Stock Investing

Creston, IL – I’ve been thinking about proclamations. Actually I’ve been thinking about Advent preparations, Mount Morris, the US economy, the candidates, the Ogle County Board, hope, and expectations. Sunday at my home church of St. Johns Lutheran in Creston, we celebrated the second Sunday in Advent. The first and second of five holiday candles were lit, and the church year continued its the celebration of the coming birth of Christ. Last Sunday, the candle of prophesy and preparation was lit. This Sunday, the candle of proclamations was celebrated. I sat and enjoyed Pastor Larson’s commentary on the images and symbols of the Christmas season. Where I sat, he was partially obscured by the large Christmas tree decked out with the symbolic chrismons, and the tiny white lights.

Full Post…

I came across an excellent post on blessing your workplace by being a faithful gospel presence and building into the lives of others.

The idea is to engage others in a way that creates opportunities for faithful proclamation of the gospel to happen.  Here below are just 15 ideas with my commentary under each one.

You can check out the entire list of 30 here.

1. Instead of eating lunch alone, intentionally eat with other co-workers and learn their story.

Its easy to spend our time at our desk and continue working. Its much harder to be intentional with hearing others stories.

2. G

Full Post…

CAL Business Solutions, a Connecticut-based Microsoft Dynamics GP partner, was chosen by Lead411 for the 2011 Tech 200 List which ranks US companies based on their percentage of revenue growth between 2008 and 2010.

Lead411 ranks companies based on their percentage of revenue growth between 2008 and 2010 and came up with a list of the top 200 tech companies in the United States. Number 172 on the Lead411 Tech 200 list is ERP Software Blog’s own CAL Business Solutions, a Connecticut based Microsoft Dynamics GP partner.

The pool of applications for the Tech 200 is large and the competition is fierce. Full Post…

The insurance industry is not immune from changes occurring at the marcroeconomic level. Based on our frequent and periodic discussions with European CIOs we have noticed that the level of uncertainty prevailing in the economy right now has contributed to reduce IT budgets (for more about this, read the following reports from Celent: Insurance in France 2011: The CIO Perspective and Insurance in the United Kingdom 2011: The CIO Perspective).

Much has been said and much has been proposed to solve the current Euro zone crisis initially triggered by the Greek sovereign debt issue during the first quarter of last year. But nothing and even the decisions made in the frame of multiple political meetings (G7, G20, etc.) prevented the issue to spread over to Ireland and Portugal later that same year.

Full Post…

I placed 2nd on a golf tournament and I received the trophy today. I was so excited because I never won anything other than getting certificates and ribbons before so it made me really happy to say the least. My credit card balance, my next paycheck, the stock market tumbling all didn’t matter seem to matter. As someone who always thought about money – how to save more, how to earn more, how to accumulate more – this prompted the question “Does always thinking about money really make me happy?”

The answer to the question is probably pretty complicated. On the one hand, the thoughts often stress me out unnecessarily. I certainly don’t need to worry about survival. My business is doing well, I have a substantial amount of savings and my overall debt load is small. In many ways, I’m probably too frugal. After all, money isn’t just for hoarding, so I should really live it up a little once in a while.

On the other hand, unexpected events can always happen. The economy can tank, the stock market may have many down years and my business income can be volatile. Furthermore, my expenses in the future will only go up as my family grows. Hopefully, my income will also increase but I can’t count on it to grow faster than the increased expenses. This means that I cannot just project the same savings that I do now indefinitely. Add to the fact that I’m still very far away from reaching my retirement goal since I’m so early in my wealth accumulation process, and I should try to save as much as I can, as early as I can just in case. There’s no such thing as saving too much right?

This is definitely a good problem to have but sometimes having choices can lead to confusion. This will probably be a question that I will ponder again and again through the years. In the meantime, I will be content with my first sports trophy ever.