I have always wanted to travel to Ireland after seeing all the beautiful pictures of green grass and large mountains with cliffs falling into the Irish Seas. Since my last name is Finnigan, how could I not want to go visit? After having gone to visit Ireland, my advice to anyone interested in knowing their roots or where they came from history wise, I totally recommend that you go visit the country from where your family originated. I will give you tips and suggestions of things to do when in Ireland based upon my experience of just recently traveled to the land of green grass and castles.

My friend works for an airline and he had a trip planned out for us to go visit Ireland. When you fly standby, you have to check the boarding totals to determine if you can even make the flight over seas or not. Since there is only one flight into Dublin, Ireland it is always best for us to have a backup plan to fly somewhere else. Otherwise, we would have had to spend the night in the states and lose another vacation day. This is the life of flying standby when working for the airlines. We thought that if we at least got into Europe that we could at lease take a train or ferry to our final destination. Since we had 6 of us in our group that was going and also makes it more difficult to fly standby, we decided that the flight to Dublin looked way too full and that we had a better chance flying into London, England. We all got on the flight to London without any issues and arrived early in the morning London time which happens to be six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

After we arrived in London, we all went to pickup our luggage in the baggage claim area. We then took an hour long train ride to the main train station which the next train from the main station took 5-6 hours to the dock where we took a ferry over to Dublin, Ireland. We were all expecting the ferry to be the size of the ferries you would see in Seattle. Wow, were we so wrong. The ferry we took was the size of a small cruise ship. Once we arrived in Dublin, we took a taxi to the car rental place. We realized that driving over there in Ireland was totally different than back home in the U.S. since the drivers seat was on the right side and we actually had a stick shift on the left of the driver side.

My advice is to get the full insurance with your car rental since driving on the other side of the road is not normal for vehicle drivers in the States. If you can afford the extra money or if you do not know how to drive a stick shift, then get an automatic to drive since it will be much easier.

TIP: When driving on the right side of the road, you will want to keep the right side of the vehicle close to the lines of the middle of the road. It is basically reverse of what you might be used to when driving normally on the left side of the road.

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Most of us have some really crazy dreams throughout the night. When a certain subject is thought about the same night just before you go to sleep, your mind sometimes creates those visions through dreams. The best thing you can do is to if you wake up in the middle of the night and write down what you just saw.

Another way to find ideas is to brain storm with other people. It is a good idea to talk with someone else to share ideas with and open your mind to new and different things you have not thought about before. Many big companies have these type of meetings to get other people’s opinions. This can have a great effect in the right atmosphere.

When you can create the right environment and atmosphere for people to be creative, you will hear some off the wall ideas. There have been many ideas suggested in the past that people turned down but it was persistence that turned the idea into reality.

Just because someone tells you no that they don’t like your idea doesn’t mean that everyone does not like your idea. There may be people that love your idea and some that don’t because everyone has different tastes in what their interests are.

Never give up on your dream no matter how crazy or thoughtless others may lead you to believe. Always be persistent and you can achieve much success.

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For instance, once you awaken for the day and you get up to start your daily routine, you can decide if your mood for the day will be happy or maybe you will be grouchy all day long. There are ways to help you stay focused on being positive and having a better day.

Try keeping pictures of positive statements on your wall at home and preferably notes in your bathroom. When you surround yourself with positive thoughts throughout the day, you will naturally tend to be more positive towards other people. Spending time with other positive people helps keep your mood in check throughout the day.

Listening to motivational speakers an hour a day can help who you become in life. Anthony Robins is a great motivational speaker and all you have to do is get a cd of your favorite speaker and listen to them in your car everyday on your way into work.

You can even create a discussion group online or in person and create another way to have a party. Who wouldn’t want to go to a party where everyone is in a good mood?

You may want to hang some pictures of inspirational things around your home. When you can connect to a picture in a positive way, it will have an emotional connection which can effect you throughout the day.

One of the best affirmations for you to see is yourself in the best mood possible. Try recording yourself on video when you are in a great mood and nothing seems to bother you that day. When you have days which may not seem so great, you can always look back at how much fun you were having and you will start to see your mood change for the better.

Happy people tend to have a smile on their face. Try it sometime it can become contagious.

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For some reason or another I have always thought a little differently than most people. I have discovered that my thoughts tend to be the same as in the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you just spend it on frivolous things.

I have always tried to invest in appreciating assets and use the profits from those assets to purchase the things I want. The same would apply if I were to win the lottery. My plan would be to take the lump sum and invest in real estate. Its best to invest in something people need and use everyday so there is always a demand for what you invested in.

After investing in real estate, I would take the profits to spend on what I want. You never want to spend your seed money if at all possible. You will make more money by investing more than less.

Most people that win the lottery just blow their winnings on non-appreciating assets such as cars, boats, jet skis, traveling and a brand new home or renovate their existing home. My suggestion to those that would blow the money right away would be to take time and invest in your education. You can always hire someone to watch over your money but you still need to watch over that person so they don’t take you to the cleaners and wipe out your bank account.

There are many different ways to invest in real estate. My suggestion would be to invest in either single family homes, apartments or self storage units. I once heard about a report stating that self storage units is the highest form of sale per square footage and are less maintenance. Paying cash for properties is a much better way to bring in larger returns.

Leveraging yourself with many properties leaves you with a larger headache dealing with management. I now understand why it is best to go to free and clear as fast as you can. If I had only listened to my own advice, I would have a few houses free and clear bringing in a nice little income.

How much money do you need to replace your day job? For an example: If you were to buy a 50k home with rents close to 800-1,000 per month, it would take approximately 4 years to return your investment. From there I would buy another property and take the income from both properties to buy more real estate.

Once you have 10 houses bringing in $1,000 per month, (that’s 10k per month) You can blow that each month and never tap into your seed money. Well, that’s my plan if it were to ever happen.

The post Winning the Lottery appeared first on Joel Finnigan | My Blog.

Of course gas prices where a lot cheaper back then compared to the increase of today’s oil prices. I used to read my comic books and color books in the back seat with my brother. My parents were always going somewhere to visit people and to get away for vacation also.

As i get older and travel from place to place, I wonder how my parents were able to put up with us kids going camping and visiting old friends. Traveling today has become more intense than when we traveled years ago. There are so many fun places to go and see.

One of my favorite things to do is go on a cruise ship. You have everything right there on the ship you will ever need while on vacation. My next favorite place to visit is going to an all inclusive resort where all of your entertainment, food and drinks are covered. Just remember to ask for the top shelf liquor or they will always give you the cheap stuff.

One tip I picked up by going to an all inclusive resort is that the straws they give you are very small and they seem to crimp the straw making it harder to sip your drink. So when I got back home, I realized that McDonalds makes a huge straw because they want you to drink faster. So guess what I take with me to the resort when I travel next time?

The post Vacation Time appeared first on Joel Finnigan | My Blog.

This personal growth comes from within and only you can make changes. It is not easy to to make changes in your life but we all have the same will power to make the necessary changes. There are many people that struggle with issues every day and life seems to become an uphill battle. Life can become challenging if we let it.

One thing I learned is that you need to take life and/or personal goals one day at a time. We can become overwhelmed with many things happening in our lives at times. Just remember that its ok to make a mistake today because tomorrow is another day to start over.

Something to consider is to join a support group. It can be a good thing to talk about your situation with other people. Sitting at home and feeling sorry for yourself is not a positive move towards obtaining true happiness.
Finding a hobby is also another way to have fun and meet new people. Now is the time to enjoy life and not let it pass you by. Go explore and see something you never have before.

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What an exciting new year we have started. Many new goals have been accomplished and plenty more to complete. Have you taken the necessary steps to complete your goals? You must first start somewhere and make your goals as easy as you can to complete to move on to the harder ones.

Well, here I go writing again. See you soon.

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