Has Your Mortgage Set You Up to Fail?

I just read a startling statistic about risky loans today, and since it may affect you, I wanted to put this out there immediately. Here's what it is about.

According to a poll I read recently, 1 out of 3 homeowners have no idea what kind of loan they have. Under better market conditions, that might be okay. But in the current market where it is predicted that over 2 million homeowners will lose their home due to sudden, unexpected and devastating increases in their mortgage payments, it's imperative you know exactly what kind of loan you have, and even more importantly, when and if your loan will recast and/or go up.

I've set aside time on my calendar over the next two weeks to help homeowners like yourself find out the important details on their loans and to provide the advice they need to determine whether a decision should be made and, if so, help them make the wisest decision possible.

I'd be happy to meet with you and conduct a complete Equity Review of your home and your loan, FREE OF CHARGE. Call me at 888-583-2808.

Beth Riegger
Sr Mortgage Advisor
Keys 2 Success

Examples of SendOutCards

Our Deepest Fear is our Greatest Opportunity

I was fortunate enough to find this peice by Kody Bateman, the founder of SendOutCards and I'd like to share it with you.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela gave his Inaugural speech and delivered to the world a message, a message that may go down in history as one of the greatest gifts of expression. His message has turned into one of the most used quotes in motivational speeches around the world. I would like to share his priceless message with you:

Our Deepest Fear

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world; there is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people wont feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's in everyone! As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Nelson Mandela

The first several times I read this quote, I did not fully understand its meaning. In fact, I found myself asking how can I fear my power and light more than my inadequacies and darkness? I am excited about my gifts, my talents and what I have to offer the world. How could I possibly fear them? I have processed this thought many times through. My answers have come and I have gained a deep sense of appreciation for Mr. Mandela for the deep wisdom and the high energy that resonates from his words.

This is what I have learned:

First of all, I am fortunate to have discovered my gifts. I have an understanding of what I have to offer and I am excited to offer it. Over 85% of our worlds population does not share this good fortune. They knew their gifts at birth but their world clouded their vision of those gifts over time. They often get glimpses of those gifts and they immediately cloud those glimpses with doubt and fear. They fear their gifts because their doubts tell them they will never obtain them. In fact, it becomes their greatest fear because their inner self lets them know that these gifts are their birthright while the outside world says they cant have those gifts or they don't deserve them.

I thought for a while that this was the complete answer but I learned that there was even a deeper meaning to it. I learned that this lesson does not just apply to the 85% that have not fully envisioned their gifts. It also applies to the 15% that know and share their gifts everyday. I learned that, even though I celebrate my power and light by sharing it, I still have a fear of it.
You see, I have been fortunate to manifest life long dreams into reality. I have experienced some success and I believe that I am making a difference in the world. I am currently living a dream and I enjoy the amazing positive energy that comes from that. I have found, that with that energy, new dreams emerge, new goals are written, new possibilities have been created. They are all at a higher level. A new chapter is being written for me; a new step on the ladder has been reached. The view changes the higher you go. I know that the power and light that has been given to me can accomplish much greater things than I could have ever imagined even five years ago. With that knowledge, I have a responsibility to deliver what the universe has entrusted to me. The same fear and doubt sets in; a fear that I might stumble or disappoint; a fear that I might not deliver; a fear that I might not be deserving of this new level of greatness. I have learned that, as before in my life, I must walk through those fears and stake claim on the greatness I have to offer. To realize I have weakness but I will do it anyway. To know that if I simply celebrate the strengths and gifts in others, the universe will celebrate the strengths and gifts in me. And, with that celebration I will overcome the inadequacies, the darkness, the doubt and the fear that tries so hard to hold us all back.

I am fortunate to be in a position where I can watch thousands of other people experiencing this same journey. Every person reading these words is on that journey and you are heading in the right direction. We are all at different levels. Some have small glimpses of their greatness. Others have a clearer vision. SendOutCards gives us an atmosphere and a daily mechanism that will help us bring our greatness into view. We have the opportunity to celebrate another persons greatness every time we send a card. With that celebration, the universe celebrates our greatness and takes us to a new level.

The key is to keep on going. Be consistent with your card sending. Your promptings will guide you to your greatness within and they will prepare you for each new level you reach. We are all destined for greatness. We are all powerful beyond measure. We are all brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous. We were all born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

Kody Bateman

Thank you so much Kody for your wonderful insights and words of wisdom. You truly show us the way!!

Beth Riegger

Keys 2 Success
Send Out Cards

www.freegreetingcardsonline.info

Tennessee Drag Racing Crash

My husband and his father have been drag racing together for years and it’s brought them a lot of joy. It gives them a lot of opportunity to spend time together doing something fun and active. They have to drive pretty far as there are not a lot of strips in Minnesota so they get to spend a lot of time on the road together as well. Being that my husband is so into this, I am as well!! So, anytime there’s something on the news about drag racing, my ears always perk up. This is a picture of their current dragster.

Last night as I was watching the news, there was a piece on a charity event down in Selmer, Tennessee called Cars for Kids that went tragically wrong. This town has been doing this event for 18 years and it always ends with the drivers doing a burn out. The true reason drag racers do this is that is actually lays warm rubber across the starting line to give the racer some added traction. There has never been an accident at their show until this year when pro drag racing driver Troy Critchley lost control of his car and six by-standers lost their lives. The accident also injured at least 20 other people including a 5-year old boy.

Thankfully, there are no criminal charges being brought against this driver. This is just such a sad situation. It certainly wasn’t his fault, but I’m sure he’s going to blame himself for this accident for the rest of his life. There was a small stretch of guard rail where he started, but it didn’t stretch the entire length of where ended up driving his car. One by-stander said that even if there had been a guard rail for the entire stretch, it wouldn’t have mattered. I happen to agree. There’s a reason at the race track that the guard rails are made of cement.

Also on the driver’s behalf, several different news agencies reported that he has an immaculate safety record. His former race team boss from Australia even said that you just don’t get to where he’s gotten without the respecting safety, I have to agree with him. He has more than 20 years of drag racing experience both in Australia where he got his start and here in the US. This is a picture of his car before the accident.

It seems that he was only supposed to go about 50 feet but he ended up going much further than that. The car must have gotten away from him. I read a few forums where drag racers were talking about the tragedy and they seem to think that the car did get away from him, he got off the gas, he tried to correct it and then got back on the gas again which is when it plowed into the crowd. The pro-mod cars (which is what Troy was driving) are among the most unpredictable drag racing vehicles on a smooth and level racing surface that has been specially prepared with racing compounds. Troy was on a city street, it was sloped and I’m sure had no traction at all.

Many of the articles that I read all stated that the engine was heard to be revving loudly before taking off. Hmm, I guess they weren’t listening to the other cars? This is what they do!! When doing a burn out, the driver revs the engine up, spins the tires and then lets go so they go a little ways down the track.

I guess the biggest thing I wanted to share was that we should all remember everyone down in Tennessee today, including the driver. They were trying to do something good and it ended horribly wrong. Drag racing is an awesome sport, especially in the correct environment, on a proper race track.

Beth Riegger
Keys 2 Success
Send Out Cards

Have you said thank you to anyone lately?

I just wanted to share this cool video with you, THANK YOU for watching:)

Monitoring Children's Computer Activites

Do you read your myspace bulletins? I do about once a week. I get so many. This one lady must send me about 5 a day. Today happened to be a day that I actually read my bulletins. One of this gal's bulletins caught my eye and I read it. I wish I hadn't but I'm glad I did because my son will soon be typing away on the computer and as a parent, we need to know what's going on with our kids.

This article is not for the weak, it's disgusting what this boy did, if you want to read it, click here.

I don't want this blog to become a rampage about what this boy did but rather a warning for parents and people in general that when kids or people in general are crying out for help, we need to listen. We need to be good people and not just ignore warning signs and think it's someone else's problem or that you don't want to get involved. This is how Columbine happened, this is how Virginia Tech happened, this is how many tragedies happen.

I don't know about you but I'm going to hug my son tonight and have a little talk with him about appropriateness.

Beth Riegger
Keys 2 Success
Send Out Cards

Storm Warnings/Watches

I listen to the radio every morning as I’m getting ready for the day. I like to hear the DJ’s sounding off about this that or another thing and I often start my day by laughing!! Well, this morning, they must have had the weatherman from a local TV station on about every 15 minutes to warn us of a looming storm headed our way. It got me thinking that this is the start of storm season and I did some research on the various aspects of storms that I wanted to share with you all today.

Before I get started on the various aspects of things we should know about storms, I wanted to make sure to share with everyone in the Twin City Metro Area that this storm is supposed to hit us around noon today so please keep what ever methods you may have for tuning in the weather available. These storms are supposed to move fast so you need to be able to as well.

During my investigation on several sites this morning, I found out that severe thunderstorms kill more people each year than tornados! Just my humble opinion but I think it’s because we don’t think they are as bad as the weather service and the weathermen make them out to be so we are unprepared. Of the estimated 100,000 thunderstorms that occur over the US each year, only 10% are classified as severe!! I guess MN and our surrounding states must get them all!!

According to the National Weather Service, a severe thunderstorm is one that produces hail at least three-quarters of an inch in diameter, has winds of 58 mils per hour or more, or produces a tornado.

What the heck is the difference between a WATCH and a WARNING? This has plagued me since childhood and I don’t know about you, but I think we all need to know the difference!!

So…when the National Weather Service has issued a WATCH, it indicates that conditions favor the occurrence of a certain type of hazardous weather (thunderstorm, hail, tornado, etc). It also means that the storm could happen within the next six hours or so within an area approximately 120 to 150 miles wide.

When the National Weather Service issues a WARNING, it indicates that a hazardous event is occurring or is imminent in about 30 minutes to an hour. You are in danger of lightening if you can hear thunder. Many strong thunderstorms produce hail. Downbursts and straight-line winds associated with thunderstorms can produce winds 100 to 150 miles per hour! These are as bad as tornadoes, they can flip cars, vans and semitrucks.

What to do in these conditions?

• You need to postpone outdoor activities. Many people take shelter from the rain, but when a thunderstorm is coming, they continue their activities, this can be dangerous!
• If you see or hear a thunderstorm coming, go inside a sturdy building or car. Keep the car windows closed. Rubber-soled shoes and rubber tires provide no protection from lightening!! I always thought they did!!
• If you can’t get inside, or if you feel your hair stand on end (that means lightening is about to strike!!) get to a low, open space immediately. Crouch down on the balls of your feet, place your hands on your knees and lower your head. Make yourself the smallest target possible and minimize contact with the ground.
• Stay way from tall things like trees, towers, fences, telephone lines or powerlines, they attract lightening!!
• Turn off your air conditioner and TV, and stay off the phone until the storm is over. Lightening can cause electrical appliances to become dangerous during the storm.
• Stay way from running water inside the house. Electricity from lightening has been known to come inside through plumbing, are you kidding? I never knew this either??
• For tornados, it used to be advised to go to the SouthWest corner for safety, however it is now believed that it is no safer than any other corner. You need to be on the lowest level away from windows to be the safest, it doesn’t matter the direction of the corner.
• In case of tornados, close all windows as well.
• If you are driving during a tornado, is to go to a nearby sturdy building and go inside. Or, get out of the vehicle and lay down flat in a low spot on the ground not subject to flooding, protecting your head and neck. Flying debris can be blown under overpasses and bridges or the weaker ones can be destroyed all together.

Tornado Danger Signs:

• Dark, often greenish sky
• Wall cloud
• Large hail
• Cloud of debris
• Funnel cloud
• Roaring noise (often compared to the sound of a train)

The biggest thing of all is to just heed the warning put forth by the National Weather Service, they aren’t kidding around. Make a plan with your family and make sure they all know where the flash lights are kept and what to do in an emergency. Your kids schools and daycares run fire and tornado drills, why don’t we at home?

I hope that you have found this information helpful and I hope you all stay safe this summerJ

Beth Riegger
Keys 2 Success
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Giving to Improve Brain Power?

I just came back from a seminar this weekend where they talked a lot about giving and giving to give not giving to receive. I found that this article by Simon really touched on this point. It seems like a lot of rich people have the same philosophies, things that make you go hmmmm.

Can Giving Improve your Brain?
By Simon Evans

Altruism, the act of giving unselfishly, is an enigma to neuroscience. The theory of evolution says that organisms will behave in a way to ensure their own survival and that of their offspring. So how did altruistic behavior come to be? Is it beneficial to the giver?

Giving Activates Brain Circuits

Some interesting recent research begins to unveil pieces of the puzzle. When neuroscientist monitor the brains of people either giving or getting there are some commonalities. Especially in a part of the brain that helps control pleasure and survival behaviors like the search for food or sex.

It seems that both giving and getting activate pleasure centers. This gives immediate gratification to altruistic behavior. However, these brain regions also exist in animals where they are responsible for similar survival behaviors and animals aren't typically altruistic so there must be something more.

Now, new data shows that givers, but not getters, involve a couple other brain regions in the cerebral cortex. These regions are only well developed in humans and are involved in higher levels of thinking and processing information.

You can interpret this in lots of ways. One way is to see altruistic behavior as more driven by higher thoughtfulness, and getting behaviors driven more by animal-like desires. This is not to difficult to grasp, but let's dig a little deeper.

Use It or Lose It

We know that the brain is constantly remodeling itself. Brain circuits that get used a lot strengthen and develop while those that don't get used a lot wither and fade. This is one-way that behaviors get entrenched into habits.

So think about that in the context of altruism. The act of giving might actually strengthen certain brain circuits in regions that are involved in higher levels of thinking, especially those that control social interactions. This can be adaptive to you by improving parts of your brain that control higher thinking and your ability to work with other people.

The basis of many religious and secular philosophies is to give before you get. Zig Ziglar, one of the grandfathers of personal development said ‘help enough people get what they want and you can have everything that you want'. Now, Zig and others are not saying you should be altruistic for the purpose of getting stuff in return – but it just always seems to work out this way.

Science Catches up to Wisdom

Perhaps the recent work in neuroscience is beginning to explain why this is true. The act of giving may actually improve your skills to work productively with other people, which is the best way to enhance your own life as well.

Looking at that another way, if you are always looking to receive you are thinking very short term (animal-like survival) in your behavior. Whereas, if you are always willing to give and help, you are thinking long term, even if you don't realize it at the time. This would explain how altruistic behavior can get improve your odds of surviving and passing your genes to the next generation – which is the driving force behind evolutionary theory.

It doesn't matter whether you subscribe to the theory of evolution or creationism or something in between. The bottom line is that altruistic behavior my actually improve the most ‘human' parts of your brain and make you a higher functioning person.

It always amazes me when 21st century science catches up to age-old wisdom.

Copyright (c) 2007 The Brain Code LLC

Master Brain Fitness techniques for you and your family. The Brain Code is the key to unlock your maximum potential. Dr. Simon Evans puts together the right ingredients in right amount to create the recipe for success. Visit http://www.thebraincode.com for FREE Brain Fitness resources.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Simon_Evans
http://EzineArticles.com/?Can-Giving-Improve-your-Brain?&id=587954

Wow, thanks Simon, I can’t believe that being a giver actually helps improve your brain!!

Beth Riegger
Keys 2 Success
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Park City, Utah Wedding

So, for my blog today, I thought I would share something personal about myself. I went to Park City, UT for my cousin's wedding this last weekend. I was so much fun!! I flew out with my parents and my Grandmother.

My husband was racing with his father and our son stayed with my husband's mother. Our son had a wonderful time and my husband all most won a Wally!!

We met my sister, her husband and their son when we got there. We stayed at the Canyon's resort and WOW, was it beautiful!! I wish they would pay me to talk aobut their resort because it was amazing!!

She got married to a wonderful man named Wade and the church that they got married in had huge windows in the front of the sanctuary. You could actually see the Olympic Ski Jump!! CRAZY!! Wade used to be on the Olympic ski team so there were many famous skiiers in attendence. They were all very nice.

We got back late Tuesday night and I feel like I've been swimming up stream ever since trying to catch up but I thought I'd share a photo of us cousins at the wedding.

I love weddings. I asked my husband if we could get married again and for some reason he said no???

Beth Riegger
Keys 2 Success