Mother Nature, Spring walk and other stuff

Since my Fine Arts classes have finished I haven't done much, I have been busy recharging my batteries.

Anyhow, spring is here and hopefully here to stay, please Mother Nature no more snow! However, I know she must be real pissed off about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, who would blame her. Big mess with a lot of casualties of all sorts. The Ocean is having a hard enough time with pollution and overfishing, how will it survive the poison that is overtaking its water?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.html

I feel like a bacterian fish in the sea, so small against all that is wrong in the world.

Walking in the woods with my dogs is a way to forget about everything else. In my part of the world, my country side world it is spring. Today I decided to take my camera along for the walk and witness spring. Sometime I envy my dogs, they are so in the moment always, so alive and happy with not much else than a run in the woods. Actually, today that is how I feel as well. Time stops, it doesn't matter that the sun is playing hide and seek, there are no bugs and it is warm enough to enjoy the moment.



So for about two hours we did just that, enjoy the moment. Then I came home and made lunch, a simple lunch a Greek salad and all was good.

Afterwards, I read the newspaper to find out that "If you're in debt, forget retirement..." Enlightening article, and a reminder of how little we were thaught about finance while growing up. Lets face it, most of us have just winged it! I remember my grandmother telling me that you are rich if you have no debts, finally after all these years they are quoting her in the paper!

http://www.montrealgazette.com/debt+forget+retirement/2974325/story.html

Credit is insidious, you start with one credit card and than you think it is not so bad, your minimum payment is $20.00 a month, you say to your self "I can handle that!" So you move on to bigger and better things, you get a car that you budget in, than a house, more credit cards and than, you choke! No wonder you can not retire if you are in debt, what a surprise!

My son had home economics in his last year of high school, I am told that the program got cancelled. I guess, they didn't think it was a good idea to have a class that teaches our kids about home finances, I know that home finances was only a small part of the curriculum still even I learned a few things from my son about finances through his class. I did not have home economics when I was in high school and no one in my family ever talked about money, I had to figure it out on my own.

Therefore, I think they should have a mandatory class that teaches about money matters to our kids and not just one year, this topic should be in installment for the duration of high school. Not all children have financially responsible adults for parents, or parents willing to talk about money, so if they can not learn it at home than where? Just look at the financial crisis that is currently hitting the world, if our World Leaders had taken such a class maybe our economy would be in a much better shape. Yeah, I know, their personal finances are probably better than the countries they lead. How sad is that!

Credit is a strange beast, when you don't want it everyone is offering it to you, I must receive at least a couple of pre-approved credit applications a week. Did you know that every time you accept a credit offer or get an other credit card it is instantly added to your credit bureau and your ranking is affected? Everywhere you go there is someone pushing some kind of new credit card, how many credit cards does one need?

These days, I believe that credit is what makes the economy survive, I don't think that without it people would be buying so much, in some ways we live on borrowed economy. This credit mentality basically caused this latest recession, people borrowed more than they could afford to pay and the card castle came crashing down. Was there a lesson learned? Maybe for some, but I believe that there are way too many people that are still in infancy when it comes to money matters and consumerism.


And if we keep on buying needless stuff for the sakes of the economy, we are doomed to be hit by a meteorite storm of infinite proportions. Not nice to mess with Mother Nature!

Info on managing credit card debts and money matters:
http://www.controlcreditcarddebt.com/
http://www.suite101.com/course.cfm/18823/seminar
http://ohioline.osu.edu/mym/index.html
http://www.altn.org/webquests/money/index.html
http://www.postconsumers.com/

Books I recommend:
http://www.yourmentalwealth.com/mind-over-money/
http://www.amazon.ca/Women-Money-Owning-Control-Destiny/dp/0385519311/ref=sr_1_2/177-5959819-2545618?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272766795&sr=8-2
http://www.gregkarp.com/index.shtml

Meanwhile, all I can say is that today I enjoyed a beautiful day in the woods!