Colintonwigglys Environmental and Retirement

Back to the grind.

2008-10-16T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I am just getting over a severe bout of the cold and I am now back to creating and developing some new designs for my online shops. I was thinking that these present economic difficulties that everyone is experiencing was having an effect on my general health as I am usually a very upbeat person.

So now that I got over this depressing cold I will getting back to my environmental topics which I feel is much more interesting and of course retirement in general.

I will be making my own personal observations on what I myself perceive as the future in Air travel and it looks very exciting, so be prepared for a lengthy write up. In the meanwhile I have got to get some work done as I have missed three days of my work schedule due to this awful cold.

Till my next issue.

Regards to all

James

Stop Trading .

2008-10-10T00:20:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

Just a quick thought for the day, as the financial markets are in free fall again why not stop trading for a few days and let governments and their financial heads meet and get some stability going here.

That I'm sure will give investors and the stock markets time to get their house in order and also get some faith back into the system.

Regards to all

Times are a changing.

2008-10-09T03:13:00.000-07:00

Hello and Good Morning,

After yesterdays monumental news coming from both sides of the Atlantic and Asia concerning interest rates, it certainly looks as if a new world order is about to happen, if not already taking place.

Glad to see more government intervention in regards to the banking sector and especially from the UK side. The protection of peoples savings/investments from the failed Icelandic banks was an excellent plus in this sordid mess. How this arrived at this stage is anyones guess, but let's get the financial markets in better shape and then we can turn to sorting out the bank messes and the other financial institutions, indeed there has to be a reckoning in all of this, AND a lot more transparency by banks in there dealings, after all a lot of us taxpayers are in the process of bailing them out,OOPS! I meant helping.

If these banks are not lending to one another and supposedly hording money in their reserves, then I cannot see why taxpayers money is being used to assist them. The British government I believe has done the correct thing, but would go further in ordering those banks to start lending OR be taken over completely, after all we pumped enough money into the system to do it.

Yes indeed a new world order is fast approaching, and the murky and often secretive world of these financial institutions will hopefully be a matter resigned to the history books, and this "Old Boy Network" be also resigned to the dung heap where it belongs.

As our prime minister has mentioned it needs bold and imaginative thinking and I couldn't agree more, but I believe that more has to be done, enough is enough. Back to work for me and have a nice day!

Best Wishes to all.

Good news is better than no news at all.

2008-10-08T02:09:00.000-07:00

Good Morning to you all,

Just finished my morning coffee and before I start my daily working schedule, decided to pop in and mention about the latest news from our government and their decision to inject money into some of our British banks. That in its self is good news and really at a time when we need some form of government protection to protect our savings and also our way of life as we know it.

I really wish that this position had been taken ages ago as some of us old timers saw it coming, I myself certainly did about two and half years ago when even those amongst us who are not financial geniuses realized the position of the money traders and banks needed to come under more governmental scrutiny than was being done at the time.

We are told that banks are at present hording money and not lending to each other, so by that statement what liquidity do they actually have, and why if they are indeed supposedly hording money, then why do they need tax payers money to keep them going.

I'm sure, that now that the government has taken a stake in those banks we are hopefully going to see more transparency in their statements of what their actual financial position really is.

As far as I can see we are in uncharted waters here, and being of pensionable age myself one does get concerned about the future.

The upside to all of this is, a possible a new dimension in economic thinking and possibly a more unified approach by countries in joining together in protecting the world markets from these types of financial disasters.

Once the markets have settled down there must be a clean out from top to bottom of how traders, banks and others , do dealings on the foreign exchanges, and I'm sure there is going to be a few heads going on the chopping block that's for sure.

I personally would like to see all these large bonus that were issued to these financiers being stripped and returned to help with this mess they have got us all in, and be paid in the future on successful results not as an expected norm.

I personally do not think we are out of the woods not yet anyway, as trust has been broken with the banks and financial sector and it is going to take a long time to heal the wounds.

I would also like to see a curtailing of these credit cards that are being issued by banks and others, "If you ain't got it don't spend it" it's as simple as that. Not being a financial genius, but more a common sense type person, why not have one banking card that covers all needs and for the bank that issues them create a limit that they know you are comfortable with and can re-pay, and be limited to only one, even if you have more than one bank account possibly with another bank, that card follows you everywhere and you can increase your limit on that one card either by showing you have increased your salary or capable of paying it back by showing that you can actually take on the extra increase on your limit, not hand out these plastic cards like confetti as they do now.

Well back to work, got to keep my end up so to speak, I'm sure this mess will all get sorted, but be prepared for some radical thinking and determined moves by national governments on how we all do our financial dealings in the future.

Kindest regards

Jimmy and Constance

What's Next?

2008-10-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

After my previous rant regarding fuel bills and credit crunches and banks folding and the general population running around looking for safe havens to place their savings, there doesn't seem much to write home about except to "Run for them hills". Joking apart it has been an awful couple of weeks on the financial side and probably more to follow.

I have been kept busy designing and loading my images on products for my online stores and of course having a gentle rant on my other blogs.

A great sense of relief for me anyway was the announcement that, more wave/tidal power underwater stations are hopefully going to be built in an around the Scottish coastline, and at long last someone has at last seen the LIGHT ! (no pun intended), don't know what the financial layout is going to be, but it's a step closer than having to rely on oil products all the time that's for sure, might in the long term reduce these increase in charges from the power suppliers.

I have been working on an other environmental creation regarding fuel cell technology as the previous one that I did, was a big hit in the US along with a stamp carrying the same imagery, so I have been moving from one project to another at the moment. Normally complete a design a day for upload to my online shops and then to size them to fit on the various product lines. After that, all that remains is to write a good product description and then do keywords and meta tags, once that is finished then to post them onto my shops for resale.

It all takes time and a lot of effort, but, you achieve a lot of satisfaction once it's all completed. I recommend it to anyone who has an artistic flair and are coming up-to retirement or are retired, keeps those brain cells working and have a bit of financial gain to go with it. Mind you since I started doing this work, I now put in a twelve hour day and sometimes more on occasions , but when you work from home like I do, it has lot of advantages.

Well I am going to sign off and get on with my designing . Glad to note that I have now had some interest in this particular blog.

Cheers for now

Jimmy and Constance

Retirement and Environmental Overview.

2008-08-11T05:18:00.000-07:00

At long last I've now managed to sit down and construct a new addition to my previous blog which was in 2007 (shame on me) regarding my pet subjects: Retirement and the Environment.

Without making any excuses I have been pretty busy trying to supplement my retirement income by creating designs on T-shirts, Caps, Mugs and Stationery, and you can find those highly creative designs at my main website which is at www. colintonwigglys. com. plus my wife's input with her healthy recipes.:-)

Moving on, and getting into the subject matter. These latest increases in gas/electricity and other commodity prices especially here in the UK, will certainly have a dampening effect on the elderly and with winter approaching, I just hope that this warming of our planet according to our scientists, will be a mild winter and not to severe, else we elderly are going to be in a spot of bother,in consideration that the energy suppliers are going to hike up their prices, and I do not see how our fuel allowance that we already get will be enough to cover that increase. But never mind you can always put another jumper on, or stay in bed till the spring arrives.

I personally feel it is all a bit of a joke if it wasn't so serious. As these energy companies continue to make huge profits for themselves and their investors. Moreover, I maybe wrong in my assumption, that traders who deal in those type of commodities to include oil, should be coming under the spotlight by our government, in the way that dealing is done on those commodities, and the massive profits that are being made is quite unbelievable.

Our present government in the UK has suddenly woken up to the reality(a little bit to late in my opinion) when they must have seen how this was all taking shape, taking aside the "credit crunch" which again through shear greed, has put a great many people in an awful position including we folks who are over sixty.

You did not have to be an economist or genius to see where this was all going to lead, long before it all broke down. Note: I sometimes wonder if we are living on the same planet at times.

A number of my chums who are retired/semiretired like myself had been voicing their opinion about this two and bit years ago, but voice your opinion to the powers to be, and they think that you've stepped out of a Christmas cracker. Knock,Knock anyone in there, are you listening.

Well after that bit of a rant, where do we go from here, well for a start I hope the UK government will again focus, on increasing the pensioners winter fuel allowance, and also to the less fortunate, and start bringing those energy companies a bit more under control as they are running riot at this moment in time, and I am beginning to wonder if we have really lost the plot.

I am now going back to my designing , have to make some money for my next fuel bill. Will be back again with another quick rant from the colintonwigglys . Keep safe and well until the next time.

Jimmy and Constance

Retirement and Environmental Overview.

2007-05-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

A Scottish Environmental/Conservation
Retirement Overview.

Welcome. :-)

Overview:

Colintonwigglys was initiated in 2005 by my wife and myself who are now both semi-retired, purely as a community based organization dealing with gardening,environment,conservation,healthy lifestyles,natural product sales, logo and graphic designers for clothing, prints and stationery.

We did not realise how popular our organization was fast becoming, and our friends and clients kept asking us to expand into creating a Blog of our own and engaging with like minded Bloggers who have similar interests.

Now, here we are, placing our thoughts and aspirations out there in " Blogger Land" .:-)

Where we stand:

My future Blogs will be concentrating mostly on retirement and environmental/ conservation issues in which we take a huge interest.
Both those issues,will play an ever increasing roll in regards to our future lifestyles, both from a social and global stance.
We will be encouraging like-minded people to engage with us and set up a really interesting forum, in which we can discuss and debate these issues.

Points of mutual interest: Retirement

What retirement really means to all of us.
Our changing roll in society after retirement.
Health and medical care issues.
The roll that government plays/or should play on this issue.

Points of mutual interest: Environment/Conservation.

Concerns about "Global Warming" and what that means to us all.
The increasing use of renewable natural energy resources.
What you do as an individual/household in recycling.
Are governments doing enough to promote good environmental/conservation practices?

In our next Blog, we will be starting our dialogue centered on these issues and in the meantime please feel free to make contact with us.

Cheers for now. :-)

James and Constance