I spend a part of every early morning thinking about what I want to make for dinner.  It should be as simple as looking in the freezer or pantry and seeing what I have but it’s not.  Every day I wake up with the goal of making a dinner of pure artistry.  Of course, I also have to take into consideration time constraints, nutritional needs, likes and dislikes, expense, variety, etc.

I have studied nutrition since I was in college and have studied cooking most of my life.  My Mom was an amazing cook and was always concerned about budget and nutrition and the likes/dislikes of my father and the rest of us.  She cooked from the viewpoint of two cultures: traditional English and traditional American.  My Dad was also an incredible cook and his specialties were grilled foods and a few oven dishes.  I built on their training by adding to those foods a love for Asian, Mexican, German, French, Italian, and a bit of Middle Eastern cuisine.  And still I find myself adding on to my repertoire.

Anyway, for about a half hour every morning I give a hard thought to how I can make an amazing dinner to please myself and impress my husband.  Sometimes I base the meal around meat but not often.  Generally I pick a protein: fish, eggs, beans, legumes, or meat, then decide on flavor such as Italian, Mexican, traditional American, etc.  Once that is decided, the rest falls in line.  Occasionally I have a craving for a particular vegetable like broccoli or green beans or snap peas or pumpkin and then I base the meal around that.  Sometimes the whole meal is based on what was on sale at the store that week.  And sometimes I follow up a complex meal with something very simple the next night like soup or fruit plate or omelet.

I think of this planning in a way as a painter might.  OK, I have a good size tube of red but very little blue right now and can’t afford more.  What can I paint with minimal blue and maximum red?  And what can I throw in to make it more interesting?  Yes, I have some yellow and a bit of green and lots of black and white.  Bound to be able to make a very nice painting with this variety.  Might not please everyone but it will certainly please me and my husband.  And since I painted a 4 foot by 6 foot canvas yesterday, I’ll do a 5 inch by 8 inch today.

I wonder if I am such a frustrated painter that I have to express myself creatively through cooking.  Or, am I just an artistic cook and haven’t fully accepted myself as such.

I have a very good friend that has been divorced for many years–maybe 20 years.  I don’t know for sure because it happened before I met her and it’s something she doesn’t like to discuss.  Since I’ve known her, she has always seemed very happy with a job she loves and a huge circle of friends and many hobbies.  We talked sometimes about whether or not she would start dating again if the ‘right guy’ came along.  She wasn’t sure it would ever happen.

Well, one day I got a call from her and she wanted us to go out together so I could meet her new man.

It was really quite embarassing.  My husband and I met them for dinner and they were all over each other.  Hands in awkard places, etc. My friend kept looking at me, grinning.  I tried to avert my eyes as much as possible.  The next day my friend called and asked what I thought.  I said it seemed like they got along very well. (hahaha)  She said she never thought she would find a good lover again and that it was such an exciting experience for her.  I agreed that it was a good thing and I was happy for her.

As the months went by my friend and her man spent less and less time together and finally broke up.  She said he was dating other people and would forget to keep dates with her, etc.  She was very sad for a while.

But, as I think about this, it is like the ‘false spring’ we are having this week.  60 degrees in January is not normal but it feels like a kiss from a long lost love.  Or, better still, from a new love you are just getting to know.

I am aware the cold weather will return and this is just a taste of things to come in a few months.  My friend had that rush of new love, then a very miserable time for a while, then love came again.  We need these small reminders that spring, like love, will come again with all the luscious perfection and wonderful promises of things to be.

CONTINUED FROM JANUARY 8, 2013

If you didn’t take the ‘age test’ suggesed in the first part of this blog, please go back and do that and read the first installment. My suggestions follow. I hope you find them of help and please feel free to ask questions. I have been a wealth advisor for over 25 years. I believe a large part of my job is to help educate people on financial matters.

According to the US Department of Labor, based on the Consumer Price Index, over the last 30 years inflation has been at an average rate of 4.2% per year. If that average rate continues, the money you have right now will lose half of its value in 15.55 years. Growing your money, protecting capital and controlling spending are going to be vital in having enough over the long run.

The younger a person is when they start planning, the better off they will be. That being said, even in our 50s and early 60s there are still things we can do to get on track for that happy future.

1. Make sure you are saving all you can for retirement including making use of your company’s 401(k) and regular and Roth IRAs, as allowed.
2. Pay down debt.
3. Make sure any loans you have are at the lowest possible interest rate. This may mean you will refinance your home or combine debt into one lower rate loan or credit card.
4. Reduce expenses by bundling technology services, making your home more energy efficient, purchasing a fuel efficient car, and moving to fee based advisors. Consider downsizing if your home is starting to feel larger than you want to maintain.
5. Investigate the optimum time to take your social security benefits. Between a husband and wife, there are 81 different scenarios for taking social security. Whether single, divorced, widowed, married, talk to an advisor that can show you all of the options so you can make the best choice for your situation.
6. Review your health insurance choices, especially when you reach medicare age. Your supplemental policy will make a difference in how much out of pocket money you will be spending.
7. As early as possible, look at long term health care insurance. The premiums can be lowered by purchasing husband and wife coverage at the same time from the same company. The premiums are also lower the younger you are when you make the purchase (depending on the health of the insured).
8. Review the asset allocation of your investments with your advisor. You may want to make changes after you retire to a larger portion of fixed income investments. You may also want to re think the type of investments you are using and make some changes to guaranteed investments or tax protected investments (depending on your tax bracket). The allocation and the quality of your investments are always important, but perhaps more so during retirement.

Planning is the key to being able to take on a long retirement and be financially secure and the sooner you start, the better.

I have been a wealth advisor for over 25 years and consider a large part of my responsibility educating people about financial matters. This article is one I wrote recently for a local publication and I hope you find it of interest.

Taking the Long View

I recently came across an on line age calculator that I think you might find of interest. The website assesses life expectancy based on 40 questions relating to personal lifestyle, family history, and health. After the assessment the site provides hints on weight management, exercise, lifestyle changes and health improvement that may extend your life. Of course it is just a guesstimate but it may give you something to think about. Check out this website, then come back here to read the rest of my article. http://www.livingto100.com
If you are like me, you may be shocked to see an age of 93 or 97 or even 100. We know that living to be 100 wouldn’t be too bad if we had good health and enough money to be independent, pay all of our bills, and have some left over for charity and enjoyment. But living that long without financial resources is not a happy prospect.
Most people don’t give too much thought to longevity beyond planning for retirement and thinking about social security or maybe whether or not they want to move to a warmer climate. Of course now, with global warming, the warmer climate may be coming to us. On a more serious note, the real financial issues with planning for a long life after retirement are these: how much have you saved; inflation; taxes; optimizing your social security; protecting capital while allowing for growth of your investments; health insurance and long term care.
TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW

Today I thought it would be good to write about something terribly important; something to open the eyes of mankind or to provide a solution to a tremendous global problem.
Instead of something deep, I can only be in the moment and see the little things. Making dinner with as little waste as possible and keeping it healthy. Doing laundry and making sure I am not wasting water or using ‘unsafe’ laundry detergent. Taking a walk and wondering how long my shoes will last before I need to replace them. Feeding the birds and making sure to give them enough to get through the very cold day we are having today. Planning my week to make sure I get everything done that I should and leaving time to smell the roses each day. Looking at my hibiscus plant, now wintering in the basement, and noticing that it will have a flower this week. I must make sure to see it when it opens.
Sometimes the little things are all we have and they can add up to help solve some of the major world problems. Waste not want not. Take care of yourself and all God’s creatures or at least, don’t harm them. Be resourceful. Don’t miss the blooming of the flowers.

My husband knows that around January 1st of each year I come down with a fever. Not just any fever. Spring fever. And the only thing that can bring me out of it is some sign that winter is coming to an end. It might be the first bunch of daffodils poking out of the ground or the smell of the gulf air coming in on a southerly breeze. Or, it could be the sound of the first red wing black birds returning from their winter sojourn.
This winter has been warmer than usual and we still have large flocks of robins hanging around.
For that reason, I was not overly suspicious when I came home from my Saturday morning errands and heard the unmistakable sound of a red wing black bird. I put the groceries on the counter and ran to the window to see if I could spot him. Then I heard a few more and I figured it was a late flock passing through and maybe resting in our trees, although I couldn’t see any. It wasn’t until I started hearing frogs and crickets that I finally realized what it was. My husband had put on a bird/nature song CD for me. It was just loud enough to kind of sound like it was coming from outside. And he was no where to be found. At first, I admit, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t an early return of the red wings. But then I started laughing at myself for being duped and smiling because he had gone to so much trouble to ‘cure’ my fever.

I bought a perfect pumpkin in the first week of October. They were all $2 each and you could pick any one you liked. Some were huge, some small, some very lumpy, some lopsided, and then there was MY pumpkin. Just the right size and a beautiful round shape with the most gorgeous curled vine at the top. It was carried very gently to my car, driven carefully home, and placed in the center of the table in our dining room. It stayed there all through October; made it past Halloween without being marred by a knife. November came and went and it was not made a part of any Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. I grouped some Christmas decorations around it when December came. It was so beautiful and cheerful. Everyone complimented its lovely shape and wonderful curl, which was now rather darkened but still very magnificent.
The day after Christmas I gave it a tap (it still had a good solid thump to it) and decided I needed to go ahead and turn it into something other than a decoration. It didn’t seem quite right to carry it over into the new year. I found a great recipe for a pumpkin soup cooked right inside the pumpkin. I only had to ‘gut’ it and put in the soup ingredients and stick it in the oven for 45 minutes. I also cleaned off all the seeds and started soaking them in sea salt water for later roasting. The soup was not too bad and the pumpkin body was still good for chunking up and freezing. The seeds roasted beautifully.
I packed up the pumpkin body pieces and froze them and we ate the roasted seeds with a good salad.
The lovely curl from the top of the pumpkin is still sitting on the kitchen counter as a reminder of the best pumpkin ever.

Listening to a radio program on my way to work this morning and they were debating using a Stop and Search technique in some of the more crime ridden areas of St Louis.  The technique has been very successful in reducing deaths in NYC and shootings in general there.
I was not surprised to learn people are protesting against it and feel it is a violation of privacy, etc.  What did bother me was that no one mentioned that it is very similar to what has happened at our airports since 9/11.  Innocent people are searched, have ‘naked’ pictures taken of them to make sure they aren’t hiding weapons, have their luggage searched, and they are, in general, being patted down like common criminals.
I used to fly weekly for business and it was fairly easy and pleasant before 9/11.  Afterwards it was not but I adjusted.  What made me very upset was seeing my elderly mother (when I was taking her on vacation), sitting in a wheel chair, and being groped by a TSA agent as we went through security.  I understand this is to keep us safe from the ‘bad guys/gals’ but there should be some limits.
I am hoping if Stop and Search goes through in St Louis, that old men and women are treated with dignity and that ALL of the searches are done with respect.  I also hope that the people in the crime ridden areas know that many of us have been facing Stop and Search for 11 years now when we travel by air. There are some actions taken to ensure safety that end up violating our privacy but, hopefully, the results will be worthwhile.

Hard to believe. I am not a huge country western fan or even a moderate fan but I have always loved Dolly Parton. When I was a kid I used to see her on TV with Porter Wagner. She would come down from the rafters on a swing and during the commercials, she would pull dish towels out of a box of Duz (or something like that). But her voice and her little girl giggle always got to me. Later, as an adult, I started really listening to her and decided I liked the songs and I admired her ability to play instruments and write the music as well as sing it. Then, I found out she could act too. Amazing. Talented woman. I heard her in concert and she cracked me up with her stories. She always pokes fun at herself and is always kind about other people. In a business that is cut throat at best, she never speaks evil of anyone and (this is really big) she is a tremendous business woman. She has been successful in a man’s world, looks quite a bit like a flashy hooker (her words), sings like an angel, has an extreme work ethic, and is a decent human being. I’d say she qualifies for role model. (Except for maybe the clothes and hair.)

I recently received a Hypnocube as a gift and I find it fascinating. It wasn’t on my wish list and, in fact, I hadn’t even heard of it before. It’s a plexiglass cube with 64 LED lights in it and it is programmed to make random designs/patterns in random colors. The patterns are none repeating and the color combinations are limitless as well. My thought about how the product was named is that the viewer becomes almost hypnotized when watching it. Far from the fact! The random patterns and colors set my mind racing, thinking of all the wonderful projects I could do in paint or fabric. It’s almost too exciting and when I decide to turn the cube off I get stuck in the process because I am waiting to see what pattern will come next.
Check out the cube on U Tube and see if you agree. Of course, much, much better in person.