What do you think the future holds for the upcoming year and beyond? This is a question I have been asked dozens of times over the last several weeks. After giving it considerable time and thought, I have come up with the following beliefs. These are along the same lines of thought of almost everyone I have talked to, including a number of heavyweights within the financial world.
My beliefs are as follows:
A. A small, cash-ready account equal to at least one month's income in case of emergencies. Three month's worth of funds is recommended.
B. The purchase of a home. If not presently owned, you should plan for one. Long before you retire, you and your family should have at least one home to live in at the time of retirement, and it must be homesteaded. California law provides up to approximately $100,000 of "untouchable" equity from creditors at present. This amount automatically goes up from time to time.
C. A formal investment portfolio, which is diversified to include common growth stocks, mutual funds and tax-free bonds. Of these, companies related to plastics, pharmaceuticals, research, housing, the Internet, communications and services should be on everyone's list. It is also possible to select your own mix of investments and thus create your own mutual fund portfolio.
D. A valid living trust is an absolute necessity. A valid will is also needed to round out one's estate.
There are well-qualified financial planners who specialize in the above mentioned areas. I suggest you consult with your local bank or credit union and ask which financial planners they would recommend. These institutions often have one or more persons employed within their facilities just for this purpose. In this way, the financial institution has already pre-screened the planner's validity and can recommend them.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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