Assets and Liabilities

I have been reading the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. It is an interesting story of a person being trained from a very early age to simply understand money. The book was written to the financially inept with a lack of actual information. It seems that the author tries to tell his story in a way to exonerate him from actually giving advice. With that said, I am glued to this book. It explained the one concept that I needed to understand. Assets make you more wealthy; they provide you with money. Liabilities make you less wealthy; they provide you with expenses. Therefore, in order to be wealthy, you must acquire assets rather than liabilities. I did not come from a wealthy family, I do not expect to receive an inheritance other than momentos. In order for me to be wealthy, I have to work for money, I can then use that money to acquire assets which will then put my money to work. The author symbolically describes your dollars as employees, you can give away your employees, or you can put them to work.

Anyway, I have put myself in a situation that makes acquiring assets more slow. But eventually, I will have it figured out. I really hope I don't have to work for the next 40 year just to die on the street because I couldn't afford a nursing home...

Reduced options

Well, you can't count on people in general to make the right choice. I remember the phrase, "a person is smart, but people are dumb." That phrase has never rung more true than with public elections. I think it is funny how Republicans look back to President Reagan as a truly great President, and the Democrats look back at President Kennedy. When you compare the individual achievements of these two presidents, you realize what matters most to each of the groups. To the Republicans, they want someone who does what they say they will do. To the Democrats, they want someone who looks good (hence the failure of John Kerry.) But anyway, getting back to my point. Why do people as a collective make poor choices? The simple excitement of being accepted, (if only for a moment.) If you notice, in groups, there is always someone that is so likable, you'd follow him to the ends of the earth. These individuals are the decision-makers. They aren't not usually the leader, they are not the do-er, these individual are the fires that motivate the whole. Unfortunately, they aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, and thus we have the "dumb group".

Cyclops?!

These people are not "four-eyes" or your everyday "two-eyes," these cyclops are the lucky 'ones.' Their lives are always filled with questions. "How tall is that building?" "How long do I have to walk to get to that mountain?" "How will I ever know who my real friends are and who is just being nice because I am different?" But don't feel sorry for those regular cyclops too soon, giant cyclops have it even worse. They have an adjective decribing their body type. In the world we live, it is harassment to give someone an adjective. Whether it accurately and properly describes or not, adjectives are to be removed from all descriptions of people. No more are we allowed to have hair color, eye color, body size, personality traits, race, or belief descriptors.
I once met a giant cyclops who lived in a lonely cave, all he wanted was to have a friend over for dinner. Would you belive this, that person put out his only eye and snuck out before dinner. What is the world coming to?

The next President as I see it

As for the next President, my primary vote probably goes to the American, Mitt Romney. He is truly a self-made man with no reason to run for public office other than to help other Americans. Why did Warren Buffet give $37bil to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation instead of Joe "the non-profitteer" Sly? Because Bill Gates has no reason to help people other than helping people. Mitt wants to help America become what it should be, not by whining, not by buying friends both in the country and out, and not by waiting. His financial position, similar to Benjamin Franklin, allows him to be a true servant of the people. To all of the people out there who haven't made up your minds, look at the intentions of the candidates, what is in it for them.

If not Mitt, I would vote for Ron Paul. He is a very straight forward person with an easy going personality who seems to take no advise from Politicos (However, he is from Texas, we can't have two in a row!) John McCain is like George Bush, he has good intentions, but relys too heavily on his aides and advisers.
On the Democrat side, between Hillary and Obama, ...wow, what to say? Similar to Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean, we know we can count on a dishonest person to always be dishonest, and Hillary would always do what is best for Hillary.
When it is all said and done, as I said before, we focus too much on the leader, the generals don't do the fighting and dying or the standing and waiting. The president doesn't make laws, he gives direction. What direction do we want, whose intentions do we want to try fulfill?

Buying a house

If you have never been so stressed out that you wanted to jump into an icy river to relax, try buying a home. About half of the people I know own their own home, and to look at them, you'd only see normal people. But lurking underneath that facade of calm composure, there exists a deep well of what some call "experience." (That is just a fancy word for saying, they have made lots of mistakes.) I never imagine buying a home would be so complicated or so expensive. A few months ago when the US was in meltdown mode because a few billion dollars were lost in bad mortgages, I thought, "how could those people have ever dreamed of borrowing so much money under such terrible terms, and why would a lender loan those people so much money in such a sly way when the reality was that they wouldn't be able to afford their loan?" Now I look at it with open eyes. Here are my reasons why lenders and borrowers are in trouble.
1. Borrowers are brainwashed into the need to own a home.
2. The nitty-gritty of a home mortgage quite confusing.
3. The realtors, loan originators, brokers, appraisers, and anyone I haven't though of, all make money at the time of transaction; they aren't in it for the "long-haul." Once they have their money, they are gone.
4. Money in the financial world is relative. They talk in numbers, not dollars.
5. Real estate was one of the last places people can find money for nothing.

There are four ways to get money. First people look to get money by producing or manufacturing something (or owning an asset that producing something.) Second, they look to get money as a reward for brokering/producing a transaction (i.e. sales.) Third, they get money by borrowing it. And fourth, they let others borrow money for a price. In the US, we got tired of producing things, are getting beat by others at brokering deals, ran out of money for others to borrow, and now we are the borrowers. Ahh... the new American dream.

Oprah and Obama?

Why is a TV talk show host travelling with a presidential candidate? I don't know the answer to this, but I do know that it doesn't matter which candidate we Americans choose. We don't need any more politicians in Congress, we need Americans in Congress. Americans like our founding fathers.
We have proven that it doesn't matter who we elect as president, we won't spend enough time figuring out how to fill the rest of Congress and elect a bunch of party line people fulfilling their own self interest. The president won't get anything done and we will complain notoriously that it is the presidents fault the world is screwed up.
Wake up people! It isn't the president that matters, it isn't even the US Congress. It is us! Looking around we seem to be waiting for someone else to make the world a better place for us. But that is not the solution. Do the work, learn the material, there are no shortcuts to success!

Looking back

Have you ever looked back into your deep memories to see what you saw so long ago? Are your memories real? Philosophy tells us that the only real time is the present, and I honestly have to agree. The past is gone, it is only a dream, and time that can never be completely recovered. I have written journals, taken pictures, and even recorded short videos. Records extent your vision into the past, but nothing is the same about those memories. I miss the good times and I am ashamed of the lapses in judgment, but the only thing real is the present.
It makes me think, what will I be writing or thinking in 20 years? Will I be looking back on this dream I currently call the present. When you have a small child, people with older children look at you and say, "It'll go fast!" I smile and think, "It goes just as fast as any other time, only now you look back at your foggy memories and wonder where the time went."
Past, present and future are all the same, you decide your future by changing in the present because of what you learned in the past. What does the future hold? just memories of the past.

Ears

As I was flying across the country I began to realize that planes are very loud, and the people talking on the plane are even louder. As I closed my computer, I began to be jealous of the easy way in which it slips into hibernation. For some reason, we cannot just sleep whenever and wherever we want. We say, "I am going to sleep." We close our eyes and try to find a comfortable position and then nothing. We wait for some unknown chemical reaction to take place in which we move from awake and alert mode to sleep and subdued mode.

What is so bad about religion?

There are two points of conversation almost all people want to avoid, well, at least the ones that are trying to make friends: politics and religion. I can write about both, but hardly talk openly about either.
Yes, religion is a personal matter, but what you believe about God and life is what makes you who you are. Some believe in nothing, some don't care, some can't believe in anything, some hate the category they would be put in if they believed something, some actually believe in something, some don't care what they believe as long as they a different than everyone else, some don't want to believe anything for fear of additional work, and some gave up believing in anything. What you believe instantly sets a standard by which you live. And it is your privilege to act according to your belief. That is one of the beautiful things that makes America great. You cannot expect someone else with a different belief or even a different understanding to act the way you do. With that said, however, there is a slight catch to the Christian belief that drives everyone insane. Once you belief in Christ, you want to and, to a degree, are required to give others an opportunity to believe in Christ also. So basically, there are a bunch of well-meaning Christians out there who want to give others an opportunity to know God in the way they know. Tack on the fact that everyone has both a varying levels of understanding as well as different points of doctrine, and you have a difficult jungle to weave through while talking about religion.
Here is my opinion, discussion of religion can lead to confusion and frustration or greater clarity. So get out and have a discussion (discussion occurs when at least two people interact in an exploration of a subject) about religion, the conversation will go three ways, one doesn't want to talk about it (queue to change topics), you will become more confused, or you might both just learn something.
But for all those preachy types, remember, no one was ever forced/pushed into heaven.

A whole month!?!

Did I really let a month go by without posting? I guess that lets you know just how busy I am.
A few words of wisdom from a friend: "When you don't like doing something, people can tell." He said it almost off the cuff without giving much thought to it, but the idea stuck with me. You can't hide your thoughts about how you feel, but on the same note, you can hide how you feel by changing you thoughts. Let me explain with an example. When you don't like doing something, you wear your expressions on your face, in your body language, and most especially, in your excitement (or lack thereof.) But if you change the way you think about the things you are doing, you can honestly change your expressions. I don't like cleaning our bathroom, but I do like seeing Grace happy because she loves a clean bathroom, so I will happily clean the bathroom. Or I don't like doing paperwork, but I do like getting paid, therefore, I will be happy doing paperwork in order to get paid. The moral of the story is: don't get grumpy when you have to do something you hate; think about something you like while you are doing the something you hate :)