"If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, then the world is yours and all that's in it." -- Rudyard Kipling

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise - Franklin

• Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. -Mahatma Gandhi
• A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. -Henry David Thoreau
• Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. -Eleanor Roosevelt
• Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.
  -Socrates from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
• To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do. -Kahlil Gibran

In my financial counseling practice, I use the rule of thumb that a reasonable amount to spend on clothing without overspending is 4% to 6% of your take-home pay per month. Just take the number that your paychecks actually add up to in a month, and multiply that by .06 Just remember that this amount is for the entire family, not just one person unless you are single and no one else is depending upon your income.


To start with I don't think $500 is enough for what you listed but, at the same time, I think you're spending too much at once. I believe that clothes shopping should be a regular experience and not a once a year experience.

I would plan to make one purchase at a time. Once or twice a month, depending on what you can afford and your pay schedule, you should go clothes shopping. Each time you shop you should buy one outfit.

Then, I would go for the jeans and the black sweater. Jeans can cost between $25 for basic Levis to $200 for designer jeans. Try to stick to the $60 range. Take your time and search for jeans that really fit you. It's not as easy as it sounds. For the sweater I would buy cashmere. No other sweaters wear better and look great for a longer time than cashmere. If you're thrifty you can find one for under $100 but it will take some shopping. Winter is the time to buy cashmere so don't wait too long because spring clothes will be coming soon. I make a point of buying at least one, if not two, cashmere sweaters each Christmas season.

I always maintain 5 pairs of jeans and just buy a new pair when one of the 5 becomes unwearable for some reason. I always have no more than 5 pair and no less than 5 pair.

Spring - This is a big time to shop. Spring is when fashion colors change again and it's time to buy dress pants with matching or complimentary blouses. It's also time to buy a new purse in a lighter color that compliments your spring clothes.

Summer - It's time to buy play clothes for outdoor activities and be sure to buy a light summer dress. They are a must for light wearability and going out.

every woman needs 10 basic wardrobe pieces as the basis for style. They are:
1. A good fitting pair of jeans
2. A white shirt
3. A blazer
4. A trench coat
5. Dress pants
6. A skirt
7. A basic black cocktail dress
8. A sweatsuit alternative - clothes to be active in that don't look sloppy.
9. A cashmere sweater
10. A dress (I can't remember how he described this dress but it's not too formal, maybe a business dress)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jul/05/frankoconnoraward

The judges for the Frank O'Connor award have dispensed with the ritual of issuing a shortlist, announcing today that Jhumpa Lahiri has won the world's richest honour for a short story collection. The jurors decided that Unaccustomed Earth was so plainly the best book that they would jump straight from longlist to winner, and have awarded Lahiri the €35,000 (£27,000) prize.

In what will be a shock to writers and publishers, Lahiri's collection of eight stories examining different aspects of the Bengali migrant experience has seen off authors including Booker winners Anne Enright and Roddy Doyle. But the book is already a publishing sensation: published this spring, it went straight into the New York Times's fiction charts at number one. It is an unprecedented feat for a short story writer which the paper compared to "a comet landing", so rarely does a serious writer make this kind of commercial impact. Indeed, unusual success has been the hallmark of her career since she published her first book of stories, Interpreter of Maladies, in 1999, winning the Pulitzer prize and selling 600,000 copies - another very rare feat.

The judges - Granta fiction editor Rosalind Porter, Cork City chief librarian Liam Ronayne and Irish Times Literary correspondent Eileen Battersby - were immediately and unanimously convinced the book should win.

"With a unanimous winner at this early stage we decided it would be a sham to compose a shortlist and put five other writers through unnecessary stress and suspense," explained the award's director, Pat Cotter. "Not only were the jury unanimous in their choice of Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth as the winner, they were unanimous in their belief that so outstanding was Lahiri's achievement in this book that no other title was a serious contender."

Lahiri will now travel to Cork to be presented with the award at the end of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story festival on September 21 - the day when the prize was originally scheduled to be revealed.

Buffett quotes from 1974

"you never have to swing. You stand at the plate,
the pitcher throws you GM at 47 ! X at 39 ! and nobody calls
a strike on you. There's no penalty except opportunity lost.
All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the
Fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it."

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better. Jim Rohn

Amid economic catastrophe — Oregon has the country’s second-highest unemployment rate — there was a general indifference to wealth. In its place was a dedication to the things that really matter: hearty food and drink, cultural pursuits both high and low, days in the outdoors and evenings out with friends. It’s the good life, and in Portland it still comes cheap.