ALAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON!
As a financial planner and advisor, Kasey has assisted people with their estate planning for well over 30 years, explaining how our possessions and financial assets can pass easily to our loved ones and charities, but what about our intangibles? Our knowledge? What is in our hearts? When she learned of this, she found it so intriguing she decided not only would she put down her own most cherished beliefs and insights, but would also make this available to everyone by creating a workbook; a gentle guide to go through the process of creating one’s own spiritual legacy.
The act of writing it benefits the author—you—too. The writing of an ethical will can bind you more to your heritage, understanding more of your own cultural history, and define your ethical and spiritual values. Thus, you create an intangible, but very meaningful, legacy. Through the project you may begin to understand how your life made a difference, and can continue to do so through your efforts in the Ethical or Spiritual Will workbook, (name it what you want).
What if you had the writings of your great or great-great grandparents? Writing you could read, keep and share about what they believed, what they learned from life, and what life was like for them? Information that they found important and personally wanted their heirs to know, a sort of love letter to their living decedents and those not yet born. Wouldn’t that be exciting? To glimpse into their mind and heart? To get a feel for who they were intimately?
Now, what about you? All that you have gone through, all that you have learned, your successes, failures, losses and triumphs, your hard-earned wisdom and deeply held beliefs, can be captured and passed down as a spiritual or ethical will. What a treasure it would be!
There is an old tradition in the Jewish faith called tzevaot, and today it has become thought of as a letter from the grave, (though some were given while the person was alive too). When I learned of this, I found it so intriguing I decided not only would I put down my most cherished beliefs and insights, but I would also make this available to everyone by creating a workbook; a gentle guide to go through the process of creating one’s own spiritual legacy.
What is an Ethical or Spiritual Will?
Some news~
Kasey has been working on a pet project that you just might be interested in! She’s writing a workbook that is a guide to making your own spiritual or ethical will. It’s a fascinating topic.
As a financial planner and advisor, Kasey has assisted people with their estate planning for well over 30 years, explaining how our possessions and financial assets can pass easily to our loved ones and charities, but what about our intangibles? Our knowledge? What is in our hearts? When she learned of this, she found it so intriguing she decided not only would she put down her own most cherished beliefs and insights, but would also make this available to everyone by creating a workbook; a gentle guide to go through the process of creating one’s own spiritual legacy.
The act of writing it benefits the author—you—too. The writing of an ethical will can bind you more to your heritage, understanding more of your own cultural history, and define your ethical and spiritual values. Thus, you create an intangible, but very meaningful, legacy. Through the project you may begin to understand how your life made a difference, and can continue to do so through your efforts in the Ethical or Spiritual Will workbook, (name it what you want).
What if you had the writings of your great or great-great grandparents? Writing you could read, keep and share about what they believed, what they learned from life, and what life was like for them? Information that they found important and personally wanted their heirs to know, a sort of love letter to their living decedents and those not yet born. Wouldn’t that be exciting? To glimpse into their mind and heart? To get a feel for who they were intimately?
Now, what about you? All that you have gone through, all that you have learned, your successes, failures, losses and triumphs, your hard-earned wisdom and deeply held beliefs, can be captured and passed down as a spiritual or ethical will. What a treasure it would be!
There is an old tradition in the Jewish faith called tzevaot, and today it has become thought of as a letter from the grave, (though some were given while the person was alive too). When I learned of this, I found it so intriguing I decided not only would I put down my most cherished beliefs and insights, but I would also make this available to everyone by creating a workbook; a gentle guide to go through the process of creating one’s own spiritual legacy.
We will keep you posted on when it will be available, hopefully by October.
Photo by Christian Bowen on Unsplash
What stories are you consuming?
If you want to believe in Antifa, QAnon, military coup, alien DNA—go ahead, but check in with what it is doing to your life
Why Focus on Wellbeing when I want to be Rich? What has consciousness got to do with it?
Many of you find my site through your interest in money and not necessarily on the consciousness information, mind/body stuff, or even my books! Often, those with the desire to attain financial success get perhaps a bit impatient with the other topics! Let’s look at the relationship between them, and why there is a good reason to include them when understanding financial success. After all we want to be happy, fulfilled, satisfied and healthy, not only well off financially!
As we move through life, we all look through our own unique filters, which creates our perspective of ourselves and the world. Just as there is a vast range of perspectives among us, there is a corresponding level of consciousness for each and every one of us.
Consciousness is the basis of our existence. Before anything there is the unmanifest, as it moves it becomes consciousness. It not only permeates everything, it creates everything and yes, most of us call this God, but we are just looking at one attribute here, the levels of awareness. They ripple up from the underlying energetic field and its vibration.
Basically, everything has consciousness, and as we look on the higher ascending levels, we find sentient beings becoming ‘aware’.
Of course, now we are talking about humans. Eckhart Tolle says we have been at a level up to this point of being mostly unaware of our ability to manifest reality, (we may be on the verge of consciously manifesting in our evolution, but that is another conversation).
What does all this have to do with money? We are each operating at a level of consciousness. At the lower levels there is no personal integrity, a lack of empathy and compassion, and there is not even the honoring of handshakes or a promise. If we use Dr. David Hawkins scale, this would be at a 1-3, with 10 representing a completely enlightened, evolved being; Jesus in his example. Most of us today are grouped in low to middle.
Someone with relatively low consciousness can create wealth. We all know of people like Madoff or Harvey Weinstein. There is no exact correlation with how financially successful you are and on what level of consciousness you are operating.
But, having what I call financial health is tied to your level of consciousness. When you have financial health, you aren’t stressed about money, (Do you think Madoff wasn’t stressed about how he was making his money? Keeping all those balls in the air? He must have been.). When you have financial health, your money is organized in accounts with purposes: savings, retirement, investments, insurance, etc. You have confidence in your financial plan; you have the discipline to protect your assets and not irresponsibly spending or losing it. You are able to delay gratification, and at the highest levels of money consciousness, you are provided for by an income stream without struggling or working long hours that you don’t enjoy. It also involves trust or faith that your future needs will be met.
I’ve been a financial advisor and planner since 1983. I have seen all types of people and their money consciousness displayed before me in a steady stream through my office and, for the most part, the clients with faith in their future do quite well. They have enough of a grasp on how money and securities work to feel comfortable with their plans.
Those who are lower on the scale may look upon the wealthy with envy, projecting negative attributes on them. This reinforces their own distrust of the financial world and supports a belief that truly good people are not rich.
Let’s do something fun. Let’s combine these individual manifestations of money consciousness with Ayurvedic mind/body principles. Ayurveda is the 5000-year-old health system of yoga from India. There are three main mind/body types called doshas. In Ayurveda mental and physical diseases are the result from imbalances in these doshas. If we use this to determine an Ayurvedic-based money consciousness, it would look like these examples below.
Doshas at Lower Levels of Money Consciousness, unbalanced:
1) VATA Anxious. The anxiety of investing causes poor decisions—buying and selling based on emotions, the worry of uncertainty causing delayed planning, often changing their mind, the fear of what ifs creating so much stress that they cannot follow good advice, and perhaps some impulsive spending. Job insecurity, perhaps too many job changes, flighty.
2) PITTA Distrustful. Viewing the financial community as corrupt, difficulty putting trust in others, desiring to do it all on their own, moving from one financial professional to another, always blaming downturns on some conspiracy or groups with nefarious motivations. They don’t see themselves as responsible for their situation. Can be overbearing, controlling, irritable, which may affect their ability to do their work. Makes it more difficult to find financial wellbeing.
3) KAPHA Procrastinator. Always putting off getting their affairs in order. They will do it someday, it’s nobody’s fault, they just don’t want to think about it. Money stagnates in low to no interest-bearing accounts, or ‘orphaned’ accounts, those not paid attention to. They rarely get around to making a good financial plan, and just might go take a nap instead. Could easily miss opportunities to advance in their career by a lack of motivation or lethargy.
Doshas at Higher Levels of Money Consciousness, Balanced:
1) VATA Inventive. Uses creativity and ingenuity to solve financial problems. Is in touch with their intuition and inner guidance to make better decisions. Vivid imagination to follow each choice to its probable result. Finds a career path that fills their need for expressiveness, communication, creativity, passions and service. Work is more like play, and their ‘play’ is fulfilling and monetarily rewarded.
2) PITTA Leadership. Excellent organizer, charismatic, disciplined, ambitious, colorful, and self-determined. Good ability to formulate goals, financial plans, assessing problems and mapping out logical solutions. Natural entrepreneur. Their estate plan is in order, retirement plan enacted, insurance and investment needs are covered, and periodically reviewed. Mapped out their career, knows the trajectory, and is confident they are on target. They are admired and listened to. Life is good.
3) KAPHA Stable. Dependable, consistent, loyal, caring, nurturing, the glue that holds families and companies together. Ability to stick with a good financial plan, understands long-term strategies, patient with market volatility, good ability to save, thoughtful through career, money and relationships. Good employee and a favorite beloved family member.
All of these higher consciousness types have an underlying confidence that their financial life with be in line with the fulfillment and success in their personal lives, mind, body and spirit. From an Ayurvedic perspective, this is accomplished much easier when we have our mind/body in balance; when we have vitality, sound sleep, physical and emotional comfort, passion, and depth of awareness along with financial health. This is wellbeing and this is the goal.
You made it to the end of the essay!!! You are awesome.
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We Aren’t Enemies, Let’s Stop Acting Like We Are!
Welcome to May everyone. Summer is just around the corner. You haven’t heard from me other than an occasional note since January! I hadn’t noticed how long it had been! For better or worse, my life has taken on more tasks, responsibilities, and focus and I have dearly missed this communication with all of you.
It is my intention this year to transform my life, (and yours if you’re game) to a brilliant expression full of prosperity, ease and wellbeing. Let’s all upgrade.
First, laying some ground rules below.
I was going to write about post pandemic PTSD, but frankly, those of you who have been following me for years know what I’d recommend, i.e. take care of yourself, limit news, meditate, eat well, get good sleep, get outside, move etc.
What is going on is so much deeper than COVID. We are in a major transition to something new. So many authors, teachers, and spiritual leaders have written about moving through these upheavals, attempting to explain how the state of chaos in the world came to be, how it is affecting all of us, and what will happen next.
We have been going through a unique period in our lifetime. Information and events have been exploding into our lives faster than we can adapt to it. Not only the health issues with the pandemic, the political storms, lack of consensus on facts (knowledge commons), and the economic issues from lock downs, but also the effects from the stress caused by it all; more divorces, eating disorders, depression, drinking, and anxiety among them.
The media chooses stories to dwell on, magnify, exaggerate and cover day after day after day, until we feel like the whole world is in some sort of hell. Depending on what source of information you tune into the stories vary widely.
In a true democratic system, there is knowledge commons and there is a base line of consensus for what we are, as a nation, attempting to create, what democracy means, and how the government works. Our disagreements have normally been on what government can do to protect that and how.
We’ve entered, over the last decades, a period where we act like those who have different ideas to solve problems are ignorant, enemies, or just plain evil. Groups, organizations, colleges, media sources, and social media, censor opinions they don’t want to hear; we have lost the ability to hear opposing views. We have fractured pieces of ‘reality’ wherein extreme conspiracy theories gain millions of followers. There is an abundance of mistrust in the ‘others’. Author Charles Eisenstein noted, “How can we have a democracy if we are being incited to hate each other by the very media we depend on to tell us what is real, what is “news” and what the world is?” The political party in power tries to repress and censor the opposing party’s views.
Our cultural blemishes have risen to the forefront and are being seized upon by different sides. We live in a story that there are good guys and bad guys, and everyone thinks they are the good guy.
And yet:
- We are all one in the human family
- We have all been the good guy and the bad guy
- In our world there are opposing beliefs in which both are true
- What we call ‘truth’ shifts with levels of consciousness
The likeliest explanation for the current state, upon the revelation of the destructive stories we’ve been hiding, covering up or ignoring, are hopefully, the last gasps of the most primitive of consciousness, as it raises its ugly head for all to see.
For example, there has always been a percentage of people who are drawn to law enforcement and military because of the sense of power and control it gives them over others. (There are ways to screen out these individuals in the application process with psych tests for social pathology.)
Yet we can’t fix what we aren’t aware of. Those of us in the spiritual community are painfully aware of all the world’s atrocities, from the horrors of war, famine, prisons, devastation of lands, all kinds of violence, to the insidious, subtle discriminations and everyday insults by all manner of journalists, bloggers and everyday people.
When I was young in the 60s and 70s, we were filled with energy and ideas for creating a new world: just, safe, environmentally healthy, with gender equality and healthier food. We saw women were treated unfairly and often as sex objects, minorities experienced deep discrimination from every level, senseless wars, and guns and violence exploded in the streets. We charged forward to change this.
We failed. There are more guns, still wars, more sexualization of young girls, still inequities, and we are less healthy.
We have to tell a new story. One not of good and evil, us versus them, but a culture of compassion, listening, patience, creative problem solving, and understanding. It is time for transformation. We know in our hearts that the way society has been isn’t working, and it’s making us sick. It’s making the Earth sick as well.
And not tell a story of what we’re against. The against position is already coming from behind, a weakened state that makes opposite forces strengthen more. Instead of pushing against opinions, beliefs or thoughts, manifest a powerful new vision that encompasses a beautiful story.
Seeing two young children fighting over a toy, rather than make one right and one wrong, an effective parent will work out a solution that reduces upsetting emotions, makes them feel understood, and invites them to help come up with a peaceful one. We are no different. If we are told we are wrong we dig in our heels, don’t we? We are more determined to prove we are right and they are wrong. What you push against grows stronger.
So, I challenge everyone to create a new story.
- Make one up. Call it fiction. There are always truths in storytelling.
- Think, talk, write, read, stories with beautiful answers.
- Envision the world how you know it could be.
- Be fierce in your determination.
- Don’t stay silent when others try to drag someone or a group through the mud.
Ask the hard questions when they complain about the ‘other’. Ask why they think the other is that way, challenge them to go deeper.
- Tell personal stories to exemplify your points.
- Flood the internet with good stories.
- You don’t need to defend or explain what your personal politics are, democrat or republican, independent or libertarian. It’s all fine. This isn’t a process for one political persuasion.
In my book, The Light of Grace, two of the characters lived in future time periods: one in mid-21st century, and one in the 26th-century. It was great fun working out how many of today’s problems were solved. So, inadvertently, I’ve already begun this process!
One of the efforts of the spiritual community is to encourage people to go inward more, study scriptures and develop practices that raise one’s consciousness and the desired effect will be the raising of mass consciousness. As the teachings go, when it reaches critical mass, this will change our culture, change society for the better. And we can see the emerging effect. You can find results all around.
But I think we need to do more. I hope you’re with me. Thank you.
Photo by Obie Fernandez on Unsplash
Sometimes When You Hear, “I Care A Lot.”
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I just watched the movie, I Care A Lot. It’s about a woman who becomes guardian, appointed by a court, to oversee seniors’ care who aren’t able to care for themselves anymore. Yet, she is very malicious and corrupt, and she preys on these vulnerable people along with others who comply with her scheme for a payoff, such as a doctor and a nursing home administrator.
The story takes far-fetched lengths for entertainment value, including a Russian mob and bizarre happenings, but the main point is, unfortunately, a real one.
In Florida, if a resident is showing signs of an inability to care for him or herself, and no relatives appear to be available to assist them, the state can assign a guardian through one of the contracted agencies that provide this service. These agencies have attorneys in place to attain court ordered authorization to sell off the belongings, and place the person in a facility. And pay themselves of course. All against the will of the compromised person.
I assume most states have similar practices in place. In the movie the agency/guardians schemed to keep much of the value of the assets for themselves and pay off those in cahoots, as well as charging a high fee for the service.
We have experienced scary situations with our clients in the past, where an agency was sent in to assess and determine if a client of ours was deemed competent to continue living alone. In one case, the doctor reported a woman to our state authorities, I will call her Tess, because she got lost on her way to her doctor’s appointment. Tess was suddenly on a swift process to have a guardian appointed, moved into a nursing home, and her home and valuables, investment accounts and annuities, all turned over to this agency to be used for her care.
I was contacted by someone from such an agency regarding Tess, and you can imagine how alarmed I was. Tess had all her documentation in place. She had a trust, power of attorney, and all possible plans in place to assure her desires would be followed. It ended up being our job, along with her attorney, to unravel the mess it had become. It took about 3 or 4 months to prove to a judge she already had all in place for her care and to place her desired trustee in charge of everything, (which ended up being me temporarily).
We realized she wasn’t able to remain living on her own. We were able to move her to a top, elegant facility, sell her home and deposit all the proceeds into her trust. She kept her cats, her valuables, everything she wanted. Neither her attorney nor I charged her a penny. It cost her $5,000 in court costs in the end, because of the agency contracted by the state, and it cost all of us working for her benefit lots of sleepless nights.
This is just one example of many. The moral of the story is please, please, have all your documents in place to make sure you’re not taken advantage of or end up with a situation you did not wish for.
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Customer Service
I have been in business for nearly 40 years. At his point I feel an obligation to help, advise and lead others coming behind me. One of the things that is integral to the successful operation of any business is how you respond to mistakes. It really doesn’t matter if the mistake was done by an employee, yourself, or just some glitch. The most important thing to do right away when customer has a complaint is acknowledge something went wrong. Apologize. Accept responsibility. Find a way to remedy it swiftly. It will do more for your business than expensive advertising if you treat your customers with care.
I had three instances lately that made an impression on me for better or worse.
- We needed some work done on our office building and we were having a hard time finding a company to handle it. When we finally found one, I followed instructions and emailed the signed paperwork to them. I was told by the young woman on the phone she would call me when the permits for the city were ready. That was on a Wednesday. I waited a week and no one reached out, so I gave them a call to ask how it was going. This is the response.
Her “Oh, it’s been ready since last Friday. It’s here on our desk.”
Me “It is? No one called me.”
Her “Well, we were told you were called and told to come sign the permit paperwork Friday.”
Me “Sorry but no one ever called me.”
Her “Well, the girl who told you quit. But before she left, she said she called you and told you it will be ready on Friday.”
Me “You continue to say that. It is as if you don’t believe me. You are in a business, and as a business person it is a good idea to just accept that something went wrong, and apologize. That is just good business practice.”
Her “Well, sorry that happened, but she said……”
Me “I will come in the morning and sign the paperwork.”
- In my professional life I work with amazing, caring people. I am fortunate that I can pick and choose who we, as a company, deal with. One particular day I found a discrepancy on a fee owed to us. We were owed more than what we received. I called one of the companies’ contacts, and he began with an apology, a promise to promptly look into it, and it led to a succession of communications from two more people about the problem, how glad they were I’d noticed it, how they were determined to put in place procedures to prevent it from happening again and how much they appreciated me. (What a comparison)
- I ordered some important health products for someone doing an Ayurvedic detox. We were in a hurry. I ordered on a Tuesday and was so busy I didn’t notice I hadn’t received a confirmation of the order until the following Monday. I called the company and told them. The woman immediately sprang into action to help. She didn’t see an order from me come in until that day! She thought perhaps a computer error or I hadn’t hit the final sale button or something. She took immediate responsibility and expressed the order overnight and it came today, cost $0.
And that is how to run a business. And us ‘mature’ folks need to let the younger generation know how this is done.
Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash
Setting Your Intention for 2021
Desire and Intention
Two very different energies.
We all have desire
It flows up through us as natural as breathing
Inherent in desire alone is attachment to results
Future thinking
Noticing lack in the present
Maybe even a ‘grasping’ for the wished
Intention is a present energy
Right here right now
With intention
Comes powerful manifestation
When we hold an intention with the desire
We know how we would like the end result to be
Yet allow the manifestation to happen
Without our interference
Or insistence that it unfold a certain way
It cannot help but come to fruition
Quite possibly in a different
Even more glorious form
Than we could have ever imagined
So, set an intention
Cradle it within a Sacred Container
Embraced with uncertainty
And let it go
It is your job to do just what is before you
What is giving you inspiration
Passion and joy
It is not your job to resist what is
What is—is perfect
Instructions on Setting Your Intentions for this coming year:
I know this was an unusual, difficult year, but it also presented unique opportunities to learn more about ourselves and others, and perhaps better define what we want.
Do this alone or with a group of trusted and supportive friends. Have three sheets,
1) One for recapitulation of regrets & errors, self-sabotaging thinking etc,
2) One for achievements, good self awareness, personal growth, aha’s, etc. for 2020
3) One for your 2020 year-end intended self attributes, accomplishments and goals
First begin with recapitulation.
What is recapitulation? Playing your year from beginning to end in fast forward without any judgment. Simply walk through the big moments of your year like you were viewing it through a video camera. Don’t linger on any particular moment, and don’t begin evaluating it. Just keep moving through each moment. By performing this ritual right at the end of any year, you can gain a greater understanding of who you are and what you do. Recapitulation can help you process all the words, thoughts, and deeds you experienced over the course of the last year. It is a good nightly practice too. After practicing recapitulation, as you become a bit lighter, you will begin to become aware of those behaviors that are nourishing and those that no longer serve you. You will also become more aware of your ripple . . . all the faces, conversations, and interactions you have experienced throughout the day.
When we are doing the exercises be gentle with yourself.
Build a safe container here of self acceptance, with no judgment
Only share if it is comfortable
Write down positive and negative aspects of last year.
Share some of your regrets, accomplishments and goals.
What to do with them going forward?
For the negative ones, forgive and release them, within the body and without. As you do a body scan on each regret, sense where there might be tightness or an ache associated with that memory. See that lift out of the body as it is processed. Then you can do some type of final act, such as burning that list when you get home, or have a ceremonial burial.
And celebrate accomplishments, making certificate, giving yourself a fine dinner, awarding yourself a gift, etc.
Goal setting, Intending
Create some accountability through partnership. It is important to state out loud and in front of a supportive person or persons, (or a mirror). Do not share with anyone who you feel would have a dampening effect on your passion, be in any way unsupportive or critical. If this happens, realize that they have no power over you. Use your image of your archetype, mentor, or role model.
Exercise: who are you to be at the end of 2021?
Describe in detail YOU at the end of 2021.
How are you different?
What are you doing?
How do others see you now?
What is your environment like?
Who are you surrounded by?
When you are done with this exercise, meditate to seal this intention
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Unsplash
Our Renaissance Plan for 2021
First of all, please allow me to be redundant by including the writing in the second section that I sent to our financial community. I know some of you receive both newsletters.
It has been a tough year for most of us so I wanted to dig deep within, and suggest you do also, to come up with a Renaissance Plan for the coming year.
Did you know in the mid-1300s there was a global pandemic of bubonic plague? It was devastating, and no one knew how to treat the sick. It killed an estimated 35 million people and up to 60 percent of those infected died. What is interesting is in the next few centuries there was a rebirth, or renaissance of arts and science unlike any other period in history.
When we look at calamities and crises, we can often find a re-awakening, new innovations, and changes that evolve us up the levels of consciousness. I’d like to move this along for myself and those around me. May we all do it together?
Our community is full of talent, awareness, light and gifts of all types; and all of these are needed. May you be a bright hope to others—a beacon: strong and stable, even when you don’t feel like you have anything to offer. Just by being yourself, the way you were made, you add something to the whole that only you can. Hold space for hope and understanding.
Remember you have access to unlimited spiritual ‘energy’, powerful love. As I wrote in the ‘Light of Grace, Journeys of an Angel’, you’re always supported by unseen forces. We lose touch with this when we stay in our heads with worry, anxiety, fear or anger. All the things we teach in Yoga and Ayurveda are designed to help us reconnect.
Shoot me an email if you need encouragement. Let’s be there for each other and make 2021 a healing and joyful year.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Happy Holidays
Peace, Love and Wellbeing,
Kasey Claytor
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It has been a tough year for most of us, and for some it’s been almost unbearable. We feel for everyone who has suffered this year, those near and far.
Now we are on the verge of a new year, and perhaps a good start over. We’ve sure had plenty to complain about. In 2021 let’s turn that around. Let’s shift toward noticing what around us is good; things and experiences to be grateful for; who is in our lives, the comforts we have, the fresh air we breathe, the smiles, the market and economic recovery, and hope. We all have reasons to feel gratitude. We can’t feel gratitude while complaining! Let’s bring to the forefront the virtues we hold to be important, such as integrity, compassion, courage, generosity, patience, modesty, and honesty. And most importantly, the love we have between all of us, the most powerful thing we have that nothing can destroy. We wish you a peaceful and meaningful holiday season. Osprey Money Management
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