Former Lake Geneva resident subject of Masterpiece TV series

8 — The Beacon also at www.readthebeacon.com March 22, 2013
Friends and founders of the Good Earth Church of the Divine (standing, from
left) Pastor Simone Nathan, Pastor Nansi Hawkins, Jeanne Phelan, Len Butkus, Terry
Skiba (seated) Roger Nathan, Mary Bub, Julie Ryan, Betty Sanders and Janice
Peterson admire the quilt Phelan created for the church. The church has found a permanent
home in the barn at Michael Fields Agricultural Research Institute in East Troy.
(Photo furnished)
Good Earth Church will
celebrate Easter in a barn
A new faith community will host
Easter Services at 10 a.m. on Sunday,
March 31 – but not in a church. Michael
Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI) is
now the home of the Good Earth Church
of the Divine. The progressive Christian
community will meet at W2493 County
Road ES, in East Troy.
“It might seem strange to hold Easter
Services in a barn, “says Pastor Simone
Nathan, “but this is a barn like no other.
The mission of the Good Earth Church of
the Divine and the mission of Michael
Fields Agricultural Institute are parallel.
One body of work is from science and the
other from theology. We are blessed to
find ourselves in a nationally respected
research center.”
Friends and founders of the Good
Earth Church now received a hand-quilted
spring farm scene, created by Jeanne
Taking License
Restaurateurs have a message for
cheeseheads. It could be wurst.
Is this less classy, but just as potentially
filling?
We be talkin’ good Cajun cookin’ in
the great state of Louisiana.
Phelan, to be used in services. The creaturely
world and the land itself are respected
in the prayers and works of the church.
Humanity has inherited a good creation,
and part of its spiritual task is to repair
environmental damage and work for the
thriving of all life.
“The Main Barn at Michael Fields
offers warm, graceful space that is beautiful
and uplifting,” said Nathan. “There
is plenty of parking, a ramp, an elevator,
kitchen and bathrooms. The church is the
only open and affirming, barrier-free and
Just Peace community of the UCC in
Walworth County, with our special mission
of environmental compassion.”
More information may be obtained by
calling (262) 348-0764 or visiting the
church website at www.goodearth churchofthedivine.org.
Retirement ‘tweeners’ may
be down, but not out
By Jill Schlesinger
The Great Recession wreaked havoc on
financial lives across the country, but some
age groups suffered especially deep losses.
For many who were over 65 when the bad
times began, portfolios were already positioned
defensively in cash and bonds, which
helped shield them from steep losses. Those
under 40 may have seen retirement accounts
erode, but at least they could count time as a
friend in recovering lost ground.
But it’s those people in between – currently
aged 45 to 60 years old – who really
took a shellacking and, as a result, have been
forced to make big changes to their retirement
plans. I like to think of this group as the
“retirement tweeners,” who, like their much
younger counterparts, are trying to navigate
an awkward, often precarious phase of their
lives.
Retirement tweeners were the focus of a
recent Conference Board report, “Trapped on
the Worker Treadmill?” which found that 62
percent of those surveyed are planning to
work longer. That’s a significant increase
from just two years earlier, when the group
found that 42 percent of respondents expected
to put off retirement.
The results surprised the report’s coauthor
Gad Levanon, who had assumed that
improving stock and housing markets would
at least keep the numbers close to where they
were in 2012. “It’s disconcerting that the two
years in which the U.S. economy seemed to
finally, if fitfully, turn the corner also left so
many more workers compelled to change
their retirement plans late in their careers.”
The report found that a toxic mix of job
loss or salary reduction, investment account
declines and home equity erosion led to the
increase. These factors have caused
Americans of all age categories to rethink
when they might retire. According to the
Employee Benefit Research Institute,
Americans’ confidence in their ability to
retire comfortably remains at historically low
levels.
If everyone lost ground during the recession
and has emerged from it wounded either
financially or emotionally, why is this particular
age group so affected? Looking at the
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numbers, the unemployment rate for those
aged 45-60 remains about two percentage
points below the current national rate of 7.9
percent, but if someone in this age group
loses his or her job, the chances of securing
another one within a year is much lower than
younger job applicants.
Meanwhile, as job searches linger on,
many in the group have been forced to deplete
savings and raid retirement accounts. As
always, the timing on a fire-sale is rarely good,
so many panic-stricken near-retirees simply
sold out of their stock positions, regardless of
whether the market was high or low.
Even if personal situations improved,
many were reluctant to jump back in to the
markets. As a result, 62 percent of 45- to 60year-olds
reported at least a 20 percent decline
in the value of their financial assets since the
start of the crisis, despite the stock market rising
120 percent from the March 2009 lows.
“The cumulative effect of drawing down assets
in hard times - including the loss of future
gains during the recovery - helps explain the
current plight of older workers,” said Ben
Cheng, the other author of the Conference
Board report. “Even as economic conditions
improve, many are still relying on assets to get
by. And even those who’ve made it through the
worst find themselves needing to work past
retirement age to rebuild savings.”
Another factor in the trend toward delaying
retirement was found in the expectations
for savings and investments. The report notes
that low interest rates on savings accounts,
certificates of deposit and government bonds
has forced many pre-retirees to recalculate
their future potential retirement income
stream. Where many once thought 5 percent
interest was “safe,” the current interest rate
environment has pushed that number down
to 2 percent. Instead of assuming more risk
with higher yielding bonds, stocks or alternative
investments, many would much prefer to
work longer.
And while their path back to secure
retirement is a long and winding one, retirement
tweeners can still reach their goals
through research, careful planning and, most
importantly, patience.
©2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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