By 2 Cents on November 21st, 2011 | Category: Life Balance |  We’re not talking about mere balance here . . . A visionary company doesn’t simply balance between idealism and profitability; it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable . . . a highly visionary company doesn’t want to blend yin and yang into a gray, indistinguishable circle that is neither highly yin nor highly yang; it aims to be . . . both at the same time, all the time.
~ James Collins & Jerry Porras, Built to Last
The English proverb tells us that we can’t have our cake and eat it too. I’ve often struggled to understand exactly what that means. I guess it’s supposed to imply that we can’t have it both ways. How can we preserve something of value if we continue to consume it?
Today’s quote comes from a book I’ve been reading on visionary companies: the ones that stand the test [...]
Read on and enjoy … Why Can’t We Have Our Cake and Eat It Too?
By 2 Cents on October 10th, 2011 | Category: Life Balance |  It is literally true, as the thankless say, that they have nothing to be thankful for. He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient. But a thankful heart hath a continual feast.
~W.J. Cameron
It seems the older I get the smaller the things for which I’m truly thankful become. When I was a child, I was thankful for obvious things like my family and my home and my favourite possessions. Once I had children, they kind of moved up to number one on my list.
Now, I’m still thankful for all of those things, but I notice that the things that really make me feel grateful are a little more subtle – and there are a lot more of them. Here’s a list of [...]
Read on and enjoy … Thanksgiving Thoughts for 2011
By 2 Cents on September 22nd, 2011 | Category: Life Balance |  The following is a guest post from Barbara Friedberg. She endured a much more arduous moving ordeal than I did this summer. Check out the 5 lessons she learned and then head over to Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance to read more. While you’re there, download her free 20 Minute Guide to Investing. Thanks Barb!
5 Things I Learned From My Cross Country Move
As Kim from Balance Junkie and I each moved this summer, we decided to share our “lessons learned”. Although she moved 3 hours away, and I moved about 10 times that, the process is the same! Please check out her 5 Lessons Learned from Moving at my site after you’re done reading.
Graduate school and job changes have led to 6 moves during our married life. Initially, I’m nervous and scared about moving. After getting used to the [...]
Read on and enjoy … Moving Stinks! And I Never Want to Do It Again!
By 2 Cents on September 12th, 2011 | Category: Life Balance |  Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves!
~Andre Gide
Have you ever felt like you were in a rut? No matter how hard you try to shake things up, start fresh or come up with innovative solutions to what’s bugging you, you just seem to end up right back where you started. I’m sure most of us have felt this way at one time or another about one or more parts of our lives.
In my experience, it’s hard to engineer an epiphany. It’s like trying to catch a pesky fly. Just when you’re certain you’ve got it in your sights it flits away, eluding your grasp anew. Sometimes new perspectives incubate best at a simmering pace rather than a pressure cooker intensity.
To instigate behavioural, intellectual or emotional change we sometimes need to make some [...]
Read on and enjoy … Climate Change Can Be Positive for Your Life
By 2 Cents on June 14th, 2011 | Category: Life Balance |  He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
~Clarence Budington Kelland
If you’ve been following the story of our recent life changes, you know that we just bought a home about two and a half hours from where we live now in order to take advantage of a new opportunity even though it meant taking out a much larger home loan. When I last updated you, we still needed to sell our current home. We put the house on the market a couple of days after that post and sold it 5 days later.
Since this is a time of year when a lot of folks are looking to buy and/or sell a home, I thought some of you might be interested in how and why we sold our home so quickly. [...]
Read on and enjoy … How We Sold Our House in 5 Days
By 2 Cents on June 7th, 2011 | Category: Money Psychology |  Tell your money where to go. Don’t ask where it went.
~ Unknown
We spend a lot of time here kicking around different ideas on how to manage your money. What’s the best way to spend it, save it, and invest it? It’s all about controlling your money rather than letting it control you.
From the beginning, I intended the “balance” part of Balance Junkie to be a bit of a double entendre. It refers to the quest for a healthy financial balance sheet as well as a well-rounded life balance sheet. Putting money in its place means paying enough attention to it to manage it wisely, but not enough to let it become more important than it is. Today we take a look at how to balance these dueling propositions.
Your Money: Micro Management
The term micro management usually [...]
Read on and enjoy … Putting Money In Its Place
By 2 Cents on May 10th, 2011 | Category: Money Psychology |  Opportunities fly by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.
~Jerome K. Jerome, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, 1889
Whether you’re talking about your investments, your view on the economy, or your approach to life in general, your conclusions, actions and results usually hinge on your perspective. I’m often amazed at how different people view the same situation in very different ways. I’m even more amazed by how slight changes in how we look at things can literally change the course and quality of our lives.
Last week I promised to fill you in on what’s been happening with our life changes. (If you’re not familiar with the background story, take a look at Risk Is Relative.) We bought a home in a new city last [...]
Read on and enjoy … Opportunity Cost and Opportunity Lost
By 2 Cents on April 27th, 2011 | Category: Money Psychology |  Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
~ Orison Swett Marden
Do you have financial goals that you just haven’t been able to achieve? Maybe you’ve always wanted to set up a budget, but you just haven’t found the time. Maybe you want to learn more about investing or economics, but you just don’t know where to start. Before you know it years pass by, you’re no closer to your goals and you’re left wondering why.
All of us face different financial obstacles. Some of us have a hard time figuring out how to earn more income. Others have plenty of income, but struggle to save [...]
Read on and enjoy … 5 Ways to Clear Financial Obstacles
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