This was a great post. I get too often get caught in a futility mentality -- "This isn't enough money to matter, so why bother." Clear thinking is the solution, as always.
There's no bus route to my workplace, so I drive, but the sound of my coworkers hacking up a lung does sort of put me on edge. I can only imagine that compounded on a crowded city bus...
You may mean equity indexed life insurance (EILI). A nice article on borrowing against the policy (which some may have to do if they can't afford to save b/c of the premium costs) by an insurance pro and EILI fan gives scenarios to consider that may lead to losing the policy altogether.
Another vehicle to have tax-free investments is the Roth, which can be funded with index funds -- the principal is available tax free if needed in an emergency. Not everyone qualifies but is something to consider and fees are minimal.
As someone who works in Public Health I just want to thank you for this article which is probably the most sane and balanced I have read in the public domain on this topic.
As you say the mass hysteria promoted by the media is unhelpful, but your article contains great advice for the average person.
well i have one of these cards and i find it....well not bad not so good...ths days evryone needs a Visa or Mastercard, without one u will have a hard life living in US , its a good thing u can just purchase one at a store or order one online without going to the bank....however they send also cards to minors, especially to my neighbors 1 YEAR OLD SON, which i dont like...
Thank you for compiling that information. I hear news spout the bad news about the flu and always think, "I better prepare for that", and this is a great checklist!
While working with the town planning committees and consultants to make our community more walkable and green, the biggest challenge we seem to be having is that a lot of the planners come from large urban areas, such as metro-Boston, and really don't "get" how challenging it is for someone living in a more rural area to get around without a car. They come up with unworkable assumptions such as taxpayers coughing up huge tax overrides for bike trails and new sidewalks and assume businesses will voluntarily rebuild things simply because it gets rezoned (yeah ... on who's dime?) Their retort to everything is for everybody to pack up and move back to the city (the thing everybody here fled in the first place ... hint ... we loathe the city down to the core of our bone marrow and aren't moving back). Explaining to them you just can't hop the "T" because there -is- no "T" is like shouting "hello-hello-hello" into an empty cave...
If you want people to change, you need to make it work for THEM. Otherwise ... you're just banging your head against the wall.
Many people view their cars as freedom and are reluctant to give them up. Some of their concerns are legitimate (no sidewalks, dangerous traffic, unsafe to bike, services too far, no public transportation, etc.) On the other hand, a lot of the resistance is just plain inertia. Advocating for people to give up one of their cars is about as socially acceptable as farting in church. We've had good luck convincing people to carpool, plan trips to deal with multiple errands, and buy more fuel efficient cars when gas prices spiked and had people nervous, but with prices back down inertia is beginning to set back in.
Asking for tax overrides for new sidewalks and bike paths is a challenge. There simply isn't any money left over once you pay the teachers, the firefighters, and the guy who plows the road! And for those of you who retort "well if it was important you'd spend the money" I dare you to go say that in any New England town meeting (caveat ... wear a raincoat ... you'll be leaving the room covered with rotten eggs and tomatoes). It's important to YOU ... it's up to YOU to make it important to THEM if you want them to change. Simply saying it's so isn't enough ... you might as well be off in the corner muttering to an invisible pink elephant.
However, we've found the voters are more receptive to new sidewalks when you can convince them it will save them tax dollars in some other area (such as eliminating a bus route). The old geezers aren't willing to get out and walk themselves, or spend money on the schools, but they're sure enthusiastic about getting kids out of tax- and gas-guzzling school buses and walking/bicycling that 2 miles to school.
A little at a time ... that's all you can do. By the time we get all those new sidewalks built 25 year from now, the kids the geezers gleefully kicked out of the school buses onto the new sidewalks will have grown up walking and be raising a new batch of more environmentally-conscious one-car kids themselves.
I don't know about other parts of the country, but where I am at in the Midwest is still losing jobs and businesses daily. We are running out of unemployment money and other state funds are low. Welfare is overrun with applications and everyday you see more and more people heading to places that offer free food and help. It is a scary time, and we are one of the families that has been hit. I know we will make it through this with our faith and each other, but while we live like this it is hard. I hope it ends soon and the economy turns around, but it is still going to take a long time to climb back out of the hole, so for now I say NO it has not ended, but maybe started to end.
It's funny - I used to find lots of different available brands of pomegranate juice in the store, and now I'm seeing more POM Wonderful and less everything else. It's possible that they are totally trampling the competition, and the bottles are cute, so probably hard to resist.
I might be alone in finding an open pomegranate really pretty. Then again, I don't mind watching open heart surgery, so maybe there's something wrong with me.
That's why I'm not posting on how to avoid it. I figure that it's inevitable. It's just good to prepare to fight it off, especially if you have health problems that make you more vulnerable.
Check out this story newsweek ran on how hand washing is not effective in preventing the flu (other things yes, so don't stop washing your hands). http://www.newsweek.com/id/215435
The numbers used to identify the presence and end of a recession may tell us that "it's over". But my experience tells me this recession is far from over. I see some hopeful signs -- at work, they've actually found some money for training (always one of the first cutbacks when times are bad), and housing prices have rebounded some.
But I also notice that, when I call a handyman for a home project, even the best of them are available in a couple of days -- they're not busy. We keep hearing about the next wave of foreclosures -- not speculators this time but "normal" people who are in houses they can no longer afford now that their hours or jobs were cut back or their ARMs adjusted. And the government has gamed the numbers on employment so long that they're meaningless in terms of who actually is employed gainfully and who simply has accepted underemployment or given up totally.
On top of that, we can't go back to where we were. It's simply unsustainable. The money sources for the consumers who propped up this economy for years are gone -- equity investments, deferred compensation, home equity, all gone. We've farmed out so much of our manufacturing capability that it would take big changes to shift that momentum. And we've spent years -- maybe decades -- playing accounting games by taking the funding of wars off the books and by shaving infrastructure costs to the point where expensive repairs are needed, not just catching up on maintenance.
No, this isn't over. And when it is, it won't look like it did.
We are a one car family. Have been for about two years. I work full time and my husband works a part time schedule when I am at home. We have three children. We are lucky to live in a city that encourages bike riding, and to live in a neighborhood where we can bike to several supermarkets, the library, park, schools and even a hospital in 10 minutes or less. We lived within walking distance of these things before, but have moved a little further out. My husband usually drives me to work and has the car (and kids) during the day.
the swine flu that is. Yesterday was worse than today (which is why I'm at my computer, I sure wasn't yesterday). But I still feel like crap. Feels like regular flu to me, nothing special, maybe a worse sore throat.
Did you see the fees they charge? That's the problem with it. They take advantage of people who are stupid enough to sign up. Haha. Guess they deserve it then. Anyway, there was something similar a few years ago, for kids. You got a debit card for the kids so they didn't have to carry cash. It sounded nice until I looked at the outrageous fees they were charging. Charged for everything,including making a deposit. Imagine, you make a deposit and they charge you a fee. I cancelled that right quick. Just another gimmick to get over on dumb people.
It is pricey. On that note it is so funny the that I will go into the store and price compare on items and hesitate at buying a 5 dollar juice but wont think twice about dishing out 5 dollars a pop for cocktails after work! theres definitly somethinh in that stuff that my body needs and craves and it never lasts more than 1 or 2 minutes after opening it! Havent tried any other brands.
OH, get rid of that ugly picture of the open pomegranate on the top of the page. It looks like a diseased internal organ or something!
As a long-time sufferer with various respiratory complaints I have a few nostrums to share:
1) I have a facial steamer which I use to inhale steam to help decongest my lungs. You can also breathe the steam from a hot cup of tea. (or put a towel on your head and breathe the steam from a hot basin of water).
2) You can make a nice decongestant tea by just adding thyme to Chinese 5 spice mixture foound at the grocery store. It has anice and licorice - good for lungs - & it's cheap, altho I really hate the taste myself - it does work! Put in honey, as honey has an antiseptic nature.
3)Boost your immune system - I add Chinese heral mixtures, like Jade Screen to help - plus ginseng...And Wellness vitamins and echinechea and goldenseal....
4) Take oodles of vitamin C.
5) I have also taken Oscocillo by Boiron - it was more for the bird flu - but who knows what this strain will be made of....
Having had pneumonia once in my 20's - I now fortify myself against whatever viruses/germs are out there, and though I get sick - I do think I ward off anything worse!
It stands to mention that you should never pay some company to get you started in any of these. There are too many scams around that seek to make you pay to be involved in any one of these types of businesses.
I think that this should have been mentioned first and foremost!
This was a great post. I get too often get caught in a futility mentality -- "This isn't enough money to matter, so why bother." Clear thinking is the solution, as always.
There's no bus route to my workplace, so I drive, but the sound of my coworkers hacking up a lung does sort of put me on edge. I can only imagine that compounded on a crowded city bus...
This is the only time when riding the bus to and from work sucks. There's inevitably a sick person hacking away.
Keigu,
Financial Samurai
"Slicing Through Money's Mysteries"
You may mean equity indexed life insurance (EILI). A nice article on borrowing against the policy (which some may have to do if they can't afford to save b/c of the premium costs) by an insurance pro and EILI fan gives scenarios to consider that may lead to losing the policy altogether.
Another vehicle to have tax-free investments is the Roth, which can be funded with index funds -- the principal is available tax free if needed in an emergency. Not everyone qualifies but is something to consider and fees are minimal.
As someone who works in Public Health I just want to thank you for this article which is probably the most sane and balanced I have read in the public domain on this topic.
As you say the mass hysteria promoted by the media is unhelpful, but your article contains great advice for the average person.
DealScans.com is great for deals as well. Automatically scanned, so these are deals not found anywhere else!
well i have one of these cards and i find it....well not bad not so good...ths days evryone needs a Visa or Mastercard, without one u will have a hard life living in US , its a good thing u can just purchase one at a store or order one online without going to the bank....however they send also cards to minors, especially to my neighbors 1 YEAR OLD SON, which i dont like...
Thank you for compiling that information. I hear news spout the bad news about the flu and always think, "I better prepare for that", and this is a great checklist!
While working with the town planning committees and consultants to make our community more walkable and green, the biggest challenge we seem to be having is that a lot of the planners come from large urban areas, such as metro-Boston, and really don't "get" how challenging it is for someone living in a more rural area to get around without a car. They come up with unworkable assumptions such as taxpayers coughing up huge tax overrides for bike trails and new sidewalks and assume businesses will voluntarily rebuild things simply because it gets rezoned (yeah ... on who's dime?) Their retort to everything is for everybody to pack up and move back to the city (the thing everybody here fled in the first place ... hint ... we loathe the city down to the core of our bone marrow and aren't moving back). Explaining to them you just can't hop the "T" because there -is- no "T" is like shouting "hello-hello-hello" into an empty cave...
If you want people to change, you need to make it work for THEM. Otherwise ... you're just banging your head against the wall.
Many people view their cars as freedom and are reluctant to give them up. Some of their concerns are legitimate (no sidewalks, dangerous traffic, unsafe to bike, services too far, no public transportation, etc.) On the other hand, a lot of the resistance is just plain inertia. Advocating for people to give up one of their cars is about as socially acceptable as farting in church. We've had good luck convincing people to carpool, plan trips to deal with multiple errands, and buy more fuel efficient cars when gas prices spiked and had people nervous, but with prices back down inertia is beginning to set back in.
Asking for tax overrides for new sidewalks and bike paths is a challenge. There simply isn't any money left over once you pay the teachers, the firefighters, and the guy who plows the road! And for those of you who retort "well if it was important you'd spend the money" I dare you to go say that in any New England town meeting (caveat ... wear a raincoat ... you'll be leaving the room covered with rotten eggs and tomatoes). It's important to YOU ... it's up to YOU to make it important to THEM if you want them to change. Simply saying it's so isn't enough ... you might as well be off in the corner muttering to an invisible pink elephant.
However, we've found the voters are more receptive to new sidewalks when you can convince them it will save them tax dollars in some other area (such as eliminating a bus route). The old geezers aren't willing to get out and walk themselves, or spend money on the schools, but they're sure enthusiastic about getting kids out of tax- and gas-guzzling school buses and walking/bicycling that 2 miles to school.
A little at a time ... that's all you can do. By the time we get all those new sidewalks built 25 year from now, the kids the geezers gleefully kicked out of the school buses onto the new sidewalks will have grown up walking and be raising a new batch of more environmentally-conscious one-car kids themselves.
I don't know about other parts of the country, but where I am at in the Midwest is still losing jobs and businesses daily. We are running out of unemployment money and other state funds are low. Welfare is overrun with applications and everyday you see more and more people heading to places that offer free food and help. It is a scary time, and we are one of the families that has been hit. I know we will make it through this with our faith and each other, but while we live like this it is hard. I hope it ends soon and the economy turns around, but it is still going to take a long time to climb back out of the hole, so for now I say NO it has not ended, but maybe started to end.
It's funny - I used to find lots of different available brands of pomegranate juice in the store, and now I'm seeing more POM Wonderful and less everything else. It's possible that they are totally trampling the competition, and the bottles are cute, so probably hard to resist.
I might be alone in finding an open pomegranate really pretty. Then again, I don't mind watching open heart surgery, so maybe there's something wrong with me.
That's why I'm not posting on how to avoid it. I figure that it's inevitable. It's just good to prepare to fight it off, especially if you have health problems that make you more vulnerable.
Check out this story newsweek ran on how hand washing is not effective in preventing the flu (other things yes, so don't stop washing your hands).
http://www.newsweek.com/id/215435
The numbers used to identify the presence and end of a recession may tell us that "it's over". But my experience tells me this recession is far from over. I see some hopeful signs -- at work, they've actually found some money for training (always one of the first cutbacks when times are bad), and housing prices have rebounded some.
But I also notice that, when I call a handyman for a home project, even the best of them are available in a couple of days -- they're not busy. We keep hearing about the next wave of foreclosures -- not speculators this time but "normal" people who are in houses they can no longer afford now that their hours or jobs were cut back or their ARMs adjusted. And the government has gamed the numbers on employment so long that they're meaningless in terms of who actually is employed gainfully and who simply has accepted underemployment or given up totally.
On top of that, we can't go back to where we were. It's simply unsustainable. The money sources for the consumers who propped up this economy for years are gone -- equity investments, deferred compensation, home equity, all gone. We've farmed out so much of our manufacturing capability that it would take big changes to shift that momentum. And we've spent years -- maybe decades -- playing accounting games by taking the funding of wars off the books and by shaving infrastructure costs to the point where expensive repairs are needed, not just catching up on maintenance.
No, this isn't over. And when it is, it won't look like it did.
We are a one car family. Have been for about two years. I work full time and my husband works a part time schedule when I am at home. We have three children. We are lucky to live in a city that encourages bike riding, and to live in a neighborhood where we can bike to several supermarkets, the library, park, schools and even a hospital in 10 minutes or less. We lived within walking distance of these things before, but have moved a little further out. My husband usually drives me to work and has the car (and kids) during the day.
I tweeted but I don't know how to give you the "address" but it is Shaylasr at Twitter.
the swine flu that is. Yesterday was worse than today (which is why I'm at my computer, I sure wasn't yesterday). But I still feel like crap. Feels like regular flu to me, nothing special, maybe a worse sore throat.
Did you see the fees they charge? That's the problem with it. They take advantage of people who are stupid enough to sign up. Haha. Guess they deserve it then. Anyway, there was something similar a few years ago, for kids. You got a debit card for the kids so they didn't have to carry cash. It sounded nice until I looked at the outrageous fees they were charging. Charged for everything,including making a deposit. Imagine, you make a deposit and they charge you a fee. I cancelled that right quick. Just another gimmick to get over on dumb people.
It is pricey. On that note it is so funny the that I will go into the store and price compare on items and hesitate at buying a 5 dollar juice but wont think twice about dishing out 5 dollars a pop for cocktails after work! theres definitly somethinh in that stuff that my body needs and craves and it never lasts more than 1 or 2 minutes after opening it! Havent tried any other brands.
OH, get rid of that ugly picture of the open pomegranate on the top of the page. It looks like a diseased internal organ or something!
Maybe I will let my hair grown just a bit longer!
In 15 years on Wall Stree, you surely socked away much more than the average worker making $35,000 per year working for 40 years, right?
One is not ~poor~ and still "travel the world over" even on a budget...
Just pondering it.
hot tea.....I say Hot Tea cures everything that chicken soup doesn't.
You should try to go to Spain.
They have used the wine/soda trick for many years.
They are mixing wine with a soda called gaseosa which is sweet.
The mixture is also called Tinto de Verano
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinto_de_verano
As a long-time sufferer with various respiratory complaints I have a few nostrums to share:
1) I have a facial steamer which I use to inhale steam to help decongest my lungs. You can also breathe the steam from a hot cup of tea. (or put a towel on your head and breathe the steam from a hot basin of water).
2) You can make a nice decongestant tea by just adding thyme to Chinese 5 spice mixture foound at the grocery store. It has anice and licorice - good for lungs - & it's cheap, altho I really hate the taste myself - it does work! Put in honey, as honey has an antiseptic nature.
3)Boost your immune system - I add Chinese heral mixtures, like Jade Screen to help - plus ginseng...And Wellness vitamins and echinechea and goldenseal....
4) Take oodles of vitamin C.
5) I have also taken Oscocillo by Boiron - it was more for the bird flu - but who knows what this strain will be made of....
Having had pneumonia once in my 20's - I now fortify myself against whatever viruses/germs are out there, and though I get sick - I do think I ward off anything worse!
It stands to mention that you should never pay some company to get you started in any of these. There are too many scams around that seek to make you pay to be involved in any one of these types of businesses.
I think that this should have been mentioned first and foremost!
Thank you.