Wise words: Money Pearls

Money Pearls: 12 Personal Finance Best Practices

1. Bless your bills; love your responsibilities. Your mortgage, your car payment, your kid’s school tuition… All the things you “have to pay for” are also evidence of your level of participation in the world, the by-products of past success, and your present/future ability to provide for yourself and those you love.

2. Stop blaming materialism for soullessness. If your Things don’t have meaning it may be your own lack of imagination.

3. Be conscious about your finances. Even if the truth is ugly and it’s absolutely painful — know your bank account balances; know where, when, how, and why you spend money. You cannot change what you don’t acknowledge.

4. Pick a Pretend Zero. What do need to feel financially safe enough to at least breathe without hyperventilating? Is it three months worth of living expenses in a savings account? Is it six months worth of salary? Is it a goal number in your 401K? Is it to always have $2000 in your checking account? Behave as if that number IS Rock Bottom.

5. Upgrade your income without upgrading your lifestyle. Perhaps the wisest practice of all…Create more wealth than you need to; spend less than you want to.

6. Do not think and never say “I cannot afford it.” Instead, ask “How can I afford it?” or “What can I do to afford it?”

7. Poverty of the mind is a decision. “This card is approved” and “This card is declined” have the exact same number of letters. These extremely opposing statements take up the same amount of space. It takes the same amount of time and energy just to visualize either one… Which message will you choose to work with?

8. Learn how to discern when your urge to consume is a sedative for your desire to create. You’re either consuming or contributing. Both are fine — you should occupy both roles. Just be a Creator/Contributor more often.

9. Don’t try to force yourself to create when you’re stressed about finances. Money may not be able to buy happiness or a sense of self worth but it does buy me the freedom to create — and creating is one of my sources of self-esteem and fulfillment (not to mention, more income).

10. Get rid of unrealistic (short-term) time frames. Wherever you can, throw them away. Financial expectations that revolve around narrowly-defined time frames, deadlines, and milestones make the perfect armatures for disappointment and sabotaging self-criticism.

11. Give. Be generous. You can’t receive money with a closed fist. (I think this is an Oprahism.)

12. Get real. Solve “real world” third-dimensional problems with practical third-dimensional solutions. If your car breaks down, you don’t stand on the side
of the road and “meditate” about it — you hire a mechanic to fix it.

ZW49RDSEDBFC

Ken Burn's Civil War

Caught the series again this past week, the story of this war never fails to astound in the enormity of life lost.

Photo site


Abolition in other parts of the world were less devastating, with varying reasons:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/

Hey Mr. Spaceman

New FBI ‘vault’ discusses Utah UFOs, other secrets

By Lee Davidson

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: April 9, 2011 10:29AM
Updated: April 9, 2011 12:12AM

On April 4, 1949, FBI agents in Utah sent a cable marked “urgent” to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. It said an Army guard at the Ogden Supply Depot, a Logan policeman and a Utah Highway Patrol officer in Mantua each saw from miles apart a UFO — which they said exploded over Utah.

Under the title “Flying Discs,” the cable said they “saw a silver colored object high up approaching the mountains at Sardine Canyon” that “appeared to explode in a rash of fire. Several residents at Trenton … [reported] seeing what appeared to be two aerial explosions followed by falling object.”

That and other documents show the FBI was investigating whether UFOs were real, and it figured they could be. Such documents are now available in “The Vault,” vault.fbi.gov, a revamped FBI website for documents that have been released through the Freedom of Information Act and have been recently or often requested.

Besides talking about Utah UFOs, other Utah-related documents on the website look at such things as FBI snooping into whether the Salt Lake City NAACP had been infiltrated by communists; a death threat in Utah against Lady Bird Johnson; and Hoover lambasting W. Cleon Skousen — a Utahn who has become an icon of the tea party movement.

“The new website significantly increases the number of available FBI files, enhances the speed at which the files can be accessed, and contains a robust search capability,” David Hardy, chief of the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section, said in a statement.

One document shows that the Logan UFO incident occurred two weeks after the FBI told bureaus that a “reliable and confidential source” reported that “flying discs are believed to be man-made missiles rather than natural phenomenon. It has also been determined that for approximately the past four years the USSR [Soviet Union] has been engaged in experimentation on an unknown type of flying disc.”

Documents show that an earlier UFO sighting had been investigated in Logan in September 1947. It said numerous witnesses told the FBI they saw “flying discs” in formation that were “circling the city at a high rate of speed.”

Most interestingly, on March 22, 1950, Guy Hottel, the agent in charge of the Washington Field Office, sent a memo reporting that an Air Force source said that flying saucers had crashed near Ros­well, N.M., and had been recovered.

“They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots,” it said.

Documents on the new website also show such things as a letter that Hoover wrote to a nun in 1962 criticizing Skousen, a former FBI agent who then was writing books and giving speeches on communism and conservative principles that later would make him vocally admired by many tea party leaders today, including TV and radio personality Glenn Beck.

“Former Special Agents of the FBI are not necessarily experts on communism. Some of them have sought to capitalize on their former employment with this Bureau for the purpose of establishing themselves as such authorities,” Hoover said in replying to questions from Sister Mary Shaun about Skousen.

“I am firmly convinced there are too many self-styled experts on communism, without valid credentials and without any access whatsoever to classified, factual data, who are engaging in rumor mongering and hurling false and wholly unsubstantiated allegations against people whose views differ from their own. This makes more difficult the task of the professional investigator,” Hoover wrote.

Other documents show the FBI in the 1950s was looking at whether the Salt Lake NAACP was infiltrated by communists, and was keeping track of its leaders and their backgrounds.

A memo said the Communist Party wanted the NAACP “to win leadership among negro organizations,” and “various attempts have been made by the CP [Communist Party] to infiltrate and dominate certain NAACP branches through the country.”

Another document shows that a threat against Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady, was sent to the FBI’s Salt Lake City office in 1988 in an anonymous letter saying she “must die.” Agents found it was likely sent by a New Mexico woman who was mentally ill, and no charges were filed against her.

—

Look inside the FBI’s “Vault”

 Old secrets of the FBI can now be seen at its new website, “The Vault.” 

It shows digital images of FBI documents that have been released through the Freedom of Information Act and have been recently or often requested.

It contains Utah-related files that discuss such things as UFOs in Utah; snooping into whether the Utah NAACP had been infiltrated by communists; a death threat in Utah against Lady Bird Johnson; serial killer and one-time University of Utah student Ted Bundy; and former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover lambasting W. Cleon Skousen (a Utahn who has become an icon of the tea party movement).

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© 2011 The Salt Lake Tribune

Kindler, Gentler World

Kindle 3G 

I made the trip to eReaderville a few months ago and I'm still awed that my approach to reading could change to this extent.

I am a book snob. I adore the scent and crisp feel of a newly pressed book but the advantages of paperless perusal are many. I checked out the NOOK in the B&N bookstore and researched Amazon's Kindle online. I chose the Kindle based on the many thousands of 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon and the overall cost.


A few of the issues I grappled with before buying a Kindle and my thoughts since which might assist a potential buyer:

Cost of reader

I paid the extra $50 for the 3G model instead of it's WiFi- only counterpart. In the short time I've had it, 3G rode to the rescue when I needed to Google-map a thruway entrance point while in an unfamiliar part of the city. That occasion alone had me pleased that I chose this model. The browser is way clumsy and not what a Kindle is intended for, but it worked in a pinch when I was in need. My earlier inclination for 3G was influenced by the fact that I live in an area that is prone to power outages during bad weather. I *gulp* wouldn't want to be without capability to get new reading material without the electricity-driven WiFi connection . Anyway, it's a one time fee for connectivity that will last the life of the Kindle and I do recommend it.

Reading material

Easy to download and surprisingly reasonable in price. Like, free even. The most I've paid for a Kindle book yet is $9.99. Two of those are the novels New York: The Novel and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, both of which I plan to read over the summer. The rest of the books I've downloaded were either free or in the 0.99 to $5.99 range, a fraction of paperback or hardcover editions. I haven't subscribed to any newspaper or magazine yet, but I have gotten a couple of Kindle Singles ; short stories and quickie reads.


In a nutshell, the turning point came for me when I was transferring the contents of my previous car trunk to my new one. What a persistent little clutter problem I'd developed, books being the main culprit. I wound up throwing many, many books into a nearby trash can because I couldn't bear the thought of riding around with them in the trunk for a few more years only to find their way into my next car. The trip to the used bookstore that I've been meaning to make for oh, about 15 years that never seems to materialize is now a vexation of the past and I can finally move forward without guilt or trunk bedlam to slow me down.