From the earlier journals
Earlier writing preserved as part of the story, grouped here instead of mixed into the current essays.
Some financial and mortgage articles reflect the rules and market conditions at the time of publication. They are historical commentary, not current financial advice.
What a great long weekend. Mom and I went for a date on Friday night and finished our weekend cleaning up after a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. We were joined this year by Auntie Ashley and Uncle Daren as well as Mark Loewen and his kids (Luke, Cassidy and Ma
Read essay →Mom gave me a book yesterday by Kevin Adams titled "The Extravagant Fool" which I just finished reading (it is 8:55 PM) and felt prompted to write this entry. The book spookily (is that a word?) mirrors my life, failures and realizations. So now I have put it
Read essay →So today is my 37th birthday. Cole was going to join me at work today but because I was funding a new deal ($650,000 first mortgage/bridge financing for 10 days - 3711 15th Street SW) he wouldn't have gotten any work done because I was running around all morni
Read essay →What a weekend. Cole turned 10 this weekend and had a sleepover with Declan, Kaleb, Carter, Peton and Cade - it was quite a party. Everyone came by around 1 PM on Saturday and were later joined by Gramps, Uncle Chris and Jenne as well as Auntie Ashley and Uncl
Read essay →October 1st. Again. The fall is always an interesting time for me. I am not sure if I panic more because the end of the year is coming or because my birthday is coming and I am another year older. So it's been a week since we chatted and I am pleased to report
Read essay →Today I pushed the magical button and the new mlenow.ca website went live. There is a tonne of work still to do but I can transition all of the changes over time. The next task is to get to work on generating interest and traffic for the website and help peopl
Read essay →"...apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5 I find myself thinking a lot about this concept these days. Today we had a guest speaker at church who was speaking about the rhythm our lives have and how we either create the rhythm or one gets created. I foun
Read essay →Well I just finished uploading the new mlenow website to our server and it is 2:08 AM in the morning, Sunday September 21, 2014. I am beat and out of steam. I still have lots of tweaking and testing to do but I think we will be able to roll out the upgrade for
Read essay →I am so close to the end of the mlenow build but have some minor problems that are taking a long time to fix. I have been trying to balance the relaunch with everyday activities and am feeling tapped out. Tonight your mother stepped on a three ringed binder an
Read essay →This too shall pass - a famous line that I think is in the bible. Well it was worth getting up early today as I was able to complete a tonne of coding before the day turned over at 9 am. I am now down to the smallest details that may be completed tomorrow whic
Read essay →Today I was at my desk before 6 AM as I have decided to get into work early each day to make sure that the upgrade of mlenow is completed for Friday. Programming requires focused effort and copious amounts of time to troubleshoot errors and test code. So today
Read essay →It's 8:22 pm and Cole and Cade just finished saying good night to me while I was ironing my shirts for the week and listening to a podcast by Timothy Keller about the Holy Spirit. Today was a relatively uneventful day. We went to church (First Alliance) and Ce
Read essay →Often the question is asked of us from people and businesses looking for a mortgage: "What is the difference between a bank and lender". They are usually responding to our mortgage quote that they receive indicating the different financing options available fr
Read essay →I once heard it said that any type of brokerage business is a result of an inefficiency in a marketplace. Customers will use brokers to get a job done that they either do not want to do themselves or don't know how to do. As a mortgage broker, we earn our valu
Read essay →Every year when you and your accountant meet to discuss your financial statements (i.e. Notice to Reader, Review Engagement or Audited) ask your accountant -what do you think?" It's amazing how many clients we see where they don't ever ask their accountant to
Read essay →Sometimes it is helpful to know some basic pieces of information before you contact a bank, lender or broker seeking a commercial mortgage. The following are three very simple things to know about commercial mortgages that will hopefully steer you in the right
Read essay →Does your business need cash now? Most small and medium sized businesses have a constant need for cash because when they invoice a customer for a product or service, the customer can take a long time to pay which results in reduced cash flow. Factoring or acco
Read essay →If you are looking for a mortgage, shopping your mortgage request to banks and brokers can lower your credit score and may impact your ability to be approved. Most people have never checked their credit and not only do they not their score they also don't know
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