Why You May Need to Make Fire with Ice

Here’s some anecdotal evidence of the stress facing towns and cities in Rhode Island. Last week, Newport’s city manager proposed a 2.47% increase in the city’s budget for this coming fiscal year:

The large increases in utility rates due to mandated system requirements have been difficult for citizens and businesses to absorb in the current struggling economy. Therefore, the staff tried to minimize any increase in the levy in the development of this draft budget.

The mandated system requirements in question have increased Newport water rates by 22.5% at the end of last year and will cause sewer rates to go up by 10.6% in July. Add to this property appraisals that are coming in 10-15% lower—the tax rate increase will have to be greater than the percentage increase in the budget. And that’s not even getting into the pension mess facing America’s prettiest town.

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Your disaster preparations—which include self-sufficiency—do not have to be expensive or hard. They just have to work. Here’s how you can make fire out of ice.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.