email you can also just attach a photo to the email and it'll get saved with your entry. Cool, hey?! Such a great way to document good (and even bad) times in your life.

I seriously can't recommend this enough. It is nice to take ONE MINUTE (seriously, only a minute of my time) and reflect on my day. Even if I just say, 'Went to go see Ironman 3 with Alex', that's great! When they are all put together they are really awesome. So go check out OhLife! You won't regret it!

Let me know if you are up for it!

Kelsey

I've come up with the perfect smoothie that hits all bases!

Okay, no, this recipe just shows how confused I am too. Stick with what works for you. Eat as many 'one ingredient' foods as you can (ie. vegetables, chicken, etc) and EXERCISE.

Have a good weekend!

Kelsey

With pardons to those who have been living under a rock, you probably have heard some excitement over the price of gold recently.  In fact, we experienced a severe drop in the price of gold to the tune of about 9% in one day on Monday April 15th. If you’re like me, you are looking at the charts and reading the papers thinking ‘what the heck is happening?’ I have heard many conspiracy type explanations of the causes of this drop and I’m not interested in any of them. For the purposes of this blog I think we can have a pretty logical discussion using only basic Econ-101.

Assumptions

The majority of the interest in gold is from: A) pure speculators looking for momentum swings. This makes the price very touchy and quite sensitive to any new bits of information that could indicate a price change. B) Seen as an inflation hedge against a declining value of the American dollar. These aren’t the only reasons for the interest in gold, but unless we all start tying coin purses to our belts and don green tights, I’m not looking at gold as currency.

Focusing in on inflation

When you have $1M in the bank, each dollar has a value of 1/1,000,000. When you have $100,000 in the bank, each dollar has a value of 1/100,000. Therefore, the fewer dollars out on the street, the more valuable each one becomes.  People have become very concerned about the prospect of a high inflation environment in the USA due to the three rounds of ‘quantitative easing’ since 2008. The Federal Reserve has been buying up bonds like crazy, to the tune of $85B/month – this money is placed into the market. More money available makes each dollar worth less; over time it will take more dollars to buy the same basket of goods. Late last week minutes of a recent meeting of movers and shakers noted that some individuals believed it was nearing the appropriate time to stop QE3. This was a major concern for the inflation hedge gold holders because we have seen no inflation at all from QE3 and turning off the money printing machine will do nothing to change that. Inflation hedge not required anymore? The golden bull over? Better sell before the next guy does.

Focusing on supply and demand

When there is lots of gold on the market, each oz is worth less – just like the above argument for dollars. When the inflation hedgers start selling, everyone else wants to as well. Due to the sensitivity of gold price, one little tumble can turn into a huge price drop very quickly.

There is more to this supply and demand story – we have all heard about the problems in Cyprus, right? There was speculation, even printed media reports, that Cyprus was going to sell huge quantities of gold to help finance their crumbling economy.  Placing a new quantity of physical bullion into the market would help lower prices by shifting the supply curve to the right. Remember our assumption about speculators looking for momentum? This is an example of a catalyst that might swing that momentum and cause a rash selloff. Better to sell when the price is high than wait for the price to drop like everyone else.

Keep in mind that this is a very simplistic view of what happened on the 15th. There are millions of interests and trillions of dollars at stake. It’s highly likely that there are other, more complex, forces at work here but I hope I have been able to provide a basic and easy to understand argument.

RB

This episode of the Living Young & Free Show, Darryl from South Carolina and Kylie Keene in Maine, look at various ways to supplement their incomes.

Young & Free Alberta Team