Melva Gifford

That’s just like man. Isn’t that a line we’ve heard? Today I like to discuss a positive attribute  of men that help them be great fathers and providers for their families. I hope the following thoughts can be of use to youth ministries, family devotionals, and family home evenings.

Whenever I hear about the stereotype of man, I often think of how a guy may be single-minded. He devotes his energies to a specific task, rather than multiple ones at once. When a father needs to devote his energies to providing for family, I can see how that single mindedness can be a positive asset. Each of us can probably remember a time when we devoted our full attention to a task and have been amazed by what we accomplished in that concentration. The same can be done by the single-purpose of a man performing the duties of a father.

Object lesson: two rivers 1 that is strong and has a single path. 2. One that splits up into multiple branches.

Both rivers have their advantages. A straight river can transport a lot of water across a longer distance. Men’s single mindedness helps go the distance.  A river that branches out can distribute water to a lot more land mass through streams and branch-offs. A woman could be compared to a river that branches off. She attends to multiple tasks and accomplished a great deal in her own rights.  Each river has advantages.

Having your mind completely devoted to a specific task  lets you use all your reservoirs to ensuring success. The emotion, physical, and spiritual aspects are all directed to the same target. Those different aspects of our lives can be interpreted and implemented in multiple ways to provide a variety of results. Other attributes that add to the success is a person’s experience, persistence and motivation.

Today I just want to share my appreciation all the wonderful attributes I have seen in the men I have dealt with throughout my life.

Here are my notes of the speech from  Sen Ted Cruz  when he spoke at the rally of the Republican Utah conference. I tried to be as accurate as I could and hope I haven’t misrepresented the speaker in any way.

–          A spirit of fear and timidity permeates Washington.

–          You are here because you love your kids and grandkids and you love America.

–          A mother with six children came up to me. Said she, her husband left her and she now is working five jobs to get food and clothes for her children.  People can’t have full time jobs because Obama care is required for employees who work more than 30 hours.

–          The IRS/government is asking Americans what they say in their prayers. They have no business asking what we say in our prayers.

–          Pres. Obama is the most unlawful president in history. He ignores the laws that he doesn’t agree with.

–          He has these recommendations: 1. Stand up for liberty. 2. Stand up for growth and opportunity.

–          The last five years, we’ve become stagnant.

–          The big divide is not between political parties. It is between career politicians of both parties and the people

Bad: initiave

Good: initiative

One way to remember this is one way an Individual shows initiative is by making multiple efforts. If one wants a board to be nailed in place you nail in all four corners. Thus we see 4 Is.  InItIatIve.

Do you have an idea on this word? Please feel free to share in the comment section of this blog.

Last fall I attend a financial seminar. Here are some of my notes. I hope they can be of use.

–          1. You have to have a crystal-clear vision of what you want.

–          2. Do only with the truth. Don’t rely upon specialized knowledge.

–          3. Know your list of core values. Ask loved ones and trusted friends who know you what you’re good at.

–          4. Write out your plan.

–          5. Massey a plan every day. You must actively work on your goal every day. People have a tendency to make lists and do the difficult tasks at the end which results in often than not getting done. Do the difficult tasks. First,

–          6. Be prepared to stretch and become spring-loaded. Learn new things.

–          7. Create an accountability system.

–          8. Reward yourself when you successful.

–          9. Play bid to practice.

–          Book: social styles by Larry Wilson talks about four different personality types of human beings and how to interact with each. It’s a good book to help you understand people.

–          Strategies for success in real estate.

1. Find properties.

2. Research and evaluate.

3. Analyze.

4. Funding and structure.

5. Contract: say what each will do.

6. Define the objectives you want to achieve.

If you want to provide ideas to add to this list, please add them in the comment section of this blog.

Many of us spend years in college or training for chosen profession. We may then feel that we may be limited to that chosen profession. But it had been some wonderful examples of people moving from one profession to another who have become very successful. Thus I have chosen the theme broadening our chosen task. I hope the following ideas can be of use to youth ministries, family counselors, family devotionals and family home evenings.

It is not only in education that we need to not limit our potential. There’s a president I have respected that spent many years in a career an actor. Then later he moved to politics and was successful as President of United States. I thought President Reagan added a lot of wonderful contributions to the country.

Here is another example. There was technical support engineer who I worked with at a major technology corporation. He was very good in his chosen career, but I found out that he was also very good at woodcraft. So he did not limit his talents to only technical support.

My invitation is that we don’t have to have a degree to be good at something. There are many successful writers who are non-English majors. There are many successful musicians who have been self-taught. This is just an invitation for us to realize that we can accomplish multiple tasks, even though we may devote a lot of our energy to one career. People often successfully jump from one career to another.

Another invitation I have is that for us to not make an interpretation of someone not be in highly intelligent, because of their chosen career. While going to college, I worked part-time as a custodian. There is one particular supervisor who I found to be very intelligent and had excellent common sense. I came to respect his intellect.

Object lesson: sprinkler head.

Get a empty, clean milk jug and poke holes in the lid. Fill the jug with water and use it to water a plant. By having multiple holes in the lid, you notice that the water can cover a wider area of dirt. We can compare this to each of us having multiple talents. We may concentrate our energies for a chosen career but then fine we can do more than just a certain job. We possess talents and abilities that would make great contributions to other fields. For example, we can be well informed community citizens through study and observation.  There are multiple examples of people who have had a variety of successful careers.

Maybe discuss with the class and family. Each person possesses individual and natural talents that can be used in a variety of ways. Have people brainstorm on how members of the class or family can excel in multiple tasks.

If you have ideas to contribute to this concept, please feel free to share in the comment section of this blog. Thanks.

Tonight I attended part of the meeting hosted by the Orem city Council to discuss the $20 utility bill hike to pay for the fiasco Utopia.

Here are a couple of notes I took. I hope the information is reasonably accurate

–          Orem owes about $40.3 million for Utopia.

–          Orem is interested in charging every resident of the city, $20-$25 a month added on top of utility bills for                 the next 30 years to pay for the Debt/bonds.

–          There are over 30,000 households within the Orem city borders.

–          3100 households are currently using utopia

–           No one can opt out.

–          Utopia and the partner me say they will be responsible for installing fiber optics under the streets of the city.            It will lead up to the house. Any Internet access within the home and any necessary requirements to use                  fiber optics work within the home will be the responsibility of the Internet Company and the homeowner.

–          There were about four milestones that need to be accomplished to make the final decision. Tonight                         meeting was on the topic of milestone. A decision will not be by the vote of the people, but by elected                     officials.

–          Each household will be responsible for paying $20-$25 a month for the next 30 years.

–          June 26 will be the decision to move from milestone one to milestone two

–          ISP: means Internet service providers.

–          The partner company with Utopia promises about $18-$20 charged all homes.

–          The basic service will offer 20 GB up on basic service. This gives you the capability to download 20 Netflix              movies.

–          Quite a few of the local schools already use Utopia. The government may give them credit for doing this

–          Homes will not be billed for the $20 until fiber optics is installed in their part of the city.

–          Utopia currently pays $12 service and they will not get any rebate from the $20 fee by the city.

–          Milestone two. Additional paperwork and further analysis of the 30 year plan to pay the debt. The same for            milestone three

–          Utopia has not yet shown a profit. Partner Company says of their experience with setting up major projects.            And they will follow the contract that assigned.

–          Cost is $20 x 12 month’s ×30 years.

–          That Partner Company says that after the 30 years of paying the debt, the assets of the company will                       provide revenue for the city. (Sorry that we now with the names of the partner companies)

–          The more customers that upgrade the basic package to premier package, will contribute additional fines                 toward the debt.

–          You can get additional information of the 76 page document and other documentation from the Oregon                   website. It also has an FAQ document as well as an executive summar

Concerns by other citizens:

Retirees and families are concerned about paying an extra 2020, $25 when on such a limited budget.

There’s a lot of information is being glossed over.

Many people also concerned about the company’s fulfilling the promises as stated

My feedback to the council:

When I got up I was not very eloquent. I mentioned my perception of inefficiency of Utopia.

I am concerned that they did not have to follow their contract and were not held accountable.

Utopia didn’t follow the contract deadlines.

My concern continues with even the partner.

I am familiar manager with how well the city Council listens to the people from my experiences of previous                city Council meetings. I did speak with some sarcasm.

My personal concerns are:

I am concerned that doing any kind of referendum will be useless with a track record of the Orem city not                listening to a citizen.

There is also a concern of the city being in debt because of the terrible decisions that previous city                          counselors made by becoming involved with Utopia.

I’m concerned in city Council making decisions outside their jurisdiction and responsibility

There is worry of the partner companies keeping their promises.

Last time a group of us collected a bunch of signatures, it didn’t have much effect on the city Council. It was            clear during a certain meaning that the Council had already made up their decision

I wish there was an alternative option to pay the debt we owe.

Bad: serinade or cerenade

Good: serenade

It’s always a hard word for me to remember the spelling this word. So we’ll see if this visual image helps. When I think a serenade I think of a fellow standing outside the window of a Lady Singing a song. Therefore, hE (first e) is singing to hEr (second e.  Therefore, we know that there are two Es in sErEnade

I realize that serenade starts with a S because it involves Singing In all my misspellings, I seem to be a spell NADE successfully.

Do you have an alternative way to remember this word?  Please feel free to share your idea in the comment section this blog.

During a finance seminar last August, I took notes on the topic Cash Flow read estate. I hope some of these notes will be of interest.

–          Real estate is better if they can provide income stream.

–          With cash flow real estate you buy a cash flow and you can get the property for free.

–          A. Mobile home parks: income is higher than the cost.

–          You can earn out the claw back: means that if it pays the promise were given me.

–          Seller financing: no down payment, no fees

–          Cost about $.35 on the dollar to maintain.

–          You charge more for flexibility of rent time, such as if you want just rent for 103 months over 12 months.

–          Never buy something on performance. Performance means expected or desired income.

–          Private money investing is alone that earns interest in addition to the payback of the original loan. If default they get the land that was set up as collateral.

–          Do deals were both benefit.

–          Rate: means your return rate on a company.

–          Outsource the coin laundry. So that the business is responsible for the washers and dryers and maintenance. They will get 75% of income, and you may get 25%, but have less hassle.

–          Family fun Center

–          Car wash.

–          Cap Rate has to be higher than the investment rate else you’re losing money.

–          Leaseback: they sell their office and land to you and you Lisa back to them.

–          Loopnet.com: is a website that gives access to properties. You can type in your area and see what’s available.

–          Businesses do not want to advertise in the trying to sell their business because they don’t want their customers to know the final cell. Otherwise they could lose the customer.

–          You want to find properties before the general public does. One good source to find properties is by the thrifty nickel. Older people tend to advertise in the thrifty nickel because they are so experienced with newspapers in the young lives.

–          The real estate market no longer uses quick cells.

–          Simple approach to real estate profits: If you don’t document what you want in life. Life will give you whatever.

Do you have any suggestions to offer? Please feel free to share them in the comment section of this blog.