The Magic Bank Account

THE MAGIC BANK ACCOUNT

THE AUTHOR IS NOT KNOWN.

IT WAS FOUND IN THE BILLFOLD OF COACH PAUL BEAR BRYANT, ALABAMA, AFTER HE DIED IN 1982

Imagine that you had won the following *PRIZE* in a contest: Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use. However, this prize has rules:

The set of rules:

1. Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you.

2. You may not simply transfer money into some other account.

3. You may only spend it.

4. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.

5. The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, “Game Over!”. It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do?

You would buy anything and everything you wanted right? Not only for yourself, but for all the people you love and care for. Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right?

You would try to spend every penny, and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right?

ACTUALLY, This GAME is REAL …

Shocked ??? YES!

Each of us is already a winner of this *PRIZE*. We just can’t seem to see it.

The PRIZE is *TIME*

1. Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.

2. And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is Not credited to us.

3. What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost.

4. Yesterday is forever gone.

5. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING…

SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?

Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. Think about it and remember to enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

So take care of yourself, be happy, love deeply and enjoy life!

Here’s wishing you a wonderful and beautiful day. Start “spending”….

“DON’T COMPLAIN ABOUT GROWING OLD…!”

SOME PEOPLE DON’T GET THE PRIVILEGE!

Try to Remember

THOUGHT SOME OF YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS ...

‘Someone asked the other day, ‘What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?’
‘We didn’t have fast food when I was growing up,’

I informed him.

‘All the food was slow.’

‘C’mon, seriously. Where did you eat?’

‘It was a place called ‘at home,” I explained. !

‘Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.’

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn’t tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck.Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.

Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer.

I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow)

We didn’t have a television in our house until I was 19.

It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called ‘pizza pie.’ When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It’s still the best pizza I ever had.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn’t know weren’t already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home but milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers– my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6 AM every morning.

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren

Just don’t blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn’t what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother’s house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to ‘sprinkle’ clothes with because we didn’t have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.

Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.

Real ice boxes.

Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.

Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.

Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum

2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water

3. Candy cigarettes

4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

7. Party lines on the telephone

8. Newsreels before the movie

9. P.F. Flyers

10. Butch wax

11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels…[if you were fortunate]

12. Peashooters

13. Howdy Doody

14. 45 RPM records

15. S& H green stamps

16. Hi-fi’s

17. Metal ice trays with lever

18. Mimeograph paper

19. Blue flashbulb

20. Packards

21. Roller skate keys

22. Cork popguns

23. Drive-ins

24. Studebakers

25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You’re still young, If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older, If you remembered 11-15 = Don’t tell your age, If you remembered 16-25 = You’re older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

THEY ARE CHILDREN

503me's Blog

There is an ongoing humanitarian disaster happening at our border with Mexico. There are massive numbers of ‘children’ some as young as toddlers with older brothers and sisters crossing over the border. They have fled violence and poverty and many have no parents, and they have been not allowed to stop in any of the countries coming up toward our border. I would point out again that these are CHILDREN.

What kind of people and what kind of government would not take care of these children and offer them security and place to be? Well, that appears to be our country. They call them illegal and they say they have no business here- so they house them in squalid conditions and then they plan to send those without any family here, right back to where they came from. That is shameful. The comments of many people on the different sites…

View original post 208 more words

Republican Party Stands Opposed to Social Welfare

Social Welfare is the various social services provided by a state for the benefit of its citizens.

In the United States the range of services includes Social Security (a program that guarantees a stipend to all senior citizens), Medicare (a program that provides health care to all senior citizens), minimal support for those unable to earn a living (usually referred to as welfare), and unemployment benefits (for those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own). Those are the primary programs that American residents are entitled to when there is a need.

In every instance those programs have been opposed by the G.O.P. In every instance those programs were instituted when a Democrat held the office of President of the United States.

The current chairman of the House Budget Committee, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan has sustained the Republican view on social welfare programs with the following words copied from his web site.

The current Medicare program attempts to do two things to make sure that all seniors have secure, affordable health insurance that works. First, recognizing that seniors need extra protection when it comes to health coverage, it pools risk among all seniors to ensure that they enjoy secure access to care.

Second, Medicare subsidizes coverage for seniors to ensure that coverage is affordable. Affordability is a critical goal, but the subsidy structure of Medicare is fundamentally broken and drives costs in the wrong direction. The open-ended, blank-check nature of the Medicare subsidy drives health-care inflation at an astonishing pace, threatens the solvency of this critical program, and creates inexcusable levels of waste in the system.

Ryan’s solution:
Beginning in 2024, for those workers born in 1959 or later, Medicare would offer them a choice of private plans competing alongside the traditional fee-for-service option on a new Medicare Exchange. Medicare would provide a premium-support payment either to pay for or to offset the premium of the plan chosen by the senior.

The Medicare Exchange would provide seniors a competitive marketplace in which they could choose a plan the same way members of Congress and federal employees do. Every plan, including the traditional fee-for-service option, would participate in an annual bidding process to determine the federal contribution seniors would receive to purchase coverage. Health-care plans would compete for the right to serve Medicare beneficiaries.

What Ryan calls “the president’s partisan health-care law” is an appointed government board like the FCC, the FDA, the FAA, and dozens of other appointed boards. He favors the unelected bureaucrats in privately owned insurance companies that answer to private enterprise. His view is those government bureaucrats aren’t as reliable to private company bureaucrats.

Ryan goes on to say The President’s partisan health-care law creates an unaccountable board of 15 unelected bureaucrats—the Independent Payment Advisory Board—empowered to cut Medicare in ways that will result in denied care and restricted access for seniors. The bureaucrat imposed cuts threaten critical care for current seniors and fail to strengthen Medicare for future generations.

So is it the blank-check nature of Medicare or 15 unelected bureaucrats that will be threatening current seniors? Ryan has covered both possibilities in his contradictory analysis.

The point is that Republicans are trying their very best to end Medicare, Social Security, and all other social welfare programs. They offer no substitutes. Their obsession with free market principles is the view of the rich who say they have no responsibility for the less well off.

There are many other reasons to oppose Republicans but that will be addressed on another day.

Saving for Retirement

Living in one of the highest cost of living cities in the nation made saving for retirement a very difficult task. Los Angeles-Long Beach California had a composite index of 136.4% on 2010. The issue is the cost of housing. That is 207.1% or more than twice the national average. Costs for other things like food, utilities, and transportation are just slightly over the national average. A middle class income left little for savings.

Even if you don’t live on the Pacific coast or in Manhattan you are probably unprepared to meet retirement expenses. That is the results according to a survey by Fidelity Investments.

The problem with this survey is the sponsor. Fidelity Investments wants to encourage you to increase your savings rate because managing savings investments is their business.

We live in a consumption economy. The stores keep trying to sell you the latest, greatest whatever. There is hardly a day that does not have a Macy’s ad in the newspaper. Internet web sites all have links to the things you probably didn’t know you needed. The credit card only helps you to buy the stuff you really do not need.

Ban credit cards in your house. Shop at Sears and Penney’s. Stay out of Macy’s, Lord and Taylor’s, and Nordstrom’s.

Before you pay a single bill each month pay yourself in the form of a fixed amount of savings.

Saving Money in Retirement

Once retired you now try to find ways to lower your daily living expenses. After all the typical $1,200 Social Security check won’t meet the needs and wants we all have.

Social Security is a safety net. It was never meant to be your only source of income in retirement. The problem is that many people saved too little during their working years to have a significant retirement savings.

That brings us to finding ways to reduce our cost of living. Even if you own your home and have no mortgage payment, living on Social Security alone will not provide a comfortable living arrangement.

I have considered the options. I know of only two. Neither is appealing but both are doable.

Obtain a Reverse Mortgage. As long as you maintain your home, pay the property taxes, and fire insurance you can receive a monthly income as the outstanding mortgage grows. The house must be sold once you and your spouse have died. The difference between the mortgage and the house’s value will go to your heirs. The mortgage company has no claim against your heirs if the house sells for less than the outstanding mortgage. Reverse mortgages are expensive but will enable you to live in your home for the rest of your life.
Sell your house and move to a smaller city or town where home prices are low and live off the income you obtain from that big house in the city. The down side is that small towns may be far away from the places you know and love.

The 8 Least Expensive Places To Live in the U.S. according to Wall Street Cheat Sheet suggests some possibilities. They are all small towns that are not located on interstate highways. My guess is Red-Necks prevail.

The AARP list Retire to a Good Life for Less suggests “10 low-cost cities where you can live in comfort no matter how big (or small) your savings account” is an unrealistic view of the real world. Your savings do matter no matter where you live.

Brownsville, Texas

I went one step further. I researched using Google for the BLS cost of living data for 34 “selected urban areas.” The list includes small town I have never heard of and are very remote. Then downloading the results and
sorting for the Composite Index. Listing the lowest cost as number 1. The results are as follows.

The town with the lowest composite cost of living is Harlingen, Texas. Population 65,679. Nearest city over 100,000 is Brownsville, Texas. Brownsville has the third lowest in cost of living. Its estimated median household income in 2011: $31,850 (it was $24,468 in 2000). The population has grown by 29% since 2000. The growth was not brought on by seniors. Median age is less than 30. The city is on the border with Mexico. Harlingen is 26.2 miles north. UTB is the University of Texas Brownsville and should indicate there is more to the city than low income population. Low winter temperatures are rarely if ever below 40º F.

Indianapolis, Indiana is number 7 lowest in cost of living. With population of over 800,000 people it can offer a variety of opportunities and things to do.

Covington, Kentucky is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati and is number 9.

None of these locations match my Mediterranean climate in Los Angeles. A high cost location (31 highest out of 34). I grew up here. My family and friends are here. Those things are more important to me.

A clown in a wheelchair passes by

Al Martinez | August 9, 2013

Martinez relates to an angry clown in a wheel chair as a circus parade of humanity flows down the Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, California.
More

Retirement Paradise

As I review the options I am horrified. The reason is that most of us do not have the funds needed to live the same lives we lived when we were employed. Social Security in the United States provides an average of $1,230 per month. The Maximum Social Security Benefit for a Worker Retiring at Full Retirement Age is $2,513 per month. So even if both spouses are eligible for the maximum benefit, an unlikely occurrence, the benefit would be $5,026 per month. You have to save significant amounts to impact your retirement income. I knew about the need to save a long time ago. Feeding the family, paying the mortgage, and all the other bills just made this a difficult assignment to fulfill.

Then I read “Baby boomers’ mobile-home paradise” in The Week magazine. I found this article depressing. Most of these people are poor. They have little to do to occupy their time. How many times can you walk on the beach? Pismo Beach is in a particularly bad spot in terms of warm days. Every time we stop there on the way to San Francisco the sky is overcast or it’s a sunny but very windy day.

When my parents moved into Leisure World in Orange County, California (now called Laguna Woods) they at least had the money to enjoy their retired years. That community has literally dozens of clubs and groups for a variety of interests. The sad reality is that most people are not as fortunate as they were. They accumulated the money by living in poor working class neighborhoods all of their working years. When I grew up we shopped at Sears and JC Penney’s. Cars were driven until their next destination was the junk yard.

All retirement communities have two things in common – 1) you are surrounded by people at least your age and 2) your next move is to the grave yard.

As long as I am able to drive my car I believe I would be better off remaining in my home. Mostly, it’s paid for. I know the neighborhood. I have easy access to shopping, doctors, and educational opportunities. When I can’t drive a car I might consider Leisure World. It’s expensive but I can’t take my money with me.

Social Security is a Promise that will be Hard to Keep

Chained CPI is only the beginning of many other factors that will limit future payout.

Here is an unpleasant fact about Social Security. The system was designed in the 1930s. Life expectancy at birth in 1930 was indeed only 58 for men and 62 for women, and the retirement age was 65. Reported in USA Today, Social Security’s original retirement age of 65 was set in 1935 when life expectancy was 63. Today, life expectancy is 77 — and, for those who live to 65, life expectancy is 83. The system used to benefit financially from people who paid Social Security taxes but died before collecting any benefits.

When Social Security was implemented almost 54% of men could expect to live to age 65 if they survived to age 21, and those who attained age 65 could expect to collect Social Security benefits for almost 13 years (and the numbers are even higher for women). Men attaining 65 in 1990 can expect to live for 15.3 years compared to 12.7 years for men attaining 65 back in 1940. This is data supplied by the Social Security Administration.

Some of the data is murky and can be interpreted to support your particular views.

I entered all of my Social Security contributions for my entire working years. I then calculated their future value in an Excel spreadsheet. The calculation included the employer contributions. I compounded the interest at 5% (Future Value Calculator for Single Payment-the annual contribution). The results were enough money contributed to last 13 years. But that calculation was made the year after I retired. Since then my monthly SS income has increased. As the increases continue my contributions may be consumed in ten years.

With growing numbers of people living into their 80s and 90s where will the money come from to pay their SS checks? My guess is it will come from the general revenue of the United States. That is the reason that chained CPI is inevitable as is a later retirement age.