The Dog Days Of Summer

The rise of Sirius (the dog star) late in the night sky in the constellation Canis Major, has historically been identified with the hottest and most humid days of summer and hence the expression: "Dog Days".

Most folks are in "vacation mode" (in the Northern Hemisphere anyway) and traditionally financial markets experience low volumes of activity.

It is a great time, before the rigours of "back to school" kick in and we get sidetracked by Blue Jay fever (even I have jumped on the bandwagon) to take stock of your situation and assess where you are as we enter into the last phase of 2015.

Best way to do this?

Lounge in your beach chair, cast out your fishing line, hoist the main sail, line up your put (or whatever you may be relaxing with) and as you do that, give thought to all of the things in life that are important too you.

Take all those important things and determine what it is that you need to do to make sure that all those important things remain as your life's key goals and objectives.

Family, professional, charitable, financial, health, travel and any other priorities that you might have.

If you can, write them down and list them in order of the timing in which you might want to achieve them.

Then, put them away (for now) and go enjoy the last few weeks of summer. We can pull them out again in September and start to work on how you are going to make them all happen.