Finding Motivation at Work

Did you ever stumble into work, Monday morning, in a sleepy kind of groggy state of mind? You sit there thinking about your relaxing weekend with five straight days of the office grind staring you in the face?

Does your boss or manager motivate or inspire you to achieve your personal best, or the opposite? How do you keep your engagement up and your professional goals on track?

Take a look at these tips to stir up the motivation within you:

1. Begin your day with a positive thought. Set one positive goal for the day to motivate you toward success.
2. Get clear on the end goal. Think about why you do what you do.
3. Make learning your goal. Accept that no one is perfect and mistakes are an opportunity for learning. Move away from results-oriented thinking and focus on the overall learning.
4. When you feel better physically, you work better and stay motivated. Exercise regularly, and eat healthy. 
5. Expand your knowledge base by reading new books – books that can help you with new ideas which get your mental gears turning and can spark motivation. 
6. Maintain a positive outlook about your current job. Avoid negative discussions at work, so you remove doubt for even being there.
7. ...Finally… Take pride in your accomplishments. When you are parked for 7+ hours per day at work, it becomes pretty clear that this is an important part of your day and your life? Treat your job, whatever it may be, with pride and witness your motivation & your success soar! Even if what you do is not your ideal job, there is a reason why you are doing it…focus on that reason, and while you are at it, might as well make it a joyful, pleasant experience.  Keep in mind, you always can explore a multitude of options to change your life while being positive in your current situation.

Thoughts from a Mortgage Genius: PENNY-WISE AND DOLLAR FOOLISH JUST DOESN'T MEAN MO...

Thoughts from a Mortgage Genius: PENNY-WISE AND DOLLAR FOOLISH JUST DOESN'T MEAN MO...: Penny-wise and dollar foolish  just doesn't mean money I recently had a long discussion with a friend about having to provide for...

PENNY-WISE AND DOLLAR FOOLISH JUST DOESN'T MEAN MONEY

Penny-wise and dollar foolish 

just doesn't mean money

I recently had a long discussion with a friend about having to provide for our families and the amount of money we need to earn in order to sustain ourselves and provide for our families. The conversation then turned to attending our children's programs in school during working hours.

It took me a long time to be able to distinguish between what's really important and what is secondarily important. I never thought that I would leave work in the middle of the day to be in my preschooler’s graduation into kindergarten.

Yet I do.

I never thought that I would spend the early morning listening to my daughter’s presentation instead of being at work,

yet I go.

I never thought that I would derail my disciplined and organized schedule of production in order to drive my son to school so that he doesn't have to carry a project that he worked so hard on, that might have gotten ruined on the bus,

yet I did. 

I'm not patting myself on the back for doing these things that for right now my kids take for granted and hopefully years from now will appreciate - for I do these things out of love for them.

As a mortgage professional we have to generate deal flow for as they say "we reap what we sow."

It takes a lot of thinking and managing stress in order to mitigate the "making a living - worry" and a conscientious effort to put family in the forefront in terms of our personal and/or business time.  Sometimes we rationalize to ourselves that we have to make money for them and that money is important to buy them what they need.

We know that money is important for their future so we can pay for the school that they may attend, so that we can retire in comfort and not be a burden to our children. I will not deny, that practically speaking I always think about this, rumination is the term, and it is not easy to subjugate those thoughts. I know many times I should be in my office producing so I can pay the bills and sleep at night. Then all of a sudden I get ready to leave the house and my four-year-old turns and says to me "can you come to see me in my play daddy?"

What can I do? My practical thoughts disappear and my unbounding love for my child surfaces and I say to myself "What will he remember - that I closed another mortgage deal or that I was at his play?” (He may remember that I didn't close another mortgage deal if I can't buy him what he wants!).

I am not the Carl Guzman I used to know and love - the analytical careful calculator brain able to make practical intelligent bottom line monetary decisions. I have become dollar foolish so to speak, but in the context of family I have learned it's better than being "penny wise." 

No cause for real panic ... just a possible slight inconvenience

Will the New Mortgage Disclosures Delay My Closing?

The answer is NO for just about everybody.

For mortgage applications submitted on or after August 1, 2015, lenders must give you new, easier-to-use disclosures about your loan three business days before closing.  This gives you time to review the terms of the deal before you get to the closing table.

Many things can change in the days leading up to a closing.  Most changes will not require your lender to give you three more business days to review the new terms before closing.  The new rule allows for ordinary changes that do not alter the basic terms of the deal.

Only THREE changes require a new 3-day review:

1. The APR (annual percentage rate) increases by more than 1/8 of a percent for fixed-rate loans or 1/4 of a percent for adjustable loans. (Lenders have been required to provide a 3-day review for these changes in APR since 2009.)  A decrease in APR will not require a new 3-day review if it is based on changes to interest rate or other fees.
2. A prepayment penalty is added, making it expensive to refinance or sell.
3. The basic loan product changes, such as a switch from a fixed-rate to adjustable interest rate or to a loan with interest-only payments.

NO OTHER changes require a new 3-day review:

There has been much misinformation and mistaken commentary around this point.  Any other changes in the days leading up to closing do not require a new 3-day review, although the lender will still have to provide an updated disclosure.

For example, the following circumstances do not require a new 3-day review:

• Unexpected discoveries on a walk-through such as a broken refrigerator or a missing stove, even if they require seller credits to the buyer.
• Most changes to payments made at closing, including the amount of the real estate commission, taxes and utilities proration, and the amount paid into escrow.
• Typos found at the closing table.