Day: June 19, 2024

(a) An owner of an apartment in a condominium regime owns it exclusively, and the owner may possess, convey, or encumber the apartment, or subject it to judicial acts, independently of the other apartments in the condominium regime.

The attorneys at Daughtry & Farine, P.C., leverage decades of legal experience in condominium association law to defend their clients’ interests. Talk to us today. Call the Houston law offices at 281-800-9136

Armenia, France Sign Another Arms Deal  The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

France says it will sell CAESAR howitzers to Armenia  MSN

The post Monitor: в Уганде 15 человек погибли в ДТП с грузовиком first appeared on The News And Times.

The post Миршаймер: предложенный Путиным мирный план является лучшим для Украины first appeared on The News And Times.

Michael Cohen’s Former Lawyer Says Donald Trump Should Be Pardoned  Newsweek

A Chinese consortium last month was awarded the contract to develop a deep-sea megaport on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. But critics say the Georgian government is putting the country’s economy and democracy at risk by turning away from Western partners toward China. Henry Ridgwell reports from Tbilisi.

Abuja, Nigeria — The Nigerian air force said Tuesday it will acquire 50 new aircraft to strengthen its capabilities against armed gangs and terrorists in northwest Nigeria.

Nigerian Chief of Air Staff Marshal Hassan Bala Abubakar made the announcement at the opening of new military facilities, including two aircraft hangars in northwest Katsina state.

Abubakar said the aircraft would include 12 AH-1 attack helicopters, 24 M-346 combat planes, 12 AW109 multipurpose helicopters and a pair of Casa 295 transport aircraft. He did not disclose the cost, nor did he say who would provide the aircraft.

He said Nigeria is expected to receive them by next year.

The aircraft will be used to bolster offensives against jihadist groups and armed gangs that have terrorized northwest and central states in recent years, Abubakar said.

But security analyst Mike Ejiofor says acquiring 50 aircraft is overambitious and possibly misdirected.

“I know it will bolster the fight against terrorism, but I believe that we should concentrate more on land than air. We’re not at war,” Ejiofor said.

The money, he said, should “have been channeled to training and provision of welfare for the ground troops. I think we would’ve achieved more results.”

Abubakar’s announcement came as Kaduna state authorities announced Tuesday a partnership with the military to set up three new operational fronts within the state.

Kaduna state Governor Uba Sani said, “We concluded with the military to set up forward-operating bases in southern Kaduna, and another one in the Giwa and Birnin-Gwari axis. All the arrangements are being concluded.”

The Nigerian air force came under heavy criticism in December after more than 80 people were killed and dozens wounded during an airstrike in Kaduna state that was intended to target gangs.

Nigerian authorities have promised to operate with more precision to avoid future accidents.

Nigerian Chief of Defense Staff General Christopher Musa told journalists in Abuja, “The armed forces of Nigeria are highly professional. We’re here to protect innocent citizens, not to harm them. Whatever it was that happened there was a mistake, but we’re addressing such issues.”

Ejiofor said authorities should focus more on boosting the ability of the air force to gather and process accurate information about the activities of armed groups.

“These strikes are intelligence-driven, so we must get the intelligence before they’re guided to the areas,” he said. “I think what we should’ve done is to deploy more drones that will be sending this data.”

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The author, second from left, with her husband and children.

Courtesy Olivia Christensen

• When my husband and I first got married, we couldn’t afford any luxuries — now we have more flexibility.
• I’m glad I learned to stick to a budget, though. I wouldn’t have reached my financial freedom otherwise.
• We still treat things like eating out as a luxury instead of as the default.

I married my husband when we were both 21 years old.

He was a busboy, and I was a waitress. We lived in a tiny apartment, went nowhere but the restaurant where we both worked, and lived off of frozen tilapia and rice. Thanks to parental assistance, my husband was still in college, but I couldn’t afford to finish my degree because we didn’t have the money and someone needed to pull double shifts. In other words, we were broke.

But with a few smart financial moves, a generous grandmother helping us with our first mortgage down payment, several odd jobs, and a lot of perseverance, our financial position has improved over the last 11 years. My husband finished his degree, and then I finished mine. He’s climbed the corporate ladder. We sold our first house for twice what we paid for it, and I found a way to make my English degree pay.

The process has been long and grinding, and it’s included a lot of lost hair and scary living situations, but one day, as I wrote my grocery shopping list, I realized that at some point, we had traded our frozen tilapia for fresh, wild-caught salmon. In other words, we’ve made it.

The financial lesson we learned years ago that helps us save money today

OK, “made it” might be an overstatement; we’re eating fresh fish, not climbing aboard our private jet. But we are financially secure and living quite comfortably these days. When I remember our broke honeymoon years, I see a lot of struggle and discomfort, but I also see budgeting habits we built into our lives that serve us to this day. All of these habits boil down to a single question: Is it a want or a need?

While we never treat the answer to this question like a dealbreaker, especially now that we have reached a place of financial security, we always take a moment to ask it. The question functions as the heading of an unwritten flow chart. If the answer is “want,” we move to the next question in the series: “Why?” Which leads to: “Is there a cheaper way to do it?” Which leads to: “Is this cheaper alternative worthwhile?” I am explaining this as a pretty clear-cut process, but in reality, it is less of a method than it is a mindset.

For instance, we still treat eating out as a luxury. In the early years of our marriage, we couldn’t afford the convenience of even the cheapest takeout food. We mastered the art of a shared entrée back then, but even one $8 burrito bowl with two tortillas on the side was more expensive than four eggs scrambled with two slices of toast. As I said, we’re fancy these days with our grocery-counter salmon grilled atop specially bought cedar planks, but on busy nights full of gymnastics, piano lessons, and PTA meetings, we still opt for leftovers over takeout because a long time ago, we trained ourselves to see spending $20 on a pizza as a very big deal.

This mindset extends beyond restaurant food. It also means that buying a latte is a once-in-a-very-great-while treat because we have a perfectly decent coffee maker at home. We always wait for movies to leave theaters before we see them, and we’ve walked miles to avoid paid parking. I could go on about our mildly Scrooge-ish tendencies, but it really boils down to seeing any expense outside non-negotiable bills as a treat. This mindset has saved us a lot of money through the years, even as it shifted from survival strategy to muscle memory.

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We have a lot more flexibility now that we’re financially stable

However, this penny-pinching mentality isn’t just for the times when the answer to the question “Is it a need or a want?” is “want.” We filter our needs through it as well. We need clothes, but we can shop off the sales rack. We need to replace the brake pads on the car, but we can do it ourselves. We need food, but we can buy store-brand groceries.

Now that we are financially secure, though, these “cans” don’t always translate to “shoulds” or even “wills.” Our time, energy, and peace of mind also factor into what we end up choosing to do. No one can make me buy generic peanut butter; I’m an adult woman, and I refuse to be my own tyrant, but it’s the pause before I swipe my credit card for groceries, the cutthroat manner in which I evaluate my Amazon shopping cart, and the way grabbing a latte to-go doesn’t even cross my mind, that once saved our lives and now simply allows us to save.

If I could go back in time and tell my husband and my younger, hungrier selves that it was going to be OK and someday our hot dates wouldn’t be movie marathons on the futon splitting a frozen pizza, I don’t know if I would. Because honestly, I am pretty sure those younger, hungrier versions of ourselves are the ones who got us here.

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This article was originally published in September 2021.