#2 Fall 2020

Jamaican American Club Newsletter

Fall 2020 Adventure Jamaican: Jamaica’s best attractions Dunn’s River Falls… A magical Experience awaits you here….

Your adventure to Dunn’s River Falls starts on the bus ride to this awesome resort…

Feel the excitement as you travel through picturesque towns and rural villages where time seem to stand still as you see sugar cane fields standing tall and weary farmers chopping away in the sun…

If I had to choose only one attraction in Jamaica, I would choose Dunn’s River Falls and your trip to Jamaica will not be complete if you do not include this tour in your itinerary.

Continue on your journey and see breathtaking sceneries of rolling hills covered with lush vegetation. Everywhere there is the spectacular sight of flora and fauna.

You know you have arrived at Dunn’s River Fall when you hear the roaring of the water rushing down the hillside…

Your tour will begin with knowledgeable and experienced guides who will guide you up the cascading falls in a human chain.

Your water shoes or strong sandals will be essential to help you walk and sometimes crawl on the rocks and stones… But you’ll be rewarded with some of the most exhilarating moments of your life as you savour the feel of water pounding on your head or just lose yourself in one of the many flowing pools.

Close your eyes and experience ecstasy…

Continue on page 4

Inside this issue Adventure Jamaican: Jamaica’s best attractions page 1

Trivia

Trivia page 1

Jamaica is home

Too Afraid to plan page 4

to over 200 species of exotic orchid, 73 of which are indigenous.

Motivation Creates Greatness page 5 Book Club page 8

Click on image to get to their website

Click on image to get to their website

Inside Story Headline Page 4

JAMAICAN AMERICAN CLUB NEWSLETTER

Continued from page 1 For the less brave or the more cautious… take a refreshing dip in one of the many shallow pools that lead off the winding stairs that run along the falls… or take a ‘shower’ under one of the many waterfalls…

Climb the Falls as many times as you wish as there are no limits to the number of times you can climb. But there is much more than the Falls… You can swim in the crystal clear waters just below, go boating, diving, and surfing. If you do not want to do any of these, just do sun bathing or watch the numerous tourists or locals as they have fun… fun… fun…

Of course you wouldn’t forget to take your camera to capture these awesome sights….

Maureen Wright-Evans is the owner and operator of Smokey Manor, a company specializing in packages to see Authentic Jamaica.

Too Afraid To Plan, Unprepared To Succeed Since leaving high school or college in the 70's, 80's or 90's, can you say that you really spent some quality time planning your financial future? Some of us are on our third or fourth job. The financial markets must seem like an uncharted territory to many of our brothers and sisters. Well, don't worry! I am going to try and get you moving again.

The first thing you need to do is to determine exactly where you are now. There can be big changes. By now, I hope you have started putting money away for your future. If you did, then it is quite possible that your account balances are down significantly since in 2008, as the mortgage crises came to a head.

Hopefully, you have recovered from some of your negative account value by now. Remem-

ber, you only have lost when you sell shares of stocks or other investments. Those shares still have value and you still own the same number of shares, if no sale has occurred.

Let us revisit the issue of the mortgage crisis so that we can reduce the chance of being blindsided again. What happened is that many Americans got caught up in the frenzy of making money easier and were willing to be less cautious in hope of becoming more financially secure. This trend of thought rippled across this great nation. This nation - teachers, policemen, lawyers, doctors, tradesmen, secretaries and others were told by their friends that real estate was "the" investment of the times.

The problem was not with real estate buying and selling. It was with the group thinking of the general public, and many professionals who were caught up in the conversation that real estate was the answer for all people.

Blame can be assigned to buyers and sellers, regulators, and most importantly, lenders and appraisers to go around. As home prices escalated beyond historic norms, lenders became more enticed by the possibility of making more revenue selling mortgage debt to Wall Street firms.

The problem was not with real estate buying and selling. It was with the group thinking of the general public, and many professionals who were caught up in the conversation that real estate

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

Page 5

Continued from page 4 was the answer for all people. Blame can be assigned to buyers and sellers, regulators, and most importantly, lenders and appraisers to go around. As home prices escalated beyond historic norms, lenders became more enticed by the possibility of making more revenue selling mortgage debt to Wall Street firms.

This was the environment many investors found themselves as the financial markets needed to correct itself in 2008. This has led many of us to be too afraid to plan, and unprepared to succeed as we adjust our individual finances. No problem! The first step to get back on track is to know what happened but to not get caught up in the reverse of the mortgage crises. If you are too afraid to resume saving for your future, you are essentially giving up on your financial future and your retirement.

I know you do not want to do that. It makes no sense to be around for the CRASH, but nowhere to be found for the recovery. You may not have understood your investments before. Now is a good time to allocate some time to learning about your finances and getting a financial checkup done. Secondly, you need to realize that things have changed and you may need to change. There was a time when fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles went to work and there was a pension in place to provide income for employees in their retirement. Strong companies prided themselves on their ability to provide a check to employees after years of service. You should know that that level of joint effort is dwindling fast and should not be expected in the future.

Therefore, if your employer provides a pension you should expect changes in benefits or contributions in years to come. I fully expect employers to have more and more workers to contribute to a pension directly and not the company making that 'contribution'. Contributions can always be cancelled or obligations shifted to another party. This is a common practice in many school districts in America, as teachers pay into their own pension plans directly. Be prepared to experience change and recognize the changes that may come in the future.

Thirdly, know your finances and be determined to win. Life has always been full of good and bad, ups and downs. We are living during an era that requires knowledge and determination to retire comfortably. There is no cavalry coming to rescue you. You have to help save yourself... You are the architect of your own financial success.

Therefore, you are going to have to take more time and care making financial decisions and not put them off.

The hardest part is to "refine" your thinking and have your thoughts defined, then you will be ready to implement your plans with conviction. Most people just need a little more information before making a decision to invest or purchase insurance. This can be your time to get it right. Believe that you are ready. You may have been knocked down but you are not knocked out. Visit HowardRamsamugh.com.

Motivation Creates Greatness Motivation is central to creativity, productivity and happiness.

Motivation is what causes us to act, and when we act, we create movement, growth and change, we feel involved, masterful and significant, we feel powerful through experiencing how we can change the world, and we create more of what we love in

our lives. And all of this gives our lives purpose and happiness, so why do so many of us not feel this zealousness and passion for life? Most of us have just one distinction for demotivation, which means that you’re likely to assume that you’re struggling with the same problem whenever you’re motivated, when in continued on page 5

Click on image to get to their website

Click on image to get to their website

Continued from page 5 in fact demotivation is a category of problems that has many different distinctions within it.

When you have just one distinction for demotivation, you’ll apply the same old strategies whenever you feel demotivated, which for many people looks like this: set goals, push harder, create accountability checks that will push you, and run your life using ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD) methods and to-do lists. These strategies are ineffective with most types of de-motivation, and in some instances they can even make you more demotivated. At its essence, demotivation is about you not being fully committed to act, and there are many reasons why you might be in that position.

Having more distinctions for your demotivation will help you to identify the real reasons for your unwillingness to commit to action, so that you can pick the right tools and strategies to get motivated again. www.tolerance.org

Book Club Selections Click on image to get to their website

Click on image to get to their website

This not for profit club's sole purpose is to create unity

Organization

among positive people who have passion; therefore,

Jamaican American Club

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Jamaican American Club PO Box 62 Elk Grove, IL 60009 USA

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JamaicanAmericanClub@yahoo.com Help the community remain viable.

Intended audience: Any individual who would like to help is welcome.

Click on image to get to their website This story can fit 175-225 words.

If your newsletter is folded and mailed, this story will appear on the back. So, it’s a good idea to make it easy to read at a glance.

A question and answer session is a good way to quickly capture the attention of readers. You can either compile questions that you’ve received since the last edition or you can summarize some generic questions that are frequently asked about your organization.

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