Monday, June 26, 2017

FRUSTRATED WITH LIFE:, "Money"








“If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss….”
Rudyard Kipling, “If”


“If you’re not happy with what you have, imagine not having it.”


MONEY Statistic

Pew Research Center (2014): Richer countries are happier, but only to a point. Germans, much richer than Malaysians, are only slightly happier.


Chapter 6:
Money


“Money makes the world go around…” so went a popular song from the musical Cabaret. When you don’t have it, your world seems to come to a stop. When that happens, you have to do something, “by hook or by crook,” to make ends meet, to keep life’s wheels turning.

You get a job. Problem solved? Not quite. As #35 tells us, you turn 56 and get replaced by a 23-year-old. Or you lose your job as a Sales and Marketing Manager when the economy tanks, and, as does #469, you lament:

The question i asked myself is;
1.     Why was i born in this country?
2.     Why is life unfair to certain set of people?
3.     Does it mean i am not hard working enough?
4.     Does it mean i am not spiritual enough?
5.     Does it mean i am lazy?

To which we might answer:
1.     Luck. Would you be better off in Bangladesh?
2.     Bad luck. The day #38 did not play the lottery was the day his six-digit pick was chosen.
3.     Hard work helps but may not be enough. Luck can trump effort and talent.
4.     Spirituality may not improve your income, but it can improve your outlook.
5.     Only you know whether you are working as hard as is reasonable.

Just when #165 thought he’d hit rock bottom, his bank’s ATM took $200 instead of giving it.

They love their parents, but they are hoping to inherit…as soon as possible (#398).

It is often easier to save money than to earn it. The New England adage applies, “Make do. Do without. Use it up. Wear it out.” Still, we like to think of abundance rather than scarcity, in which case, one must ask oneself, “What can I do for others that they would pay me for?”

Do not take literally the advice of notorious bank-robber Willie Sutton, however. When asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “That’s where the money is.”

Douglas Winslow Cooper, Ph.D.

#4
i have no money...

#24
profiting from the misfortune of others will only create bad luck for you. for every person you profit from, bad karma pays back 10 times. the odds are against you, and you know who you are.

#27
so tired of hearing people's sob stories about how broke they are because of xyz. Go get a job, start a business, do SOMETHING to fix your situation.

#35
I was just replaced by a snot-nosed 23 year old right out of school. What can a 56 year old engineer do for a job in today's economy. Walmart hired me before, I hope they're hiring again.

#38
After playing the same numbers 4, 7, 17, 40, 42, 44 every week in the ny lottery for 6 years, i miss one lousy day, May 25th. Guess what? FML!!!!!!!!!

#48
I am frustrated because I am in sales and my manager always gives me false hope. She always convices me that if I work harder I will make a good living. Funny how she always skirts away from showing me all the sales she makes. I am just mad that I have a lot of time and gas money over her.

#60
I have no idea how I'm going to make ends meet this month... I'm in some deep financial hell...all because of my girlfriend, whom I'm still uncertain if she was using me for the $ all along (alas, I love her). She always offers to help me with monetary affairs, but is never there to actually commit to the plan, leaving me with the whole burden.

My maxed-out credit cards? Charged for her sake. And when it came time to pay, she promised to help. NOPE. Now I've got creditors threatening arbitration on me.
Our smartphone plan together? She wanted to be on my plan because she thought her parents would stop paying. I told her to pay half of it. She agreed. NOPE. I've paid the WHOLE cell phone bill for 8 months.

FML

#80
I am so frustrated right now I feel like giving up on life completely. My boyfriend has managed to screw up all of our finances his wages are being garnished as well as being sued and I am left trying to struggle to make ends meet,and not doing a great job at this...money only goes so far. I try talking to him and all he says is I know. I cant do this anymore I am drowning in anger and see no point in trying anymore with anything. It's like he is this bad luck charm and I am being punished for something. I cant even leave because I have no money to leave now and am stuck here.

#107
First I lose my income for two and a half months and now my boyfriend has lost his job, leaving us almost entierly without money and not enough to keep us going. I’ve studied hard to get the grade I need so I may continue my studies later this year, but I am failing. I feel I am so stuck with my studies and everything else is just sucking away my energy. Then just generally one misfortune after another has struck us these past few months... Okay, Life, I get the point. I need to work harder... but PLEASE... give me a breather here, will you?

#116
Its never ending ... The expenses,bills,credit card payments,instalments ... as tough this life is meant for continuously paying others when your own incomes are dwindling away along with savings and other possessions. soon I think everything will be finished with massive negative balance of payments. Only if somebody would run over me then this cycle would stop !!!

#138
I work hard everyday! I’m 25 work two jobs and go to school. I don’t feel like there is a exact plane to getting rich. Go the school get a good job, and make money there has to be another way seriously. People can’t be this closed minded. At one of my jobs my manager doesn’t do anything all she does is get on Facebook, talk to men on her phone and get pay raises for the work that i do. She gets payed way more than me and doesn’t do a damn thing. I do all her work plus mine and the boss things she does work. I’m so sick of busting my ass to get a middle wage job. Has to be another way. I’m going to be rich one day i have the drive, I can see the door but theres no key to open it, I’m missing something important the separates the middle class hard workers from the rich, what is it. Im going to find it ASAP.

#142
I’m frustrated!!! My health is good, I have a couple of good friends, but I’m broke as hell and see no end. I live in San Francisco and I was lucky enough to live in a building that was taken out of rent control so my crappy studio apartment went from $650 to $1100. I also had an emergency dental surgery that cost 7,000 so that threw me into debt hell from putting it on credit cards and when I worked two full time jobs, the IRS taxed the living hell out of me although I had $150 extra taken out. It’s all my fault but it does feel good to vent. Bill Gates help a brother out if you read this.

#158
I am very honest and hardworking skilled in handle to all difficulties. Done all efforts without asking money. but with this nature, Everybody use me and after gaining more profit thrown me out why? at the end result I want to sucide or some time Killed them which are misbehave with me..



#165
I am frustrated!! It seems as if money hates my guts and when it sees my coming it runs the other way. Or when I finally get a few dollars something needs to be fixed, or someone I owe money to from 30 years ago pops up. I dont know what the problem is but why is it that I have such huge money problems. I suffered paying all my money out the day I got paid. I had to wait two weeks to get paid again. I struggled, I mean I struggled for two weeks and finally my check was placed in my account. I got to the ATM machine to finally get my money out, the ATM machine took $200 from me! I went into hysteria!! I'm so tired of being in this bad bad bad financial situation. Someone had an accident with my car and then my insurance went up. I mean I am so tired!! This is why people lose it!! This forum aint gonna help because when I finish this comment Im goin right back to struggling again!! Im so tired, wearied, worn out, stressed, discouraged, etc.,etc., etc.,

#284
I am frustrated with life where i feel so skilled 115k last year and no job in 3 months. Why . I am running out of money with a child in private Christian school and I am suffocating



###

Excerpted from Guzman and Cooper (2017), FRUSTRATED WITH LIFE? YOU ARE NOT ALONE! based on years of blog entries at http://FrustratedWithLife.com. The book is available in paperback at amazon.com.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

RETIREMENT? NO, REFIREMENT! "Diet"












Diet
Diet almost needs no introduction; it’s so fundamental a building-block to our health and we all know that we probably need to make some changes, and often these changes require very little scientific insight.
Animal fats = Bad.
Processed food = Bad.
Alcohol = Bad
Vegetables = Good.

And actually thinking in this simplistic, macro-perspective isn’t so bad. Many popular ‘nutritionists’ promote the benefits of obscure, specific nutrients (chromium being an example.), perhaps as a rather cynical scheme to sell their own brand of supplement pills. There may be individuals in the world who suffer from strange deficiencies and who need to micro-manage their diets in this fashion, but for the most part, we need to paint with a broader brush.

But the evidence is that plants - and I want to make this clear - it’s not the ingredients in plants, it’s the plants. It’s not the beta-Carotene, it’s the carrot. The evidence is very clear that plants promote health. This evidence is overwhelming at this point. You eat more plants, you eat less other stuff, you live longer - not bad.
Mark Bittman, What’s Wrong with What We Eat. (TED talk)

It isn’t our goal to berate you in this chapter - we know that putting down the chips or wine glass isn’t just difficult in the moment, but it subtracts from a certain cheerful colour in life. We don’t expect (or want) you to become a calorie-counting master of self-control if that ultimately leaves you less happy than you were.

Instead we want to make sure you maximize the pleasure of each calorie.

And this means eating mindfully: empowering you as a consumer, so you don’t waste your health (and money) on products that aren’t worth the risk.

The problem in this is that often we simply don’t know what we’re putting into our mouths; harmful substances are packed liberally into processed foods, just below government guidelines, or what our taste buds can detect, but the effect they have on our bodies remains - delicious and insidious.
What, pray-tell is ‘mayonnaise’? What is pesto exactly? If you could extract the ingredients one by one and have them staring back at you, you probably wouldn’t feel compelled to ingest them!

A good rule of thumb is to only eat foods that you can list the ingredients of from memory:

‘Sugar. Err... E405… extract of vanilla…. Err…. it’s…’
VS
‘It’s a pear.’  





A Diet Strategy

Any dietary strategy for need to have the following goals: [16]
     preventing excess weight gain and obesity
     preventing diabetes
     preventing cardiovascular diseases
     preventing cancer
     preventing dental diseases
     preventing osteoporosis

The recommendations from the World Health Organization [16], regarding diet in aging populations, is as follows: 

     Emphasize healthy traditional vegetable- and legume-based dishes.
     Limit traditional dishes/foods that are heavily preserved/pickled in salt and encourage the use of herbs and spices.
     Introduce healthy traditional foods or dishes from other cuisines (e.g., tofu in Europe and the tomato in Asia).
     Select nutrient-dense foods such as fish, lean meat, liver, eggs, soy products (e.g., tofu and tempeh) and low-fat dairy products, yeast-based products (e.g., spreads), fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, whole-grain cereals, nuts and seeds.
     Consume fat from whole foods such as nuts, seeds, beans, olives and fatty fish. Where refined fats are necessary for cooking, select from a variety of liquid oils, including those high in ω-3 and ω-9 fats. Avoid fatty spreads.
     Enjoy food and eating in the company of others. Avoid the regular use of celebratory foods (e.g., ice cream, cakes and pastries in Western culture, confectioneries and candies in Malay culture, and crackling pork in Chinese culture).
     Encourage the food industry and fast-food chains to produce ready-made meals that are low in animal fats.
     Eat several (5–6) small non-fatty meals. This pattern appears to be associated with greater food variety and lower body fat and blood glucose and lipid levels, especially if larger meals are eaten early in the day.
     Transfer as much as possible of one’s food culture, health knowledge and related skills to one’s children, grandchildren and the wider community.


Fat

The leading cause of death throughout the world is Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), and dietary fat has been shown, consistently, to have a strong causal link to CHD as well as other cardiovascular diseases. [16] 

Potassium

WHO strongly recommends an increase in potassium intake from food to reduce blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart disease in adults. Generally (as the amount may vary for certain individuals.) They recommend a potassium intake of at least 90 mmol/day (3510 mg/day) for adults.

Food Group
Appropriate Potassium Content (mg)
Examples
Beans and Peas
1300
Cowpeas, pigeon peas, lima beans, African yam beans
Nuts
600
Hazelnuts, walnuts, cashew nuts, brazil nuts
Green Vegetables
550
Spinach, cabbage, parsley
Root Vegetables
200
Carrots, onions, beetroot
Other Vegetables
300
Tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins,
Fruits
500
Bananas, Papayas, dates
Source: WHO


Sodium

The WHO strongly recommends a reduction in sodium intake in order to reduce blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart disease in adults. They strongly recommend a reduction to <2 g/day sodium (5 g/day salt) in adults (strong recommendation).

Food Group
Appropriate Sodium Content (mg/100g)
Table salt, baking soda, baking powder
38,000
Bouillon Cubes, powdered brothers, soups, gravies
20,000
Soy Sauce
7,000
Snack Foods (e.g., pretzels, cheese puffs, popcorn.)
1,500
Bacon
1,500
Sauces and spreads
1,200
Cheese, hard
800
Processed Vegetables
600
Butter, margarine
500
Cheese, soft
400
Processed fish
400
Cereals and cereal products (e.g., bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, cakes, pastries.)
250
Fish, raw/frozen
100
Eggs
80
Milk and cream
50
Vegetables, fresh, frozen
10
Fruits, fresh/frozen
5

Source: WHO

                                                        ###

This is the continuation of a weekly serialization of this new ebook on active retirement, by Wamala and Cooper, which book is available through amazon.com for $0.99: 

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

MUST TEDDY BEARS LOSE WEIGHT, TOO?







My writer friend in Israel, Gabriel Lanyi,  called to my attention a charming poem by A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh's creator, who made a case for the well-padded bear and his royal friend:

http://ingeb.org/songs/abearhow.html

Saturday, June 10, 2017

FRUSTRATED WITH LIFE? Ch. 5 "Work"




“Work is love made real.”

“Individual commitment to a group effort---that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
Vince Lombardi

WORK Statistic

Wall Street Journal, (July 19, 2016): Although the percentage of workers indicating they are satisfied with their job is the highest in 10 years, it was still just under 50%.


Reading through these posts brings me back to my days when I worked at E.F. Hutton, a brokerage firm on Wall Street.

I loved that job, but when I first started there, my department’s supervisor was a real tyrant. I’m not sure why she behaved the way she did, but she really tried to make my life there a difficult one.

Since it was my very first corporate job, I was ignorant enough to think that it was normal for her to demean people.

Being ignorant is not the solution to the problem at work, but it does help if you ignore the unintelligent things your superiors do, and rise above by doing your job well. Yes, sometimes they’ll take the credit for your hard work, which is itself frustrating. However, going beyond what’s expected of you will get you noticed by your superiors.

I was lucky enough that the supervisor left the company within the year of my starting, and the new supervisor was a delight to work with. He saw my hard work, and ensured that I was treated with the respect I deserved.

I recall that I moved up the ladder rather quickly at that company, mostly because I was a hard-working problem solver. Upper management always tapped my abilities, and that made them look good to their superiors.

I was moving up the ladder quickly and had become a supervisor myself, until the company was taken over by Shearson Lehman Brothers. The new company only kept a handful of us and rid themselves of all upper management.

I lasted three months in the new company because they wanted robots and yes-men. I am neither.

You have the choice to work for someone, or work for yourself.

There are many people and agencies that can help you start your own business if you truly can’t live working for someone else.

SCORE, for instance, is a group of nearly 12,000 volunteers with chapters throughout the United States. They are a branch of the SBA (Small Business Administration) and since 1964, their mission has been to help individuals start or grow their business.

All volunteers are either retired executives with vast business experience, or they’re still in the trenches. I’m a volunteer that happens to still be in the trenches.

Did I mention that their mentoring services are totally free? Yes, you can tap into decades of business experience at no cost in order to start and grow your business. Visit SCORE.org to find a chapter near you.

There are many other such programs like SCORE. Simply search your area and you will find one if SCORE is not available.

I can tell you from experience that running your own business is not for everyone, and you’ll work many more hours than you ever did working for someone else.

Yes, you’ll still deal with less-than-ideal people, like vendors, customers and even employees. The upside is that you can change vendors, get new customers, and train your employees to be better at what they do.

As you read through the following posts, see what resonates. Perhaps starting your own business is not for you, and the posts will simply remind you that you are not alone.

Feel free to visit FrustratedWithLife.com and share your story.

  Edison R. Guzman

#8
I was going to ask for a raise since receiving a great performance review. Today I went in and was told that I need to take a pay cut or lose my job! WTH

#12
I have this very stupid client that thinks that he can con me into giving him free services every month. I just got another email from him threatening to fire me if I don't send a cleaner over. Hello...you can't fire me every month when I don't work for you in the first place. Idiot.

#15
Work tomorrow. Hate everybody there. No one understands me. The supervisor hates me. Wish they fire me so i can get unemployment.

#36
I am stuck at a job i hate, in a town that I hate making very little money but since I am in the development industry, I am "lucky" to have a job. Even with a great resume and a master's degree I have had one interview in the last year. On the employment boards every day but the jobs in my field are scarce and there are thousands more looking for jobs then those available. I try to think positive but I make the 40 minute drive to work every morning hating life a little more every day.

#37
I am getting highly frustrated with my job. I tell about it to my boss but he is not ready to give me release from my current work and give another work. I have other options of doing something but nobody from my family stands with me. Even my wife wants me to carry on with this job.I want to cry and cry. I try to read other things and try to make me busy with other activities but every time thought of being in this job occupies my mind. I am so obsessed with it. Please pray for me.

#43
I am frustrated that I get paid the same amount and work the same amount of hours as another person I work with, yet, the somehow manage to do maybe 1/4 of the work I do. I am tired of working my ass off for NOTHING!

#82
I feel like my boss might hate me. I'm not sure why, but he's been completely shitty. When I apologize for doing nothing, I get no acknowledgement.

#83
I just love when you have co-workers you think you can confide in and they just turn out to be back-stabbing B's!!!

#85
I’m frustrated with myself because I get in these fiesty moods at work and the very next day I question everything I said. Most people would probably just move on but for some reason I am so hard on myself to be perfect. When will I accept myself and stop analyzing my every move?

#87
Its quite frustating and irritating when someone else get the credit of your work. Seniors and my idiot manager take the all credit of my work. I don,t know how many exams a life would take from me. I do not found any happiness around me, its like everyone is to just snatch off around me. I m now afraid of dreaming too now. I think my BOss is blind to.......... He can’t see who is working in office sincerely and who is not..

#88


I try to treat everyone in the office politely and it turns out, most of them talk bad abt me all the time. When I refuse to do them favors, I am the "devil" to them, and when I help them out, no thank yous at all.....what a bunch of idiots......

###





This is the beginning of Chapter 5 of this book by Edison R. Guzman and Douglas Winslow Cooper, published this year and available in paperback and ebook formats through amazon.com. It is based on the entries to the blog Edison Guzman managed for several years. These entries have not been edited.