Page 4 - Dinuba Sentinel 6-20-19 E-edition

Opinion
A4 | Thursday, June 20,, 2019
In My Opinion
TWime to cut our losses and move on
ouldn’t it be great if our problems currently politicians took some being experienced in sort of oath which is California it seems
Fred Hall - Publisher Rick Curiel - Editor
the equivalent to that of physicians? “Primumnonnocere.” That,inclassic Latin, translates as: to help, or at least donoharm. Thetimehascomefor that vast, and growing, segment of our society that is bureaucratic to realize their job is not some kind of gigantic social experiment! Treat the business of government as if you have to answer toshareholders. Inaperfectworldthe political class would have to answer to critical voters—today, not so much.
If you happen to be one of those rare people who has ever doubted that there is a double standard for doing business in this country—one for us and one for the government—ask any of the farmers here in the Central valley who have had their land taken by the High Speed Rail project. Betteryet,trybuyingaparcel of land and then not paying for it.
Eminent domain is bad enough where the government is allowed to seize one’s land, basically on their terms, but now, months later, farmers are getting the run-around on payment for land that has been essentially ruined for agriculture.
A simple so-called “order of possession” by a Superior Court allows the State to take ownership of the land even if negotiations with the landowner arecontinuing. Thereisnowayfor
a landowner in California to hold a winning hand when the deck is so stacked against them.
Being “put down” is a euphemism we use when an animal reaches a
point where life is no longer viable
and the suffering they endure makes the termination of their life preferable totheirpain. Itjustseemstomethat the time has come for the entire High Speed Rail project to be put down! In their case, throwing good money after bad makes no sense at all so drop your lawsuit against the Federal government for more taxpayer money and, for Heaven’s sake, pay the farmers who have been harmed by your stupid plan!
Everyone realizes that the mess is no longer viable—never was—and should beterminated. Makepeacewithitand realize that Jerry Brown’s legacy will
be the mess he created, benefitting no one. Many people, including numerous consultants, have been enriched by this boondoggle. Thetimeisheretocutour losses and move on.
Having mentioned the fact that California has filed suit in an effort to gain additional taxpayer money from the Trump administration, it might be illuminating to point out that Gavin Newson and Xavier Becerra have already filed four dozen lawsuits, mostly overpolicydifferences. Withallthe
Guest Column
Can society survive without empathy?
Fred Hall
The Attorney General could make better use of his time and budget!
Newsom and Becerra are fighting Trump over $3.5 billion which they
want to blow on something that, for all intents and purposes, is see as being in its death throes. These are the kind of guys who make it embarrassing to tell out-of-state friends that you are from California—after all, we elected them!
It seems that every time we assume that these people elected by the people of California to oversee the well-being of everyone manage to one-up themselves on stupidity. To wit: this past week
the pandering group of politicians who “represent” us in Sacramento passed a health care bill which will provide free health care for illegals. The additional cost to Medicaid for that hare-brained scheme will, in most estimates, run to $3 billion annually.
We’re being told by the liberal pundits and politicians not to worry because California has plenty of money! Really? Last time we checked, the
state had a $1.3 trillion debt and a $258 billion unfunded state employee pension fund.
Guest Column
Adding to that is the often-overlooked
fact that tens of thousands of taxpayers T are fleeing the state because the quality
of life here in the golden state is
becoming untenable. Housing is scarce
and costs are prohibitive. Energy costs
are the highest in the nation. Poverty
increases daily and homelessness is
rampant. Given all that and all our
political class can think of to provide
more “entitlements” for illegals who can
offer the most basic skills at the lowest
wages imaginable. Their drag on our
society far outweighs their contribution.
I know that may sound cold but it’s just
a hard dose of reality, something our
politicians fail to deal with every day of
their cushy government employment. I
continue to hear the old adage about us
getting the government we deserve but,
honestly, we need some relief!
a good night's sleep
Planning well for retirement can lead to
hose early days of retirement can be exciting as you are finally rewarded with a little rest and relaxation after all those years of toil.
and ensure an adequate retirement income,” he says. Some of the concerns that need to be addressed include income planning, investment planning, health care planning, tax planning and legacy planning.
· Build the plan. Once the design is agreed upon, it’s time to implement it. “That can mean making changes to your current structure, adding some things and getting rid of others,”
Hill says. “Maybe risk-prone aspects your current approach that we need to
But it can be a bit unsettling as well when the regular paychecks you counted on stop appearing in your bank account.
That’s why anyone who’s still a few years away from retirement should ask them self: Am I ready for that moment both financially and emotionally?
The answer could come down to whether you have a solid retirement plan – or a plan at all.
“Regardless of how much you accumulate for your retirement, poor planning or lack of planning can put you at risk of exhausting your resources,” says Tad Hill, a retirement planner and author of Retire with Freedom: The Five Steps to Getting a Good Night’s Sleep After the Paychecks Stop (www.askfreedomfinancial.com)
Tad Hill
As anyone who keeps a household budget can attest, the unexpected happens all the time. A refrigerator evaporator fan motor fails. Some part on your car you never realized existed breaks down. A loved one passes away and you have to — you want to — be at the funeral 1,000 miles away.
“Unexpected” expenses like these will, sooner or later, hit all of us. But not all of us, says new research out of the Federal Reserve, can afford them.
In fact, nearly 40 percent of Americans “would have difficulty handling an emergency expense as small as $400,” the Fed says.
A fifth of American adults, it adds, had major unexpected medical bills last year. An even larger share “skipped necessary medical care in 2018 because they were unable to afford the cost.”
Meanwhile, 17 percent of American adults can’t afford to pay all their monthly bills, even if they don’t experience an unexpected expense.
What these stats like these mean in human terms? If you live in a place like Northern California’s Bay Area, you need only look around to see.
San Francisco, recent research shows, now has more billionaires per capita than any other city in the world. By
one reckoning, San Francisco also has the highest cost of living in the world, as all those billionaires — and the rest of the city’s ultra rich — bid up prices on local real estate.
But the Bay Area squeeze goes beyond the confines of San Francisco. Nearby Oakland and Berkeley are facing enormous affordable housing shortages as well. The Bay Area as
a whole now has more than 30,000 people experiencing homeless.
Two-thirds of these people haven’t been able to find temporary sheltering services. They’ve been living and sleeping outdoors, many in lines of RVs parked along public rights-of-way like the waterfront in Berkeley. And that’s
Sam Pizzigati
infuriated nearby residents who paid big bucks for their residences.
Berkeley city council member Kate Harrison has felt the fury first-hand — from constituents who wanted the RVs of homeless people
Ronald Reagan probably said it better than anyone I’ve heard when he uttered, “If you want less of something, taxit. Ifyouwantmoreofsomething, reward it.”
It just seems to me that we continue to reward wrong-doing.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Fred Hall is publisher of the Dinuba Sentinel.
Hill says people nearing the end of their working years should follow this five-step process for a more secure retirement:
· Create your ideal picture of retirement. What is it you want out of retirement? Do you want to travel? Volunteer with a charity? Spend time with the grandkids? The first step isn’t about your financial portfolio, Hill says, it’s about forming a clear image of the big “why” of your ideal retirement. “Otherwise, even though your money may last the rest of your lives,” Hill says, “you may never achieve your dreams because you’re unclear on your dreams.”
· Put your situation to the “stress test.” With the help
of a financial professional, give your retirement plan
a “stress test.” That can include reviewing how to best maximize your Social Security benefits and examining how your portfolio might perform under a variety of market scenarios. “Analyze all the factors that could affect your retirement plan over the next few decades and create a strategy for dealing with those risk factors with as much certainty as possible,” Hill says.
· Design your plan. Designing a retirement plan, Hill says, is much like creating the blueprint for a house. “These blueprints identify the strategies available to help minimize risk, increase certainty, avoid excess taxes
· Seek continued guidance. Even a great retirement plan may need tweaks and adjustments over the years. “Times change, people change and situations change,” Hill says. With his clients, he holds a regular yearly consultation to help ensure they are on the right pathway to retirement success at all times. “You need to look at whether there are things that have changed in your life that need attention,” he says. “Are there decisions you need to make about a pension or Social Security? Is your spending tracking at the amount you thought it would?”
“There are no guarantees of anything in life, including how your retirement will work out,” Hill says. “But taking action to create a solid and well-thought-out plan for this important part of your life is a critical first step.”
Tad Hill is the founder and president of Freedom Financial Group. He is registered as an Independent Advisor Representative and is a radio and TV host, industry trainer and speaker who helps retirees work toward their financial and retirement goals. Hill has passed the Series 65 securities exam and holds licenses
in life and health insurance in Alabama, Florida and Texas. He has earned his Registered Financial Consultant (RFC®) and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor SM (CRPC®) designations.
of
eliminate were discovered in the design step. We also often identify new strategies that you aren’t using that can really make a difference.”
banned from the waterfront.
“I paid a million dollars for my
place,” one constituent told her, “and they have a better view.”
Local officials in Bay Area cities don’t know quite what to do. On one side, they have people without shelter who have real and unmet human needs.
On the other, they have angry affluent constituents who want for little but have a big megaphone.
The more people spend on housing, Berkeley councilperson Harrison
has come to understand, the more “aggrieved” they feel.
“Only the 1percent here,” she adds, “feel economically secure.”
In other words, inequality has local officials coming and going. The ranks of the homeless are growing because almost all the gains from America’s growing economy, as the Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould testified to Congress this past March, are “going to households at the top.”
Empathy for the plight of the homeless, meanwhile, is withering away — particularly among society’s most fortunate, as the social distance between the top and the rest of society widens. The rich have climbed so far up the income ladder that they can’t see the humanity on the faces of people stuck on the lower rungs.
Can a society survive without empathy? In a deeply unequal America, many of our deepest pockets are keen to find out.
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