I love the weekend. A weekend is like an oasis in the desert we call our daily grind, and I look forward to it every week (as do most). But this weekend is going to be even better as we have some great things planned. First of all, my parents are coming into town to visit and I’m very excited about that. I haven’t seen them since last November and now that I’m older, I’m wishing that we lived closer. We plan to have a big barbecue and invite a bunch of friends over as well so it should be a really great time. Not only that, but we plan to go to Six Flags with the family and have some good clean (if not expensive) fun. Rarely do I actually have fun plans on the weekend nowadays, so I’m really excited about this one. I’m sure I’ll be exhausted by Monday, but it’ll all be worth it.

Money Under 30 hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance this week, and our article about keeping a lean checking account was included. Over at Can I Get Rich On A Salary, our 5 Ways To Beat The Budgeting Blues was included in this week’s Money Hacks Carnival. Thanks to both for hosting this week and doing a great job.

I haven’t had a lot of time this week to read other sites, and so I don’t have any great links to share with you this time.  However, I did want to leave you with some of the things I’ve been thinking about in my life lately.  Sometimes we are so caught up in our daily grind, frustrations, or stresses that we totally take for granted all the great things that we have in our lives.  I do this all the time, as I’m constantly looking for ways to improve, projects to take on, and ways to make everything better.  But in doing that sometimes I end up losing the really special things that I already have.  Being that my parents are coming here this weekend and we have all these fun activities planned, it’s really reminded me what a bad job I do at “smelling the roses.”  Hopefully most of you out there are much better at it than I am, but if you’re not make a conscience effort to stop the grind and appreciate what you have.  It is usually the littlest things that give us the greatest joys and we constantly need reminders of that.  Take this as one and go smell some roses this weekend.

See you all next week!

Many companies now use their focus on work-life balance as a marketing tool to attract talented employees and keep existing ones. They try hard to offer incentives in the form of extra days off, fun family activities, and flexible schedules to show their employees that they care about the “other” life you have a home as well as your ability to be productive at work. All these things are great, but what about those of us that are trying to start our own business as well as work a full-time job? Well, the short answer is that something will have to give but the real trick is to understand what (and when) that something is.

One of the reasons that people suggest keeping your day job while you try to build your business is because it provides you the financial security you need to be able to withstand the non-profitable startup years of building a company. Plus, if your idea just flat out bombs then you haven’t put you (or your family) into a rough financial position since you still have your primary income source. However, what you give up by doing this is almost all of your free time. Basically you’ll spend the majority of your week working at your job (40-60 hours a week probably), and whatever is left over you’ll probably use to build your business. It can be a rough time for you and your family, and one of the main reasons why people say to make sure that you’re family is a part of the decision to pursue starting a business. For you, you’ll basically be working even when you’re not “at work” and for your family it means less personal time to spend with them. So what should you do?

The first thing you have to do is continue to perform at your day job. Your job is your primary income and the source of stability and security for your family. Now, if you decide not to be the ultra-ambitious worker that you used to be since your interests have changed, that’s okay. But at the very least you should be putting a solid effort in at your day job to keep your career on track in case your business ideas never really take off. When it comes to family financial security, I think that always has to come first and our personal desires second. Next, make sure that you’re making smart decisions with balancing your personal time between your family and your business. When building your business ideas, make sure you focus on a few at a time so that you don’t overwhelm yourself. If you’re on a strict schedule, decide to do some work in advance so that you can have a couple days off from your business every once in a while. That way you’re still working towards your goal, but you provide yourself a little flexibility in your scheduling.

Hopefully your business interests are doing something that you enjoy, as this will at least make that work feel less like “work.” But you still have to take in account the time to spend with your family. One way to achieve this is to get them involved into your business efforts if at all possible. In work (as in life) we have to recognize opportunities to consolidate things, and if you can make your business interests into something fun that your family can share, then you get the best of both worlds. If you’re not able to easily do that, don’t worry. It just means that you have to be better at organizing your time more efficiently, and be willing to take a break from things that are less important than family. At the end of the day, family should be more important than all the rest. We make them bend to our needs and be more flexible since they will, but we have to remember to reward that flexibility by spending quality time in return.

In our internet and wireless age, it’s all about information at your fingertips and on the go. When it comes to managing your finances, most of us make use of the information overload available to us and try to research and analyze until our brain hurts. It’s a natural progression when it comes to finances. We want to feel confident in how we manage our money and with a wealth of charts and numbers just a click away we take full advantage. So what’s the next step in getting our financial information anywhere at anytime? Mobile.

With the wireless industry being so competitive, the technology is being pushed to it’s peak at a rapid pace. A few years ago it was cool to have a phone that took pictures. Now that’s the low end of the spectrum, with the most advanced models functioning more like hand-held computers then telephones. With more and more of our personal information being stored online at our various companies that we do business with, and on the mobile devices that we carry, the wireless environment is going to hold the key to our ability to transact and do business in the future. It’s only a matter of time before our phones end up being our version of a “mobile wallet”, basically acting as our gateway to our personal and financial information.

Many major financial institutions currently have a mobile solution in place, and the amount of functionality they provide is growing by the day. Most offer the ability to view account balances, transfer funds instantly, and even pay all your bills. Having the ability to make transactions on your banking accounts at a moments notice is a powerful feature in our constantly moving society. Plus, you don’t have to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot in order to do it. Basically anywhere your phone has service provides you the ability to harness the power of the mobile internet to do whatever you need to.

Imagine being able to manage your whole financial picture and portfolio from your handheld mobile device? Seem a little far-fetched? Well it’s closer to reality than you think. Wireless companies are scrambling to get the most functional phones out to market, and offering special deals to promote texting and wireless internet as the main features of the rate plans. Mobile internet is here to stay and is only going to get more important as time go by. It’s only natural that managing your finances, and ultimately your life, via mobile will end up being more accepted every day and eventually becoming a permanent fixture in the way we manage our lives.

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