Arizona Lou

To TOP of this page

What We Tell You Young People

Wonder how we can afford to go on four-month kiteboarding trips? In a nut shell, we economize, do some planning and did a few smart things when we were younger.

What we tell you young people (and almost every kiteboarder and comedian is younger than us) is:

1. Without exception live on less than you make. That means no debt!
2. Do some planning and investing. If you know nothing about investing start with a Vanguard Target Retirement Fund while you educate yourself
3. Retired life will be good to you, and so will life in general.

To TOP of this page

Favorite talk show hosts

Surround yourself with good quality people who match your standards and goals. Listen to people who know more than you do. That is why our favorite radio talk show hosts are:

 
•  
  The Clark Howard Show - free podcasts, including the very entertaining Clark Stinks segments. How to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off.
  (Theo & Kate do website 8/10)
  Ask a question (clark.com/ask)


•    
  Ask The Tech Guys , Leo and Mikah
  Available free as podcasts (Click on an episode / Download Options / R-Click AUDIO / Save Link As...)
  Listen live and call in 11-2pm PT Sundays


•    
  Rich On Tech - For the latest non-technical podcasts
  (click on an epesode / R-Click Download icon / Save As)


•  
  All About Android podcasts - with geeky fun


•    
  The Dave Ramsey Show - available free as podcasts.
  Here is Dave's excellent response

  (six megabytes)

  (for broadband connections only)

  to a caller's question about helping an adult child with money.
  WARNING Contrary to what Dave says: DO NOT CLOSE YOUR CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS before you understand what it will do to your FICO score and how it will complicate your life. Also the law does NOT provide consumer protections for business credit cards or debit cards. Most of the big banks (Dave calls them snakes) have policies that extend to debit cards, but there is no law to that effect. Good luck with your debit card and the snakes.
  Dave's free EntreLeadership podcast series, is about leading, growing, serving, team-building, goals, special guests etc. is geared toward small businesses, but gives great insights on life in general.
  Listen live and call in 2-5 ET M-F (888) 825-5225


•    
  Handel On the Law podcasts - the most disgusting but entertaining legal talk show ever!
  Listen live and Call in 6-11am PT


•    
  Doctor Dean Edell retired from radio in December, 2010 but it will be choice if you can find some of his old shows or his current works.
  
  
•    
  Bob Brinker's Money Talk - available as podcasts
  Listen online, 2-5pm MST KFNN in Phoenix; Call in 4-7pm ET Sun (800) 934-2221



Photograph by Louis Self: South Padre Seagull

You can waste some of your time on the Internet by checking out the 2013 most important talk show hosts (Talkers Heavy Hundred) and the 100 most important radio talk show hosts of all time according to Talkers.com.

To TOP of this page

Financial Resources - NEVER invest with anyone who is not a fiduciary (has your best interests in mind). Regardless how nice they are and how much they say they like your cat, if they do not have a Form ADV Part 2A disclosure they may just be blowing smoke at you and your cat.

Online

Budget help to get you organized - easy, mostly automatic, free and highly recommended!
            Mint.com             Our Excel Spreadsheet Budget

  Educate yourself with this excellent simple explanation of investments

  Vanguard Target Retirement Fund (Start here if you are new to investing); $1000 minimum to open

  Vanguard Star Fund: Good balance of investments; $1000 minimum to open

  Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund - $100 min. to open; VERY low expenses

  Fidelity Four-in-One Index Fund: Excellent balance of funds; $10,000 minimum to open

  T. Rowe Price: Adjusting Allocation Fund: adjusts as you approach retirement; $2500 minimum to open ($1000 for IRA)

  National Foundation for Credit Counseling - excellent online resources and individual help for budgeting etc.

To TOP of this page

Financial & other Calculators

  Graphical Investment Calculator, Monthly Contributions
  Graphical Investment Calculator with neat sliders for inputs
  Financial Calculators with definitions for just about anything under the sun
  HSH.COM has excellent calculators and information for mortgages
  Loan calculator finds the payments, interest rate, term or loan amount!

To TOP of this page

Suggested Ratios, recommended for a non-stressful life.

• Your monthly housing (rent/mortgage, taxes & insurance) should not be over 25% of your monthly take-home pay
• Rental Income should net 1% or more of the rental property's value in order to have a positive cash flow.
• The total of all your student loans should not exceed your anticipated earnings for your first year out of college.
• You should invest 10-15% of your income for retirement
• Equities Ratio (the percentage of your retirement investments in the stock market) should be about 120 minus your age, via John Bogle, founder of Vanguard.
• The expense ratio for your investments (annual expenses) should be well below one half of one percent (.50%).
• You will lose over half of the money you have invested for retirement with just a 2% higher yearly expense ratio (2.25% vs .25%), which amounts to about $1 million with 50 years of regular investing (see the Financial & other Calculators above.
• There should be zero fee for investing your money (no load)
• There should be zero fee for withdrawing your investment money. Do check the tax implications.
• WEALTH RATIOS WILL GO HERE - PAW
• WEALTH RATIOS WILL GO HERE - UAW
• To qualify for financial assistance for college, each year a student is expected to spend 20% of their resources and their parents, 5% of their resources on college expenses (as of July, 2009), so in most cases, it is better for parents to NOT save college money in an account owned by the child.
• The value of all your vehicles (cars, SUVs, ATVs, boats etc) should not be over half your annual income.
• The percentage of your income for car payments should generally be zero (0)
• The most expensive way to have a car is to lease it.
• Repair your car if the repair cost is less than 50% to 100% of the car's value.
• Most insurance companies total your car if repairs are expected to exceed 80% of its value.
• Most auto insurance companies try to cheat you by offering you 70% of its value if they total your car, trying to get out of paying you what the car was actually worth before the accident.
• At the end of a vehicle lease the dealer can expect to get 20% of the vehicle's trade-in value (check kbb.com). This figure is a good place to start negotiations with the dealer when buying the car at the end of the lease. Note: leasing is the most expensive way to have a car.
• If your annual premiums for comprehensive and collision auto insurance exceed one tenth of the value of the vehicle it would make sense to drop those coverages, unless you rent cars frequently, unless you rent cars frequently and need the extended coverage. You can check out the value of your vehicle at Edmunds, Kelly Blue Book and N.A.D.A.
• Eighty percent of millionaires drive used cars.
• With a newer vehicle, the actual expenses (including depreciation) will be greater than the standard IRS per-mile deduction (58¢/mile in 2019)
• Repair a major appliance if the repair would cost less than 50% of a replacement.
• Each third (approximately) of your FICO score is based on 1) Paying bills on time, 2) credit utilization and 3) length of credit history. .
• Withdraw 4% of your nest egg after retirement each year, if you need it, for living expenses. That will allow your nest egg, on average, to grow enough to cover historical rates of inflation. This retirement calculator might be helpful.
• wind disturbance from an object extends appx 7 times the object's height downwind and equal to its height upwind.

To TOP of this page

FICO Scores are important in today's world whether we like it or not. Along with your social media sites, FICO is checked by:
• most insurance companies to help determine home, auto, fire & liability premiums
• many employers before hiring
• most banks before opening checking or other accounts
• Mortge licencing bureaus to jerk the licence of mortgage lenders if their FICO score goes down
• your prospective clients/customers
• companies considering doing business with you
• many apartments and landlords before renting to prospective tenants

FICO

Fair Issac Corporation

tries to keep it a big secret as to how they calculate your FICO score, but here is pretty much how it is determined:
• 30% on if you pay your bills on time. Recently they revised this to include utilities and rent.
• 30% on your

  credit utilization

  the percent of your total available credit limits you are using - smaller is better!

  • using 50% or more of your available credit demolishes your FICO score
  • using 30% or less of your available credit improves your FICO score
  • using 10% or less of your available credit can make you golden if you keep the other things in line
• 30% on the

  age

  older accounts improve your FICO score

  of your credit history (so don't close your credit card accounts unless you have a good reason), types of credit and

  credit applications

  applying for credit can lower your credit score for several months

• being an authorized user on someone else's credit card account can effect your FICO score
• bounced checks will hurt your FICO score

Your FICO (which ranges from 300 to 850) is the only credit score that you should get if you want to see the real deal. Many other companies will happily charge you for their concocted credit scores but the FICO is what the lenders and the real world use.

Credit Reports: Your Credit Report is available for free once a year from each of the three credit reporting agencies. The ONLY legitimate source is annualcreditreport.com. Others will rip you off even when they say it is free.

To TOP of this page

Charities: Check out a charity at these recommended sites to see how well your donations are used, if at all:

• Charity Navigator
• Give.org (BBB)
• Give Well
• Charity Watch
• Worst charities, ranked by money blown on soliciting costs by the Tampa Bay Times

To TOP of this page

Business Credit Cards are Dangerous! Federal law protects those with consumer credit cards but NOT those with business credit cards. The individual is fully liable for any fraud etc with business credit cards. The greedy banks try to get you into business credit cards because with them the bank can:

1. Change the terms and conditions without notice
2. Impose a new, higher, interest rate on previously existing balances
3. Change the penalty rate without notice
4. Have unreasonable penalty rates
5. Indefinitely Maintain the penalty rates
6. Put you into over-limit charges without your permission (without opting in)
7. Charge unlimited over-limit fees
8. Hide fees (you can be charged fees without being informed of those fees)
9. Apply payments to the lowest interest rate balances so they can keep charging you high interest rates
10. Give you no fraud protection

To TOP of this page

Bargains to stretch your dollar further

Thrift Stores are fun to browse, awesome and an amazing way to save mucho mula.

The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL absolutely knocked our socks off. This big store sells all the neat stuff that airline passangers lose. We never saw so many iPads and pocket cameras or fancy cameras. Some of the departments are: laptops, e-readers, cameras, luggage, suits, fine jewlry, shoes, skiis, clothing, housewares and stationary.

Gas Prices, EZ-Pass etc are at the bottom of my Van Life web page.

Zenni Optical - Single vision prescription glasses under $10, including frames. We got all the coatings, photosensitive tents and progressive lenses at an amazing price.

To TOP of this page

Family Get your kids out of a bad situation with The X-Plan.

Retiring

Collecting SS (Social Security)

In spite of what the Social Security Administration might tell you, unless you are in financial straits you do not want to start collecting SS early unless you intend to die young. If you wait until you're 70 instead of 62, your monthly SS check will be about 70% higher. It would take you about eight years to make up what you lost at the lower rate, between ages 62 and 70. The rest of your life it would be gravy, as they say.

We started taking our SS at about 62 at the recommendation of our SS adviser (BIG MISTAKE). Now it would cost us about $80k to pay back what we have received so far in order to reapply for retirement at age 70 and get the higher rate. Since we do not have the 80 grand laying around, we'll probably just stick tight and spend the rest of our life kiteboarding and with the puny SS payments. Hind sight is always 20/20! (The above information was current as of 2010)

To TOP of this page

Health and Fitness

Is your community healthy? Find out for every county in the US. It turns out that Maricopa County, where we live, is the healthiest in Arizona.

Diet: is an important part of being healthy both on the road and at home. Our Menu includes six meals, all nutritionally identical, and gives totals, percentages and averages for protein, carbs, fat and calories. When we feel like it, we substitute kinds of vegetables, fruits and nuts. Units for the serving size (Amt) are listed in the right column. As you can see, 26% of the calories come from good fat and we get .9 g of protein per pound of our 140 lb bodyweight. This is considered a high protein diet at 2600 total calories per day. If we need to gain or lose weight, we eat the same and simply change the amounts by 20%. Here is a good Calories Per Day Calculator to see what you need, considering your height, weight, age and activity level. Look on our Weight Management page for information we found helpful and interesting.
      We have even-day and odd day meals. Hopefully that rotation will avoid becoming allergic to foods due to eating the same thing every day. The only exception might be grapes and bread, which we typically eat every day. We'll have to work on that concept.
     Protein Frosty: we created this magic formula to add some protein - and as a reward after one of our workouts each week.
     We always take our nuts with us. As you may have noticed in Our Menu, unsalted nuts are an important part of our diet, as they contain the good fat and can add taste and texture to a meal. For a time we tried roasting them (no oil or salt) for even more flavor, but that became a hassle. Our Nuts Spreadsheet includes roasting times and temperatures, plus nut-shopping information.

     Whole psyllium husks (the p is silent - from the plantago plant): Every morning we mix one rounded tablespoon with 6 ounces of water and drink it immediately. Amazingly, it absorbs water to keep stools from being too soft and adds bulk to keep stools from being too hard.
Colonoscopy saves lives, and it's about time of you're 45 (or 40 and Black). Our colonoscopy experience

It started by seeking an efficent way to pit cherries and ended up with this 15-minute video of Hacks around the kitchen.

Hearing: Is yours up to par? Find out from a simple, private, sophisticated and standardized test with a phone call to 1-844-938-7223 (must call from a regular phone, not a cell phone). Website is the National Hearing Test.

Working out at a gym on a regular basis has been part of our lifestyle for years. It is amazing how the right amount of the right exercise of the right intensity can benefit a person. Be sure to start small, build gradually be patient, keep going and get help and advice when you need it. Speaking of advice, here is the workout we developed. If you do not understand something on it, ask me or just guess. You may come up with some creative things that will fit your needs better.

Here is my little gym at home. Instead of saying the gym is in my master bedroom, you might say my bed is in a corner of the gym.

Left to right is: Rowing machine Latt bar, suspended from the cealing by a rope Modified dip stand that I use primarily for inverted shrugs Elliptical Pro-Form Cardio HIIT , on which I climb about 150' in two minutes every day Articulating bench Power Block weights Nordicflex Ultra, body-weight multi-machine Calf roller (behind the Nordicflex)

We are to the awkward stage in life when we are getting shorter, so had to come up with exercises that do not compress our back. We do these 130 pound inverted shrugs. Just don't stop and scratch your nose in the middle of this maneuver! 18 second video from the Dominican Republic (to the left):

Balance Trainer: We started using one at 71 and noticed an immediate improvement in our balance. We would teeter with one foot on the Balance Trainer while putting on sox, shorts and such. We will have better balance and be less likely to fall as a result - unless we kill ourselves in the process.

Shoulder exercises are important after our rotator cuff surgery. We faithfully perform external rotation resistance exercises. On our trips we use a length of surgical tubing obtained at the Union Hills Ace Hardware Store. An excellent, but pricey resource for shoulder health is the 7-Minute-Rotator-Cuff-Solution by Jerry Robinson and Joseph Horrigan. After reading this, you'll know what causes shoulder problems, how to treat them and how to prevent them.

Compression etc.: The best we've found for kiteboarding bumps, bruises and sprains is the Mueller Wonder Wrap. With its Velcro, it stays on in the water for compression while kiteboarding. It is also good for holding ice packs and heat packs in place in the evening after a day of pushing your limits. In addition, it takes up little space, which is important for us and our Van Life.

Sleep is important and that means a good bed. Unfortunately the best mattress in the world is like a different one after it has been slept on for several months or years... except mine. I designed it using the research for my van bed, for which I spent 10 nights on my kitchen floor ending up with a 4" thick van bed that was more comfortable than my real bed.

The bed I sleep on here at home, at 22 inches, is a little higher than I like but adds to my storage space. (Pictured bottom-to-top):
• Frame has 12 inches of clearance for 2 stacked Sterelite under-bed tubs
• Plywood board, 1/4" thick for a queen-sized flat base or platform
• The 8-inch "mattress" consists of (second image):
  1. 4" Dense, firm foam for flat support but with a little give
  2. 3" Air mattress inflated so, when it is placed directly on a floor, my hips are just off the floor when in sleeping position (on my back in my case). This serves as a body-contour layer with a 3" give limit that will not change as the "mattress" ages.
  3. 1" Soft but dense foam that relieves pressure points for body parts like heals, elbows etc.
  4. Knit sheet as a "mattress" cover (not shown)
• Knit sheets are necessary because regular sheets would wrinkle due to the deep compliance of the "mattress."

Stroke: some indications, according to the American Stroke Association:
F A S T
1. Face drooping
2. Arm weekness
3. Speech difficulty (I have used my digital recorder to listen to my speach)
4. Time to call 911. Don't delay - this is an emergency!!!

Emergency Room: Any time you go to a hospital, especially the ER, you should take the things you need for spending several days away from home, because you never know. Here's our list of things to take. We learned the hard way in the Dominican Republic when we almost lost some fingers. (PHOTOS)

To TOP of this page

Life's Challenges are met by John Foppe and Nick Vujicic, doing more with less, and doing it with inspiring style. Here is an 80-second video of Nick doing everyday things and his approach to life and God.

You will NOT be sorry if you take time to watch the following videos.

9:50 minutes John Foppe on computer, driving, eating etc. plus giving an inspiring speech, all with no arms

14:48 minutes Awesomely motivating speech given with humor and no limbs to a group of young people ,

Challenge: How observant are you and how well
can you focus your attention? You may be surprised
when you play this 1:22 minute video.

At 9 years old, burns covered 100% of John O'Leary's body, 87% of them third degree, and he was not expected to live.

Legendary sportscaster, Jack Buck, helps 9-year-old John O'Leary live!           12:46 minutes

16:26 minutes John O'Leary appears on the Dave Ramsey Show

To TOP of this page

Aging

Lifestyle and Aging study with identical twins; included smoking, alcohol, stress and sun.

Getting Older has its drawbacks (our photos). Click the underlined words for loads of information about conditions we have experienced. You can look forward to the likes of:

BPH

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

- enlarged prostate (since 2001)

PVP

Greenlight Photo-selective Vaporization of the Prostate with a potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) laser

for - Excellent information about the prostate, its problems, PVP (3/8/2012) and recovery

DVT

deep vein thrombosis (DVT blood clots)

, which, along with the PVP surgery, may have contributed to our pulmonary embolism

pulmonary embolism

blood clot in the lungs

, (3/15/2012) which can be caused by things like surgery and inactivity

Some RESOURCES for the ageing and their caregivers:

SafeWander was invented by a high school student for his grandfather who would hurt himself by wandering out of bed at night.

AlzBetter includes activities and other resources to help Alzheimer's patients stay mentally active - and those who do not have a website to maintain or comedy and kiteboarding to do. (recommended by the Health Futures radio show)

To TOP of this page

Miscellaneous

ATMs: NEVER use one in a store or on the street. Only go to one INSIDE a bank, and then always check for a SKIMMER by looking for glue around the card reader and tugging on the card reader to see if it is loose. Always cover your hand when putting in your PIN.

-- Arizona Lou's Big Pie Theory applies to almost every area of business. Instead of spending our energy fighting over our share of the pie, we could be working together to increase the size of the pie. As the pie grows each will get more pie. In the case of kiteboarding shops, we need to get word to people who have not yet heard of the sport.
-- Dave Ramsey said, Greedy poor people and guilty rich people... propagate... one man's success directly causes another's failure. Therefore, the only way for me to get more money is to take it away from someone else. What a crock!
-- Daniel Lapin said, "The more wealth that people around me create, the more I shall benefit, too."
-- Tom Corley compared the habits of rich people with the habits of poor people. This is a summary of his interesting observations.

  Prepare for emergencies and disasters easily and effectively, courtesy of the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.