What Have You Splurged on in Retirement
Posted: June 17, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Buying a vineyard, riding a motorcycle cross-country, and brewing truly fantastic coffee were among the many in-retirement splurges Morningstar.com readers cited in a recent thread in the Investing During Retirement forum of Morningstar.com's Discuss boards. In addition to asking posters to cite their biggest in-retirement splurge, I also asked them to note how they had planned for the additional expense and whether it had been worth their while.
Perhaps not surprisingly, given that there's a robust contingent of frugal types on our website, some readers noted that they were more inclined to spend extra cash on must-haves rather than nice-to-haves. But others readily shared tales of deploying cash toward indulgences big and small and noted that they'd happily do it all over again if they could. Still others waxed philosophical, urging their fellow retirees to splurge before it's too late and to consider nonfinancial splurges as well as those that require a large cash outlay.
To read the complete thread--an especially rollicking one complete with mentions of llamas, pro baseball players, and hot rods--or to chime in with your own in-retirement splurge, click here (http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/forums/p/306023/3256725.aspx#3256725).
'A Sit-Down Mexican Restaurant Instead of Taco Bell'At least a few posters weren't at all down with the notion of splurging, period. Truthteller's post hinted at the very difficult market environment that has confronted today's retirees. "Splurge? Are you kidding me? I retired in Spring 2008. Fixed-income yield was stolen by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department later that same year. It hasn't come back, and won't for a long time. I'm living on less than half of what I expected to live on. Splurge? Yeah, it's called buying groceries."
Cats22 wrote simply, "We're not big 'splurgers': never have been and never will be."
FidlStix, in what I'm pretty sure is a tongue-in-cheek post, wrote, "Our biggest splurge is occasionally going to a sit-down Mexican restaurant instead of Taco Bell when we eat out."
Paulbrown noted that not splurging can provide its own gift: peace of mind. "I can't really find anything I splurged on. I just have a frugal wife who keeps me in line. Nice being comfortable at ages 76 and 78."
For other posters, what splurges they have made have been strictly utilitarian. LuckyDogwrote, "I guess that this sounds very practical, but our 'big splurge' last year was that we stopped heating the house with wood, bought a new furnace, new house windows, and a concrete floor for the barn. Life is good."
Rescarr, meanwhile, "tore up and changed out two bathrooms. The work was done by myself with the assistance of another craftsman. And the money came out of a home equity loan which was paid off rather quickly with no effect on my retirement pensions or my portfolio."
'Moral: Make Hay While the Sun Shines!'Other posters defined "splurge" more conventionally. Travel, either snowbirding or visiting exotic locales overseas, topped many posters' lists of their biggest in-retirement splurges.
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What Have You Splurged on in Retirement
Michael Fosberg comes to ICC 'Incognito'
Posted: at 2:15 pm
The Illinois Central College Guest Artists Series presents "Incognito," an autobiographical one-man show by Michael Fosberg about his personal journey for self-discovery.
The show takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the ICC Performing Arts Center in East Peoria.
This show was originally scheduled for Jan. 20 but was postponed due to inclement weather. Tickets sold for the Jan. 20 performance will be honored at the June 22 show.
At the age of 34, Fosberg began a quest to find his biological father. Along the way, he uncovered surprising information that forever changed the dynamics of his family. Armed only with the name of his father and the knowledge that he had lived in the Detroit area two decades earlier, Fosberg makes a phone call which starts to uncover long-concealed family secrets. "Incognito" is the resulting true-life account of Fosberg's emotion-packed experience which touches on themes of race, diversity, identity, stereotyping and family history.
Fosberg, a Chicago native, has been writing, acting and directing for more than 20 years. He has performed in Chicago at Steppenwolf Theatre, Remains Theatre, Wisdom Bridge Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, and the Huron Theatre Ensemble, of which he was a co-founder. He has worked with directors Gary Sinise, John Malkovich and Robert Falls. Fosberg received a Jeff Citation for Best Actor for his performance in "Savage Love" by Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin.
Following the performance, Fosberg will conduct a question-and-answer session with audience members.
The Peoria Branch NAACP is the highlighted Community Partner for this ICC Guest Artists Series performance. The "Community Partner" program highlights a different, local organization during each Guest Artists Series performance.
Tickets cost $16 for adults and $14 for students and senior citizens.
For more information, call the ICC Performing Arts Center box office at 694-5136.
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Michael Fosberg comes to ICC 'Incognito'
Set Yourself Up for a New Career in Six Weeks
Posted: at 2:14 pm
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -06/16/12)- Does your current job leave you unsatisfied? Do you long for 5:30 to come so you can get down to the gym and work out all the stresses and strains of the day? If that sounds like you then maybe the time has come for a career change into the field of personal training jobs.
You may have put off changing this career change due to the length of time it may take you to get qualified. However, with the fast track personal trainer courses available from The Training Room you could have all the necessary qualifications under your belt in six weeks.
Fast track personal trainer courses
Fast track personal trainer courses from the Training Room offer the most comprehensive route to obtain a fully accredited personal trainer certification in the UK.
The Training Room runs a range of intensive six week personal training courses, able to be completed at any of their personal training academies throughout the UK.
Running from Monday to Friday, the courses are a full time commitment, but represent the best chance to get on the road for your new career in as quick a time as possible.
Benefits of the fast track course
The full and comprehensive support structure on the fast track personal training course has the following benefits:
To find out more about the personal trainer courses available from the Training Room, please visit http://www.thetrainingroom.com/.
Notes to Editors
Midland DDA facing revenue losses if personal property tax reforms pass
Posted: at 2:14 pm
The Midland Downtown Development Authority learned this week that the state's proposed personal property tax reforms would reduce its funding over the next five years.
Midland City Assessor Reid Duford told the DDA that if the current bills pass with an amendment to write off base values, the DDA's tax capture from personal property would drop from $138,809 in 2012 to $104,213 in 2013, and gradually drop each year until hitting zero in 2018.
The bills being considered in the Michigan Legislature would offer exemptions beginning in 2013 to owners of properties that have a combined personal property taxable value of less than $40,000. That would exempt 117 of the 123 active personal property parcels in the DDA boundary.
The bills would make any new personal property purchased in tax year 2012 and later exempt from taxes in tax year 2016. There also would be a rule exempting property 10 years old or older. Duford said in five years, all personal property would be exempted in the DDA district.
"It's a phase out program so it doesn't all become exempt at once," he said.
DDA Chairman Marty McGuire said the change would have a "significant" impact on the DDA's funding. The DDA decided not to make a recommendation to the Midland City Council in support of efforts to replace the funding.
"We're not at a point right now where we want to take a position, but want to stay apprised and have a new appreciation of the issue," McGuire said.
If the city receives replacement funding from another source, the DDA could request that a portion of that funding be given to the DDA to make up for its portion of lost revenue, member Mike Hayes said.
Duford said additional revenues captured from improvements to real property within the DDA boundary also could help.
"Hopefully that will help offset some of the loss from personal property," he said.
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Midland DDA facing revenue losses if personal property tax reforms pass
Jay Levin: On You Being Psychic: Part 1 — Knowing It
Posted: at 2:14 pm
Here is a premise to ponder: that you were born psychic and intuitive -- meaning you came in with extrasensory radar that could move beyond time and space and report back with information you had not heard nor seen, tasted, smelled or touched.
Every now and then you likely get glimmers of your psychic ability in the form of "intuition." There is something you just "know" or feel. Most of us commonly dismiss, diminish or ignore this awareness. Think of the times you have later muttered "Oh, if I had only followed my intuition about this situation (or person)!"
Given my premise that you were born psychic, meaning with access to knowledge and information which did not come through your five senses and that often go well beyond the subtle pattern-recognition phenomena of your brain, then those moments of intuition or psychic clarity would hardly be remarkable in their own right. They stand out sharply ONLY against a general daily life in which you are out of touch with this side of yourself and instead are running on (and thinking with) other information and systems -- or as science has shown, with other parts of the brain.
In fact, we know from voluminous research into psychic phenomenon by scientists and scholars associated with many leading universities and institutions that psychic knowing is normative, not unusual. Some people have an extraordinary amount of it. Others have inklings.
Continuing with my premise, if we were all born psychic, there are profound implications to this.
- Ipso facto, you possess some yet-unexplained receptors that allow you to read or detect subtle information fields.
- That those subtle information fields exist somewhere.
- That this must be an innate human ability, the degree of which varies with different people.
- That this ability must to some degree either be quashed or encouraged by the experiences in childhood, including the manner in which you are nurtured and programmed by family, friends and community.
- Because so many of us don't retain much access to this level of knowing, it is fairly safe to conclude that most societies and child socialization processes tend to suppress rather than encourage this latent ability.
Continue reading here:
Jay Levin: On You Being Psychic: Part 1 -- Knowing It
excercise ball mishap – Video
Posted: at 1:19 pm
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excercise ball mishap - Video
A Little Excercise – Video
Posted: at 1:19 pm
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A Little Excercise - Video
Thai yoga massage at Welwyn Garden City health shop
Posted: at 1:19 pm
Andrea White, Thai Yoga Massage Therapist
By Simon Wesson, Reporter Saturday, September 18, 2010 12:40 PM
BY looking at the pictures on this page, you would imagine I have just entered some kind of weird wrestling match and lost!
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However, I am being pinned down, stretched, twisted and stood on, while wearing unusual trousers, for a very good reason, and that is purely relaxation... oh, and to become more healthy.
The therapy I tested out this week is Thai yoga massage, a new treatment to arrive at the recently-renovated treatment rooms in Natural Health, WGC.
And while it may not always look that pleasant, I can assure you it is.
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Thai yoga massage at Welwyn Garden City health shop
Ebru Today – Gretchen Reynolds – Smart Excercise – Video
Posted: June 16, 2012 at 10:20 pm
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Ebru Today - Gretchen Reynolds - Smart Excercise - Video
Out for a dip and excercise in the pool. June 13, 2012. – Video
Posted: at 10:20 pm
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Out for a dip and excercise in the pool. June 13, 2012. - Video