Well a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, and if there are any of you out there still reading this, I’m finally getting around to writing about it. First of all, since I mention it in the title, this past week I’ve been in orientation for the MBA program at Arizona State University. I say “this past week” since we don’t have anything scheduled for Friday. My goal here is not to bore any of you with details, so I’ll say that it was roughly from 8 to 5 everyday and covered various administrative and programmatic things that we should know. If you’d like to know anything more, feel free to ask.

Before all of this though, we moved across the country taking our time to visit family along the way. The drive from place to place was pretty long usually, but nothing that bad. I was able to see another baseball stadium that I hadn’t seen before which was where the Colorado Rockies play.

Once we arrived in the Phoenix area, we were pretty busy moving into the apartment and getting things set up so that we could function. We also finally bought ourselves some decent furniture, which was most likely a pretty weak moment for me. Other than this, we’ve gotten acquainted with our surroundings finished up little odds and ends before I had to start school.

I can honestly say that I’m looking forward to the MBA program and everything that I’ll have a chance to learn. It’s probably going to be more work and take up more time that I would like, but I’m sure it’ll end up being a worthwhile endeavour. So there you have it. A rough and quick take on what’s been going on recently.

There’s an interesting company out there that specializes in Computer Forensics, data recovery, and other associated activities. They can recover data of all formats including emails, pictures, internet activity and a lot more. They also offer a hard drive destruction service when you need to dispose of hard drives that contain some sort of sensitive information when you upgrade your computers or for some other reason.

Now, you may wonder why one would need a Computer Forensic, or any of the services that they offer. You may just need basic data recovery, or perhaps your looking for help in some sort of litigation. They can help you with intellectual property disputes, recovery of evidence, and they even provide expert witness services. It’s something to keep in mind if you run any sort of business because you never know when you’ll face some sort of litigation or need to pursue it yourself.

The computer experts at Data Chasers have all manner of certifications and relationships with professional organizations. They have public sector experience as well as experience in the private sector. Forensic Computer data discovery is a science and now you can use their services if the situation ever arises that you would need it.

I was thinking the other day about some of the more simple things when it comes to our finances, so I thought I would talk about keeping a check book register and balancing it occasionally. I’ve talked to a lot of people who don’t do this, and they have various reasons for it.

Some of the more common reasons for not keeping a register for one’s bank account are laziness, managing everything online, or just not understanding how or why to keep one. None of these are good reasons, but they’re the excuses that people will give for not keeping good records. So let me give a few reasons why I think it’s important for you to keep an accurate register for bank accounts.

1. It’s one of the simplest ways for you to keep track of and always know what money is coming in and what is going out. We know that in order to get and keep your finances in order you need to know where your money is going, and this is a great way to to do it.

2. Even though it’s really easy to manage your account online these days, there is still a one or two day delay before things post to your account, and you also don’t want to forget any checks that you may have written that people haven’t cashed yet. I’ve talked to far too many people who just check their online balance before making a purchase, but they’ve forgotten about some check they’ve written. This is a great way to rack up the overdraft fees.

3. It’s a great way to train yourself to think more about your finances and keep them in order and organized. By keeping a record of your purchases and deposits, you’ll stay on top of what money you have and don’t have. Getting more organized in your financial life is something that you definitely won’t regret.

Every once and a while there is some financial situation that crops up that either stresses you out or that you at least don’t really know what to do about. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it’s through these things that we learn, but at the time it can be very challenging. If you ignore the situation hoping that it’ll go away, it’ll most likely get worse. On the other hand you can choose to solve the problem in some way, and you’ll be better off for it because you have most likely learned a great deal along the way.

I’m currently dealing with moving across the country and having a property management company take care of my house. It will be my first experience using a property management company so I’m a little unsure of how everything will work out, but at the same time I’m excited since I’m hoping to continue using management companies in the future.

Now, if you’d like to see what you know already and what you have left to learn, you can check out BillsIQ and take a short quiz. It’s obviously nothing scientific and all-inclusive, but it may help point you in the right direction or make you think about something that you haven’t thought of yet. And I scored a 98 by the way.

The past little while has been really busy. We’ve had out of town visitors as well as then been out of town ourselves. We’re also getting ready to move in a little less than two weeks, and there’s plenty to get done just on that front. These are some of the reasons that I haven’t posted for a while, but I really should be posting more often.

It’s definitely going to get hectic over the next couple of weeks, but thing should settle down once our move to Arizona is over. And I’ll definitely have plenty to say once I’ve started the MBA program at Arizona State.

So I finally went ahead and applied for the American Express Blue Cash card. I’ve had my eye on the card for quite some time (at least over a year), and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t apply for it sooner. I have other cash back credit cards as well, but this one seems to consistently be one of the best, and it offers what look to be some of the best percentages out there.

I don’t have an affiliate link for the card or anything, but I recommend the card anyway. It’s really simple just to apply online and you have your approval within a couple of minutes. They’ll then send you the card within 7 to 10 business days if I remember correctly. I’m not going to explain exactly what the percentages are and everything else about the card, but you can visit their website for that. It’s at least something to consider, just pay it off every month and enjoy the rewards.

Many of you out there already run your own blog or website, but you may still be using one of the free services instead of having your own domain. There are many advantages to having your own unique domain name, which I’m not going to go into here, but in order to use your own domain you’re going to need your own web hosting. Fortunately, this is now very affordable and can be obtained for somewhere around seven our eight dollars per month. Web Hosting Geeks is a site that lists many of the different hosting providers that you can choose from when you start looking for a web hosting service. So if you’re not already on your own domain, you may want to start considering it.