Creative commentary plus crafty composition

An article in the current edition of The Insurance & Investment Journal raises the age-old conundrum of receiving ‘independent advice’. It should be noted that the report is in support of the idea.

Why has this been such a prevailing issue, frequently a hot topic of reportage? Read the rest of this entry »

Travel Tips

Open any travel related periodical or insert, and chances are that, in addition to glowing enticements to visit sites far or near, there will be some degree of tips from supposed experts. Sometimes the expertise is limited to lessons learned by the author about specific destinations; sometimes it’s more general ‘rules of thumb’ (not the green kind).

Case in point: the spring edition of CAA (Canadian Automobile Association) Magazine devotes several pages to recommending travel locations for 2018, with brief comments from CAA travel specialists. Some remarks are more insightful than others. Read the rest of this entry »

Being Mindful

It would seem superfluous disputing that the mind is the most important cognitive part of the body; assuming that’s so, being ‘mindful’ should be at least in the highest echelon of good default positions.

What does mindfulness mean? An article in the February edition of Toastmaster magazine gives this a thoughtful (as it were) look. Read the rest of this entry »

A Hurdle is not a Stop Sign

Perhaps all of us, at one time or another, have been tempted to feel discouraged, perhaps quickly, by setbacks on the long journey to accomplishing major goals.

Indeed, if looking at statistics, one can easily be ready to throw in the towel, especially if that towel is frequently coated with rejection.

Many of us are familiar with the 80/20 rule, which anecdotally applies to a wide range of endeavours: Read the rest of this entry »

Adding Value

The proposition of ‘adding value’ has been an underlying foundation for success in service-oriented businesses for many years.

If one wants to generate a positive, lasting and loyal, relationship with customers, providing those extra ingredients of value is vital. This could be indirectly related to business, i.e. taking clients to lunch, paying for tickets to events, etc., or more directly, such as keeping in regular contact, or going the extra mile in solving problems quickly, or obtaining more helpful data for decision making. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a friend who is being compelled to move from her longstanding residence shortly, due to a very unfortunate set of circumstances. She is quite unhappy, having to give up the apartment, albeit in a creaky old house, given its scenic, multidirectional view, but the environment has become untenable.

One of the constants of life is change – but some changes are much earlier to adapt to than others. Read the rest of this entry »

Charitable Rewards

According to a recent report from the Fraser Institute, using tax data, the percentage of Canadians giving to charities has diminished to about 21% from a level of 25% ten years earlier. It has also gone down as a percentage of income.

Americans compare more favourably on this particular scale, with nearly 25% contributing and at a much higher rate of income than Canadians. Read the rest of this entry »

It may be a new year, but there’s still baggage on the horizon…

  1. Lose weight by trimming your bling or dysfunctional cosmetic implants, whichever is heavier
  2. Get brochures or postcards of travel destinations you would have gone to if they were more affordable
  3. Set up a dart board with images of individuals or businesses which would benefit from getting the point
  4. Post a list of resolutions in declining font size and brightness so the later ones can be overlooked more easily
  5. Use a business card with a chip which allows for it to be remotely dissolved if the cardholder proves unworthy
  6. Invent a new species and become its trusted advisor in bilateral negotiations
  7. Memorize the first and last lines of book chapters so you sound like you are well read
  8. Develop a new social networking site which functions strictly to vote and comment on other social networking sites
  9. Eliminate any references to ‘trumped-up’, since that expression now has an inescapably deflating political connection
  10. Take back-to-back courses on empathy and callousness, then have a point-counterpoint debate with yourself

Read the rest of this entry »

The year-end holiday season is the ripest time of the year for most retailers, providing more customers the chance to satisfy their gift buying goals.

While the ‘bricks-and-mortar’ version of the typical retail establishment has become increasingly usurped by on-line alternatives, there remains an important factor in favour of the former: the tactile experience of checking out items in the flesh. There are times you need to feel or examine a potential purchase before being truly satisfied the cost/benefit analysis works in your favour. Read the rest of this entry »

The year-end issue of The Insurance & Investment Journal continues its core mandate of covering the inexorable evolution of these integral aspects of personal financial planning.

No matter what the product or service being offered, WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) is always paramount for the prospective buyer, or, put another way, the cost/benefit analysis needs to favour the latter part of the equation.

But what of products or services appealing to limited, niche markets? Read the rest of this entry »