O-Dark-Thirty

One bright, sunny day in the spring of 1969 my Mother made the short pilgrimage to see Aunt Nora and our cousins. The sky was that sort of blue that almost sparkled. The fluffy white clouds drifted through the azure expanse with the soothing motions that spring brings to winter-hardened hearts. The air was cool with a hint of warmth. The soft earth felt spongy under our tennis shoes. Our Dad was in Vietnam and my three younger brothers and I lived with Mom in Brown City, Michigan. Mom grew up in Brown City and all her local Aunts, Uncles and Cousins provided emotional support during a hard year. Aunt Nora and Uncle Dwight were our source of milk. Aunt Nora would have given us the milk, but Mom insisted on paying for it.  We boys loved the outings to Aunt Nora's house. Not only did our Aunt feed us fresh bread and butter, she always provided homemade jam. So this glorious spring day promised fun and joy, as well as some delicious food. One of us, probably Barry, discovered a slick p...

My 2016 post ( Why I cancelled the Bauman Letter )  concerning finances and your money seems timeless. This is a comment from Unknown yesterday: HELP. It is August 2020 and everything is crazy. I am scared, but trying hard to remain calm. I have a small/moderate savings and only a small income. Fortunately I have no debts at all. I'm feeling very unsafe right now. I feel certain I should do something but don't know what. At one point I have subscribed to half the services out there. Any direction ??? Thanks. Who knew in January of this year that the world would change so much? Everything is crazy. I know you're scared. I see fear reflected in the eyes of everyone lately. It isn't easy to remain calm, but keep trying. Any kind of savings is noteworthy, and no debt is worth praise. Well done for both of those difficult accomplishments! You have a small income, but look at it differently. You have an income. (I have a small pension, as well, and I'm grateful.) You feel...

That FB bit about all your information being used without your consent. False. Let it go. There is a FB post that keeps popping up starting with something like "Don’t forget tomorrow starts the new Facebook rule where they can use your photos..." then goes on to tell you how to make a magic post to deter this act of data invasion. I guess its an understandable knee-jerk reaction to our current world, but a lot of people are posting it. <Sigh> I know this seems so real, but it is false on many levels. There is no new FB rule. If there was, this simple disclaimer would not legally protect the user. So if FB ever does decide to make all of its information public the only way to mitigate that is to leave FB. Eveen that might not help. Maybe just post stuff that reflects love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Then you should never have a worry anyway. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facebook-posts-made-public/

Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. Not Land of the Oppressed. Home of the Slaves. We are free to choose. Not choose which laws to obey, but choose which lawmakers reflect our wishes. That's democracy, a foundation of our country. We are brave. Bravery is not inciting violence and mayhem. Bravery is not committing acts of pillage and plunder against our countrymen, violating their rights. Bravery is doing the right thing, regardless of the tears streaming down our faces at injustice, corruption and evil.  Violence does not do that. Did we learn nothing from Martin Luther King? Did we learn nothing from Gandhi? Did we learn nothing from Nelson Mandela? Did we learn nothing from Jesus Christ? Bravery is acting with boldness when elections come and voting for people who will do the right thing. To truly be the Land of the Free we must Free the Land. Violence does not do that. Votes do.

For weeks we've all been inundated with Covid-19 virus news. The world is a different place than it was in 2019. No, I don't think this is the Apocalypse - and I believe the Bible. There is a plague in the Apocalypse, but it will wipe out a third of the life on Earth. That will be bad. Maybe this is a preview. We all feel the impact. We cannot socialize with friends face to face. We feel confined to our homes. The mental impact is bad. The financial world is insane.  If you had stocks, you've been on a roller-coaster ride that just makes you want to throw up. If you had some cash, now was an okay time to buy, but you're just jumping on a roller coaster. Stock market advice? The gurus are worthless. Just don't sell yet. It should all come back. In the USA our government is flooding the country with newly printed money to help everyone in need. To some that might make sense. What that really does is pave the road for a devaluation of the dollar. That...

In 2016 I published a piece called Why I cancelled the Bauman Letter . Over the ensuing years, I received more responses to that post than to any other. It's timeless, of course, since it concerns your finances and investments. Yesterday an unknown commented  Its now March 2020 and whole world is crashing down! Well, yes, it seems so. The enemy is not a virus. The enemy is panic. Let's talk about your investments. The US Market crashed. Hard. Bauman - and EVERYONE else (myself included) predicted this would happen. Why? Because it was inevitable. But why has the market crashed? CNN health posted this morning : At least  112 people have died  since the first US case of the coronavirus was reported in January and the virus has spread to all states, the District of Columbia and some territories. Yet we hear little of the flu deaths in the US. CNN again provides us with some statistics (admittedly a month old): So far, the  CDC has estimated  (...

 Traditional business plans use some combination of these sections. Executive summary. Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful. ... Company description. ... Market analysis. ... Organization and management. ... Service or product line. ... Marketing and sales. ... Funding request. ... Financial projections.