September 15, 2003

From the Inside Out
GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

When a farmer wants to eat oranges, he gets himself an orange seed, makes a hole in the ground and plants the seed. Once that is done he adds fertilizer to the ground, waters it regularly and ... you guessed right, he waits!

In contrast however, most people in the world, when wanting to eat an orange, would go out and buy it. They don't want a seed, because that would mean they would have to wait. They would rather have an orange, not after a year or two years, but here and now. However, the only way you will get oranges that are ripe and ready to eat is if you buy them.

But, what if you are poor, as most people in the world are. Where will you get the money to buy the fruit you want, again and again? The farmer will certainly not give them to you for free, considering it took him years to plant, water, and care for that tree that bears him the fruit. There is a saying: "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for one day. Teach him to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime." The laws of success are no different from the law of agriculture. To attain success, wealth and happiness you must understand that there is some waiting required.

All the rich and famous people you see and admire today, waited for their success. It didn't come instantly. There is a purpose in the waiting, for it prepares you for the time when you would have the success. There are many who DIDN'T wait for their success. It came instantly, and departed just as swiftly as it came.

When they read this article's title, many people may think that waiting is all about you and that there is nothing else to it. Well, let me tell you it's far from it. To tell you the truth, there are billions of people who are sitting on their backsides and waiting for their ship full of wealth to pull into the harbor one day. But I can assure you that for 99.99 percent of those people this would never happen. So what am I talking about, then? What I'm talking about is following the farmer's example and finding some seed, and planting it. Now in your case this doesn't literally have to be an orange seed. It can be an idea you have to use your talents creatively and to do something different with your life.

I didn't mention this at the beginning, but when the farmer chooses a seed, he doesn't just pick any seed. He picks a seed that is most suited to his farm, his weather and his environment. In the same way, when you pick a seed, it shouldn't be just any seed or idea. The best ideas are rare and unique ideas that nobody has thought of before.

It should be something unique to you that will suit your style and compliment your personality. Ideas are easy to find and don't cost money just as seeds are inexpensive. But it is what you do with it afterwards that counts.

Before a farmer plants the seed he prepares the ground, with fertilizer. When you pick an idea you should think it through and plan how best you can implement it.

After planting the seed the farmer makes sure that the seed receives enough water. He may have to make a sand wall around to keep the water from running off. When he has done everything that is required, the farmer waits for the seed to germinate. Do the same with your project. See it as a little seed that you need to take care of, and soon you too will have a thriving project that will return with interest what you've invested in time and effort.

Recently we've seen the launch of yet another record-breaking Harry Potter book. All those records mean more money for the author J.K. Rowling and I know that many people silently wish that she would throw some of those millions their way. But that is unlikely to happen, for those millions are the fruit of the seed she planted which eventually became a huge business. She was a single mother struggling to make ends meet. All she had was a desire to succeed coupled with the talent to weave stories of magic. At the time, she herself didn't realize the huge potential of her talent. She nevertheless used this as her seed and the rest, as they say, is history. It didn't happen overnight. It required effort and time, but in the end it paid off handsomely.

You, too, can make it happen if you are prepared to put in the necessary effort ... and wait.

~ By Leonard Roos, who has touched the lives of many through his writing.
For more revealing insights, visit his website Success Now

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Yes You Can!
STRETCH CASH, RETIRE (Part 1)

If you've fallen short of your savings or investment goals, you may still be able to retire without compromising your lifestyle. Here are four strategies to consider.

How much do you really need to retire comfortably? In theory, the answer might make you queasy. To start with, many financial planners say you need enough invested to replace about 80% of your current income. On top of that, they say, you should have one to two years’ worth of expenses in cash or cash-equivalent investments like short-term Treasurys and money market funds.

All told, for most people, a $1 million nest egg is a bare minimum, many planners say.

But before you sink your head in your hands and kiss your retirement plans good-bye, here’s the good news: These days, many retirees are proving that reality is quite different than theory.

People are still finding ways to retire: “Most people don’t have the kind of money that planners say you need, especially after a market downturn such as the one we’ve experienced,” says Lynn Ballou, a financial adviser in Lafayette, Calif.

According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) in Washington, more than 75% of people aged 40 to 59 have less than $100,000 squirreled away for retirement. “Yet many people are still finding ways to retire,” Ballou says.

Of course, some people have so little socked away that they would have to make serious cutbacks in spending if they retired. And there are those whose retirement funds have been all but washed out — employees at beleaguered companies like Enron, for instance — and who have no choice but to postpone retirement indefinitely.

Yet if you have been diligent about saving but fall somewhat short of your savings target, you may still be able to take the plunge without compromising your lifestyle.

The first step is to be realistic about how much you can expect in income from Social Security and other sources. According to EBRI, almost 20% of retirees say their standard of living is somewhat or much worse than they had expected before they retired.

The primary reason: They had inflated expectations of how much income Social Security would provide. If you’re 50 and earn $75,000 today and expect to retire in 16 years, your annual Social Security benefit would be $35,000 to $40,000 a year. That assumes 3% annual inflation adjustments; in today’s dollars, that amount would be about $21,500.

People who have participated in pension plans can count on just over 40% of their income in retirement coming from Social Security — a portion that would shrink to about 30% under President Bush’s proposed Social Security reforms, according to Gary Burtless, an economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Almost 20% would come from pensions and annuities, according to EBRI. That means 40% of income has to come from investments or other sources.

(That’s if you’ve planned properly. A fact of life in 21st century America is that half the private sector work force is not covered by a pension plan at any given moment and thus could be forced to rely on Social Security.)

So, if you’re trying to figure out how to retire, there are some ways you might be able to make the numbers work. Next week we'll give detailed information on each of these solutions..

~ Karen Hube, Money Central MSN.com

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The diminutive Kyaiktiyo Pagoda in Burma is just
18 feet high, built more than 2,500 years ago on a huge boulder which balances on a projecting tabular rock. The gilded rock itself is separated from the mountain by a deep chasm which is spanned by an iron bridge. According to legend, at the time of the Buddha, hermits lived in the mountains and after obtaining sacred hairs from the Buddha enshrined them in the pagoda on their respective mountains. But the hermit from Kyaiktiyo, reluctant to part with his share of the sacred relic, treasured it in his hair-knot. Only after finding a boulder resembling his head did he enshrined his cherished share in a pagoda built on it. The boulder can be gently rocked and a string can be completely passed between the boulder and the rock below.

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Google Maps, another beta product, enables you to map a specific location, get driving directions, or find businesses near a set location all from one page. It would be more helpful if it actually gave you street names along with their visual depictions, but it will fill in names of any nearby landmarks.

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Fascinating Facts
TRY THE FURRY FORM OF VALIUM

When stressed to the max, your first thought may be to spend time with your significant other or a friend. However, new research says you should be cozying up to Fluffy or Fido, instead, to calm your frazzled nerves. A study of married couples both with and without pets shows that having a pet is associated with lower perceived and actual responses to stress. Not only do you feel less jittery with your pet around, your blood pressure and pulse are likely to reflect your relaxed state of mind. In the past, "we've documented that people perceive pets as great for them," says lead researcher Karen Allen, a research scientist at the State University of New York at Buffalo. "People are right."

The researchers visited the homes of 120 couples who'd owned a dog or cat for at least six months, and an equal number of couples who'd been pet-free for at least five years. They checked baseline blood pressures and heart rates, and then administered two stress-inducing tests: The participants were asked to do mental arithmetic problems for five minutes, and then to submerge one hand in ice water for two minutes.

While everyone in the study had normal blood pressures and heart rates to start with, those with pets had lower baseline measures. During the tests, those without pets suffered more stress. Interestingly, people with pets did better in terms of performing and handling stress when their pet was around, but not as well if a friend or spouse was also present. This suggests that when doing the mental arithmetic in front of a friend or spouse, the study participants felt pressured to perform well, Allen says. But taking the test with a pet didn't produce the same anxiety level.

In addition, pet owners perceived themselves as less stressed, and had blood pressure and heart rates that returned to normal faster than people without pets. Those with a spouse present who did not own a pet exhibited the most anxiety. They had systolic blood pressures up to a full 40 points above their norm when performing the mental arithmetic in front of a partner.

Allen says an earlier study by her research group in 1996 produced similar results, but that review only looked at women who owned dogs. This new study was larger, showed that men also benefit from having pets, and found that cats offer the same stress relief. This surprised Allen, who owns a 14-year-old dog, but, she admits that cat owners were not surprised. "It's possible that most any pet you're attached to would confer similar results, she says: "It depends on how you feel about your animal."

Susan Everson-Rose, an associate professor of preventive medicine at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, studies how risk factors influence cardiovascular disease. "Pets really do have a calming effect," she says. In the Buffalo study, the cardiovascular benefits of having a pet versus not "were pretty noticeable. Presumably, extrapolated over time, (people with pets) could have lower rates of cardiovascular disease."

Allen says that based on these new findings, if one likes animals and can handle the responsibility, getting a pet might be a good option. "They have excellent behavioral and cardiovascular benefits," she says. Allen next plans a follow-up study using virtual reality to determine whether thinking about one's pet or seeing a picture of one's furry friend can confer similar benefits.

~Nancy Deutsch, Reporter, Health Scout News

Why do we say "Bless you" after a sneeze?

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Laughing It Off
'RULES' FOR WORK

1. Never give me work in the morning. Always wait until 4:00 and then bring it to me. The challenge of a deadline is refreshing.

2. If it's really a rush job, run in and interrupt me every 10 minutes to inquire how it's going. That helps. Even better, hover behind me, and advise me at every keystroke.

3. Always leave without telling anyone where you're going. It gives me a chance to be creative when someone asks where you are.

4. If my arms are full of papers, boxes, books, or supplies, don't open the door for me. I need to learn how to function as a paraplegic and opening doors with no arms is good training in case I should ever be injured and lose all use of my limbs.

5. If you give me more than one job to do, don't tell me which is priority. I am psychic.

6. Do your best to keep me late. I adore this office and really have nowhere to go or anything to do. I have no life beyond work.

7. If a job I do pleases you, keep it a secret. If that gets out, it could mean a promotion.

8. If you don't like my work, tell everyone. I like my name to be popular in conversations throughout the company.

9. If you have special instructions for a job, don't write them down. In fact, save them until the job is almost done. No use confusing me with useful information.

10. Never introduce me to the people you're with. I have no right to know anything. In the corporate food chain, I am plankton. When you refer to them later, my shrewd deductions will identify them.

11. Be nice to me only when the job I'm doing for you could really change your life and send you straight to manager's hell.

12. Tell me all your little problems. No one else has any and it's nice to know someone is less fortunate. I especially like the story about having to pay so many taxes on the bonus check you received for being such a good manager.

13. Wait until my yearly review and THEN tell me what my goals SHOULD have been. Give me a mediocre performance rating with a cost of living increase. I'm not here for the money anyway.

~Contributed by Bernard in Indianapolis, Indiana

Untangling the Web

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Sculpture by Chocalatier Martin Howard

The delicious story of chocolate...
spans more than two thousand years and began
in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America where cacao trees, the seeds of which are made into chocolate, first grew. This fascinating exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History explores the legends, history, ecology, economics, and enduring allure of this delectable phenomenon. Sculptures, inspired by the Museum's halls, including the Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians, the Hall of African Peoples, and the Hall of Mexico and Central America, were created especially for the Chocolate exhibition.