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