Mindconnection eNL, 2004-03-23

In this issue:

4. Finance tip
5. Security tips
6. Health tip/Fitness tip
7. Thought for the day

Some people think they need to be Darth Vader to have any moxie as a manager. Others act as though they are running for election. We show you the right way.

When you don't chart out your course before setting sail, you use up brainpower to solve problems that should never have arisen.

Here's an example that will have our female readers nodding their heads: A man decides to take a trip. He doesn't write out the instructions, but instead gets a general feel for the route. He gets lost. Now he has to figure out where he is and how to get back on track. He could have been using that time to be thinking about other things, such as what he will be doing when he arrives. Or how to solve that sticky problem at the office. Or whatever. But, he is using his mental processor time on a problem he would not have created if he had only take a little time to prepare.

This is a universal principle. Planning makes you smarter, because it allows you to focus your resources where they will do the most good--rather than on damage recovery.

• We have four federal income tax systems alone (FICA, SS & Medicare or SE, AMT, and Targeted).
• We spend more on "defense" than the next five nations combined, but lower-tax Canada has free healthcare (that gives you an idea of where tax dollars go).

On top of that, we face a myriad of taxes (128 on just a loaf of bread), property taxes, state taxes, sales taxes, estate taxes, fuel taxes, phone taxes, permits, licenses, fines, fees, and so on. Plus, it looks like taxes on Internet sales is next. None of this counts the defacto taxation effects of government spending (which raises the cost of capital).

Your largest expense is taxation. For the average American, this cost exceeds those of food, clothing, and shelter combined. By a huge margin.

That said, the second best thing you can do for your finances is to try to reduce your taxes. That doesn't mean cheat on taxes. That means go to City Hall meetings and say no to all spending (not easy, politically). Tell your senators and Congressmen you do NOT want pork-barrel spending, even in your own district. Tell them to cut pet programs. Tell them to cut spending any way that is reasonable. Tell them to make hard choices--that's what they are getting paid to do, rather than write blank checks. Tax cuts must follow spending cuts.

Don't vote for politicians who vote to increase taxes (that's a wage cut to you). And don't vote for the fools who increase spending, which simply creates more crushing debt for citizens who are already drowning in debt (personal debt is at record levels). And let these fools know why you are not voting for them. If they hear this from enough  ordinary citizens, they might stop treating us like livestock and they might stop catering to special interests who fund their re-elections to no avail because we are telling them "Enough is enough."

Now, I said second best thing was to try to reduce your taxes. What's the first best thing? Work to cut government regulations. You don't have to work hard to do this. Just make your voice heard. Start locally, and also write to your federal legislators. 

• Identify your Congressional rep: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
• Identify your Senators: http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

There are three main drivers behind the exportation of jobs from the USA, and government regulations are one of them (another is global competition--which we can't control). The only thing your government can do to "create jobs" is to back off. Period. 

I am amazed that the labor unions actually support job-destroying regulations. They also support tax and spend Democrats, who are essentially giving them a wage cut (the Republicans do this also, but to a lesser extent).

If you don't think regulations are excessive, consider that the index alone to the Code of Federal Regulations is 10,000 pages. Talk about absurd. Talk about expensive. Talk about sending jobs overseas.

Let's talk to our legislators about fixing that.

No matter how good you are at managing your money, current government policies can easily wipe you out--and are, in fact, doing this to thousands of Americans each day. And don't forget the federal Tax Code is about 19,000 pages. All of this comes at a staggering cost to businesses and the people who (used to) work for them.

One sign muggers look for is poor posture. A person who stands erect looks much more formidable than a person who stands with a slouch. Most people have weak back muscles. Exercise yours (lifting anything off the ground is one way to do this). And practice those posture exercises your momma tried to teach you when you were a kid.

Calcium is essential for strong bones, adequate rest, proper brain functioning, and weight control. Yet, Americans (and many others) are chronically calcium-deficient. Contrary to the propaganda, milk is not a great calcium source. The calcium in milk is only 30% bioavailable, if you can digest it. And that's a big if.

(Note: VitaCube uses milk from New Zealand in their MRP VitaPro--and this has tested to have a high bio-availabolity rate. We don't sell VitaPro, but it's worth checking out.)

On top of everything else, you need the right proportions of magnesium and other nutrients for you to use the calcium. So, drinking a glass of milk with, say, 100 mg of calcium in it might get you 5 mg of calcium. You'd have to drink 200 glasses of milk a day for you to avoid calcium deficiency. At that point, "got milk" doesn't sound so good, does it?

The key here is to get calcium to your body in a form it can use. And Shaklee SuperCal MagPlus is it. Which is why we sell it to begin with.