FINANCIAL PLANNING... Part II

In Part I (although, it was not labeled Part 1), I ended with 401K that many employees have set up with their employers, some of which match substantially and some of which match minimally.  Here's the information on your 401Ks...

Average 401(k) balance: $11,800. 

Median 401(k) balance: $4,300

SOURCE: NerdWallet Feb 7, 2020

If this is YOU, and YOU are 35 years old, YOUR average balance or Median balance could double or triple by the time you actually retire at age 70 which is doubling your current age...  this means that the average balance in YOUR 401K could increase to $23,600 (doubles once) or even $47,200 (doubles twice)...

NOW, let's round off the doubling twice amount and YOU are left with about $50,000.

NOW, let's suppose YOUR employer's contribution increases YOUR 401K to $100,000.

HOW LONG will YOUR  $100,000 last?

The CURRENT AVERAGE Social Security payout in 2020 is $1,800/month.

By the time YOU reach retirement age, it is estimated that you will only receive 80% of what is being received today, which means you will receive only $1,440/month.

Let's suppose that you are married, now that Social Security allowance for YOU and YOUR SPOUSE is $2,880 or rounded off is $3,000/month.

CURRENTLY, the average cost of living across the USA is $5,000/month.  So, you will need another $2,000/month or $24,000 each year and $240,000 over a decade...

But, 

YOUR 401K is only $100,000 and therefore will only last YOU and YOUR SPOUSE less than 5 years, assuming your money earns no INTEREST...  if we add INTEREST then YOUR money will probably last you 5 years...

DOES THAT SOUND LIKE A 

GOOD PLAN TO YOU???

We're All In This Together

Excuse me but...   that's BULLSHIT...

We are not all in this together and we have never been all in this together and anyone who thinks or sees life differently, in my opinion has their head up their ass so far that they need a glass belly-button to see out of...

We have Millionaires
We have Billionaires
We have the Upper Middle Class
We have the Middle Class
We have the lower class

We have immigrants
We have celebrities
We have professional athletes
We have professional musicians
We have actors/actresses
We have news anchors
We have CEOs
We have truck drivers
We have pilots
We have military personnel
We have government workers
We have fast food workers
We have janitors and maids
We have taxi drivers
We have priests, pastors, and ministers
We have law enforcement personnel
We have EMS employees
We have healthcare workers
We have professors, instructors, and teachers
We have lawyers
We have dentists
We have physicians and surgeons
We have inmates and prison guards
We have politicians

HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY ALL BE IN THIS TOGETHER?

This just does make any sense to me...

I am retired.
Not working.
Living on Social Security.
Living on Savings.
Staying home because of cancer anyway.
I have a wife.
I have 3 cats.
My wife does all the shopping now.
I post articles on my 4 blogs.
I write poetry.
I watch FOX NEWS.
I watch Cable
I mow the lawn.
I empty the cat litter.
I cook meals.
I take naps.

I have been doing this since January of this year...  only leaving the house when I have a doctor's appointment that seems to be important or critical like my chemo treatments.  When COVID-19 hit, I simply did what I had normally been doing except going out to BRUNCH on Sundays.

My retired life is simply not the same as those Americans who are not retired and have to work, have debt, and bills that need to be paid and children still living at home.

WE ARE IN THIS...   BUT NOT TOGETHER...

20%  of American's population will always live WORSE OFF than the rest of us...

Pyramids of Giza

Financial Planning

WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE A CARPENTER MEASURES TWICE AND CUTS ONCE?

For those of us who are intellectuals the answer to that question does not come easy... 

although, to a writer, it makes a little sense when we think about the tedious process of editing a manuscript... 

yet, neither of those areas reflect the true meaning of the carpenter's work because the true meaning revolves around and is totally dedicated to the concept of PLANNING.

Whether we are College educated, Trade School educated, Military educated, or simply High School educated, we are taught and have been exposed to the concept of PLANNING but seldom use it for our PERSONAL FINANCES.

Why do I suspect this?

BECAUSE Americans do not typically save money...  in fact, most Americans tend to borrow more money than they really need since they WANT more than they can AFFORD.  The has the same affect/effect of NOT PLANNING AT ALL.

Americans do not plan to have children, but they do like and often desire to have SEXUAL INTERCOURSE...

Americans don't plan to have heart issue, liver issues, or lung issues, but they do like and often desire to NOT EXERCISE, SMOKE CIGARETTES, and DRINK ALCOHOL...

Americans don't plan to keep working because they do not have the money to retire, but they do like and often desire to spend more than they earn.

HARDLY ANYONE HAS A FINANCIAL PLAN for the next 5-10 years let alone a plan that takes them into retirement....

Why do you suppose AMERICANS are like that???

BUT...  But...   but...   I have a 401K at work...  doesn't that count?

More about this in a later post.

What Pisses Me Off...

Someone once told me that it is better to be pissed off than to be pissed on and I suppose that is true but whether or not that is true, what I am about to share really pisses me off...

I did not vote for President Trump.


Let me repeat...


I did not vote for President Trump.


But, the way that the Liberal Democrats and the Mainstream Media are treating him is WRONG...  and that is what pisses me off.


No matter what he does, he is criticized.


No matter what!!!


And, this is wrong on so many levels...

• Is is wrong as a journalist
• It is not fair and balanced
• It is misleading the public
• It is ethically wrong
• It is morally wrong
• It ruins the integrity of the news
• It is a form of lying
• It creates extreme bias
• It causes mistrust
• It creates divisiveness

Is this HOW we as Americans want to be PERCEIVED???

China

DO YOU TRUST CHINA?

WILL YOU EVER TRUST CHINA AGAIN?

What is interesting here is that China owns about ONE THIRD of US Debt which is something that this Communist Government will hold over our head until the debt is paid back...

Let me put it another way...

WE OWE THE COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT OF CHINA MONEY!!!

Paul McCartney

Telemarketers

I was sitting on the couch this morning writing an article for this blog and received a call and since I was not watching FOX NEWS on Cable TV, I could not tell what number was calling us but the answering machine's female voice spoke something that I could not understand.  My wife, who was in the water closet (that is to say bathroom) called out:  "who was calling?"  My response was "I could not understand what was said."  With that comment and expecting another question, I got up off the couch and walked over to where the telephone was to check out the list of previous callers by pressing the CID key twice. 

Harry Chapin

The call was from Chapin, SC and I called out to my wife, "It was Chapin, South Carolina,"  and "wasn't there a singer named Chapin?  I believe the song was 'Cats in the Cradle,'"  Still in the water closet, she responded, "No that was Cat Stevens."  Not accepting her response, I looked it up on the internet and told her...  "no,. it was Harry Chapin."
pausing for a second or two, I said,

My first thought after this conversation exchange was the fact that I had always liked the song 'Cats in the Cradle,' because it reminded me of my relationship with my father and the subsequent relationship with my daughter.

Cat Stevens

My second thought was that I had always liked Cat Stevens also who was famous for his song, 'Peace Train.'  The song was released in 1971 when I was still in the military and the Vietnam War was still active in the minds of most Americans.

I remember that Cat Stevens disappeared from the music scene and I always thought maybe that he had died from a drug overdose or something...   but, I was WRONG...  and later discovered that Cat Stevens had become a Muslim and changed his name to Yusof Islam and began writing and singing Islamic songs...

Do You Ever Dream?

I am not talking about daydreaming to avoid paying attention in class or to the speaker at a convention, or to the boss at a staff meeting or to avoid listening to a spouse barking out orders for you to do that day...  this is the daydreaming that takes place when one is lying in bed trying to fall asleep at night.

Just about every night that I can recently remember or in the not so distant past, I have spent the first 15-30 minutes before falling asleep at night daydreaming...  although I am sure that Psychologists have another name for it of which I am unaware.

While my daydreams vary, they are still about the same topic, more-or-less, which is being something that I am not today or will ever become.  And, while that my sound self-defeating it is still nonetheless true because it is the logic of reality.

One of my daydreams is the publish the novels that I have written and become a best seller ending up relatively wealthy (in the tens of millions) and flying everywhere I want to go or visit with a first class ticket in my hand.

Another daydream is becoming the recipient of an inheritance by an unknown benefactor that makes me a multi-millionaire and I build the MODEST house of my dreams that had everything that my wife and I ever talked about but still no bigger than 2,500 square feet.

And yes,  I have never had the nerve to contact publishers and face the dozens of rejection letters I would receive by those who did not think my writing was good enough to publish, so, my daydreams might well have been experienced, but at my age of 72 that is not going to happen.

Steely Dan

US versus CHINA

People's Bank of China 

CHINA IS THE ARCH ENEMY of America and this has nothing to do with COVID-19 whether it was intentionally spread by China or not...

In 2020, China had the largest active duty military force in the world, with about 2.18 million active military personnel.

The US has 1.3 million active duty military personnel.

➽China has about 1,000,000 more soldiers.      Source:  www.wikipedia.org

In 2017,

China had 37.5 million kilometers or 23,301,420 miles of fiber optic cable laid

USA had 113,000 miles of fiber optic cable laid

➽China has 23,000,000 more miles of fiber optic cable.    Source:  www.statista.com

➽In 2019, the U.S. economy, in terms of GDP, was at $21.44 trillion, while the Chinese economy was measured at $27.31 trillion.    Source:  www.investopedia.com

So, what do you think?

Should we be worried about CHINA?

Staying-at-Home: Week 6

March/April are the months.

Staying-at-home is not and has never been a problem, especially since my immune system is not functioning as it should be functioning due to chemotheraphy.

What do I do all day?

• Watch FOX NEWS for most of the morning.
• Exercise on a stationary bike and treadmill.
• Research and write articles on my 4 blogs.
• Play with the cats.
• Watch TV/Cable.
• Yard Work.
• Sleep.

There was talk this morning on FOX NEWS that our economy is going to reopen on May 1, 2020 and personally, I think that is a mistake...  I think we should not reopen until June 1, 2020...

I also hope that I am wrong so that people can get back to work but my concern is that Americans do not like to be told what to do and do not like wearing face masks or keeping their distance from people, especially males who want to flirt with females.

If we go back to work and do not take precautions then we could have a second phase of COVID-19 and our economy gets shut down again.  And, our economy gets shut down again...

So, my thoughts are let's just bite-the-bullet and stay closed for another month.

However,  I realize that if I were younger that I would not feel this way...  I would want to get going and take my chances believing that I would not get sick.

Hard to believe that I was ever that stupid, naive, and innocent...

A Siamese Cat Tale

All of my life until the age of 43/44, I have had two types of dogs as pets:  a Dachshund and a Labrador Retriever; but when I relocated to TN in 1990, I began living with a woman who had a cat and after 6 months started to feel just as comfortable with a cat as I had been with a dog except the cat was more skeptical than a dog about most things.

Five years later, we got married and acquired two stray cats who later died of old age and after a few months of mourning, we selected two baby cats for an Animal Rescue Center and decided to purchase a Siamese Cat who came with "papers" but we did not want to spend the extra money for those.  The Siamese owner led us to believe the cat was younger than it really was and that it had been properly socialized.

When we went to pick up the cat, we immediately realized that both of those assumptions were incorrect but decided to take the cat anyway.  I was living in KY at the time and my wife was living in TN and felt like a needed a pet.

Back at my apartment, we let the Siamese out of the carrier and the cat went "ballistic," running around like a cornered wild animal and jumping up on the walls trying to escape.  He later ran under the bed where he remained.


I left a bowl of food and water out in the second bedroom along with a litter box and went to sleep.  That night I felt the Siamese walking all over my body and in the morning, all the food was gone and the water container was half empty and the litter box had been used.

This behavior continued for about 9 months until we brought one of our other cats up to my apartment from TN and it was that cat who was able to entice the Siamese out from under the bed where I could interact with it and eventually begin to rub it.

Ten years later, the Siamese is still somewhat anti-social and very skeptical of everything that takes place in the house, but because of our time together in KY, the Siamese has bonded to me and I am the only one who has been able to fully interact with him.

Binging on BSG

During my mid-day exercise routing of riding a stationary bike and walking on the treadmill, I was surfing through the Cable Channels and discovered that Channel 63, SyfyHD, was broadcasting the entire series of Battlestar Galactica...  some of these episodes I had never watched before which made the journey even more interesting to me.

Opening the Economy

CAN AMERICANS BE TRUSTED TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT???


We assume that our LEADERS will do what is right


We assume that our MINISTERS/PASTORS/PRIESTS will do what is right


We assume that our SPOUSES and CHILDREN will do what is right


BUT,
we CANNOT assume that our fellow citizens will do what is right as opposed to doing what they want to do or feel like they need to do...

Being from East TN, it is obvious that our State was not hit as hard as other States or other Cities with COVID-19 but that does not give our citizens the RIGHT not to protect themselves or protect the rest of us by their inappropriate behaviors...

Yet, that is exactly what they do.

When watching FOX NEWS, we hear that all sorts of Americans are violating the Stay-at-Home Orders in many States because they do not like to he told what to do...  and, in some instances they are protesting...

SO,
what are the ODDS that AMERICANS will again violate the rules and guidelines if we open up the economy again???

We have no assurances!

And, that is the HUGE downside of being an American and living in AMERICA...   we always seem to do what we WANT rather than do what is RIGHT...

All About Italy

Spending Sundays @ Home

Typically on Sundays, my wife and I would go out to brunch after Church Services, then
spend the rest of the day watching movies on NETFLIX or CABLE or sit outside on our deck under the Gazebo (reading and surfing on the internet) or in our pool floating around or exercising against the water.

BUT, those days are basically over (at least temporarily) as a result of the Federal/State stay-at-home orders keeping us away from Church Services and going out to brunch.

So, now what we do after feeding the cats is watch FOX NEWS to get the latest on COVID-19 until Governor Cuomo does his NY State Update...  that is to say politely that we SWITCH CHANNELS and watch something else that usually deals with Cooking or HGTV and recently the ZOO which deals with behind-the-scenes at the BRONX ZOO.

For example, this morning when Governor Cuomo started to do his thing, we switched channels to the FOOD NETWORK's  The Kitchen, and learned about making broccoli fries by using the stems (that are usually thrown away) of the broccoli.  I thought this was so amazing that I found a video about making broccoli fries and posted it on my blog A Bipolar Scorpion on the MY COOKING page.

Since it is important to keep the wife happy when being sequestered at home, we for the most part always watch HGTV's Property Brothers which is actually being watched as I write this article...

Time is Relative

When an airplane passes by overhead in the distance sky, standing on the ground and looking up, it appears that the airplane is moving very fast...  and, that is confirmed mentally because we intuitively know that an airplane is faster than our cars, buses, and/or trains. 

BUT, if you are in the airplane looking down at a person looking up at you, it appears that the airplane is moving relatively slowly...

So, why is this and what has this got to do with time?

Think about it this way...
When our male astronauts went into space for several days their beards did not grow as fast as did the beards of the males on the ground working at NASA...

What that tells us is that time slows down the farther we move away from earth.  And, this can be understood easier if we look at a bicycle wheel.

Look at the wheel on the left...  and, imagine that the earth is that round black circle in the middle and that the edge of the universe is the black larger tire with the orange wheel. 

It it obvious (at least to me anyway) that the inner black circle makes several complete revolutions by the time the outer tire completes one complete revolution.

If the inner black circle's complete revolution represents 365 days, then it might make 10 complete revolution or 10 years by the time the outer tire makes one complete revolution or 1 year...

So, as one moves farther and farther away from the earth, time does not pass by as quickly as it does on earth.

Does that mean that astronauts could live longer is they remained in Outer Space?

How BIG Is Our Universe?

Sexual Submission

A submissive is an individual who willingly relinquishes control to another person, usually to satisfy a sexual urge. If you're here reading this, chances are the thought of relinquishing control to another person has piqued your interest or has even gotten your sexual juices flowing, so to speak. Think you're odd?

Don't worry - you're not weird. Far from it, really. In fact becoming sexually submissive is one of the most common sexual fantasies.

Just check out these statistics from the Kinsey Institute.

• 5-10% of Americans engages in sadism/masochism (S/M) practices for sexual pleasure at least occasionally.
• 12% of women and 22% of men reported erotic response to an S/M story.
• 55% of women and 50% of men reported having responded erotically to being bitten.
• 14% of men and 11% of women have had some sexual experience with sadomasochism.
• 11% of men and 17% of women reported trying bondage.

To read the entire article, click here...

What're You INTO?

MISTRESS DEE

Don't Mow the Grass

Do you live in a GREEN State?

Do you live in a BLUE State?

Do you live in a Grey/Gray State?

I live in the State of Tennessee which is Gray/Grey but my State of origin is North Carolina which is also Grey.Gray...

So, I have to drive/fly to Illinois or Colorado if I want to legally smoke a little weed...  

PISSER!!!

BUT,

what really bothers me more than anything else when it comes to marijuana is that people in those Gray/Grey States put people in jail for buying/selling marijuana whereas if they were lucky enough to live in another State they would not be in jail.

HOW IS THAT FAIR???

Why is our Federal Government not taking a stand here?  They don't arrest marijuana buyer/sellers in those States where it is legal...   WHY NOT?  It is still ILLEGAL on a Federal level?

Breast Pianist EVER!!!

American Higher Education

Donald Southerland

My career (1969-2019) spans 50 years although the last 5 years, I was a part-time Adjunct Instructor for a local University.  Of those 50 years, 45 years was spent either directly or indirectly in Education either as a Professor/Instructor or as an Administrator.  I have worked or taught in the following educational systems:  Community College, College, University, and/or Proprietary Colleges. 


The courses I have taught include:

1. English Composition
2. Micro/Macro Economics
3. Introduction to Computers
4. Statistical Problem Solving
5. Process Re-engineering
6. Personal Financial Planning
7. Strategic Planning
8. Project Management
9. Business Communications
10. Human Resource Management
11. Production Management
12. Management & Leadership

What did I discover?

That my college students were not very well prepared to attend College other than a Community College and even that level of education was doubtful.

My students basically LACKED:

• Writing Skills
• Spelling Skills
• Reading Skills
• Grammar Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Problem Solving Skills
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Working in Teams Skills
• Drilling Down on a Subject Skills
• Self-starter/Hit-the-Ground-Running Skills

I had students that...

1. never purchased the textbook
2. could not remember what they learned from their previous course
3. memorized for the test then forgot
4. did not prepare for class
5. did not do homework
6. did not ask questions
7. wanted to be told exactly what to do
8. did not want to figure out what I wanted

American Education

After ranking countries based on their levels of education and health, the study found that the US ranked 27th in the world on these metrics as of 2016, behind a host of top-ranking Nordic countries, including Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

This comes as little surprise, given that healthcare services in these countries are universal and publicly funded. The US, by contrast, is one of the few developed nations that lacks universal healthcare, according to The Atlantic.

When it comes to education, the nation fares even worse. The latest findings from the Pew Research Center have the US in 38th place out of 71 countries when it comes to math scores and 24th place when it comes to science.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the study is just how far the US has fallen in the rankings. In 1990, the US ranked sixth in the world for its levels of education and health — 21 spots ahead of where it is now.

So, what happened in the last 30 years?

To read the entire article, click here...

Only 6% of Americans aren't worried about anything

I.  There are 540 billionaires in the United States, with a combined net worth of $2.399 trillion, according to our 2016 list of the world's richest people.

II.  According to the report, the US has 18.6 million millionaires, highest in the world.

III.  As of 2019, the USA had a population of 328 million

If we were to add I and II, the result would be about 19 million...  as a percentage of 328 million, the result would be .06 or 6%

What does this mean?

Billionaires and Millionaires represent 6% of the total population of the USA...  while, 94% of the population of the USA are not Millionaires or Billionaires.

Think about this!

Those who are in the 6% are telling those of us who are in the 94% not to worry about the financial implications of COVID-19 and the fact that they are out-of-work and pretty much staying-at-home.