Strong Recreation

The weekend approaches, remember that recreation is important. Recreation is defined by Earl Nightengale as an opportunity to re-create yourself. Taking time for yourself is much like hitting the reset button on your electronics, you have the opportunity to let the smaller problems of everyday life go even if just for a moment. Finding strength in downtime...now that is strong.

"A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change."-Earl Nightengale

-TODD

Do you have the strength to do what is right? Do I?

So far this early in the day I have seen homeless people soliciting on street corners, people rude in traffic & trash in the street...it is only 0900 AM as I write this. When I see someone who is truly in need I give, not to everyone, but I give blood, time and in certain cases money, I do let people merge in front of me and I will and do pick up trash littered about on the ground. I have never stopped a rape or murder, never been present to stop an abusive parent from beating their child. Not once have I driven into a disaster area to deliver aid to those who desperately need it. I gave to the red-cross after Katrina and my wife to the pet rescue efforts, but neither of us volunteered in the months or years after to contribute. What I need to ask myself is, am I doing my share, I think that there is room for improvement. So far this year I have volunteered at one charity event and given to the American Red Cross one time, I have one school charity gala planned for this year. Is that enough? I know I need to do more, I know I need to encourage others to do the same. If you read this please Google your County or City name followed by the words Volunteer opportunities, you WILL find many opportunities to give back close to home where you can see the results and your community can directly benefit. If we set the example of what a few stronger Americans can accomplish others will follow, they just need role models.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke

-TODD

+1

Every student has heard that there is strength in numbers. The more numbers in your bank account the more financial strength you can bring to bear, the more Marines in your Corps the more strength you can project on the world, etc. It is time to take a look at the number of people you surround yourself with at the most critical times; How many people do you consult when you need to make an important life or business decision, how many people are in your support network that you can look to when you need it the most...how many people are you there for when it matters. Unless you drink with experts in your field of business your drinking buddies may not be the best to consult, unless you really know the people you surround yourself with you may find you are turning to the wrong people at the wrong time. Unless you are a good friend, you may find that no one wants to be yours when you need it the most. Take some time to evaluate the relationships you have, take more time to cultivate relationships that will strengthen your life and the lives of the people you bring into your inner circle. It has often bee said that a man is judged by the company he keeps, I think that it is much more appropriate to say that a man (or woman) is limited or empowered by them.

Work together and be strong.

-Todd

Attitude

Americans as a whole are viewed to be optimistic, energetic and unwavering in the pursuit of their goals. Attitude is the basis for how we as individuals address the world and interact with those around us. Remember as you go out to conquer your own little piece of the world to embrace an attitude of progress and accomplishment. I don't mean in a fake-it-'till-you-make-it b.s. kind of way, but rather in a know who you are and be confident in yourself get-it-done kind of way, the way our fore-fathers did, the way that made Americans strong in the first place.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” -Henry Ford

-TODD

Go stand in the employment line

We are coming to a time in the history of the world where more people are literate than are not, where higher education is available to everyone (even those who did not complete high school.) When I was a child my mother told me that by the time I grew up I would need a college degree just to work at Mc Donald's. What I am finding out however is that even for those with an advanced degree there is no guarantee of employment. Knowing that I need to spend time on professional development, I recently underwent aptitude testing to provide some direction as I prepare to go back to school. The testing has provided me with some invaluable insight that is paying me back even now before attending any further schooling or changing careers. Even armed with this information I realize that in addition to new skills to better work within the guidelines of my own aptitudes I need to learn new career finding skills. To this end I have been reading "What color is your Parachute" by Richard Bolles. This book is updated annually and full of valuable resources and information and I highly recommend it to anyone seeking employment. I am posting this information as a reference to anyone reading, we all know that one of the largest problems we as Americans are facing is unemployment. My problem is not unemployment, I am searching for a more rewarding vocation. If anything from my journey helps even one American find stronger employment all I ask in return is that you pass it on and help another. With unemployment rates hovering above 10% in most of thee country we need not only to create jobs, we need to be worth employing and capable of finding those that need our skills before the job that could have bee ours is sent overseas. Learn about yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses and go apply yourself in a way that is uniquely yours, do your job in a way no one else can and rise to the top, do it for yourself, do it for your family, do it for America.

When we work together strategically to gain better employment and provide it to others we all become stronger.

-TODD

Stronger and Cleaner

I will make this one short and sweet, I was raised to be proactive, if something is not the way it should be-fix it. I have noticed in my area that a number of the communities do not have facilities for recycling. Including, unfortunately the one I live in. We all know the benefits of recycling so I won't go over that again here, this is about making America better and stronger and re-using our resources rather than throwing them away and buying again. I will be approaching the management of my community (I am married to her) with a prepared presentation including government tax incentives, ways to spotlight the progressive changes in the community, a potential layout for the facilities and a realistic cost analysis. Then I will encourage other communities in the area to follow suit. This type of project increases marketability for the community in addition to the better known long-term benefits to the Country (and at the risk of sounding like a tree-hugger,) the Earth. If this is something that you find needs improving in your neck of the woods you can find valuable tax incentive programs at BNA.com and of course from the EPA. Wherever you are look for things you can do and ways you can help to make America stronger.

A stronger American is just that, stronger...stand up and be a leader or just take responsibility for something...anything.

-TODD

Politically or actually correct

In 1994 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came in to force. The premise of this agreement is to allow easier trade between the U.S., Canada & Mexico. The reality however is that products made in these countries are no longer subject to tariff, tariff is a tax that is applied to foreign made goods and products as they cross the border into our country. This tax is supposed to provide a price barrier to allow American workers to receive a fair wage and still have our pricing be competitive with goods produced by underpaid foreign workers. Since 1994 and the end of the tariff on Mexican goods the importation and sale of Mexican made goods has increased exponentially. The manufacture of American made goods has declined at a similar rate and many of the goods previously made by American hands sadly are now made south of the border, the price paid to the remaining manufacturing workers here at home is substantially (on average) well below what workers were receiving at the time. There are multiple other countries (China, Taiwan, Etc.) that sell us a multitude of cut-rate goods pushing our products off the shelf based on expense, but this one speaks to me directly since I am originally from Michigan and I watched so many Auto manufacturing jobs go to Mexico as a result of this agreement. There are a terrible number of working opportunities that have left our borders however as a result of the implementation of NAFTA from Every State please take a look at this link to Citizen.org's map of job loss that provides greater detail on this subject. It is no secret that Congress has recently been heavily lobbied to vote for expansion of this agreement and undoubtedly will again, please remember that this only works in our favor if they buy more of our goods than we do of their's. At last tally we are as a nation making money on the trade agreement, my concern is not only the national profit--which is great, but the manufacturing jobs that have made our country a power and the economic center of the world. We must continue to purchase American made goods from American owned companies, this will increase the U.S. manufactured goods market and if more goods are made here, more goods can be sent to other countries for them to purchase.

We as Americans and trade partners can do better and we owe it to ourselves to do so.

-TODD

American Cheese update

While speaking with a close friend today on Facebook this very topic came up (fortuitous huh?) so I did a little on-the-fly research and came up with the following quick facts: One in eight Americans go hungry on a regular basis, one in 6 Americans live in poverty, Southern States high school graduation rates average between 47.6 and 67.1%, there are an estimated 380,000 homeless youths living on American Streets right now, there are an estimated 2.9 million children who are orphans or live without a parent in the U.S., there are an estimated 1,200,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in America. I thought that this was pertinent to today's topic and felt the need to share it. the truth is if you look, really look, you will find something just about everywhere that needs to be fixed and people that need help to do it.

"Help" -the Beatles---Yeah I know, they are a foreign band, the irony is killing me.

-TODD

American Cheese

I found something on Facebook yesterday that a friend posted stating, "Welfare was not meant to be a career option." I liked it, even shared it. It kept popping up in my mind all day that there are plenty of Americans out there that actually do need some form of help so I started doing a little research for today's post and discovered that the United States sends out more foreign aid than any other nation in the world and has more foreign support charities than any other country in the world. Now I find myself torn...is it better to send our money overseas to be distributed by other sovereign nations as socialized relief or is it better to let charity truly begin at home, if you read the title of this blog I don't need to answer my own question. Since as a taxpayer I am already contributing to the largest foreign aid programs in the history of the world I will share some info for giving at home. I have a soft spot for those who truly are not responsible for their situations in life and starting with kids and my list will reflect that, but what about victims of natural disasters and those that dedicate their lives to serving us, yeah they make the list too. At the top of my personal list is St. Judes Research Hospitals, The make-a-wish foundation, and American Red Cross, I have to include Goodwill since my Grandmother worked there for most of her life rehabilitating workers and testing them for job placement, If you would like to support the families of fallen law enforcement officers take a look at the BTLS Foundation My list would not be complete if I did not include the Wounded Warriors. If my list is not what you are looking for check out greatnonprofits.org or guidestar.org, guidestar is unique in my view as being a reference for the tax papers of non-profits so you know how much of your money gets to where you are trying to send it.

If you give of yourself, give of yourself to make America Stronger.

-TODD

Self-reliance revisited

Reduce-reuse-recycle, that has long been the catch phrase for saving our planet. I think that if you consider it to be a catch-phrase for saving your cash you can take it further. There are many different ways we as Americans can reduce the amount of crap we buy and subsequently throw away if we do a little creative thinking but since I know that we are not all creative thinkers, I have found a few resources that are jam-packed with great ideas. http://www.facebook.com/ModernPioneer is a page for facebook users that can show us how to reduce by growing our own food sans packaging, www.motherearthnews.com/ is a great little website that gets more involved in all three aspects of the phrase and they produce a printed magazine, if you are more interested in producing your own power as a way to reduce your spending take a look at www.proudgreenhome.com/ or www.thenakedscientists.com. According to Waste Management the average individual in my state is responsible for approximately 10 lbs. of trash daily, if we could prevent 1 lb of trash from being generated per person per week in my state alone that would be 52 lbs/year/person and 990,992,184 lbs/year for the state...in case numbers are not your thing that is almost 991 million pounds of trash if each person in Florida prevents one pound of trash per week. Remember that every time you unnecessarily spend your hard earned money on something you ultimately throw all or part of away, you are reducing your personal economy and throwing your cash away.

Reduce spending-reuse instead of rebuying-and recycle the money you have already spent.

-TODD

Sanctity of Marriage

Recently my wife and I quit smoking together, believe me having two people in the same house kicking the habit can be trying even at the best of times. This experience is giving me the opportunity to see what an unhappy home can be like. Overall my wife and I enjoy a pretty happy existence and don't fight and argue very often. Since we have had a few quarrels recently I have taken the opportunity to reflect on the strength of our marriage and am very impressed especially as compared to the home I grew up in as did my wife for that matter...we are both the product of broken homes and parents that for one reason or another did not stick it out and work through "good times and bad." Both of our Mothers for instance have had three husbands while our fathers both never remarried. Such similar histories have, I believe brought us to the determination separately and together to enter into and remain in marriage even/especially when we have to work for it. This determination and effort makes the good times all the better and the bad, not so bad, because we already know that we will make it through to the other side. The collapse of marriages and families in the U.S. breaks my heart and ruins more lives than can be counted. I know that for my family, we made our decisions before getting married and discussed the topic openly before committing our lives to each other before our family and friends, that is after all why the vows say "'till death do us part." Please if you are reading this, take the sanctity of marriage and family to heart before entering into a marriage or before even considering throwing away the vows you've made. If you believe that marriage can be temporary, maybe you should consider dating instead, after all the emotional and financial cost to yourself, your family and the nation will be greatly lessened.

A strong American from a strong family is a stronger American.

-TODD

Victory and self-reliance

Self-reliance or the ability and desire to do things yourself seems to have gone the way of the black and white T.V. The result seems to be that we buy everything, and often those things are imported. As an exercise to increase the self-reliant tendancies in the younger generation of my family, as well as decrease the shopping bills, we have put together a victory garden. No, there is no material difference between a vegetable garden and a victory garden, we thought it appropriate however to remind our youth of the historic importance of being self-reliant. Just as it helped in WWII so it helps now. Home gardening also has the added benefit of filling downtime with something other than T.V. something that gives a sense of accomplishment and helps our family eat healthier and grow stronger.

A well fed American is a stronger American

-TODD

Health and personal responsibility

A very hot topic right now is healthcare, we are constantly inundated with new buzzwords like "Obamacare, Romneycare, Etc. Two things that everyone seems to agree on are; 1.We as a society have many preventable health related problems i.e. Smoking, Obesity, etc. 2.We all pay for the increased costs of healthcare as a result. These can both be addressed best by each of us individually by taking personal responsibility for ourselves and our well-being. This is not to imply that each person is to blame for all of their ailments, but let us avoid the pretense that we have no responsibility for ourselves and our conditions. If each of us between the ages of 15 and 55 just once a week performs only 20 minutes of mild exercise we would burn an estimated 100-200 calories we will average that out to 150 calories per week per person and 23,664,750,000 for the nation per week. That equals 7800 calories/person per year and 1,230,567,000,000 for the nation per year remember that this is from only 20 minutes/week!!! When you bring that back to the basics of 20 Min of MILD exercise per person per week this demonstrates the power of cumulative effort. Now that we have come this far consider the effects if every individual in this demographic also ate one more salad per week and drink two extra glasses of water. I issue a challenge to anyone who reads this to do the above for the remainder of the year and if you smoke, stop, (I know it sucks I've done it...recently.) By following a recipe like this that requires a minimum of time (less than one hour/week,) we can cut our healthcare costs as a nation while improving our quality of life, now that is a stronger America for stronger Americans.

Take responsibility for yourself and take control of your own life.

-TODD

Personal Economy

Let's talk about personal economy, let's talk about saving. Talking about GDP and earnings is great but what about savings and retirement. A strong and stable society is composed largely of hard working smart individuals who plan for the future and are prepared to meet it. What do you do if you live paycheck to paycheck and your car breaks down or if you have a serious injury/illness and no nest egg? I do not know and I do not want to find out. Some of the best financial advice I have ever received was from a small business owner named Roger who became a friend and mentor to me, he said, "put away $10,000 to cover emergencies, it may take quite a while to do it, but make sure you do (if you save $100 every week it will take less than two years). When you have your emergency fund start putting away at least 15% of your annual income into solid long-term investments, that is your 15% for wealth building. And remember this is your actual paycheck so pay yourself before you pay anyone else, no one else will do it for you." I took this to heart and followed through, it has made a difference in almost all aspects of my life. This is also something I try to share with as many of my friends as will listen. A good starter long-term investment (and one I still invest in every year) is Treasury Direct. At this site I purchase government bonds, as long as I do not pull my money out early I have zero risk of losing it and guaranteed interest, not bad for a starter investment. I do also have a Roth with Vanguard with a targeted retirement account and other more sophisticated investments, but I believe that starting with something as long-term and low risk as possible is the wisest recommendation I can make to beginning investors/savers. Go start saving put away what you can and invest, maybe, just maybe you will not end up as a Walmart greeter at the age of eighty...here's hoping.

"A penny saved is a penny earned"-B. Franklin

-TODD