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Archive for September, 2008

A LITTLE CHANGE CAN SAVE A LOT……….

September 26th, 2008
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(summary by editor)

 

Bruce and Jennifer Pivnick slashed their insurance costs without reducing their coverage.

Mitzi and Jimmie Walker discovered that food cooked at home tastes as good as take-out and costs a lot less.

THE CHALLENGE BEGINS: Story and VIDEO: Can the Walkers and Pivnicks trim their expenses?

And in the course of 30 days as they lived on new, tight budgets, both families learned that small lifestyle changes can add up to big savings. Each family slashed spending, saving more than $1,000.

“The biggest challenge,” Jennifer Pivnick says, “is overcoming your wants.”

Like millions of families, the Pivnicks and the Walkers haven’t saved much. Yet, at a time the economy is faltering, an emergency fund is vital, financial planners say.

The Pivnicks and the Walkers agreed this summer to participate in the Frugal Family Challenge, a project created by USA TODAY in conjunction with ABC’s Good Morning America Weekend. With help from financial planners, both families agreed to try to live within a spending plan for 30 days, starting in early August.

The results are in, and they’re impressive. Here’s a look:

THE PIVNICKS

Bypass brand loyalty for best deal

Jennifer and Bruce Pivnick of Richardson, Texas, have never been big spenders. Jennifer, 34, says she can’t imagine ever spending $5 for a cup of coffee. They rarely take vacations, and eat out only once a week.

In 2005, the Pivnicks moved from Southern California because they believed Texas was more affordable for their growing family.

Bruce is a regional sales manager for Clipper, a direct-mail coupon magazine (Clipper is owned by Gannett, which also owns USA TODAY). Jennifer has a home-based business selling custom-made rhinestone T-shirts and other apparel.

But while home prices are lower in Texas, their property taxes are higher. Energy costs are higher, too: In July, their air-conditioning bill topped $700.

Groceries are less expensive, but with four children, ages 3 to 13, the Pivnicks still spend about $1,000 a month on food. They’ve also been hit hard by rising gas prices.

Still, during the 30-day challenge the Pivnicks made some significant changes in their finances. They cut their expenses by more than $700 and saved nearly $1,000 for retirement.

To reach that goal, they:

 

For the article click on: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/2008-09-26-frugal-families-winners_N.htm

 

 

Hard Times

EVERY WARRIOR OF THE LIGHT……

September 26th, 2008
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Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle.

Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.

Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his.

Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.

Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.

Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’

Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.

That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.

Paulo Coelho : author of The Alchemist

Source: Warrior of the Light
For more quotes click on: http://www.gaia.com/quotes/Paulo_Coelho?page=75

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SHOULD POLITICS BE PREACHED FROM A PULPIT?

September 26th, 2008
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The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal advocacy organization, is causing a bit of a stir with its call for clergy this Sunday to speak out about candidates for public office, in defiance of IRS regulations limiting political speech from the pulpit. (The regulations allow congregations, as tax-exempt organizations, to take positions on issues, but not on specific candidates.) The ADF is hoping that the event, which it has dubbed “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” will lead to a test case challenging the regulations. An excerpt from the ADF’s argument: For the rest of the article click on: 

 
But the restrictions have many defenders as well, among them Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of Interfaith Alliance, which has launched a competing campaign to maintain the boundary between pulpits and politics. Gaddy said in a sermon last weekend:
“I cannot stress strongly enough my objections to turning houses of worship into pseudo-precinct nominating conventions. I am as concerned about what such a practice in houses of worship would do to the integrity and credibility of religion as about what it would do to weaken the Constitution.”

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5 STAGES OF CHANGE YOU CAN USE IN CRITICAL TIMES….

September 26th, 2008
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(You can apply these stages to the changes going on in our economy.  What stages are those with different beliefs in?  The following are quoted from articles-mackie)
 
 
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was born on July 8, 1926 in Zürich, Switzerland, one of triplets. Elizabeth was born fifteen minutes before her identical sister. Minutes after came her fraternal sister. [2] She graduated from the University of Zürich medical school in 1957.
 
She moved to the United States in 1958 to work and continue her studies in New York.
As she began her practice, she was appalled by the hospital treatment of patients who were dying. She began giving a series of lectures featuring terminally ill patients, forcing medical students to confront people who were dying. Her extensive work with the dying led to On Death and Dying in 1969. She wrote over 20 additional books on the subject of dying.
She also proposed the now famous Five Stages of Grief as a pattern of phases, most or all of which people tend to go through, not always in sequence, after being faced with the tragedy of their own impending death. The five stages of grief, in sequential order, are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The five stages have since been adopted by many as applying to the survivors of a loved one’s death, as well.
 
 
 
 
The stages are:
  1. Denial:
    • Example – “I feel fine.”; “This can’t be happening.”‘Not to me!”
  2. Anger:
    • Example – “Why me? It’s not fair!” “NO! NO! How can you accept this!”
  3. Bargaining:
    • Example – “Just let me live to see my children graduate.”; “I’ll do anything, can’t you stretch it out? A few more years.”
  4. Depression:
    • Example – “I’m so sad, why bother with anything?”; “I’m going to die . . . What’s the point?”
  5. Acceptance:
    • Example – “It’s going to be OK.”; “I can’t fight it, I may as well prepare for it.”
 
Kübler-Ross originally applied these stages to any form of catastrophic personal loss (job, income, freedom). This also includes the death of a loved one, divorce, drug addiction, or infertility. Kübler-Ross also claimed these steps do not necessarily come in the order noted above, nor are all steps experienced by all patients, though she stated a person will always experience at least two.
 
Others have noticed that any significant personal change can elicit these stages. For example, experienced criminal defense attorneys are aware that defendants who are facing stiff sentences, yet have no defenses or mitigating factors to lessen their sentences, often experience the stages. Accordingly, they must get to the acceptance stage before they are prepared to plead guilty.
 
Additionally, the change in circumstances does not always have to be a negative one, just significant enough to cause a grief response to the loss (Scire, 2007). Accepting a new work position, for example, causes one to lose their routine, workplace friendships, familiar drive to work, or even customary lunch sources.
 
 
(Her model has been adapted for many changes that occur in our personal and business lives. -mackie)

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THE GROWING DEPRESSION (God is not causing it!)

September 26th, 2008
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TOP 5 CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

 
(if we don’t read history we repeat it)
 
What caused the Great Depression, the worst economic depression in US history? It was not just one factor, but instead a combination of domestic and worldwide conditions that led to the Great Depression. As such, there is no agreed upon list of all the causes of the Great Depression. Here instead is a list of the top reasons that historians and economists have cited as causing the Great Depression.
 
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Scottsdale economist sees parallels to Great Depression
 
 
 
 

LARGEST BANK IN U. S. HISTORY FAILS

 
Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. became the biggest U.S. bank by deposits, acquiring Washington Mutual Inc.’s branch network for $1.9 billion after the thrift was seized in the largest U.S. bank failure in history.
 
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GAS SHORTAGE TO CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS

 
Atlanta – The effects of hurricane Ike largely emptied two critical gasoline pipelines that feed much of the South, leading to widespread panic-buying, shuttered pumps, and even some fistfights as motorists vied for precious drops of gas from Anniston, Ala., to Asheville, N.C.
Although public officials called for calm, promising quick relief, experts such as Atlanta gasoline distributor Tex Pitfield said it could actually take another two weeks for supplies to ramp up.
That’s because the widespread flooding and power outages that shut down 15 Houston-area refineries are not the only reasons why some 75 percent of gas stations in the region have plastic bags over their pump handles.
 
 
 
 

WHAT TO DO DURING TOUGH TIMES

 
After being diagnosed with debilitating arthritis and forced to retire on disability from her civilian job with the Army, Kim R. Love, 49, of Chesapeake, Va., didn’t think things could get worse. But then her husband, Grady, 58, lost his shipping job and later suffered a heart attack. Last February, without health insurance and no income, they moved into the five-bedroom house where Love grew up with her parents, now retired and in their 60s.
“I never thought I would be back at home in my own bedroom,” Love says.
 
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IN TIMES OF FEAR WE NEED TO PAUSE, LOOK AT THE DYNAMICS, MAKE SURE ALL CONCERNED ARE TREATED FAIRLY, DECIDE ON THE BEST COURSE TO TAKE AND DO IT, DON’T YOU THINK?
 
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Government