Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wow has it really been since November since I updated this blog :S eeek! Well I will make it up to anyone right now. I realize that other than the last two posts this blog has been pretty technical and lacking a little Hamilton flair. The things I've talked about are important though and if anyone has learned something from them then I say thanks for reading this!
I want to put everything into perspective for you now.
Life isn't about having the most money, or the coolest posessions (though I do like those mine), or having that "status" that comes along with making lots of dough. Life is about living and being happy to be alive.
In the world we live in we are told to buy buy buy all over the place. Everywhere you look is an ad. Easy credit applications help us fulfill our need and desire to have the latest and greatest right now versus when we can actually afford it. This makes it very easy for people to spend all that they make or even more than they make. Now I'm no angel here I get sucked into this too. I do do the "no payments for however long" and if you do this right then it's a decent option. Right means paying the balance before you get charged all the built up interest.
It's hard to be happy when you owe people money. Even though you may have all the things you want you still won't be happy because you have a huge stress in having to pay it all back...or it keeps growing and growing.
I've been reading Personal Finances for Canadians for Dummies. If you have any interest in getting out of debt or making the most of your income you should pick it up. I bought it because I'm going to be taking my CFP (Certified Financial Planner) starting in May and I needed something to fill in the gaps for me.
As I've been reading it I've been looking at my own finances and making a list of stuff to do. Here's what I'm going to do:
1. Reduce spending (live within my means...the hardest thing to do in our society)
2. Pay down consumer debt (any debt for consumption ie. car, credit cards, etc.)
3. Start an emergency savings account (3 months of income)
4. Start contributing to tax-free investments (RRSP and TFSA, started this early)
5. Pay down good debt (Both of our student debts)
6. Taking my debt payment amounts and turning it into savings.
7. Get life & disability insurance so I don't borrow from my savings if something happens. (already have Life)
8. Live off my own money and save to buy things that I want (living within my means.)
9. Increase my income
By paying off debt first I'm freeing up all of the money that has gone into paying the debt down. Starting a savings account to use instead of my credit card will allow me to make those I want it now purchases and it won't cost any interest. The rest of the money that I don't put towards my personal savings account (or monthly spending allowance) I will use to max out tax-free investments.
Once I've got my tax-free investments maxed I will start investing in non-registered (taxable investments) I will then use the income and growth from this investment to fund my tax-free investments.
Make sense?
Go over the checklist for yourself and find out where you're at and what you should be doing to gain financial freedom! A large weight will be lifted off of your shoulders just as I know one will be lifted off mine.
Until next time! Hopefully it's sooner :P
Mike Hamilton
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Wally story was such a good one I thought I share this one on perceptions.
I orginally read this or heard about it in the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people but I guess it's all over the place.
The Cookie Theif - By Valerie Cox
With several long hours before her flight
She hunted for a book in the airport shop
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see
That the man beside her as bold as could be
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene
She munched cookies and watched the clock
As this gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by
Thinking "If I wasn't so nice I'd blacken his eye"
With each cookie she took he took one too
And when only one was left she wondered what he'd do
With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh
He took the last cookie and broke it in half
He offered her half as he ate the other
She snatched it from him and thought "Oh brother
This guy has some nerve and he's also rude
Why he didn't even show any gratitude"
She had never known when she had been so galled
And sighed with relief when her flight was called
She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate
Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate
She boarded the plane and sank in her seat
Then sought her book which was almost complete
As she reached in her baggage she gasped with surprise
There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes
"If mine are here" she moaned with despair
"Then the others were his and he tried to share"
"Too late to apologize she realized with grief"
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief
Friday, November 13, 2009
I got this e-mail from a buddy of mine. I think it's absolutely awesome. If you follow Wally the cab driver's lead in whatever profession you're in you are bound to become the person people rely on, which will in turn lead you to where you want to be.
Here's Wally's story:
"I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk, I'd like
you to read my mission statement."
Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said:
Wally's Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest, and
cheapest way possible in a friendly environment
This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the
cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!
As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I
have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."
My friend said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink."
Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular
and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."
Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I'll take a Diet Coke"
Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have
The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."
As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card.
"These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to
listen to the radio."
As if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air
conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then
he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of the
day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about
some of the sights, or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own
thoughts.
"Tell me, Wally," my amazed friend asked the driver, "have you always
served customers like this?"
Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only
been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my
time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the
personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written
a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get
up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint
yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your
competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles
soar above the crowd.'
"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking
about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my
attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their
drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the
customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few
at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."
"I take it this has paid off for you," Harvey said.
"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my
income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You
were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers
call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my
answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie
friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."
Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab.
I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the
years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their
cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and
told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.
Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking
like ducks and start soaring like eagles. How about you?
you to read my mission statement."
Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said:
Wally's Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest, and
cheapest way possible in a friendly environment
This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the
cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!
As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I
have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."
My friend said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink."
Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular
and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."
Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I'll take a Diet Coke"
Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have
The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."
As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card.
"These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to
listen to the radio."
As if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air
conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then
he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of the
day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about
some of the sights, or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own
thoughts.
"Tell me, Wally," my amazed friend asked the driver, "have you always
served customers like this?"
Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only
been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my
time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the
personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written
a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get
up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint
yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your
competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles
soar above the crowd.'
"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking
about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my
attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their
drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the
customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few
at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."
"I take it this has paid off for you," Harvey said.
"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an eagle, I doubled my
income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You
were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers
call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my
answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie
friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."
Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab.
I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the
years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their
cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and
told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.
Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking
like ducks and start soaring like eagles. How about you?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
I thought I'd let you guys know a little bit about what I'm up to these days.
Really, it's all about building my business and myself in the process. This last month or two has been really good (other than it getting dark at 5pm now and the coldness that is making it's way in)
Writing this blog is good for me for a few reasons. It gives me more confidence in my knowledge which is a tough thing to get a hold on when you're just starting out in this business with competition who have been doing it for years and years. It also lets you guys know what I do while providing you guys with invaluable information that you will use through your whole lives. I also have this on my business card as a link to my personality and knowledge. So when I give it out, the person I give it to can look me up and find that I'm a credible, nice, helpful person. I'm going to continue this through my career and it will continue to grow and get better as I grow and get better.
Businesswise I'm focusing on a few different things and I could use your help!
Firstly I am trying to talk to homeowners in Kitchener/Waterloo. As you may or may not know from reading this blog. Homeowners who have mortgages most likely have mortgage life insurance on their mortgage. What they don't realize is they are paying up to double the amount that you would pay for a similar amount of Life Insurance and their insurance is not nearly as good for them. They don't realize this because it's included in their mortgage payment. So basically I'm reducing the cost of people's mortgages and helping them protect their debts in a much better way.
Another thing I've been trying to do is build a network of professionals that I could potentially help. By having this network of people I can send clients or friends to them if they have a need for the services and they can do the same for myself. So I've made a point to make friends with some young professionals and this is going pretty well. I've found it's much easier to make friends with someone than to get them to buy from you. The thing is these friendships will be vital to my success. If you know anyone who owns a business or is a young professional trying to build their client base let me know I'd love to meet them.
Lastly, since my wife if a pharmacist and I understand a lot of the daily struggles she faces I am trying to talk to as many pharamcists as I can about their group disability insurance coverage. Basically, group plans (not just for pharmacists) don't necessarily pay you your entire amount of monthly income with their disability insurance. Another thing with pharmacists is they can get something called Own Occupation disability insurance. This allows them to be paid the disability cheques if they aren't able to perform their duties as a pharamcist. With most jobs they will say...well...can you work in the mail room? or can you sit at a desk and do a similar job? With pharmacists if they can't stand, see, write, deal with stress, then they can be paid their disability insurance. So if you know any pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, MBA grads. I can help them get the best disability coverage there is.
That's about it for now. I'm focusing on these areas because I feel like these are things that I can truely help people with. Rather than just saying "hey you should get insurance" I'm saying "Hey, lets take a look at your insurance needs and determine a solution to the problem that you're facing."
I want to leave you guys with one final thing, something called an elevator speech, or 30 second commercial. Basically it gets the full point of what I do across in under 30 seconds. (this is still a work in progress but I like this one!)
I am a financial insurance specialist. I help people ensure their investment assets and debts are well protected if they were to face economic downturns, prolonged injury or illness, and pre-mature death.
I love feedback so let me know what you think!
Have a great one!
Mike Hamilton
Thursday, October 29, 2009
I got thrown for a loop last week, I was on my way to Hamilton (I know! My city :)) to meet with my advisor coach and my car started making a really odd noise. It almost sounded like I was driving a race car too fast but I was going slowly in traffic. It started getting worse so I pulled over to see what was up. I popped my hood, didn't smell anything funky, didn't see anything out of place so I decided to drive again and deal with the issue later.
Too bad my car wouldn't drive :( I couldn't even get it into gear. I sat on the highway searching my car for my CAA card, no luck. Did you know that if you call CAA and you don't have your card they can still pull up your account? I wish I knew that before I called them because I was freaking out! Even though my car was not working and I was stuck in Hamilton I decided to not let these things ruin my day.
I saw this as an opportunity to meet some new people!
I met a nice police officer, she ended up stopping and waiting for me to get my tow truck. She was very helpful and made sure I was good to go before she left.
I met the tow truck driver who was a nice guy and he took me to a great auto shop to get my car fixed. We chatted the whole way and had a lot in common.
Then I met the head mechanic at the shop. He was a nice guy and seemed to know what was wrong with my car. Transmission...UGH! I knew it was going to be expensive. But as the old saying goes "Shit happens!" and it most certainly does! He ended up staying 30 mins late to let me pick up my car on the Friday which was very nice of him. He fixed my car up to tip top shape and now it's running better than it ever did!
Since I was in Hamilton I had to wait an hour or so for Megan to pick me up. Rather than waste my time and be bored for an hour. I struck up a conversation with the owner of the auto sales part of the shop. She was super nice! We talked for the whole hour about her business, her kids, her marriage, and how she percieved the world and having children at a young age. She was great and she made my day!
Notice my attitude? Something really crappy and expensive happened to me that day but shit happens. I wasn't going to let it get me down because what's the point? I've got more important things to think about then being miserable. I made the best of what I was given that day and I see it as more like "shit happens for a reason." Maybe it didn't get me any more business than I have now, but it did allow me to practice talking to people.
That's the power of a positive attitude, you don't have to be all sunshine and rainbows all the time. You just need to see the opportunities in bad situations. Because with bad situations always lies a greater opportunity, you just have to have your eyes open so you can see it.
So I challenge you. When life throws you a curve ball just hit it outta the park!
Mike Hamilton
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Watch this video:
www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/ready-to-sign-on-the-dotted-line/article1305738/
Ok so the Globe and Mail is doing a video podcast type thing for 4 months. It's for young couples and it's called "Building Blocks." Basically it's to help young families build their financial future.
The video above is about buying a house and the things you should think about with your mortgages.
The most important point the guy makes is "although you may be pre-approved for a specific amount, you need to ensure that you can afford your mortgage before you sign the papers."
It also gives you guys a good look at how you should approach all contracts (including investments and life insurance.)
The guy makes a small error in the video when he says "when you financial advisor is sitting down with you with your mortgage papers." He really means mortgage broker.
One thing he left out is that when you are signing that stack of papers the mortgage broker will try to get you to buy their insurance. Usually the paper is in with the stack of mortgage documents. Be wary of buying this insurance as you get much better coverage and freedom with life insurance.
Also with mortgages. You should never ever deal with a bank directly. They would love you too because they can possibly charge you higher rates. Only deal with a mortgage broker who can shop around to all companies and get the best rate for you.
Take it easy!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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