Health Tip of the Month

Right Thinking Can Lead To Long Life

 

Many people take supplements, watch what they eat and exercise in an effort to fight aging and live longer. However, scientists have found that simple changes in your attitude can turn back the aging clock and protect your body in ways that can actually be measured in your cells. And you don’t even have to get out of your chair to start. “Don’t Let Stress Get In Your Head.” If you let cranky family members, rude cab drivers or even silly talking heads on television stress you out, you may be doing damage to your cellular DNA that is aging you faster.

Keeth Smart
Board Member / Fencing Coach
Peter Westbrook Foundation
Fencing and Fitness
In the summer of 2008, I achieved one of my life’s dreams by winning an Olympic medal in the sport of fencing.  When I was a child growing up in Brooklyn, my friends thought I was crazy when I told them I planned to compete in the Olympics.  This was a big deal, because I never met an Olympian before and no one in my family had an athletic background. But, I was fortunate that my parents saw a flyer about a black Olympic fencer, Peter Westbrook, who planned to teach minority kids from NYC how to fence.  In 1999, I started in the first class of the Peter Westbrook Foundation and never left. Today, I spend my weekends serving as a volunteer coach at the Peter Westbrook Foundation teaching the next generation of city kids life and fencing skills.

The three key skills that are taught at the Peter Westbrook Foundation are:

1. Consume a healthy diet and be active.   There have been several studies that show how childhood obesity, especially amongst minorities, in America is now a major problem.  Children that are active and consume a balanced diet are able to concentrate longer, which leads to better study skills.

The easiest thing to do to start being healthy is to clean up your diet.  That means avoiding junk food and sodas. Instead of using your money to buy pizza, burgers or chinese food, go home and spend 15 minutes baking a chicken or making a salad.  Always try to eat at least one serving of vegetables every day. In terms of physical activity, try to do at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day.  There are many different ways to do this, take the stairs instead of an elevator throughout the day, get off at a stop before your final destination and walk the remaining distance, instead of watching television do pushups and sit ups.

2. Practice self-discipline and work hard.  We live in a society of instant gratification – where everyone wants to win the lottery.  It is difficult for many people to be patient and work to achieve their long term goals.  However, all successful people share the common traits of being disciplined and working hard. It requires a lot of discipline, sacrifice and patience to continue to work on a problem where the solution is not provided instantly. But, if you learn to persevere without taking short cuts, you will be successful in your chosen field.

3. The power of positive thinking.  Several studies show that the power of positive thinking leads people to overcome what seem to be insurmountable tasks.  Many people are skeptical of the power of positive thinking.  But, if an individual does not believe in their own ability to do a task why should anyone else believe them.

Finally, my rule of thumb is never let anyone say that you cannot achieve your dreams.  First believe it and then work hard to achieve it.

Keeth Smart is a 3 time member of the U.S. Olympic Fencing team and won a Silver Medal in 2008.  He is a member of the Peter Westbrook Foundation’s Board of Directors and coaches at the organization every weekend.

The Peter Westbrook Foundation, is a not for profit organization that utilizes the sport of fencing as a vehicle to develop life skills in young people from underserved communities.  Classes are held every Saturday Morning from 9am – 12pm at the Fencers Club, 229 West 28th Street, NYC.  http://www.peterwestbrook.org/

Finance Tip of the Month

Add a 13th Mortgage Payment And Pay Off Your Loan Five Years Faster

 

If you’re in your 50’s and plan to live in your current home forever, try to pay off the mortgage before you stop working so you remove that big cost from your post-retirement expenses. Even if you recently began to pay on a mortgage, it makes a lot of sense to develop a strategy to pay off your loan way ahead of the set time. One way to do so is to make one extra mortgage payment a year. You can even spread the payment over 12 months. Let’s say you have a $1,500 monthly mortgage payment and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. If you divide $1,500 by 12, that’s $125, so instead of paying $1,500, you send in $1,625 each month. That will cut your repayment time by five years and reduce your interest payments over the life of the loan; for a $250,000 mortgage charging 6 percent, you will save $61,000 ($228,000 in interest payments versus $289,000). That $125 a month may be tough, but it’s doable. It’s one small step now, and one giant leap toward future financial security.

Dealing with Student Loans
Student loan debt is fast becoming a major issue in the United States today, with many experts forecasting that it will mark the advent of the next financial crisis. Total student loan debt has even surpassed credit card debt, and now stands in excess of $1 trillion dollars. About two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loans, and carry with them a $25,000 (on average) ball and chain tied to their ankles. Added to this, the U.S., once the leader in the percentage of college graduates age 25 to 34, has dropped to sixteenth among thirty-six developed nations, with more and more students dropping out because they just can’t afford the rising costs.

The fact is that many Americans find themselves in the shackles of student loan debt for decades. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that Americans 60 years and older still owe about $36 billion in student loans. When one looks at the $85 billion in past-due student loans (delinquent), person’s older than 50 account for about 17 percent.

There is a now growing debate around whether the government should step in to ease the burden of student loan debt by rewriting the bankruptcy laws. In 2005, Congress prohibited student debt from being discharged through bankruptcy, except in rare cases. The general fear here was that many young graduates who often have no major assets such as a house or a car would be te`mptedto walk away from loan obligations. However, increasing concerns may cause the governments to revisit the said laws as they stand, in an attempt to address the escalating problem.

With more than half of recent college graduates either unemployed or underemployed, a difficult situation arises where it becomes more difficult to pay off student loans. For those with the ability to repay, it is a burden that one must bear for some time. For many others, it may seem like an impossible task. To be financially successful, one must understand how to navigate the waters of “debt”. It’s all about managing the resources that one has in an efficient and effective manner. There is no single way to deal with student loan debt. It all depends of the individual situation and circumstances.

Here are some proven strategies that have worked for others in the past:

(1) Loan forgiveness – Utilize programs that will forgive all or some of your federal student loans if you work in certain fields. Jobs such as public safety, teachers, nurses, and a few others fall into this category. This program discharges any remaining debt after 10 years of full-time employment in public service.

(2) Loan deferment – This strategy is employed if one has trouble paying loans back due to economic hardship, unemployment, military deployment, health problems, or enrollment in school. Deferment helps you to temporarily suspend making your student loan payments until you are better able to.

(3) Student Loan Consolidation – This is a repayment tool that combines all of your student loans into one new loan, thereby reducing your monthly payments and interest rates. This means that instead of having to make several payments each month to different creditors, you make one easy payment to one lender.

(4) Know your loan type and associated grace periods – It is important to keep track of the lender, balance, and repayment status of each of your student loans. Different loans have different grace periods on how long after leaving school you have to start paying it back. Pay schedules or due dates should also be closely monitored. This will help you avoid any late fees or charges.

(5) Tackle the most expensive loan first – Note which loan has the highest interest rate and pay that one off first. The highest-interest method usually gets the debts paid slightly quicker than the debt-snowball method (paying debts with the smallest amount first regardless of interest rates). Compare the interest rates and start on the highest one first. That will leave more money in your pocket in the long run.

(6) Extended Payment Plan – Request the extended payment option, if possible. This will lengthen the repayment time and could help decrease the amount due each month. Though extended payment plans will cause more interest to accumulate, the interest is tax-deductible within limits.

(7) Utilize the income-based repayment plan when offered – Many loan providers now offer this as an option. You’re monthly payment would be based on the amount of income you are making each month. This plan limits the amount to a specific percentage.

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