Flying Saucer’s seasonal beer offerings get customers experimenting with different brews

By Stephen Beaumont

Keith Schlabs is food and beverage manager for The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, a Dallas-based group of 11 beer bars. He recently spoke with NRN about seasonal changes to the chain’s beer menu.

How does adjusting your beer menu seasonally benefit Flying Saucer customers?
Our customers enjoy being introduced to new beers, and by changing the menu quarterly, we can offer the best selections of each season.

We keep a new arrival board high above the bar for everyone to see which new beers have just landed in the market.

Do your regulars ask when the new crop of beers will be arriving, as one season drifts into the next?
Yes, our regular clientele expects us to carry their seasonal favorites. We cannot carry every seasonal offering, so we pick the ones we think fit our program best.

What qualities would you say make a typical winter warmer?
Typically, a winter warmer will be a darker brew [with] a robust malt character and more warming alcoholic strength than the brewery’s standard offerings. Often breweries will add a touch of holiday spice to their winter brews.

What are one or two of your favorite styles of winter beer?
Strong ales, particularly Belgian or Belgian-style strong ales. I like the dark fruit, warming alcohol, full body and roasted malt characters that these beers provide. Also barley wine — some of the big, full-bodied American versions are making their way into my refrigerator right now.

Do you find that customers are more experimental with the beers they buy when the winter beers arrive?
They love to experiment, and we let them create “flights” of winter beers to try five at a time. This season is the most exciting for our customers due to the range of characteristics in the winter beers.

Do people mostly drink the winter beers on their own or with food?
We are more of a bar than a restaurant, so we see our customers drink them on their own quite a lot. We do offer cold plates with gourmet cheeses and Italian salamis for fun food and beer pairings, offering suggestions for pairing the flavors of the beer with the various cheeses. Every year we host winter ale tastings with special guest speakers and make up a menu to complement the attributes of each beer.

The Secret To Using a Piggy Bank To Become Rich

By Catherine Franz

Did you know that rich people keep piggy banks around their home? Yes, generally they do. Multimillionaire Kim Kiyosaki, wife of Rich Dad Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki, and author of “Rich Woman: Because I Hate Being Told What To Do!” was on the Let's Talk Marketing radio show November 21 and she confessed to having multiple ones piggy banks. See bio for link to show.

You may even have one or a few piggy banks in your home already. Maybe your child has one and you don't. If not, you will want to start one today.

You don't need to run out to the store and buy one. Look in your kitchen. There is probably a previously used jar that you were saving for that “something else, some day use.” I love using a jar because it requires me to unscrew the cap.

The motion creates a physical pleasure that is associated with nurturing me. It's like a jolt of joy. Then again, if you find yourself in the store and there is a piggy bank that tweeks your Twinkie, get it. Until then use something from your kitchen.

Now you are asking, “How is having a piggy bank going to help me become rich? If not this question, you may be saying, “So what, that's what my parents did and it didn't help them become rich.”

I am saying that having one a piggy bank will help you become rich. Let me further explain.

First, when you have a piggy bank with money in it, it changes how you feel. You feel more abundant. If you believe in the laws of attraction, you know that when you feel more abundant you are guaranteed to attract more abundance.

If you don't believe this, then there is some additional muck that needs work on -- something beyond this lesson.

Did your parents tell you, “save for a rainy day” and that was attached to your piggy bank. Of course, this then became imbedded in your beliefs. You probably even had difficulty figuring out what they defined as a rainy day.

Nevertheless, I'm sure you're parents clarified that for you here and there. Maybe the definition was mucked in the process. You believed it was to buy a skateboard. Your parents believed that was frivolous.

Chuckle, you probably even challenged it to the best of your ability to. It even got complicated sometimes when they told you; you could use it to buy your friend or relative a gift with the “rainy day funds.” How confusing was that -- your friend or relative wasn't raining upon.

Seeing some light? Sure you are.

What if you shift your belief from rainy to sunshine? What if you called the piggy bank, “Your Sunshine Account” and you were clear on what that meant? What if your sunshine account was just to nurture yourself, for instance, it gave you the pleasure of getting a pedicure once a month.

What if you went to the movies or bought a book you would love to read with the money? Could you define nurturing? I am sure you can.

If you already have a piggy bank, have you labeled it “chump change” or “loose change?” What would you rename it so it fuels you internally and externally rather than seeming wasteful?

If you want to be rich, create a piggy bank, dump your pocket change into it, and add a few bills. I recommend that you stop reading and go do this right now before something else gets in the way and you table it for another activity that you may never get around to doing.

Go ahead, stop, go find a jar or something, and create a piggy bank. No, you don't need to cut a hole in the top. Then return and continue reading.

Congratulations if you went and completed this exercise. You are still on the road to wealth. Go ahead and skipped the next paragraph, it doesn't apply.

If you didn't stop and complete the exercise, it says a lot about your beliefs. It says you have more doubt in your ability to become rich. Doubt is a characteristic of the poor. This is a whole other lesson, so I'll need to stop now and save for a later discussion.

Just know you need to work on this - so stop and find a piggy bank.

Can you feel the difference in yourself now that you have the piggy bank? I bet you even stand taller. Thousands of people who I have worked with over the years have, so I'm sure you will too.

Hmm, and to think it began with the simple use of a piggy bank. Well, that's where becoming rich (or richer) begins! It starts with taking a different action and making a perspective shift along with it.

Enjoy you Sunshine Bank! Teach your children so they can teach their children and together we will change the future.

Catherine Franz, a Master Business Coach, speaker, author, a syndicated columnist and radio talk show host of "Let's Talk Marketing" and "Let’s Talk Coaching," and producer of the Mastering Business Communications television show. http://www.abundancecenter.com and http://www.LetsTalkMarketingShow.com

Make Every Minute Count

from

Enhance your Personal Success

Your mind is your most precious asset. You must be continually working to increase the quality of your thinking. One of the best ways is to turn driving time into learning time. Listen to educational audio cassettes in your car.

The average driver according to the American Automobile Association, drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles each year, spending 500 to 1000 hours that you spend each year in your car. That is the equivalent of 12 1/2 to 25 forty-hour weeks. This is the same as two full university semesters spent behind the wheel of your car each year.

Turn Driving Time Into Learning Time
If you did nothing but use that traveling time as learning time, this decision alone could make you one of the best educated people of your generation. Many people have gone from rags to riches simply by listening to audio programs as they drive to and from work.

Attend Every Seminar You Can
In addition, for personal and professional development, you should attend every seminar you can. You can often save yourself 100’s of hours of reading and researching by attending a seminar given by an authority in his or her field.

You can learn ideas, techniques and methods that can save you hours, days, even months of hard work and research on your own.

The Key to Increased Income
Remember, to earn more, you must learn more. Your outer world of results will always correspond to your inner world of preparation. I've always loved the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow where he describes those who achieve great things with their lives:

"Those heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept were toiling upward in the night"
Remember, continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these ideas to work in your life immediately.

First, purchase an audio program that can help you to be happier and more effective today. Begin listening to it immediately. Resolve never to listen to music in your car when you can turn driving time into learning time.

Second, seek out seminars and training programs given by experts in your field. Sit close to the front, take careful notes, and apply the best ideas that you learn immediately.

When the months turn cold, keep your customers toasty with winter warmer beers

By Stephen Beaumont

Nov. 20) - Show me a restaurateur who stocks a winter wine list with a wide selection of crisp rosés and fruity Rieslings and I'll show you someone who won't be moving a whole lot of wine until, perhaps, next April or May.

Indeed, it's now common knowledge that the colder winter weather — not to mention the heavier foods associated with the season — begs for robust, big-bodied wines. So why, then, do so many restaurants and bars forget that logic when it comes to beer, leaving their selections unchanged year-round?

Sure, many Americans still drink their beer on the basis of it being "their beer," regardless of season, cuisine or time of day, and with little consideration given to variety. But once upon a time, didn't we all do the same with wine, usually opting for a "dry white wine"?

Of course we did, but we don't anymore. And 10 or 20 years from now, we'll view brand loyalty in beer the same way we now regard that iconic glass of white.

Thus it only makes sense to start catering to beer's seasonality, beginning with a selection of the full-bodied brews known as winter warmers.

The tricky part about diversifying your beer menu to include winter beers is that unlike, say, pale ales or stouts, there's no real style to them. A winter warmer can be either ale or lager, which is to say warm fermented to a rounder, fruitier character or cool fermented to a crisper, more austere flavor profile.

Similarly, they can be profoundly hoppy, or in other words bitter, or sweet enough to replace dessert. They can be bocks or porters, high-strength pilsners or barley wines and even fruit or spiced beers.

Still, there are some common elements that unify most of the brews designed for the shortest days and coldest months of the year. Strength is one, since the overwhelming majority of winter warmers will have above average alcohol content, sometimes as high as 8 percent or 10 percent.

Others may have percentages that venture into the teens.

Likewise, although there are some hoppy winter ales brewed domestically, rich, comforting maltiness is what you're more likely to find in a winter brew. That's the case even when big hops also are present and when the beer also has elements of spiciness or fruitiness.

And most often winter brews are best served at slightly warmer temperatures than you would pour an ordinary lager or ale so that their rich characters can shine through unencumbered by gum-tingling cold.

While in modern terms the traditions of the winter warmer may be traced to the Brits and Belgians, from archeological research we have learned that the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians created unique beers to celebrate individual feast days, and that the Sumerians brewed several distinct and perhaps seasonal beers of differing characters and strengths.

Perhaps it's fitting, then, that thousands of years later, we've come full circle and rediscovered the joys of seasonal drinking.

Stephen Beaumont is a veteran beer writer and author of five books on the subject. His writing on beer, drinks, food and travel appears in a wide variety of national and international publications.

The Powerful, Protective, Life-Extending Benefits of Grapes

Researchers report that resveratrol, a natural substance found in the skin of grapes, can offset the effects of a high-calorie diet in mice and extend their lifespan significantly.

If humans respond to resveratrol in the same way, then large daily doses could help to curtail the effects of the unhealthy, high-calorie diet contributing to the epidemic of obesity currently sweeping the U.S. and other industrialized nations.

Scientists fed one group of mice a high-fat diet, consisting of 60 percent fat calories. The mice developed signs of incipient diabetes, and began dying early deaths.

A second group of mice was fed an identical diet, but were also given large daily doses of resveratrol (the equivalent, for a human, of the amount that would be found in 750 to 1,500 bottles of red wine.)

The mice did put on weight, but they avoided the enlarged livers and high blood glucose and insulin that signal diabetes. The resveratrol-fed mice also lived as long as mice on a healthy diet.

Nature November 1, 2006

New York Times November 2, 2006

Spartanburg Herald-Journal November 2, 2006

---

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

Resveratrol is, without question, one of my favorite antixoidants. This study illustrates some of my reasons for my fondness as it can extend life, prevent Alzheimer's, and inhibit the spread of cancer. But I still do not recommend red wine for your daily dose of it, as it's not at all a good or safe source. Although many health experts feel that red wine is fine in moderation, I am not so certain about this. This is largely because I am convinced the alcohol itself is actually a neurotoxin, which means it can poison your brain. Additionally, it has the strong potential to seriously disrupt your delicate hormone balance. This may be why those who drink heavy amounts of beer and spirits double their risk of developing colorectal tumors. If you want to boost your consumption of resveratrol, stick with natural sources like whole grape skins (pass up the meat of the grape, which has no resveratrol but a lot of extra fructose which can serve to raise your insulin levels).

Related Articles:

Daily Red Wine Cuts Prostate Cancer Risk By Half

The Real Story Behind The Benefits of Red Wine

Grapes' Anti-fungal Agent May Fight Cancer

Double Your Earnings

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

You probably have the ability to produce and earn easily twice as much as you are producing and earning today.

Put Key Ideas Into Action
I have taught time management strategies to more than 100,000 people over the last few years and the successes these people have had have often been amazing. Many of them have doubled their output in as little as one or two days.

One businessman in Philadelphia tripled his income and doubled the amount of time he spent with his family within twelve months. Another businessman from Montreal increased his income by 700% over a period of two years by disciplining himself to practice these principles every hour of every day.

Small Effects Yield Large Results
The good news is that even a small effort on your part to implement the very best of time management principles into your life will yield a tremendous return in increased productivity, performance and output.

It is like stepping on the accelerator of your own life and moving yourself onto the fast track in your career.

Efficiency Starts At School
We usually learn how to work efficiently and effectively in our teenage years by doing our schoolwork and our homework in an excellent way and handing it in on time. If a young person does not learn how to work during their school years, he or she will have a tough time working when they actually take a paying job.

Most People Are Poor Workers
According to the studies, fully 50% of adults could not work a full day if their life depended upon it. They cannot stay on task.

They are continually diverted and distracted into idle socializing, personal phone calls, shooting the breeze, arriving late, leaving early and taking too much time for coffee breaks and lunches. Then they wonder why they are not entrusted with increased responsibilities and offered greater pay.

Be Paid More And Promoted Faster
The fact is that if you do an excellent job in a timely fashion, you cannot help but be paid more and promoted faster. We live in the first great meritocracy in human history.

In a meritocracy, you are paid and rewarded purely on the basis of the valuable contribution you make to the lives and work of others. There are no glass ceilings and no barriers to advancement.

Action Exercises
1. Select the most valuable and important task you have to do right now, and start on it immediately.

2. Resolve to “work all the time you work” once you get started. Aim for 100% productivity. This could change your life.

Japanese restaurant serves sake and shochu drinks with a twist of culture and history

By Gary Regan

Though many drinkers remain unclear on the details of sake — the beverage is often categorized as a wine made from rice, though technically, it’s in the beer family — the drink has been growing in popularity each year for the past decade or so. Now shochu, a spirit made in Korea, China and Japan, seems to be coming into its own as well.

Fugakyu, a fine-dining Japanese restaurant in Brookline, Mass., hopes to capitalize on that popularity of sake and shochu — and educate its customers about their origins — with its beverage programs that highlight the delights of both drinks.

“Everyone’s reaction to the shochu cocktails has been really great,” says Michael Chu, bartender at Fugakyu. “A lot of people are curious about this type of vodka.”

Shochu, sometimes referred to as Japanese vodka, tends to be a little lower in alcohol than most other spirits, though it can be found at various proofs from around 25-percent to 43-percent alcohol by volume, making it ideal to use as a base for cocktails.

The shochu served at Fugakyu is made from a base of barley and sweet potatoes, though this Asian spirit can be made from rice, sugar cane and even such unusual ingredients as chestnuts or shiso leaf. In a way it is similar to vodka, which also can be made from more or less anything that will ferment.

Bartender Chu offers the Green Apple Passion, made with shochu, apple liqueur and a splash of lemon-lime soda, as well as the Red Devil, a mixture of shochu, peach schnapps and cranberry juice.

“The shochu cocktails are really tasty, strong and just a fun drink,” Chu says. Shochu “can be served by itself, hot or cold, [or we can] mix it into any drink: shochu martinis, shochu and tonic, or whatever the customer desires.”

Fugakyu also is offering flights of sake through the end of this month. The flights feature three styles: Kira Honjyozo, described as being sharp and refreshing with a mild bitterness; Kimoto Shinzenshu, a sake with higher sweetness and acidity and pronounced flavors; and Nigori Genshu Momokaw, a bold and hearty sake.

Desmond Chang, owner of Fugakyu, says that one of the restaurant’s aims is to teach its customers to understand the differences between various bottlings of sake. “We really want to educate the customer to appreciate the variety of sake that we serve,” he says. “The sakes in the flight we offer highlight all the different taste levels: light, medium to rich.”

But that isn’t the only object of making these flights available at Fugakyu. The restaurant also is aiming to make sure that its customers take time to understand the culture behind the drink.

Sake is “considered a ‘Drink of the Gods’ by the Japanese, and has been around for over 6,000 years,” Chang says. “The history behind it is fascinating. The more you know about the origin, the more the drink becomes enjoyable.” He makes a very good point.

Over the past couple of decades, I’ve seen many bars and restaurants try to educate their customers on the finer points of brandies, whiskies and all manner of distilled spirits. The ones that seem to have achieved their goals are those that make the educational experience interesting by imparting knowledge on all aspects of the subject.

As restaurants and bars continue to serve up sake and shochu-based beverages and customers learn more about their origins, we’ll no doubt see more and more of these delicious drinks.

E-mail the author at: gary@ardentspirits.com

The Powerful, Protective, Life-Extending Benefits of Grapes

Researchers report that resveratrol, a natural substance found in the skin of grapes, can offset the effects of a high-calorie diet in mice and extend their lifespan significantly.

If humans respond to resveratrol in the same way, then large daily doses could help to curtail the effects of the unhealthy, high-calorie diet contributing to the epidemic of obesity currently sweeping the U.S. and other industrialized nations.

Scientists fed one group of mice a high-fat diet, consisting of 60 percent fat calories. The mice developed signs of incipient diabetes, and began dying early deaths.

A second group of mice was fed an identical diet, but were also given large daily doses of resveratrol (the equivalent, for a human, of the amount that would be found in 750 to 1,500 bottles of red wine.)

The mice did put on weight, but they avoided the enlarged livers and high blood glucose and insulin that signal diabetes. The resveratrol-fed mice also lived as long as mice on a healthy diet.

Nature November 1, 2006

New York Times November 2, 2006

Spartanburg Herald-Journal November 2, 2006

---

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

Resveratrol is, without question, one of my favorite antixoidants. This study illustrates some of my reasons for my fondness as it can extend life, prevent Alzheimer's, and inhibit the spread of cancer. But I still do not recommend red wine for your daily dose of it, as it's not at all a good or safe source. Although many health experts feel that red wine is fine in moderation, I am not so certain about this. This is largely because I am convinced the alcohol itself is actually a neurotoxin, which means it can poison your brain. Additionally, it has the strong potential to seriously disrupt your delicate hormone balance. This may be why those who drink heavy amounts of beer and spirits double their risk of developing colorectal tumors. If you want to boost your consumption of resveratrol, stick with natural sources like whole grape skins (pass up the meat of the grape, which has no resveratrol but a lot of extra fructose which can serve to raise your insulin levels).

Related Articles:

Daily Red Wine Cuts Prostate Cancer Risk By Half

The Real Story Behind The Benefits of Red Wine

Grapes' Anti-fungal Agent May Fight Cancer

Three Powerful Principles For Success

from

Enhance your Personal Success

Be Clear About Your Goals
There are many similarities between business and work. In both cases, the victor is the one who uses superior strategy against his or her competition. There are three principles of military strategy you can apply to your work every single day.

The first idea from the military is called the Principle of Maneuver. The principle of maneuver says that you should be clear about the goal, but be flexible about the process of achieving it.

According to the Menninger Institute, this quality of flexibility is the most important single quality that you will require for success in times of rapid change.

Be Open to Continuous Feedback
A key peak performance quality for you is to “accept feedback and self-correct.” Peak performers are those who can take information from their environment and even if the information is contrary to all of their planning, they can accept the information, modify their plans, and continue moving forward. They are always open to new ideas and insights.

Learn What You Need To Know
The second military principle you can use is the Principle of Intelligence. This principle of intelligence means simply, “get the facts!”

The most important thing in business decision making is for you to get accurate information. Facts don’t lie. It is important that you get the real facts, not the assumed facts or the apparent facts or the obvious facts, or the hoped for facts, but the real, provable facts.

Make Better Decisions
Perhaps the key job of the executive is decision making. The quality of the decisions that you make will be in direct proportion to the amount of time that you take to gather timely and accurate information.

The very best thing that you can do, if you have insufficient information, is to delay making a decision at all.

Invest Your Resources Wisely
The third military principle applied to strategic planning is the Principle of Economy of Force. Economy of force means that you expend only the resources necessary to achieve the objective and not more.

It also means that you commit sufficient resources to achieve the objective once you have decided upon it.

Since your own personal energy is all you really have to invest over the course of your lifetime, the military principle of economy says that you should be very selfish when deciding how you are going to use yourself. Keep asking yourself, “How important is this?” and more important, “How important is this to me?”

Action Exercises
Here are two ideas that you can apply immediately to be more strategic in your work and personal life.

First, remain flexible when you are working towards your goal. In times of rapid change, all of your best ideas can be contradicted by new information. Be willing to try different things. Be open to new inputs and ideas.

Second, get the facts! The more and better information you can acquire before you make a decision, the better your decision will be. The very best managers spend a good deal of time getting the real, provable facts before they take action.

Cocktail Recipes for Revenue

http://www.nightclub.com/NCB_Magazine/NCB_March_2006/Recipes_for_Revenue/

McGillin's Irish Mint Julep Martini
1 1/2 ounces Bailey's Irish Cream
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce simple syrup
5 sprigs fresh mint
Muddle 2 fresh sprigs of mint in simple syrup in Martini glass. Shake Bailey's and bourbon with ice. Strain and pour over muddled mint. Garnish with remaining mint.

Courtesy of McGillin's Olde Ale House, Philadelphia. www.mcgillins.com.

Fight Colds With Exercise

A new study suggests that regular, moderate exercise can reduce the risk of colds in postmenopausal women.

The year-long study examined 115 sedentary, overweight, postmenopausal women, none of whom smoked or took hormone-replacement therapy.

Half were assigned to an aerobic exercise group and half only attended a weekly stretching class. It was the first randomized clinical trial investigating the relationship between physical activity and the common cold.

By the study's end, the women who exercised regularly had half the risk of colds of those who didn't work out. The ability of moderate exercise to ward off colds seemed to grow the longer it was used.

The enhanced immunity was strongest in the final quarter of the year-long exercise program, suggesting that it is important to stick with exercise long term to get the full effects.

Colds are a leading cause of doctor visits and missed days from work and school. Americans suffer from approximately 1 billion colds per year, or about two to four colds per year for all adults.

Yahoo News October 26, 2006

EurekAlert October 26, 2006

American Journal of Medicine November 2006; 119(11): 937

---

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

A regular exercise program can do amazing things for your health, like beating Alzheimer's and diabetes, and can also boost your immune system. The patients in the exercising group were asked to exercise about 45 minutes a day at home and the gym for five days a week, but they were only able to reach the 30-minute mark per day, with brisk walking accounting for the bulk of their body work. Still, that was enough to strengthen the immune systems of women in the exercise group over time and successfully ward off colds. This is more evidence that it's crucial to treat exercise like a drug that must be properly prescribed, monitored and maintained for you to enjoy the most benefits. That means, however, you can't bank exercise either; exercise is not like money. Even if you were a world-class athlete, in about two weeks of non-exercise you would start to experience serious deconditioning. There are three important variables to keep in mind when exercising: Length of time Frequency Intensity I encourage my patients who need to use exercise as a drug to treat diabetes or obesity to gradually increase the amount of time they are exercising to 60 to 90 minutes a day. Initially the frequency is daily, but this is a treatment dose until you normalize your weight and insulin levels. Once normalized, you will only need to exercise three to four times a week. You can exercise hard enough so that it is difficult to talk to someone next to you. When you are exercising that hard your cardiovascular system is under such a significant amount of stress that the mere act of talking makes you unable to provide your body with enough oxygen. However, if you cannot carry on a conversation AT ALL, then you have gone too far and need to decrease the intensity. If you want to get to work but don't know where to begin, consider my beginner's page that includes a free table you can use to track your progress.

Related Articles:

Treating Colds Naturally

Hydrogen Peroxide For Colds and Flu

Secrets About Colds and How to Treat and Avoid Them

Increasing Your Value

from

Enhance your Personal Success

Your goal is to organize your life in such a way that you enjoy a good income, a high standard of living, and that you are the master of your economic destiny rather than a victim of changing economic times.

Contribution Is The Key
Your job is an opportunity to contribute a value to your company in excess of your cost. In its simplest terms, your job is as secure as your ability to render value in excess of what it costs to keep you on the payroll. If you want to earn more money at your current job, you have to increase your value, your contribution to the enterprise.

Add Value Every Day
If you want to get a new job, you have to find a way to contribute value to that enterprise. If you want any kind of job security, you must continually work at maintaining and increasing your value in the competitive marketplace.

And here's a key point. Your education, knowledge, skills and experience all are investments in your ability to contribute a value for which you can be paid. But they are like any other investments. They are highly speculative.

Knowledge and Education Are Sunk Costs
Once you have learned a subject or developed a skill, it is a sunk cost. It is time and money spent that you cannot get back. No employer in the marketplace has any obligation to pay you for it, unless he can use your skill to produce a product or service that people are ready to buy, today.

Prepare For Your Next Job
Whatever job you are doing, you should be preparing for your next job. And the key question is always: Where are the customers? Which businesses and industries are growing in this economy, and which ones are declining?

Where Is The Future?
I continually meet people who ask me how they can increase their income when their entire industry is shrinking. I tell them that there are jobs with futures and there are jobs without futures, and they need to get into a field that is expanding, not contracting.

Never Be Without A Job
There are three forms of unemployment in America: voluntary, involuntary, and frictional. Voluntary employment exists when a person decides not to work for a certain period of time, or not to accept a particular type of job, hoping that something better will come along. Involuntary unemployment exists when a person is willing and able to work but cannot find a job anywhere.

Frictional unemployment is the natural level; this includes the approximately 4 or 5 percent of the working population who are between jobs at any given time.

Three Keys to Lifelong Employment
However, there are always jobs for the creative minority. You never have to be unemployed if you will do one of three things: change the work that you are offering to do, change the place where you are offering to work, or change the amount that you are asking for your services.

You should consider one or more of these three strategies whenever you are dissatisfied with your current work situation.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, look around you at your current job and find ways to create added value every day. There’s always something more you can do.

Second, identify the kind of work you want to be doing in the future and then make a plan to develop the knowledge and skills you will require to do it well.

Voodoo Priestess puts a spell in a glass

By Gary Regan

"I had the strangest dream last night, Professor. Kept losing packages I was carrying in some outdoor marketplace, then I'd find whatever it was I'd lost, and discover that something else was missing." Doc, our cocktailian bartender's buddy, is spending the afternoon at the bar, catching up with the Professor.

"That doesn't sound all that strange, Doc," the Professor comments.

"No, that's not the strange part. At one point I actually realized I was dreaming, but I was still in the dream. I turned to a woman in the marketplace and said something like, 'Phew, I was getting frustrated there for a minute, but this is just a dream, right?' And the woman said, 'Yes, it's just a dream. And I'm a voodoo priestess, so I should know.' "

"Whoa, Doc. It's weird enough that you realized you were dreaming while you were still dreaming, but stranger still is the fact that I was sipping a drink called a Voodoo Priestess last night at Forbidden Island in Alameda. Pretty good tipple it was, too."

"Well, I think I could use one of those, Professor. Wanna fix me one?"

"Sure thing, Doc."

The Voodoo Priestess is a fairly intricate affair that calls for three different spirits -- brandy, dark rum and spiced rum -- and in keeping with the name of the drink, the spiced rum they use in the drink at Forbidden Island is called VooDoo.

It's an aged rum that's made in the Virgin Islands, and flavored with vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.

Captain Morgan, a brand that was launched more than two decades ago, is probably the best known spiced rum on the market, but there are many other bottlings on the shelves now, and each brings its own nuance to the category.

Sailor Jerry Spiced Navy Rum holds strong vanilla flavors and at 92 proof, it's a strong, dry style of spiced rum. Foursquare, a Barbadian bottling, comes with notes of cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg.

Bacardi Spice is fruitier than most other spiced rums, with hints of cinnamon and sweet potatoes. Pango Rhum, made at the Barbancourt distillery in Haiti, is lightly spiced, and it, too, is fruity -- but whereas the Bacardi bottling offers stone-fruit flavors, pineapple is the predominant fruit in this rum, though there are also peach notes present.

Papagayo is the only organic spiced rum I've come across, and this one, made in Paraguay, is fairly peppery, with hints of ginger and vanilla on the palate.

As the Professor puts the Voodoo Priestess cocktail on the bar, Bobby, the bar's resident bore, asks him to turn up the volume on the stereo. He's been eavesdropping on our friends, and a country song that's playing has just caught his attention:

"She lives in a swamp in a hollow log. With a one-eyed snake and a three-legged dog ..."

"Thought so. That's Bobby Bare singing," says Bobby. "Song's called 'Marie Laveau.' You know who Marie Laveau was, don't you, guys?"

"No, Bobby, but I'm sure you're going to tell us," says Doc, rolling his eyes.

"Sit tight, guys. She was born in New Orleans. Late 1700s. Thought to have been one of the most powerful voodoo priestesses ever. Looks like you're in for a great Halloween this year, Doc."

---

The Voodoo Priestess

Adapted from a recipe by Thayer Lund of Forbidden Island, Alameda.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 ounces Cruzan dark rum

1 1/2 ounces VooDoo spiced rum

1/2 ounce brandy

2 ounces fresh orange juice

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

2 ounces Voodoo Priestess Spice Syrup (see Recipe)

1 dash orange bitters

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full with ice and add all of the ingredients. Shake for approximately 15 seconds and strain into a large, ice-filled goblet.

Note: At Forbidden Island this drink is served in a glass rimmed with red sanding sugar.

---

Voodoo Priestess Spice Syrup

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

2 cups pure cane sugar

1 cup boiling water

INSTRUCTIONS:

Sift together the pumpkin pie spice and the sugar, add boiling water and stir until sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Gary Regan is the author of "The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft" and other books. E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.

The Definition Of Wealth

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

If you want to be wealthy, you must understand what wealth is. Here is the best definition of wealth you will ever find. Wealth is "Cash flow from other sources."

Make Your Money Work For You
What this means is that, you are not wealthy just because you earn a lot of money. You are only wealthy when your money works for you. To become wealthy, your main job is to acquire money and then put it to work making more money for you.

Add Value Continually
The key to creating wealth is simple. It is called "adding value." Successful people are those who are always looking for ways to add value in some way to a person, a company, a product or a service.

Do It Faster
Here is an example of adding value: Domino's Pizza. The founders of Domino's Pizza took a common food, offered by thousands of little restaurants and added a value to the pizza by delivering it more rapidly than anyone else.

The added value of speed enabled Domino's to create a billion dollar empire and made the founder of Domino's, Tom Monahan, one of the richest men in the world.

Buy It Cheaper Somewhere Else
Another way to add value is to buy something in one place at one price and then make it available in another place for another price. For example, buying a product or service manufactured in Europe or Asia, importing it to the United States and making it available to people to whom it was not available before, is a way of adding value for which you can charge a higher price.

Improve The Life or Work of Others
All manufacturing and marketing is based on this principle of added value. All importation and distribution aims to add value. Performing a service that enhances the life or work of another person adds value.

A dentist who takes away pain is adding value. An accountant who saves a client money on taxes is adding or actually creating value. A salesperson who introduces a new product or service to a customer that helps that customer in some way is adding value.

All financial success, especially business success, is based on adding value. It is based on the old saying, "Find a need and fill it."

Combine and Recombine The Elements of Value
All successful business is based on someone bringing together the factors of production, such as labor, capital, raw materials and management, and creating a product or service that a customer will pay a price for that is in excess of the cost of producing it.

How All Fortunes Are Made
Adding value is the way that all fortunes are made. Whenever you see an opportunity to give people what they want at a price greater than it costs you to produce that product or service, you see an opportunity to make a profit, build a business and begin moving toward financial success.

Almost any business or occupation can make you financially independent if you can find a way to add enough value.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to add more value to your time and activities:

First, take the time to be absolutely clear about what it is that people want and need to improve their lives and work. The more clear you are about their real needs, the easier it is for you to satisfy them at a higher level.

Second, look for ways to add value to what you are doing every day in every way. Never be satisfied with the status quo. One small idea to add value can be the starting point of a great fortune.

Fortune Magazine: Housing Crash Yet to Come

by John Browne

For those of you who thought we were set for a “soft-landing” in the housing market, I have some bad news for you.

And it doesn’t come from me. It comes from a feature article in Fortune magazine — in an article titled “Can the Economy Survive the Housing Bust?"

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/11/13/8393160/index.htm?postversion=2006110111

The article states, "Real estate downturns have a way of leading to recessions and stock market slumps [emphasis theirs]. So far, the damage has been limited, but the numbers keep getting worse."

According to Fortune, the housing market fall-off is a reliable predictor of a downturn in the stock market.

If they are right, the S&P 500 is in for a huge plunge next year. [Editor’s Note: Read Financial Intelligence Report’s special report on the 5 Things You Must Do to Profit from this Crash — Go Here Now.]

A chart plotting the National Association of Home Builders’ Housing Market Index — a monthly measure of builder confidence — shows a remarkable parallel with the S&P 500 stock market index a year latter.

For example, a rising NAHB index predicted the start of the post-1994 bull market in stocks, and its decline beginning in 1999 presaged the equity market collapse the following year.

Then a spike in builder confidence in November 2001 came a year ahead of the stock market surge that started in October 2002.

The bad news: Over the past year the NAHB Housing Index has dropped an incredible 54 percent!

If stocks followed suit, the S&P could be halved by this time next year, according to the ominous report in Fortune.

“In terms of consumer spending, I don’t think we’ve felt anywhere near the brunt of all the adjustable-rate mortgage resets and the massive increase in defaults and foreclosures in states like California,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co., one of the experts who believes the NAHB drop bodes poorly for the stock market.

“Housing downturns happen in a fairly slow-motion way, and I really think we’re just at the beginning of the impact on the market and the economy,” she told Fortune.

Of course, she is right. Real estate collapses seem to mimic a tidal wave: In the beginning it looks like nothing more than a gentle wave . . . and then, POW! the wave hits. This is so true in housing where owners don’t want to re-adjust prices down, so they keep holding. This holding pattern makes inventories of homes for sale skyrocket. At some point — the tipping point — buyers begin to sell no matter what the price. The collapse is then upon us. Interestingly, Sir John Templeton predicted all of this in a special interview with FIR. Read more about Templeton’s views — Go Here Now.

Not everyone agrees with that position. “The effects of the housing correction will be entirely contained within the housing sector,” said Mike Englund, chief economist of Action Economics.

He points to strong corporate balance sheets, stable interest rates and falling energy prices as factors working against a stock market meltdown.

But economist Ed Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, is pessimistic. “We’ve had 11 sharp declines in the housing market since World War II, including this one. Eight of the last 10 were followed by a recession.”

The Ripple Effect

The big risk is the ripple effect, Fortune reports.

Solid home sales not only boost home builders’ and materials manufacturers’ profits, they generate spending on new mortgages, realtor’s fees, home improvement projects, new furniture, and more.

Another concern: With home values falling, consumers will no longer be able to easily use their homes as cash machines. U.S. homeowners pulled an estimated $450 billion or more in equity out of their homes last year.

What’s more, homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages several years ago are now facing interest rate resets that will raise their payments — and consequently decrease their spending on other items.

“It’s hard to overstate the damage of losing so much potential buying power,” Fortune reports.

“Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg has argued that cash-out refis were the only reason the economy weathered the gas-price hikes this year and last.”

Another pessimist, Gary Gordon — an executive vice president at mortgage investment firm Annaly Capital — is so concerned about the loss of cash-out money that he’s forecasting a recession next year or in 2008.

Action to Take

First, don’t get caught off guard. Do all the things you might do to prepare for a recession in your personal affairs, such as reducing debt, keeping a secure job, etc.

Second, remember — our Financial Intelligence Report has been saying “cash is king.” Even great stock players know when it’s smart not to be in the game. Today, that’s true. Read our report about cash. Simply Go Here Now.

Third, adding to the housing crisis is the beginnings of the baby boomer crisis. This will only add to market woes — Read More Here.

Fourth, you can no longer keep 100 percent of your assets in the U.S. Consider countries to invest like India (special report — Go Here Now), Switzerland (more — Go Here Now) and Asian countries (Read Alexander Haig’s advice — Go Here Now).

An obscure region takes center stage as Alto Adige's versatile wineries gain recognition

by Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy


(Nov. 13) - At an international wine judging in Australia recently, as a group of miscellaneous red wines was put before us to taste, a local judge eyed the list of varieties in that flight, and asked, sotto voce, "Could you remind me what Lagrein is?"

His ignorance was understandable. The Lagrein grape is fairly new to Australia, and it is somewhat obscure there. In fact, it's rather unknown in the United States, too. But if the wine producers of the Alto Adige district of Italy have their way, that's all about to change.

Lagrein is the favored-son native red variety in the Alto Adige area of Northeastern Italy, and it's just one of several wines Alto Adige-area producers are working to make better known in the United States.

Although Alto Adige grows numerous grape varieties, the producers have decided to simplify their message by focusing on just four varieties: Pinot Bianco and Gewürztraminer for the whites, and Pinot Noir and Lagrein for the reds.

The vineyards encompass a variety of soils and microclimates. The western side is warmer, for example, and it is cooler east of the river. Such diversity yields fairly delicate whites as well as powerful reds.

The Pinot Blanc wines of Alto Adige are perhaps the finest in the world from that variety. They are generally unoaked and boast a concentration of mineral character, supplemented by citrus or subtle floral notes.

Gewürztraminer wines are exceptional for their combination of aromatic intensity, dryness and structural restraint. The Pinot Noirs generally hail from cooler vineyards and are closer in style to Burgundies than to New World Pinots, with relatively understated fruitiness and refreshing acidity.

Lagrein, in contrast, grows in the warmer vineyards. These wines can have substantial acidity, color and tannin with their dry-textured black-fruit flavors.

Those and the other wines of Alto Adige are excellent matches for food. For example, when executive chef Scott Conant of Alto Restaurant in New York teamed up with Michelin-starred chef Norbert Niederkofler of St. Hubertus in Alto Adige to co-create a Thanksgiving-inspired meal, the area's wines showed their versatility.

Both Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio were delicious with a dish of grilled pumpkin and braised chestnuts with shaved porcini and speck. The Pinot Bianco complemented the chestnuts, and the fruitier Pinot Grigio harmonized with the pumpkin.

A Pinot Nero brought earthy-fruity complexity to roasted squab, while the fresh blackberry fruit and energetic tannins of a young Lagrein offset the squab's gamy flavor.

Wineries in Alto Adige include small and large private producers but are mainly cooperatives, which produce 70 percent of the region's wine and are known for their very high quality.

As a result, this is a region where even the "commercial" wines are of a high standard and widely available. About 40 wineries export to the United States.

Wines from Alto Adige are certainly worth looking into, and such exploration should be especially rewarding as their presence and reputation continue to grow in this country.

---

WINE OF THE WEEK:

2005 Tiefenbrunner Pinot Bianco,

Alto Adige

This wine shows a strong minerality in its aroma and flavor, which is typical of many Alto Adige whites. It's dry and rather full-bodied but unoaked, with crisp acidity counterbalanced by a lovely viscous texture, to hold your interest in the mouth.

It will complement medium-weight dishes of medium flavor intensity, such as chicken or veal or grilled swordfish.

Wholesale case price: $120.

E-mail the authors at: WineDum@aol.com

Understanding and Clearing Your Issues With Money

by Carol Tuttle

Carol Tuttle is a Master Energy Therapist and the author of the best-selling book, Remembering Wholeness: A Personal Handbook for Thriving in the 21^st Century.

Clearing Your Money Issues

You have a relationship with money that YOU are creating. Money is a neutral resource to which you give power. Your patterns with money are dictated by your beliefs, feelings and language about money.

Money will either reward you or cause great struggles in your life. It is up to you to tell money what you want it to do for you.

In my work with assisting thousands of people to free themselves of patterns of lack and to start creating prosperous lives, I have found that most people have the following limiting beliefs that are keeping them from attracting more money into their life:

"We can't afford it."

"We don't have enough money."

"We will never have enough."

"We have too many bills."

"We are always falling short."

"The economy is weak."

If you have these limiting beliefs and others, I can help you clear them right now.

Listen to this FREE online audio seminar right now. You will learn:

What the top destructive money beliefs are, techniques to clear them, how my husband and I went from $35,000 in credit card debt 11 years ago to paying that all off in less than a year using the tools I teach you on this audio.

You will also learn what you are doing that will cause your children to create even more debt and one simple step to change that.

Click here to listen to Understanding and Clearing Your Money Issues with Carol Tuttle.

Additional Resources to Help You Clear Your Money Issues Recommended by Dr. Mercola:

Learn powerful, hands-on practical tools to release the patterns of lack and debt that you have with money and allow your self to start receiving the blessings of wealth on Carol's best-selling Audio CD Creating Money. Just click on the title to review this product and all of Carol's life-changing books, CDs and DVDs.

More and more people are practicing EFT and other energy psychology methods for helping change their beliefs and patterns with money. Dr. Mercola recommends The Carol Tuttle Healing Center as the most valuable resource available in aiding you in learning these processes.

This interactive Web site is a goldmine of training tools and healing sessions that are sure to get results including Carol's popular Money Clearing EFT session. A three-day trial is only $3.95 to allow you to see if it is right for you. Visit The Carol Tuttle Healing Center now.

**Attend Carol's "Week of Workshops" from October 23-28. Three amazing workshops for a very low price. October 23-24 is the Manifesting More Money Boot Camp, October 25-27 is the Energy Healing 101 and MORE!, and October 28 is the High Frequency Essential Oils for the New Millennium trainings. Click on any of the titles to learn more!

---

Dr. Joseph Mercola (Author of the Total Health Program) Comment:

Folks, I've got to tell you that this stuff really works. I know it sounds crazy but it is really beyond amazing. About two weeks ago I was with Carol Tuttle in Washington DC at a mastermind conference we are members of. I had made some drastic changes in the leadership on our site that could have some serious financial consequences and had just decided to move my personal residence. For some crazy reason I sensed a dark cloud of financial doom over me and knew I was heading for trouble. This was confirmed by an e-mail I then received from my accountant telling me that my tax bill just unexpectedly doubled next year. So I was slipping down a deep dark financial abyss. Well, fortunately, Carol was sitting a few feet away from me during this event; I grabbed her, got an immediate EFT session and everything immediately turned around. It was the most amazing personal and practical application of EFT I had ever experienced. So I can tell you very truthfully and from very recent personal experience that it really does work. And best of all Carol was kind enough to give you a free 45-minute audio of one of her lectures so you can really get this at a deep level. If you ever have money challenges you simply must listen to this audio.

The New Mental Diet

from

Enhance your Personal Success


One of the most powerful personal programming activities you can engage in is positive self-talk. Be your own cheerleader and talk to yourself positively all of the time.

Think About Your Dreams
As it happens, the average person talks to himself in a negative way. As much as 94 percent of your inner dialogue tends to be about the things you fear, your worries, the people you're angry at, your problems, your concerns and so on.

You have to consciously keep your words, your inner dialogue, consistent with what you wish to accomplish.

The Most Powerful Antidote
Psychologists have proven that the words, “I can do it,” are the antidote to the fear of failure that often holds you back from trying. Repeat these words over and over to yourself whenever you feel fearful or doubtful about anything that you want to attempt.

Say very enthusiastically to yourself, “I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!” When you start saying, “I can do it, I can do it,” you drive that message deep into your subconscious mind. This message lowers your fears and builds your self-confidence.

Make A Million!
Another thing you can say to yourself is, “I make a million. I make a million.” Impress that message into your subconscious mind. Whenever you think about your work, say over and over again, “I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best.”

Making any one of these three statements, or anything that is positive makes you feel good about yourself and causes you to be more motivated. You become more focused, more determined. Wealthy, successful people have a continuous inner dialogue that is positive and constructive and uplifting and consistent with their goals and objectives

Feed Your Mind Continually
Feed your mind from morning to night with words, pictures, information and ideas consistent with your goals for financial success. Develop the habit of thinking positively and confidently about wealth accumulation.

Read stories, books and articles about other successful people. Think about how you could be like them. Visualize yourself, imagine, fantasize, pretend in your mind that you are like the kind of people that you admire and respect and want to be like.

Select A Role Model
Psychologists have proven that role models are essential for magnetizing your mind with the qualities and characteristics that you wish to develop in yourself. Pick a person that you admire.

Whenever you face any kind of difficult situation, ask yourself, how would this person act in this situation? What would this person do? How would this person behave? You'll find that when you think about how someone you admire might behave, your own thinking becomes better and you tend to act at your very best.

Become An Expert
Read everything you can find about your business. Become an expert in your field. The more you learn about your profession, your trade and your craft, the more confident you will become that you can do well in it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put yourself on the new mental diet for financial success:

First, repeat to yourself, over and over again, the wonderful words “I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!" Whenever you are anticipating any new goal or opportunity. This affirmation builds your self-confidence and conditions you for success.

Second, monitor your mental diet the way you would your physical diet. Be sure that you feed yourself throughout the day with positive stories, words, pictures and conversations about the things you want to have in your life. Refuse to read, watch, listen to or discuss things that are negative or depressing. This will make a tremendous difference in how you feel and how you act.

Heavenly drink inspires musings on bartender as God

By Gary Regan

"What's the difference between God and a bartender, Professor?" Hal, a guy who tends bar at Duffy's, an Irish pub in Hoboken, N.J. and is in town for an extended bar crawl, grins at our cocktailian bartender.

"Old one, Hal. God doesn't think She's a bartender," quips the Professor.

"Guess when you live as long as you, you've heard them all before, huh?"

"I'll pretend you didn't say that, Hal, and I'll make you a drink created by a bartender who some people think is God. Unless he's the Antichrist ..."

These tongue-in-cheek sentiments were posted earlier this year on Yelp.com when a debate was being held about "who is the best bartender in San Francisco." The bartender being discussed at the time was Neyah White, a guy who holds forth from behind the mahogany at Nopa, a restaurant on Divisadero Street that specializes in organic wood-fired cuisine.

White himself has no God complex, but some of his creations are quite heavenly, and the Washhouse, the drink that the Professor is about to fix for Hal, is one of them.

Named Washhouse because of the nature of the business that was previously housed in the space that Nopa now occupies -- it used to be a laundry -- the drink is made with a base of Square One organic vodka, a spirit that White also likes to serve as a Naked Martini, merely chilled over ice and served straight up with a Castelvetrano olive on the side.

"The Castelvetranos are a wonderful complement (to the vodka), rather a briny counterpoint. They have this creamy green thing going on that changes the way one thinks of cocktail olives," he says, adding, "The only downside is that the brine is oily rather than salty, so dirty martinis must be served with a disclaimer."

Square One, made from 100 percent American rye, isn't the only organic vodka on the market. Rain, another American product, but made from 100 percent organic white corn, has been around since 1996, and last year it garnered the only double-gold medal in the super-premium vodka category of the San Francisco World Spirits Championship.

The base of Orange V, an orange-flavored vodka, is also made entirely from certified organic grains, and the spirit is then flavored with Floridian fruits such as Valencia oranges, mandarins and tangerines. It's probable that we'll be seeing more organic spirits and liqueurs on the shelves in the very near future.

The Professor serves the Washhouse cocktail to Hal. The drink is made with muddled fresh basil, and it's garnished with a sprig of fresh thyme. Hal eyes the glass, then bursts into laughter.

"Sorry, Professor. I'm sure it's a really great drink, but I could never serve it to the likes of my customers at Duffy's. But I once tried to get Doug, one of my regulars, to try a drink that looks similar to this."

"Did he like it, Hal?"

"He wouldn't touch it, actually. Told me that if he wanted Italian dressing he'd stick with Newman's Own."

---

Washhouse

Adapted from a recipe by Neyah White, bartender at Nopa, San Francisco

INGREDIENTS:

4 to 5 fresh basil leaves

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup

1 1/2 ounces Square One organic vodka

1 sprig fresh thyme, as garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place the basil, lime juice and the simple syrup into an empty mixing glass, and muddle with a wooden muddler. Add ice and the vodka, and shake for approximately 15 seconds. Strain through a fine strainer into a chilled cocktail glass, and add the garnish.

Gary Regan is the author of "The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft" and other books. E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.

Why All the Guilt About Being Wealthy?

There’s a strange dichotomy in Western culture, with people desiring great wealth but also believing that the rich should feel bad about having so much.

We watch TV shows devoted to lifestyles of millionaires, envying their marble-tiled bathrooms, private jets and closets full of $300 shoes, but we also feel like actually having all that money is something to be ashamed of. It really doesn’t make sense.

The basis of our capitalist society is the acquisition of wealth – it’s called the “American dream,” and our economy relies on it. Money provides us with food, clothes, shelter, cars and a wide variety of luxuries, and it also makes our later years more pleasant.

But many people find it difficult to enjoy wealth once they achieve it, suffering from an affliction that’s been nicknamed “affluenza” – a sense of confusion, guilt and even depression that hits the newly rich.

Sometimes acquiring wealth brings with it an overwhelming fear of losing it, with the subject becoming increasingly anxious over investments, expenditures over home improvements, and small, seemingly unimportant purchases.

Terror of losing money may make someone scared to take risks with their money, even if they made their money through risky speculations in the first place. It can also turn rich people into penny pinching misers, spending thousands of dollars to build a tennis court behind the home but never picking up a lunch check.

Self-made entrepreneurs who hit it big often become workaholics, as if they have to burn the midnight oil to justify their success. They say they’re working so hard to provide for their families, yet their families don’t get enough quality time with them.

In the process of building their fortune by devoting the lion’s share of their energies to their business, they lose the love of the people closest to them. But actually enjoying their money isn’t an option for many of the newly rich, who get in the habit of working so hard that they never take a break to play a little.

But money – particularly money that you’ve earned through hard work and smart investing – shouldn’t something that causes family problems and depression. And it certainly shouldn’t be something of which to be ashamed.

Sure, movies and television usually portray rich people as mean, bitter people who have no qualms about stabbing others in the back to get what they want. But there are as many good-hearted rich people as there are good people of modest means.

Millionaires like Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey create foundations to spread portions of their wealth among those less fortunate – and still enjoy their money, building fabulous houses and flying their own jets to far-flung locations.

So achieve your dreams of wealth and then take the time to enjoy your money. After all, it’s what you’ve been working towards. Being rich doesn’t make you a bad person any more than being poor makes you a bad one – it’s all in how you choose to live your life, so make the most of your success and have a good time!

Starting 11 years ago, Jamie McIntyre took less than 5 years to become a self made millionaire. In the last 8 years as a world leading educator and success coach, he has touched the lives of 165,000 Australians and New Zealanders and recently people world wide, producing many millionaires in the process and helping many retire early. http://www.jamie-mcintyre.com

The first of its kind -- Is this a sign of the future

by jason lee, the southern

CARBONDALE - Carbondale may enter uncharted territory if it seeks to capture the city's electric power infrastructure from Ameren through the use of eminent domain.

Erica Abbett, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis-based utility company, said Thursday she was unaware of any other city that had sought eminent domain power to take over a power distribution system from the company.

"I'm not sure, but this sounds like the first of its kind," she said.

Abbett said the legality of such a move would need to be explored, but added that Carbondale was free to consider alternatives to provide its residents with electric power.

"The city of Carbondale certainly has the right to explore all of its options," Abbett said. "We all have one thing in mind, and that's to do what's best for the customers."

The idea was sparked Tuesday by Mayor Brad Cole, who said the city should look into taking over the power system to avoid pending rate hikes by Ameren next year.

Cole proposed the move after the Carbondale City Council passed a resolution urging the Illinois General Assembly to extend a freeze on electric rates imposed in 1997.

The rate freeze is set to expire in January and Ameren has said electric rates could increase from 45 to 55 percent. The company also has warned of substantial layoffs if the freeze is extended.

Cole said cities such as Flora and McLeansboro already manage their own power systems, and the city could seek help from the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency to establish the system.

"With the 40-plus-percent increase Ameren is proposing, their rates will be more than double what we could probably charge if we got into the electrical distribution business," Cole said Tuesday. "The answer is likely substantial savings to the customer and an additional revenue source for the city."

The legality of using eminent domain authority to seize power lines on city right-of-way remains a question.

City Attorney Jeff Birkbigler said Thursday he was still researching recent changes to the state's eminent domain laws and whether they would affect the plan.

Ameren and its subsidiaries serve about 1.2 million electric and nearly 800,000 natural gas customers in Illinois.

State and city officials have criticized the company for the announced rate hikes and the threat of layoffs if the state's rate freeze is extended.

Critics, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, have said Ameren's predictions are not credible because the company has enjoyed a solid bottom line and is only using scare tactics to push through the rate increases.

In a statement released earlier this month, Ameren Illinois President Scott A. Cisel warned that a rate freeze extension could lead Ameren's suppliers to "cut off the supply of electricity and natural gas" and cause the company to be insolvent by February.

Cisel said the company is not making idle threats.

"It's important for people to understand that if legislators extend the rate freeze, cash and available credit will dry up," Cisel said. "Consequently, Ameren Illinois utilities will no longer be able to buy power and natural gas."

In deciding whether to move forward, Cole said the city would also have to explore the cost of hiring extra employees or possibly contracting the work of maintaining an electrical system.

"This will take a lot of investigation and study, but if we could save hundreds and maybe thousands a year per household, I think it's at least worth taking a look at," he said.

"This is definitely thinking way outside the box, but we need some solutions. The general assembly isn't going to do anything."

jason.lee@thesouthern.com

(618) 351-5031

The Golden Hour

from

Enhance your Personal Success

You become what you think about most of the time. And the most important part of each day is what you think about at the beginning of that day.

Start Your Day Right
Take 30 minutes each morning to sit quietly and to reflect on your goals. You'll find when you read the biographies and autobiographies of successful men and women that almost everyone of them began their upward trajectory to success when they begin getting up early in the morning and spending time with themselves.

Feed Your Mind With Positive Ideas
This is called the Golden Hour. The first hour sets the tone for the day. The things that you do in the first hour prepare your mind and set you up for the entire day. During the first thirty to sixty minutes, take time to think and review your plans for the future.

Use Your Quiet Time Effectively
Here are four things that you can do during that quiet time in the morning. Number one is to review your plans for accomplishing your goals and change your plans if necessary.

Number two is think of better ways to accomplish your goals. As an exercise, assume that the way you're going about it is totally wrong and imagine going about it totally differently. What would you do different from what you're doing right now?

Number three, reflect on the valuable lessons that you have learned and are learning as you move toward your goals.

Practice Daily Visualization
Number four, calmly visualize your goal as a reality. Close your eyes, relax, smile, and see your goal as though it were already a reality. Rewrite your major goals everyday in the present tense. Rewrite them as though they already existed. Write “I earn X dollars.”

“I have a net worth of X.” “I weigh a certain number of pounds.” This exercise of writing and rewriting your goals everyday is one of the most powerful you will ever learn.

Fasten Your Seatbelt
Your life will start to take off at such a speed that you'll have to put on your seatbelt. Remember, the starting point for achieving financial success is the development of an attitude of unshakable confidence in yourself and in your ability to reach your goals.

Everything we've talked about is a way of building up and developing your belief system until you finally reach the point where you are absolutely convinced that nothing can stop you from achieving what you set out to achieve.

Everything Counts
No one starts out with this kind of an attitude, but you can develop it using the law of accumulation. Everything counts. No efforts are ever lost. Every extraordinary accomplishment in the result of thousands of ordinary accomplishments that no one recognizes or appreciates.

The greatest challenge of all is for you to concentrate your thinking single-mindedly on your goal and by the law of attraction, you will, you must inevitably draw into your life the people, circumstances and opportunities you need to achieve your goals.

Become A Living Magnet
Once you've mastered yourself and your thinking, you will become a living magnet for ideas and opportunities to become wealthy. It's worked for me and for every successful person I know.

It will work for you if you'll begin today, now, this very minute, to think and talk about your dreams and goals as though they were already a reality. When you change your thinking, you will change your life. You will put yourself firmly on the road to financial independence.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do every single day to keep your mind focused on your financial goals:

First, get up every morning a little bit earlier and plan your day in advance. Take some time to think about your goals and how you can best achieve them. This sets the tone for the whole day.

Second, reflect on the valuable lessons you are learning each day as you work toward your goals. Be prepared to correct your course and adjust your actions. Be absolutely convinced that you are moving rapidly toward your goals, no matter what happens temporarily on the outside. Just hang in there!

Flatiron Lounge takes patrons to new heights with creative flights of classic cocktails

By Gary Regan

Every time I think of Julie Reiner and her Flatiron Lounge in Manhattan, I hear Frank Sinatra crooning in my head.

Let's take a boat to Bermuda,
Let's take a plane to Saint Paul,
Let's grab a kayak to Quincy
or Nyack,
Let's get away from it all.

Of course, Rat Pack music isn't the specialty of the house at Flatiron. But flights of cocktails are one of the main attractions there, and just hearing their names makes me yearn for an escape.

In the past, for instance, Reiner has offered a trio of cocktails of French origin in her "Flight to France." The "Flight to New Orleans" consisted of a trio of favorites from the Big Easy, and more recently she featured three pisco-based cocktails in her "Flight to Peru."

"We wanted to create an atmosphere where our guests would sit down and be verbally told three cocktails straight off," Reiner explains. "Many people go ahead and try the flight and are able to sample more cocktails than they would have had they just ordered them on their own.

Our goal is to educate the public about new and classic cocktails, and to get them to order something other than that same old vodka tonic that they always drink."

Although the flights are a big draw for customers at the lounge, Reiner says an added bonus of offering flights is that they serve as a great teaching tool for her servers. Each time a new flight is offered, the whole staff must learn about three new drinks.

"They are forced to learn many cocktails, their ingredients, and how to describe them," she says, adding that the servers tend to retain that knowledge because they repeat the information often during the period a flight is offered.

Flatiron opened in May 2003, and the initial goal was for it to be "a high-end, classy cocktail lounge that focused on quality," Reiner says. "I wanted to showcase the cocktail in a place that was not a restaurant."

She seems to have hit the mark. "We have a regular clientele who come in looking forward to our seasonal cocktails, and who know that our cocktails are consistent and made with care," she says.

Reiner's flights don't always have a geographical destination. For example, Flatiron has featured a "Flight Back in Time" that included a drink from the 1930s called The Corpse Reviver #2; a Martinez, which dates back to the late 19th century; and a New York Sour, a drink made with rye whiskey, lemon and orange juice, simple syrup, and a float of red wine.

I can't find a definitive date for the origin of the New York Sour, but the New York Cocktail, a very similar drink, was detailed in print prior to the onset of Prohibition in 1920.

Sometimes you can find flights of drinks at Flatiron in which a base ingredient is the common denominator. Gin was the spirit of choice when the "Juniper Flight" was introduced there, and all three cocktails in the flight were created by Reiner herself.

She added elderflower cordial, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice and a dash of lime juice to gin to make her Juniper Breeze. She also made her own hibiscus syrup, which she added to a tot of gin along with some youngberry juice and lemon juice to create her Hibiscus Swizzle.

You can probably guess what went into her Lychee & Lemongrass Fizz.

I have neither the time nor the money to take a boat to Bermuda right now, and a plane to Saint Paul is pretty much out of the question, too, so I might just pop down to the Flatiron Lounge instead.

It's time to get away from it all.

Contact Gary Regan at gary@ardentspirits.com

Create Wealth – How to Make Money Fast with Low Risk

By Sacha Tarkovsky

Anyone can create wealth and there are 4 main points to consider, there easy to learn and if you implement them, you will create wealth with low risk.

You don’t need to work long hours and you don’t need to be innovative, all you need to do is follow the tips below.

So, here are your 4 simple tips to create wealth and an example of how to put them to work for you.

1. You are Responsible

No one else is going to do it for you. You’re on your own, but that’s the best way.

In today’s society we like to consult experts on a wide variety of things, however if you consult an expert on how to create wealth, the only people likely to get rich are them!

Forget, MLM, gambling and finance sure fire systems from a guru, or any other scheme where you pay a few hundred dollars to unlock the door to unlimited wealth.

They don’t work.

Wealth creation is all about having some capital and putting it to good use make it grow. We will give you an example of how to do this however for now lets look at the other 3 tips:

2. Working Smart V Working Hard

Lots of people work hard, however hard work does not result in wealth creation and there is no correlation between working hard and making money.

If you want to make money you need to work smart and there's a big difference.

Working smart means, spotting an opportunity and using your own judgment in an area that offers you good risk to reward.

3. Understanding compound growth

Most people are in to much of hurry to create wealth and want to get rich overnight.

Because they are in to much of a hurry, they end up losing their money by taking to much risk.

Wealth creation does take a bit of time to get started, but once you start making money compound growth soon kicks in and your money builds exponentially.

For example.

If you have $30,000 to start, to get to $120,000 will take 3 years (at 100% annual growth ) giving you a profit of $90,000.

However, the next year at the same growth rate you will make $120,000 profit in just one year.

As your nest egg builds your money works for you and grows exponentially.

The important point to remember is:

Make your money work for you.

That means taking advantage of compound growth as illustrated above.

4. Understanding risk & reward

Compound growth makes your money work for you as it grows as your profits are re invested.

You must be careful however to keep risk low and NOT lose it.

You need to target:

The highest growth rate to lowest downside risk - Not the highest growth rate.

For example, if you lose 50% on $100,000 you have $50,000 left. You then have to make a 100% to get back to square one.

Which investment would you rather have?

A. One that has potential growth of 200% with a 80% chance of losing all your funds.

Or:

B. One that has 100% growth potential with a 10% chance you will lose all your funds.

If you have understood the above, you will see the way to create wealth is to pick investment B.

As you create money, compound growth kicks in accelerating your gains.

Balancing the risk to reward will ensure your money grows swiftly with low downside risk.

That’s great, but can you give me an example of a good investment ?

A great investment to create wealth is land.

It’s cheap, in short supply, has massive growth potential, low risk and finally, it’s simple to understand and invest in.

Prime land is simply in short supply.

If you buy in booming economies and target land next to growing urbanization or a growing infrastructure, you can sell it on at huge profits once the land is developed.

One of the best locations is just 3 hours direct flight from the USA.

In Costa Rica, Americans are buying beachfront property at up to 70% less than in the US and of course it has to be built on land.

This is yielding profits of up to 100% per annum for savvy land investors buying in the right locations.

Even better downside volatility is very low.

So, if you put the 4 tips to work we have given you above buying land in Costa Rica you could soon see your money growing quickly with low risk.

Check out this way of creating wealth and you may be glad you did.

FREE LAND INVESTING INFO For more information on Costa Rica land investment and for all the facts. Visit our website for reports and the best deals in ocean view land lots at: http://www.costaricalandlots.com

Earn Ten Times As Much

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

Here's an exercise for you; imagine that it's possible for you to earn ten times your current annual wage. If you're earning $25,000, imagine for a moment that it's possible for you to earn $250,000, a 1000% increase.

Don't Sell Yourself Short
The first reaction of most people to that exercise is to smile briefly and then to begin thinking about why it isn't possible. One man said to me, "If you knew how many years it's taken for me to get to what I'm earning today you wouldn't be suggesting that I could earn ten times as much."

Never A Good Excuse
Mark Twain once wrote that there are a thousand excuses for every failure but never a good reason. The tragedy of the average American is that whereas his or her main preoccupation seems to be money, or the lack thereof, the average person has the inherent potential to earn far more than he or she is doing currently.

Is the manager earning $250,000 per year ten times as smart as the manager earning $25,000? 10 times as experienced? Does he or she work 10 times harder? Of course not.

None of these are physically or mentally possible, but there are people in every business earning many times more than others with the same average age, experience and intelligence.

The Results Are In
In fact, a few years ago in New York, a thousand men and women were selected at random and tested for I.Q. Between the one having the highest I.Q. in this sample and the one with the lowest, there was a difference of only 2 1/2 times.

But between the person earning the most, who by the way, was not the one with the highest I.Q. and the one earning the least, who was not the one with the lowest I.Q., there was a difference of 100X in income.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start increasing your earnings.

First, identify the highest earning, most successful people in your field and find out what it is that they are doing differently from others who aren’t doing as well. Copy them every day.

Second, set a goal to double your earnings over the next two or three years and then figure out how to accomplish that goal.

Beverage Nip and Tuck

It's Time for an Extreme Bar Makeover

A great way to prepare for the holidays is by making over your bar. When you first think of making over your bar, you probably associate huge costs and major construction with it, but the procedure actually can be done with a limited budget without ever closing your doors.

Our company, Patrick Henry Creative Promotions Inc., recently conducted a massive bar revitalization for Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern in which 266 units were tasked with successfully making over their bars. The following are phases of a bar makeover to assist you with making sure your bar is efficient and profitable.

Phase I: Evaluate Your Product Mix

Run a p-mix for at least six months to determine your top-selling items. If you do not have hard data from a computer system, then meet with your bar staff to decide what is actually selling.

You could even track sales for a few weeks and review your purchases for the month.The p-mix data will reveal how your bar should be set up by determining your top-25-selling drinks.

If you sell a lot of bottled beer, you should make sure your coolers are working at top performance. You could also consider adding an iced down beer bath for your top-selling beers.
If you sell mostly Martinis and specialty cocktails, then look at bottle placements on the back bar to make sure the top brands are in easy reach for your bartenders.

If you have multiple stations behind the bar, you should have more than one bottle open of the most popular brands. There is no rule that says top-shelf brands can’t be in the speed rail. If you pick up the Ketel One bottle 30 times in a shift, then put it in the speed rail.

You would still want one on the back bar so guests know you serve it, but make it easier for the bartenders to make the popular drinks. The final information that you can use from the p-mix is if a product is just not selling, you can get rid of it.

Lighten up the number of brands you have on the back bar to those you are selling and those you have for limited-time-only promotions. You might still have a few brands that are kept for special customers, but inventory should be kept low.

If you are not selling at least a bottle per month, then you probably don’t need the brand. There are always going to be exceptions to the rule, but stay away from cluttering up the back bar and bringing in every new brand that comes along.

Phase II: Deep-Clean the Bar

You more than likely conduct monthly general cleanings where you order a pizza and invite the entire staff to help clean the bar from top to bottom. These cleanings provide a time to discuss upcoming promotions and other important matters.

The deep bar cleaning is different, however. You should break down the entire bar, including emptying every cooler and every storage area. Pull all bottles from the back bar and each station.

You should look at installing new bar matting for under the glassware and purchase new bar tools for the bar staff. The bar should be set up to be most efficient at making the new top 25 drinks.

One way to do this is to get a label-maker and make labels for placement of top-selling spirits. Top-selling spirits should also be arranged next to each other when they are combined to create the top 25 cocktails.

The placement labels should be placed on the back bar and speed rails behind where the actual bottles sit and should be out of guest view. We recommend placing a strip of black electrical tape under the labels to make them easier to read and to help keep them straight.

The most popular beers should be in the coolers closer to the bar stations. If you have reach-in coolers, place the popular beers in the middle, near the opening. Low volume beers should be placed closer to the door hinge and/or on the bottom shelf.

Look at your glassware and determine if it is up-to-date. Glassware says a lot about your establishment and creates a perceived value with your customers. If you are still using a 5-ounce rocks glass and filling it with a few ice cubes or serving wine in a 6-ounce glass and filling it to the top, then you might want to consider new glassware.

If you use plastic cups, try to use better quality clear plastic, and, if possible, still serve wine in a nice wine glass.

Phase III:
Merchandising Materials

We have all received a branded backbar or bartop piece. Even though these are free, we don’t want our bars to start looking like a stockcar pit. Try to keep the logo merchandising to a minimum.

On the back bar, your space probably is limited, and more times than not the bottle platform is simply too big. If you have a complete line of flavors from one brand of vodka, and they give you a lighted back bar piece, then it might work.

As for the bar top area, try not to use too many branded items. Pour mats are very popular, but usually the free ones are too thin and just don’t work that well. The same is true with straw and napkin holders.

Although they are great marketing tools, table tents can get in the way. “Visual pollution” is becoming more and more a problem in our bars. Try to figure out the best vehicle for communicating specials to you customers and focus on that.

If you have a dinner menu, drink menu, banners, table tents, well-trained staff, fliers at the door and a calendar of events on the table, you might be going a little overboard. A well-trained staff is your best form of marketing.

If your staff is talking about a particular item, then your guests are more likely to take part in a promotion. If you have a consistent format for communicating promotions, your customers will know exactly where to look for them.

Phase IV: Fine Tuning

After the bar is clean and organized, it is time to finish the bar makeover. Start by checking all of your juices, mixers and garnishes. Have your soda provider come out and “BRIX” your soda guns.

You order your own kit with directions, but be sure to request the separator for a bar gun. By balancing the syrup to soda ratio at least every three months, you will ensure your soft drink mixers taste great.

Next, take a look at your juices and make sure you are serving quality brands. Mixers make a big difference in drink quality. Only great products make great drinks. Be sure your bar staff is rotating your juices as well.

A great tool for this is to color code your juices with colored electrical tape and label them with day dots. As for garnishes, establish a par system and only cut enough fruit for each shift. Shelf life for cut garnishes is only 24 hours. NCB

Wealth Creation – 3 Tips Anyone Can Use To Create Wealth

By Sacha Tarkovsky

Anyone can create wealth, it’s just that some do it better than others, because they follow some simple rules.

While there are stories of people being innovative or being lucky, this is not the norm of people who build wealth.

It’s easy to create wealth, but you need to follow three simple tips and if you do chances are you will.

So, here are your 3 essential tips for wealth creation.

1. Do it yourself

No one else is going to do it for you. Forget people who sell you books and ideas on MLM, gambling, finance or any other scheme where you pay a dew hundred dollars for unlimited wealth.

People want an easy way and end up disappointed buy these schemes and you will end up creating wealth for the person who sold you the scheme and not create wealth for yourself.

Wealth creation is all about having some capital and putting it to good use i.e make it grow.

Whatever scheme you choose for wealth creation, think for yourself and make your own mind up and don’t blindly follow others.

2. You Need To Work Smart NOT Hard

Lots of people work hard but this hard work does not result in wealth creation and there is correlation between the two.

The fact is, if you want to make money you need to work smart NOT hard and there is a big difference.

Working smart means simply being able to spot an opportunity and act on your own judgement, in an area that offers you good risk reward.

3. Understand Speed & Compound Growth

Most people are in to much of hurry to create wealth and want to do it over night and quickly.

The result is, they take to much risk and lose all their money and wonder about what might have been.

What you need to understand is wealth creation does take a bit of time and you need to balance risk - reward.

The important point is to make your money work for you and that means taking advantage of compound growth.

Which investment would you rather have?

One that made 200% annually and you had a 50% chance of losing all your money, or one that made 50% with a 5% chance you would lose all your money?

I would pick the latter and that’s what all savvy investors do.

Keep in mind if you made 50% for 12 years on just $30,000 you would be a comfortable millionaire.

As you create wealth it grows exponentially, as compound growth kicks in accelerating your gains.

This is the way to make money balancing the risk – reward and watching your money grow.

What is a good simple way to create wealth?

Most of the world’s wealthiest families have made money buying land – Before you think this does not sound like a way to create wealth, read on:

Land is cheap, land is easy to buy and sell and if you buy in the right location, you can make 50 – 100% annually, with low risk!

We have all heard of the people who got rich in land investment in California or Florida turning small sums into millions today, there are different new destinations where savvy investors are creating wealth quickly.

Most are overseas and the advantage of buying land here is its cheaper, growth rates are more and the risk is less than in many industrialized countries.

Land is a great wealth building tool and offers some of the highest growth rates to risk of any investment.

For wealth creation there is no better tool for the average guy to make some big profits. It’s easy and not expensive to get in on the action, explore the facts and decide for yourself.

FREE WEALTH REPORT! For a free report on how to create wealth from land investment and some places to get triple digit annula gains potential with low risk visit: http://www.net-planet.org/costarica.php

Mythbusters: Saving for Retirement is Hard

By Jeffrey Hauser

Not necessarily. Actually, it depends on your definition of ‘hard.’ I began a 401K and pension fund when I was hired on at my company 24 years ago. Today, I have a nice retirement. But that was just my individual case and I’m sure your circumstance is far different.

So let’s focus on you, instead. Whether you’re twenty or forty, you have to make a tough decision. You have to do without something now to benefit later. In other words, you have to save money now, and that means sacrifice.

The younger you are, the less you have to give up. That’s because your savings multiplies faster over a longer term. Hence, you can put aside a small amount and watch it grow using the magic of compound interest.

Assuming that you can get a 5% return on an average investment, we can run a simple chart. That return is based on most common tables that are not tied to equities or bond funds. Although most experts would agree either should generate that type of return.

Even guaranteed CD’s, or certificates of deposits, backed by FDIC for safety sake, can offer similar rates. But whatever device you choose, let’s use that number.

So let’s look at one example. Suppose you are 25 years old and make $10 an hour or $400 a week or $1600 a month. After taxes that’s about $1200 monthly. I want just $150 of that, for your monthly investment.

Figure that if you were to give up a Starbucks coffee costing $5 every day, there’s your $150 a month. Do that for the next 40 years and you’ve given me $72,000. But, by investing the monthly amount in a 5% returning account, the compound interest turns this into $228,900 by age 65.

Not bad for someone doing without a Vente Café Mocha Latte every day. Now, as you make more with raises, job changes, etc., and you could quadruple that investment, you’ve got over $1,000,000 for retirement.

But I’ve got an even better plan. Could you squirrel away $5,000 for that first year? I know that’s a lot to ask, but hear me out. If you could manage to put aside $10,000 over two years and invest it, never putting in another dime, you won’t be able to guess what you would amass after 40 years.

$50,000! But, if you could somehow get a 10% return instead, investing the same $10,000 for 40 years we would make you about $500,000! That is an example of how the interest rate affects the return. And there are ways to generate a 10% return using equities or mortgages. I suggest you talk to an investment adviser for that information.

The great advantage of this plan is you: (a) didn’t have to give up much, (b) don’t have to be an investment wizard, (c) let time and compound interest work for you, and (d) can look forward to a healthy retirement.

Of course, the more you’re willing to give up now, the greater the end result. But working harder isn’t the answer: it’s saving smarter and earlier. Therefore, if you’re in your twenties and figure retirement is decades away, you’re right and that can work in your favor.

So start planning now and the rest will take care of itself. Savings for retirement is hard? Myth busted!

Jeffrey Hauser was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. He has authored 6 books and a novel, "Pursuit of the Phoenix." His latest book is, "Inside the Yellow Pages" which can be seen at his website, http://www.poweradbook.com. Currently, he is the Marketing Director for thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information and Doctor Referral site.

The Law Of Capital

from

Enhancing your Financial Success

The Law of Capital — your most valuable asset, in terms of cash flow, is your physical and mental capital, your earning ability.

Your Earning Ability
You may not even be aware that, unless you are wealthy already, your ability to work is the most valuable asset that you have. By utilizing your earning ability to its fullest, you can bring thousands of dollars each year into your life.

By applying your earning ability to the production of valuable goods and services, you can generate sufficient money to pay for all the things that you want in life. The amount of money that you are paid today is a direct measure of the extent to which you have developed your earning ability so far.

Use Your Time Well
The first corollary of the Law of Capital says: “Your most precious resource is your time.” Your time is really all you have to sell. How much time you put in and how much of yourself you put into that time, largely determines your earning ability.

Poor time management is one of the major reasons for poor productivity and underachievement in every industry in America. It is the number one problem for both managers and salespeople in every field.

Invest Yourself Carefully
The second corollary of the Law of Capital says: “Time and money can be either spent or invested.” One of the smartest things that you can do is to invest three percent of your income every month back into yourself on personal and professional development, on becoming better at the most important things you do.

n fact, if you just invested as much in your mind each year as you do in your car, that alone could make you rich.

Invest one hour of your time reading in your field every day. Listen to audio programs in your car. Attend every course that can advance you in your career. Get personal and professional coaching to help you to get the very best out of yourself.

Get Better At The Things You Do
There is nothing that will give you a bigger and better “bang” for your buck than reinvesting a part of your time and money back into your capability to earn even more. All wealthy and successful Americans have learned this sooner or later, and all poor and unhappy Americans are still trying to figure it out.

Increase Your Return on Life
The third corollary of the Law of Capital says: “One of the best investments of your time and money is to increase your earning ability.”

The purpose of corporate strategic planning is to increase “return on equity” or ROE. This requires organizing and reorganizing corporate activities so that the company is earning a higher return on the capital invested in the organization.

In your work life, your personal equity is your mental and emotional capital. Your job then is to earn the highest possible return on your human capital, to increase your “return on energy.” This way of viewing yourself must become a key part of your attitude throughout your work life.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:

First, take a list of your output responsibilities, the things you do that represent accomplishments, not activities. Examine the list and rank the tasks by priority, on the basis of the value of the work to your company.

Second, take a list of all the things you do, day in and day out. Take this list to your boss and ask him or her to rank your tasks in terms of how valuable he or she considers them to be. Then resolve to work on your most valuable tasks every minute of every day.

Improve The Quality Of Your Thinking

from

Enhance your Personal Success

Anyone, Starting From Wherever They Are, Can Become Wealthy In America
In one series of I.Q. tests given to children ages 2 - 4 years, 95% of the children were found to be highly creative with curious, questioning minds and an ability for abstract thinking.

When the same children were tested again at age 7, only 5% still demonstrated high levels of creativity. In the ensuing years, they had learned to conform; "If you want to get along, you had better go along," is what they had discovered.

The Dangers of Conformity
They had learned to color between the lines, to sit in neat little rows, to do and say what the other kids did and said, and to do as they were told. Over time, they lost the wonderful fearless spontaneity of youth and learned to suppress ideas and insights that were unusual or different.

Aggressively Seek New Ideas
Most of us have had similar experiences. The "Not invented-here" syndrome in many large companies is simply the adult version of "not rocking the boat." But fortunately, since creativity is your birthright, a fundamental part of your nature, you can tap into it at any time, no matter how long it has been since you really used it.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to start thinking outside of your mental box.

First, imagine that there was a vastly better, cheaper, faster way to do your job — and somebody else had already discovered it and was going to put you out of business.

Second, imagine doing exactly the opposite of what you are doing today. Allow your mind to float freely and consider how current trends will change your business.

Selling Wintertime Brews

Seasonal Beer Brands Put Pints in Glasses and Smiles on Faces

When the weather gets cold, as a rule of thumb among beer connoisseurs, it takes a darker ale to take off the winter chill. However, any bar manager with an ounce of beer knowledge can ensure solid profits until the first spring thaw with a targeted and thorough winter brew line-up.

Seasonal Sellers

As beverage director for the Flying Saucer chain headquartered in Dallas, Keith Schlabs oversees the beer selection for 11 tap houses spread across Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. Each Flying Saucer has more than 200 beers — around 75 taps and 125 bottles.

One of Schlabs’ favorite winter beers is the Anchor Christmas from San Francisco. This beer changes every year, although it usually maintains a slightly piney flavor to it. At the very least, the coniferous tree featured on the bottle changes each year.

No matter the recipe or label, it’s a favorite at any Flying Saucer location. “It’s something our customers seek out every year,” Schlabs says.

“Another big winter beer is the Sierra Nevada Celebration from Chico, Calif. Harpoon Winter Ale from Massachusetts is another big mover during the cold months, as is the North Coast Wintertime Ale from northern California.

Pyramid Snowcap is another seasonal that sells well as the days grow shorter.”

Because the winter beers tend to be higher in alcohol content, they have a longer expiration date. That’s why Flying Saucer bars usually hold a beer back to compare the season-to-season change.

It’s always interesting to have a 2005 winter beer from one brewery to compare with a 2006 model.

Four-Wall Marketing Works

Flying Saucer operators promote their winter beers through a blackboard above the bar, handout advertising and table tabs. The staff also lets regulars know what is coming down the pike before it does.

It’s important to hype up winter beers with the staff so they can spread the good news with word of mouth. Also, Web sites are a good place to let customers know that winter beers are “coming soon.”

Chuck Skypeck, head brewer of the Boscos brewpub chain, says Boscos’ sales mix turns around dramatically with the changing of seasons.

Winter is a time for fuller-bodied, fuller-flavored beers, which seem to sell better every year, such as Boscos Wee Heavy, Boscos 90 Shilling Ale, Boscos Oatmeal Stout, Winter Warmer, Olde Fool and HopGod Ale.

In all, Boscos brews about 40 different beers a year. Brewing small batches in brewpub settings allows them to truly brew seasonally, which is what customers have grown to expect.

Opportunities to Promote

The Oskar Blues Grill & Bar in Lyons, Colo., features four beers regularly on tap, with at least one seasonal present. Dale’s Pale Ale and Old Chubb Scottish Ale have been regulars on that tap handle during the cold months in Colorado for nine years.

These beers also find their way into various festivals, such as the Telluride Music Festival, where the Oskar Blues Grill & Bar hosted a booth. “Wherever there is an opportunity, we’re there to get our name out,” Tyra Sutak, manager at Oskar, says.

Catcher of the Rye

Rye's Rebirth Tops Surprising Whiskey Trends

Before Prohibition, the most popular straight whiskey style in the United States was not bourbon and certainly not scotch (imports of all kinds were rare). Rather, it was straight rye whiskey.

In the 73 years since Repeal, rye has been in steady decline and looked like it might disappear altogether. Now, suddenly, rye is back, both as the whiskey of choice for classic cocktails such as the Manhattan and Sazerac and as a straight pour.

The Rye Deal

Although most bourbons contain rye, they are mostly corn. In a straight rye whiskey, rye is the dominant grain. It is a very flavorful drink, with a sharp, spicy and sometimes floral or perfumed taste and aroma.

Rejection by drinkers of that very pungent flavor led to rye’s decline and bourbon’s rise, but after the reign of tasteless vodkas and rums, flavorful drinks are back.

At straight rye’s high end, Heaven Hill’s new Rittenhouse Very Rare 21-Year-Old Single Barrel Straight Rye Whiskey joins the Classic Cask 21-year-old, Hirsch 21-year-old and Sazerac 18-year-old. All are flavor monsters, not for the faint of heart, and should be served neat or with room temperature water.

These products are all examples of two recent and surprising trends in American whiskey, the rebirth of straight rye and the interest in long aging. Rye, even more so than bourbon, stands up well to wood and provides an excellent balance of flavors in these most ancient expressions.

All the ones above are terrific pours, but pricey, and you need to know your customers very well before you make that kind of investment.

Also pricey, not for its age but for its small batch production, is Old Potrero, the only whiskey made from 100 percent malted rye. Though technically a rye, this whiskey has a very distinctive flavor and really is in a class by itself.

Slightly more affordable but still top shelf are the new Thomas H. Handy Uncut and Unfiltered Rye from Buffalo Trace, and the Michter’s 10-year-old.

For everyday pours and cocktails, good choices are the Sazerac 8-year-old (with its very eye-catching bottle), the standard Michter’s rye and the Rittenhouse bottled-in-bond. Rounding out the list are stalwarts Old Overholt, Jim Beam Rye and Wild Turkey Rye.

And, while we are on the subject, there are three bourbons that contain twice as much rye as the standard recipe. They are Bulleit, Old Grand-Dad and Basil Hayden. A standard bourbon is about 15 percent rye; Bulleit, Grand-Dad and Hayden are all about 30 percent; and the straight ryes are right at the legal minimum of 51 percent.

Patrons who favor these high rye bourbons may be good candidates for straight rye.

Many people still confuse American straight rye whiskey with Canadian whisky. The Canadian producers also are trying to cash in on the recent interest in rare and super-premium spirits.

Crown Royal’s latest bid is its new XR expression, which contains the last whisky made at the Waterloo Distillery in Ontario. Established in 1857, Waterloo was where the Seagram’s empire began.

Playful & Profitable

Among the whiskies of Scotland, where long aging has long been the norm, some of the most interesting products are youngish –– in the 10- to 12-year-old range –– and something equally rare; they are being made and marketed with a spirit of fun.

Compass Box started the trend, with expressions like “Peat Monster,” a vatted malt (which means it is all malt whiskey, but from multiple distilleries) stuffed full of smoke, and “Hedonism,” an unusual vatting of Scottish grain whiskies.

Another example is Smokehead, an Islay malt with a lot of, well, everything, but especially peaty smoke. The fact that these products show a willingness by scotch producers to kick up their kilts a bit is at least as important as the whiskies themselves.

Rejoining this party are two perennial favorites in the funny name category, Sheep Dip and Pig’s Nose, which have long been absent from the U.S. market. Sheep Dip is a vatted malt while Pig’s Nose is a blend (a mixture of malt and grain whiskies).

Some traditional names also are offering non-traditional expressions, typically as vattings. One example is Isle of Jura Superstition, which mellows a very peaty, Islay-style malt with another that is much softer.

Among the youngish single malts with marquee names, the 10-year-old Ardbeg and Balvenie 12-year-old double wood are both superior.

Whiskey producers of every ilk like to promote their rarest and oldest expressions, because those are the most expensive and profitable bottles. That is fine if you have that kind of customer, but most operators don’t have many patrons looking to pay $40 or $50 per drink.

The nice thing about almost all American whiskeys, as well as some of these young Scottish singles and "fun" vatted malts, is their affordability. Pig’s Nose may not have the prestige of a 30-year-old Laphroaig, but it will turn over a lot faster.

Another benefit of some of the more playful products is that they are easy to recommend in a busy club where your bartender can’t have a long discussion with the customer. A whisky called “Sheep Dip” or “Hedonism” is easy to recommend and pretty hard to resist. NCB

Charles K. Cowdery is the author of "Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey," as well as an expert in the field of whisky and whiskey. For more information, e-mail him at cowdery@ix.netcom.com