A few weeks ago, I posted an article on the benefits of reverse mortgages, and they are substantial. Eliminating your monthly mortgage payment should substantially improve you cash flow. Having the ability to easily access the previously untouchable equity in your property should provide quite a bit more flexibility in dealing with significant expenditures. But there are some downsides to these mortgages as well. One of the biggest is that you must have more that 50% equity in your property and more is better. These mortgages are generally targeted at folks who have had their properties for a long time and have built up quite a bit of equity but that equity is difficult to access without either refinancing or selling the property. Ther first…

I have these recipes from Your Smart Kitchen so I might as well use them here. Thet have proven to be good over some time. Give them a try and let me know what you think. Best Chili Recipe Serves: 8 to 10 This could the best chili recipe you’ll ever make or at least it was the blue ribbon winner at a chili cook-off, garnering a prize worth $20,000. With surprise ingredients like beer and unsweetened cocoa, the blend of seasonings and flavors creates a mouthwatering chili that will have them begging for the recipe.  For the brave souls that like more fire, double the hot sauce to kick it up a notch. Ingredients: 2 1/2 lb. lean  chuck, ground 1 lb. lean pork,…

A Game for the Election Season Over the years I have advocated for people to listen more and talk less. In addition, In addition, I suggested that people take into account less what people say and more of what they do. Both good practices! One other suggestion that I recommended is to observe how people respond to things. Then I ran across this article which illustrates many of the things that I have seen in the past. But this is done as a game and with sense of humor. But it is still very relevant! I copied this article rather than just reference it because the original was saturated with ads. You can find the original at Epoch Times. And, note this has been reposted…

If only Jerry Jones could build a football team as well as he builds a brand. The Dallas Cowboys may not have made a Super Bowl in 28 years, but it’s hard to argue with the investment: Owner Jerry Jones bought the NFL team in 1989 for $150 million, and now they’re the first pro sports franchise to be worth more than $10 billion, per Sportico. If you shaved $52 million off their valuation for every one of the 48 points the team gave up to the Green Bay Packers in their playoff shellacking last year, they’d still be the most valuable franchise in the NFL. The regular-season specialists generated $1.2 billion in revenue in 2023 alone, 50% more than the No. 2 Los Angeles Rams…

I read a lot! Mostly fiction – mysteries. Legal thrillers, and similar. But I like to add in interesting non-fiction about every fifth or sixth book. Usually these come from recommendations from friends and sometimes from referrals in the press or social media. I don’t remember where the recommendation came from for this book, but I did find it very interesting. Here is a brief review. I recommend you find this book and read it. It might bring up some questions you had not thought of before. It is available on Kindle for those who are averse to paper books. Overview “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari is an ambitious, provocative exploration of the history of our species. [Homo sapiens. Published…

The last big holiday is coming up which a good time for grilling your holiday meal. In anticipation, here are some tips along with a couple of recommended recipes. And where do you go for grilling tips?  Of course, to the grill master – Bobby Flay. Here are some of his recommendations: Charcoal and gas grills both work fine. Charcoal provides a smokiness that gas cannot imitate.  But gas is quicker, easier to control and easier to clean. Never use lighter fluid. Use a chimney starter. Be sure the grates are clean. Use tongs for most things and do not use a fork. For items the need gentle handling, use a wide spatula. For brushing, a good quality paint brush works as good as a…

I like to read! I have averaged somewhere between 45 and 55 books a year over the last ten years after I actually retired and stopped trying to generate some business online. There were several attempts from Your Smart Kitchen (a quality cookware store) to Brightzone (a marketing consulting effort) with several inbetween. And one of the things that annoys me and continues to annoy me more is where a quality author’s name is assumed by someone else. I’m not sure how wide spread this practice may be and it is not the normal case with the majority of authors I enjoy which includes: Michelle Baldacci Michael Connelly Lee Child Lincoln Child Harlon Coban John Grisham James Patterson Brad Thor Others The two most bothersome…

There has been increasing promotion regarding reverse mortgages lately. Even ads with Tom Selleck are showing up. I guess the NYPD commissioner add validity to the offers. But what are the advantages of a reverse mortgage? The first and most obvious is no monthly mortgage payments. If monthly cash flow is an issue, this could be very important. Homeowners are not required to make monthly mortgage payments. Instead, the loan is repaid when the borrower sells the home, moves out permanently, or passes away. Second, it allows homeowners access to equity. With the raise in home prices over the last two decades, some homeowners may have quite a bit of equity that is mostly inaccessible. A reverse mortgage allows homeowners to convert a portion of…

I have been retired for some time and have found that I need more to do. So I am going to fall back on my decades of experience as a technology executive and consultant and start writing about things of intertest. Much of this may be about technology but since most of my over 70 and 80 friends are not always interested in technology I will be looking into other things as well. Sort of a hodge podge of things which could even include some of my recipes from in Your Smart Kitchen days. The purpose of this is to see if the links between my blog site (yogiwan.us) and my social media sites are working properly. So, if you see this, that is a…

As you can see, I am starting a new blog and it should be an experience. Back a few years ago, I had a blog associated with my online store, Your Smart Kitchen, but since that business closed I have not kept up with things. You do forget a lot after ten years or so. So this is somewhat of an experiment and you can expect changes to occur as I gain familiarity with the tools for blogging again. Getting to this point has taken several weeks and you can see it is still pretty rough in spots. Hopefully that will get better over the next few weeks. The objective is to set down some of my observations and thoughts on a wide range of…