Share Your Money Saving Ideas…..

One way I found to save money is with my Cockatiel, a small parrot. I noticed that the wild bird seed in the store looked just like the high tech cockatiel seed sold in the pet store. So, we bought wild bird seed at 1/4 the price and Sunny likes the wild bird seed better. If you have an idea for saving money, please post it as a comment on this article………….

It’s Time To Be Conservative

Our nation needs to take extreme measures on debt and spending. It should be illlegal for the nation to borrow money. Our budget should be based on what we have, not on what we are able to borrow. 1) There would be nothing left for special interests. 2) We wouldn’t get in any deeper. 3) Other nations would respect us more.
4) We would set an example for all of the citizens on how to get out of financial trouble.
The tea party revolution is real. It is the very sentiment that birthed our nation. And, in reality, is the only hope for re-claiming our nation. Politicians ignore the movement at their own peril.

A Lasting Solution

If we are the most prosperous and wealthy nation on the planet, why can’t we stop ALL borrowing to run the country? We should be a debt free nation right now. We, in essence, won the international trillion dollar sweepstakes and now we are self-destructing. Does any politician have the guts to say NO to debt of any kind?

My family has made the commitment to not borrow any more for any reason. I wish we had made this decision when we started out. Where would we be today financially? Debt is a form of slavery. I may drive a rusty old Toyota, but I’m free……are you?

Jobs Are The Focus

Why did it take the President and his supporters a whole year to figure out that jobs are important to Americans? It’s been obvious to many of us that the big need is jobs. Congratulations Mr. President for embracing the obvious.

OBAMA DOUBLE SPEAK

How can a man get before Congress and get on television with a straight face, and call for an end to partisanship and spend half of his speech bashing Republicans? The State Of The Union speech was full of contradictions and oddities. Most strange was his chiding of The Supreme Court with them sitting right there in front of him.   Has he ever hear of the seperation of powers?

And, whatever happend to an open forum on health care on C-span?    Obama is a lame duck for the next three years and the best thing that ever happened to the GOP.

State Of The CHANGED Union

Obama’s America.  Terrorist rights, record national debt, Marxists in the White House.  But, some would say, he’s a Nobel Peace Prize winner – so was Arafat.  During the campaign, he was the golden boy, promising a congressional health care debate in an open forum on C-Span and a bipartisan utopia.  Instead we got back room deals and political cronyism on a historical level. 

Now even the liberal dems are protesting.   This is not what we fought for and voted for.  If a movie had been made a few years ago portraying recent presidential history, the events would have seemed unbelievable.  The reign of Obama, who was declared a novice by his own Secretary Of State, Hillary Clinton, has been costly to America and sometimes the cost has been human life.   The first official act of our rookie President was to lift the restriction of using American tax money to perform abortions overseas. 

His attack against former President George Bush and his attempt to criminalize him borders on treason.  His further attacks on the intelligence community were reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s campaign to weaken the CIA during the years leading up to 911. 

Never in the history of the U.S. presidency has one man caused so many problems in a year’s time.  Yet, this week, the master of spin will play his flute and the political rats will stand and clap and smile as if all is well.  Obama’s legacy:  a weakened national security, partisanship on a level that threatens the very fabric of our political system, a runaway national debt that keeps growing out of control, millions of dead innocent babies around the world, and three more years of confusion and cover up.  Mr. Obama, the state of the union is not strong and it is not well.  Please spare us the scripted sales pitch.

Sell Your Home Yourself

The world is changing.  Newspapers are going broke.   Websites are flourishing.  Everything is being discounted from food to clothing to doctors.  The housing market is no different.  People expect more and better for less.  If they look hard enough they will find it.  Many are opting to sell their own houses.

The real estate market is tough.  Values have dropped.  Credit is almost dried up completely.  But life goes on.  People still need a place to live.  Employment and family circumstances force people to move.  There is still a demand for houses, though it may be a reduced demand.   You have to be sharper, smarter, and cheaper than the competition or you won’t get yours sold on this market.  Here are some tips to help you get your house sold:

Price your house within reason.  I come from a background of being a real estate broker and a field appraiser for 20+ years.  The number one reason that houses don’t sell is price.  Some would even go a step further and say that the only reason that a house does not sell is price.  The best online tool that I have found for pricing a house is www.zillow.com.   You just type in the physical address and you get this awesome aerial shot of your neighborhood with all of the most recent sales data and an estimated value on your house.

Prepare your house for showing.  Let me list all the things people don’t want to experience when they walk into your house for a potential purchase :  pet odors, clutter, broken things that don’t work, dirty windows, overgrown lawns, stained carpets, dilapidated furniture, cigarette smell, dogs jumping, cats rubbing, barking, TV or music blaring, auto repair projects in the driveway, people sleeping, closed off areas that can’t be seen, pet waste in the grass, no grass, junk cars in the yard,  dead (or live) roaches, etc.  A new industry called house staging has sprung up.  They design each room as if for a photo shoot in a fashion magazine.  Clean and well designed sells.

Effectively market your house.  Marketing is another way of saying communication.  You must clearly communicate the information about your house to the buying public.  Times have changed.  Print advertising is on its way out and the world-wide web is in.  There are more innovative and high-tech ways to advertise your home than any time in past history.  One example of web resources available to the for-sale-by-owner seller is the national web site at www.homesbyowner.com.   Features include virtual tours, printable flyers, 24 hour information hotline, up to 20 photos, and uploads to a dozen other websites.

Be prepared to close the sale.  Be familiar with your contracts, disclosures, escrow accounts, and title companies.  If you are overwhelmed with the prospect of writing the agreement and coordinating closing, you might consider a real estate attorney or a flat fee broker.   But, with a slow market, you will probably have plenty of time to educate yourself.   Happy selling!

Disclosure:  The author operates homesbyowner.com of Ocala, FL serving Marion County, Sumter County, and The Villages.      www.homesbyowner.com/ocala

Friendship

Friends are precious commodities.  They help to bring meaning and perspective to our lives.  I’ve met individuals who had mastered many areas of life such as career and finances but struggled with close relationships.   These have been some of the most depressed people I have met and the most sad.  They got the education and did all the things right like they should have done, and realized that they were alone.   Even sadder are those who have not figured out how to succeed in their finances or in relationships.   The extreme illustration of this are some of the street people I have met.  You can see them in downtown Manhattan by the dozens, walking aimlessly, talking to themselves.  They have no friends and the words just have to come out, even if only being heard by themselves.

Most of us fall between the two extremes.  We all struggle with relationships on some level.  The difficulty of long term relationships is reflected in a 50% divorce rate in our country.  The complexity comes as people with differing mindsets, personality types, and value systems try to communicate and relate to each other.

The most important thing in having a friend is understanding.  First we must understand ourselves and what makes us tick.  I suggest you go on the internet and take a personality type test.  This will give you a perspective on how other people view your behavior.  The second thing that needs to be understood is what makes the other party in the relationship tick.  Are they laid back or aggressive?  What are their emotional needs?   For some, their greatest need is security, while for others, their greatest need could be adventure.   Focus on the needs of your friend more than your own.  Learn why they feel differently than you about certain things.  Many friendships are short lived because the emotional needs of one or both of the parties in the relationship aren’t being met.

The second foundation of a healthy friendship is trust.  In a healthy friendship their has to be an underlying confidence that the other person will always have our best interest at heart.  Trust and forgiveness are not the same.  You can forgive someone and still not trust them to behave in a proper manner.  When trust is broken in a marriage, it is difficult to restore that trust, even after all is forgiven.  And so it is with friendships.  Forgiveness can come in an instant and it should.   Trust takes a long period of time of consistently responsible behavior within the relationship.  The ability to be open and transparent with another individual is based on the confidence and trust that your conversations will not be shared with a wider audience.

The final aspect of friendship that I will deal with in this article is freedom.  A friendship can die from neglect.  That’s obvious.  Many friendships are smothered by control issues.  We come into a friendship with unrealistic expectations.  When the other person does not measure up to our contrived fantasy, we become disappointed and disillusioned with them and feel a sense of betrayal.  We need to give the other person freedom to be themselves.   We might desire more social contact, but the other person may be going through a season of needing more space.  Learn to go with the flow and accept the other person unconditionally.  When we impose conditions on a friend, the relationship is doomed to eventual termination. 

Shore up your existing friendships.   Make some new ones.  Friendship is a rare jewel that must be treasured and nurtured through understanding, trust, and freedom.

PETN … What Is It?

PETN  is a form of nitro glycerin that was carried by the terrorist bomber on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.  He came very close to blowing up the plane and killing over 300 innocent people.    This is the new explosive of choice for terrorists.  Please watch the following videos to understand what we are dealing with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFCCBArRmzI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-99J4o9oHk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk4FF_jL55U

Video Source:  www.youtube.com

Obama Drama

It’s hilarious and at the same time demeaning to the American public,  this drama that is playing out in the media.  We have a sitting President who knows he dropped the ball pretending to do an investigation to get to the bottom of things. 

Mr. Obama, look in the mirror.   You have delayed appointing responsible and capable heads of the TSA and Homeland Security with terrorism experience.  You are closing our state of the art facility designed to deal  directly with terrorists.  You campaigned on a promise to reduce the options of the intelligence community to deal with terrorists.  You are the one who heads up the military, the TSA, The Office of Homeland Security, and whose primary responsibility it is to protect the people of the U.S.A.