Where do I even begin the family section this month?  It seems like June has just flown by.  School ended at the end of May then seminary ended in the middle of June so I am home now.  Kevin got a consulting job this month so he has been very busy.

Our daughter, Kristina, decided to move to Georgia so we have spent the last two weeks helping her get ready and moved.  We are missing her a lot, and wishing her great success!

Sometimes it feels like we are on the downhill side of a rollercoaster, everything is zooming by too fast, and there is so much I am not getting done that I would like to get done. On the plus side, we are so very blessed to have a wonderful family and many opportunities.  We are all healthy and strong and busy!

We also heard that our son David has received an offer to put his significant computer skills to work. He is just waiting for his background check to be completed.

We have set goals and we will achieve them. Maybe they have to be pushed back because something important takes precedence that day. Nevertheless, we have set a course, written down our goals, told the world what some of them are, and we are progressing!

Since Kevin and I started our weight loss journey together in January, as of June 29th he has released 75 pounds and I have released 41. I can't tell you how much more fun it is to try on clothes and even look in the mirror!  Even with life being so busy and distracting we have been able to keep on track.  Success breeds more success, in fact, Kevin's and my confidence levels are extremely high. We know we can succeed at anything we really put our minds and energy into.

Quote of the Month: "The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself." ~Mark Caine

Live an Amazing Life!   Mary Jane and Kevin

PS Here's a picture of him standing next to those 75 lbs of flour and sugar.

(By Kevin)

Do you have the Habits of the RICH or the POOR?

Think that becoming wealthy is a matter of luck?  Think again.  Tom Corley did a study of the habits that rich people and poor people have.  What he found out may surprise you, then again if you're well off financially, maybe not.    

The main stream media reports that 5% of the population of American's make most of the money and control most of the wealth in this country.  Who are these people and are they that different from the rest of us?  Clearly they put their pants on one leg at a time and their not 10 times smarter than everyone else so what is different?

Wealth is a two-step process.  Making it, and then keeping it.  Tom found that wealth and poverty have nothing to do with random luck or your circumstances.  Wealth has everything to do with your daily habits.  The rich just do fractionally different things every day that the poor just don't do.

Who are the wealthy? 

• 18% are senior executives at big companies

• 51% are small business owners

• 13% are sales people

• 63% took some risk in search of wealth

• 91% are decision makers at their job

• 86% work more than 50 hours per week

• 27% have failed at least once in business

• 80% are focused on pursuing one major goal

• 75% learned their rich habit primarily from their parents, the rest learned them from mentors, books or the school of hard knocks

• 54% are eternal optimists

• 81% maintain a to do list

• 94% save 20% or more of their income

• 44% wake up 3 hours or more before their work day begins

• 89% sleep 7 hours or more per night

Here are some comparisons Tom provided between rich and poor habits.

Note: Keystone habits over power ordinary daily habits which means they can control them or eliminate them. So you can add just one rich keystone habit and it can control or correct 2 or 3 of your ordinary bad poverty habits.

The great news is you can begin incorporating a rich habits today and replace those poor habits.  Which habit will you incorporate this month? 

Industry News  

(by Kevin) 

The Best Year for Single Family Home Since 2006

Jonathan Smoke, Chief Economist at realtor.com points out that the residential real estate market is on track for its best year since the peak of the housing bubble in 2006. As readers of this newsletter would expect the demand for housing is being driven by the improving job market. More than 3 million jobs have been created during the last 12 months.

Nationwide the median days on market for single family homes is now 66 days, versus 74 days this time last year.  In some markets, including the DC market where we live, days on market is often less than three weeks.

There have now been 32 straight months where existing- home inventory is at less than a six month supply. This indicates a growing real demand for homes. In fact, as of April, median home prices rose 9% year over year.

Laughs and Interesting Stuff 

(Kevin and Mary Jane)

Kissing Einstein Style

Albert Einstein, one of the great thinkers of the last century, says that any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

Mixed Signals

A doctor and an engineer loved the same girl.

The Doctor used to give her a rose daily and the engineer give the girl an apple.

Confused the girl asked the engineer, "Love is the meaning of getting a rose so why are you giving me an apple?"

The Engineer answered, "Because an apple a day keeps the doctor away."

Marriage

A man and woman fell in love, when he asked her to marry him, she said yes with one stipulation. He must never look into the box she kept on a shelf in her closet.

They had a long and wonderful marriage, on their 65th anniversary, the husband finally begs his wife to see what is in the box, he tells her he has been curious all this time so she says, "What the heck, sure you can see what's in it."

Inside the box he finds $25,000.00 and two doilies.

He asks, "What are these doilies for?" 

She said, "My mother told me that every time I got angry with my husband I should crochet a doily."

Feeling pretty good about himself he says, "Two doilies, 65 years, not bad, not bad at all."

So he asks, "What's the $25,000.00 for?"

She said, "Oh, that's the money I got for selling the doilies I made."

A Riddle for You

For the answer see the Projects and Opportunities Section of the Newsletter 

(so people will wonder what your up to AND its contagious)