Betty Ford’s Tremendous Wealth
Yesterday’s news of the death of Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (aka Betty Ford) at age 93 was sad for millions of American women and men for a myriad of reasons. Her plain speaking, her commitment to women’s rights and her uncanny ability to answer the question “what is wealth” in simple, everyday terms are part of the great legacy she leaves behind. I am a huge proponent of defining wealth differently than most financial advisers in that wealth to me expands beyond the greenbacks in our purses and the investments in our portfolio.
What Is Wealth?
The Free Dictionary defines wealth as “a profusion, a great amount, all goods and resources having value in terms of exchange or use…fullness, cornucopia.” Similarly Merriam-Webster’s defines wealth as “abundant supply,” listing the synonyms “substance, wherewithal, and worth.”
I know of few American women who have shared their wealth of experience, bravery and gutsiness, more vividly and powerfully than former First Lady, Betty Ford. Her 1942 first marriage to William Warren finally ended in a divorce in 1947, due to “excessive, repeated cruelty”. What most people may not know is that Mr. Warren was an alcoholic and slipped into a coma just after Betty had filed for divorce, yet she unswervingly cared for him another 2 whole years!
I especially honor Betty Ford for thinking independently from her husband, Gerald Ford, taking opposite stands on matters that pertained particularly to women, most notably, her support of reproductive choice, stating, “having babies is a blessing, not a duty.”
While she angered some conservatives who labeled her “No Lady”, Betty nonetheless commanded a 75% approval rating, and said, “I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers” in his unsuccessful 1976 Presidential election. Since he had lost his voice campaigning, Betty gave his concession speech! (We would later marvel at her strength and dignity she showed the world by traveling across the United States in the week-long funeral proceedings for President Ford, as a frail and aged woman.)
The image of her marching aside Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem for Equal Rights in 1978 is ensconced in most of our minds. She joked with her Secret Service Agents that her car should also bear a flag, just like the President’s so they gave her a flag imprinted with “Don’t Tread on Me” with the letters ERA.
In 1974 she also allowed photographers into the hospital where she was recovering from a radical mastectomy, to educate women worldwide that it was not only ok to speak openly about having breast cancer in that day, but imperative to get regular breast exams/mammography for early detection. She spoke openly about her own mastectomy which gave countless women hope that they, too, could survive cancer.
Her candor about her children while living in the White House as First Lady was refreshing, insomuch as she spoke about real life challenges that “the rest of us” were struggling with. Her CB radio handle fittingly was First Mama.
She aligned herself with the common folk, not because she had to, yet because she wanted to; she truly cared. She understood the accompanying power of situations in which powerful and famous and respected people can empower and positively influence those with less power. She was all about lending a hand up.
Never dreaming that her newly wed husband–who arrived late to their wedding with muddy shoes from having been out campaigning–would win his seat in Congress, she also declared that the day he was sworn in as President of the United States of America was the saddest day of her life. She handled all the pressures of the media and the office with public aplomb, speaking out for women’s rights especially. Yet she paid her own price for that oft-lonely season by becoming addicted to alcohol and pain-killers. And when she underwent addiction treatment, she got her life back, and was determined to provide a facility where others could do the same. Her Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, CA does just that; it gives people their lives back, and does so at a modest cost, so that the “average” person (not just the plethora of movie stars and wealth) can afford the experience.
An exquisite dancer who did the Bump along the White House halls, I trust Betty is Dancing With The Stars tonight, and reunited with her beloved husband of 58 years, former President Gerald Ford, who also died at age 93.
To his credit, Gerry Ford never again took Betty for granted after her nervous breakdown in 1965. She described it as “I was giving too much of myself and not taking any time out for Betty…” Let that be a lesson for all of us, as Betty’s originality and open and honest sharing of her life has been.
Charity begins at home, and I urge each of us to take time for ourselves because ultimately that is our wealth. We then can choose to share our wealth with others, yet only if we have an abundance of it for ourselves to start with.
If anything, let Mrs. Ford’s passing call us all into realizing and actualizing the full women that we are, and are meant to be! Honor her today by asking “What Is Wealth” for you, and know that you have a right to however you define that answer. We Can Do It Women!
Rest in Peace our wealthy, good and faithful ‘servant’ Betty.
Brain Power
Wealth is directing our brain to utilize both it’s right and left hemispheres. The melding of our more feeling, pictorial right brain hemisphere with our more logical, verbal left brain hemisphere (which would rather be right than happy) is ultimately my goal for a more balanced life.
I was privileged to hear Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor speak tonight at The New York Society for Ethical Culture in what was billed as Transformational Stories. It was that and SO much more, as Dr. Jill was joined by acclaimed singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer. Together these talented and accomplished women wove song and speech into an experience of “uncommon depth”.
From Dr. Jill’s detailed depiction of her watching her brain functions shut down one by one as she suffered a massive stroke, to Carrie’s singing her own songs that complemented those emotion and insights–songs that Dr. Jill was buoyed by during her arduous recovery–I was simultaneously mesmerized and filled with hope.
Dr. Jill’s story is all the more poignant since she is a brain scientist–a neuroanatomist to be exact–originally drawn into research on the brain to understand mental illness more vividly, since her own brother was diagnosed schizophrenic. Yet, while she had studied tens of thousands of brains at Harvard, she still couldn’t believe SHE was having a stroke when it happened to her. Like most of us, she never thought it could happen to her. She didn’t have any of the ‘normal’ conditions one might have just prior to a stroke, plus she was busy; she didn’t have “time” to have a stroke!
Yet she did suffer a massive stroke and spent the next 8 years recovering. She now knows on a cellular & psychological level that “nirvana is never more than a mere thought away. By stepping to the right of our left brains, we can all uncover the feelings of well-being and peace that are so often sidelined by our own brain chatter.”
Dr. Jill’s book, ‘My Stroke of Insight’ offers hope and recovery steps for those with brain injuries as well as a deeply emotional testimony for how we can all find peace within, at any time and at any place.
With hope-filled stories like Dr. Jill’s, I’m confident that we women can reach inside and muster the courage to invite our left brains to complement our right brains and become WISE–Watchful, Inquisitive, Strategic & Empowered–about our own financial wealth.
As Dr. Jill & I both know, through our respective training and experiences, time and health are our true assets. And I’m here to help us understand our finances and investments so that we can afford more choices as we age.
If you would like a copy of her book, you can pick up your own copy by clicking the link to the left -
Life Is Wealth; Building Memories Is Wealth!
Today’s New York Times story, entitled Losing Everything, Except What Really Matters, about the Sopers, a young Cottondale, Alabama family whose house was demolished, again reminded me that LIFE is wealth! The Sopers, a family who was geographically separated when the tornado hit were frightened for their lives, literally. Luckily, Mrs. Alicia Sopers had been raised in areas often hit by tornados as a girl, so knew enough to evacuate when the weather reports grew grim. That attentiveness, alertness and her actions most likely saved their lives–her and her two children. Meanwhile, Mr. Sopers was working in Nevada and only able to communicate via cell phone until that connection died. The mental angst each of them endured until they were able to speak again via cell phone after the tornado can only be imagined as horrific.
Until Corey Sopers could finally arrive home on an emergency cobbled return series of flights, Alicia Sopers saw the damage and wreckage of their home and began to feel the impact alone, until a neighbor was able to hold her as she wept. Then Ms. Sopers was able to see what she’d been assessing…the rubble of their house. Yet their ‘home’ was within their hearts; their spirits. Corey, Alicia and their two children began the arduous task of rebuilding their “things” with Mr. Sopers saying, “we’re building new memories now” as they began to clean out what was now trashed.
While money is surely important, I’m confident it was the last thing on the Sopers’ minds as they feared for their lives. This reminds me that if the human spirit can rebuild from tragedy such as tornado damage, we can surely garner our spirit and our courage to look at our money issues before we have bigger, more important situations that command our attention. Generally speaking, we can expect a few unexpected expenses along our financial path. We can expect a few changed plans and new intentions/goals which must be accounted (and paid) for. So, let’s plan our money journey so that when disappointment or perhaps even total physical property devastation befall us, we can recover more quickly.
As Americans, we often ask “what can we do?” in the face of this type of property and life extinction? Well, we can send prayers and give money to the victims, and then we can prepare ourselves so that if something like this would happen to us, we would be prepared in the best possible way.
Are You Prepared? Is Everything Covered?
We can check our insurance policies right now. Call your insurance agent and ask them if you are properly covered, should an “Act of God” cause your property to be ruined, are you covered properly? WE can all do this. Do you have replacement coverage on your contents, so that depreciation won’t significantly reduce your claims’ check? Without replacement coverage, a 5 year old TV which may have worked perfectly for you, would be depreciated 5 years, resulting in a very small check. Same goes for your sofa, your dressers, your beds, your computers; everything gets depreciated in an insurance claim unless you have “replacement cost” coverage on your contents. Same goes for your house structure. Be sure you have the type of policy that would replace your home. Both of these coverages–replacement on the structure and replacement for contents cost a tiny additional annual premium, yet are very much a great investment, in my opinion!
While we are at it, let’s examine if our life insurance is up to snuff right now too. If your death occurred yesterday, would your family have enough money to maintain their lifestyle for at least 5 years? If not, you are intentionally or unintentionally forcing your surviving family members to make what could be very unattractive and undesirable choices.
Remember, all life insurance does is buy time. It cannot bring anyone back, yet the funds can provide for the survivors for several years thus enabling them to take some time to adjust to life without you (and your salary).
If in doubt as to how much life insurance to carry, simply figure out how many years you’d like NOT to have to make a significant physical or geographic change to your lifestyle and then obtain a multiple of each earner’s salary. In other words, if you are earning $50,000 and wish to provide your surviving family members 5 years of their current lifestyle, then simply buy $250,000 of coverage. It’s really that simple. Then, if you with for the mortgage (or a good chunk of it) to be paid off, simply add that value or even 1/2 of it to the total amount. Same goes for paying a child’s education costs, for example. Depending on the age of the child or children, setting aside a lump sum of $25,000 or so, could compound to quite a handsome sum.
So, the takeaway here is that life is precious; our family members’ lives are precious. Let’s all thank God if our family is still alive, and then plan with the purchase of life insurance, for when the breadwinners aren’t alive.
Less important, yet of significance, is to upgrade our home owner’s or renter’s policies to include replacement cost coverage on both the dwelling and our contents.
As WISE–watchful, inquisitive, strategic and empowered–women, We Can Do It and we MUST!
Eastering Our Buried Dreams & (re)Gaining Wealth
I reveled in the glorious music of the West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, NJ this morning. Here’s the link for the 11:15am service if you want to experience the absolute thrill of instrumental, vocal, bell choir, and chimes all praising God together, especially at the 33 minute mark; i.e., the triumphant last verse of the processional, and of course Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and the Carillon de Westminster organ postlude at the end.
Today’s service was a feast for the ears and eyes today when we were reminded that “today is the first day of the rest of our lives”. We were urged to launch ourselves forward to new promise, and while the pastor specifically spoke of white males’ humiliation, I’ll raise up the plight of all women, who may have fallen on hard economic times and are either unemployed or significantly under-employed.
While we may be challenged we are not, and will not be rendered, poor. We are wealthy to be Americans, if we are, or to live in America, if you do. We are wealthy to be able to make new choices.
Sisters, our wealth lies in our spirit and the fight left in our souls. And I know us to be a powerful and determined lot. We will NOT allow circumstances to control and limit us any longer. We will regain our power, or perhaps gain our power now, and the power involved in understanding our money, and how we both spend and save it. These are equally important–spending and saving. Because wise spending and unwise savings or unwise spending and wise savings won’t produce the results we deserve. We deserve to learn new hints on wise spending and wise saving/investing, so that our blessings will compound. We will experience Easter, all through the year. We were down, yet not out. We thought we were less wealthy, and now we own our wealth, along with the expectation of gaining more wealth.
I know we women can march on to new confidence and mastery of our choices and our lives. To the extent money is a stumbling block instead of a tool for you, please commit to your own empowerment today; I’m happy to show the way. We Can Do It Women!
PS. a very big thank you to Thomas B from Germany, aka Pittoresk, for his dramatic and quite wonderful view of Spring daffodils.
I’m Wealthy Today
I say that as I listen intently to Carrie Newcomer’s CD called Before and After, and the song, A Small Flashlight, in particular. I so love this CD, and have nearly all the songs’ words committed to memory.
These days when I, and others are talking about wealth in monetary terms–especially with Tax Season in full swing—I hearken back to my/our wealth of knowledge, our wealth of life experiences and our wealth of courage, that so many of us take for granted. We women, especially, are wealthy in-and-of-ourselves. Then you add to that wealth, the strength of our sisters and we become literally and figuratively unstoppable.
I’m wealthy today because I own my own power….my power over myself, my thoughts, my actions, not power OVER anything, or anyone, instead my power WITH. My power to put one foot in front of the other, despite my not knowing for certain the path ahead.
Carrie writes and sings:
“The way is dark up ahead of me. The way is dark and I cannot see. What I love the most is a flashlight beam, lighting up the way when I cannot see. The way unfolds like an open hand. The way unfolds like I didn’t plan. And only in looking back do we understand, that the way was true as an open hand. Over trials and trouble I’ve already come. And the net appears when I needed one…may we move forward one step at a time, wide-eyed and hopeful, lost and half blind, mistake by mistake we all learn to be kind….If I could close my mouth and open up my eyes… we’ll find our way with a small flashlight.”
Here’s Carrie’s website for your enjoyment:
Join with me on a money journey won’t you, as we provide small flashlights, to light your way to financial empowerment. I invite you to listen to & participate in, our Blog Talk Radio show next Wed at noon, when I’ll talk about Tax Strategies For the Self-Employed. In the meantime, enjoy those wealthy feelings this weekend as I will!
