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5 Steps to a Rich-Enough Retirement

10/11/2010 Nativegrl77

By Comcast Finance
For What it’s Worth

Editor’s Note: This post by Jennie L. Phipps originally appeared on September 23 on WalletPop.com.

If you drive a car without knowing where you want to go, who knows where you’ll end up? The same thing applies to retirement. If you head out into the unexplored wilderness of later life with no plan, chances are you’ll find yourself in a place where you don’t want to be.

Money magazine offers 7 Steps to a Richer Retirement. It’s a little long, but if you’ve got lots of time, read it. If your schedule’s tight, take a quick look at these 5 Steps to a Rich-Enough Retirement, gleaned from folks who have good retirement road maps and concise advice.

Related stories at WalletPop.com
• 25 Best Places to Retire • Worst States to Retire • Women Fall Short in Retirement

Step 1: Find something you love to do. 88-year-old Mort Walker, who has been creating the cartoon strip Beetle Bailey for the last 60 years, says cartooning is his passion and he has no reason to quit. Beetle can be read in 1,800 newspapers worldwide. Walker and three other people meet once a month to come up with ideas for the perpetual army private and his boss Sarge, then Walker takes the 30 best ideas, polishes them and turns them into cartoons. “You have to keep being creative,” he says. “How could I retire and stop giving people their daily cartoon fix?”

Step 2: Have a solid financial blueprint. Lee Eisenberg, former editor-in-chief of Esquire, and author of The Number, a best-selling book about retirement, says when it comes to figuring out a retirement financial plan, too many Baby Boomers suffer from “IDD – “inspiration deficit disorder.” So they are headed into retirement with no plan. “Unless they really want to spend the last days of their lives in government-run nursing homes, they should get off the dime and put some kind of plan in place,” he says

Step 3: Don’t quit earning money early. It costs too much. 114-year-old Walter Breuning of Great Falls, Mont., was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest living man on his birthday, Sept. 21. Breuning’s advice on retirement: “Stay working as long as you can and don’t retire too early because you’ll find out you need a little more money than what Social Security pays.”

Step 4: Stay healthy. Exercise guru Jack LaLanne, who will turn 96 on Sept. 26, has this to say about retirement: “When you slow down too much, you come to a stop. So many older people, they just sit around all day long and they don’t get any exercise. Their muscles atrophy, and they lose their strength, their energy and vitality by inactivity.”

Step 5: Have a good fallback plan. As 58-year-old country singer George Strait croons, “If you’re headed down a one-way street and you’re not sure it’s the way you wanna go; In money or love or all the above … you’ve got to have an ace in the hole.”

Do you have any retirement tips? Share them here.

WalletPop.com is one of the leading consumer finance sites on the Web. Find the latest deals, bargains, consumer protection and personal finance information quickly. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comcast.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Double your power to change the world

10/06/2010 Nativegrl77

CARE -- Mothers are the pillar of the home. Help her live, learn and earn. Double your gift now

Your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar for the next 10 days. Give today to double your power to change the world. -- Double your gift now

Last week, I asked you to help us meet our goal of raising $3 million to invest in poor girls and women to empower them to escape poverty for good.

I’m thrilled to tell you that generous friends of CARE have committed to helping us reach our goal even sooner, by matching every dollar you give, up to $1 million. But this special opportunity is only good for the next 10 days.

That means, when you give within the next 10 days until the end of the day on Saturday, October 16, your gift of $15 becomes $30, $25 becomes $50.

Investing in girls and women is one of the smartest choices you can make. Girls and women comprise the largest portion of those who are poor and uneducated in the world.

They also face greater health risks. Almost every minute of the day, a mother dies during pregnancy or childbirth, leaving her children vulnerable to a similar fate. We know how to prevent almost every single one of those deaths, but we need your support to help deliver these lifesaving programs.

“The mother is the pillar of the home. If a woman dies, the children don’t know where to go. If the mother lives, the family will stay together. That’s why we focus on saving the mother’s life,” says Bacilia Vivanco, a midwife at CARE-supported Ayacucho Regional Hospital in Peru.

Our work doesn’t stop with health care. We also help girls and women tap into educational and financial resources that enrich their capacity to learn and earn. As a result, girls and women, and their families and communities all benefit.

That’s also why we’ve set an ambitious goal of raising $3 million from now until the end of the year. But please don’t wait. You only have through October 16 to get more bang for your buck. Double your power to change the world by making your gift today!

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH
President and CEO, CARE

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

What you can do to fight poverty

10/03/2010 Nativegrl77

3 ways you can fight poverty -- $3 million can: help save lives -- help educate girls -- help women start their own businesses -- Donate now

Fatima didn’t have a chance.

Instead of learning how to read and write as a child, she fetched water and herded livestock. At the age of 15, her father forced her to marry. Today, she is the mother of eight children.

Although Fatima and her family struggle to make ends meet, she didn’t see the value of sending her eldest daughter to school. “I told myself that she will get married like me and she does not need education,” Fatima said.

Fatima’s daughter faced the same grim future as herself — forced to live a life that wasn’t on her own terms. When a girl marries young, she usually drops out of school to start a family, but faces a greater chance of dying in childbirth. She’s also less likely to earn enough to support herself and her family and keep them healthy. One generation follows the next, locked in a vicious cycle of poverty.

You can help break this cycle. By making a tax-deductible gift today, you’ll help empower women and girls in the world’s poorest countries to access the education and resources they need to lift themselves and their families out of poverty for good.

Fatima is on her way. She joined a CARE-sponsored women’s group and learned to read and write. A whole new world opened before her eyes, and Fatima realized she had the power to change the course of her daughter’s future. With a basic education, her daughter could chart her own path. Fatima’s daughter is in school today — and she’s learning leadership skills with CARE that will serve her for her entire life.

When you invest in empowering poor women and girls like Fatima and her daughter, they can create a promising future for themselves, their families and their whole communities! Fatima took the first step. Now it’s your turn.

We’ve set an ambitious goal of raising $3 million online between now and December 31, and we invite you to give to CARE today to help us reach it.

Here are examples of how far a gift to CARE can go overseas:

$25 can provide a village savings and loan group with start-up materials to help put women and families on the path to financial empowerment
$49 can send a girl to school for a year
$62 can train a community health worker to provide care and hospital referrals to expectant mothers

As you can see, with the support of people like you, CARE can reach thousands of girls and women. Please give today so that CARE can continue helping women like Fatima who are creating a brighter future for themselves, their families and their communities.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH
President and CEO, CARE

~ my 2cents ...

thorny Thursday &some News

09/30/2010 Nativegrl77

Today is the last day of September and while the summer heat should make it to the 206 by the end of the day, it is quite nice outside, contrary to what others are experiencing on the east coast and the Caribbean.

I was looking through my email and subscriptions, came across the Mike Wolff editorial, and gotta say it’s too early to be getting this heated but the words, the implications and what really upset me was a need of his to generalize. I am a big believer in not making general statements or having general attitudes about anyone or thing. I thought that seemed like common sense, yet a guy who makes more money than i will ever see in my entire life decided to go there about President Obama… like so many cable pundits who label themselves as liberals and or progressives who seem to be on the attack in a moment when we need our party, as big as it is united as one group to get more true democrats on the floor of Congress instead of engaging in Political Party sabotage. I am only one person hopefully there are more people feeling some left of center are grooming the viewer for a move to support someone else in 2012, but that is just my take on what I have been hearing on cable and the airwaves. My point is that there just aren’t a lot of folks getting air time to say yes left of center folks have their opinion but they do not represent me. The growing numbers of pundits who call themselves progressives have begun to use their platforms to stir up trouble. I have no power to change the attitudes out there but I will not sit back and accept the BS that Wolff and other media types like him are engaging in. I get it Mike Wolff stepped out there and took a risk to make his opinion known, so did Arianna Huffington, ed Shultz, bill Maher as well as Michael Moore. The comments have been called supportive criticisms to push the President …well the question is push him where out of office because what I hear is not what I would call constructive criticism from these people. I hear what they didn’t get from him, what he hasn’t done for them and what they did for him and will do to him… in some cases I feel some have used folks to take responsibility for the distaste and have decided to hold their votes until at least the President contacts them. I wonder where these people got the idea to decide to sit out the 2010 mid-term elections let alone get on TV and announce their intention to have a tantrum in order to get their way like Sen. Landrieu. The list of those left of center making comments that the viewer unfortunately has been groomed to trust is endless but as a regular citizen and a democrat that truly supports this President. I have a problem with Congress and the rule of 60. The conversation out there among some left of center pundits is I will be honest is starting to worry me. I understand freedom of speech but it also comes with a responsibility to include some truth and I just did not feel this editorial lived up to that but again that is just my opinion. Millions of people will see his article but those regular folks who disagree can only return barbs and comments in a limited fashion which are then screened and maybe someone who is reading the article will see the comment but in the meanwhile mike Wolff can sit back and take it all in without really having to take questions or defend his position. The article was not just offensive to me but seemed close to race baiting, out of touch and on the edge of discrimination.

Anyway, my response is below

Ok, I will take the bait …because that is what you are up to Mr. Wolff… We all have opinions, it sadly is misused and abused by many folks don’t you agree? As one of millions of Black folks who disagree with your diatribe …the problem with generalities is that they not only are self serving but they move into discriminatory behavior…not all black people are pleased with what the President is doing hopefully you understand we also have free will to decide for ourselves just like everyone else …your article is offensive at best silly and if nothing else you will succeed in getting a bunch of people probably mostly white folks who will agree with your thinking. You are upset about the way things are so you talk about President Obama not being able to deliver because he is Black…you are a Pundit and have money to place your opinion on a platform so everyone can see it …some of us don’t have the money or luxury to say what we want and have billions of people see it and think just because it is in print said by somebody with money decide that in fact it has to be true… I say BS

Other News …

**Boeing continues to get plane orders

**Tony Curtis dead at 85

**Congress has completed legislation to keep the govt running for a couple of more months and will go home to campaign

**Fisher-Price recalls millions of toys

**Senate banking committee holding mtgs on new financial regulations

CSPAN …

California Governor’s Debate
Wednesday

Senate Appropriations Subcmte. Hearing on Public Health Threats with HHS Sec. Sebelius
Wednesday

Senate Foreign Relations Cmte. Hearing on al-Megrahi Release
Wednesday

Pres. Obama Conversations on the Economy in Iowa and Virginia
Wednesday

House Armed Services Cmte. Hearing on Defense Spending
Wednesday

House Financial Services Cmte. Hearing on Housing
Wednesday

Secretary of State Clinton & Treasury Secretary Geithner Announcement on Iran
Wednesday

National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Meeting on Budget Issues
Wednesday

U.N. General Assembly – Day 6
Wednesday

Pres. Obama Remarks at Univ. of Wisconsin DNC Rally
Tuesday

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Al Franken speaks …listen

09/25/2010 Nativegrl77

Sen. Al Franken just sent us a video and asked us to pass it on to you. He wanted to thank PCCC members for (successfully!) creating momentum around Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy to lead the creation of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sen. Franken also invites folks to tell Elizabeth Warren what consumer issues her bureau should focus on first. Check out the video and give Warren your feedback here!