### WordPress - Web publishing software
Copyright 2011-2019 by the contributors
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
This program incorporates work covered by the following copyright and
permission notices:
b2 is (c) 2001, 2002 Michel Valdrighi - m@tidakada.com -
http://tidakada.com
Wherever third party code has been used, credit has been given in the code's
comments.
b2 is released under the GPL
and
WordPress - Web publishing software
Copyright 2003-2010 by the contributors
WordPress is released under the GPL
---
### GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
### Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if
you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on,
we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the
original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect
on the original authors' reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at
all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.
### TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
**0.** This License applies to any program or other work which
contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be
distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The
"Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work
based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work
under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or
a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or
translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is
included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee
is addressed as "you".
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program
(independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that
is true depends on what the Program does.
**1.** You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
along with the Program.
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a
fee.
**2.** You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any
portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
**a)** You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
**b)** You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part
thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties
under the terms of this License.
**c)** If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive
use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement
including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is
no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that
users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling
the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the
Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an
announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print
an announcement.)
These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote
it.
Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
collective works based on the Program.
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
the scope of this License.
**3.** You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
**a)** Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1
and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
**b)** Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of
physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable
copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the
terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for
software interchange; or,
**c)** Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed
only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the
program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in
accord with Subsection b above.)
The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
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special exception, the source code distributed need not include
anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
itself accompanies the executable.
If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
**4.** You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise
to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and
will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
parties remain in full compliance.
**5.** You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
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prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
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Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
the Program or works based on it.
**6.** Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on
the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
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You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
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**7.** If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of
patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent
issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order,
agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this
License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License.
If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your
obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations,
then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For
example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free
redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly
or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it
and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the
Program.
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
be a consequence of the rest of this License.
**8.** If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
**9.** The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new
versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and
"any later version", you have the option of following the terms and
conditions either of that version or of any later version published by
the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a
version number of this License, you may choose any version ever
published by the Free Software Foundation.
**10.** If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other
free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to
the author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by
the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation;
we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by
the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our
free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software
generally.
**NO WARRANTY**
**11.** BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR
OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME
THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
**12.** IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY
AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU
FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING
RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A
FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF
SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES.
### END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
### How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to
attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.
Copyright (C) yyyy name of author
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper
mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome
to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c'
for details.
The hypothetical commands \`show w' and \`show c' should show the
appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
commands you use may be called something other than \`show w' and
\`show c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever
suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
interest in the program `Gnomovision'
(which makes passes at compilers) written
by James Hacker.
signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program
into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library,
you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the
[GNU Lesser General Public
License](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html) instead of this
License.
Making The Most of Your Retirement Assets - sinth.info
Being newly retired or approaching retirement during an inflationary period can be very difficult.
You may have found your retirement accounts, such as 401k’s, IRA, and investment accounts, have taken a hit in the last two years or so. There’s a lot of commensurating going around.
Even with these hits to the market, don’t ignore your statements. Right now is a great time to position your portfolio to take advantage of the upswing in the market.
I’ll present you with some strategies to help you understand savings programs and how you can create a portfolio for savings and income that you can live with.
Seek Out A Financial Advisor
I’m constantly suggesting you seek out the advice of a financial advisor. That recommendation will never change.
The advisor will work with you to understand your needs, goals, risk tolerance, and timeframe and create a financial plan that can be a roadmap for you.
They can recommend investment choices that are best for you and shore up the weaknesses in your plan. They will learn how you feel about money and what you want and need your money to do for you. They will uncover obstacles that you may not have considered.
How Retirement is Affecting Patients with Blood Cancer and Their Families
Retirees affected by a disability are more likely to start off retirement with fewer assets.
As a result, the values of their household assets can be significantly lower than those of non-disabled retirees.
Here are some staggering statistics: One in three Americans age 65 or older have at least one disability. Your blood cancer can count as a disability.
Consider the ramifications of the possible inability to continue to earn a living prior to age 65, as well as continue to save for retirement as a result of the disability.
Add on the other possible burdens of a spouse leaving work early to be a caregiver. This affects many aspects of retirement, from preparedness to debt levels, and monthly spending.
More than half (61 percent) of disability-affected retirees said they saved less than was needed for retirement, compared to 41 percent of non-disability-affected retirees.
Disability-affected retirees were more likely to start off retirement with fewer assets and subsequently have lower median average values of household financial assets than non-disability-affected retirees. In fact, non-disability-affected retirees have 2.3 times the average current assets of disability-affected retirees.
Disability-affected retirees were less likely to report that they have an “easily manageable level of debt” and more likely to report having debt outstanding across all types of debt as compared to non-disability-affected retirees. Credit card and medical debt stood out as the largest difference with respect to debt prevalence.
Credit card and medical debt are where a lot of disabled-affected retirees can make a significant impact on their personal finances. Look at debt consolidation and hospital charity programs, as well as reduce discretionary spending, especially in an inflated economic environment.
Savings Rates in the United States
This may surprise you! In July 2023, the personal monthly savings rate (as a share of disposable income) amounted to 4.1%, up from 3.5% in July 2022. Guess what the savings rate was from April -May 2020? It was a large 32%.
Of course, because of COVID, very few people were spending. In fact, the high savings rate helped propel the inflated housing market.
In April 2021, the rate was 12.3%. We saw a precipitous fall to the current 3.5% in July. Inflated dollars helped to eat up income, therefore reducing savings.
The repeated conversations around the continued viability of Social Security should give everyone pause.
Even if it doesn’t go away completely, one must consider the possibility of reduced benefits, increasing the retirement age, or maybe even both.
Any of these scenarios will affect the greater population and, to a greater extent, those who are already financially challenged.
Increasing your Discretionary Income
According to SMARTASSET.com, discretionary income is the amount of a taxpayer’s earnings that remains after subtracting income taxes and other mandatory costs, like rent, mortgage payments, food, transportation, or insurance.
You can see that essential spending and nonessential spending is very subjective.
When you do a budget and see where your financial weaknesses are, you will quickly see where your earnings are going.
If you really tried, can you find some unnecessary or, perhaps, even wasteful spending? Curtailing this nonessential spending can open avenues for paying down debt, covering medical expenses, and increasing your financial health in general.
Some possibilities of nonessential spending can include:
Eating out versus making food at home
Unused or extra subscriptions for things you don’t truly need/watch/eat
Personal or household items or upkeep for those things that are unnecessary
When To Take Social Security to Maximize Benefit
Be aware of the effect on your retirement income if you take Social Security before full retirement age or at the age of 70. Understand the tax implications on your Social Security benefits.
If you take out your benefits before your full retirement age, a Social Security benefit is reduced 5/9 of one percent for each month that you take out benefits before the normal retirement age, up to 36 months before you turn 70.
If the number of months exceeds 36, then the benefit is further reduced by 5/12 of one percent per month.
Retiring early and taking social security benefits at age 62 can reduce your benefit as much as 30%.
Delaying your benefit until age 70 will yield the highest benefit. No additional increases by way of credits are given after age 70.
Know Your Income Buckets
Short-term bucket: This bucket should hold the money you need to cover your expenses for the next two to three years. These funds should be easily accessible and liquid in the event you need to get to them quickly and frequently in order to cover living expenses. Cash and short-term investments are included in this basket, as well as savings accounts, money market funds, and short-term bond funds. These are low-risk investments that should provide a reliable source of income. Because they are low-risk, the returns are modest, but they provide stability.
Intermediate-term bucket: This bucket’s assets should cover expenses from year 3 – through year 10 of retirement. The money in this basket should continue to grow to keep pace with inflation. However, funds should not be placed in high-risk investments. These could include longer-maturity bonds and CDs, preferred stocks, convertible bonds, growth and income funds, utility stocks, REITS and more. Working with a financial professional can help you determine the investments that will meet your financial goals.
Long-Term Bucket: This bucket of investments should mimic historical market returns. This bucket should grow your net egg more than inflation while also allowing you to refill your immediate and intermediate buckets. Long-term bucket investments are invested in riskier assets that may be volatile in the short term but have growth potential over ten years or more. The investments in this bucket would generally include longer-term investments such as growth funds, annuities, stocks, etc.
Reviewing Options for Accessing Retirement Plan Assets
Be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of rolling over or transferring retirement funds, or taking a loan, or withdrawing from retirement funds. You need to be aware of all your options and their associated consequences.
You don’t want to make a move without understanding the tax ramifications, associated fees, access limitations, distribution choices, or investment choices. Again, this is where a financial advisor is invaluable.
Understanding your retirement income options is important to know before you retire. Planning years before you retire is optimal.
Still, if you are newly retired or soon to retire, there’s still a lot you can do to avoid costly mistakes.