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Bob’s Journal for 11/25/20

Published on: Nov 25 2020

Happy Thanksgiving in This Unique, Eventful Year of 2020

Happy Thanksgiving in this unique, eventful year. I’m preparing this week’s Bob’s Journal early so you receive it before the holiday.

I’m dispensing with the regular format to let you know that my wife, Elaine, and I thank you for the opportunity to help you establish and maintain financial independence. We also hope you, as a member of our Retirement Watch family, have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.

I’m grateful to the many readers who let me know, primarily through email this year, the ways Retirement Watch helped them achieve their financial goals. I often close this Thanksgiving email with the part of the Thanksgiving Day message from Abraham Lincoln.

But first, I’d be remiss, as someone who lived most of his life in Virginia, if I didn’t point out that a number of historians and others believe the first Thanksgiving in the United States occurred near what is now Jamestown, Virginia, several years before the Pilgrims had their event in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Read some articles at that link if you are interested in the details.

George Washington declared the first Thanksgiving Day in the United States, but Abraham Lincoln is credited with establishing it as an American institution. That’s why I close this Thanksgiving Day message with the last part of President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, issued in some of the darkest days of the Civil War:

“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union. It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

– Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation October 3, 1863

I hope you have a pleasant and safe Thanksgiving. I’ll be back next week with the regular commentary on your retirement finances.

Bob’s News & Updates

The number of regular viewers for my Retirement Watch Spotlight Series continues to increase. You should sign up because I make in-depth presentations of key retirement finance topics. You can watch these online seminars from the comfort of your home or office at times you choose. To learn more about my new Spotlight Seriesclick here.

A recent five-star review of my book on amazon.com said, “A complete retirement guide! One of the best books on this topic!” Click for more details about the revised edition of “The New Rules of Retirement.”

If you’re interested in my books, check my amazon.com author’s page.

I’m a senior contributor to the Forbes.com blog. You can view my contributor page here.

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