Beware the planners................

 In most high-income countries—including Canada, Australia, and the United States—suburban living still predominates.  Among Americans under 35 who buy homes, four-fifths choose single-family detached housing. . . . Since 2010, a net 1.8 million people have moved away from the urban core counties of major metropolitan area, mainly to lower-density counties where single family houses are the norm.

     Despite the continuing appeal of suburbia, planners, academics, and pundits sneer at this lifestyle.  "The suburbs are about boredom, and obviously some people like being bored and plain and unpredictable," said Elizabeth Farrelly, an Australian urbanist and architectural critic.  She continued: "I'm happy for them . . . even if their suburbs are destroying the world."

-Joel Kotkin, The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class

Sounds like a plan...........................

 via

tree of wealth...................

 

Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed.  The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow.  The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow.  And the more faithfully you nourish and water that tree with consistent savings, the sooner you may bask in contentment beneath its shade.

-George Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon

image via

Here is the money take...........................

 ................on San Francisco's reparations plan:

The plan would cost an estimated $600,000 per household. Just out of morbid curiosity about what literally happens to the city if this plan goes through, I’m in favor. Also, after the exodus of people fleeing to avoid this new tax, there’ll be a lot of nice properties around for cheap. I’d like one of those. So let’s do this.

-via

Just the ticket.........................

 

The retirement planning pyramid.....

 ..................may be found here.

No real secrets.  As the Egyptians knew more than 4,000 years ago, if you want something to last, start with a strong foundation.

On plans..........................

It is essential to get lost and jam up your plans every now and then.  It's a source of creativity and perspective.  The danger of maps, capable assistants, and planning is that you may end up living your life as planned.  If you do, your potential cannot possibly exceed your expectations.

-Scott Belsky, as lifted from here

Tom Paine was an interesting man.........

Whether that state that is proudly, perhaps erroneously, called civilization, has most promoted, or most injured, the general happiness of man, is a question that may be strongly contested. –On one side, the spectator is dazzled by splendid appearances; on the other he is shocked by extremes of wretchedness; both of which he has erected. The most affluent and the most miserable of the human race are to be found in the countries that are called civilized. 

-Thomas Paine, from his essay, AGRARIAN JUSTICE:  OPPOSED TO AGRARIAN LAW,AND TO AGRARIAN MONOPOLY BEINGA Plan for meliorating the Condition of Man, in which he offers a plan to make God's creation happy.  The view here from the cheap seats is that the "general happiness of man" is beyond the capacity of the State.  Your results may vary.

Intentionally.................................

     We become masters of our calendar because we need to regain control of the time that is given to us.  We start simple:  just planing our coming week, setting aside a few hours towards our goal somewhere in those seven days.  Then we move on to a day, carving out those twenty-four hours. . . . 
      To live reactively is a terrible thing.  Reactive living is thoughtless living.  It's a matter of responding to stimuli.  Time is running out.  Gotta do this!  Gotta do that! . . .
      We master our calendar so that we can manipulate time;  we manipulate time so that we can start living intentionally, knowing where we want to go.

-Akbar Gbajabiamila,  Everyone Can Be A Ninja:  Find Your Inner Warrior And Achieve Your Dreams

And now, a few words from....................

................................................John Bell Condliffe:

"The human race has made progress towards the good life as long as thought and economic activity were left free to cross national boundaries and creeds."  "But now," he observed, "we face a new and more formidable superstition than the world has ever known, the myth of the nation-state, whose priests are as intolerant as those of the Inquisition.  The struggle for the rights of the individual against the all-powerful and intolerant nation-state is the most difficult and crucial issue of our generation."

"the essential condition of effective planning is that the planners must be prepared to dragoon those who do not fit into their plans."

Condiliffe understood that unchecked state power was one of the root causes of poverty, not one of the solutions.

-as excerpted from William Easterly's The Tyranny of Experts:  Economists, Dictators, And The Forgotten Rights Of The Poor

Simple....................................

   
     "Life is so simple, really.  Think through what people want, watch what others fail to give them, and provide it.  Then bill 'em."

-Stuart Wilde,   The Trick to Money Is Having Some