The actual value of the U.S. Dollar is shrinking. When the value of your asset is shrinking ... change it for an asset that isn't ... insofar as is possible. Five years or so ago, you could have bought CA$1.00 for 65 - 69 US cents. Now it'll cost you 98 US cents - US$1.02. Check the exchange rates of several basic world currencies in relation to the U.S. Dollar in recent years. That should tell you something. How about buying shares of strong, quality companies, abroad, in stable, growing markets? Had you bought some of those (cheap) Canadian dollars back a few years ago ... and used them to buy some oil and gas shares, you'd be smiling now. I think it's true that more of Alberta oil and gas goes over the border than stays in Canada. There's talk of the Chinese gov't.-related agencies using some of their U.S. dollar bonds (the value of each of which has been suffering annual shrinkage on the world markets) to buy Canadian oil and gas producers and build pipelines to Pacific tidewater. Paid for, originally, by some of the cheap Chinese-made products that you've been buying in the "Dollar" stores. In fact, if you had enough for a down payment on your house in a year or so large enough to avoid buying mortgage insurance, you might well decide that it would be wise to just let those oil and gas shares (or other resource-based shares) just sit there and keep earning ... and growing. In fact, if you had the certificates issued, and used them as additional collateral to back your house loan, you might get by without mortgage insurance on an even smaller down payment than is usually required. My daughter, currently buying a house, is leaving some of her assets inherited from her mother to keep on running rather than liquidating to reduce her mortgage (the mortgage interest being deductible in the U.S., as it is not here). Go to Yahoo or another financial agent and ask for ECA.TO (large natural gas producer), SU.TO (oil, involved with the tar sands), IMO.TO (major shareholder is Exxon), POT.TO (produces potash fertilizer), etc. (interlisted on NYSE, IMO on AMEX - but apparent growth won't be as large, there, due to exchange losses) as some examples, then check their 1-year, 5-year, etc. increases in share prices ... and factor in the exchange rate to find what your gross rate of return would have been. Then you figure your tax load, and the effect of inflation to calculate your real rate of return ... that is, current rate of return. To figure your actual result, figure in the rate of growth, if any, of the asset for that year, as well ... and if you want to be more accurate, reduce that amount by the reduction that you would have suffered due to tax, had you cashed the asset now. Sometimes an additional, e.g. 3% gross rate of return will double your real rate of return, for the amount of tax will usually be a percentage of it - but the rate of inflation is a direct deduction, and is the same for each asset in any year as you go, but does not vary depending on the type of asset. Good wishes for managing your money wisely - in a worldwide market. ole joyful

Do you think it wise to plan an income to carry you to age 100? It's better to run out of days before one ruins out of dollars than the other way 'round, I've heard. I figure that at 65, I may well have 35 years of life ahead ...which is seven 5-year blocks. If I use up all of the first five-year block during the first five years, it isn't there to work for me any more, so other blocks will have to carry the full load ... but then I'll be eating up the second block, and after ten years it won't be available to work for me any more, either. So it seems to me that I'd better make that first block of funds (i.e. "asset" - not "funds" as in "mutual funds")(1) last for a full ten years, to reduce the possibility of my having eaten through all of them before I hit 100 ... and now some are saying that we should plan to fund to 110, even 120. As I plan to still have 85% of my current asset still around in 10 years, and probably half of it still here in 20 years, it might be wise for me to keep in mind that, since about 1870, there hasn't been a 20 year period in which the entire stock market went down. Dad, as a farmer who of necessity had to make long-term financial plans, used to say that some people couldn't see beyond the end of their own nose. In recent years, we've become more prone to think only of today/the short term. Good wishes to you as you proceed with your plans. Learning how money works (and taxes) is an interesting hobby - and it pays well! ole joyful ... who, at 80+, lives frugally, by choice rather than necessity ... so the assets/investments are, so far, more or less "play money" 1. I haven't bought a mutual fund in 25 years, and not about to. They make great noises about the superior skills of their managers ... but if they're so smart, how come about 85 - 90% of the time they don't do as well as the segment of the market in which they operate? Most of your (i. e. U.S.) managers charge 1.5% or more management fee annually (ours [Canadian] charge 2.5% or more), guaranteed, whether they make any growth or not ... and the only skin that they have in the game is if we get so mad at them that we move our money elsewhere. Nobody cares as much about your money as you ... except possibly someone who may have a strong desire to move some of it from your pocket into his/hers. o j

...not in person, @jerijen, but your photos are almost as good as the real thing! I currently have 2 Chinas: China-Bourbon 'Hermosa' and a baby "Sherri Berglund's Pink China" rose. So far, both are doing well here in soggy PDX. I used to grow a few others and may branch our again now that Portland's summers are hotter, drier and longer. 'Five Yuan' is exquisite! I have a dear friend and neighbor who grew up in China, and she just lost her oldest son. I see that 'Five Yuan' is commercially available and am thinking of offering her this rose (or another China origin rose) as a memorial for her garden. I love that 'Five Yuan' came from a monastery near Lijiang and is also referred to as the 'Camellia Temple Rose'. (Yufeng Temple, I think?) It looks like Rose Petals sells 'Five Yuan', but do you happen to know of a west coast source? Carol

Lovely gesture, Carol, and I hope it gives your neighbor some comfort. I can think of few things worse than losing a child. Re 'Belle Isis', could it possibly have some R. arvensis in its ancestry? If I remember correctly it has the myrrh fragrance. Mine, fortunately, grows in a ditch, and has all the room to expand it can seize, as it's surrounded by large unconquerable varieties and equally invasive neighors. My budget philosophy is that, once the bills are paid and financial obligations met, the rest cannot be better spent than on plants.