Recreational Camping!

Recreational Camping!
Recreational camping is a favorite activity for millions of people! Just the word “camping” brings to mind star-lit nights, weenie roasts around the campfire. Up high in the mountains or across the plains, in the desert or by the sea, camping is a pleasure enjoyed by many. Children who go camping with their families develop a respect and appreciation for nature. The busiest workaholics among us find a camping vacation ideal for leaving stress behind. Camping offers a chance for renewal in the great outdoors.
Camping requires preparation. For protection from the elements, at the top of the list is a good tent. Tents come in a vast array of types and sizes, from the one person pup tent to the family size, and from the lightweight all-purpose tent to the sturdy winter camping versions. Some camp sites provide tents for their guests, such as the new yurts (a circular structure) which have gained enormous popularity in Oregon. Motor home camping has obvious benefits: all the comforts of a home away from home.
There are sleeping bags made of synthetic materials, sleeping bags filled with down, mummy bags and Teflon shells, the choices seem endless! Finding the right sleeping bag makes camping much more enjoyable. Camping cooking equipment also comes in a great variety. Before you head for the hills, it’s good to plan ahead for the extent of food preparation you have in mind. Camping stoves, fueled by kerosene or propane, are an efficient alternative to frying freshly caught trout over a fire, but if trout over the fire is a favored part of the camping experience, all the cooking gear you may need is a frying pan and matches! It doesn’t hurt to have a camping stove on hand, though, in case the weather turns wet!

Moving Out of the City

Copyright 2006 Tracey Anderson

Australia's largest metropolitan cities are exciting places
to live and work, but they are becoming increasingly
expensive. Although overall, Australia's housing market is
stable and quite affordable, home prices in Melbourne
average $335,000. Sydney is even higher, with prices well
above the norm at an average of $524,000.

There are two major advantages to living in the Australian
countryside; price, and availability of the rural "quality
of life". Sometimes, you can even have both. Of course, one
of the most affordable areas in all of Australia is
Tasmania, with prices in Hobart averaging just $165,000,
and other homes in smaller towns priced at under $100,000.
Real estate in Tasmania is in demand and the state has a
positive net migration as more people come to discover the
charm of the rural Tasmanian lifestyle.

But, as primarily a farming community, Tasmania is not for
everybody: if you work in Sydney, moving that far usually
won't be an option. However, you don't have to pay $500,000
for a home if you don't want to. More people are choosing
to commute to work every day. The Central Coast of New
South Wales for example, offers an attractive alternative,
sitting about halfway between Newcastle and Sydney. Prices
are rising along the Coast rapidly, but homes there still
present an advantage both in terms of price and amenities
when compared to life in the Big City. The Central Coast,
as well as Queensland's Gold Coast, offer less of a rural
farming environment, and more of a resort/retirement town
ambience, with plenty of opportunities for recreation.

Another noteworthy rural option is the Northern Territory.
While the capital city of Darwin is more metropolitan, most
of the territory is much more remote, and includes several
indigenous communities. Housing here too remains quite
affordable.

For those who are serious about embracing the farming
lifestyle, the rural farm property market is strengthening,
with a 34% increase in sales value in 2004-05. However,
lifestyle farm turnover has declined, with most of the
activity being in the broadacre, large corporate farming
business. While smaller lifestyle farms aren't dead, fewer
Australians are choosing to run them and agriculture is
increasingly becoming the domain of large agribusiness
corporations.

For those who prefer the rural or suburban lifestyle,
especially while maintaining a commuting job in the city,
there are plenty of options. Many real estate agents
specialize in rural real estate that is within commuting
distance of major population centers, and are ready and
able to help you find a home that will enable you to have
the best of both worlds.


About the Author:

Tracey Anderson is a mortgage broker with 16 years
experience in the Australian mortgage industry. She
currently works with a number of broker networks including
Mortgage Mall (http://www.mortgagemall.com.au ) both as a
broker and an expert industry analyst.

Investing During Retirement To Maintain The Good Life

With a growing number older age people living longer lives our
senior population is growing beyond measure. There are large numbers
of senior apartment complexes being build in most cities, and many
seniors are retiring with large nest eggs. Because of the explosion
in senior citizens, "Senior Advisor" is a new field that advises
seniors about maintaining a good living with everything from health
to finances. Here are some helpful tips to give your senior clients.

Investing during retirement is different than investing for
retirement. In investing during retirement seniors need to weigh and
measure several different factors to assure that their money last
for all necessities, and if they want to leave some money to your
children or grandchildren.

A senior citizens retirement nest egg must be well thought out and
closely monitored.

1. Life expectancy

Calculate what you feel your life expectancy is considering how long
your parents lived and your current health status is.

2. Inflation rate

Know what the current rate of inflation is and what the continuing
rate of inflation will be. This will chip away at your fixed income.


3. Taxes

Know how much you will have to pay in taxes and how your income will
be taxed. This is the largest expense you will have if you are
subject to income and homeowners tax.


4. Health Cost

Know if your health cost will be covered, and if not, how much will
you have to pay toward your health cost? Will you be covered by
Medicare or a private health insurance, and what will your out-of-
pocket cost be.


5. Low risk investing

What are the best low risk investments you can put your money into
for safety and convenience. Be careful, some retirees loose their
entire nest egg because some slick financial advisor talks them into
a so-called high interest investment, which is also high risk
investment. Investing is over during retirement. All investments
should be very low risk income investing. If you don't understand
investments, put your money in savings accounts or money market
accounts.


6. Rent or own home

Will you rent during retirement or live in a house that is paid for
but has yearly taxes, electrical, water, and maintenance cost.
Sometimes it is better to sell your home, live off the proceeds and
rent a low income senior apartment, which can also be a safer place
to live.


7. Debts paid off

Will you have all of your debts paid off. This can save you
mountains of money in unnecessary interest charges, which are very
costly.

8. Retirement recreation

What do you want to do during retirement? Are you content to stay
home and garden, sew, cook, and talk with other retired neighbors?
Or do you want to travel. You need to figure the amount it will cost
you to travel or practice hobbies.


9. Education and trust

Educate yourself about your investments and the retirement income
you will receive. Know exactly how much you have coming, how much
you can get on a monthly basis, and how long you can make it last
considering all of the above.

Don't trust strangers to advise you about your retirement money
unless you have first educated yourself and verified that they, and
their business is honest. Again, many seniors loose their nest egg
to dishonest businesses and/or their dishonest advisors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lois Center-Shabazz is the author of the award-winning book, Let's
Get Financial Savvy! and founder of Msfinancialsavvy.com
http://www.msfinancialsavvy.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your Automatic Right to be Rich

Copyright © 2006 Shannon Baldwin
Wallace Wattles Online


It's a fact that you cannot possibly live a really complete
and successful life unless you are rich. You can't achieve your
greatest potential in talent or soul development unless you have
plenty of money. And to unfold your soul and to develop talent
you must have many things to use and you cannot have these things
unless you have money to buy them with.

You develop in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and
our society is structured so that you must have money in order to
get these things. And so, the basis of all advancement for your
life must be the science of getting rich.

"The object of all life is development; and everything that
lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is
capable of attaining." --- Wallace D. Wattles

Your right to life means your right to have the free and
unrestricted use of all the things that are needed for your
fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment - in other
words, your automatic right to be rich.

We're not going to talk about riches in a figurative way - to
be really rich doesn't mean to be satisfied or content with a
little. You shouldn't be satisfied with a little if you're
capable of using and enjoying more.

The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life;
and you should have all the things that can contribute to the
power; elegance, beauty, and richness of life - to be content
with less is a crime.

Life today has advanced so far, and become so complex, that the
average person requires a great amount of money in order to live
in a way that even approaches completeness.

You naturally want to be all that you are capable of being; this
desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in your human
nature; you can't help wanting to be all that you can be.

To succeed in life you must be what you want to be; you can
become what you want to be only by making use of things, and you
can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to
buy them. To understand the science of getting rich then becomes
the most important of all knowledge.


There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for
wealth is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more
abundant life and that desire is praise worthy. Anyone who
doesn't want to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the
person who doesn't wish to have enough money to buy all they
want is abnormal.

"There are three motives for which we live; we live for the
body, we live for the mind, we live for the soul. No one of
these is better or holier than the other; all are alike
desirable, and no one of the three--body, mind, or soul--can
live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life
and expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the
soul and deny mind or body; and it is wrong to live for the
intellect and deny body or soul." --- Wallace D. Wattles

I'm sure you're acquainted with the consequences of living for
the body and denying both mind and soul; and we see that real
life means the complete expression of all that we can give
through body, mind, and soul.

Whatever you say, you can't be really happy or satisfied unless
your body is living fully in every function, and unless the same
is true of your mind and soul.

Wherever there is unexpressed possibility, or function not
performed, there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility
seeking expression, or function seeking performance.

You cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable
clothing, and warm shelter; and without freedom from excessive
work. Rest and recreation are also a necessary part of your
physical life.

You cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study
them, without opportunity for travel and observation, or without
intellectual companionship.

To live fully in mind you must have intellectual recreation,
and you should surround yourself with all the objects of art
and beauty you are capable of using and appreciating.

To live fully in soul, you must have love; and love is denied
expression by poverty.

Your highest happiness is found in the giving of things to the
ones you love - love finds its most natural and spontaneous
expression in giving.

If you have nothing to give you cannot fill your place as a wife
or husband, as a citizen, or as a person. It's in the use of
material things that you find full life for your body, develop
your mind, and unfold your soul.

"It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich;
if you are a normal man or woman you cannot help doing
so. It is perfectly right that you should give your
best attention to the Science of Getting Rich, for it
is the noblest and most necessary of all studies."
--- Wallace D. Wattles




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Shannon Baldwin helps people make positive changes in their
lives quickly through the timeless wisdom of Wallace D. Wattles.
Read more about Wallace and his writings at:
http://www.WallaceWattlesOnline.com