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It's Time to Make a Long-term Difference
For most parts of the country, it is the law that every 20 years or so, communities must set a course for the next 20
years -- they must plan for the future.
Now the world is in a major state of transition, more so than usual, given the demographics of the Boomers in all countries
and also Global Warming. These trends will eventually impact us all in the most personal ways.
So decide right now that you will get involved in planning your community for the next 20 years. Bring your sensibilities
to the table, make women's consensus building skills and care for health and life the next method of operation. Just show
up -- at the meetings, at the workshops, on the Letters to the Editor page.
It will make THE difference.
Thank you.
______________________________________________________________________
Rethink
Try to buy only items that are sustainably manufactured, "stuff" that you can recycle and use for a long time.
It is critical that we all reduce our individual footprint on the earth. The average American's footprint is 24 square miles.
That means each one of us, here, needs 24 sm in order to maintain the life we live. The average Chinese person uses 4 sm.
Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz.
Ecological Footprint Quiz
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The Sooner You Save The Better
Compound interest is the rent the bank pays
you to use your money. So if the bank uses your money for a long time they pay you a lot. In the chart below, for age 20,
the bank will pay you $247,746 ($337,746 minus $90,000) for using your money for 45 years. That's almost a quarter of a million
dollars that you did not have to work for! To get that, you have to let them use $166 more every month!
Your money
will not earn very much interest if you start saving later in life. Most people figure this out too late to do them much good.
If you are young now, do not be one of them.
If you triple the amount every month, starting at age 20, you will have
almost a million dollars when you are ready to stop working. Because people are living longer today, a million dollars is
the currently predicted amount a retired person will need to live safely in a long retirement period.
Age At Which You
Start Saving
$2,000/year.......Your Total.........Your Savings At Age 65*
..............................................................
20.......................$90,000..............$337,746
30.......................$70,000..............$189,353
40.......................$50,000..............$99,254
50.......................$30,000..............$44,549
*Assumes a annual five percent interest rate of return compounded monthly. Source: American Savings Education Council/Choose
to Save Campaign.
Interest rates are rising this year -- take advantage of it.
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Two Poems to Help Your Decision Making
The Magic:
Upon Julia's Clothes, unknown
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
The liquefaction of her clothes!
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free,
0 how that glittering taketh me!
The Misery:
Excerpted From, The Song of the Shirt, Thomas Hood
With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread-
Stitch!: stitch! Stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,-
Would that its tone could reach the Rich!-
She sang this 'Song of the Shirt!
Always seek the magic but mind where it comes from. . .
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