Verse of the Week

Revelation 22:17

17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Tips to prepare for early retirement

Living with children

Taylor Kovar

Hey Taylor – Aside from having lots of money, what do I have to do to retire early? I feel like I hear so many stories about people retiring early not because they made millions, but because they just figured out how to do it Am I being naive? - Rebecca

Hey Rebecca – No, I don’t think you’re being naive People with a good understanding of their financial goals and lifestyle often manage an early retirement that doesn’t seem feasible to the rest of us While everyone will have their own variables to deal with, I feel like there are three basic components of an early retirement that doesn’t involve millions of dollars in savings

A reasonable amount of savings

While you don’t have to have millions, you do need to have several years of living expenses covered before you stop working

Remember, ordinary living expenses are not going to come out of your retirement account. If we’re really talking about early retirement, you should still have an account that will keep growing until you’re in your later years So, in addition to an IRA, you should have a short-term savings account that will generate a little income while covering your expenses You have to work hard to save this money, especially because it needs to be in addition to other savings accounts

Live frugally If you believe these non-millionaires are retiring early and living a life of excess, you’re missing the point An early retirement usually leads to a life of cost-cutting, which works well for some people If you have a couple kids and mortgage, you know you can't leave the workforce just yet but you can start adjusting your lifestyle in preparation for it For those who can handle a minimalist lifestyle with cheap meals and sparse lodging, there retiring a decade or t everyone else You s aware that a lot of th retirees doctor their l specifically to avoid they live in vehicles family, they travel to countries where the d further, and they hap lot of the amenities t people take for granted

Be prepared to change When you give up the structure employment offers, you start living a very fluid life that can throw you a lot of curveballs While you need to go into it with a plan, you need to be just as prepared to change that plan when something unexpected happens Retirement doesn’t eliminate the need for medical treatment or reduce the cost of gas Assuming you’re open to the frugal lifestyle and you have the ability to spread savings out over a number of years, you still have to be ready to either go back to work or switch things up when your situation demands it

Early retirement is an awesome goal if you know what you’re getting into If this sounds like the life for you, keep your eyes on the prize and make it happen!

Taylor Kovar, CEO of Kovar Capital Read more about Taylor at GoFarWithKovar com

Disclaimer: Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein To submit a question to be answered in this column, please send it via email to Question@GoFarWithKovar com, or via USPS to Taylor Kovar, 415 S 1st St, Suite 300, Lufkin, TX 75901 aMy wife and I spent two days in my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, recently As we always do, we walked around my boyhood neighborhood – the South-of-

Broad historic district (back then, more run-down than historic) – and the usual memories came flooding back

My friends and I spent nearly all day of any day that wasn’t a school day just running the thencobblestoned streets At the time, most kids in America played “Cowboys and Indians” or “War,” but this being Charleston, we mostly played “Pirates ” The walled back yards were our forts, iron outdoor furniture our ships, trees our crow’s nests, and so on Battery Park, with its cannon and stacks of cannon balls dispersed among the live oak, offered a particularly rich field for fantasy

After breakfast (which, our mothers felt the compulsion to constantly remind us, was the most important meal of the day), we’d leave our homes, meet in the streets, and run, gloriously run Water was consumed through garden hoses, of which there was no short supply Around lunchtime, we’d dart home, grab an apple or banana, and rejoin the mob Sometimes our mothers wouldn’t let us back in the house because we were so dirty They’d just hand our meager but adequate lunches to us through barely cracked screen doors, always reminding us to be home by supper

Looking back, I’m reasonably certain that my mother didn’t know where I was most of the time I don’t even remember her ever tracking me down Today, of course, that would be grounds for a visit from social workers And had today’s parenting police examined us – torn clothing, perpetually scraped knees, dirty as all get-out – we’d probably have been removed from the custody of such an irresponsible lot

(By the way, the U S Justice Department has been unable to determine that the per capita rate of child abduction by individuals bent toward mischief has changed since my childhood in Charleston What’s risen is incidence – because of population growth – along with media coverage, leading to the mistaken notion that if you take your eyes off your child for a halfminute, he’ll disappear)

As I walked down my memory lane (Church Street), I thought of what today’s kids don’t know they’re missing In a word, freedom They don’t know what it’s like to not be organized, scheduled, directed, and hovered over by well-intentioned adults It occurred to me that if the adults in question can figure out how to plan and direct thousands of afterschool activities all going on at once all over the USA, they surely can figure out how to give children both freedom and safety

Today’s parents are taken with demonstrating, at every possible opportunity, how involved and supportive they are By contrast, I did all I could to ensure that my single-parent mom didn’t have to get involved. No one wanted to play with the kid whose mother was involved As for supportive, my mother could not have been more supportive of my rights to liberty, self-responsibility, and the pursuit of happiness “Go outside and find something to do” seemed to encapsulate her entire parenting philosophy

“But Mom! It’s raining!”

“Water never hurt anyone Now go!”

My childhood freedom was my mother’s freedom Today’s child has little freedom; neither does his mother From an early age, I knew that my mother wore many hats In all too many cases (one being too many), today’s mom wears only one hat

That’s not good at all, for either party Children need to learn – from early on – that women are interesting people That requires that the most important woman in a child’s life have many interests, wear many hats

As Mom would say, “I’m your mother, but I’m lots of other things, too, and the sooner you accept that, the better for both of us ”

It was my introduction to women’s liberation

Family psychologist John Rosemond: johnrosemond com, parentguru com

John Rosemond has worked with families, children, and parents since 1971 in the field of family psychology In 1971, John earned his masters in psychology from Western Illinois University and was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society

Local officers, students, and parents informed of recent trends in alcohol and drugs

Samuel MooreSobel

A day in the life

My sister recently returned from a college tour

The occurrence of spring break offered the exciting opportunity to crisscross the country, in search of where my teenaged sister will spend some of the most foundational years of her life A junior, she still has some time before she must make one of the most consequential decisions of her life

The stakes seemed low, nearly nonexistent I would obtain a good job post-graduation, and live the life I imagined

Thankfully, my private institution got in the way As they adjusted my tuition rate going into my sophomore year, suddenly the implications began to sink in Without the additional “needbased” support, I decided to transfer to a college back home, affording me the ability to live at home and graduate “debt-free ” A few years after graduation, I now see the benefits of not making a student loan payment each month all the more clearly

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, through a grant from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), has a campaign, Watch UR BAC, to teach Texans about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs misuse including binge drinking, the understanding of alcohol poisoning as well as the dangers of impaired driving The Watch UR BAC program is a free resource to Texas community groups, faith-based organizations, schools, and businesses The group was in Howe last week and gave a 2-hour presentation to local officers on Thursday at the Howe EDC/Chamber office.

Instructor Bobbi Brooks said that the program was started for doing presentations to high schools and colleges.

Brooks says that alcohol has become a gateway to other drugs

But teens are using tampons to soak alcohol into because it is easily concealable They are also taking hand sanitizer and mixing it with a chemical to turn it into pure alcohol Brooks also warned officers to look out for powered alcohol which mixed with water can become a dangerous scenario because it is currently not illegal for minors to possess the powder. It becomes illegal once they mix it

The group also held a seminar in front of the student body at Howe High School on Friday to warn the students of the dangers of alcohol and drugs The message was delivered one day before the annual prom which administrators felt was great timing.

The instructors made it very clear that it is against the law to make alcohol available to a person under 21 even in your residence, even with their parent's permission It can lead to a $4,000 fine, a year in jail, and an automatic suspension of your driver's license for 180 days upon conviction

Texoma Patriots to meet tonight

The Texoma Patriots will tonight, Monday, April 29 p m at Buck Snort BBQ, Jefferson St , in Van Alsty

The guest speaker will be Osborne, Director of Spec Projects for “Operation Underground Railroad” (O

O U R exists to rescue ch from sex slavery In the p years of their existence, O has rescued 2,078 victims assisted in the arrests of m than 1,173 traffickers arou world They shine a light worldwide on the global epidemic of child sex trafficking and assist law enforcement to seek justice for those who violate children

They place survivors on a path to recovery by partnering with vetted aftercare providers To learn more about how they rescue and rehabilitate with law enforcement and aftercare partners, check out their website: http://ourrescue org /about#process

This is a “must see” event, especially in light of what’s happening at our southern border states

Jim’s barbecue buffet line will open at 5 pm They are asking those to come early and dine before the meeting Everyone is welcome

It seems almost unfair to force teenagers to make this decision A little more life experience might shed new light on what it means to go college, illuminate what’s really important about pursuing higher education The dangers of going into massive amounts of debt, not to mention whether or not everyone readily knows exactly what career they would like to pursue, or which degree will readily help them achieve their goals.

“You go into a quarter of a million dollars in debt, for what?” my mother says, as she reflects upon the trip.

College admissions officers are ready with an answer They promise “need-based” aid, scholarships, and work-study programs They share success stories of recent graduates, offering prospective students hope that they too can achieve their dreams They appear unruffled by the college debt crisis currently engulfing our nation Recent estimates reveal student loan debt to be over 1 5 trillion dollars What are the longterm economic implications of such a staggering amount of debt?

“I feel like it’s totally hampering our economy on a bigger level,” my mother says, going on to detail how nts saddled with student loan are unable to purchase a home meownership is a huge part of conomy,” she says, speaking meone who also happens to be ltor It will likely take a few decades to parse out the ts, but recent headlines have red the plunging birth rates ng Millennials, along with the y in marriage and buying a e “I can’t do both,” a ennial co-worker just told me ntly, as she determines what o take first: get married or buy use Perhaps the rosy picture painted by colleges is not all that it seems Could it be that in many cases, students are getting a raw deal?

Watching my sister walk this road feels all too familiar I, too, bought into the idea that going away to college – and incurring student loan debt – was a natural part of process.

“She doesn’t understand the financial implications,” my mother says, in reference to my sister Perhaps not Yet going on a college trip and looking at the various price tags can help shift perspectives, allowing for the possibility of altering plans in an effort to provide for a sound financial future After all, are massive amounts of debt justified for every student in pursuit of the average career?

NYU may have instituted a groundbreaking solution A recent 60 Minutesreport highlights the school’s transition to offering medical school students a “tuitionfree” education, valued at around $200,000 per student According to the report, 85 to 86 percent of medical students graduate with some form of loans This transition was made possible by donations totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars, an effort that may come to serve as a model for schools across the nation In order to attract the best students, the theory goes, other top medical schools will have to emulate NYU Perhaps this could even be extended to institutions of higher education across the nation, in order to prevent rising tuition costs from saddling a whole new generation of students

In the meantime, students like my sister will have to decide what path is best for them Each student in America is unique, and may require a different solution For some, taking on loans may be a risk worth taking For others, a more prudent path might alleviate the possibility of long-term stress Regardless, those of us who have already traveled this road can do our part to share our stories with others Admittedly, I don’t have all the answers – none of us do And, while I certainly have opinions on which path my sister should take, her older brother will be there to support her either way Whether she likes it or not

Samuel Moore-Sobel is a freelance writer To read more of his work, visit wwwholdingontohopetodaycom