Easy as ABC

A winter's day in a deep and dark december...much like today.Years ago a question was posed to me. At first glance I didn't give it much thought. Lately I find myself thinking about it more and more. I will ask you the very same question now; how easy is love to do? Pretty simple question, but love is complicated. One dictionary had 26definitions. That means love isn't going to be very easy to do. Easy means "involving little difficulty or discomfort". I don't know about you but 26 definitions was way more than I bargained for, so I am going with this; a "profoundly tender, passionate affection". Easy takes the path of least resistance. That means if I don't give it to much thought, I can argue that ABC is easy. 123 is easy and that's how easy love can be.

Please tell me if you do not recognize these letters...A B C...Of course you recognize them they are easy! I bet not one of you struggled to figure it out. These building blocks of our language can be arranged in certain orders that create statements that are difficult to figure out. Check out this quote from Orson Squire Fowler’s pseudo-scientific Phrenological Almanac:
“Nature’s Printing Press is Man. Her types are Signs, her books are Actions.”
Ummmm okay I am not sure what that means so that is difficult to me. Not ABC, that's easy!

One more question, do you know what these numbers are? 1, 2, 3. These are the first few numbers of an infinite number line. They are the foundation of fundamental and theoretical mathematics. Some of those problems can be so complex and difficult that they inflict pain into your frontal lobes. 123 is easy. Anyone can count to three. Even if you had stumps instead of hands; left stump =1, head =2, and right stump =3. 123 is so easy that you could glance at them for less than a second while juggling and still call out the numbers. Juggling takes skill and concentration. It is difficult. 123 is easy!

Love works much the same way the letters and numbers do. Sure it can get complicated with physical and theoretical problems to solve. Love can be extremely difficult to do, especially with people you hate. With all its definitions, still the description of love isn't quite adequate. Love is so complicated, how can it be easy to do?

Look at a toddler, when its mother walks into a room. Look at two brand new lovers strolling together. They are so involved in the process of doing love that it is unconscious and it flows without effort. Some famous rock group said "There's nothing you can do that can't be done...its easy...All you need is love." I know it wasn't the Monkees...Do love by choosing to be affectionate and cheerful. It doesn't cost anything to smile. Its easy! Easy as ABC, 123, that's how easy love can be.
Happy Holidays!

Willfullness

My three year old daughter should be in sales. She displays some very fundamental means of influence well. That and never really hearing me say "no". If I say "no" with a frown, she stops and tells me to "put a smile on my face" then proceeds with her task of influencing me.

It can be a question like "do you want to come play with me in my room?" It depends sometimes its a great time to play with a toddler in their bedroom and pulling out all the toys. Sometimes its 8:30 in the evening and the last thing in the world I want to do is play in the bedroom.

She will toddle on over to me and ask "Daddy, do you want to play with me in my bedroom?" "No baby not tonight", I answer knowing that soon this child is going to go tattle on me to her mother for being MEAN. She asks again and again I say "no". Again and again and again she asks the same question. Any chance of relaxation is gone. I can feel myself starting to cry, "why do you want to play now?"

She starts to lose her patience and yells at me,"Let's play Now!" She cannot believe that I do not like her idea of playing in the bedroom. I think that I am hearing the question from my daughter at three, a question that will cause me severe anxiety when she asks that to someone else when she is 18 years old.

What happened to the days when fear was a good behavioral tactic. I could threaten her with something...anything...I'll tell Santa not to come, but I always end up lying on the floor in my daughters room while she plays with all of her toys. I hope she starts selling.

I better get some Long Term Care Insurance.

You know I am now middle aged. Someday I am going to get corralled into some Nursing Home. If I am out of my mind with dementia, that's going to be a good time. I will be an Id. No need to put on airs here. I won't be responsible for walking past the visitors wearing just a shirt. Now matter how much fun it sounds like to me, I am not yet that uninhibited.

Maybe I'll just be tired and want to sit all day. Park my ass on the front of the building so I can watch everybody do what they do. I hope I don't drool to much, but if I do please put a bib on me. maybe the hot nurses assistant will feed me today. Everyday is an adventure. Oh damn, its the nurse. I can't outrun her, hell I don't even want to try. I guess I'll answer the questions...not yet...not yet...no. I didn't have a bowel movement at least I don't thinks so. I turned down the laxative today, it is a delicate balance of fiber and stool softener that make a happy resident.

I had an uncle in the nursing home. He had a stroke that left him a little gimped up. He was young in the Nursing Home only mid fifties so the little old ladies wondered just how gimped up he was. I heard the ladies talking about them being willing to get past the whole left side thing and check out whether other parts were working. Turns out my uncle became quite popular. He had six girlfriends. It took him all day to make his rounds but he was always smiling and come to think of it so were the ladies.

Living to be a geriatric sex symbol, that is my goal. I think I could pull it off. Older people are just not as picky. Since we have pills that will make wood, there are some unlikely sex symbols. I am going to wear only a robe with my wife beater tee shirt and blue striped boxers underneath. I will have the black patent leather shoes and garter straps for my socks. I will have a large gold anchor on a chain for my bling. Look out Ladies!

The golden years, I just want to make sure I live them to the highest potential.

A modern day 'gold' rush!

Isn't life funny? We have had collapses of corporate giants, failure of the revamped financial system to jump start our economy and still allot of unemployment. What is absolutely crazy is the medical marijuana business in Colorado. Dispensaries are up and running, potheads are finally able to 'medicate' with their personal drug of choice.

It has made some entrepreneurs out of the most unlikely business executives. I was talking with the CEO of an incorporated dispensary and he was pulling in greater than $24000.00 gross per week. I have heard the same things regarding other dispensaries. There is a mad scramble to sell medical marijuana. What does a dispensary look like? Very busy, administering to the needs of good citizens who prefer pot to hydrocodone for pain management or other cursed ailment that can be effectively treated by marijuana. It was interesting meeting the "caregivers". The range was professional corporation to the one man operation offering quality product at reasonable prices.

The boom proves that people will pay a premium for medical grade marijuana. If the federal government ever caught on to the money that could be made in tax revenue, they would make it 100% legal and put the pot into a category from the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms division. Imagine Dino the neighborhood pothead, now a corporate icon. Doing what he loves to do and that is growing marijuana. He was doing it before it was legal and now that it is sort of legal, he can have some healthy plants growing without worrying about the local authorities confiscating his livelyhood. Dino is about to be a legitimate wealthy businessman.

Well we will surely see what becomes of this mad rush to wealth. Who knows maybe there will be a "pot" option for our new revamped healthcare plan.

The Cost of Convenience

Looking around I see intelligent, industrious people. Usually being intelligent and industrious means being very busy. Life is moving so fast that anything that saves time and money is welcome. We are all looking for convenience. According to Ted Gladson in an article written in 1990 and still remarkably relevant today, "Consumers expect to pay for convenience." We do pay for it, sometimes we don't realize just how much we pay.

The cost of convenience is expensive. Marketing strategies include making us feel the pain of having no time to deal with whatever situation that they are going to save us from. Then they solve our dilemma and behold a light from heaven shines down and we have more time/money. Hallelujah! Three examples of expensive convenience are;
1. The convenience of not thinking for yourself.
2. The convenience of prepackaged preprocessed favorite foods
3. The convenience of avoiding late fees to pay your credit card by phone.
According to Mr. Gladson, we evaluate individually whether or not the cost is worth pursuing.

Some of the hardest work we do is thinking. My goodness everyone expects me to have an opinion on everything. Thinking takes time. I know how to avoid weighing the pluses against the minuses. I really do not need to think at all when I can google or yahoo or even bing any subject. I will get the top ten reasons to... or three ways to ...(You fill in the blanks). I can be told how to think thus saving me time and energy to apply somewhere else.

I searched for opinions regarding:ECONOMICS, PET CARE, GOVERNMENT ISSUES and GLOBAL WARMING. The average amount of opinions available was 84,525,000. I will have to decide between the top three listed because I am trying to save time. I hope those opinions make me look intelligent.

The most popular result regarding the cost of convenience search was in the realm of nutrition. An article from the Arizona Republic called, oddly enough, "The Cost of Convenience" explained that the general public was essentially unaware of what convenience actually cost us. It was unclear by the posting who actually wrote the article, which is too bad because I learned a thing or two from reading it. For example sliced apples cost $74.84 per hour for someone else to cut them. Did you know that cooked frozen sausage costs more but required the same preparation time as fresh sausage? I didn't.

The article went on to explain the differences in cost versus time ratio when comparing prepackaged prepared items to items made from scratch. The results were mixed but the bottom line showed consumers were willing to pay greater than three times more for the convenient versions of their favorite items. These prepackaged items had less nutritional value and less flavor. The cost for this convenience was in dollars, taste and nutrition for more time.

What else takes time? Paying bills takes time. This isn't even enjoyable time. We already established that we are way to busy to think or cook, let alone pay our bills. There is no time to waste. Luckily for us, the credit card companies have found a way to make paying them convenient, especially if you are going to be late. These fine companies have found a solution for instant gratification, the over the telephone payment option.

Imagine that you have waited until the last minute to pay your credit card bill. If you send it now, it will cost another $40.00 in late charges. You can avoid that by calling in your payment. It will cost you only $15.00. You will save $25.00, isn't that wonderful? Your creditors going the extra mile to make life a little bit easier for you. For more information regarding creditors and fees visit billshrink.com .

The question is, Is convenience cheap? No way, we pay a very high price when something comes with the label convenient. Most of the time the true price of convenience is hidden in the consequences of not paying attention. We are drifting aimlessly and reacting to life instead of planning appropriately. As long as we are distracted the marketing of convenience will be effective.

It is not convenient to think for yourself or prepare your own food or even plan your finances. It is up to you to decide whether the cost of convenience is a fair price to pay.

Tips on saving dollars…

Retail Banks will market convenience and you will pay dearly for one stop shopping. It is wise as consumers to be a customer at more than one bank. The big banks offer free checking and that is really all they are good for. Their savings accounts don’t pay interest worth mentioning. In fact, none of their interest bearing accounts will amount to much as far as interest is concerned.

I have been in the banking industry for many years. The customers with the most money saved actually took the time to shop interest rates. They moved their money around to the banks that offered the most attractive rates. No one at Wells Fargo wants to discuss CD rates with you because they are so terrible. Their savings accounts are the same way. However there are community banks that are paying better interest for savings accounts, money markets and CDs.

Here is a tip on saving money that works every time. Have a savings account in a community bank that is separate from the bank that has your checking account. Also do not get online access to these funds. I think a savings account should be inconvenient to access, that way you won’t touch those funds unless it is absolutely necessary.

If you have been saving and want the money for a future event such as a wedding, put the money into a CD at a community bank. The interest will be more attractive and you will have access to the funds at maturity. If you time it right, you will have the funds available right when you need them. If things change in your life and the funds are not needed you can go ahead and reinvest into another attractive interest bearing CD.

A little bit of effort will pay much better than convenience. $100.00 in a savings account at a large retail bank will cost you $4.00/month because it is less than the required minimum of $300.00. The same amount at a community bank with a $100.00 minimum presently pays about 1.0% compared to 0.15% at the big banks. So doing the math; $100.00 deposit at a large retail bank will cost $48.00/year in below minimum fees then pay you 0.15% interest on your balance which would be about $0.07 for the year. Compare that to earning $1.00 for the year at a community bank.

Let us figure the minimum $300.00 payoff at the large retail banks. You would earn $0.45 for the year, As opposed to the $3.00 annual interest payout for the smaller community bank. I know 1% isn’t a lot of interest. However these banks historically have higher interest rates than your national McBank. The super banks say it is because their deposits reserves are so high. They really don’t need or want your savings accounts unless you keep them below the minimums and they can take your money.

Over the years, I have watched people turn modest amounts of money into substantial sums by shopping interest rates and putting their funds into the banks or credit unions that are paying the best return. Sometimes interest rates are not so good like today, but doing the best you can with what you have is a worthwhile practice. Start today, call your local banks and see what they have to offer. Then move your funds to the best account that is available. Every six months check around. You will be surprised at the offers that are available.

This is a wonderful lesson for children. If you have a savings account for your children or grandchildren then time is on your side. You really can get good deals on savings accounts. The payoff is worth the effort. Good luck.

Do banks have your best interest in mind?

Only if your making your interest payments. The sole purpose of the retail banking industry is to take your money from you. This purpose has caused the failures of some banks. They became greedy and over extended themselves with creative bookkeeping. Other banks such as Wachovia, Wells Fargo, US Bank and Bank of America have been more subtle with their approach to taking your money.

The marketing will always say just how much these banks care about you and your finances. I have personally witnessed many horrendous acts of the banks stealing from their customers in the name of convenience. All kinds of people such as the elderly and single mothers working very hard just to survive have had excessive overdraft fees applied to their account. This is the bread and butter of the retail banking industry.

What is excessive? How about the fees incurred when the available balance goes below zero, then when the actual balance goes below zero these fees are applied again. The banks hope you will not notice and if you do they may refund a portion of those fees.

The fees are applied per transaction, for instance if you went below zero by $10.00 but it was $2.00 at a time you could be charges upwards of $175.00 and that could equal $350.00 with the double overdraft fee accounting system in place. If you complain the banker will do you a favor by refunding half the fees because after it was your fault for over drafting your account. So that $2.00 cup of coffee actually cost you $2.00 plus $35.00 for the privilege of banking with you friendly retail bank.

Bonuses are paid to bank managers for retaining fees. The skill required to work as a branch manager is to be able to look someone in the eye and tell them, “Your money is now our money.” Bonus money paid from excessive fees. The banks are raking in our dollars by the bucket loads. This is a main reason why a retail bank can boast a profit while the rest of the economy is falling apart.

If you complain about these excessive fees, well you could apply for overdraft protection. It sounds like extortion to me. Overdraft protection is a line of credit that charges 21-29% interest for your balance. The fee for the transfer can run anywhere from $2.00-$10.00 depending on the bank. That is the selling point. The transfer is always an excessive amount. If you overdraft $50.00, well you will get $100.00-$200.00 advance. If you keep a balance on your overdraft line of credit for one year then you will have paid the bank $23.00 at the minimum. This is the protection offered from banks to protect you from their creative bookkeeping.

The creative ways in which the deposits are credited against the debits generally favor the likelihood that you will be charged an overdraft fee. The ways the debits and credits are applied are not uniform across the board. If you are in a “Metro” market the debits are removed before the deposits are credited. However a “community” market will credit the deposit before applying debits. It’s nice to know that these banks are looking out for our best interest.