There is saving and then there is investing. The big differences between them are what type of account you use to hold your money and how long it will be there.
Saving is what you do with money you will need to pay for short term goals (goals that occur in the next five or so years). This money should be placed in an account that’s easily accessible and safe such as a savings account or a certificate of deposit.
Investing is what you do with money you’ll need for long-term goals such as retirement. In this case, you should make growth of your money the number one priority. Growth of your money is important because it needs to outpace inflation, which erodes the purchasing power of money. Let’s look at an example. If you put $10 under your mattress today and the inflation rate is 2%, this time next year that money will only buy $9.80 worth of goods and services compared to last year. Look at the chart below to better understand how decades of inflation can affect your savings.
In order to outpace inflation, you must invest your money in the stock market. In most retirement programs, mutual funds are the investment vehicle of choice. A mutual fund is a group of different investments packaged into a single “basket.” These baskets may invest in individual stock, bonds, cash type investments or combination of all three. Mutual Funds have different names depending upon the investment company that offers them as well as their strategy. Look for the mutual fund’s informational page describing its strategy, how it has performed over time as well as its fees. Pay particular attention to the expense ratio (the cost you pay to participate in the mutual fund as a percentage of how much of the fund that you own) as you decide which mutual funds are right for you.
It’s never too early to get started. Even if you only have a little money to invest, get started now because compound interest will begin to work its magic. Compound interest is like a runaway snowball of money that grows larger and larger as it rolls along. The sooner you get that snowball rolling the better.
From: David Swartley, President/CEO Date: October 22, 2020 RE: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update #27
As I’ve discussed in my earlier updates, Moravian Manor Communities has been rigorously following all infection control protocols stipulated by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for dealing with COVID-19. Despite our best efforts, recent testing confirmed on October 21, 2020, that four staff members and as well as a contract health care provider have tested positive for COVID-19.
While this is certainly not the news I desire to share, it is not surprising considering the recent worldwide virus surge. The good news is our four staff, and our external health care provider are all asymptomatic. Again, this means that all five healthcare workers are well at present. They will all need to self-quarantine for fourteen days. All cases were identified by proactive weekly testing that has been ongoing every week at Moravian Manor Communities.
Unfortunately, this also means we are required to halt external visitation in our care areas. Our visits had just restarted earlier in the week. Stopping visitation is tough news for our residents, resident family members, and staff. These positive tests also mean that all staff will need to be tested in the next two weeks (and ongoing until we have no positive test results for two weeks).
Moravian Manor Communities always has had a robust infection control system in place. In recognition of our team’s work under the direction of Dr. Lynn Swisher, our skilled nursing center was one of four facilities (in Pennsylvania) DOH selected to work on the antibody testing program. Ironically, our team was meeting (via telephone) with the Pennsylvania Department of Health regarding the antibody testing program when we received word of our positive test results.
The staff members who have tested positive all work in our care areas, so there is no known exposure to our Residential living areas. As I have stated numerous times over the past number of months, it is your simple actions that will keep both you and your loved ones safe. Wash your hands, wear a mask, and social distance. Social distancing will be increasingly difficult with the arrival of the holidays and cold weather.
Thank you for doing your part to keep Moravian Manor Communities a safe place to live and work.
For those of you seeking additional information, continuous updates are available at the following websites:
Converting Favorite Recipes for Heart Healthy Diets, from Sodexo USA
Autumn is upon us and colder days call for hearty soups and meals. Sumptuous foods don’t have to be bad for your though, it just takes some re-imagining. However, it can seem intimidating, or a daunting task, to adjust your recipes when shifting to a heart healthy diet. Hopefully, after reading this, you will have learned some easy tricks to reduce or eliminate things like fats and salt from your favorite recipes. And discover a favorite recipe converted to be heart healthy for you!
One of the first things to understand is that cooking is both an art AND a science. The science of cooking explains how things work the way they do, and the art of cooking is being able to manipulate or finesse recipes to meet the needs of your particular palette. When it comes to the science of flavor, there are four categories of ingredients that come into play:
Fats
Salt
Alcohol
Acidity
These four types of ingredients are known as “flavor enhancers” – they help to turn bland foods that taste flat into foods with rich flavors. We’ll focus on three of these ingredients in this article.
FATS
The first one we will focus on is fats. In some cases, it is difficult to entirely eliminate fats from recipes. Our best plan of action is to reduce the amount of fats we use in recipes and replace them with heart healthy alternatives. In most savory applications, such as sautéing, you can replace butter with smaller amounts of heart healthy fats like olive or sesame oil. In some sweet applications, such as baking a cake, if a recipe calls for oil, you can substitute in an equal amount of applesauce to maintain moisture in the batter and eliminate fat content.
SALT & ACIDITY
The second, and perhaps most important, ingredient to focus on in heart health is salt. Salt is one of the easiest ways to “add flavor” to recipes, but is an ingredient that causes issues in many diets. If you want to eliminate added salt entirely from your diet, the easiest way to do so is to utilize acidity as a new flavor enhancer. Now, substituting the acid for salt is a scientific answer, but how you choose to use acidity is an art, as using too much can easily overwhelm the dishes you prepare. As with many ingredients, your best bet will be to use a little, then taste the food and add more if necessary. Here are some general guidelines for utilizing acidity, but of course these are just guidelines, and you can play around with the ingredients to determine what works for you.
Lemon Juice: this is one of the most widely used, and readily available, acidic items in the standard kitchen. Think of the lemon wedge served with seafood when you go out to eat. Just a little splash will help brighten flavors. Lemon juice is most helpful with seafood, hearty green vegetables, and some broth-based soups.
Apple Cider Vinegar: this is another widely utilized ingredient in kitchens. This works best with pork chops, pork tenderloin, pork shoulder, and light green vegetables like cabbage or lettuce.
Red Wine Vinegar: this is a rich and robust vinegar. This works well with beef, chicken thighs, white beans, chickpeas, and hot vegetable preparations such as mixed vegetables, brussels sprouts, or broccoli.
Champagne or Sherry Vinegar: these are both lighter vinegars, with slightly different flavor profiles, but work fairly well interchangeably. These work well with chicken breasts, mushrooms, and leafy greens (including drizzled on salads).
Please note: replacing salt with acidity works great in savory applications. However, you will notice that a lot of baking recipes call for salt as an ingredient. In most recipes, it is difficult to simply remove the salt without affecting the flavor of the finished product. In some sweet recipes, you can help alleviate this issue by replacing the salt with vanilla extract, but you will need to use a double measure of vanilla versus salt. However, if you are baking something like bread, there is no easy replacement, and you may have to simply leave the salt out of the recipe and deal with the resulting product.
The final piece of advice that I want to provide is this: sometimes, the easier way to intensify flavors for some foods is to roast them, and this works especially well for foods that have a high water content. For instance, when I make mushroom soup (either broth-based or creamy), I always toss the mushrooms with some olive oil, Dijon mustard, paprika, parsley, and chives, then spread on a roasting pan and roast in a 375 degree oven for 25-35 minutes, until most of the moisture is baked out, then put the mushrooms into the soup and allow them to slightly rehydrate, which in turn flavors the broth.
Not every ingredient or every method will work for everyone, it depends on your palette and your food preferences. But this should give you some possibilities and flexibility when it comes to cooking at home on a Heart Healthy Diet. Best of luck, and good eating!
Heart Healthy Creamy Turkey & Wild Rice Soup
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms, (about 4 ounces)
¾ cup chopped celery
¾ cup chopped carrots
¼ cup chopped shallots
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup quick-cooking or instant wild rice
3 cups shredded cooked chicken, or turkey
½ cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Directions
Step 1: Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, celery, carrots and shallots and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add flour and pepper and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more.
Step 2: Add broth and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add rice and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until the rice is tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in turkey (or chicken), sour cream, lemon juice and parsley and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes more.
The following is an honest, yet raw account from an anonymous Moravian Manor Communities’ team member, highlighting what it’s been like working as a front-line employee in a COVID-19 Red Zone.
Your life at work is now more emotionally, mentally, and physically draining than it’s ever been. As you enter the building, sanitize your hands. Screen in and get your temp checked. Sanitize your hands. Clock in. Sanitize your hands.
You arrive on your unit. Sanitize your hands. Label and put on your N95. Sanitize your hands. Clean and put on your goggles. Sanitize your hands. Put on the gown.
Within five minutes you are drenched with sweat. You will remain wet for the next 8 to 9 hours. Perspiration runs down your face, but you can’t wipe it away. It runs in your ears and in your eyes. Your underwear is saturated.
On the first day, I didn’t label my mask before putting it on. A co-worker writes my name on for me. She misspells it. I tell her to let it that way. We need something to laugh at.
What to do if you have an itch, or need to blow your nose? It’s a ten-minute process just to remove the mask and put it back on again. Well, while it’s off, might as well get a drink too. Stay hydrated. If you’ve been trying to lose weight, you may lose it now…in water weight. Except you’ve been given chocolate to keep your spirits up. Might as well eat a couple pieces while your mask is off. Wash your hands. Then you go to put your mask back on and the elastic snaps and breaks. What?! You hold it in place to go get another one to replace it. Wash your hands.
Ugh! A resident has pulled the air circulation vent from the window and it’s now blowing on the living room chair instead of out the window.
So many co-workers on other units feel for you. They know it could have just as well happened on their unit. They take the time to write messages letting you know they are thinking of you. So sweet and appreciated!
You are told how beautiful you are. The gown is lovely. Please don’t touch the gown. Wash your hands.
The bridge of your nose is red and sore from the N95. Do pressure sores on employees get reported to the state? A skin condition flares up from the warm, moist environment. You get a corneal ulcer, and then another one, from sweat running in your eyes. A day after having a cracked tooth fixed, you read a news article on dentists fixing a record number of cracked teeth attributed to pandemic stress.
Residents that understand the seriousness worry they will get it and die. They worry for the ones that tested positive. They want it all just to end.
Some residents have no idea what is going on. They just know they can’t see their spouse, or their children. They hate it and just want to go home. They’re getting out of here. Yeah, I want to go home too.
Fortunately, the two residents that tested positive for the virus were asymptomatic. How can they have the virus? There’s no fever. Wash your hands. When will their symptoms start? Check their vitals every shift. Wash your hands. Oxygen levels are at 97 and 98%. So confusing. Wash your hands. Check everyone’s temps every shift. Wash your hands.
We are being “so mean.” They don’t want to stay in their rooms. Wash your hands. Their mask immediately comes off. Wash your hands. They don’t know they have tested positive for a virus that has already killed many people all over the world.
Your shift ends and you do get to go home. Wash your hands.
Ahhh! Strip off the drenched uniform. Get in the shower. Wash it all away. My daughter notices the red line across my forehead from the goggles and the marks from the mask. I assure her they will be gone by morning. Get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, you get to do it all over again.
Moravian Manor Communities is ever grateful for our dedicated team during these trials and tribulations. It’s their level of commitment that makes our community a leading health care provider in the Lancaster area.
Please take a moment to watch this important update from David Swartley, President and CEO of Moravian Manor Communities. You can keep up with all of our COVID-19 updates by clicking here.
