Thursday, December 31, 2009

And Now To Really End the Year...

This is really to be my two cents for the year now.

I would like to end the year with some words about poverty. Growing up, I watched my family get into financial circumstances that got worse and worse. Technically, we were way above the poverty line, but emotionally, it always felt we were way, way below it. Looking back, we had so much to be happy about, but we were rarely ever.

It made me want to succeed more and more. And it made me realise we can all get into a state of mind and be enmeshed in it for a while even though we might have sort of outgrown it.

Money, or the lack of it, shapes the way we are whether we like to admit it or not. So, if we grew up with less, we'll continue to think we're less unless we allow ourselves to break free of that philosophy. If we have more, does it mean we're more? We should never think that way, but we should be doing more.

A few months back, I decided I could never allow myself to become part of the Ladies Who Lunch crowd. It is becoming clearer to me what I could be doing.

First, I really think if we do our part in
cutting the poverty that exists in the US, we could drastically improve the economy as a whole over the long term. It was shocking to me when I looked at the statistics from Catholic Charities USA and saw that 37 million people in the US live below the poverty line. Imagine what could happen to the US economy if a lot more of the 89% of American households who contribute to charities start contributing towards charities that are dedicated to cutting poverty. Imagine what could happen if even just 5 million people who are now living in poverty step out of that definition and finally get to live with some level of dignity.

In 2010, I am going to divert all of my charitable contributions to US charities. How much should we be giving? It turns out a lot more than most people think. The
average is 3.2% of income.

Secondly, I really think we need to restructure our entire energy system. I found a book by T. Boone Pickens whilst I was in NY called The First Billion Is The Hardest. Which self-respecting diva could resist a title like that? I've yet to read it, but when I looked at
the Pickens Plan, it totally resonated with me.

Once I become financially free and have built up enough assets to remain financially free for the rest of my life, I hope that I will not have become so self-centred that I will have forgotten all of this. I suppose I still need a bit of time to decide the role I could play in all of this, but I've decided I am going to play a role and that's already one step forward.

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