Enrichment

Saturday

The Credit Crisis Visualized!

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Thursday

To my son, "Lorand Daniel", on his first day of birthday.

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." You can start today to create the life you were meant to live, one small step at a time.
George Eliot (writer)

Or perhaps, "one big step from time to time."
Daniel O

Monday

The Story of Stuff

"From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns."

The Story of Stuff is an interesting short film, particularly in its last half. Writer and narrator Annie Leonard explains that the “golden arrow of consumption” is the heart of the modern economic system, a system that’s really only existed since the 1950s.

After World War II, planned obsolescence was incorporated into the production of consumer goods. Whereas quality and long life had once been a selling point, now things were intentionally designed with shorter lifespans. Obviously, this increased the rate of consumption.

Even more powerful, however, is the notion of perceived obsolescence. Perceived obsolescence is most obvious with regards to fashion. I suspect most readers try to divorce their purchase decisions from the clutch of fashion because they understand just how insidious it can be. Who wants to be seen wearing clothing from 1993?

But perceived obsolescence goes beyond just fashion. How many of you geeks still have your first iPod? Why did you move to a new one? Was anything wrong with the old one? Or were you, on some unconscious level, unwilling to be seen carrying around that brick anymore? (I’m guilty of having upgraded my iPod because my old one seemed out-of-date, so don’t think I’m condemning anyone.)

What is the cost of all this? Leonard says that 99% of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport, and consume is trash within six months. Only 1% of the materials used to produce consumer goods (including the goods themselves) are still used six months after the date of sale.

Here’s the best part of The Story of Stuff chapter five, “Consumption”:

Taken from "Get Rich Slowly" blog.

The Importance of Action!

People have goals in mind, but their present circumstances seem to be far from their intended destination. These two points are so far apart, in fact, that people are afraid to begin moving. Because the distance seemed overwhelming, they are paralyzed.

The importance of action

I used to feel this way, too. I would look at the enormity of my debt — $20,000! $30,000! — and I would stop before I could even begin. This was, of course, completely self-defeating. The most important thing you can do to achieve your financial goals (or any goal, for that matter) is to take action. It matters little which action you take so long as you begin moving in the right direction. You might, for example:

* Start a RRSP account.
* Open a high-yield savings account.
* Cancel your cable television.
* Read a book about the stock market or go back to school.
* Learn to bake bread.

Don’t be paralyzed because you don’t know the best path to take. Pick one good path and follow it. Whatever your financial goal, that first small step is the most important. It leads from inaction to action. It leads to the future.

Closing the gap

While I was thinking about this yesterday, I stumbled upon a video from This American Life’s Ira Glass. On the surface, it seems completely unrelated to personal finance. And maybe it is. But I think that in these five minutes, Glass gets to the heart of success with any goal:

Ostensibly, Glass is speaking about story-telling. (Which is why I was actually watching this.) But what he’s really talking about is the process of mastery, of building skills and achieving goals.

Glass says that when you begin any endeavor, you’re a novice. You have a clear vision of what a successful person would do or be (debt-free, for example, or have a million dollars), but your own efforts aren’t anywhere near what you define as success. Maybe you still spend money on videogames or on handbags. Maybe you eat out too much. Whatever the case, there’s a gap between your view of success and your present abilities.

“A lot of people never get past that phase,” Glass says. “A lot of people at that point, they quit.”

But to succeed, you can’t quit. To achieve your dreams, you need to keep stumbling along. Nearly anyone who is successful, says Glass, goes through a period of months or years where they can tell that what they’re doing isn’t as good as they want it to be:

You gotta know that’s totally normal. The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work…It’s only by actually going through a volume of work that you’re actually going to catch up and close that gap, and the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.

Or, translated into the language of personal finance, keep practicing frugality. Keep saving money. Keep reading about the stock market. It’s only by continuing to do these things that they become habits, and it’s only by developing these habits that you’ll be able to meet your financial goals. Don’t be discouraged if you stumble. You will make mistakes. You need to fight your way through these. “You will be fierce,” Glass says. “You will be a warrior.”

But to begin, you need to take action. You need to take that first step. You need to begin walking in the direction of your dreams.

Article taken from "Get Rich Slowly"

Thursday

A Glimpse at the Spending of the Average American

The Spending of the Average American Chart:

On Saturday, The New York Times published a brilliant chart illustrating the spending of the average American:

“Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics gathers 84,000 prices in about 200 categories,” the paper writes, “like gasoline, bananas, dresses and garbage collection.” These numbers form the Consumer Price Index, one common measure of inflation. And this graphic makes that information accessible.

This chart is neat for several reasons:

The circle itself represents 100% of the average consumer’s spending. The circle is divided into eight large shapes, each of which is divided further into a number of smaller shapes. The size of each shape represents an estimate of what the average American spends on the category it represents. For example, gasoline is the largest shape in the transportation category.
Each shape is color-coded by the change in prices for that category between March 2007 and March 2008. The three dark red shapes (representing price increases of more than 40%) are all petroleum products. But eggs — with a 29.9% price increase — are close behind.
Hovering over any shape will reveal the category name, the share of spending from the average budget, and the amount by which prices have changed in the past year.
You can use the “zoom in” tool to get a better view of the action, and then drag the chart around to look at different categories. It’s only by doing this that you can see lettuce has its own category, and that the green, leafy stuff has declined in price by 3.2% over the past twelve months.
I’ll confess to feeling like a total geek because I spent twenty minutes exploring the different numbers. I even started taking notes and making extrapolations and comparisons.

For example, Americans, as a whole, spend three times as much money on cigarettes as they do on financial services. Actually, because we know that 0.7% of expenditures are made to cigarettes, and because we know that 21% of Americans smoke, then (if my math is right) about 3.5% of a smoker’s expenses go to cigarettes. (Note that I’m not criticizing. At one time, comic books accounted for 7% of my own expenses.)

I would love to find more charts and graphs like this one. (The New York Times has a history of producing great charts and graphs, such as their graph of home values from 2006 and their rent vs. buy calculator.)

[The New York Times: All of inflation's little parts]

Article taken from the Get Rich Slowly blog

Saturday

Global Warming!

How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic

Below is a complete listing of the articles in "How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic," a series by Coby Beck containing responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming. There are four separate taxonomies; arguments are divided by:

Individual articles will appear under multiple headings and may even appear in multiple subcategories in the same heading.

Stages of Denial

A. There's nothing happening

1. Inadequate evidence

2. Contradictory evidence

3. No consensus

B. We don't know why it's happening

1. Models don't work

2. Prediction is impossible

3. We can't be sure

C. Climate change is natural

1. It happened before

2. It's part of a natural change

3. It's not caused by CO2

D. Climate change is not bad

1. The effects are good

What's wrong with warmer weather?

2. The effects are minor

3. Change is normal

E. Climate change can't be stopped

1. Too late

Kyoto is a big effort for almost nothing

2. It's someone else's problem

3. Economically infeasible

Climate change mitigation would lead to disaster

Scientific Topics

A. Temperature

B. Atmosphere

C. Extreme events

1. Temperature records

2. Storms

3. Droughts

D. Cryosphere

1. Glaciers

2. Sea ice

Antarctic sea ice is increasing

3. Ice sheets

E. Oceans

Sea level in the Arctic is falling

F. Modeling

1. Scenarios

2. Uncertainties

G. Climate forcings

1. Solar influences

2. Greenhouse gases

3. Aerosols

H. Paleo climate

1. Holocene

2. Ice ages

3. Geologic history

I. Scientific process

Types of Argument

1. Uninformed

2. Misinformed

3. Cherry Picking

4. Urban Myths

5. FUD

6. Non Scientific

7. Underdog Theories

8. Crackpottery

Levels of Sophistication

1. Silly

2. Naive

3. Specious

4. Scientific

The comments of Gristmill users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?

Gristmill

http://gristmill.grist.org

Friday

Every Day is Thanksgiving Day

Day of Thanksgiving.

Holiday Thoughts from 1951!

Want to Save more?

A few weeks ago I wrote about my realization that I have to much Stuff. For two decades, I had been a willing participant in our consumerist culture, buying books and magazines and video games and compact discs and George Foreman grills. After twenty years of this, all I had to show for it was a mountain of debt and a home filled with Stuff.

Recently, Kris and I have been working to purge our Stuff. While we’ve discarded some of it as trash, we’ve also managed to sell some of it. We’ve donated some of our Stuff to charity. We’ve given other Stuff to friends.

At first this was painful. Then it became appalling. It was shocking to think that I’d paid tens of thousands of dollars to buy this Stuff, and then paid even more in interest fees. Now I’m casting much of it aside, shipping it off to a landfill.

This has made me realize that Stuff has more than just a personal financial cost. Every time I buy something, it has an impact on the world around me. When I buy a new kitchen appliance, for example, there’s an environmental cost for the manufacturing process, for the packaging, for the transportation, and for the marketing. By reducing my role as a consumer, couldn’t I help myself and help the environment? Here are five strategies that I’ve developed to help me accomplish both goals at once:

Reduce your consumption — buy less stuff. Such a simple notion, yet so powerful. The less you buy, the less money you spend. When you buy less, you’re also reducing your environmental impact. Buying fewer things means a little more money in your pocket, and a little less pollution in the world.
Reuse the things you have. Last week, Amanda encouraged us to get value from the things we own. Before you buy a new computer game, ask yourself if you’re finished playing the last one you bought. Before you buy a new bicycle, consider taking your old bike in for a tune-up instead. If you currently buy disposable diapers, disposable razors, or paper towels, consider switching to re-usable alternatives.
Recycle the Stuff you no longer want or need. If you replace your 1996-era 19″ Sony television with a new widescreen model, don’t set the old TV out in the trash. Find another home for it. Put it on Craigslist. Set it outside with a “free” sign on it. If you really want to save money, place yourself on the other side of the equation: look for Stuff that people are getting rid of. You can find nearly everything you need for much less than you’d pay new. You just need to know where to look!
Embrace imperfection. We like the things we buy to be perfect. But that perfection comes at a price, both financially and environmentally. Learn to look beyond the surface:
- Hand-crafted goods may contain minor imperfections.
- Organic fruits and vegetables often have visible blemishes that do not affect the quality of the food.
- The things you find at garage sales and thrift stores will often require mending.
All of these flaws can be disconcerting at first, but in time you may find yourself wondering why they once bothered you.
Pursue quality. I used to buy a pair of $3 gardening gloves every spring because I didn’t see the sense in spending more. They’d work fine for a couple months, but by the end of the summer, they’d be worn to pieces. Then one year I bought a $15 pair of gloves. I haven’t bought another pair since. We often assume the least expensive option is the best way to save money. That’s not always the case. Quality items usually have a higher initial cost, but the total cost of ownership can be much less than a cheaply-made equivalent.

These rules can be difficult to follow — I’ve been working on some of them for years. Most of the time, I still think like a consumer. But because it’s important to the environment, and because
it’s important to my bottom line, I’m willing to keep trying.

Want to Save the Environment? Buy Less Stuff!

Taken from http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/

Saturday

What Will Matter

Thursday

Children See Children Do. Make your influence positive!

Saturday

A moment can change your life!

As I look back on my life, I realize that certain decisions, certain encounters, certain meetings, and certain events were extremely determinant in my personal growth. These crucial moments profoundly changed the course of my life. A few moments to change an entire life! A few moments to change me forever! Such moments are precious and rare. They happen because of universal laws or because we have intentionally created them for ourselves. They stand at crossroads in our lives. Today or tomorrow, one of these wonderful moments may occur in my life. And I will be faced with an important decision that will mark my existence until the end of my days.

Wednesday

Generosity

I see very clearly the value of generosity in a world that is too often cold, rude and austere. Generosity is a soft light that shines from the hearth to light the path of others. Today, I know that I have nothing to lose by being generous. There are only winners in the game of generosity, never losers. How can I succeed if I have no interest in the success of others? How can I reap the benefits of my success while I see others experiencing hardship? How can I grow and see others fail to grow?

Today, I understand that the universe is not a one-way street. If I wan to win, I also have to support others in victory. By being generous, I give back a little of what the universe has given me and I contribute to the success of others.

Saturday

Real Beauty

These are the definitions of real beauty in real time, modern times, old times, and ancient times.

We all strive for a beautiful and healthy body. This not only makes our hearts come alive but it keeps us alive and vibrant.

Unfortunately, there are some individuals who strive for beauty for reasons that not only are unhealthy but which in time actually detract from the over all attractiveness of the individual. One of the main unhealthy reasons to try and look beautiful is out of a need for attention or need for validation. Such needs usually stem from a fear of being alone and this is most often associated with low self esteem.

Using beauty to try to compensate for low self esteem is like trying to make your old broken down car attractive with a new paint job in order to get it sold when the engine no longer works. Sooner or later the truth will come out and any perceived gains will be lost. In the process there will also come a great deal of heart ache.

Attractiveness is more than skin deep. It is something that can only emerge from a fully self respecting and self confident human being. All of this can only come when an individual truly loves or esteems themselves in every way. Now many feel this is a distant and unachievable reality so they look for a quik fix from a good make over. A lot of organizations are making a lot of money feeding off of the poor self esteem of individuals.

What price do you pay when you buy into such "easy solutions" and pretend to yourself that this is the road to happiness? Well, what happens is that you go into a state of denial about what you really feel inside and then these feelings need to be kept suppressed. Where do they go then? Well, they actually go "into" your body and turn up sooner or later as some form of emotional or physical illness.

So in the end you're left with a reminder of the problem that you tried so hard to forget. The worst part about all of this is that once the illness stage emerges the tendency is again to find a quik fix in the form of some medication or drug prescribed by a physician. Most medications come with numerous side-effects. Staying on one or more long enough will cause you to likely experience some of these side-effects. The solution? Well, another medication of course, and so on.

Now if you are a young person you may think that this is all sounding a bit too pessimistic. Well my 20 years as a psychiatrist has given me enough experience to know that this is an ever recurring scenario. I'm presenting it to you here so that you will reflect carefully on your situation and make a wise and self respecting decision to take what ever feels like the truly right course for yourself.

Self esteem is something that can be improved more easily than one thinks these days, and in the right way. So I challenge you to strive for the true lasting beauty that can only emerge from a heart that is truly alive and open. It's the only way to be truly attractive!

Dr. Nick Arrizza

Beauty is not caused. It is.

Emily Dickinson

Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair; and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather; let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight.

1 Peter 3:3-4

I wonder why we do not understand the concept of real beauty.

Thursday

The Truth

Inside each of us lies the possibility to choose between the high road or the low road. The individual can choose between a life based on the satisfaction of urges and personal interest or on the achievement of more noble goals.

When an individual listens to the call of his inferior characteristics, he gives in to the world of appearances, putting the physical ahead of the mental, living a superficial and finite existence. The inferior being knows nothing of virtue and is unable to achieve true success. The inferior being cannot come to know the deeper meaning of love and life. The inferior being is unable to see the dynamic forces inherent in life and events. The interior being is doomed to fail because he has no access to profound knowledge or to the wisdom of the soul.

When an individual listens to the call of his superior characteristics, he reaches a new level of knowledge and self-awareness. He makes consistent use of his many sources of discernment, a faculty which springs solely from the spiritual. He looks at the world and sees far beyond appearances, he makes choices based on wiser and more valuable criteria and he directs his efforts and energy at reaching nobler goals. The superior being always triumphs because he values the virtues of the heart: gentleness, goodness and compassion. The superior being can achieve his goals with approval from the universe.

Virtue is the tool of choice for the superior being. The superior being is virtuous because he understands the strength and breadth of virtue. He knows that by being virtuous, he is true to his profound nature; he becomes the instrument of goodness and greatness. He knows that virtuous behavior brings him closer to the divinity within.

Sunday

My beautiful Country "A Paradise called... Colombia"

Para mi gente... Colombia! Arriba Colombianos no perdamos la fé que Colombia es grande aqui afuera y allá adentro también. Mantengamos la características que nos destacan como el país con la gente más felíz del mundo. Esta corta pelicula muestra lo que somos, lo apasionados y felices de ser Colombianos. Gracias por sus comentarios pues nos hacen sentir que nuestra gente está aquí con nosotros. Saludos a esa Colombia bella.

Saturday

Colombia is Passion


Promo about Colombia to show what colombia is really like. Key words: Shakira, Juanes, Carlos Vives, Barranquilla, Bogota, Festival, Feria, Musica, Passion, Teatro, Libro, Amazonas, Selva, Asi es, Medellin, cali, Transformacion, Pais, Trip,Colombia, Colombia, Colombia, Playa y Cartagena. Colombia es Passion!

Thursday

Self-Confidence

“Some man achieved success because they are firmly convinced that lives could never be otherwise. Success gives them total fulfillment not even the smallest of gaps can let failure filter into their lives. This certainly thing is a lot like autosuggestion. In all circumstances, everything unfolds us if failure cannot possibly affect them, as if they are immunized against any kind of negative germ.”
-FRANCOIS GARAGNON

Succeeding, achieving my objectives and making my dreams come through call for certainty. The certainty that I can find the means and inner strength to reach my goals. In the final analysis, in the battle of life, I must be able to rely on my self. I have to maintain the energy I find in new beginnings and I have to find a path that leads me to my ultimate goal. No one can give me self-confidence, not even the encouragement of my friends and my love ones. A mental outlook that excludes the possibility that I might fail or that I might give up is my best asset. I have to believe in my self and I have to know that I will reach my objective no matter what life brings me. My result is to believe in myself and to trust the inner wisdom that tells me that I can reach my ultimate objective.
S49

Tuesday

Going Further

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”

Persevere is a word whose stem comes from the Latin for “severe” (severus), meaning inflexible. Someone who is perseverant never quits. People who have been successful in their lives all have something in common: perseverance. Their success stories show consistent effort, persistence in difficult situations and the will to go on, even when the temptation to give in to discouragement has been very great.

Today, I know that perseverance comes from within. It is not something I can find outside myself. Even when friends offer me encouragement, nothing can replace my own perseverance.

Perseverance is the marathon runner who refuses to give in to exhaustion before he or she has crossed the finish line. It is standing up to adversity. It is refusing to give in even when all seems lost.
S135

Monday

There's Always a Solution

We should return to a simpler approach to life. In a sense, we should return to our roots. When we try to complicate life, we experience problems. If I have a disagreement with a colleague or a friend, I wait for my anger to dissipate and I go to him or her to explain my point of view frankly, and I am prepared to admit that I may have been wrong in some ways. If my children come home with a bad report card, I spend more time with them to help them understand the things they find hard to learn. If colleagues or acquaintances react coldly to me, I seek them out and I ask them to explain what’s wrong. In short, there is always a way to make life simpler.
S215

Sunday

Serving Others

“No joy equals the joy of serving others.”
-SAI BABA

Most of us have lost the notion of serving others. To some extent we associate serving others with form of degradation or slavery. We live in an age of liberation. But our overly individualistic outlook results in isolation and spiritual hardship. There can only be one true goal for people living within a society: serving others. A lifetime of serving ourselves is sterile and fruitless. A lifetime of serving our families, our communities, our businesses, our planet, is the only true life.

Serving does not mean being a slave or acting as someone else’s inferior. Serving means using my talents and my resources for the greater good of all. When I serve, I find self-fulfillment, I create harmony and I become a full-fledged member of humanity.
S176

Saturday

Family Life

When you look at the question of personal success, it is impossible to ignore family life. Our families have undergone enormous changes in the last two decades. Today, we often live through the effects of the breakdown of the family unit. However, the family remains a source of joy, of security, of belonging and emotional stability. Within the family, we learn to share, to love, to take our individual responsibilities and to take pleasure in the company of others.

Today, I see that family life is part of my sense of values. I seek to reinforce and nurture my ties with other family members. I am willing to help them, comfort them and spoil them. I know that alone, life makes no real sense. So I seek to create sound, loving and lasting ties with my family.
S214

Friday

The Power of Dreams

I can create a mental image of the goals I want to reach. If I want a particular result, I must imagine it as if it were something that I have already achieved. Such is the power of my dreams. I can imagine my future. I can imagine the kind of life I want to live and the kind of situations I want to experience. I can use my mental images as a guide.

If I have no goals and no dreams, how can I be sure that I am moving closer to self-fulfillment? I can use my imagination to guide my actions.

Today, I use my dreams to guide and inspire me.
S152