Get a FEMA Trailer at a Government Auction Really Cheap!

Did you know that after people live in a FEMA Trailer after a natural disaster that they have to give them back and then the government auctions them off? Some sell for as little as $1500 and therefore if you are looking for an inexpensive trailer this might be a very good bet for you? The prices actually range from as high as $8,000 down to as low as $850 but either way a deal is a deal.

FEMA stands for Federal Emergency Management Agency and there are many such auctions that happen from time to time. Sometimes they auction off brand new trailers, never used before at all. Often the dealers will bid on entire lots and take 10-20 at a time and sell for much higher prices later. Sometimes the people who live in them now can buy them outright or via the auction also. Others say thanks, but no thanks and are glad to have their homes rebuilt and want the things off the property, as they bring back horrific memories they say.

For the non-portable units however you must prove you have proper zoning to park the FEMA Trailer that you buy at auction and that you do not live in a flood zone or anything like that. Makes sense to me. Perhaps you might consider all this in 2006.

In the United States, July 4th marks the celebration of Independence Day. This is typically a really fun day with lots of good food, camaraderie, and fireworks. On this particular Independence Day, I reflected that I used to think independence was the ultimate goal for a mature adult. However, as I have lived and learned, I now view interdependence as a more desirable goal.

Sure - it's wonderful to have independence in many areas of our lives. But it is a freeing experience to realize that we don't have to be responsible for every aspect of our lives and that sometimes we can and must depend on others. We can appreciate another person's skill to repair our car, handle our legal concerns, or whatever else we may need that we can't do or choose not to do. They, on the other hand, can benefit from our special talents. The other aspect of interdependence is the joy of teamwork, combining our efforts with those of others who may bring different and beneficial perspectives.

Wouldn't you know? This makes good business sense, too. In March, 2004 the delegates at the First World Conference on the Future of Work signed a "Declaration of Interdependence' defining their vision for the future of work. They declared that, "Knowledge work, creativity, and collaborative relationships have become not just good ideas, but essential to competitive success."

In the academic environment, some colleges and universities are formally structuring cooperative learning into their programs. In an article by Bobbette M. Morgan (College Student Journal, March 2003), she states that these changes are being made in response to the demand for graduates who can work in teams, communicate electronically, solve open-ended problems, and think critically.

For an inspiring look at interdependence, read the book The Bank Teller and Other Essays on the Politics of Meaning by Peter Gabel (Acada Books, 2000). In it he speaks of the interdependence of community, "the complete and authentic presence of individual human beings, one to another, inspiring each other with the courage to take the risk of being the source of each other's completion."

"That which links us is that which ennobles us."

- Stephen Mo Hanan

Coaching Assignment

a) Take an honest look at your 'to do' list. Make a note of items that could be done better by someone else.

b) Take action by contacting people who are more suited to performing the tasks you marked. This might mean asking for an estimate for a particular job (like painting the garage).

c) What items on your list would be appropriate for a group effort? Ask your friends, colleagues, or others to help. Make it an enjoyable occasion.

d) Celebrate your move toward more interdependence! Reward yourself - or even better - reward the whole team!

Choosing a Country For Your Medical Treatment Abroad Can Be Downright Scary

Medical tourism is simply the practice of going to another country to obtain medical services. This practice allows the patient to receive top quality medical services in a country of choice.

Traveling abroad for medical services is a new concept to many of us, yet the elite have been traveling to foreign countries for years. Medical tourism is not just for the rich and famous anymore, and Switzerland is not the only destination. About ten years ago, countries in Asia realized that the opportunity exists to fill the unmet needs of millions worldwide. Top quality medical care is available, at a fraction of the price, in a plethora of countries across the world. India and Thailand are currently competing as the forerunners in the medical tourism industry; however they are not the only destination options. Countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Poland and others are offering world class services at third world prices!

There are still many skeptics that wonder if it is same to consider medical services in a foreign country. There is expressed concern of safety, the knowledge and skill of the staff, and the quality of services that are offered. If a person would travel thousands of miles to vacation, why not travel that far to have a medical procedure done? If a person is willing to risk having a foreign doctor perform the procedure in the developed country (E.G. a cardiologist from India, working in Chicago) why does that person not trust going to the same caliber cardiologist in the country of India itself? If a person is willing to fully research the hospitals and credentials in their homeland, why not check the ones abroad and save money by choosing a facility abroad?

Because of the decreased costs and ready access of air travel, medical tourism is a viable option for ALL people now! A person can obtain timely and quality medical services in a vacation paradise, for a fraction of the cost of the same medical procedure in the home country.

How does a person begin the task of choosing a country to consider traveling to as a medical tourist? It is advisable to begin by researching which countries offer medical tourism services and which are safe to travel to. There are medical tourism travel agents that can aid you with your research, as well as well researched books that will give you the guidance that you need.

Regardless of the country that you choose to receive services in, including your homeland, you will need to search out and choose a facility and doctors that you are confident in. It is true that all countries have good facilities and bad, all countries have highly skilled doctors as well as those who are poorly trained and running less than desirable operations. Again, the information is already researched for you, and you would be wise to access those resources.

All that is left for you to decide is which continent you want to go to, and which country in that continent you have always wanted to visit. Once you have decided that, you will need to think about particular parts of the country you desire to see while there. The process that you need to use in determining the country of choice is similar to if you were planning a vacation. As stated earlier, medical tourism is simply the practice of combining vacation and medical procedures. Where is it that you have always wanted to visit? There are several medical travel agencies available that offer a full menu of choices of destinations, and procedures offered in each!

India has a mission of becoming the leading medical tourism country in the world. There are multitudes of hospitals, located all over the country, that are top quality and accredited by the international organizations. Their doctors are often U.S., Canadian or U.K trained and they are fluent in English. Their intent is to cater to tourists from the U.S., Canada, the U.K and Australia; in particular. If a prospective medical tourist has always desired to see the Taj Mahal, then Arga would become the destination of choice. Kerala is another choice destination, with the Western Ghats towering 500-2700m to the east and is the meeting of forty four rivers. If it is the hustle and bustle of the Indian city that a person wants, then New Delhi or dozens of others might be a better choice.

Although India has been highlighted, the other choices are equally as beautiful. The destination is really a matter of deciding where it is that you have always longed to visit, and then combining that with your vacation, to create a "health holiday". Thailand offers some of the most pristine beaches in the world. Brazil offers rain forests, Costa Rica offers jungles and beaches both, France offers beautiful countryside and the glitter of Paris, Italy offers romantic villas, and Switzerland (of course) offers the Swiss Alps! There are many more, unnamed that are options that a qualified medical travel agent can assist you with searching out.

401k Deferral - Is it Better to Pay Taxes Upfront Or Tax Deferred?

One of the most advocated benefits of investing in a regular 401k plan is that your contributions are all tax deferred giving you a 401k deferral. This essentially means that you do not have to pay taxes on them when you put them into your account allowing you the benefit of having the extra work with the power of compounding interest and then pay taxes on this money when you withdraw it. However, the real question is how valuable is this benefit? 

After all, one significant issue is whether tax rates will rise or fall by the time you retire. This one stumps financial analysts as opinions vary. Some experts suggest that tax rates will invariably rise and so it is a good idea to pay taxes upfront. However, others say there is no way to predict the future so tax deferred works fine. In addition, they suggest your tax bracket would have to jump much higher than 44% when you started a non tax deferred account to remove the benefit of tax 401k deferral and this percentage goes higher if the company is matching contributions.   

However, another issue is the length of time you have before you retire. One of the best advantages of paying taxes up front in a Roth 401k (A Roth 401k is a 401k plan that allows you to pay taxes upfront on contributions) is that if you are given enough time you can actually overcome the time value of money in deferring taxes. The result is that you are making more money and these withdrawals are tax penalty free. 

With consideration of the two above factors, the analysis of which is better is unclear to most analysts. Even with this backdrop, most financial advisors recommend that you choose a regular 401k deferral because of the certainty of the advantages of compounding interest and the uncertainty of other factors like tax rates and your length of time you will be able to make contributions. 

However, for those who have a more stable financial forecast for the future, many analysts also recommend that people take out a Roth IRA or Roth 401k as well. This can be a great way of providing more diversification to your portfolio regardless of what the future holds and in the case of a Roth IRA enables you to put more money towards your retirement than just having a 401k plan or two 401k plans because the IRS treats all 401ks as one 401k which can limit the total amount you can contribute each year.

Lodging Complaints Against Texas Home Taxes

The property tax appraisal logic in Texas is this:

• One entity will decide the appraised values of every taxable property in the county. These are called Central Appraisal Districts. Each district has its own chief appraiser who is in charge of overseeing the work.

• The CAD value each piece of taxable property by use of computer model and actual field visits. Those values are then published as public record. A period of time is then allowed for taxpayers to compare the value that was assessed to their property with assessments of comparable properties.

• If the taxpayer can prove that the assessed value of his property is different from that of similar properties, he can always file an official protest in writing with the CAD. The end of may is when a protest must be filed for each individual tax year.

An informal meeting is then scheduled between a CAD appraiser and the property owner. It is at this meeting that the owner presents the appraiser with evidence of his property's value, and the appraiser provides his appraisal to the property owner. An alternative solution is presented. If the appraiser's offer is unacceptable, the property owner may request the Appraisal Review Board to arbitrate the issue.

• The Appraisal Review Board is made of up of other taxpayers in the county; taxpayers who are not employees of the CAD, and whose determinations cannot be overturned by the CAD. The ARB committee listens to the evidence presented it by the property owner and the evidence presented by the appraiser.

Both will be questioned by the ARB members and then they decide what the appropriate value will be. That value must be used by the CAD.

For home owners who are unsatisfied with the value assigned, there exist another option other than filing a suit against the district. A binding arbitration can be opted for by them. Hundreds of realty experts have received certification to act as arbitrator on your case by the Texas Comptroller. They are able to listen to cases where the houses involved are valued at under $1 million. Arbitration costs are paid by the losing party, but cannot be more than $500.

How to Save Money at the Eye Doctor

Many people have health insurance but don't carry things like vision coverage. The reason for this is that it is expensive and many times doesn't seem to cover very much. There is also the mindset that a heart attack could bury you financially but a new pair of glasses won't so why worry. The result is millions of people putting off visits to the doctor until the problem is too big to ignore, then paying for everything out of their own pocket. It is estimated that 7 out of 10 Americans are either under insured or completely uninsured and some of the largest numbers are those without vision coverage.

Maybe you are one of the many that wants lasik surgery but hasn't done anything because you don't have the money, or needs new glasses but doesn't want to spend the money. You're not alone. People are delaying treatments that can greatly improve their quality of life because of money. We also know that if little problems are left untreated they can often grow into much bigger conditions that are more difficult and more expensive to correct. Sometimes they even leave permanent damage.

I personally have faced the dilemma where I didn't want to fork out large amounts of cash every month for insurance I would rarely use, but at the same time paying those huge doctor bills wasn't any more appealing. I started researching and looking for an affordable answer to my problem. After going through numerous articles and website that where pretty much selling me the same thing I discovered a new concept called customer driven health care. it turns out that the majority of people are like me and put off check ups and exams as long as possible. This has really hurt medical practices especially eye doctors & dentists, leaving them hungry for new patients.

There are now medical savings groups that bring doctors together with members. The doctor get a new influx of new business and the members get huge discounts on services. Everybody wins.

How To Enjoy Opera - Tips For Newbies - Why Operas Are Performed In Their Original Languages

Here are the reasons why most operas are performed in their original languages:

1. Simplicity. Major opera companies employ star performers from a whole bunch of different countries. Star power is supposedly a moneymaker (that is no longer true, but opera's powers-that-be are too conservative for their own good). As a company manager, you don't have to bother about troupe (team) issues, nor rehearsals, for that matter. On any given night, you have at your disposal a bass from Japan, a soprano from Italy, a tenor from Russia, a mezzo from Spain, a baritone from Arizona, and another baritone from Cuba, plus some extras from Mexico, France, and Germany. All of them know their parts in the original language (say, Italian). Few of them can even speak English. No need to practice. Because so many of today's stars have contracts with multiple companies, that Japanese bass will be singing the same part in Germany tomorrow night and in Poland next week. He won't have to learn it in German or Polish: German and Polish companies, too, use the original-language method. And so forth. Perhaps I shouldn't have said "simplicity." Rather, it is sloth, also known as laziness, that's to blame. According to the Catholic doctrine, sloth is one of the eight cardinal sins, but no matter.

2. Snobbery. Moderation is good for you. A bit of snobbery now and then wouldn't hurt. It is snobbery that keeps intelligent people from wearing exceedingly flashy clothes, uttering platitudes, reading overhyped books, watching TV, etc. Excessive snobbery, however, turns good folks with insecurity complexes into thoughtless machines. Thus, instead of saying that they don't know enough Italian (or German, or French, or Russian) to appreciate a three-hour-long performance and would much prefer listening to it in their native language, many potential opera buffs and experts repeat again and again the industry's maxims, i.e. that

a) Some of the value is lost when you translate an original libretto into a different language

b) A composer writes his music with a specific language in mind

c) English is not really suited for opera

All of which is vapid nonsense, of course. Here's why.

Opera texts present very little artistic value and would be totally worthless without the music. Libretti are NOT poetry. They are functional lyrics, i.e. lyrics that only have one function, which is to SERVE the music. If they were really poetic, they would only distract the listener. Even if they DID have some value, a lot more value (half of it, roughly) is lost when the listeners don't understand what the performers are singing. "A general idea" just doesn't cut it: there are too many nuances in opera music and action. Subtitles, titles, or supertitles don't cut it: they're distracting. To appreciate opera fully, you have to follow the story very closely.

No composer writes music with a language in mind. That's just horse manure, no more and no less. A composer writes opera music with certain VOWELS in mind. Those vowels are present in all human languages except maybe some Bushmen and Maori dialects. It would probably make sense to perform operas in their original languages in front of a Bushmen audience.

Peter Tchaikovsky INSISTED that his operas be translated when performed abroad. I believe he even had a hand in the German version of his "Queen of Spades." Why this same "Queen of Spades" is performed in Russian - in Germany as well as in the States - is therefore still a mystery.

For a long time British opera theatres performed opera in Queen's English. Russian opera theatres only switched to the original-language method twenty years ago. Seattle once did Richard Wagner's entire "Ring Cycle" in English, and the sky did not fall on their heads.

3. Stupidity. Some folks claim they don't understand the lyrics when opera is sung in English. It's just so much gibberish to them.

Well, all it takes, really, is listening to the same piece more than once or twice. There are only sixteen great operas out there, so attending the same ones repeatedly is not really a far-fetched idea. Folks listen to the same popular songs over and over again. You never hear anyone say, "No, I love that one, but I've heard it before, turn it off." By the third time you've listened to the English version of, say, "Aida," you'll know what's going on. By the tenth time you've listened to ANY opera in English, you'll ALWAYS know what's going on, in any opera performed in English. It's not rocket science. (Rocket science is not really rocket science either, for that matter, but that's a whole different story).

So, you see, there are no GOOD reasons to perform opera in languages good folks don't understand.

The point is you're being robbed, dear opera buff. The lazy/stupid/snobbish (take your pick) opera powers-that-be are willfully depriving you (a paying customer, mind you) of your sacred right to get the most out of a performance.

What to do?

In the long run - I don't know. Protest? March on the Met and Chicago Lyric with banners and slogans? Open independent opera periodicals and explain, explain, explain as patiently as you and I can?

IN THE MEANTIME, though, you still need to enjoy opera FULLY.

Well. You might want to get your hands on my "Getting Opera - for real" audio guide first (it would help you a lot); ultimately, however, you really should know an opera these days, before you see a live performance. Sad but true. Get a COMPLETE recording, which should include a full libretto in the original language as well as in English. Switch off the phone. Tell folks not to disturb you for the next three hours. Use headphones or earphones if there's a lot of "noise pollution" around. Open up the libretto. Start listening closely. Enjoy the jokes (there is a lot of humor in opera, in places you'd least expect it to be, ALL OF WHICH is lost on those who claim loyalty to the "original language" concept. Grasp the nuances. Empathize with the characters. Then do it all over again the following night. If the opera you're studying is one of the great sixteen, you'll be ready for your live experience. There's nothing like it in the whole world.

Using The Negative in a Positive Way - God Does It All the Time

I loved Norman Vincent Peale's, Power of Positive Thinking as much as any book I have ever read. I have read Napoleon Hill's books and I am an ardent believer in almost everything Dale Carnegie ever wrote. I have notes scribbled on the back pages of my Bible from Carnegie's...How to Win Friends and Influence people, albeit I refused to read it at first thinking the title was too corny. For years now I have both pondered and studied the effects of positive thinking and talking, as against negative thinking. I have agonizingly and carefully begun to approach something that might at last qualify for a conclusion.

The sum of my conclusions could be found in one single verse of the Bible. And we know that all things work together for good to them who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 KJV The key words in this passage being "all Things." That is understood to mean the negative and the positive.

Few believers would not agree that difficulties and problems are part of the building of our faith and character. But in today's world of positive thinking buffs it would be a weakness, an admission of defeat or even an act of faithlessness to even make mention of our problems. God has warned us that we will have tribulation in this world so who are these believers who seem to think that just to mention them would be faithless or negative. Since Jesus said it is enough that we be like the master (Mt. 10:25) then mentioning our troubles is no different than what our Master did. Jesus also said that we should be of "good cheer" when we were beset with troubles. The Apostle Peter said we should "count it all joy" when our faith was tried. It would seem that God is looking not for people who deny problems but face them differently than anyone else. The negative kept, silent or spoken openly has much less effect on our future than you imagine. Conversely, how you handle these matters has a more profound effect than you can imagine. God, it would seem, is watching the latter more than the former because after all this life is more of a battle ground than a playground according to the Bible.

Can the painful moaning of a dying soldier be thought of as complaints? Can that same moaning take anything away from the debt of gratitude a nation may feel for his sacrifice? A little show of pain isn't an alliance with the negative forces of the universe it is merely a show of our humanity and our vulnerability. But today there are those who would rebuke us for even the slightest hint that we are undergoing pain, a problem or a negative outcome of any kind.

I was amazed to see that when Christianity Today reviewed Joel Osteen's, Your Best Life Now, that they were not squeamish about saying that his emphasis on being positive became a negative. I couldn't have agreed more. I see negative and positive together in this world but above that I see the will of God unfolding through it all. When I put my key in the ignition of my car as I prepare to drive to a crowded interstate highway, I see that as positive. I don't think I will die in a huge accident, but just before I take off I do a very negative thing, I buckle up! God forbid I had to explain why I was doing that to a pathological positive thinker. To speak out loud that I may get in an accident after all would be the grand no-no.

The outcome of wars is often accurately predicted by military analysts that delve into the negative. That is they take the worst case scenario and make provision for that occurrence and thereby are prepared for such with contingencies. It Works, ask Norman Swartzkoff. Dale Carnegie advised many people to do this in order to take away the nagging power of doubt. The banana grower who was afraid that the trains might stop running before the crop could make it to market was told to envision that very thing. He made contingency plans, perhaps two or three of them and then he got on with the business of growing bananas without any further worry. He was told to see and plan for the negative to clear the path for a positive experience. Are you paying attention?

By now someone is saying, but God spoke the worlds into existence so we must recognize the power of the spoken word. Yes, and I do, his word not mine or yours. For your words and mine I would tone down their importance in the light of one very important verse of scripture. Jesus said...But let your communication be, yea yea; nay, nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Mt 5:37 KJV