You have to take the money out each year,  based on your life expectancy. If the age of the original  owner of the IRA was 70 1/2 before death, you have to take the money out on the schedule of the deceased.

If you are a spouse, you are able to move the IRA to your own IRA.  In most cases, you can’t take the money out without penalty until you are 59 1/2.

What is the best way to gift for the future while allowing your gift to grow in value on a monetary basis and create growth of confidence for the receiver? 

Parents could buy long term care insurance to protect their assets from being used for their health care. This would be a gift to themselves allowing them to have a comfortable retirement.  The assets could be a gift to children or a favorite charity.  This would also be a gift to children who would otherwise have to change their lives to be caregivers.

A gift of the cost for attendance to special seminars or lecture series would brighten the life of a loved one.

College savings accounts such as 529 plans could be started with a lump sum ($1,000) and add monthly investments  through automatic deductions from your checking account .

Roth IRAs are a way to invest for retirement or for college expenses.  

The contributions you make to a Roth IRA can be withdrawn without penalty as long as you only take out what you have put in.  If you take out any money that the Roth IRA earned through dividends or capital gains, you will have to pay a penalty and taxes on those earnings.  Since you paid taxes on the money (from a salary you earned) before you invested, the contributions are not taxable.

Have a tree(s) planted in a place chosen by the receiver.

Buy a hybrid or electric car and give a gift to yourself and the Earth.

Is there a loved one that is very involved in volunteering for an organization they really believe is making the world a better place to live?  Maybe, you could contribute to that organization with dollars or with a donation of your time along side the person who is very committed to the mission of the group. 

Giving can be such fund!!

Its authors Dunnett, Gedge, Little, and Snodgrass maintain that building a green roof not only provides environmental benefits, but will personally “do you good” as a life-affirming action. The book offers more than forty profiles of domestic-scale projects on sheds, offices, studios, garages, houses, and bicycle sheds—even a bird-feeder—and several community projects. So keep your eyes “up” for green roofs in your own neighborhood—or make your own!

Here are a few local “big green roofs” to inspire you:

Monroe office building (333 E. Onondaga St.) in Syracuse recently installed one, helped with funds from the county’s Green Improvement Fund program, an effort that promotes green building practices and aims to clean up Onondaga Lake. For labor, they partnered with Helping Hands, part of Concerned Citizens Action Group, a non-profit group who takes in unemployed high-school dropouts. CCAP Director Mike Atkins said this gives marketable construction skills to those in their training program while it also introduces the community to eco-friendly building practices. Both learn benefits such as a 95 percent reduction in storm-water runoff, decreased energy consumption and a 200 percent extension in the life of a roof.

Syracuse OnCenter has a new green roof of various sedums – a plant family that is low-growing, flowering, easily rooted, and absorbs a lot of water. About 1,000,000 gallons of rainwater should be absorbed by this roof annually, saving it from run-off into Onondaga Lake. For more about this story , go to http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/onondaga_countys_oncenter_goes.html. You can also check savetherain.us, for news of more community initiatives – such as grants or free rain barrels available to property owners in qualifying areas.

 By bringing back the fertility of our soil, investing in small local enterprises, building dependable relationships, connecting to our neighbors, we can experience the growth of our local communities and make connections that support families and businesses. If a business is part of the community, there is a bond between the executives and the other employees.  There is more regard for the living standards of the entire locality.

Slow Money means reusing, recycling and replacing our natural resources. For more information on the vision, principals, actions and videos of this movement, go to:  www.slowmoney.org.

These facts coming to pass, however, say author Paul Gilding (The Great Disruption: How the Climate Crisis Will Transform the Global Economy), shouldn’t be cause for despair, as he reminds us of human nature in an emergency:

“In all this … there is a surprising case for optimism. As a species, we are good in a crisis, and passing the limits will certainly be the biggest crisis our species has ever faced. Our backs will be up against the wall, and in that situation we have proven ourselves to be extraordinary.”

When we finally realize that this is a real crisis our species will, as we always have,  respond dramatically. We will completely transform our economy including the industries that we know contribute to the biggest crisis we have faced. We will, of necessity, return to the more basic life-one that is not addicted to growth and “stuff”. We’ll realize and accept that none of that is making life better and seek out the things that actually can sustain us emotionally and physically.

Calvert Foundation provides funds for affordable housing, microfinance, environmental sustainability, job creation and community development. They loan funds for various project initiatives  such as Habitat for Humanity, Oikocredit and Equal Exchange. These loans are negotiated with the particular borrowing organization. When investing in these notes, you can choose a part of the country in which you would like to invest or a particular project.

Many banks and credit unions loan money for community projects.  What CRA Fund does is buy certain loans that support community projects such as affordable rental housing or construction projects for senior citizens using solar panels.  These various loans are placed in a pool of investments to have the greatest diversity of type, location and demographics in order to bring the best return for the investors in the fund.

By investing in the population that provides useful services and products, we invest in ourselves and our culture.

Remember the time around the 70’s when we all car pooled? Most families had only one car, gas was rising in price, we were more social and less in a hurry. One in four Americans carpooled for these and other reasons. Now less than 12% of drivers share rides. Do we need to rethink this even if it means a bit of “inconvenience?” Commutes into the major (and not so major) cities can be frustrating at the least, but we feel compelled to use our own car. We’re not suggesting that sharing is for everyone, just as mass transit is not viable for all—but for those who can consider it, let’s look at some facts. It can lessen traffic jams and that frustrating “hurry up and wait” we all are familiar with. It can cut in half (or more) the costs related to commuting—gas, oil, vehicle depreciation, tolls, parking—among others. And the  important concern—the emissions generated by so many automobiles on the road. Cars parked in the driveways of America have risen 60% since 1980, whereas the number of Americans has grown by one-third.

The technology minded can take heart in the fact there are new ways to find that ideal ride(r). Try these web sites: eRideShare and Zimride, which serve specific needs and areas of the population. Colleges and universities have signed on with the latter and have more than 2000 active users. Got an iPhone? There’s an app for it—Avego—promoting real time ridesharing. You can even include small electronic payments from riders to drivers.

In 2008 AAA told us it cost an average of 54.1 cents per mile to drive a car. This includes gasoline, oil, maintenance, tires and depreciation. Not included are tolls and parking, insurance and registration. Going 40 miles? That’s $21.64.  And that’s in 2008, not today’s gas prices. Alternatives, anyone?

What are the habits of a day that increase your confidence? For some, it could be sleep, exercise, getting things done, having integrity, being prepared, being knowledgeable, or relaxation. Write down 10 practices that would instill a continual sense of confidence for you. Keep this list in a place where you will see it each day as a reminder.  

Sometimes, we lose our confidence because we are measur-ing ourselves by an ideal. An ideal is something we are perpetually striving toward. Our ideal is a moving target. We set a place we want to be in two years. We accomplish that ideal and then we set another ideal. We tend to keep the ideal beyond where we are now. That’s the growth we want to experience to maintain our confidence. In order to appraise ourselves positively, we need to measure ourselves by what we have accomplished not by saying we haven’t reached our two year or 10 year goal yet. Each step along the way is an accomplishment we need to recognize as we move toward the lusciousness of our flourishing garden.  

First, the good news – SPINS, the first company to offer sales data of Natural Products to the industry, reported in October that sales of Fair Trade Certified™ items at grocery stores are up by 30 percent this year, to $140 million. Also, Fair Trade USA announces many major name brand product ice creams, teas and coffees we already know and love are expanding their lines of Fair Trade Certified™ products, some even committing to have all of their products certified in the near future. This voting with dollars meant, in 2009, more than $48 million additional income and funding was available for education, health care, clean water and other vital services for more than 1.2 million people in Fair Trade Communities worldwide. You can visit http://fairtradeusa.org for more information.

You can be part of a Green America project to help “Fair Trade”  your own supermarket,  if you go to http://www.fairtradeyoursupermarket.org/ for kits, information and ideas. Order a kit, and you’ll get comment cards that you can place on the shelves or produce counters, letting  your store (and other shoppers) see your approval for items which are Fair Trade™ or, telling them “I would buy this . . . if it were Fair Trade.”

For more ideas on promoting  fair trade, or online gift ideas, consider visiting Global Exchange’s Blog, Shop Fair, Give Fair at  http://www.globalexchange.org/blogs/fairtrade/2010/11/03/shop-fair-give-fair/ Here, you’ll find links to many gifts ideas, as well as ideas such as hosting a Fair Trade Home Party, suggesting your office choose Fair Trade for its Corporate Gifts, or preparing a Fair Trade dish for a holiday gathering. All of these ideas and more  information can be found at www.fairtradefederation.org and www.fairtrade.us. 

It can be that easy to share Fair Trade news this season and make a positive change in the world – and isn’t that something to feel good about?

While visiting your post office this season, you may want to ask if they are offering a special premium-priced stamp which will contribute to funding projects supported by the Multinational Species  Fund. The stamps will be available for a minimum of 5 years and the premium you pay will go directly to this fund. Many species are threatened or near extinction and this particular effort is directed specifically to generate funds for rhinos, tigers, elephants, great apes and marine turtles. At this time the bill has passed the House and is going before the Senate. The premium Breast Cancer stamp, issued in 1998, has raised more than 70 million dollars for research. Let’s hope this one is equally successful in helping to keep the delicate balance of nature.