Natural and Sustainable

The key to balance is conscious awareness about your financial destiny and yoga is a great way to gain an environmental awareness of your finances. Take these steps to reenter yourself naturally.

• Seek out the truth: Do you know the truth about your financial situation and how much you owe compared to how much you earn, and spend. Many people don’t know the truth. It’s easier to avoid looking than to find out. Tell the truth to yourself as well as to others. It can be challenging, but yoga asks us to face the truth in all areas of life, including your spending habits. The site You Can Deal With It has tools for figuring out what you spend and how best to reduce your debt completely. To find out how much you owe to credit-card companies and other companies visit Annual Credit Report and find out the truth.

• Contemplate: Do you unconsciously tell yourself that you struggle financially, or that you live in abundance? Examine this question thoroughly as it relates to ways to understand you motivations. Unearth what you tell yourself, and you will see a blue print of your current financial life. How is your relationship to your parents and to money serving you? Do you feel you will lose something valuable, like security by changing the way you deal with money? Write down the truths you uncover. Then, brainstorm practical ways to get a handle on your spending and even your large amounts of debt you currently owe.

• Ask for help when you need it: Money is challenging for everyone, especially if you have not been taught the basics. Talk with a professional money advisor who has no products to sell. Consumer Credit Counseling Service offers free assistance. And find fee-only financial planners at The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Burgerville Burger Restaurants are now starting to compost their food waste. Read more about it here.

Bush’s recently approved economic stimulus package is supposed to help boost our economy that is slowly shrinking away, by returning funds back to the Americans who are cash-strapped. Bush assumes that all Americans who are going to receive their checks will turn around and spend it in the shopping malls and for purchases online as well. The federal debt is already at $9 trillion, will this little bit of return help our earth’s future? I have already heard so many people tell me how they already have their money ($600 or $1,200) spent. The earth is trying to heal while Americans are thinking, turn that money into a big screen TV or even something that will be thrown away when it’s time is done and used up.

Why not take that money and turn it around for the good instead of the bad? Here are some ideas to help you in the process.

• SRIs (Socially Responsible Investments): These are a way to invest financially in corporations that are legit as far as the environment is concerned such as:
1. Domini Social Investments
2. Pax World Mutual Funds
3. Calvert
All of these companies offer socially responsible mutual funds with companies that embrace fair labor practices, environmental preservation and human rights, to name a few.

• Green Century Funds, Portfolio 21 and the Sierra Club Stock Fund go the extra green mile with super strict eco-criteria for their mutual funds they offer the public.

• Village Banking, Accion, Grameen Foundation, and Kiva: These companies bolster a small business in the developing world through a micro loan. For a small investment, you can help third-world entrepreneurs escape poverty and improve their standards of living.

Here’s a timeline of when you might receive your money:

DIRECT DEPOSIT

Last two SSN digits: Payments will be transmitted no later than:
00 through 20 May 2
21 through 75 May 9
76 through 99 May 16

PAPER CHECK

Last two SSN digits: Payments will be mailed no later than:
00 through 09 May 16
10 through 18 May 23
19 through 25 May 30
26 through 38 June 6
39 through 51 June 13
52 through 63 June 20
64 through 75 June 27
76 through 87 July 4
88 through 99 July 11

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Cooking and baking with organic and natural products and food choices is a great way to avoid pesticides, and eating locally is a great way to keep the money in your own community and help the small-time farmers.