Revelations of Revelation 7
((Part VI: Two periods of Three))

My mind has been blown, this past week.

First, I find out that the silence in heaven verse is split-away from what it actually refers to in the Bible by some erroneous chapter/verse inserter guy.  Then I learn that Revelation 7 is a parenthetical chapter and not a chronological one, as I'd always believed it to be.  Based on that, I applied the emperical data from NASA and other esteemed astronomical sources and found that Revelation 7:1-8 occurred at the same time as chapter six and its seal judgments.  From 2007 to 2010, the winds were held back... a period of about three and a half years.

HOWEVER, I got goofed up, because I tried to make the half an hour from 8:1 fit chapter seven, and it's CAN'T.  Why?  Because look at 8:1 again:

Rev 8:1 - And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven for about the space of a half an hour.

My original apology was because it said there was a 'silence in Heaven'... and heaven definitely was NOT silent as the seals were being opened.  But more than that... THIS IS SEAL SEVEN!!!  Seal seven can't happen DURING the previous seals!  Duh!!  My gosh, I got so confused, because the silence of the magnetosphere was 3.5 years - the length of the Seal Judgments via SMS.  But it's not the same 3.5 years as the silence of Revelation 8:1, because that's a different (yet unreached) seal.  Get it?  Because it took me a LOT to get there, simple as it is.

Now there's something else you need to know.  According to new sources:

"Following an unexpectedly deep minimum from 2008 to 2010, solar physicists predicted a weak maximum for 2013."

"Forecasters have long expected the Solar Max of 2013 to be the weakest of the Space Age. It might be even weaker than they thought."  SpaceWeather

The common number in both of these statements is 2013.  Why?  Because that's how long it takes from the time a solar maximum begins for it to reach it's strongest point.  It started in 2010, so if it reaches solar maximum in 2013, how many years is that?  EXACTLY.  Three years.  Another three years, in addition to the three-year delay with no solar activity.

2007a	Trib Begins with ENPI	Rev 7:1 Four Winds/angels
2007b	Seal 1: White Horse - unseen	Rev 7:2-8 East angel/magnetosphere
2008a	Seal 2: war (Russian reunification)	|
2008b	Seal 3: Economic collapse begins	|
2009a	Seal 4: Pandemic	|
2009b	Seal 5: Martyr's - unseen	v
2010a	Seal 6: Cataclysm	Solar Maximum begins
2010b	Seal 7: Silence in Heaven (about 1/2 hr)	|
2011	|	|
2012	|	v
2013	v	Solar Maximum peaks

It's an if-then problem.  IF the first six seals were given at increments of six months apart, THEN the seventh should be, as well. Which put it at the end of 2010.  Which... I never did.  ((How stupid can I be?  And why didn't anyone TELL me that?!?!))  As it's the last seal, the SMS is over, BUT...!  We're given the next increment of time, and what happens in it within seal seven.  Seal seven is nothing, and it happens for three and a half years.

And there I was, trying to plug Revelation 7 in (all stuff we don't see on earth) over the last few years as an extendo-SMS, because there was NOTHING there... and I fricked it up, because I left out seal seven from the SMS, had Rev7 as chronological, and... I was a MESS.

The good news?  Is that I'm not, anymore.  Although it would've been nice to know this back in 2011, hello!  But honestly, I'm okay learning it, now.  As long as I can understand.  Because He said He has show us all things thru John in Rev 1:1.  And I believe that.  It's just a matter of sitting down, being available to Him, waiting on Him (something I suck at), and desiring wholeheartedly to know Truth so that we might know Him, and thus be better able to glorify Him for His works and His mercies.

So today's revelation from Revelation?  That there are TWO periods of three years.  The first is the SMS/Rev 7, which occur simultaneously.  The next is Rev 8:1, which happens in the midst of Rev 7... after the solar max begins, counting time until it peaks.  And that brings us to 2013.  So I've FINALLY caught up.

Revelations of Revelation 7
(Part IV:  The half an hour does NOT apply)

Today I have to apologize... and admit that I'm under attack.  I have been having the DICKENS of a time, over here.  Stomach aches when I sit down to write.  My head either completely spinning or in a haze I can't seem to wander out of.  Confusion where I *KNOW* I shouldn't be confused.  The inability to focus enough to even re-read something I know will help me from my sidebar.  It's been severe.  Someone apparently doesn't want me to write what it is that I'm supposed to write, and is messing with me in a bad way.   To the point where I... stumbled, and screwed up in Part II.  So I have to go back and fix the problem before I can move on.

And I thought about just editing the post, but... well, I don't like deleting stuff that I wrote.  It seems somehow dishonest.  If I screw up, I'd rather own up to screwing up than to cover it up.  I don't like that.  So this post is a 'fix-it' post.

Okay.

In part two of this series, I opened to Revelation 7 and tried to apply 8:1 to the verses there.  And I said that the four angels holding the WINDS were on earth, and the angel from the east was on earth, and that meant that there was silence in Heaven (capital H) for half an hour, because Rev 7:1-8 didn't have any mention of things going on at the Throne.

Then I re-posted from 2010, and showed how the magnetosphere around the earth formed a HUGE opening in 2007, that dropped NASA's jaw.  And by rights, we should've been buffeted by solar WINDS, but that something freaky happened... the solar maxiumum, which should've began at that time, didn't.  No crap, it was dead quiet, uncannily quiet.  It had every major astronomical society scratching their heads.  And it was three and a half years before the minimum finally did kick off... in 2010.

And here's where I have to apologize.  Because the SMS took place from 2007 to 2010.  Which means there WASN'T silence in 'H'eaven for half an hour during that time.  Seals were being opened, and stuff was most definitely going down at the Throne.

But anyhow, I had to clarify.  What I wrote?  It wasn't right.  I applied it to the wrong plane.  There WAS silence in heaven for the span of about a half an hour.  But it was in heaven, not in Heaven, so you can't apply Rev 8:1 to Rev 7:1.  Because when they're talking about the sky/space, the Hebrew word used is "shameh", and when the Bible talks about where God reigns from, it's "ooranos"... and in 8:1, it's "ooranos". It doesn't apply.  Besides, there's something else I have to add, but it's gonna have to be tomorrow...

But now that we've straightened that out, we can pick up and keep going.
So please forgive me, and let's move along, again.

Revelations of Revelation 7
((Part III: Solar Wind repost from 2010))

aNNa'S NoTe:  I'm reposting a rather large exerpt of blog entry from 2010, because it's vital to where I'm going. Bear with me - this is worth re-visiting.  I'll explain why soon, so please just bear with me.

---

...The church always tells people that this is 'wind' that John is talking about [being held back in Revelation 7:1-2]... but what if it's NOT 'wind' as we think of it, but something bigger, different... that there was no word to describe, so John (and his translators) made due with 'wind' to try to convey?  Think about this: there have been a LOT of articles lately about the shifting of our earth's polarity.  Polar North and South, as well as Polar East and West?  Magnetism is similar to wind - it's unseen, it pulls/pushes, using forces of nature... and it's something very difficult to describe.  What if these four angels in scripture were holding something OTHER than wind?

Three things, here.  NASA says that it found a hole FOUR TIMES the size of our planet.  This hole allows solar wind to flow in - did you catch that word - WIND?  Is it so impossible to think this might be what John the Revelator was talking about?  And even MORE interesting, if my Revelation timeline began in 2007... look when this opened up - whaddya know, 2007.  Ironic timing?  Hard to believe.

Now, here's the interesting part:  we hadn't experienced anything odd for the first 3.5 years, even though the Lord opened this up for us then.  Why?  Because of an anomaly in the sun cycle.  Do you remember?  If not, here's an article to refresh you, from 2008:

So if it's true that the Lord opened up a hole in the magnetosphere, the winds the angels held back in Chapter 7 that would've wreaked havoc on us (and caused crazy weather/increased quakes) didn't happen because He also miraculously extended the solar minimum... so that there was no activity where there should've been! 

Having said, let's go back to seal Six (the 'heaven departed as a scroll' thing):

Rev 6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain was moved out of their places.

It looks as if seal six not only shifted the earth on its axis, but it also 'kicked off' the next solar activity period in the heaven.  Whatever the angels were holding up there at the 'four winds', they let go and it rolled up 'like a scroll'... or in our-speak, like a window shade.  And the moment 'the heaven' was removed, things kicked off.  Take a look at the quakes and extreme weather:

Feb 27, 2010 - Chilean Quake, shifted earth off axis
March 2010 to present - Massive sinkholes begin opening
Apr 14, 2010 - Eyjafjallajokull (Iceland) erupts; massive ash cloud
May - Aug 2010 - South American mega-drought
Sept-Dec 2010 - Australian flooding
Nov 30, 2010 - UK superstorms
Dec 26, 2010 - Extreme snowfall on NorthEast USA
Jan 27, 2011 - Massive US snowstorm
Dec - Feb 2011 - Animals dropping dead; magnetism?
Feb 3, 2011 - Cyclone Yasi (category 5)
Feb 26, 2011 - Christchurch quake
Mar 11, 2011 - Japanese Quake, shifted earth off axis further
Mar 20, 2011 - Australian flooding round 2

It has been RELENTLESS ever since the Chilean quake.  Whatever he had those angels doing in 7:1, it's over, now.  So it seems very much to me like what John saw after the seals in 7:1 happened from 2007 thru 2010, just like (and at the same time as) the seal judgments.

I'm Grateful For:

• Four straight days of snow.  That thaw from last week?  Holy yuck.  I love the billowing white, the frozen critter pens, and the pretty view.  The kids are all shades of excited - they're building a fort this afternoon, again, and Daddy's home to shovel some serious stuff up for walls.
• The sled-dog presentation we saw yesterday.  It was SO well done.  Apparently one of the guys who started the Iditarod, his son lives about an hour from us, and he does really fun little events here and there, teaching the kids about mushers and the races.  We got to pet the great-great-great-great grandchildren of Balto (his dogs are all descended from the famous sled dog!).  It was fun.  And free - a library event in GR.  Can't beat that!
• Being outside of the moving process my family is doing right now.  They sold their house this week, and want to move to the country.  Moving (at all) is NOT fun... and they don't have things set up as to what they're going to do.  I am SO grateful not to have to be in that position.  I'm pretty sure we're exactly where we're supposed to be, for a while!
• Having the willpower NOT to get on the scale this week.  I just DON'T wanna know.  And trust me, it wouldn't be good news, anyhow.  The problem is winter.  I don't get cabin fever like other people - I'm a total homebody who likes cuddling up with soft music, candles or dim lamps, a good book, a warm afghan, and a cuppa cocoa.  Maybe cookies.  ((This week it was DEFINITELY cookies.  And cake.))  That sounds so comfortable and cozy and warm, but it does NOT lend itself to weight loss, FYI.  Which... I wish I cared more, but at this point...  (insert impish grin)
• My friend Missy bought me a book on Amazon.  I can't even imagine what possessed her to do such a thing!  It took me totally by surprise.  Missy is my reading buddy - we recommend stuff to each other, because we both like EVERYTHING - western, suspense, dystopia, fantasy, silly, mystery... anyhow, she'd finished a Debbie Macomber book, and I mentioned that I was waiting for the local library to get this specific one by her - they were in process of buying two copies, and I wanted to read it.  And the next thing I knew, she sent me a 'gift' of the book for my Kindle.  Thank you!!
• Giving up auditions for the sled dog show.  I had a conundrum this weekend - the sled dog thing was at the same time as the auditions for a show I wanted to try out for.  And it was a stOOpid situation - typically, library events are given at two or three libraries on different days, but not this time - it was a one-time shot.  And my old theatre group always had two audition times, but not this new group - it was also a one-time show, and BOTH things were at 10:30 yesterday.  Obviously I couldn't do both.  So I gave up the auditions.  And I'm kind of glad.  I'm not at the place right now where I want to be gone every evening... I just didn't realize it, because I thought that I really wanted to do this show.  So the sled-dog thing was a blessing in disguise... or would it be a rescue in disguise?
• Ellen.  I never thought I'd say it, but we LOVE watching clips from 'Ellen' on YouTube.  The Gangham style mom/son?  That was hilarious.  And the drive-thru dude who dresses as the seat of his car?  And she tortures celebrities - I must have a weird sense of humor, because I *LOVE* that.  We laugh so much at her stuff.  It's all Purcells' fault - she got me watching the Gladys episodes in November, and I laughed so hard, I cried.  We just kept looking for more and more after that.  Too fun!
• A good shopping trip today.  We needed a few things, and found a few more that were on clearance and even better.  We took the kids for Pizza Hut for a treat, and dropped Brian's truck off (it gets fixed, this week).  But we had a nice morning out.

Revelations of Revelation 7
((Part II: The Verse I Missed, Entirely))

Tuesday I wrote that I was given something by the Lord in December, and that I jumped the gun and posted about it right away, instead of waiting on Him to bring full understanding to me.  It was a stupid post, full of more questions than anything, because I hadn't waited for Him to show me the answers.  I should've known better, and I had to apologize. 

I also apologized, because the SMS only applied to the Seal Judgments of Revelation 6... and I tried to make it fit Revelation 7, too.  I did it because I didn't know what was next, and I naturally continued what I already had, even though it was over.  It was nicer having that pattern to continue than to have... nothing.  It was my bad.

Yesterday I went back and re-wrote about the revelation He gave me of the 'split-away verse'.  I gave the short version of what happened, and told you that we would have to look at Revelation 7 in light of the news that 8:1 applied to that chapter, and not Revelation 8. 

Having that verse where it belongs makes a BIG difference.  When it was on the front of chapter 8, it made it look like a) it was the length of time that the Trump Judgments [and maybe even the Vial judgments] would take, or b) that there would be this 3.5 year period of quiet between the Rapture of Rev 7:9-17 and the Trump judgements of Rev 8 - a time in which nothing happens.  Both of which are not true - because that half an hour belongs with the information given before it - chapter seven.

So today, I back up and take a second look at Revelation chapter seven.

Rev 7:1  And after these things [the Seal Judgments] I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

Okay, starting there, does this event mention any activity in Heaven, like the command to hold back the winds, or anything?  No.  According to the verse, it was something done completely on Earth.  So silence in Heaven applies.  Very interesting.  Let's keep going.

Rev 7:2-3  And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, 'Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Whoa.  I just realized something.  This is separate from the previous verse.  It's a whole 'nother event.  It adds another player to the stage, it stops the event put in motion in verse one.  I didn't have this event in ANY of my previous posts... I'd combined them as one big 'wind' event.  Oh. My. Gosh.  How could I have DONE that????  You mean I've screwed it up since 2010?!?!?  You have got to be kidding me.  Lord, why am I always screwing up?!  Why am I such an idiot???

Let's look at verses two and three.  Is there any mention of any activity in Heaven in these verses?  No.  The angel stopping the four wind-bearers came out of the east, not from Heaven.  He did cry out, but he did so over the Earth, to the angels, not from Heaven or directed to Heaven.  So the 'silence in Heaven' of Rev 8:1 applies.  That's three verses in a row, so far, lookin' good. 

Now verses four thru eight tell who it is that will be sealed up by the angel from the east, and we don't really need to go into that, as it's the sum of Israel - all the tribes, thereof.  That's not relevant to what we're doing... so basically Revelation 7:1-8 is ALL silence in heaven.  So if verse 8:1 is applied to the previous chapter, it fits, thus far.  VERY interesting.

Now as for this 'wind', the angel in Rev 7:2-3 says they only have to hold it back until Israel is sealed, and then they are 'given to hurt the earth and the sea'.  So although it's not in scripture, there will be a letting go by these four, when the sealing of Israel is over.  Have to be sure to clarify that.

And at this point, I wanted to revisit the fulfillment of this prophecy - because is HAS happened.  And in doing so?  My mind was blown, yet again.  But it's a LOT of information to put here, so tomorrow I'm going to repost the blog from 2010, because it's just easier to do it that way.  But please... bear with me.  I'm really going somewhere with all of this...

Revelations of Revelation 7
((Part I: the Split-Away Verse))

About a month ago, I posted about Hanukkah in the Old Testament.  How Leviticus 23 is a list of the feasts that Yehovah's followers are commanded to obey 'for all generations'.  I went on to say that someone - long, long after Messiah's first coming - went in and split up the Bible as we know it into chapters/verses, based on when a topic ended and another one started.  Only they screwed up in Leviticus, because if you look at Leviticus 24, the topic of things to be obeyed 'for all generations' doesn't stop until Leviticus 24:10... the first TEN verses are two more things that fit the same category as the others.  And it looks to me like Leviticus 24:1-4... which is about olive oil lit on the 'candlestick' before the people from morning to evening... is a Hanukkah reference.  Now whether verse 5 thru 9 are somehow a reference to Purim (the other 'lesser' feast), I haven't looked into that, yet.  But it definitely looks as if at least the Hanukkah verses were split away when they shouldn't have been.

So there's the set-up for what happened next.  I'm all just minding my business, and the Lord popped something into my head at a time when I definitely was not expecting it, and He said, "That's not the only verse that's happened with.  Take a look at Revelations 8:1."

Now... I don't have to look at Revelations 8:1 to know what He was referring to.  I gotta tell ya, I have Revelations 8:1 ingrained in my brain pretty deeply.  It's one of those questions that's driven me about crazy for years now.  'Silence in Heaven for about the span of half an hour'.  Is that half the period of the Trib?  Half of a month?  Half of a year?  Half of a six-month suggestion period (aka 3 months?)  Half of something else?  WHAT?!?  I'm not the only one with that frustration, either.  Mostly I had just shrugged it off:  a) it happens AFTER the rapture in Rev 7:9-17, so I figured I wouldn't have to worry about it, and b) I'd just deal with it when we got there, or when He told/showed me what it meant... whichever came first.

But then I was told that Revelation 8:1 was supposed to be part of chapter 7, and that changed things.  And I didn't understand.  If the period of silence happens after chapter 7, it wouldn't matter if it were tacked on the beginning of chapter 8, would it?  But what if it summed up chapter 7, instead... but by being split-away from what it referred to, it messed things up? 

The church has always claimed that the 'silence for about a half an hour' referred to the Trump and Vial judgments.  That because they were so much more grievous than the Seal judgments, heaven was silent, watching in somber stillness.  But I always knew that the Trump/Vial judgments take a lot longer than 'about the space of a half an hour'.  So that never made sense to me, really.

For a while, I thought that 'silence' might be a span of time between things where nothing happened.  But that would drag things out too long... it didn't really make a lot of sense, either.

So then the message about the verse belonging with chapter seven.  It meant that the half hour-ish time period ... must refer to part of (or ALL of) the events in Revelations 7.  Especially if it belongs with that chapter, right?  So we need to look at chapter seven, in light of the revelation of this 'split-away' verse.  Which I started to do, but it got away from me so badly, I have to split this up.  So here's the first revelation from Revelations 7... there's a verse that got split away that shouldn't have.  And it makes all the difference.  Just wait and see.

One Month after the SMS

Okay, look... I realize that the SMS was over years ago.  In 2010, to be exact.  I know that I dragged it out because I could make stuff fit, because it was comfortable and gave me a sense of 'direction', if you will.  Knowing the way is always easier than not being able to see where you're going.  And so I brought the SMS with me as far as I possibly could - to December of 2012.

And I realize now that it was wrong.  I was applying something to our present place in history that didn't belong here.  I half suspected it, for a long time, but you know me.  When in doubt, continue with what you had going.  Yes, well, it sounded good to me.  But now that it's over... as in, I can't even TRY to apply it, anymore, and honestly in my heart of hearts wouldn't want to, because it's a lie, and I want Truth.  Period.  While there was a chance it was one thing.  Now that there isn't, that's another.

Last month I wrote a post called 'The Split-Away Verse'.  Don't bother going to look for it, I've taken it down for maintenance.  It's not that the premise of the blog was flawed - it was a message that I got from the Lord.  But I should know better than to blog something that I haven't been given the details of.  If I don't understand it, myself, I have NO business giving it to others.  It's my job, at that point, to wait on the Lord for illumination on the revelation, and I screwed it big.

Which is why I believe I have been stuck in the metaphorical mud for the past month.  No, seriously - I have really been sinking spiritually over here.  And I believe it's because I put the cart before the horse and fricked everything up.  I do that, I admit it - I get excited and geeked and all worked up and start jumping to all sorts of conclusions like the blonde housewifely person that I am.  It's pathetic, in hindsight, and you'd think I would learn, but nooooo.

Anyhow, I wanted to put this out here, for the record.  That I wrote something I shouldn't have, jumped to conclusions I had no business jumping to, and ran with the mouth when I should've paused and reflected and waited on Him.  And also for the record, I wasn't told to delete the 'Split-Away' post... just hold onto it until I'm told what I need to know.  And at the moment, it feels as though I am about to be given that information, so I'm going to hang tight and see what information turns up.

I just had to explain.  Because I want to be as honest as I can here, and that includes admitting when I botch something.  So there it is.

Bullet Blog

• G'morning.
• What a HORRIBLE night, last night.
• Thunderings, lightning, hail...
• ... rain just POURING from the sky.
• The sump is sticking again,
• so I have to go down and check it, today.
• Or we'll flood.
• S'no big, just tedious to remember.
• But it went from 8 degrees last Tuesday...
• ... to 50 degrees this morning when I got up!
• That's crazy.
• Brian got me up at 6-something to show me what to do.
• Then I went back to sleep...
• ... and dreamt about the basement flooding.
• ((and a guy named Pat who won't accept my friend request.))
• But let's not go there.
• That's just a subconscious irritation of mine.
• May I just make an observation?
• These women who post savings deals...
• ... eighteen times a day on FaceBook?
• These women who collect free homeschool book on Kindle
• ... and post five or six freebies a day?
• WHEN do they actually school their kids?
• I'm just asking, because I couldn't keep that kind of thing up.
• I must be super-deficient.
• Don't get me wrong - I visit something like 30 sites every morning.
• I browse, discard, move on, sometimes find something fun...
• ... sometimes download them for the kids...
• Like this and this were in my feeds this morning.
• But once I read the FB feed, pages feed, and the 30 I visit?
• I have things t'do!!
• Actually... I haven't really been doing what I should.
• I think it's my guilt that's blogging, today.
• I know what I *should* do.
• ... but that doesn't count.
• Looking out and seeing soppy, foggy, nasty, gloomy
• ... certainly doesn't help matters, either!
• I bought banana trees for Tu B'Shevat.
• They came last night.
• I fear for their lives.
• The herbs I got for the January Cure?
• Yeah, they're dead, already.
• I swear, I watered them and everything.
• It was swift, but still kinda painful, I think.
• I sincerely hope I do better with the banana trees.
• Brian's got concerns, cuz I didn't go dwarf.
• Well... they're dwarf in that they're a few feet shorter...
• (((than twelve foot tall.  I got the eight footers.)))
• I personally don't think it'll be a problem.
• Eight foot isn't all THAT big.
• Anyhow, they're six inches tall, right now.
• I'll kill them before they reach a foot, most likely.
• It's not that I've a black thumb,
• it's more that I have a black INDOOR thumb.
• So anyhow, I have two banana trees to plant, today.
• And two pumpkin spice cakes to make.
• I tried a Pinterest recipe for pralines that didn't turn out.
• (((LINK HERE)))
• They were WAY too rich, and didn't get firm enough.
• So I figure it'll make a great topping for pumpkin cake.
• I could even do it as a poke cake.
• Send one to work with Brian.
• It's on my agenda for today, too.
• Along with bubble baths for the kids.
• I think we need some tub fun.
• Brian's been getting out of work half an hour early.
• It's really nice.
• My gosh, I look at that man, and...
• the Lord sure knew what he was doing when He gave me Brian.
• Nobody compares to my guy.
• He has really turned into one fine specimen of a man.
• When I met him...? 
• Very young, very naive, very unsure of himself.
• I'm daily amazed at how incredible he is, anymore.
• A little truck absorbed, but...
• Oh, did I tell you he hit a deer with it last week?
• Ooh, the drama!
• And pardon me, the deer hit HIM... LoL!!
• Anyhow, it's this HUGE thing.
• He washes it weekly, scrubs the wheel wells,
• checks the oils and the fluids before driving...
• It's been comical, really.
• And then THE DEER put its head down and ran right into him.
• ((The truck goes in for body work next week.))
• I just snort back a laugh.
• The man LOVES his new truck, by the way.
• So I'll be vehicle-less for a few days,
• ... but it's not like I tend to leave the house, anyhow.
• My family is trying to sell their house again.
• It's got more of a 'desperate' tone to it, this time.
• That raises every red flag I have, but it's not my call.
• When my family gets desperate, they do stupid things.
• Make bad calls.
• I have a bad feeling about this.
• Not even sure they should move, to be honest.
• Again... it's not my call.
• I'm just grateful we're where we are.
• And I've got Brian.
• And bubble baths, pumpkin praline cakes,
• ...and banana trees.
• ***Grin!***

Money Matters - Part Four

I know, I've written a LOT about money matters, lately, but I really have been thinking on it a lot, since reading that book.  Although to be honest?  It went over my head.  I got to the chapter on shares and long caps versus short caps and bonds and... I got lost.  I'm hoping I can talk Brian into reading it so he can translate, because it's like high school math - I got there, I was okay, and then it went over my head, and I never recovered.  *Sigh!*

But today I want to just do some chatting about saving.  There are so many options for saving.  But the pros and cons?  I don't know...

First there's the piggy bank.  Kids do this.  But then you get more than will fit in the piggy bank, and you have to do something different.  Brian's Grandma did the sock drawer until she started to feel uncomfortable, and she gave the sock to Brian's parents... and they told Brian's sister, who told her friends, and so while Brian and I were exchanging vows at the altar, his sister's friends were breaking into his parent's house and stealing Grandma's life savings out of the sock drawer.  True story - it really happened during our wedding.  Don't 'sock it' away - and if you do, don't use the sock drawer, for pity's sake.  And DON'T tell anyone what you're doing.  I know they have fake cans of hairspray or furniture polish that are hollow and you can sock away in those, but... I'd be afraid that if we died, someone would chuck the can, not knowing it was a hiding place.  It just seems stupid to me to keep cash like that at home.

On the other hand, there's the savings account.  Which makes absolutely no money anymore, is no longer insured by the FDIC (because it's in the red, and can't afford to pay out in case of emergency), and actually... doesn't exist.  That's right - savings accounts are pretend money.  You put your 'money' in it, but it's not really in the account - that money is used to fund loans, pay other people... it's just a number on a screen that is 'yours'... and in case of a bank failure, your 'money' (which isn't sitting in a box for you, there) is gone.  So while I don't think the sock drawer idea is good, I think LESS of the savings account idea.  At least with the sock drawer, you have something tangible in your hand.  You don't have that with a savings account.

Which is my problem with the IRA (retirement) accounts.  YES, they make more money.  Yes, they compound interest.  Yes, you make money that way.  But again, it's not FDIC insured (regardless of what the sticker in the bank window says), it's not *there*/tangible, and it's easily seized.

My dad was always into savings bonds.  He bought them when I was a kid, and sent them to us in the mail.  My parents divorced when I was eight, so he'd give us the savings bonds for birthdays for a while... and let me tell you... those bonds?  They barely covered my first grocery bill when I moved out on my own.  What. A. Waste.  So what do you do for your child?

I had a savings account for Lydia when I first entered momhood.  I just put aside money in it, and didn't bother to look at the statements, because I didn't want to know what it was doing (out of sight, out of mind, won't be touched).  I just put the statements in the filing cabinet every month.  Until we were moving... and I opened the last envelope (planning to throw away the previous ones... why drag all that paper around with us?)... and saw that she was losing $30 a month in fees, because the idiot who set it up didn't put it as a minor account, and she was below their minimum balance.  We lost something like $200 to the fees, and they wouldn't reverse it, because it had been my responsibility to have caught the error.  I. Was. PISSED.  And pulled all the money out.  But wasn't about to put it in savings bonds... sure, the money wouldn't be fee-ed to death, but that's not useful, either.

George Ure and any survivalist site you go to says to go silver and gold.  They rarely depreciate, they are tangible, they are accepted world-wide, they're more viable than paper cash.  So I put the kids' money (all bonds from the grandparents and what was left of the savings) into silver for the kids.  But honestly... I learned a hard lesson, that way, too.  I had a lump sum of *OUR* money (Brian's and mine), and bought gold.  Then Brian charged something to a bank card without talking to me, and there wasn't $$ to cover the purchase - so I had to turn around and exchange the gold that I'd just bought for money to bail him out.  It was eight days between my gold purchase, and the gold sale.  I'd bought the gold for $XXX and they only gave me a part of that in selling it back.  Same guy I'd purchased it from.  He wouldn't give me the same amount back, eight days later.  So in order to get money from the gold, I had to take a loss.  Hard lesson learned.  I haven't been a fan of the silver/gold thing, since.   SurvivalBlog and UrbanSurvival are right - , in a coming economic collapse cash would be devalued, and the value of silver/gold would rise.  And you would have something tangible that was worth something.  But as a savings option that isn't MAJORLY long term?  Not a good way to go.  Besides, where would you keep it?  The sock drawer?  I don't think so!

We talked briefly a few days ago about 401Ks and mutual funds.  I had shares in the bank when I was working in the 90s, and the shares were sold when the bank switched hands.  They rolled my part into mutual funds, which immediately tanked.  I got this funky statement in the mail that said, "You owned $2593, and lost $1148 this year... congratulations!"  And I said, forget THAT crap... cash it out, I'll pay the tax, and at least I won't lose any more of it!!  I put what was left into air conditioning for my car (babies+August=hot)... and then promptly smashed/totalled the Explorer.  The end of the shares that I didn't earn, in the first place.  But we stayed cool for two summers, so I guess it wasn't a TOTAL wash.  But that was a rotten deal, too.  Although we were insured, got the value of the vehicle, put it on the car I have now, and paid it off in 18 months.  So actually, in hindsight, that wasn't the total wash I have been looking at it as, is it?

Another thing survivalists (and Suzy Orman and Larry Burkett and Dave Ramsey) tell you is a wise thing to do with savings is spend it.  Pay off your debt with it.  Of course, once your debt is paid off, they tell you to save six months worth of income as an emergency stash... but they don't tell you how to go about that.  Anyhow, after all of my misadventures in savings bonds, savings accounts, silver and mutual crap-holes, that's when we just decided to get out of the hole.  It gave me something to do with the extra money.  Survivalists say after that you stash stuff - the three B's: Bullets, Beans and Beer.  I don't drink, don't use dried beans on a regular basis, and understand that the price of toilet paper may skyrocket, but I don't know that I want eighty cases in the basement, if you know what I mean... and nothing for retirement.

But how to save after the debt is paid off?  How to plan for the future?  How to save for retirement?  Not such an easy thing to consider.  And many of my friends here hit the nail on the head when they said that everything is seizeable.  When it comes down to it, I've read papers about 401Ks being eyed up by the government.  I've read about how IRAs and bank accounts pretty much are insolvent.

What do we do?  Frankly, I don't know.  But I have learned the hard way about what DOESN'T work, so if this post was worth anything, it was a poster child blog about how things can go badly, and what not to do.  LoL!!  If you've got suggestions, my comment section is open...