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**kernel klink** · June 16, 2006, 09:46 AM

Re: Financial Balance

That is a great post!

One of my concerns has been that we can miss the point of preparing for a pandemic. It seems to me that if we just head for the hills with our tamiflu, ammo and hoard of gold, ready to shoot on sight, we have probably lost more than we can ever hope to preserve - in terms of our humanity and spirituality.

I'm not even sure about isolating anymore, although I accept it may be necessary. I just don't feel comfortable thinking of isolating from my dying neighbours. I would really want to reach out to them. I feel like I want to be in a position to help as many of the folk around me as possible to get through this. However that does probably mean that I need to stay alive, although it may be that my work is done, in putting by the stores, and the stores of value etc.

I am going to try to make sure that my wife's survival is the most assured in my family, as she has more energy and compassion to share than me, and far more of the skills that will be needed to help others survive. So, for example, if I decide to stock up on Tamiflu, and my resources are limited, I will first put by enough for my wife to take it prophylactically, throughout a whole wave. I will then ensure that each of my children have sufficient for treatment should they become infected. Then I will work out from there.

I have discussed this with her and have explained that this is not just because she is the most loved member of the family, but because she is the most useful and needed. I am good at making money. She is good at caring and serving others. During a pandemic she will be far more valuable than me to my children and neighbours. Therefore her health is paramount.

My own aim at present is to make money in a "make hay while the sun shines" kind of way. I do not want this to eclipse my spiritual goals. I would just like whoever of us comes through this to be in a position to help as many as possible to rebuild their lives.

**hawkeye** · June 16, 2006, 10:12 AM

Re: Financial Balance

Excellent Post Florida1. Thank you.

Kernal Klink, I've been thinking roughly the same. If we don't help our community it will erode away. One can only isolate for so long.

**Goju** · June 16, 2006, 11:43 AM

Re: Financial Balance

Helping is all well and good... but remember being in a lifeboat with 1000 drowning panicing people surrounding you will surely capsize the boat and kill everyone in it.

**kernel klink** · June 16, 2006, 01:06 PM

Re: Financial Balance

The lifeboat is a good analogy - better to try to save the few that can be accommodated than leave all to drown. Remember, many will "drown" before we are able to reach them. Surely though it is better to have some lifeboats than none at all. This is the dilemma that will face every conscientious health professional who stays at his post. So why not me too? Why should I have the luxury of running off into hiding and isolation?

It is always a problem when considering acts of mercy: what difference will my weak efforts make when the need is so overwhelming? We can too easily make this an excuse for passivity. We must take courage from the thought that although we surely cannot help everyone, we can perhaps help just one person / perhaps one family / perhaps the neighbour on the right, although not the one on the left. It is awful to have to think of turning anyone away, of having to choose who to help. But it must be better to plan to save one extra person than to make no such plan at all. And when we have made provision for one, to then see if we can double up, and so on. We must trust that when the time comes it will be clear who we can help and who we cannot. Someone will receive our help gladly. Someone else will refuse it and push us away. But at least let's do what we can. That is the way I am thinking at the moment.

My only fear is that when it comes to the point of crisis I may not prove to be the kind of person I want to be. I am not confident of how I will react under pressure and when full of fear. One thing I am sure of is that if all that are left are selfish gun toting self preservationists, it will be a horrible world which I would not want to be part of. And if I fail morally, and become a gun toting self preservationist myself, then I hope the plague will not spare me.

**Goju** · June 16, 2006, 01:49 PM

Re: Financial Balance

I do not fear the virus. I do not fear starving. I fear being pulled under by those who have refused to learn to swim.

**sharon sanders** · June 16, 2006, 02:30 PM

Re: Financial Balance

Each one of us, individually, is the guardian of society. We have the power to create in our own families and communities an environment of kindness, dignity, respect, understanding, and acceptance. If we promote this behavior we can not only lessen morbidity and mortality in a potential pandemic, but we can, family by family, community by community, build a structure for social change that will encourage goodwill among all the world?s citizens.

**Goju** · June 16, 2006, 05:25 PM

Re: Financial Balance

See.. no pandemic yet the lifeboat is rocking.....

Lets get back to topic ...

Financial Balance.

I went to look for a hand drill today... just in case... couln't find one.
I'll have to look harder.

Good post pandemic business - home repair. Better have a good set of hand tools.

**Goju** · June 16, 2006, 06:57 PM

Re: Financial Balance

i am blessed by not having any "heavy vices"... except for constantly checking FT!

**Goju** · June 17, 2006, 10:42 AM

Re: Financial Balance

F1 - I have been meditating on this one........

You old hippie you!
This is a great mission statement.

Originally posted by Florida1

Each one of us, individually, is the guardian of society. We have the power to create in our own families and communities an environment of kindness, dignity, respect, understanding, and acceptance. If we promote this behavior we can not only lessen morbidity and mortality in a potential pandemic, but we can, family by family, community by community, build a structure for social change that will encourage goodwill among all the world?s citizens.

**Snowy Owl** · June 17, 2006, 01:36 PM

Re: Financial Balance

Friends,

Closing the gap between science and society and science and religion would help.

Dr. Peter Doherty, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Immunologist, Nobel Laureate in Immunology

**sharon sanders** · June 19, 2006, 06:52 PM

Re: Financial Balance

Foreclosures May Jump As ARMs Reset
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE (AP Business Writer)
From Associated Press
June 19, 2006 6:35 PM EDT
NEW YORK - In 2003, Anita Britten refinanced her two-story brick cottage in Lithonia, Ga. using a hybrid adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM. Her lender reassured her that she could refinance out of the riskier loan into a traditional one when her interest rate started to reset.
Three years later, Britten can't get a new mortgage and her monthly payment has jumped by a third in six months. She can't afford her payments and may face foreclosure if her financial situation doesn't change.
As more ARMs adjust upward and housing prices begin to dip, many Americans like Britten can't refinance and are finding themselves trapped in too-high monthly payments. For those who can't make their payments, foreclosure - the legal process by which the lender reposseses the house because the owner has defaulted on payments - is the only way out.

snip

This year, more than $300 billion worth of hybrid ARMs will readjust for the first time. That number will jump to approximately $1 trillion in 2007, according to the MBA. Monthly payments will leap too, many beyond what homeowners can afford.
For example, Britten's monthly payment jumped from $1,079 to $1,340 at the beginning of this year. It rose again on June 1 by another $104 and is scheduled to increase again in December. Britten, who is also paying off student loans, went to a credit counseling service to help her avoid foreclosure.
"I've gotten rid of all my credit cards and I'm not supposed to refinance for another year," she said. "All I can do is tread water right now."
"ARMs are a ticking time bomb," said Brad Geisen, president and chief executive of property tracker Foreclosure.com. "Through 2006 and 2007, I'm pretty sure we'll see a high volume of foreclosures."

snip

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20060619/44962140_3421_1334520060619-1045900028

**sharon sanders** · June 27, 2006, 10:43 AM

Re: Financial Balance

NEW YORK -- Warren Buffett's contribution of about $1.5 billion a year to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be used to seek cures for the world's worst diseases and improve American education, Bill Gates said Monday. "There is no reason we can't cure the top 20 diseases," Gates said while appearing with Buffett during a donation ceremony at the New York Public Library. The Buffett and Gates families, as well as onlookers, were beaming as the so-called Oracle of Omaha officially made his benevolence a reality. "There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way," said Buffett. He presented the biggest gift to Gates, and $1 billion donations to his own foundation and the foundations run by each of his three children. "It's easy to sign. I just signed, "Dad,'" Buffett joked while handing one of the donation documents, a stock transfer letter, to his daughter, Susie Buffett. Buffett said he had made some suggestions about how to use the money. But "I think their judgment above the ground is going to be a lot better than mine 6 feet below the ground," he said at a later appearance.

Buffett said his children have known all along that much of their family's wealth would be given back to society. "They consider themselves lucky. They don't consider themselves quite as lucky as if they had a father with a different view."

In a letter dated Monday, Buffett had informed Bill and Melinda Gates that the first donation of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock would go to the foundation next month.

The foundation, which has assets of $30.6 billion, spends money on world health, poverty and increasing access to technology in developing countries. In the United States, it focuses on education and technology in public libraries.

The money from Buffett, who is 75 but considered strong and healthy, comes with a significant catch. The letter says Buffett wants all his money to be distributed in the year it is donated, not added to the foundation's assets for future giving. The foundation gave away $1.36 billion in 2005, so the Buffett commitment would effectively double its spending.

Buffett had said he would give away 12,050,000 Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the five foundations. The shares fell $22.01, or 0.7 percent, to $3,049 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The gifts would be worth nearly $37 billion, which represents the bulk of the $44 billion that Buffet's stock holdings are worth today. Five-sixths of the shares will be earmarked for the Gates Foundation.

In his letter to the Gates Foundation, Buffett said he admired the foundation and wanted to extend its "future capabilities." Until now, all the money given away by the Gates Foundation has come from the couple.

In a statement over the weekend, Bill and Melinda Gates spoke of their relationship with Buffett over the past 15 years and his influence on their philanthropy.

"Warren has not only an amazing intellect but also a strong sense of justice. Warren's wisdom will help us do a better job and make it more fun at the same time," they said. The couple said they were "awed" by Buffett's decision.

The Buffett pledge also requires that Bill and Melinda Gates remain alive and active in the policy-setting and administration of the foundation. Buffett plans to give each foundation 5 percent of his total pledge each year in July.

Bill Gates, the world's richest man, announced earlier this month that he would be stepping back from his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft Corp. in July 2008 so he can spend more time on the Seattle-based foundation. The foundation followed his announcement by saying Melinda Gates would also be taking a more active role in their philanthropic work.

Buffett, the world's second-richest man, said in an interview with Fortune magazine that the timing of the two announcements -- one week apart -- was just "happenstance."

Buffett's gift is "really significant," not just for its size but for its potential to encourage other giving, said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, a nonprofit coalition of about 550 charities, foundations and corporate giving programs that includes The Gates Foundation.

"I'm sure there are lots of young, wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes and who are watching this very carefully," she said. "These business leaders are icons."

* __

Associated Press Writer Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.

* __

On the Net:

Bill & Melinda Gates: http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Some people are seeing the light.

**LeaSoul** · September 20, 2006, 01:58 PM

Re: Financial Balance

Bump this.
And please forgive the newbie, this one is interesting and should be read a couple of times.
So ..... another dumb newbie question? Can someone direct me to a link, preferably in FT, that gives suggestions on what to do now with our money that we have in the bank? We aren't rich, we aren't poor, we have just "saved", as suggested by the experts, for our retirement.

**sharon sanders** · September 20, 2006, 02:05 PM

Re: Financial Balance

Here is one:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=361

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