Wealth.

I got this in my email inbasket today from Early To Rise, and it nails it: I have no additional comments, as I think none are necessary (although I did comment on the post there, one lady was just wrong).

How To Tell If You're Rich

By Alexander Green

One of the biggest points of contention in the last election was whether the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Polls show the majority of voters don't believe they do.

Of course, this raises the questions: Who is "rich" and what is "fair"?

Answers are largely a matter of opinion. But here is a fact: IRS figures show that the top 10% of income earners make 43% of all the income and pay 70% of all the taxes. Is that fair? If not, how much should they pay: 75%… 90%… all of it? And how about the now widely recognized fact – thanks to Mitt Romney's secret videographer – that 47% of Americans don't pay any income taxes. Is that fair? Opinions will vary.

According to the IRS, the top 2% of income earners – the ones that just had their marginal tax rate raised 13% to 39.6% – already pay approximately half of all income taxes. President Obama says it's about time these folks "chipped in." What a kidder.

And who is "rich"? 

For today's discussion, I'll leave aside the truism that you are rich if you enjoy good health, a loving family, close friends, and varied interests. Politicians (and most voters, apparently) seem to believe that a person's wealth can be determined by his or her income. I would argue that you determine real wealth by looking at a balance sheet, not an income statement. But why not look at both?

According to the Tax Policy Center, if your annual household income is $107,628, you are in the top 20% of income earners. If your income exceeds $148,687, you are in the top 10%. You are in the top 5% if it is $208,810. And if your household income is $521,411, congratulations. You are in the top 1%… and perhaps demonized by those who view hard work and risk-taking as a matter of good genes and good fortune.

However, net worth is a far better measure of wealth, in my view. According to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, a net worth of $415,700 puts you in the top 20% of American households. You are in the top 10% if your net worth is $952,200. (This jives with the findings of Dr. Thomas J. Stanley – author of The Millionaire Next Door – that one in eight American households has a net worth of $1 million or more.)

If your nest egg totals $1,863,800, you are in the top 5%. And – trumpets please – if you have a household net worth of $6,816,200, you are again in the top 1%… and possibly frowned upon by redistributionists who resent folks that live beneath their means, save regularly and handle their financial affairs prudently.

How do you get rich if you aren't currently? 

The basic formula is pretty simple: Maximize your income (by upgrading your education or job skills). Minimize your outgo (by living beneath your means). Religiously save the difference. (Easier said than done.) And follow proven investment principles. 

Most millionaires – folks with liquid assets of one million dollars or more – are not big spenders. Quite the opposite, in fact.

According to extensive surveys by Dr. Stanley, the most productive accumulators of wealth spend far less than they can afford on homes, cars, clothing, vacations, food, beverages, and entertainment.

The wanna-be's, on the other hand, (people with higher-than-average incomes but not much net worth) are merely "aspirational." They buy expensive clothes, top-shelf wines and liquors, luxury cars, powerboats, all kinds of bling, and often more house than they can comfortably afford. Their problem, in essence, is that they're trying to look rich. This prevents them from ever becoming rich.

It surprises many, but the vast majority of millionaires in the United States:

• Live in a house that costs less than $400,000.
• Are more likely to wear a Timex than a Rolex.
• Generally pay $15 or less for a bottle of wine.
• Have never paid more than $400 for a suit.
• Are more likely to drive a Nissan than a BMW.
• Spend very little on prestige brands and luxury items.

Yes, they're frugal. But they're also happy, not to mention financially free. They are not dependent on their families, their employers, or the federal government. What a feeling.

Some can't abide by this important lesson, but the bottom line is clear: If you want to be rich, you have to stop acting rich… and start living like a real millionaire.

Rate today's article 
 

[Ed. Note. Alex Green is the author of excellent books like, The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters, andBeyond Wealth, that show you how to lead a "rich" life during trying economic times.]

Church Thoughts

We actually did a song with the choir in reference to Earth Day this past Sunday, but it was a song I am down with:

Care For Creation (Words and Music by Pepper Choplin) As this is a copyrighted work, and I share here without permission, if Mr. Choplin asks me to take this down, I will.

When I rise in the morning and consider all the blessings of the earth,
I give thanks to my Creator, to the One who gave me breath upon my birth.
I offer my thanksgiving for all God allows me to share, but I show my true thanksgiving when I nurture all God placed within my care.

     Let me worship the Creator and care for the creation as I live my life to worship and restore.
     I will sing and I will praise, but the measure of my days is how I care for the creation of the Lord.

As I move among God's children, may I show respect and care of all I meet. For the Creator who I worship has created them with holy dignity.


     Let me worship the Creator and care for the creation as I live my life to worship and restore.
     I will sing and I will praise, but the measure of my days is how I care for the creation of the Lord.


Also, our pastor led the service with some thoughts and prayer regarding the news of the week, Boston, etc. He struck me (as wrong) with a line about the sad state of the world, and I scribbled this on my Order of Worship:

"Actually, I took from this week the amazing human spirit, the goodness that responds so selflessly in the face of evil and evil acts. Goodness overwhelms evil. Sometimes it takes time, sometimes we see it immediately. People are good."

Today's Things

Hello, Thing shopper! I am one, too, but so far never a buyer (dang bills!). Today we look to craigslist, but there are always Things for sale on thesamba.

Mostly, I grab these to put here so I can check upon them later, like this one asking $3500:

This is quite nice in Iowa asking $6800 for comparison, and that's a fair price.

Here's some expensive things:

$16900

Auctioning, as original as you are likely ever to see:

Not much cheap out there right now, and lots of Yellow!

Happy Belated Earth Day, George Carlin Style.

I can't believe how many things he says here that I say as well. Maybe I've seen this before and forgot?

Don't Read The Comments?

I did. I read some comments on my congressman's Facebook (you'll have to look for his post explaining why he voted against the Manchin-Toomey bill), on The New Yorker, and I always ask my self "why did you do that?"

If this is the level of discourse in our country, we may be doomed.

Occasionally, there are bright moments, like this one from the vapid New Yorker piece linked above:

"..were a stark reminder of how anti-democratic and dysfunctional our political architecture is..." Actually, No. The system works as designed. The majority shall never tyrannize the minority. Don't forget, we are a Republic not a democracy. In the strictest sense of the word, the system of government established by the Constitution was never intended to be a "democracy." This is evident in the wording of the Constitution itself which declares that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government" (Article IV, Section 4). Moreover, the scheme of representation and the various mechanisms for selecting representatives established by the Constitution were clearly intended to produce a republic, not a democracy. To the extent that the United States of America has moved away from its republican roots and become more "democratic," it has strayed from the intentions of the Constitution's authors. Whether or not the trend toward more direct democracy would be smiled upon by the Framers depends on the answer to another question. Are the American people today sufficiently better informed and otherwise equipped to be wise and prudent democratic citizens than were American citizens in the late 1700s? By all accounts, the answer to this question is an emphatic "no." "There are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth can regain their authority over the public mind" Madison(Federalist No. 63).

It's amazing that The New Yorker published a piece that was so stupid. A bullet point called "The Tyranny of Small States?" Really? Complaining that the Senate gives equal weight to every state? That's not "democratic?" What a dumbass. Seriuously. If you whine about the Senate not being just like the House, you are an idiot and I am finished listening to you.

Thatcher's Enemies Reveal Themselves

So, this from the Telegraph tells us eveything we need to know, right? I love it when the socialists, marxists, etc., prove we conservatives right with their words and behavior......

*** Update, this commenter on a Heritage article makes an excellent point, that I didn't explicitly make here:

UlyssesReturns

Perhaps the left in the United States have been infected by the same malicious virus that taints the left here in Great Britain. We on the right look down on the left as misguided and foolish whereas the left viscerally hates us as evil child killers, or worse. It is inconceivable that proper-thinking conservatives would ‘dance in the streets’ at the death of Chavez or eventually Castro (2 icons of the left), but that is exactly what has happened on the death here in England of one of the world’s greatest post-war leaders, Margaret Thatcher. We live in strange times.

He or she also makes a point I've been making for years about the ideological battle. We think the left is wrong, they think we are evil. If you don't recognize and fight that, you can't win the ideological battle. Anyway, the oppposite is true: leftism is evil!

"On Facebook she appears in photographs holding a hammer and sickle flag and posing alongside former Cabinet Minister Tony Benn and left-wing writer Owen Jones." She's a communist?

"Blythe said her dislike of the former Prime Minister came from being told she might never find work on leaving school in 1984 " She's selfish?

"A number of police officers were injured on Monday and arrests were made as hundreds held parties around the country when news of Lady Thatcher’s death was announced.

In Bristol six officers were injured as they tried to break up a gathering of around 200 people and were pelted with bottles and cans. One officer remains in hospital and one person was arrested for violent disorder.

In Brixton, south London, smashed windows and looting of shops was reported as two women were arrested on suspicion of burglary.

More than 100 people gathered in south London suburb - the scene of fierce riots in 1981 just two years into her first time in office. Some scaled the nearby Ritzy Cinema and changed the film listings to read "Margaret Thatchers dead".


Anarchist groups have warned of more mass protests on Saturday, with expected numbers between 2-3,000.

The events are being organised by a group called Class War with help from other groups such as the All London Anarchist Revolutionary Mob, which says it is “committed to radical action to undermine the state,” are also mobilising supporters to attend 25 locations across the country."

They are a bunch of thugs? Anarchist Thugs?

Socialism Isn't..... (and RIP Mrs. Thatcher)

Facebook posts are sometimes fun!

A friend posted "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." RIP Margaret Thatcher

and one of her friend's replied: Ultimately ironic given that she benefitted greatly from a number of "socialistic" features of her country - number one being national health care.

and she said: She fought many socialistic things in her country and her legacy is strong. She did a lot of good for the world at a difficult time in world history.

and he said: she did. No doubt. I just worry about us continually attacking "socialism" when most of don't seem to understand that our public schools, roads, water & sewer, police, fire, hospitals to some extent and even our private insurance are all forms and degrees of socialism. Even the most wealthy of us depend on infrastructure brought to us through a form of socilism.

and she replied: But there are points of taking it too far. If not having crossed that point already, we are dangerously close. True socialism is not good. 

Definition of SOCIALISM:

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2 

   a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property 
   b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
BLAM!!

I had to chime in: Nice showing that, by definition, socialism has nothing to do with schools, roads, fire, etc. as well....

Hubris, As I Have Often Said.

"Your time on earth is barely the size of a head of a pin, if that big. In 10,000 years or a billion years of the existence of the earth, what is the normal temperature? What kind of vanity does it take to think that the state of perfection, the state of perfection and normalcy happens to be when you're alive."  -Rush

How many times have I said as much?

Here

Here

Here

Here

Here is a page of mine with a bunch of "here" links in it already....

Oh, and the data we use is Unreliable, anyway.