Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1. Mastering the new work economy
2. Start a non-profit group
3. Free Health Screenings
4. Homestead blessings
5. Have we gone overboard on terrorism?
If moderation is a
fault, then indifference is a crime. --Jack
Kerouac
Want to Start a Non-Profit?
For years I have been involved with a
variety of non-profit charities and a think tank. Think of it as getting a tax break for doing
good. There’s been uptick in the number
of non-profit creation despite the fact donations are down for most.
Starting a non-profit
requires a bit of planning, supporters and upfront money to pay for
incorporation and federal fees. Your
planning should include a website and initial monies for fundraising. Most experts suggest $5,000 in startup fees
are needed.
You can save some
legal fees by writing your own bylaws and do your own IRS filing; often pro
bono assistance can be found from your state bar association or from law school
students. Of course, their many how-to
books, especially from Nolo Press, which are useful.
Most states, too offer
an association for non-profits which provide assistance – go to the National
Council of Nonprofit website at: Councilofnonprofits.org to find one for your
state.
Don’t forget the power
of social media too, especially for networking and fundraising. Find more information about getting grants
(it contains a mini-course) at the “Free Money” tab on our PoorManSurvival.com
site.
Have a debt-related question? At
bundle.com type a question into their ‘ask a debt expert’ to join a forum and
get free advice from experts at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.
PM’s
Compendium of Useful Resources
Free Health
Screenings
Heart disease
and stroke: The CDC has 21 locations where women 40-64 can get free
blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes tests.
Find a location by going to their site at:
CDC.gov/wisewoman or
call 800-232-4636
Vision
Problems: Discover if you have eye problems by getting tested at
the Prevent Blindness America (PreventBlindness.org - 800-331-2020), Vision USA
at 800-766-4466, or from EyeCare America at EyeCareAmerica.org
Dental
Problems: Federally funded health care centers provide low-cost
dental exams to people based on financial needs. Locate a center by going to FindHealthCenter.hrsa.gov
or call 888-275-4772
Get into
advertising - if you don’t mind driving a virtual billboard on wheels, you can
save hundreds of dollar in some high traffic cities by finding car companies,
like Budget, that rent cards covered in product ads.
The West
Ladies.
The West Ladies are
some of the most precious women you’d ever want to meet. In fact, after
watching all of their DVDs I’m convinced they would be the best neighbors and
friends I could ever ask for. These three young women— sisters Jasmine, Hannah,
and CeCe, along with their mother Vicki—have created a series of DVDs called Homestead
Blessings.
Each DVD in the Homestead
Blessings series teaches you about one of the many “arts” of homemaking
and homesteading
Mastering the
New Freelance Economy
Tara Gentile was
working in what she calls a "dead-end retail job" at Borders, earning
$28,000 a year as a store manager, when she decided she'd be better off
launching her own business as an entrepreneur coach. Aside from more money, she also wanted the freedom
to spend more time at home with her daughter, who was then six months old. Now,
just over a year and a half later, Gentile, 28, works mostly from her home
office in Reading, Pa., earns about $150,000 a year, and spends much of her
time teaching other people how they can do the same.
Gentile is part of a
new wave of people opting to work themselves…more at:
SIDEBAR: The U.S.
economy is in bad shape right now, but things are about to get even worse. The
long-term problems that are destroying our economy have not been fixed, and the
leaks in our ship are going to continue to grow.
Americans have become
so desperate that they have started to look for work overseas. For example, the
number of Americans that are submitting applications for temporary work visas
in Canada has approximately doubled since 2008. Other Americans are willing to learn foreign
languages and travel to the other side of the world if that is what it takes to
land a decent job. Just consider the following quote from a recent USA Today report....
Job placement firms are reporting a surge in American
worker interest in booming economies such as Hong Kong, Singapore, China and,
increasingly, India. Hunt Partners, an executive search firm, estimates that
it's getting 50% to 100% more unsolicited résumés from Americans looking for
Asia-based positions today than before the recession.
Many long-term
unemployed workers are just waiting for permission to give up looking!
Avoid
buying on impulse. Initiate a 24-hour
waiting period before making a purchase outside your budget.
The Nanny
State Updates…
Stay home and
watch the game - save your money!
NFL has announced that
it will be implementing "enhanced" pat-downs at all 32 NFL stadiums.
Once this is fully implemented, the 16 million fans that attend games each
season will be frisked from the ankles to the knees and from the waist up.
Apparently this new level of security was brought on by a recent incident where
a Cowboys fan smuggled a stun gun into a game between the New York Jets and the
Dallas Cowboys and started zapping other fans with it. As usual, authorities
have responded to a minor security incident by massively overreacting to it. In
the post-9/11 world in which we live, paranoia is standard operating procedure. Perhaps if enough fans decline to attend, the
frisking may end.
Gotta love our
government - Protecting our freedoms (Right)
A recent Politico
article had to say about how things have changed in the post-9/11 world....
At the NSA, thousands of analysts who once
eavesdropped on troop movements of enemy soldiers in distant countries were now
listening in on the bedroom conversations of innocent Americans in nearby
states.
“We were told that we were to listen to all
conversations that were intercepted, to include those of Americans,” Adrienne
Kinne, a former NSA “voice interceptor,” told me. She was recalled to active
duty after Sept. 11.
“Some of those
conversations are personal,” she said. “Some even intimate. … I had a real
problem with the fact that people were listening to it and that I was listening
to it. … When I was on active duty in ’94 to ’98, we would never collect on an
American.”
Reason.tv: Peter Schiff on the Dismal
Future of the U.S. Economy
"We have to cut $1.5 trillion out of this year's budget," says investment advisor, author, and radio host Peter Schiff. Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Schiff at July's FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Schiff, whose most recent book is How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, says that the economic downturn of 2008 is only a mild preview of what's in store for the U.S. economy in the future and predicts much higher unemployment and huge inflation over the next few years. The only way out of this mess, says Schiff, is for the government to get out of the way and let the inevitable market correction occur. "It would be painful to cut spending by that degree," he acknowledges, "but not nearly as painful as it's going to be if we don't cut spending by that degree."
"We have to cut $1.5 trillion out of this year's budget," says investment advisor, author, and radio host Peter Schiff. Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Schiff at July's FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Schiff, whose most recent book is How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, says that the economic downturn of 2008 is only a mild preview of what's in store for the U.S. economy in the future and predicts much higher unemployment and huge inflation over the next few years. The only way out of this mess, says Schiff, is for the government to get out of the way and let the inevitable market correction occur. "It would be painful to cut spending by that degree," he acknowledges, "but not nearly as painful as it's going to be if we don't cut spending by that degree."
Winterize
your outdoor faucets before winter sets in by insulating them and be sure to
drain and turn off.
The Parting Thought – Going overboard on terrorism
It’s a widely
circulated sentiment that terrorists have already won in their battle against
our country. After 911, our government
went crazy eroding the rights of citizens.
The FBI had reported that Al Qaida had as many as 5,000 operatives in
the USA, it wasn’t true.
It’s also estimated
we’ve spent $400 million per person on security while turning our country into
a national security state. The firms
which sell surveillance equipment and body scanners have certainly made a huge dollar
at taxpayer expense! The government says
it has foiled 23 terrorist plots since then while spending billions on long
term wars in the Middle East. More
people die in bathtub accidents than in acts of terrorism.
The FBI has never
identified any sleeper cells operating here, yet the Patriot Act has been
renewed and the Dept. of Homeland insecurity has cooked up new villains to look
for including a campaign for Americans to report anyone who might be suspicious
including far right Christians.
I believe it is time
to end the fear mongering and return our Bill of Rights to all of us!
Yours for better times, the Poor Man!
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