WILL MONEY BUY HAPPINESS? - Haley's 'Hasty Chicken Broccoli Casserole' Sure Will!

MONEY will not buy you happiness. However ... it can buy you the kind of misery that you prefer.

MONEY. No matter how hard you hug it ... it will never hug you back.

MONEY. You can't die with it ... and you can't live without it.

Ironically, when it comes to life, time is our foe. However, when it comes to money, time is our friend. That's right, time is our friend, if we use it wisely. And if we combine the wise use of time with a wise investment strategy, we can capitalize on the Magic of Compounding.

Did you know that in 2006, 21% of Americans were relying on lottery winnings to fund their retirement? Would it surprise you that 31% of Canadians between 35 and 54 do not have a registered retirement plan?

$200 /month ($2400/yr) saved from age 25 to age 65 (40 yrs) and yielding a long term return of 8% would net you $648,561.

If you waited until you were 35 and started putting away $200. /month for 30 years yielding the same 8%, you would net $283,723. (ten years cost you 340,000 [365,000-24,000])

Wait until you are 45, put away $200./month @ 8% for 20 years, you net $114,732. (20 years cost you $486,000[534,000-48,000])

Time clearly is ... money.

Is money important to you? If you said "yes" then we will assume that you have sat down with pen in hand and written down your short, mid and long term goals and developed a plan. A 'plan' that will capitalize on ... time.

Talking about 'time', how about this recipe? It was not too long ago that I posted Rocky's Broccoli Bake and here I am posting Haley's Hasty Chicken Broccoli Casserole (we'll call it HHCBC for short ... just kidding!)

For those of you that don't know, Connor (aka Rocky) is our 17 year old son and Haley (aka Haley) is our 16 year old daughter. Now if they can understand all of this cooking and investing stuff then anyone can.

______________________________________________________________________

Haley's Hasty Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Super easy and pretty quick to put together. Prep time is 5 minutes, cooking time is 30 minutes.

2 cups - cooked cubed chicken

2 - 10 oz packages of frozen broccoli

1 cup - shredded cheddar cheese

1 can - condensed cream of mushroom soup (sorry Sue)

1/2 cup of milk

1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs

3 tbsp of melted butter

Heat the oven to 350.

Cover the bottom of a 9x12 (?) glass casserole dish with chicken

Layer with broccoli, then more chicken and then broccoli.

Sprinkle 1/2 of the cheese over the top.

Mix up the soup with the milk and pour over the top.

Add the rest of the cheese and then sprinkle bread crumbs over the top of cheese.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

That's it! Easy as pie!

______________________________________________________________________

Remember, you can gamble your money with the hopes that you might be the one in 14,000,000 who wins the lottery, or the 1 in 10,000 chance of hitting it big at on the slots.

And maybe if you happen to be one of those lucky winners, your retirement dreams just might pan out after all. Maybe.

However, if you develop a time-proven strategy that capitalizes on compounding growth, use common sense and never lose sight of your 'plan' ... you will always come out a winner.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to Haley for making this recipe so darn easy.

Jeff