The Desert Independent

Dr. Glenn Mollette Working a job that pays you money is your best assurance for financial security. In 2021 manufacturers, construction, transportation companies, any entity that sells products, drivers and almost all employers are begging for workers.

Many Americans were assisted by the large unemployment payout of the pandemic. This was initially helpful. Many people such as restaurant workers and others had lost their jobs. The flush of cash from Government kept families fed and financially stable. There has been a downside to this as now manufacturing has slowed down so much that trucks and cars have often been delayed from service because of the stall in manufacturing parts.

From October through March, I waited for a part out of New York for my Ford 150 truck. Finally, it was made and delivered but with this kind of part production there have been some unhappy car owners.

Many people search for get rich schemes. The best way to build wealth and financial security is to work 40 to 45 hours a week. Take some of your money and buy food and provide for your family. Pay your utility bills, make your house payment, give some to our local church or charity, make your car payment and put as much of your income as possible into an IRA through your bank, a 401k or a 403b through where you work. Also buy safe solid stocks that have a long track record of performing well. Money will grow over time if invested wisely.

My church friend, Harold Rice insisted on putting $6 a month into my Guidestone retirement fund when I was a 17-year-old pastor. He did this every month for about a year of so until I graduated from high school and left the church. I Long forgot about that but started checking into it a couple of years back and discovered that little account has grown to over $53,000. My salary at the age of 17 was $60 per month. My Guidestone retirement investment was ten percent of what I made which was $6. Both financial figures sound funny and somewhat they were barely enough to buy my gas to the Liberty church in rural Johnson County. Over 35 years that little bit of money which might have been $100 grew to over $53,000 and is a now a nice addition to my retirement portfolio. MORE

The duty of all true Americans

Home Country
Fiction by SLIM RANDLES
To The Desert Independent

June 6, 2021

Ran into Doc down at The Mule Barn the other day, so naturally we had to rid the world of about a gallon of coffee and solve the world’s problems for an hour. It is the duty of all true Americans of our age, you know.

Doc said he’d been aching a little bit lately. Joints or something. He’d been out fixing the pasture fence where the mare had been pushing on it. The next morning it made him walk funny.

“I remember when my dad was my age,” he said. “I asked him how it felt to be this old. Well, he looked at me as though I were committing a crime by having brown hair, you know? And then he said, “To be this old? Well, I guess it beats the alternative.”

The truth is, the morning coffee drinkers of our area aren’t really old, not inside. We hurt a bit more the next day when we do things, that’s all. And having to walk funny for an hour or so is a small price to pay for our experience.

Being experienced sounds better.

“The other day,” Doc said, “I was down to the feed store, and the kid there took one look at me and carried those heavy sacks out to the truck for me. It was embarrassing, and she shouldn’t have done it.” MORE

Brought to you by Ol’ Max Evans, The First Thousand Years, by Slim Randles & The University of New Mexico Press.

"Home Country" columnist Slim Randles won three regional book awards for the two books he wrote in 2014. "Saddle Up: A Cowboy Guide to Writing" won for best how-to book and best cover design at the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards in Albuquerque. Randles lives in Albuquerque and has a dozen books currently in print.