So, cruising into speech # 9 I was building some much needed stage time consistency. On January 16, 2007 I went back to my bread and butter - finance - and talked about how money affects our closest relationships. Let's read on...

How do you build a solid financial foundation for yourself? I’ll tell you. Good, basic banking practices are the basis of wealth building. You’ll never reach the point of creating a solid retirement plan or have extra funds for private investing if you don’t know how to balance your check book. Why is this? Because you’ll never really know what you’re working with if you can’t track your resources accurately. And that’s not to mention the banking fees you can avoid for bounced checks or debit card purchases processed against insufficient funds in your checking account. So, here is how you set that solid foundation.

I’m a personal banker. Among other things I open checking and savings accounts for individuals and couples. A combination of these accounts is the most effective way to begin to build wealth over time. The checking account is what you live on. The savings account is what you build on to use for a rainy day.

The checking account is used to write checks to pay bills and make purchases. You can also use your debit card for daily living – shopping and gas for instance – and for online purchases or online bill paying. Your checking account can even be used to automate your financial life. Use it to direct deposit your check from work. Then automatically transfer a set amount to your savings account a day or two after your check is deposited. This will guarantee that your savings account grows consistently. Take advantage of technology to simplify basic transactions like this. It will save you a lot of time for the other important matters in life.

The savings account is used to accumulate savings – period! It is not to be touched unless an emergency arises or you’re making a significantly large purchase that you don’t want or need to buy on credit. (To paraphrase Dave Ramsey, avoid credit like the disease it is. Learn to save and pay by cash instead of going into debt). You can guarantee the growth in your savings buy automating the process as mentioned earlier. Just take yourself out of the picture so that you can’t make excuses for not getting to the bank on time or risk blowing your money on something frivolous.

As I said before, if your employer gives you the option, set it up so that your check is direct deposited into your checking account. Then designate a specific amount for your bank to automatically transfer to the savings account. Whenever the need arises for a major purchase or the unexpected emergency happens you can handle it either of two ways. One option is to transfer the necessary amount of cash from savings to checking and write the check for the expense. If your bank offers online banking, like most do these days, then make the transfer yourself. The other way is to have your bank issue you a bank/cashier check for the amount needed directly from your savings account. Again these are only options if you’ve developed the saving discipline in the first place.

Never go more than two days without balancing your check book. Whenever you make a deposit, withdrawal or purchase, whether online or in person, with your debit card or a check, write it down in your check register as soon as you make the transaction. Do your addition or subtraction right then to keep up with your running balance. Do not throw away your receipts or save them to write them later. You won’t remember to do it which means you won’t keep track of your balances and you’ll write a check or make a debit card purchase with money you don’t actually have. Then an avalanche of overdraft fees is sure to kick in.

Now, how does any of this save your family? By eliminating the number one reason for divorce - financial illiteracy by one or both spouses. Money problems are the main marriage killer. No - cheating is not it. Late bills and negative balances caused by reckless spending are the major culprits. So get it together and keep your home intact.

For single people I would encourage you to develop excellent fiscal habits now. It will prepare you to have a solid household in the future when you meet Mr. or Mrs. Right. Just in case you marry someone who can blow a $1,000.00 just as easily as $1.00 and thinks they have money just because they have checks, you will be the voice of reason that keeps the household in good monetary shape. Whatever your family situation may be currently or in the future, discipline yourself now to put in place the immediate life you desire and to structure your long term dreams.

I started the new year where I left off just before Thanksgiving. On January 9, 2007 I told the Talk of the Town Toastmasters club more about BLOGs. Take a gander at speech # 8.

When I first spoke to you about BLOGs I gave you an overview of what they are, how they work and how they are used. Have you been curious to know more about who actually uses them? Since that first speech I’ve done a lot more homework and I’ve discovered that they are becoming way more advanced and mainstream than I realized. So what’s the latest on BLOG’s?

Corporations from every industry have jumped on the bandwagon but they are still figuring out to make it a useful part of their business strategies.  In the mean time here are some examples of those who are making a foray into the blogosphere.

Dell Computers has a blog written by various managers directed at its customers. It’s used to talk about everything from product developments to customer service. Since they have a different writer each day as opposed to one consistent writer each article gets a mixed level of post response.

McDonalds has a corporate social responsibility blog written by Vice President Bob Langert who is responsible for those matters at the Golden Arches. It’s called Open for Discussion. He uses it as a forum to create dialogue about customer service with the public. He does most of the posting but he’ll have other people write an article from time to time. They don’t seem to have generated a huge number of responses but it’s an interesting attempt at a restaurant trying to interact with and respond to its public.

Bob Lutz, the Vice Chairman of General Motors has one that he uses to inform the public about business at the big car manufacturer. He covers everything from government emissions standards to the future of car design. He gets lots of responses to his posts. He allows a few of his general managers to write about the departments they are responsible for but they don’t get nearly the response that the chief does. On this blog everybody wants to hear from the big cheese. At this point at least, they’re not really interested in what his subordinates have to say.

Large organizations historically take forever to recognize the value of new innovations and even longer to adopt them. The major corporations were the last to the party in the 90’s to use the web for business purposes. This time around we’ll see how quickly they pick up on the winning strategy of blogging.

Bill Gates, the only corporate guy with any true sense of vision anymore, told his business cohorts to keep an eye out for the usefulness of blogging back in May of 2004. The title of an interview with the British Broadcasting Company says “Gates Backs Blogs for Business”. He said they were a good way to keep customers, staff and partners updated on what they were doing. At that time more than 700 Microsoft employees were keeping coworkers up to date on their projects via blogs. At latest count more than 7000 Microsoft employees now have blogs. The reason Gates favors them over e-mail and regular websites is that blog visitors can be regularly updated on new postings via Really Simple Syndication or RSS. It’s a system that automatically sends your latest article to your list of e-mail subscribers as soon as you upload it to your blog.

Sports fans have created a huge presence for themselves on the blogosphere. If you’re a college football or basketball fan your favorite team has a blog. If you like UCLA you can go to Bruins Nation and there’s a thread on their athletic scene that you can respond to. Swamp Ball is the unofficial Florida Gators BLOG. There will be tons of traffic about the national championship game for weeks to come. If you’re gearing up for spring training in February and March then you can probably find your favorite Major League Baseball team’s blog. Camden Chat, named for Baltimore’s stadium, Camden Yards, is keeping fans up to date on how the Orioles are preparing for the 2007 season. Lone Star Ball will keep you posted on how their American League counter part, the Texas Rangers, is planning on competing in the new year. There are a handful of NBA teams with blogs too. Surprisingly there weren’t any NFL teams on that particular list that I reviewed but I’m sure they exist. Professional football fans are every bit as fanatical as collegiate fans.

The most successful blogs by far have been those of freelance writers and bloggers with their entrepreneurial postings. They have driven the growth of blogging by developing a following of loyal readers. Over time they have developed a serious income from the advertising on their sites, e-newsletter subscriptions and publishing e-books. There are three in particular that I read on a regular basis.

Darren Rouse is the creator of Problogger. He writes about subjects that interest him and receives comments from all over the world. His varied interests have developed into niches. This has led him to create other multiple blogs that focus on those unique categories of interest. He uses advertising and affiliate sales to create a salary for himself so that he can be a full time blogger.

Another one I like is Copyblogger authored by Brian Clark. He refers to himself as a serial entrepreneur who bets his money on writing everyday. Clark gives copywriting tips and allows commenters to share ideas as well.

And Angela Booth is a long time freelance copywriter turned world famous

blogger. She’s the author of Blogging for Dollars. She writes e-books on how to create and maintain a successful blog. She also writes in general on to how to become a successful freelance blogger.

We as a club may want to consider having one for our group. At this point we would be serious pioneers when it comes to a quality, value creating blog presence.  I’ve only found one District web site that really impresses me though, District 71 covering the United Kingdom and Ireland. It covers each of their divisions and areas but it doesn’t have a blog. Two that are outright blogs is the Brighton and Hove Speakers Club in East Sussex, England and the Mohawk Toastmaster club from Canada. The English club is getting a few responses but they can work on their marketing to increase traffic to their site. The Canadians don’t seem to be marketing theirs very well because they get almost no responses from their postings but they do upload articles on a regular basis.

For our sake to get started we’d need to get e-mail addresses from other clubs and link our site to the District 77 web page. However, if it’s something the club wants to do we would have to assign someone to give it the necessary attention it will require to develop and maintain.

To close I have a couple of questions for you. Do you now see the value and versatility of blogs? Can you imagine the many ways you can use them? Time Magazine called You the Person of the Year. So, now is the time for you to get on board with the first great innovation of the 21^st century and be a part of history in the making.

On November 14, 2006 I took the opportunity in speech # 7 to introduce my Toastmasters club to blogging. The learning objective was to "Research Your Project" and give a 5-7 minute speech. Take a look. I think you'll like it.

Have you guys seen my new BLOG? “New what?” you say? My new BLOG. It will be online very soon. O.K., let me explain what it is. A BLOG is a personal note book on the internet. You write and upload your thoughts and opinions to a website and you invite others to register and respond to your comments. It’s an online community of common interest and I’m using mine to talk about things that interest me. According to my web master, the actual word is weblog. It comes from the early days of the internet when news would post to the net at regular intervals. It’s been shortened over the years to just “blog”. Well yours truly is about to become the next blogger.

Are you wondering how I heard about BLOGs? In the news mostly. Financial experts, athletes and news anchors all have them. In fact if you watch channel 12 news in the morning you’ll hear Tanya Terry talk about her BLOG whenever she’s going to start a new book club or speak at an event. She gives her views on the event afterwards and keeps you posted on what you missed at the last book club meeting. People as diverse as political junkies, activists and college alumni associations have put them to good use, as well. One of our fellow Toastmasters, Eric Feng from Singapore, was featured in this month’s magazine. He has a pretty good one too. There are even Catholic nuns with BLOGs who tell you about their calling as a recruiting tool for the convent. So I figured that it would be fun to have one of my own just to see if I could develop a following.

So, what am I actually doing with it? What is my BLOG about? MartyBLOG is going to cover a variety of topics. I’m going to talk about basic finance like knowing the difference between and the purpose for a checking account and a savings account and how they work together. When it comes to spiritual matters I might share some thoughts that we discussed in our Sunday school class. Or maybe I’ll share the key learning points for me from the sermon on a given Sunday morning. I’ll spend a few days in the political realm discussing upcoming or past elections. I’ll also write about changes in voting trends and electoral demographics around the country. And naturally we’re going to talk about the Boy Scouts of America. It helped to make me who I am today and it’s still doing the same thing for young boys in this day and time and I am going to brag about the organization to the world. I’ll devote some time and some web page links to Toastmasters of course and as my speaking career takes off we’ll veer it in that direction to chronicle my development in that realm. I’m also going to cover the variety of duties and business opportunities of the notary public office in future articles. There’s bound to be something else noteworthy that tickles my fancy and I’ll write about that too and invite the world to write back and tell me what they think.

My web developer is already working out a design as I speak. This thing is going to have some sweet features but it’s not going to be a gauche operation. Besides the written content we’re looking at how to turn it into a money making venture sooner or later. The key is to create traffic to the website. While we create traffic or hits on the site we’re also looking at ways to attract advertisers who will want to attach their banner to the site once we blow up and become the hottest new thing on Google.

There is a strategy for making that work effectively too. We have to submit the site to a bunch of search engines so that it comes up on people’s search lists on a regular basis. Google and Dogpile are the obvious choices but there are others too. We’re also looking at a subscriber only e-mail newsletter with an online bill pay and shopping cart feature. Which reminds me, I need to start working on my MartyBLOG t-shirt and baseball caps. We’ll have an archive so people can go back and see what they missed or read an article a second time that piqued their interest the first time they read it. There’s also a feature that will notify subscribers automatically when I post a new article.

Now for some obvious questions. How do you find my BLOG? Easy, go to www.martinlindsey.com . While it’s still under construction you may just find a generic “coming soon” page for the time being but that is the address. So, how did I get my own dot-com? I just beat all the other Martin Lindseys in the world to the punch. I bought my domain name about two years ago just in case I came up with some great web site or web application that I could really sink my teeth into and along came BLOGs. I’ve always enjoyed writing and I’ve always had an opinion so this is perfect for me. It’s like having my own newspaper with no bosses. I’m the founder, publisher and editor. You guys really should go online and buy the dot-com version of your names too, again, just in case. See if it’s available for cheap now so you don’t have to pay a fortune to buy it off of somebody else later.

As you can see I am completely engrossed and impassioned by my first real foray into the internet. And there are definite possibilities with this thing so if you have any suggestions for improvement after you check it out I’m all ears. I’ll be welcoming you to a new viewpoint on some of the practical matters that affect everyone in a matter of days. When we get up and running, stay tuned for regular posts. Most importantly chime in with your questions and opinions and I will see you online, very soon.

Whoops again. I misspoke on the date of that last one. Speech # 6 was actually on October 24th of 2006. Number 7 is coming up next and guess what it's about?