Thanks for the guest post by Jonathan Curtis
We are stuck. That is not necessarily a bad thing, just sort of same ole, same ole. We have had our house on the market for some time now and decided to take it off and stay put for a while. With the economy being so bad, we were not getting offers anywhere near what we were asking for it. So we decided to use some of the equity in our house to remodel the kitchen and living room, finish the basement, fence in the yard, and put flooring in our attic to make more room. We also decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and get a home security system installed because our neighborhood is getting older and we have several new neighbors who moved into the foreclosed houses who have been causing some trouble. Nothing major and we still feel safe, but we think with all the money we are fixing to put into our house, a security system would give us peace of mind. My best friend recommended we look at www.homesecurityfamily.com because that’s who installed her home security and she loves it. I guess, I’ll do that first before we start with all the chaos of our kitchen reconstruction.
Written by my friend Constance Hayden
My job is the most important thing in the world to me because it gives me a sense of purpose. I love being part of something bigger than myself and my office is the place I feel most like home so you know, I wish I could find a better balance between that and my personal life. I love being with my coworkers and we actually spend a lot of time together when we’re not at work doing things like talking about work and going out to eat and looking into cable tv deals so we can watch games and stuff together – I really wish I could branch out a bit and make more friends outside my office. I love being a productive member of society and an integral member of my work team but at times I feel like I’m putting all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, and I worry that I won’t be able to survive if I get laid off or something.
Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy
My husband and I recently opened a college savings account for our three children. This is something that we wanted to do before now, but we have not been able to collect enough to start an account. We had our first child about a year after we got married, which was much sooner than we had planned. We had wanted to wait several years to save some money, but that did not happen. I stopped working full-time when our first was born. Since then, we have had two more, and only this year did we create a savings account for their college funds. We wanted to ensure that their educational future was solidified. We looked into shop electricity rates in texas from green mountain energy and switched to fixed-rate energy in hopes of saving money in the long run on our energy bill. My husband has also been taking on more hours in hopes of earning some extra income. While sometimes money is tight, we feel very blessed to have the children that we have. We have some friends who are not able to have children, and we recognize the incredible blessing that healthy children are.
Last week the world lost a great man in the passing of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. Apple Computers, as it was formerly known, created personal computers for the home, something at the time that did not really exist. Steve Jobs certainly did not invent the computer or the MP3 music player for that matter. What he did was create a product and sell it for more money than his competitors by building a unique brand around the products. His world of computing was closed and to some that as OK because to them it did not mean a compromise of any sort. These consumers didn’t know any better. And these are the consumers that buy his products. Case in point the new Iphone 4S. Better product, but since it doesnt look more pretty than the last model people don’t really care. Any way you slice it Steve Jobs did manage to change the way we live, the way we listen to music and the way we look at products. Something in my opinion that very few people have ever done.
Two brands come to mind when I speak of such things. Once is Nascar and the other is Craig Effron. The reason I bring up these two in particular is because they represent things that often perform in the opposite manner. Nascar is the opposite of Steve Jobs. Nascar is dirty, dingy, fast and can give you a mean sunburn if you watch for too long. Craig Effron will most certainly not give you a sunburn, although he is known at time to get one. There are lessons we can learn from all these great brands, but one thing ties them all together: people love them more than they shoud.
Guest post written by my buddy Bernardo Graham
My life has totally been flipped since my cousin has moved in with my wife and I. I guess I knew the day would come when his business would collapse and he would have to come crawling back to me and apologize for calling me a fool for not getting in the beginning stages and owning fifty percent of a company that I knew would implode. Overall, it’s not a big deal I guess because I enjoy having my cousin around for the most part because he is a really funny guy and he is always talking about the next great idea, he has a great imagination. My wife on the other hand seems like she cannot wait for him to get another job in a different city, a city that is far away from this one. Honestly, I can’t really blame her because she loves to cook, but she loves to cook for two and not three and my cousin can literally eat for two. Maybe she will start relaxing if I can convince her that we should just go eat out more or order in from time to time. At least our energy costs are still the same because a couple of months ago I went to shopelectricityRATESTEXAS.com