The Best of the First Quarter: A Pro Borrower’s Beginning

Image by TheTruthAbout... via Flickr

I’m amazed that I’ve been posting twice a week for the last 3 months. Time flies when you’re sharing experiences as a professional borrower. My goal is to get to 104 posts and then evaluate the future of this blog. So far I’ve had what I would consider decent readership and, thanks Brent, one subscriber. To celebrate the first 25-post milestone, here is a list of the top posts for the personal borrower. My next post will have the best of business borrowing posts.

My very first post, like a puppy’s birth, will always be a great memory. I wrote about me! In this post you’ll find a ton of information about who I am and what makes me qualified to write about borrowing money.

I tied my experience as an army helicopter pilot to the dynamics of borrowing money in a few posts. I first wrote about my flight training and how landing a helicopter is similar to repaying your loan.

I later wrote about the effects of power and status on decision-making and borrowing strategy. The effects are similar to a pilot that suffers from oxygen deprivation at altitude.

I blogged about one of my favorite pastimes, hiking, and how our legacy as a borrower and financial manager is impacted by the decisions we make along life’s pathway. After we are gone, someone will have to walk in our financial “hiking boots.” How will they find the fit? This is a very “zen” kind of post and one of the most read on my blog.

And I spent quite a bit of white space discussing one of the most timely and hotly debated topics, home ownership and mortgages. I discussed everything from prepaying your mortgage, the truth about mortgages, housing as an investment (NOT!) and the history of the American dream. I summarized the entire subject with links to the actual posts in my Mortgage Rewind post.

I would very much appreciate your feedback on my writing style, content or subjects; please give back by leaving a comment. How can I make this a better borrowing blog for you, the business or consumer borrower?

46 Things You Need to Know About Credit and Financing Before You Apply for a Home Loan (creditscore.net)
The Truth About Payday Loans APR (mydecorarticles.com)
Personal Finance: Rates are low, so why is refinancing so hard? (reuters.com)
Should you borrow from a 401(k) to support your home? (hsh.com)
Interest-only mortgages will “effectively vanish” (telegraph.co.uk)

About Michael Shelton

Your Business Coach Facilitating Delegation and Work Group Engagement Michael Shelton has over twenty-five years of business and military accomplishments, including extensive experience with one of the largest, publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REIT). He is a qualified business coach with assignments in cross-functional work group management, strategic planning, unit leadership, joint venture acquisitions, executive education, mentoring, training and merger integration. Michael has accumulated best practices for building committed work groups from more than $4 billion of capital markets transactions and commercial property development. He served as a commissioned officer and helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army, and earned his MBA from The University of Arizona. Michael has served as a major conference panelist and is the author of Cash Flow Rich, Winning Ways to Evaluate and Finance Real Estate. Today, he helps business owners get more work group engagement as President and CEO of Shelton Business Services, LLC in Scottsdale, Arizona. Disclaimer: I don't offer investment, legal or tax advice. Talk to your broker, accountant or lawyer for investment, tax and legal help. I might own stock in the companies I mention on-line. My posts, tweets and other on-line activity are my personal thoughts and don't represent my employer or company.

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