Jeannie's Cancer Saga---Survivor

Jeannie is home and resting on so many meds I can’t keep them straight.  This is how Cancer Survivors live, coping with the aftermath of bodies that have been ravished by chemo-therapy, radiations, and surgery.  It is said that if we live long enough cancer will eventually get us. I certainly hope medical science wins the battle to conquer it soon.

Jeannie has the additional complication of Rheumatoid Arthritis since 1995 and is on advanced medication (shots) to help with quality of life.  Her body has been about as resilient as it can be.  She doesn’t complain or blame anyone.  She lives day by day with a positive attitude trying to keep me in line as she cares for children and grandchildren.

In April 2007 Jeannie was diagnosed with Oral Cancer.  She has never used alcohol or tobacco and yet she got Oral Cancer---how weird is that.  Previously, in February, she contracted shingles, which often happens with an underling cancer. The explanation perhaps---her immune system was compromised for years by arthritis medications.

Just in case you are not aware of her story it is recorded in her online journal/blog at  http://www.embattledchristian.com/culturewar/?p=755.  She writes beautifully.  All her posts during those long months are her cancer journey. 

We recognize that we are all given our own challenges.  Many are far more intense than ours.  But since her struggle became a public event due to our visibility in the community, perhaps someone will be helped by reading Jeannie’s story.  Her words are full of honesty, humor and faith.

Wealth is Within Our Grasp

For some years I had responsibility to help families in trouble financially.  They would come to me hoping the Church I represented could assist, and we usually did.  The first step was to look closely at their budget.  Frankly, most did not have a real budget.  They knew what they earned each month but didn’t have much of an idea how much they spent, nor the detail of what it was spent on.  

I would have them give me a few of their bills to get them by for the next month.  My first requirement was to keep copious track of all income and expenses for the next six weeks, and we would speak again at that point. 

Many never had to come back for more help because just the simple process of tracking their money helped them get their situation under control.     I would meet monthly with those in deeper financial trouble.  We would carefully go line-by-line through their expenses. 

Generally they were in deep trouble because their credit cards were maxed-out.  I would have them cut up their credit cards. Some months or years later, I would help them learn how to use the right credit-cards and never fail to pay off the balance every month. Credit cards are a financial tool, not a debt accumulation machine, as the companies would have you believe.  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER allow a credit card balance to move forward into the next month.  Pay it off on time EVERY TIME.    

As we reviewed their expenses, on every item I would ask questions.  Such as: is there a way to lower this expense?  Do you really need two cell phones?  Do you really need a data-package with your cell phone?  Do you need cable TV with all the bells and whistles?  Do you have to go out to dinner weekly?  Is there a way to cut your mortgage expense without destroying your credit or family well-being? 

My experience helping families with these challenges taught me that even those doing fine with their finances could save more each month if they would go line-by-line through their budget and ask themselves, how could I cut this expense.  Our personal rule-of-thumb has been to factor in our budget 11% to charity, and at least 10% to retirement savings, 5% to an emergency fund, then live on the other 74%.  The interest you earn never stops working for you, day or night.  Your money works for you even when you sleep. 


After making the young-couple mistakes during early marriage we have followed this process for thirty years and thereby have managed to accumulate a nest-egg for our retirement years.  We look forward to the future with excitement even if Social Security never comes through.  Wealth is within our grasp by budgeting and simplifying our lifestyles.

“Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality” John Tyler, 10^th President of the United States.  




       

Inflation Proofing a Retirement Fund is not Hard

Inflation Proofing a Retirement Fund is not Hard

“Through global diversification and disciplined rebalancing, you can get the inflation pickpocket out of your wallet and rest assured that no matter which way the economy slides, you stand prepared to emerge a winner.”  See the article for more information and suggestions on how to protect your retirement fund. 

Click on the title…

How to make $1,000,000 with $300 a Month

This one is for my younger readers ages 18 – 45, and perhaps a few parents who may wish to forward this to their children.  But it also has worked for retired people who started this program when they retired. They have such a nice nest-egg to leave as an inheritance for family.  They have lived well in retirement, not laviously but well.  This always works. 

Here it is: 

Start saving $300 per month as soon as you have a job where your employer will match your savings into a tax deferred retirement fund with at least 66% of your dollar amount, so you have a total $500 per month going into savings.  You can do this, $300 is just not that tough.  If self employed save $500 per month of your own income.  If you are retiring it will take about $450 per month.  You'll never notice it's gone, and it will just keep growing. 

So $500 per month for 30 years at an average of 10% growth rate per year, which a good financial consultant should make you. 

Result: if you start at 18 years old, you end up with $1,130,000 saved by the time you are 48 years old.  You are a millionaire and can retire early if you wish.  So start saving as soon as you can and leave the money alone for your retirement nest egg. Inflation-proof the fund by withdrawing only 4% per year which allows it continued growth.   

If you are retired you will leave a million for whoever you so choose.  What a great surprise for the kids and grandkids. 

The rest of the story makes it even much more appealing.  Sign up for our Safe Retirement Freedom Blog for more secrets to early and secure retirement.  Look in the box to the left of this post to join our group.  

How to Retire When You Choose

http://saferetirementfreedom.blogspot.com/

Please join our fast growing group of like-minded  Babyboomers helping each other get to retirement sooner and with more security.  Sign up for email notifications and/or become a member of S.R.F. Blog.  I guarantee your satisfaction or you can opt out easily.  Taking a few minutes 2 or 3 times a week to check the latest updates will generate ideas that will help you make retirement happen as soon as you had hoped or sooner. There are ways to do this safely, whether you plan for 20, 25, or 30 years of retirement income.  We have been doing the research for 5 years now and we love to sharing what we have learned.    

Choosing or Creating a Product to sell Online is less Difficult than you Think

Choosing or Creating a Product to sell Online is less Difficult than you Think---Click on the link below for more.

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/notes/internet-business-mastery/ibm-124-how-to-choose-what-to-sell-online/10150308738289848

More Reflections and Looking Forward

Getting healthy has dominated my thoughts in recent days.  But today I find myself reflecting on ten years of living with the added stress of the War on Terror.  Some of my friends and family have been to the Middle East fighting this war.  So far they are still all with us. 

My son-in-law is a Captain in the Marines and has spent more time helping with this war than I like to contemplate.  His wife, our daughter Heather, has spent many months alone with two of our grandsons, now three.   Sometimes she is able to come home so we can provide support while Captain Cruz is away, but not always, so thank-goodness for cell phone and Skype video calls.

Our five children are in various stages of establishing a life for themselves in a double dip recession made worse by our current federal administration.  Fortunately they all have careers, or a job while finishing college.  For me this struggle at home is a domestic battle between the freedom of capitalism and the oppression of social progressivism.  The first produces jobs and hope.  The last brings stagnation, pessimism, and welfare dependence.

Mr. Obama evidently thinks if he says the same things louder and more forcefully in high profile gatherings like a Joint Session of Congress that we will eventually see his point of view.  It’s sad that he hasn’t seen the results of his past 2 ½ years in office as the economy stays in peril. 

One of the greatest things about America is that we can recover relatively quickly once the freedom returns to dream for the future.  Businesses will invest again, jobs will increase, and money will be available to get something done.  Hope will be reestablished as the magic of being American.  The atmosphere for growth will once again lead the world economy.  Instead of trickle-up-poverty we will have steady improvement of the standard of living in our country.

I look forward to the next ten years.  Most of them will likely be governed by a conservative mind-set.  I am sure it will be a better time for America.  The projects at ground-zero in New York will be completed.  Like the former twin-towers, Jeannie and I will go to NY to stand on the top and gaze off toward the Statue of Liberty and think about how fortunate we are to be Americans where we have the freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.  The future is bright. 

This was my first Podcast, ever--- Click below for the "Seven Pillars of Retirement Freedom"

This was my first Podcast, ever----My Website is now renamed the Safe Retirement Freedom Blog. Learn the Seven Pillars of Retirement Freedom.  Sure wish I had known these many years ago.  I should have started applying them 15 years earlier, but they have still done magic for our pending retirement.  The Podcast is about 10 minutes long.... Click on the link below...

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Relaxation and Meditation Brings Peace of Mind & Body

For a few moments of quiet reflection, click on the picture to the right and scroll through the photos of beautiful scenery.  Breathe deeply and let stress float away.  When those worries creep back in as you go through your day, close your eyes if you are not driving, take a couple of cleansing breaths and remember your morning session of feeling peace.  Enjoy...

Shifting Winds of American Thought

Most of you probably know that I tend to speak my mind somewhat directly and occasionally with “bull-in-a-china-closet” precision.  The china-closet image and precision may not seem to fit together but let me explain. 

I am concerned about some issues that I can do little else other than get in the china-closet and flail away. I contribute money to and vote for political candidates based on issues. But with some of my most closely held ideals I also feel a duty to rigorously express my point of view.  It is as though I want to explode my enthusiasm all over everyone for what I consider to be bedrock and essential principles.  I believe strongly in some things. 

I love to study developmental history of core ideas in our culture.  I try to put ithemin context over time.  For example, President John Kennedy coined the phrase “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”.  One of his core Democratic ideals was based on people being part of the solution.  In contrast I have seen little thinking from President Barrack Obama that would even approach the same core Democratic ideal from just 50 years ago.  So I get curious and try to figure out how group thinking makes such a dramatic shift.

One of the most precious ideas came naturally from the dominant thinking of my early years in the 1950 and 60s. My parent’s generation was protective of this principle.  It I simply stated by an American president in these words of Theodore Roosevelt when he taught, “the indispensable work of the community is not that of careers, industry, or research; it is the work of the wife and mother.  The women’s work in the home is more important than any man’s endeavors.  She does play a greater part.”

Roosevelt emphasized the essential role of child-rich families, upon which the “welfare of the nation” rests.   To him, the “birth-control” issue was the most serious of problems.  WOW---what a shift in thinking we have since then.

Another principle from President Roosevelt went like this:  “the highest ideal of the family can be obtained only where the father and mother stand to each other as lovers and friends”.  In my opinion, the majority of Americans still adhere to this ideal but there are signs of erosion. 

I recently heard a women say she had divorced her husband, but they still cared for each other.  Her rational was that they now received more help from the government because of their status as single parents.  What happen to, ask not what your country can do for you?  I worry about what happened to the American ideal of growing up to marry, have children, and become a responsible part of the workforce which helps grow the American dream and gross-national-product rather than drain its resources?

During the administration of Jimmy Carter the White house Conference on the American Family was changed from “Family” to “Families” and a few letters ‘ies’ heralded the beginning of the redefining of a traditional family to families on any composition. 

In an ill-conceived effort to articulate and shore-up the American Dream, the opposite happened and traditional families began to lose federal support as the shift to a dominate theme of Human Rights took over.  In a sense we threw the bedrock unit of society under the bus for the ‘rights’ of a few.   Human rights are essential when defined appropriately but can become a problem when everyone throws their very real personal struggle onboard.  The ship gets crowded and some are lost overboard in the storm. 

In the 1980s President Reagan brought support to the table for the traditional family in his rhetoric and policy making.  He consistently urged that we should “be sensitive to the perception of favoring one type of family arrangement over another.”  Most of the debate was centered on one versus two breadwinner families, not on single parent or homosexual issues.  President Reagan did his best to restore balance by bringing the pendulum back to the middle. 

During Reagan’s administration, capitalism was no longer perceived as the enemy of traditional families.  National policy could restore the likelihood of one breadwinner homes being able to live the “good-life”.  A report was prepared by a White House appointed twenty-two member interagency Commission known as Working Group on the Family.  In their report,  “The Family: Preserving America’s Future”, some policies of the previous two decades, identified as daycare, population control, no-fault divorce, sex education, and values clarification in schools, were “blasted” as abrasive experiments. 

The report stated “Intact families are good.  Families who choose to have children are making a desirable decision.  Mothers and fathers who then decide to spend a good deal of time raising those children themselves rather than leaving it to others are demonstrably doing a good thing for those children.  Public policy and the culture in general must support and reaffirm these decisions.”  

It always intrigues me when I see dramatic shifts in American thought over-time.  Especially when dominate political parties switch some platform bullet point with each other. Usually this has to do with what they think will get them the most votes.  The lust for power can be blinding.  They try to mix up the rhetoric somewhat, so as to not alienate any current supporters.  Gradually the pendulum swings precariously right or left and less often toward the middle. 

I am left to wonder if there is truth somewhere on the spectrum.  Is truth always the same or does it shift?  I happen to be one who believes truth is none-negotiable.  But that is not what this musing is about.  Shifts happen!  It is part of the American experiment.  It is what makes us the greatest nation on earth.  Freedom to think and speak as we wish is a gift to be valued.  However, when money and media dominate the debate, we get some unusual results. 

Wherever it came from, parents, education, experience, biblical thought, I am a firm believer in the need for traditional families. I think children help us grow up and become grounded in real life.  I think they help us learn to love unconditionally.  They shape our goals and aspirations in a realm of non-self serving ambition. 

As I approach retirement, I think about traveling and having some self-serving fun with my cancer surviving wife, but my major motivation seems to still center on trying to leave a useful legacy for my children and grandchildren and perhaps hopefully a good chunk of money. 

Here is how Roosevelt put it, “no other success in life, not being President, or being wealthy, or going to college, or anything else, comes up to the success of the man and women who can feel that they have done their duty and that their children and grandchildren rise up to call them blessed.”