You’ve probably cut back on some on your frivolous spending too, after looking at your weak investment statements.  You started saving too late, spent too much over the years, and now have too much time to make up for.

To make things worse, the younger people view you as old, and the gray hairs see you as a young whipper snapper.  You’ve already had a mid-life crisis in your forties.  You bought the sports car.  And you tried some partying like in your youth only to find you’re now a wimp.  Your round balding head is protruding ever more, as is your belly.

So what’s left?

Whether you see it or not, you’re actually in your prime.  You’re probably still pretty healthy.  You’re probably making more money than ever in your life.  Your kids are probably grown or mostly so.  You’re in a good spot!

Don’t get caught up in things!  Get caught up in the moments.  Enjoy the simple things each day.  Save away all the money you can and forget about it.  Instead, make life about enjoying things that don’t cost money.  If you had done this when you were younger, you’d be there already.  But it’s not too late.  Go for it.

But it’s easy to think, “If I were rich, I’d do this and buy that and travel there…”  But would you really?

Oh yes, if you suddenly won the lottery and or came into a surprise inheritance you probably would spend it like there’s no tomorrow.  That is what usually happens with “easy come” money.  It’s becomes “easy go.”  The reason for this has to do with one’s behavior with money.  If your behavior with money has kept you broke, then even if a pile of money is thrown at you, you’ll soon return to being broke.  A wise proverb says “A dog returns to its own vomit.”

On the other hand, if you actually scrimped and saved and planned your way from rags to riches, then the money choices you made along the way will likely stick as part of your character and remain even after you get there.  Why would you go through all the trouble to become wealthy, having learned the tricks to do it, only to blow it all away carelessly?  You wouldn’t, because the tricks become engrained.  The actions become you.

What actions?  Well for starters, things like this:

Check for bargains at the thrift store, yard sales, want ads and Craigslist even though you can afford to buy new.

Drive an older paid for car even though you can afford to buy any new car.

Take more modest local vacations even though you can afford to fly to Hawaii or anywhere else.  Better yet, throw in some stay home vacations.

Refuse to buy anything on credit, with the exception of your home (and only then if you have at least a twenty percent down payment).

When you go out to eat, go out for lunch instead of dinner.

Rent a home instead of buying until you’re sure you can afford it easily on one income.

Rent stuff that you don’t use frequently (like that pickup truck to haul an occasional load, tools you only need once in a while).

Don’t collect stuff.  Instead, downsize and sell off everything not used on a daily basis.

Save as much money as you can, and invest it in diverse things.

Read books on how to win with money.

Take diligent care of your health.  It will save you a bundle when you’re older.

I wouldn’t have even remembered this dream except I happened to scan some titles of articles in a newsletter this morning and noticed one about gold and silver.  Then, ping.  The dream came back.

Note that I do not own silver, nor to I check on its prices – ever.

Dream April 02, 2013:

I was holding a 1964 Kennedy half dollar and held it up in front of my face, looking at it.  I’d seen these silver coins a lot when I was younger so was quite familiar with them.  It was a little tarnished looking around the rim.

I was in a pawn shop, and handed it to a guy behind the counter and asked him how much he’d give me for it.

He took a look at it and said, “twenty seven dollars.”

“How much is silver worth now?” I asked.

“Sixty dollars an ounce,” he said.  “Do you want to sell it or not.”

I thought about it.  Do I sell the coin and hold on to the cash, or keep the coin?  I decided to sell it for $27 and immediately felt disappointed.

—end of dream—

So as soon as I remembered the dream this morning, I hopped online.  I’m curious what the price of silver is today.  The first article I click open is someone predicting that silver will go to $60 per ounce within a few months.  That seems strange, because that’s the price it was in my dream.

What is the price of silver is today (April 3, 2013)?  $27-28 per ounce.

Next, I’m curious what the weight of a Kennedy half dollar is.  Turns out it is 12.5 grams (0.44 ounces).  I was not aware of this or had forgotten.  At $60 per ounce, if sold purely for its 90% silver content that would be worth about $24 (a pure silver coin that same weight would be worth $26-27 dollars).

Coincidences?  I never think about silver.  Why did I dream this?

Now I’m a little perplexed.  Did my dream something?  Should I go out and buy a bunch of silver?  Hmmm.  Undecided.  What would you do?

We trade our time and ultimately much of our lives for money.  That’s the harsh and depressing reality.  Would you drag yourself to work and put up with the office dramas and divas if there weren’t some dead presidents in it for you?  Yet even piles of money won’t add any more days to your life.  The best we can do is to figure out how to squeeze more time out of each day to do the things that we really want to do.

I’m not talking about time management.  No, we should understand the true cause of why we can’t spend our time as we please.  We should hope that it slaps us upside the head.  It should, because the reason we’re time-poor is right in front of our faces.  Just look around your house, your garage, your driveway, your yard.  See all the balls and chains?

If you want more time each day to do the things that matter most to you, then you’re going to have to trade something for it – your spending frenzy and fascination with stuff.  You’ll have to grow some gonads to do this right.  For many of us our stuff, and our desire to buy more of it, is a time prison.  We are slaves in the land of the free.  Yes, the biggest irony in our society.

We have to work too much, because we’re spending all we make buying way more than we need.  Then to add insult to injury we’re spending most of our spare time taking care of it all and little time actually enjoying it.  Such is the vicious cycle living in mega consumerville.  Much of our lives, our energy, our opportunities, are ultimately traded for stuff.  And our time is squandered, flushed down the drain, out of reach.

The solution is really pretty radically simple:  Learn to tell your money where not to go and then someday it can tell you not to go to work anymore!  That would be sweet.  Your income (no matter what the level) is your greatest tool for gaining your freedom, for adding time to every day.  So get mad about being robbed of it!  Defend your money like a mother bear seeing a threat to her cubs.  What you do (and don’t do) with your money is far more important than how much you make!

Money with a plan will stick around and give you time to enjoy.  An impressive wad without a plan will mysteriously wander off and suck away all your spare time with it.  And hope.

Whether it’s the government, the legal and medical professions, insurance “industry” (though they produce nothing), the banking establishments or any number of other big businesses making up the Topsopper and Mopsopper organizations, their success and riches come at the expense and hard work of the Boppers who make up the common factory line worker, tradesperson, craftsman, burger flipper and cubicle geek.  The majority of those who buy all consumer products are Boppers, often borrowing money to do so.

The Topsoppers and Mopsoppers are always at varying times acting as the middlemen in trading, setting the prices and terms.  Minteer says, “In any trading, when the terms of the trade fluctuate, one trader gains and the other loses – but the middleman always gains.”  The ones who lose are most often the Boppers – the workers at the bottom who are also the consumers.  The system is set up against us.  And the banks play a large role in helping things stay that way.

What have banks really done for us?  Hmm…let’s see…

1. The banks make money by paying us a token interest rate on our deposits, and then loaning them out at a much higher interest rate.  They NEED us to make money.  Yet currently, it’s an insult what banks are paying as savings account interest rates – a fraction of one percent!  It amounts to nothing for the average person who saves.

2. The banks make money by practicing fractional reserve lending whereby they in effect can loan out ten times the amount of actual deposits that they have on hand.  But what if all the depositors want their money all at once (it has happened before, and will surely happen again)?  No problem, you say, the banks are insured through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).  Do you want to try to get your money back from the government during a crisis?  The government will first bail out the Big Boys before worrying about the Boppers.

3. Even without your borrowing, the banks make a killing from the average “customer” by charging fees and penalties.  A few bucks from everyone, month after month.  It’s robbery.  Less and less people are saving money so the banks have resorted to another means of extortion.

4. The banks (including credit card companies) encourage the average consumer to borrow and borrow, though it is stupid.  They want to keep us in bondage, ever paying back interest and needing to borrow more and more.

So the basic obvious question is this:  What good to us is our money in a bank, or using a bank for anything?  We’re getting paid squat for interest.  In a crisis we may not get our money (especially in a timely manner) so it’s not necessarily safe or liquid.  And in reality we’re losing money just to keep it there or do business with them.

We need to “begin the process of ceasing our support” to the pyramid scheme. The first and most important thing to do is to get out of debt by any means possible – by selling stuff, selling everything if necessary and starting over, working overtime, downsizing and paying off all debt!

Then, strongly consider whether you need a bank for anything!  Do you REALLY need your credit card or debit card?  You can survive without a checking account.  Do you need the bank’s “great” interest payments on your savings account?  Do you need their hassle?  Seriously, what good are they?  HAVE YOU MADE MORE FROM THEM THAN THEY HAVE TAKEN FROM YOU?!

What’s wrong with using cash and coin anyway?  The banks (and others) have lied to us to get us to stop using cash, coins or just plain trading and bartering!

Might your spare money, your cash and coin, do just as well in your mattress, a home safe, or some other hiding spot?  Surely you can find some safe place to stash your stash.

Think about it, if we all got out of debt and then saved our surplus money safely ourselves, to invest how WE (not the banks) wished, that would greatly limit the banks’ power.

Wouldn’t that transfer a great power back to the people?  Yes!  Let’s do it. Let’s QUIT SUPPORTING THE PYRAMID SCHEME!

Here are a few thoughts just from the summary section of this 3-1/2 hour documentary.

Steps to Getting Out of National Debt and Away from the Debt Based Banking System

1. Pay off national debt with debt-free U.S. Notes (bills, not bonds).
2. Abolish fractional reserve banking/lending.  Proportionately raise bank reserve requirements (eventually to 100%) as debt is paid off (to limit inflation).
3. Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the National Banking Act of 1864.
4. The U.S. should withdraw from the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of International Settlements and the World Bank.

Numerous U.S. presidents (such as Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln) have supported printing our own currency rather than borrowing it (such as in the days of the Greenbacks).  Many have opposed the Gold Standard (which puts the power of money in fewer hands since gold is more scarce than silver or paper currency).  Yet these great ideas did not catch on.  Why?

Until these ideas take hold, we’d better be prepared for more economic troubles ahead.

Protection during a Depression

• Get out of debt (personal)
• Get liquid
• Own your house
• Have some silver coins (pre 1965 good)
• Have some gold

For more information and a complete history on this topic, read the book, The Money Masters by Bill Still, check out their website http://themoneymasters.com and by all means take the time to watch the awesome video http://beaconoftruth.com/money_masters.htm (conclusion starts at 03:02, how to fix U.S. debt starts at 3:10).

This poem was put to a short music video and uploaded to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation website, campaigning against national debt.  They called this video “a rock anthem.”

Where Does Wealth Come From?

Luckily, a lot of people like to work and are pretty good at their craft, which helps drive the economy.  Simply put, wealth comes from financing work, in other words, spending money to purchase something that someone worked to produce.

If you pay someone to make something tangible for you, the act of them exerting their time and energy upon the raw materials to create the item actually increases wealth on the planet – for them and potentially for you too depending on the quality of their work.  They get paid for their time and increase their wealth.  In return you get something theoretically of equal or greater value.  If the item is of greater value than it cost you, then you have profited from your investment and further increased your wealth as well.  Nice, huh!  Others third parties may benefit too.

George S. Clason describes the principle nicely in his book The Richest Man In Babylon:

“Wealth grows wherever men exert energy…If a rich man builds him a new palace, is the gold he pays out gone?  No, the brickmaker has part of it and the laborer has part of it, and the artist has part of it.  And everyone who labors upon the house has part of it.  Yet when the palace is completed, is it not worth all it cost?  And is the ground upon which it stands not worth more because it is there?  And is the ground that adjoins it not worth more because it is there?”

Building one house may not make anyone wealthy, though.  In fact, a stream of house building producing a steady income, alone, won’t do it either.

The Discipline of Saving

A portion of your income must be saved for your purse to fatten.  “But when I began to take out from my purse but nine parts of ten I put in, it began to fatten.  So will thine.”  In other words, “pay yourself” by keeping a minimum of 10% of your earnings for saving and investing.

Again, Clason makes a great point:  “Which desirest thou the most?  Is it the gratification of thy desires of each day, a jewel, a bit of finery, better raiment, more food; things quickly gone and forgotten?  Or is it substantial belongings, gold, lands, herds, merchandise, income-bringing investments?  The coins thou takest from thy purse bring the first.  The coins thou leavest within it will bring the latter.”

Discipline is Spelled BUDGET

“The purpose of a budget is to help thy purse to fatten…It is to enable thee to realize thy most cherished desires by defending them from thy casual wishes.”  Don’t you love how that is said!

Evaluate your expenses to determine what is really necessary, considering “That what each of us calls our ‘necessary expenses’ will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary.”

How Much of Getting Wealthy is Luck?

Becoming wealthy is not due to luck.  But don’t pass up opportunity.  Act immediately if the price is good.  “Good luck” follows opportunity.  “So must every man master his own spirit of procrastination before he can expect to share in the rich treasures of Babylon.”

Good luck is this:  Hard work, learning, and to “be in the front rank of progress.”

Other Things to Keep in Mind While Growing Wealth

Assess risk before investing in anything.  Consult those experienced in handling money.  Get advice from experts.

“If you desire to help thy friend, do so in a way that will not bring thy friend’s burdens upon thyself.”

Protect your money.  Safe, small returns are better than risky ventures.  Principle must be safe and available.

Don’t force money to impossible earnings.  If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

“Easy money” and “get rich quick” schemes don’t create wealth (they might make an individual richer, but it’s usually due to someone else’s loss).

Your desires must be simple and definite.  Don’t have unrealistic or overly-complicated goals.

As your 10% grows and multiplies, consider buying houses and other property.  Diversify your investments.

Own your dwelling, and buy it out of the 90% left after you pay yourself.

Plan for income in old age.  Your investments should produce income.

In Summary, Create Wealth by Doing the Following:

Work hard.

Save at least 10% with discipline.

Use a budget to make your money behave.

Look for opportunities.

Seek advice from experts, read, get second and third opinions.

——-

All Quotes from, The Richest Man In Babylon, George S. Clason

Are We Being Duped?

There is something that affects our health and wealth more than anything else.  And it’s literally right under our noses!  Our food.  But we’re being fooled into thinking it’s everything but food.  Don’t think so?  Then ponder these questions:

Why doesn’t the government emphasize to the public the results of decades of research showing that a rich animal protein (meat/dairy/eggs) and processed junk food diet (i.e., “Western” food, or the “food of the affluent”) is linked with increased levels of all kinds of disease?

On the contrary, why haven’t the results of decades of research, showing that a whole plant based food diet is linked with disease prevention and cure, been emphasized to the public?

Why are medications and procedures to address disease symptoms given priority over dietary prevention and cure treatments, especially when these medications and procedures cost far more and have been shown to be far less effective at treating or curing disease over dietary treatments?

Why is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. (after heart disease and cancer) attributed to “medical care” yet we spend the most on health care and have incredible medical technologies?

Who’s Pulling the Wool Over Our Eyes?

The answers to the above questions involve one or more (or all!) of the following:

• Flawed nutrition research and/or misinformation that causes confusion as to the real cause-effect of diet on health
• Flawed disease research and/or misinformation that causes confusion as to the real cause-effect of diet on disease
• “Big money” food companies that push meat, dairy and highly processed “garbage” food products
• “Big money” drug companies that push pills for every symptom, yet provide no cures
• “Big money” hospitals that push technology based treatments, yet provide no cures

Mad Yet?

This should make everyone more than a little angry.  Is corporate greed really sacrificing the health and welfare of “the people?”  Many experts think “yes.”

T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, states that “Having been a member of several diet and health policy-making expert panels over a twenty-year period I harbored the view that these panels were dedicated to the promotion of consumer health.  I no longer believe this to be true…I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to health, government is not for the people; it is for the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry at the expense of the people.”

Some Straight Talk – Backed Up By Research

The healthiest, longest living peoples in the world eat primarily a fresh whole plant based diet, very little meat/dairy/eggs (a little fish), almost no processed foods, and consume only 1900 calories per day!  Kind of turns our “modern society” food ideas upside down, huh?

Do you want to learn more about this health phenomenon of modern “civilized” and “affluent” society?  Read the very provocative The China Study, considered to be “the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted.”  And don’t miss out on a real eye opener, Healthy At 100, by John Robbins.  Find both at your local library.  These two books may very well contain the secrets of the fountain of youth – or at least the closest thing we’re going to find here!