Success

Sadly, there are those who know "the price of everything and the value of nothing". Really wealthy "old money" people never discuss their financial situation wth strangers, but then one can't buy "class". My husband's mother and father fell under that category.

By the way, my very wealthy father-in-law left nothing to his children, because it was his belief that it would cripple them and make them weak! He had witnessed that in his family, and vowed to do things differently with his children. That was hard to accept, but I have to say, 11 years after his death, I realize there was some wisdom in that decision, though it certainly would have made ours and our childrens' lives a lot easier if he hadn't lived by that phiosophy!!

My guess is that a great number of the people living in affluent areas like Scottsdale, either inherited their money or stepped on a lot people climbing that ladder to what some consider "success". My experience has been that those are the ones who have the worst attitude toward persons they consider "lesser" based on their perceived (usually a rash judgement ) superficial 'social standing"..I have had quite a few of those kinds of "friends" in my life and, as I get older and hopefully, wiser, I have finally learned not to waste my time on those people.. Life is short, and there are simply too many nice people with solid values on which to focus my energies.

Lots of people I have known have worked extremely hard and yet never achieved what is considered "success" by popular culture. Some simply do not measure success by the house in which they live, the car they drive, designer clothes, vacations to exotic places, etc., etc . I guess one could say that my husband and I have achieved a modicum of that sort of success. However, we consider our greatest wealth, by far, the fact that we have a wonderful, happy long term marriage (38 years), beautiful, smart , successful children, both of whom we are blessed to have living within 10 minutes of us. Both of them have chosen great spouses and they are all wonderful parents to our granddaughters.

Our goal was to raise healthy (in body and soul) responsible, contributing human beings with good hearts, and I believe we achieved that goal in spades! One of my favorite quotes is "What is essential, is invisible to the eye". It was also Fred Rogers' favorite (Mr. Rogers).

Wildlife Rescue

My son-in-law and his mom volunteered for years as wild bird rehabilitators (mostly large birds of prey,) here in Arizona at the Adobe Wildlife Center. They used to bring home injured birds that needed special care at night. It was not uncommon to find, large hawks, owls, eagles, etc., tethered in their living rooms!

These people involved with injured birds and other wild animals work tirelessly with no pay! They deserve our gratitude for all of the good work they do!

Bi-Lingual Children

These all Spanish stations and Telemundo are one of the main reasons the booming and ever growing Latino population (especially here in Arizona where we now have, by some estimates 800,000 illegals),are not learning English as the waves of immigrants did in the past. That, and the radical "LaRaza" movement making inroads into some of our schools and Universities.

A very large part of the Latino community here, mostly illegals, do not want or plan to learn English. In Phoenix, our schools have been mandated by the federal government to spend at least 4 million additional dollars to teach these "English learners" children of illegal aliens this year or face steep fines.

If parents would simply turn off these Spanish stations and encourage their children to watch and listen to English speaking media, this might help the problem. In addition, the adults might learn some English.

My 4 year old granddaughter (whose mother and other grandparents are from Poland, and recently became citizens) was fully bilingual at the age of 3, even though she learned Polish exclusively first, by my son and daughter-in-law's choice, as they knew she would easily pick up English later when she was fully immersed into the culture. We had our doubts about that, but now we see their wisdom.

The problem is that most of these kids will never be "immersed" into our culture as the parents, for the most part, want to live in the U.S., enjoy all of our benefits, but still retain wholly the culture of their home (predominately, Mexico and other Latin American countries)!

Here in Arizona, Spanish speakers are so heavily accomodated everywhere (all of our government documents are printed in Spanish), that it is conceivable that eventually millions of people will never have to learn English to live here.

Unfortunately' the parents don't realize that their children's opportunities will be severely limited by their not knowing the"language of the land.

The schools' efforts to teach English to these kids are often thwarted because a lot of the children show no interest in learning English, coming from a household where Spanish only is spoken and the radios and TV are blaring only Spanish programs. Small children are able to pick up languages so quickly if they are exposed enough to them.

If these children were required to learn basic English skills (at their parent's own expense) before they enter kindergarten, a lot of these parents might be motivated to encourage their children to listen to and watch American TV, especially PBS educational programs.

Here in Arizona, just that one cultural change would save the state millions of dollars that could be better spent on other educational needs that would benefit All of our children.

Updating our Ranch Style House

I was born and raised in Memphis but live in Phoenix now. Our ranch house was built in 1962, which is old by Phoenix standards. Having lived here for 30 years, we've thought about moving, but absolutely love the neighborhood, in a North Central Phoenix area (lots of mostly Palm, Palo Verde, and Eucalyptus and Pine trees and a mix of desert lanscaped and grassy lawns) with no two houses alike!

The neighborhood was originally designed with all one story sprawling ranch houses, but in the last few years, I've noticed more and more people adding 2nd stories, concrete tile roofs, stucco, and some houses (especially around the golf course) being torn down completely and rebuilt.

Though most of the new houses are lovely, I believe the character of the neighborhood has suffered somewhat, with the two stories in here now. It is still a beautiful area, however, and we have chosen to stay here rather than buy new.
Having raised our children in this house, it holds priceless memories.

A few years ago, my daughter and son-in-law bought a house in Anthem, a completely new Del Webb master planned community about 20 minutes up the freeway from Phoenix, which is actually a town now.

My daughter missed our neighborhood so much that they moved back last year into a 1977 Ranch style home, 3 blocks from us! She also wanted their daughter to attend the same great neighborhood schools she did.

This is what we have done in the last 10 years to update our home while still maintaining the integrity of the Ranch style:

Replaced the 40 year old cedar shake roof with concrete tile (Monier lifetile). For this we had to hire an engineer to do an analysis of how much we needed to reinforce the roof for the added weight.

Replaced all the windows with low E-4 double pane glass. In addition the large floor to ceiling picture window had to be tempered glass.

Removed one bank of kitchen cabinets to open up the floor space to the famly room.

Enlarged the center island, and added an all electronic cooktop which is completely flush with the countertop.

Overhead is a large European Island style stainless steel range hood with 4 halogen lights.

Replaced kitchen counter tops with slab granite.

Tiled the entire house with 16" (inch and 1/2 thick) handmade saltillo tiles. Added lots of easy to clean area rugs through out the house.

The OIl Crisis

There is a silver lining in the energy crisis we are now experiencing, and that is that high oil prices will spur the U.S. to vastly increase its research and development of alternative fuels.

Although that may not offer immediate relief, I have confidence that the old American "can do" ethic will kick into high gear as it always has throughout our history!

Just the appearance of STARTING TO DRILL off shore and possibly in ANWR, will cause the greedy Saudis to become increasingly nervous about "losing their goose that lays golden eggs".

It won't be long, with American resolve and ingenuity, until all the Middle East has to export will be oil and sand, neither of which the U.S. will need from them!!!!

Sad decline of Memphis

Add to your list of Democratically run governments of large cities, my city of Phoenix whose Mayor, Phil Gordon,was recently voted the best Mayor in North America! A lot of Phoenicians, however, are taking issue with that, given his lackadasical stance on illegal immigration (the worst problem we have in Arizona right now).

We also have a Democratic Governor, Janet Napolitano, who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Obama.

As a native Memphian who still has a large extended family there and loves the city, I believe the problems the city has resulting from poor leadership do not fall along party lines. I see them as the result of a very large underclass being deceived into keeping corrupt, incompetents in power, because they think those leaders have a lot in common with them (just by being the same ethnicity) and empathy (they feel their pain), when in fact it is obvious that for the Mayor and his cronies, it is all about power and money and keeping the underclass well, "under".

How many more years under this type of management can the city of Memphis survive, especially with its tax base leaving in droves, remains to be seen. My hope is that the people responsible for electing these bozos wake up and realize that, by continually keeping them in power, they are their own worst enemy!! Meanwhile, a lot of tax payers (Black and White), will continue to "vote with their feet!!"

Retirement and Healthcare

My husband and I have developed what we believe is a pretty sound financial plan for retirement . He is 59 and I am 61. The one big issue we've, so far, not been able to figure out is the healthcare, which as some posters have mentioned, could be the most crucial one and put a big dent in the best laid plans!

Regarding this issue, I have made an observation in the past few years that I believe is affecting a lot of people my age. I have been blessed with perfect health most of my life. A few years ago, during a routine physical, I mentioned a minor ailment and was given a medication to control it. Well, it seems the side effects from that medication kicked in, and little by little more medications were added to address even more side effects( anxiety, weight gain, etc.etc.) Now I find myself on several prescription drugs which I deem pretty unnessary, and am slowly trying to ween myself off of them. I've also been to the ER a few times because of these drugs, which resulted in my having mandatory heart and lung scans, which it seems the hospitals routinely do if you go in with any chest pain (mine was gerd) and are over 55. Not only did my insurance company have to pay out thousands of dollars because I was also kept "for observation" on 3 occasions, I was also exposed to needless cat scans, xrays (lots of unnecessary radiation, as one cat scan was botched and had to be repeated!) After all of that, I was deemed perfectly fine!

I have finally learned my lesson, and there will be no more ER visits, (I hope for a long time, as I know my heart is "perfect" as the last cardiologist proclaimed), and will treat the chest pain as indigestion! I am also on a mission to lose weight and get fitter, as I believe this is the key to the majority of ailments most people experience as they get older!

It seems I have been on a roller coaster ride with no end in sight. Ironically, had I not had excellent health insurance, I most likey would have treated that initial minor ailment with an 0TC drug and avoided all of the ramifications!!

My mother is 87 and in excellent health except for dementia. Up until a couple of years ago, she had never taken anything more than an aspirin and has never had any surgeries, been hospitilized for an illness, etc. She did not even go to a doctor for 45 years!!