Letters to the Editor
Rocky
Published Letters: 83 Editor's Choice: 13
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"This is a moronic comment"
[Read the article: Lobbying for polar bear hunting]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The fact is that polar bears in Canada are NOT listed under the Canadian equivalent of "endangered" or "threatened." That means they (polar bears) are subject to being killed as part of a management regime. You don't have to like it but there you go.
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Military lackey
[Read the article: Bush's top general quashed torture dissent]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I listened to Richard Meyers speak about his military experiences including his role in the lead up to war. As chief of staff, it sounded like he was little more than a fly on the wall during the meetings between Pentagon and White House officials. I was stunned by his attitude that he was only an observer. I left that speaking engagement realizing how much of a lackey it takes to become a top-ranked, inside-the-beltway military officer. I shouldn't have been surprised, though, considering the treatment doled out high ranking officers who've spoken truth to power over the past 7 years.
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It all depends
[Read the article: My company wants me to move to California ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think the questions are whether or not LW really loves their job and the company they work for and turning down this opportunity will definitely cost more than LW is willing to put on the table. If the answer isn't a resounding yes to all three of these questions, why would LW even consider a move? On the other hand, if the answer is yes, why wouldn't they take this opportunity? Because of all the problems with this move? Like...
Keeping the house is no big deal. Don't be a landlord landlord; turn rental and maintenance responsibilities over to a professional property manager. Have friends or family cruise by the property occasionally to make certain things aren't deteriorating.
California is a pretty big place. When LW says they've visited California and don't like it, was their visit to the area they're being asked to move to? If the answer's no, the LW is using too broad a brush in assessing their "love" of California. If the answer is yes, I'd point out that living in a place that's "idyllic and artistic, intelligent and hip" is different than visiting it.
Take me, for example. I HATE southern California. Truly, I abhor the place. Every year, we host international visitors who spend time traveling around the SW. I always advise them to skip southern California. So far, they've not listened and always include LA and/or San Diego in their trips. And they always return agreeing with me that it was a waste of gas getting there. On the other hand, I got a job assignment to San Diego, set myself up in a tiny little apartment in the middle of downtown and had an absolute blast. I love that area of San Diego.
One thing I would forewarn about California: it isn't very social. "Self-absorbed" is not a completely unfair assessment. You can live across the street (or hallway) from someone for years without ever knowing their name. Visiting family or friends isn't typically a daily/weekly/monthly event. Californian's are mostly too busy working and playing. This isn't something I realized until I spent some time with new family in the mid-West. There, family and friends are given much more attention (probably because there's not much else to do in the mid-West).
A life-long Californian...
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"Some on the left, however, are so terrified that Americans, in their cosmic stupidity, cannot distinguish between"
[Read the article: Rush Limbaugh was right]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ah...
2000
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
2004
Of course some of us are terrified. We've good reason.
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Try ESPlanner
[Read the article: Perspire to retire!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Those online calculators are sponsored by financial institutions with agendas to get you to pump more money into their investment products. It should be no big surprise that they are pessimistic in a way that favors their agenda.
An alternative I found a few years ago is ESPlanner. This "calculator" takes a different approach in that it looks at how long you expect to live, what you're making, what you expect to make, what you've already got, future windfalls you expect, what big ticket items you face in the years ahead (college expenses, weddings, new cars...), which state you might want to retire to, when you expect to retire, your current social security information, your estimates of inflation, your guess as to tax rates and so on. If you have the social security stuff in hand, it takes about 2 hours to fill in the basic information. Then you press "compute".
The output of the tool are Excel spreadsheets (right up Heather's alley) laying out your disposable income in today's dollars from now until you die. The tool will tell you how much money you can spend/must save this year, next year, 5 years from now, ... to allow your current level of spending to continue through the rest of your life. The tool's goal is to make this year's spending number the same as the spending number 10/20/30 years from now, always expressed in today's dollars. The tool also specifies exactly how much term life insurance you need to protect the numbers output by the tool.
It's really quite an amazing tool. I, like Heather, was pretty messed up by the on-line calculators. Basically, there was no way to get "there" from "here". ESPlanner gave me much better insight into both current finances and my financial future. The really convincing part was all of the spreadsheet data it kicked out that illustrated exactly how the tool's conclusions were reached. It took me half a day to understand all of that data from my first report but it all lined up (I got really stuck because the housing costs were shown going down each year even though I have a long term fixed-rate mortgage (that's what finally got through my head the significance of "today's dollars")).
And then, I changed all my assumptions and did it again. Truly cool tool.
Unfortunately, ESPlanner aint cheap. Then again, how much would you pay for a crystal ball that shows you what a given set of variables means 10, 20 or more years down the road? For me, that's worth quite a lot.
YMMV.
I have no financial interest in this product other than being a very satisfied customer.