Family Time: Ziggy Marley

 

I recently spoke with someone who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. He knew his days were numbered and seemed very determined to spend his last days getting his business in order and trying to set everything up so that his family will be taken care of after he passed away. I was very impressed and inspired by his strength and appreciation for life. He was very focused on enjoying his family and preparing them for life without him.

 

I could not help thinking what would I do? What would I be thinking or doing? A hedonistic part of me wants to say that it would be like the movie The Holiday or The Bucket List where I travel and try to see and do all the things in life I've always wanted to do. Then I think about this fellow and all the memories he plans to make with his family before his time comes and I think about my two greatest loves in life. I couldn't see a better end to my days than having a big party with all my family and lots of great reggae music.

Kinda like the scene in the song below. How great would it be to have your final moments on this earth a fun filled one that your family will remember forever? I wonder what thoughts wants or wishes would you have if you knew your life was gonna end soon. Please share a line!

Its never too early or too late.........To start saving

If you are reading this fresh out of high school/college and have just started your first job.......I say "It’s not too early to start saving". If you have been working all your life and don’t have a savings account…...I say “It’s not too late to start saving”. Most people I know are broke, in debt or spending the money they have like there is no tomorrow. It seems like these days every one has excuses as to why they can’t save some money or they have some new thing that just came out that they just have to spend their money on.

Whether you are young or old, making minimum wage or a decent salary you need to start saving for now, later and for when you retire.

Start saving for now
Most people don’t get why they need to have some money saved up to handle unplanned expenses that come up in life. Think about it….If your car breaks down, you need to move on a short notice, you get sick and need prescriptions with no health insurance, your microwave breaks or any other unexpected expense comes up how will you pay for it? Credit cards, loaning money from family members, hold off on paying your other bills? These will only If you save $50 every month, that’s 600 per year. Six hundred dollars that could be sitting in a savings account ready to take care of your unexpected expenses.

Start saving for later
Most of us these days are so used to using credit cards that we don’t realize how much we pay extra in interest when we purchase things on credit. Let’s say you buy a computer on a credit card for $500. If the interest rate on the card is 18% and you pay $50 per month, it will take a year to pay off and you will pay $51.52 in interest. If you want a new computer, car, phone, a vacation start an account and start saving for the purchase instead of pulling out the credit cards. www.smartypig.com is a great internet savings bank for these types of savings accounts.

Start saving for retirement
If you make $30,000 per year and you save 3% in your employers 401k plan that’s $900 per year. If your employer has a 401k matching plan that could be easily doubled to $1800 per year. I know that a lot of young people my age think that it’s too early to start saving for retirement because it’s so far away. Well you are just missing out of years of your money sitting there gaining compound interest and missing out of the free money that you can get from your employer's match. Another thing to keep in mind here is that your living expenses are more likely to get larger in the future. You probably will be making more money later on, However that does not guarantee that you will have more money to save. You probably will be spending more for your housing, car and have a larger family to provide for.

Your Duty Today - Marcus Garvey

Believe in God

Lift yourself

Lift your family

Lift your clan

Lift your race

Lift your country

Lift your nation

And be

An imperial whole.

-1933

I was reading some of my favorite poems the other day and came accross this one by Marcus Garvey. Such a simple poem and yet is says so much about your strenght as an individal and what you purpose in life should be. What's your favorite Marcus Garvey poem / quote?

Spirituality......

Lately I've thinking about spirituality and what that word means to me......

I think Mutabaruka sums it up perfectly for me......

What do you all think?

Stephen Marley Heading My Way.......

I just checked out Stephen Marley's tour line up and was pleased to see that he is heading my way this month. Absolutely made my day.....what can I say? I just lOVE Marley Music..... Guys you should definitely check him out when he comes to your neck of the woods.........

Check out one of my favorite Stephen Marley songs. Lonely Avenue....this one is deep, touches me to the core. I'm sending this one out there to those of you who have been dumped. Yea the song expresses it all....like Stephen says "STAND IN LOVE, DON'T FALL IN LOVE". More to come on that topic later....