Ottawa has toughened on some mortgage rules! or has it?
This all depends on who you talk to. If you talk to the general consumer who just read Flaherty’s announcement it can be a little scary (it’s had my phone ringing with inquiries to try and beat the new rules.)
Personally I think the new “tightening” will be great.
1. all mortgages qualified on the 5 year rate
There still hasn’t been an announcement if it will be a lenders posted or discounted rate…when I know, you’ll know!
Currently regardless of the term you choose a lender will qualify you based on a 3 yr or 5 year rate. So in the end qualification will really only change by 0.50% to 1% difference and this makes a small difference in the household income needed to qualify, to the tune of approximately $8,000.
This does not effect those who currently have an insured mortgage (greater than 80% loan to value) If you choose to refinance in the future and want to extend the amortization you may be affected. Speaking with an Accredited Mortgage Professional is your best way to get your questions answered in this case.
Simply, the intended purpose of the new qualification guideline is to prepare Canadians for higher interest rates and to guard against the temptation to overextend oneself simply because today’s mortgage interest rates are so low.
| Article Tags :: accredited mortgage professional | amortization | canadians | household income | inquiries | insured mortgage | lenders | mortgage interest rates | mortgages | ottawa | temptation | |
Pop Internet Psychology vs. Professional Psychometric Testing Posted on Friday February 12th 2010 Filed under: Business By synspire, I have written 6 posts - Click here to visit my Website |
Depending on the search engine you use you can find nearly a million websites that will provide you with a plethora of information about personality assessment or psychometric testing instruments. You will find everything from opinion blogs like mine with links to professional and scientifically based personality assessment instruments to pop internet psychology websites that promote unsubstantiated and unproductive, albeit entertaining tools, that have no real application in the real world of business where they “are shooting real bullets” so to speak.
In fact, there are so many different assessment instruments on the market that cater to every possible application, you can only begin to imagine how difficult it must be for business owners, executives, and HR managers with a genuine need, to make a decision about what personality assessment instrument to use.
A full 80% of the sales conversations I have with prospective clients require me to overcome objections, not about my qualifications, the terms of our service, or the price of our product, but rather whether or not our personality assessment instrument reflects in anyway the last one they used! In my opinion this is a reflection of what I call “pop internet psychology” clouding the minds of my prospective clients.
· How can you identify the genuine article in a sea of counterfeit?
· Why should you care?
The reality is that professional personality assessment instruments are without a doubt one of the greatest under-utilized tools in the modern world of business and yet they present the highest rate of ROI dollar for dollar, comparatively speaking, to any other business strategy available. Let’s face it, without the right people, in the right place, at the right time, doing the right things; your business is just an idea that might work if only you could find the people.
If you are a business owner, executive, or a HR manager you should care about finding a professionally facilitated personality assessment program for one simple reason:
If your competitor beats you to the punch, so to speak, you will not only experience the great immeasurable loss of future potential disappearing, you will also experience the very measurable occurrence of progressively decreasing revenue over time.
Choosing a psychometric testing instrument is not that difficult if you follow a few simple rules.
1. The instrument must have the scientific documentation available to validate its methodology. If there is hesitation from the facilitator to provide this documentation then you have to question how scientific the instrument really is.
2. The instrument must be very easy for the business owner, executive, or HR manager to use. If the instrument only provides pages and pages of documentation you have to question whether you will actually use the information actively in your ongoing HR initiatives.
3. The facilitators must provide expert interpretation every time the instrument is used. This is where the pros leave everyone else behind. The reality is that the learning curve is so steep most facilitators shy away from having consultants provide expert interpretation because it is more cost effective to build an interactive online product that spews out page after page of information than it is to actually work with each individual client on a case by case basis.
The old adage “BUYER BEWARE” is so applicable when considering personality assessment instruments. That being said you can’t afford to ignore what can be accomplished when you employ a personality assessment program in your business.
FYI – The second most common hurdle I experience after overcoming a prospective clients previously bad experience with a competitive assessment instrument is failure on the part of the business owner, executive, or HR manager to implement the necessary changes. It is ironic that they gain a deeper insight into what motivates their people, what is required to achieve levels of high performance as an organization, and yet they choose not to change their own behaviour ultimately ham-stringing the entire process.
Until next time good health, good business, and good day!
| Article Tags :: Business | employee testing | executive | hr manager | owner | personality assessment | psychology | psychometric testing | |
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Are you a “HYPER-Parent”? by @CoachStan Posted on Monday February 08th 2010 Filed under: Family By CoachStan, I have written 100 posts - Click here to visit my Website |
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As a parent do you do one or more of the following things with your kid(s)?
-Always worry about giving your kids an edge?
-Compete to get your kids into the best playschool, kindergarten or grade school.
-Intervene when the kids rough-house with each other.
-Get involved with their university courses, grades, professors or dorms.
-Get involved with your kid’s workplace or bosses.
-Expect weekly or more frequent updates from your kids in college or university.
-Constantly shuttle your kids from one activity to another be it dance, music, soccer, etc.
-Constantly have your kids in activities controlled or supervised by adults.
-Constantly pushing your kids and their teachers for your kids to do better (even if they are straight A students)
-Constantly worried about the safety and well being of their kids.
If any of these apply to you then you are likely a hyper parent. Although you are parenting from a place of love, studies show that you are likely doing your children harm. The way Baby Boomers and Gen X’s are bringing up or have brought up their kids has turned into a social experiment that may have dire consequences. At a very minimum these kids have trouble making decisions on their own, many are highly stressed and their sense of entitlement makes it difficult for them to fit into the mainstream of society.
I recently watched a show on CBC TV in the “DOC Zone” series called “Hyper Parents & Coddled Kids”. I find what they have identified in today’s parenting practices to be disturbing. I think every parent and every person in a position of influence or authority over the youth of today show must watch this program and then consider their own actions and values about their influence over children. The show can be found on CBC TV in the Doc Zone series at http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Doc_Zone/ID=1405930535
| Article Tags :: Academic | Grades | Kidnapping | Kids | Kindergarten | parenting | parents | play | Playing | school | stress | university | |
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Is Society in trouble because we are too busy to care? How will this affect the 2010 Vancouver Olympics? Posted on Thursday February 04th 2010 Filed under: The Rant By BC Business Network, I have written 415 posts - Click here to visit my Website |
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Seriously, today I discovered what we have become as a society and it disturbed me. Let me tell you about my day.
This morning started as a high energy day as it should when I attend the White Rock ‘N’ Rollers ThinkReferrals Chapter meeting. Great people, Great discussions, and a fantastic breakfast. I had to rush off right away so I could get down town to the Supreme Court where our FightHST group was having a press conference to talk about our next step in stopping this Horrific Sales Tax being forced on us by Gordon Campbell’s Liberals. I will post the info later today at www.fighthst.com.
As I was leaving, I had to walk down the sidewalk to the main entrance of the Court House to get to my car, everyone else went the other way so I was walking by myself and the other dozens of people using this busy sidewalk as well. That sidewalk is a serious health hazard as I will attest to here and now. I was walking at a normal pace and sure enough I hit an uneven part and I heard a very loud snap from my right ankle and I was down and out. Many foul words went through my mind but not out of my mouth as I lay there in agony. Instant swelling and instant massive pain.
 Ouch, this can't be good . . . |
A grown man in a suit laying on the side of the sidewalk in obvious pain, should cause some concern, if I saw this I would most certainly offer assistance. That never happened, as the people were traveling by looking at me, not one person asked if I was ok or if I needed help, 4 people without a word of concern for my situation offered their names and addresses as witnesses for when I file my lawsuit.
I have NEVER been so disappointed in Society as I was that very moment when I realized that someone in obvious pain and distress could get help suing the city before a kind hand up or an offer to call for help.
To make it really sink home, I pulled myself up and hopped to the courts where I was bumped into and pushed many times on my way to the elevator until I made it to my car and drove myself out of Vancouver and back home to Surrey, I have no interest in suing the City or chasing after any money since this willonly inconvenience me for a few weeks and not permanently change my life, I sure would have appreciated a bit of a hand getting back to my car though.
I have a very bad feeling that the loud noise that I heard coming from my ankle may be a bit worse than a sprain but I can’t bring myself to hop to the car then deal with a trip to Emergency at the Hospital.
I wonder how long a walk I can take for my ThinkFitness Challenge goals on crutches?
Take my advice people, rethink everything. If your life is too busy to care about anything but your destination, you need to find a way to slow it down. Take a little time to see what is going on around you, take a little time to care what is going on around you. If someone needs help, for god sakes offer a simple hand up.
I am worried about what this will be like during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics when that main area is wall to wall people. How many people will have the same problem I had today.
| Article Tags :: agony | court house | dozens | elevator | foul words | Gordon Campbell | grown man | health hazard | high energy | hst | Liberals | main entrance | massive pain | names and addresses | pace | rollers | sales tax | serious health | sidewalk | snap | Tax Grab | vancouver | |
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2010 is Upon Us by: @CoachStan Posted on Wednesday February 03rd 2010 Filed under: Business By CoachStan, I have written 100 posts - Click here to visit my Website |
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A new decade is upon us and there is a lot happening in business and the world. We have had enough media hype about the economy. People are taking action to move their lives and businesses ahead. All the pundits will be suggesting you should be setting your goals for 2010 and then getting into action to make them happen. I would suggest all of us consider a different approach.
Take some time to reflect on what has happened in your business and your life in the past year. What were the challenges and what were the wins. Consider how you would like your business and your life to look in three months, 12 months and two years. From that, create written visions of your business and your life. Make sure your vision is bigger than you are and bigger than your business. Stretch yourself. Once you have created your visions then create your goals and a plan to achieve your goals. In your business be sure to include extra effort in sales and marketing to keep your business vibrant and strong. Build your natural skills. Delegate and find ways to have someone else provide the skills you fall short in. If you are starting a new business focus the majority of your effort on sales and marketing to give your business a healthy start.
It has been my experience and observation that when we have visions bigger than us, we achieve things bigger than we would have believed. From our visions we can then create flexible plans to bring those visions to fruition. Do not do it alone. If you are a business owner, executive, or solo-preneur find a mentor, coach or advisor to help you through 2010 and the next decade. Very few possess all the skills necessary to succeed big on our own.
For those that live in or around Vancouver, Whistler, and the 2010 Winter Olympics it is important to include plans to sustain and build your business during February and March when there will be disruptions to business, public access and traffic flow. Now is the time to be innovative in keeping, attracting and serving customers. Good Luck and have fun doing what you do. Enjoying the journey is an important part of the experience of life.
| Article Tags :: 12 months | 2010 winter olympics | business focus | business owner | business public | disruptions | flexible plans | fruition | media hype | mentor coach | new decade | public access | pundits | sales and marketing | starting a new business | three months | traffic flow | visions | whistler | winter olympics | |
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People Who Perform Poorly Posted on Saturday January 16th 2010 Filed under: Bad Business By synspire, I have written 6 posts - Click here to visit my Website |
Why do some people perform poorly at their jobs?
The key components of performance in every position are:
- Education
- Experience
- Skills
- Personality Traits
- Intelligence
The employee must have adequate levels of each of the five key components of high performance. Your recruiting and promoting systems should have identified what level each position requires of all five of these components. If you find that an employee is missing one of these five components then you must ask yourself some questions:
- Can the employee attain the necessary education?
- What ways can you help the employee to gain the required experience and skills?
- Can the role be adjusted to accommodate the employees inborn personality traits?
- How did someone without the required intelligence get the position in the first place?
What about when an employee with adequate levels of the five key components of high performance is performing poorly?
It is important that managers and business owners do not make judgements about the attitudes of their employees. All too often we hear people say things like “they have a bad attitude” or “they just don’t care” when in reality we have no way of knowing what the employee is feeling and thinking.
Ask yourself important questions about the apparent lack of performance:
- Does the employee know what high performance looks like?
- Are there any obstacles that are not in the control of the employee?
- Does the employee know what they are supposed to be doing and what “finished” looks like?
They may have all the necessary key components of high performance yet they may not realize that the current level of performance is unacceptable. Even if you have told them repeatedly that they are under performing do they know what they have to do to achieve high performance? For example just because a person is intelligent does not automatically mean they know how to do something effectively.
It may seem basic and like you shouldn’t have to articulate to that level of detail but the reality is you get paid for what your people do and so you must make sure that every obstacle is removed. Never allow a situation where “finished” can only be recognized by you the manager or owner. Training is often the answer that managers and business owners jump to as the solution to poor performance. Until next time good health, good business, and good day!
| Article Tags :: adequate levels | apparent lack | attitudes | bad attitude | business owners | education | education experience | Experience | high performance | intelligence | jobs | judgements | necessary education | obstacles | performance | personality assessment | personality traits | Skills | |
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