Have your cake, eat it and keep your money?

Well, I am all for cutting taxes and us getting back more of what we earned to begin with. But, this latest tax rebate plan leaves me with a bit of a question in my mind about our culture these days.

It seems as if a lot of people want to have it both ways- they want rebates and lower taxes, but they aren't willing to make any sacrifices in order to get that. It just plain isn't feasible to expect lower taxes without being willing to make some cuts in the services that we receive from the government. Of course, that's what our leaders are trying now, just making up the difference by borrowing money. Again, doesn't seem like the wisest plan.

I for one would like to see our leaders speaking these hard words that aren't that popular anymore. In generations past, people seemed to get the idea that you can't get everything your way and need to make compromises and sacrifices. Somehow, it seems like most people today have lost sight of that. We want what we want when we want it and we don't want to make any sacrifices to get it. Or, we want our cake, but without having to give up anything to get it.

What would it look like if we would go back to the attitude of previous generations and embrace sacrifice to gain a greater good? If we didn't buy what we couldn't afford, passed on immediate pleasure, or had leaders who led out of a desire to better their world as opposed to for their own benefit?

Resolutions?

OK, so this is a little late, but I've got to give my two cents on the issue of new year's resolutions.

It seems as each year winds down and a new one begins, we realize all the things we hoped that we had done that we didn't and all the things we want to change about ourselves. For many of us, this is the rare time when we actually are a bit introspective and evaluate how we are doing and not just doing our day-to-day routine.

But, invariably, most of us make the ambitions to get in shape, spend more time with family, spend less money, etc., only to fall back into our old ways by mid-February.

My take one it is that many of us simply make a vague goal- to get in shape, to spend less money, etc. The problem with this is that we don't have any way to easily measure how we're doing and give up easily because it can feel like we're not making progress. I think the way to real change is to set achievable goals or objectives. This way, we do have some hope of achieving them and we also are able to measure how we are doing.

The best goals are those that are achievable, but ones that aren't super-easy either. We should have to work to achieve our goals; they shouldn't just come easily.

For example, one of my goals for the year is to cut back the amount of money that I spend. To that end, I have identified some specific areas that can be cut and ways to make those cuts. So, it will be easy for me to check in a few weeks and see how I'm doing. Either I've met one of these objectives or I haven't; there's no guesswork involved.

So, I have set my goals and come up with a plan to get there...