Your guide to profitable and socially responsible investing
By Judith L. Seid, CFP ®

If your retirement assets took a beating in the recent stock market decline, converting an IRA to a Roth IRA may be one of the best tax strategies this year and could save you a fortune in taxes. But you need to understand the rules and play the game right.

By Billie Jo Jannen

Victor Leon of Potrero and Rudolfo Reyes of Campo put a raked finish on the drying concrete at the base of the border fence in the far western portion of Campo. They are working on the south side of the fence, which is constructed a short distance north of the border inside the border "buffer zone." Workers on the fence have been harassed by suspected smugglers on the Mexican side and there was at least one incident of rock-throwing toward U.S. workers.

February 16, 2009 (Campo) — Of the 670 miles of infrastructure built along the Southwest border as of January '09, about 10.5 miles of primary fencing was in San Diego County and most of that, about 9.75 miles, was in rural East County. An additional 2.6 miles in Marron Valley, south of Dulzura, is funded and expected to be completed this year.

The fence, itself, stands 18 feet above the ground, according Agent Jerry Conlin of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It is sunk into a footing of concrete - six feet deep and two feet wide - and made up of steel tubes filled with concrete, called bollards. The bollards stand upright in steel framework with their feet buried in the concrete.

By Billie Jo Jannen

Planning groups countywide have seated their newly elected members since the first of the year and Campo's changing of the guard does nothing to dispel its image as among the most contentious in the rural East County (along with the now-legendary Ramona, Potrero and Alpine groups).

The short description of the meeting might well be summed up as "Lions 0, Christians 2, after a lively clash," and bodes another exhausting year for planning group watchers in Campo.

Your guide to profitable and socially responsible investing
By Judith L. Seid, CFP ®

It's
your worst nightmare. You come into work thinking it's just like any other
day and you leave with your stomach in knots. Fears of how you will take care
of yourself and your family's spin your head around. Here are some tips
to help calm your anxiety and start you on the path to recovery from such a
blow.

Nothing but the Truth!

By Will Power

January
23, 2009 (San Diego's East County) — Arnold “Terminator” Swartzenegger,
the cinema millionaire, thinks it is amusing to cut payments to the elderly,
the poor and the disabled. To the Terminator, these folks are just props in
a California comedy that has degenerated from melodrama to tragedy as the state
approaches bankruptcy.

Trouble keeping resolutions?

By Penelope Young Andrade

February 1, 2009 (San Diego) — Are you having trouble keeping your New Year's
Resolutions? For many, February finds you slinking back to old habits. You
hate and berate yourself for being ˜weak willed" but can't find a way to resist
temptation. The problem, typically, is not that you're weak willed, but rather
that you haven't found a way to use your will skillfully.

By Penelope Andrade

January, 2009 (San Diego) — Is your past getting in the way of your future? Like
most of us you've probably based your notions of the future on what has happened
to you in the past. That's human nature. Your subconscious mind is designed
to operate that way. That's how you learned to avoid hot stoves or angry dogs
even if you weren't aware that's what you were learning. However, if
you want to transform your life now, you'll need to open up to a future free
of the past. Fortunately, as an evolving human, you have tools for this. You
have a potential for consciousness bigger than any sub or unconscious programming.
You also have the will to move your awareness wherever you choose--as long
as you practice!

(Leon Thompson)

4090 Adams Avenue
Kensington, CA 92116
619-255-4167
www.blueboheme.com

January 10, 2009 (Kensington) — Is there life east of I-15? Oui, and great food too. I've shown you world-class Mexican food, neighborhood sushi, continental cuisine in Alpine. Now the crème-de-la-creme: fabulous French food in an unpretentious casual restaurant called Bleu Bohème!

The atmosphere transports you to a long-ago French countryside. The feeling is like being in an ancient limestone and wood-beamed roadhouse filled with great food and grog for the long distance traveler. The banquet room conjures images of wine and revelry. At least that's my take on the place. I kept expecting a huge roasted pig with an apple in its mouth served on a platter. But then I have a vivid imagination.

Top 5 IT Mistakes Small Businesses Make

By Michael Natter

It
is deceptively easy to see what the five top small business mistakes in IT
are. They are pervasive, recurring and everywhere!

Typical small businesses mistakes include:

Your guide to profitable and socially responsible investing

By Judith L. Seid, CFP ®

By now you've probably heard about the $50 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, a New York City broker, former head of the NASDAQ stock exchange. 

 

What did he do?  He allegedly collected money to invest from clients, made up false statements to show that they were doing well, and used new clients' money to pay interest and withdrawals to existing clients.  This is known as a Ponzi scheme and is estimated to involve more than a $50 billion loss for his investors.  This is one of several recent high-profile cases of advisors and/or managers absconding with funds entrusted to them by their clients.  Maddof held his clients' assets, managed them, and priced them, too.  See the conflicts of interest?  Investment performance can look better if the prices reported to clients are manipulated, which is allegedly how Madoff showed winning year after winning year despite market turmoil. 

By Janelle Eckardt

January
1, 2008 (San Diego) —  There is no denying that the oversaturation
of bright lights, holiday music, and the overabundance of sales successfully
lures us into shopping every year for that one special thing we may have written
off as excessive two months ago, but that is suddenly now budding into a necessity.
And while that glorious gadget that will simultaneously style your hair and
reorganize your PDA is still out-of-stock in January, you may consider marrying
your urge to boost the economy with the interest to provide a true necessity
for someone special in your life. Whether you're shopping for someone you know
or for yourself this year, it pays to be on top of all the new and exciting
adaptive technology coming out daily. So look out Burp-Me-Elmo, I'm highlighting
some of the best sources and products sure to bring lasting smiles long after
the holiday season.

Nothing but the Truth!

By Will Power

December
4, 2008 (San Diego) — The profitable is the enemy of the good. Nowhere
is this more true than in U.S. health care.  I’ve spent the last
two days on the phone with my Senators, Congressmen, the NIH and the FDA. I'm
rattling some cages!

By Sylvia Hampton

As I write this, my daughter’s relative by marriage and close friend
is in a Los Angeles hospital intensive care unit fighting for her life at age
46. The family told my daughter the following story:

“Peggy” (not her real name) had been feeling ill for some time
with abdominal pain that her doctor thought was from the uterine fibroids they
knew she had. The doctor was considering a hysterectomy to correct the problem.
When her pain and complaints worsened she was told to take ibuprofen. This
did not help and when she later could not get a call-back from the doctor,
in frustration, she increased the dose herself to a dangerous level. The pain
got so bad after a day or two that she ended up in the emergency room where
she was diagnosed with diverticulitis, an inflammation of the colon, which
was missed during the earlier office visit. Did she have an elevated temperature?
Was that checked?

Nothing but the Truth!

By Will Power

December
1, 2008 (San Diego) — When I was about five years old, my father
was a US Air Force Officer. He was involved in a Court-Martial in Wichita ,
Kansas. It seemed a considerable number of US Army blankets went missing, and
several airmen were charged with stealing the blankets and selling them off
the base. I don't even remember the disposition, though I recollect nobody
was found guilty.