The Kitchen Sink: A RICH FINANCIAL DIET, Part II

How did you do with Part I? Those suggestions really take more thought than time, once you get to know your spending needs and put a rhythm to your finances. Now we move to my favorite part - gaming banks and airlines. Spend Every Dollar Twice.

I repeat: 19. Take advantage of credit card offers, sign-up rewards, and benefits. 

This is actually the secret that turns my soda-pop into champagne. But it takes good impulse control, planning and vigilance. As you know, the credit card industry counts on you to overuse the convenience of deferred payment that they offer in hopes that you will carry debt that earns them exorbitant interest and makes them lots of money. If you fall prey to their ploy, you can pay way more than double what your purchases cost over time. I get a kick out of exploiting the banks' and airlines' eagerness to have my business.  And they thank me for it.

Wordage: FREELY BORN WORDS

Contributions Welcomed and Credited
Unless otherwise attributed Freely Born Words are created by Abby Freeborn and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you have a different source for any of the words listed above, please comment so proper acknowledgement  can be made.

Ignoromnibus (ig`nor`omni`bus) - (n) a person who knows nothing about everything and doesn’t know it (e.g., “That new freshman loves to show off, but he’s a real ignoromnibus.”)

Ignorrant (ig`nor`rant) - (n) a monologue that continues despite demonstrations of boredom by the audience (e.g., “Today I had to listen to a twenty minute ignorant about the President being a foreigner.”)

Ignorrant (ig`nor`rant - (adj.) 1. an argument that overlooks a preponderance of available evidence (e.g., “Politicians often make ignorrant assertions.”); 2. someone who is willfully inattentive (e.g., “She heard you; she’s just being ignorrant.”)

Bread Crumbs: ANY TIME YOU THINK OF ME

My friend Tommy had come home in the spring of his first year of college with blinding headaches. When I went to visit him, his Mom told me he had a brain tumor. I asked her if it could be removed and she replied that they were Christian Scientist and many were praying for his recovery.. I prayed too and visited every couple of weeks all summer. When I came home from college for Christmas break, I found him optimistic but so weakened that his main exercise was squeezing a tennis ball. He had pain medication but there would be no surgery. Back at college, I was busy and his Mom said he did not like to talk on the phone, so I stopped calling.

Gitalongs: THE GUNNYSACK AND THE HANG-UP TREE

Some days when we arrive home from work at the same moment, I see my neighbor stop and admire a dogwood tree along the pathway from his car to his door. Some days he just eyes it as he passes, perhaps nods and smiles at it. Other days he appears to examine it for quite a while. On one such day, curiosity got the better of me and I hailed my friend as he was gazing at the tree. My friend half waved and continued to look at the tree. I approached quietly and looked at the tree to see what was so interesting. When my friend finally turned to me, I asked, "What are you seeing that I don't?"

Poetry: NIGHT ON THE SANDBAR

Here we sit, friend, you and I, silent,
Alone with the sea on a moonless night.
I look for the line where water meets air.
It isn't there.

Have you ever completely lost faith in facts,
In what we all preach about Life, Cosmos, God?
Ever lost touch with your body, with Earth -
Your reason adrift?

Parenting: SIX-YEAR-OLD WISDOM

Every night I would spend 15 minutes sitting in the dark bedroom with one child while my husband sat with the other child for quiet “debriefing” time before going to sleep. Then we would switch rooms. This was our solution to the incessant calls for water, the bathroom, and other attention-getters after we had put them to bed.

One night my six year old daughter asked me,”Do you like how you are?”
“Well...yes, I do. Why do you ask?”
“And does Daddy like how he is?” She was almost asleep.
“I think so, sure.” Catching on, I asked, “Do you like how you are?”
“Uh-huh,” she yawned, “everybody has to like how they are. Megan and Sarah won't share their toys with me.”
“Oh, what seems to be the problem?”
“I think they don't like how they are. G'night, Mom.”

My six year old daughter had discovered the root of self-confidence. 

Six-Year-Old Wisdom by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com

Politics: CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

I want to believe that my vote counts and that my legislative representatives work for me. I offer here a campaign finance reform idea that could do away with the pervasive corruption and dominance of special interests. I propose a private enterprise that would result in lots of entry-level white-collar jobs.

All but retiring legislators are perpetual candidates. What if all donations to every candidate for national public office were recorded - confidentially - by a sequestered “Bonded Treasurers Unit” assigned by, and accountable to, the FEC? A record of individual and business donors would be supplied to the candidates and legislators but without any information about size or number of donations associated with those names. Recording that identifying information would be the sole bonded purview of the "Bonded Treasurers Unit" Here's how it could work.