Seems strange that having spent years in San Francisco during the “Be Here Now” days that one can get so lost down the road anyway. We do have all the answers; why do we forget that? A friend put the following quote from Eckart Tolle on his Facebook page a couple of days ago; it’s a good way to start the day.

Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence . . . ~ Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart is a spiritual teacher and author who was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of 29, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Since 1995 he has lived in Vancouver, Canada.

Mr. Tolle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (translated into 33 languages) and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth, which are widely regarded as two of the most influential spiritual books of our time.

“I would do anything to be anywhere in the vicinity of Eckart Tolle.” ~ Jim Carrey

Now IS the time to start. Use whatever method makes you comfortable.

Of course, hundreds of Books, eBooks, CDs and Audiobooks are available for whatever you feel you want to fix in yourself: lose weight, stop smoking, change abusive behavior, self esteem . . .

During a random search, we came across The Ultimate Self-Help Book: 31 Days in Proverbs. It happens to be an eBook, which is timely given that we are probably going to give in a buy a NOOKColor. (Checked the NOOK out yesterday and it seems like a great idea — especially for travellers; we can now carry tons of guide books without stuffing the suitcases.)

Endorsed by many greats such as, Zig Ziglar, Gary Smalley, Josh McDowell, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and Truett Cathy (Chick-fi-a Founder), this devotional book includes many inspirational and motivational stories, as well as great nuggets of truth by Al Fike! All based on the Book of Proverbs.

The writings of King Solomon cover a vast range of human experience. His teachings, inspired by God Himself, will guide you on your personal, family and career journey.

At the end of each daily reading, the complete New Living Translation text of Proverbs is included and corresponds with that’s day’s reading.

You’ll discover: How to make better decisions; How to set and achieve your goals and dreams; How to establish new and better habits, and how to get rid of old ones; How to save your marriage and live in harmony with each other; How to reach your God-given potential; How to handle criticism and use it to your advantage; and finally, How to have and use God’s wisdom in every area of your life.

The Passport Book: The Complete Guide to Offshore Residency, Dual Citizenship and Second Passports, Robert Bauman

Bob Bauman reveals why millions of people already have their second passports and how you can join them and become an independent, “world citizen” — free to live, work, and acquire property anywhere in the world.

After practicing law for over 40 years, the author of The Passport Book is convinced that you can have personal freedom and abundance by learning the latest strategies contained in his best-selling book.

Here are a few of the ideas in his 722+ page essential “field guide” to international traveling and living.

• Five ways to acquire dual citizenship (you may qualify just because of your ancestors!) and how to reap extraordinary tax, privacy and business benefits from it.
• The shortest and easiest ways to obtain an EU Passport so you can live and work permanently in any of 27 European countries without immigration troubles.
• Top websites for over 80 foreign embassies and consulates.
• Which foreign officials to contact to expedite all passport and citizenship documents.
• How to live tax-free in Canada for five years. (Corporations use this strategy to operate tax free in many countries. We saw this in Jamaica. When taxes are about to kick in, various hotel chains trade their operations and start all over again tax free.
• Discover the two beautiful Caribbean island nations that grant immediate citizenship (if you can afford a significant property purchase!
  

  We just “had” to know this, so looked it up. Since 1984, the St. Kitts & Nevis Citizenship Act has allowed foreign investors who acquire qualifying real estate to obtain citizenship and a passport. This makes it the oldest existing citizenship-by-investment program. To apply for citizenship, you must invest a minimum of US$250,000 in real estate. In addition, government fees of US$35,000 or more apply, depending on the number of applicants. But this is hardly a sacrifice, because St. Kitts & Nevis has some of the Caribbean’s most stunning beaches.

• The four best countries for starting and operating a business.
• Trade your “work” clothes for Bermuda shorts, bathing suits and white sand beaches of a little-known residential haven.
• Learn how a direct cash contribution to banana crops could provide a private and reliable way to travel — without a visa — to more than 100 countries and territories.

About Robert Bauman

After getting his juris doctor degree from the Law Center of Georgetown University, he practiced law and less than a decade later, he was serving as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1973-1981). The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The National Review, and many other publications have featured his work.

His work in Congress took him on trade and diplomatic missions around the world — from Beijing to Panama and points in between. Since then, as Legal Counsel to The Sovereign Society, he has led offshore banking expeditions to dozens of countries on five continents.

Bob still believes the United States to be one of the best countries of the world, it’s undeniable that the American way of life has continually gotten worse over the past 50 years. And the pace of decline is accelerating.

The Passport Book also includes:

• The four countries that are the most affordable for retirees who live on a fixed budget.
• Learn what nation provides the highest level of personal and business privacy in the world for investors.
• Learn to protect yourself from “international identity theft” while avoiding passport fraud and counterfeit travel documents.
• The five best countries for qualifying for government health programs and FREE prescriptions.
• Discover the nations that are ready to roll out the red carpet for you and offer you special financial and lifestyle incentives if you are a scientist, engineer, medical professional or other educated professional able to fill critical positions within their communities.
• Five countries that offer endless acres of pristine landscapes for all of your outdoor adventures . . . for less than one-third of what you’d pay in the US.
• Where you can live like royalty for less than $390 a week!
• How to own a resort rental just a few steps away from the beach in one of the world’s most exciting locations with tax breaks and 50% savings as part of the deal.

 

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” ~ Mark Twain

Luck is a classic humorous short story written by Mark Twain and first published in 1891. It’s about a hero who is really a fool, and why he owes it all to luck.

Excerpt:
It was at a banquet in London in honor of one of the two or three conspicuously illustrious English military names of this generation. For reasons which will presently appear, I will withhold his real name and titles, and call him Lieutenant-General Lord Arthur Scoresby, V.C., K.C.B., etc., etc., etc. What a fascination there is in a renowned name!

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill

“Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter. Lullabies, dreams and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums. A thousand welcomes when anyone comes . . . That’s the Irish for you!” ~ Irish Sayings

“You see things and say ‘Why?’ but I dream things and say ‘Why not?’” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“As good luck would have it.” ~ William Shakespeare

“All of us have bad luck and good luck. The man who persists through the bad luck – who keeps right on going – is the man who is there when the good luck comes – and is ready to receive it.” ~ Robert Collier

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Being deeply learned and skilled, being well trained and using well spoken words, THIS is good luck.” ~ Buddha

“It’s hard to detect good luck – it looks so much like something you’ve earned.” ~ Frank A. Clark

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in that gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison

Is America an experiment? A failed one? We are allowed food items in this country that are banned elsewhere or that do not have the dangerous chemical additives that are included in many of our foods.

Three Surprising Reasons to Give Up Soda

Excerpted from Rodale Press
Leah Zerbe

You must already know that carbonated soda is not good for you, but following are facts indicating that it’s actually more dangerous than you think. Perhaps they will help you quit soda—cold turkey.

Carbonated beverages have been blamed for the obesity epidemic and rising healthcare costs. Some public health experts have even called for a soda tax to help deter people from drinking so much of it. While love handles and diabetes are obvious problems associated with soda, drinking the sweet carbonated beverages harbors hidden threats, too.

1. It causes invisible fat buildup around your organs. Danish researchers discovered that drinking non-diet soda leads to dramatic increases in dangerous hidden fats. In the study, researchers asked participants to drink either soda sweetened with 50 percent glucose and 50 fructose (table sugar, the soda sweetener of choice in Denmark), milk containing the same amount of calories as the regular soda, diet cola, or water every day for six months.

   While total fat mass remained the same across all beverage-consuming groups, researchers say dramatic increases in fats that are difficult to detect with the naked eye occurred. Those who drank the regular cola experienced a 132 to 142 percent increase in liver fat, a 117 to 221 percent jump in skeletal fat, and about a 30 percent increase in both triglyceride blood fats and other organic fat. The regular soda-drinking group also experienced an 11 percent increase in cholesterol, compared to the people who drank beverages.

   In America, many sodas are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup that has been shown to cause even worse fat buildup. Diet soda isn’t an option: Artificial sweeteners and food dyes have been linked to brain cell damage and hyperactivity; people who drink diet soda are also more prone to developing diabetes.

2. Some popular soda brands, including Mountain Dew, use a toxic flame retardant chemical ingredient to keep the artificial flavoring from separating from the rest of the liquid. Brominated vegetable oil, also sometimes listed as BVO on soda and sports drink, can cause bromide poisoning symptoms like skin lesions and memory loss, as well as nerve disorders.
3. You’re taking part in the biggest science experiment on the planet. Many soda brands on the market in America today are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, a heart-harming man-made compound derived mainly from genetically engineered (GE) corn. We don’t know the long-term health impacts of their use because the corporations that developed the crops never had to test to make sure it’s safe over the long term. Other independent scientists are finding that GE crops are linked to digestive tract damage, accelerated aging, and even infertility.

Economy got you down? Bored? Tired of the U.S. economy? If you need change to maintain your sanity, join the millions of Americans checking into overseas retirement. Author/traveler Kathleen Peddicord draws on 3+ decades of experience to help people relocate happily and successfully. How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad, details how living in an unconventional retirement destination can cost far less than a traditional home lower economic areas of the U.S., including Florida, Arizona or most other places in the U.S. Her book addresses death, taxes, health care, bank accounts and presents views of various countries around the world.

Of her book, The Wall Street Journal reported: “If you’re thinking about living abroad in retirement, this book is essential reading . . .

Most would agree that the U.S. is having serious issues right now. However, whether we like it or not, everything has a flow, including international politics and currencies. At the moment, the U.S. seems to be out. Economies collapse and then recover . . . values fall and rise, financial meltdowns come and go. However, there’s always somewhere where the living is good or even better, and there’s always some place where your dollars (or euro or pounds) go further. Peddicord also sends weekly newsletters (if you sign up at the link below) to keep you up-to-date on the latest retirement hot spots for expat living or jobs overseas.

Live and Invest Overseas

Kathleen is part of Live and Invest Overseas. She keeps you abreast of international affairs and invites you to do so through weekly updates via eMail, through her Live and Invest Overseas website, or through publications, including free reports. All are available at her site.

Examples of overseas living:

• Panama for $820/month
• Belize for $1245/month
• France — The Basque Region for $1320/month
• Mexico, including Puerto Bahia, Puerto Vallarta, Morelia (in the mountains), for $407/month
• Uruguay: Sophistication and beach living for $1043/month, and Uruguay is a tax haven
• Nicaragua: Colonial charm for $970/month
• Free medical care, health insurance at $50/month, employ a full-time maid (friends did just this in India; they rented out their San Francisco apartment, moved to India, and took time to think, read, write), a gardener, or perhaps even a driver on your Social Security budget.
• Rent a comfortably, fully equipped home near the beach for $500 per month or less or own your own second home for $120,000 (sometimes less).

Learn from people who took years to launch their “live overseas adventures.” The author of “52 Days To Your New Life Overseas” moved from Baltimore, Maryland to Waterford, Connecticut and then from Paris to Panama City.

Wealth is “cash flow from other sources” and providing good or a service is the way all fortunes are made. When you have an opportunity to provide what people want at a price greater than it costs to produce, you have an opportunity to build a business and make a profit.

HAVE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU

People are not wealthy just because they earn a lot of money. You are only wealthy when your money works for you. To become wealthy, your main job is to acquire money and then put it to work making more money for you. The following does not work: “Go to school, get a job, save 10% of your paycheck, buy a used car, cancel movie channels, quit drinking expensive Starbucks’ lattes, penny-pinch your life away, trust your life-savings to the stock market, and one day, when you are oh, say, 65 years old, you can retire rich.” Many of us who did just that are now wondering “what happened.”

ADD VALUE CONTINUALLY

The key to creating wealth is simple. It is called “adding value.” Successful people are those who are always looking for ways to add value in some way to a person, a company, a product or a service.

DO IT FASTER

Here is an example of adding value: Domino’s Pizza. The founders of Domino’s Pizza took a common food and added a value by delivering it quicker than anyone else. The added value of speed enabled Domino’s to create a billion dollar empire and made the founder of Domino’s, Tom Monahan, one of the richest men in the world. Domino’s also pays attention to the market; during tight times, they have special offers which lets you know they are “working for you.”

BUY IT CHEAPER ELSEWHERE

Another way to add value is to buy something in one place at one price and then make it available in another place for another price. One example: Buy a product in Europe or Asia, import it to the United States and make it available to people to whom it was not available before. Another way was what helped get Amazon.com off the ground: Goods are generally less expensive online because they do not have storefronts to maintain. Instructions: A Quick Start Guide to Online Selling: How to Sell Your Product on e-bay, Amazon, i-tunes and Other Online Market Places (New Tools for Busine)

IMPROVE THE LIFE OF OTHERS

Manufacturing and marketing is generally based on this principle of added value. All importation and distribution aims to add value. Performing a service that enhances the life or work of another person adds value. A dentist who takes away pain is adding value.
All financial success, especially business success, is based on adding value. An accountant who saves a client money is creating value. A salesperson who introduces an item or service to a customer that improves the customer’s life adds value.

THE ELEMENTS OF VALUE

Successful business is based on someone bringing together the factors of production — capital, labor, materials and management — and creating a product or service that a customer will buy at a cost in excess of production costs.

EXERCISES

• Take time to learn what people want and need to improve their lives and work. The more clear you are about their real needs, the easier it is for you to satisfy them at a higher level.
• Search for ways to add value to what you are doing every day in every way. One small idea can be the starting point of your financial comfort.
• Author Barry Carter has established himself as a voice on the leading edge of the synergic paradigm. With advances in information technology people are being empowered to connect, collaborate, create wealth and self-order without bureaucracy or representative government. Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era shows how the frantic change within organizations over the past twenty years, is part of a process of creating a new type of wealth creation enterprise enabled through the Internet. As we move closer to mass privatization, Internet based organizations arise with thousands of independent owning partners specializing in various niches.