The Columbia Press
October 1, 2021
Senior Moments
with Emma Edwards
7
Financial Focus
with Adam Miller
Energy and persistence Protect your financial information online
3. Make Mistakes. “Do not
While I prepared this week’s
column, my thinking was not
necessarily about what others
could do for me, but what I can
do for myself.
Let me explain. I suspect
that more than half – per-
haps even three-fourths -- of
seniors reading this column
have health issues that require
some kind of therapy. In my
case, it is physical therapy. But
others may need speech ther-
apy, occupational therapy or
some other kind of therapy.
I suspect Benjamin Frank-
lin’s words, “Energy and per-
sistence conquer all things,”
could apply to any type of
therapy. Having had several
(at least three) broken bones I
have “enjoyed” lots of physical
therapy, especially in recent
years.
However, the part I’ve found
most difficult is the home-
work! The corrective exercises
went quite well and usually I
have liked my therapist. Only
thing was the homework!
I would be feeling pretty
good bouncing into the ther-
apy room until the question
came from him or her asking if
I’d been doing said exercises at
home. I would hang my head
in shame, as you know the an-
swer: Guilty!
I always enjoyed reading
Benjamin Franklin’s writings
when I was a child, so I perked
up recently when I ran across
an article, “Seven Must-Read
Life Lessons from Benjamin
Franklin,” written by a moti-
vational author several years
ago. Here’s a summary:
1. Waste Not. “Do not squan-
der time for that is the stuff life
is made of.”
2. Learn. “Being ignorant is
not so much a shame, as being
unwilling to learn.”
fear mistakes. You will know
failure. Continue to reach out.”
4. Utilize Energy and Per-
sistence. “Energy and per-
sistence conquer all things.”
5. Prepare. “By failing to
prepare, you are preparing to
fail.”
6. Be Diligent. “Diligence is
the mother of good luck.”
7. Make an Impression. “Ei-
ther write something worth
reading or do something worth
writing.”
Maybe this is deep thinking
at its best and it was just for
me until I read further that
when Franklin made lists such
as this one or his “List of 13
Virtues,” that he tackled just
one a week and concentrated
on that one.
What if we did that with our
therapy homework? He be-
came a vegetarian as a teenag-
er. But by age 20, he switched
to pescetarianism after being
tempted by fried cod on a boat
sailing from Boston, “justi-
fying the eating by seeing the
fish’s stomach contained other
fish.”
There’s a reason for every-
thing.
All that to tell you that I am
going to do a restart on at least
two of the therapeutic (correc-
tive as well as strengthening)
exercises given to me in past
months and years.
I was speaking with Carol
at Warrenton Community Li-
brary and she said there are
several books about Benjamin
Franklin on the shelves there,
plus many more in the chil-
dren’s department.
It’s fun learning from a man
who was born in 1706 and who
lived to the age of 84 all those
many years ago.
Yes. Energy and persistence.
Protect your financial infor-
mation online
If you’re an investor, you
probably enjoy the conve-
nience of managing your ac-
counts online. But you’ll also
want to make sure that you’re
not making it convenient for
hackers, “phishers” and oth-
ers with bad intentions to
gain the same access.
Fortunately, there’s a lot
you can do to protect your
privacy. Here are a few sug-
gestions offered by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange
Commission:
• Use a strong password or
passphrase. You’ll want to
pick a password that would
be virtually impossible for
anyone to guess, employing
capital and lowercase letters,
plus symbols and numbers.
Of course, you’ll want to re-
cord the password in a secure
place so you won’t forget it.
Instead of using a password,
you may have the option of
choosing a passphrase, which
contains a series of words
strung together. You’ll want
to avoid phrases taken from
popular culture or that are
otherwise commonly used.
And it’s also a good idea not
to use phrases containing
your name, birthday, or other
personal identifiers.
• Activate your account
alerts. When you turn on
your account alerts, you’ll re-
ceive text messages or emails
notifying you of certain activ-
ities, such as account logins,
failed account login attempts,
personal information chang-
es, money transfers, adding
or deleting of external finan-
cial accounts, and more.
These alerts can help you
monitor your accounts for
fraud and verify your own
moves, as well.
• Avoid using public com-
puters to access investment
accounts. If you’re at a hotel
or library, avoid the tempta-
tion to use the computer to
check your investments. But
if you do use a public com-
puter, at least take proper
precautions.
For starters, don’t leave
data on a screen and walk
away, even for a moment.
And when you’re finished
with the computer, log out
of your account to end the
online session. You may also
want to change any password
you used.
• Ignore suspicious links. Be
suspicious of emails or text
messages containing links
claiming to be connected to
your investment accounts.
These links could take you
to websites designed to so-
licit sensitive account infor-
mation, which could then be
used for financial or identity
theft.
Even if the link seems to
be coming from a business
you know, you’ll want to
be quite cautious – experi-
enced “phishers” can now
create websites or online
documents that look real.
And keep in mind that legit-
imate investment firms will
not ask you to divulge per-
sonal information without
going through the password
or two-step authentication
protocols already described.
The ability to connect with
your investment accounts on-
line can be extremely useful
to you – and you’ll feel more
comfortable about these in-
teractions if you know you’ve
done all you can to safeguard
your information.
This article was written by
Edward Jones and submit-
ted by Adam Miller, financial
adviser at the Astoria office,
632A W. Marine Drive. To
reach him, call 503-325-7991.
PUBLIC NOTICE
WARRENTON CITY COMMISSION
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR APPROVAL OF AN
ADVANCED FINANCE DISTRICT – DALE ADAMS
Notice is hereby given that the City of Warrenton has received a request
from Dale Adams for an Advanced Finance District.
A public hearing on this request was opened by the Warrenton City Com-
mission on Tuesday, September 14, 2021. The continuation of the hearing
will be conducted by the Warrenton City Commission at 6:00 p.m. on Tues-
day, October 12, 2021, in the Commission Chambers at Warrenton City
Hall, 225 S. Main Avenue, Warrenton.
Any interested person may appear to present written or oral statements,
in favor of, or in opposition to, said district. Any written remonstrance filed
with the City prior to the time of hearing will be presented to the City Com-
mission for its consideration. If you would like more information regarding
the proposed vacation, the application can be found on the City’s website:
www.ci.warrenton.or.us. Written comments may be submitted to: cityre-
corder@ci.warrenton.or.us
Dawne Shaw, City Recorder
City of Warrenton
PO Box 250
Warrenton, Oregon 97146
(503) 861-0823
Published in The Columbia Press, Oct. 1, and Oct. 8, 2021