Money In your Wallet? - Here are three simple tips to get rid of that empty feeling

Every person should have money in their wallet.  If you don’t here are a few tips to help get rid of that empty feeling.

1.        Pay yourself first.  Yep it’s that simple, pay yourself first.  You should be paying yourself at least ten percent of everything you earn.  Put it away in the bank until you have enough to invest in a money making opportunity (We will get in to that later). This thought even extends to couples, and you can choose to do this jointly in one account on the total amount you earn or separately on the amount that each of you earns in individual accounts.

2.       Use the next twenty percent of what you earn to pay your debts, excluding rent, food and entertainment.  That means your car payment, your credit card debt and your loans are all paid by this fund.

3.       Live on the rest.  This is where you buy food, gas, pay the rent, the cable, have some fun, etc…

This is the electronic age and the automatic age direct deposit is just about mandatory now a days.  Online Banking is also in vogue so you can automate your ten percent.  Just set up your account and have the bank transfer an amount as close to ten percent automatically to your savings or your investment account every time you get paid. No cheating though.  If you go out and get another job make sure you pay yourself first. 

Don’t touch this money! EVER! Of course you can use it in an emergency but pay yourself back.  Oh yeah, that new X-Box is not an emergency and neither is that new dress, get what I mean?

Many are going to say how can I possible live on seventy percent of my take home? 

Debts are a big thing now a days.  Many of you are already behind in your payments and your credit is already shot but you can fix it.  First list all, I have to stress all, of the debts you have including amounts.  Then prioritize the debts and how much you will pay the creditor from the twenty percent.  Always stay within the twenty percent.  Call the Creditors individually and explain that you are trying to fix your situation and then tell them how much you can afford to pay them.  A word of caution though, once you set the amount don’t miss a payment and don’t change the amount, unless it pays off the debt.  Once you pay off a debt you can then roll that payment in to the next debt to accelerate the payments but do not change that amount back to the original agreed payment amount.  Changing the amount will tell the creditor that you can pay them more than you agreed to and they will start coming after you again and the whole purpose of this is to do the right thing and pay off the debt.  Some creditors will balk at the agreement but none will turn away payments they receive especially if they are consistently and regularly paid.  Once paid off the creditor will be happy that you did pay your debt and you will have done so and kept the stress lower than if you had them calling you every hour or hounding your boss. By the way, if your debt is in credit cards don’t use them while you are paying off your debt.

Investing for your future or making your money work for you is very important.  Disclaimer, I am not a financial adviser so before you invest talk to your financial advisor and invest wisely.  Invest in only what you know about. 

There are companies that pay dividends and do so consistently and at around seven percent.  That is infinitely better than what you are getting in your bank savings account. Consider ownership of precious metals like gold and silver.  I am not talking about stock in them but physical gold and silver.  It is suggested that ten percent of your investment portfolio should be precious metals.

Buy insurance on yourself.  This is probably one of the best investments you can make when you are young.  If you are a young person and do not have insurance I suggest that you get some.  Recommendations about term or whole life insurance are a whole other subject, discuss this with your insurance agent.  Suffice it to say that insurance is immeasurably cheaper when you are young and healthy than when you are older and possibly have heath issues that make you uninsurable.  Let’s face it life throws us curve balls and a health issue like high blood pressure can cause you to not be able to get life insurance in your later years and that could be devastating especially when you have a family to provide for.

Research everything I put forth in this article; don’t just do this because I said so.

To summarize, pay yourself first and in a few years you will find yourself with a nice little nest egg, pay off your debts and keep your debt at no more than twenty percent of your earnings, this will eliminate your stresses about your debt and give you a better life and invest in your future. Finally, make your money work for you.  Make your money make you more money. You will find yourself with money when you need it, debt free and being able to live the life you want to live.  You will not regret this.

An Ounce of Prevention. . . .

We have all heard it.  Grand Ma used to say it all the time, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!”

What did she mean? Well, if you do the things you need to do to prevent accidents or illnesses you will have no need for the cure associated with those illnesses or accidents. 

When it comes to health issues we would all agree that a visit to a doctor is expensive, right?  The copayment and deductible alone could cost a lot of money, and then come the prescriptions, and what if you had to pay for all of that out of your pocket without the assistance of insurance which in itself is expensive.

You see, I have a confession to make and then I will get back to my point.  I am a purveyor of nutritional products!  There I said it!  I market high quality, the highest quality in my humble opinion, supplements and nutritional food products that I stumbled on when doing the research when I was looking for a business to start.

Okay now that that is out of the way, to get back to my point. Why would someone pay a lot of money out of pocket to see a physician and the go out and buy the prescribed medicine that the doctor gave you for your illness when you could, yes by taking some high quality supplements, minimize the effects of that illness?

Here let me tell you a story from my experience.  I used to live in Spokane Washington and the work I did there was mostly outside work no matter what the weather. I used to get sinus infections that were really bad and I used to get them once or twice a year.  When I went to the doctor, he always prescribed a Z-Pak of antibiotics and in 7 to 10 days the infection went away. I also used to get a cold, just before the sinus infection and maybe another time or two during the year. Many times I would be out of work for a couple of days and that cost me serious money.  It also did not enhance the relationship I had with my boss as you can figure. So I started taking supplements, high quality supplements and got into the habit of taking them religiously.  Soon I noticed that I would only get a cold, a good cold about once a year. Then a couple of years ago I noticed that I did not have those sinus infections I used to get.  Finally in noticed that when I did come down with a cold it was not as severe as it was when I wasn’t taking the supplements, my colds went from the 7 to 10 days the doctors tell you that a cold should last with or without medication by the way, to the symptoms lasting 2 to 3 days!

I don’t know if the supplements you take, if you take them, help you like this.  I don’t know if the supplements I sell will help you the way they did me, but all I know is that they did help me!  You see I had some sort of nutritional deficiency and through supplementation, I believe, that deficiency was eliminated and the result was that my body fights illnesses better than when I was not taking the supplements.

A bit of a disclaimer, it did take time for those supplements to show what they can do and I recommend a 90 day course of the supplements before you decide that they don’t work.

Why pay hundreds of dollars in copays and deductibles when $75 dollars in high quality supplements may help keep you out of the doctor’s office and out of their billing system?

An ounce of prevention might just save you from that pound of cure.

Take a look at this video:  Cellssentials video
https://youtu.be/xVZQxYXtrt4

Getting Healthy is Hard

I know, you’re thinking that this guy is trying to sell me something.  That is true but not what you think I am selling.

You see it took me a long time to get as unhealthy as I am today.  I worked at it really hard it and I imagine that there are a bunch of you out there that have been doing the same thing to yourselves.  I ate a bunch of bad stuff when I was young and continued to do so as I got older.

I tried a neat diet one time it was called a carb diet.  I ate bread. I ate pasta and I ate potatoes and washed them down with, yep you guessed it soda!  The thing I didn’t do was to increase my exercise to burn off the carbs that I ate and they went where everyone’s diet missteps go right around the middle until I reached the gigantic size of 300 pounds at the ripe old age of 43.  I am willing to bet that there are some of you reading this that are in the same boat.

So how do you get rid of those pounds?  Well first and foremost I need to tell you a couple of secrets.  Number one, those pounds do not come off as easy as they went on. Number two, they will not come off until you want them to come off.

Let’s take talk about the first one first. Weight loss does not come from a diet.  Let me clarify, permanent weight loss does not come from a diet.  Permanent weight loss comes from a lifestyle change (we will talk about that in a minute).  If you go on a diet and lose the weight a proven fact is that if you stop the diet you will most likely gain the weight you lost back and then some because chances are that you will go back to eating what you did before you lost the weight.  It is kinda the insanity thing, you know doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

Second, you will never lose weight and keep it off unless you want to do it.  If you are trying to lose weight and you don’t really want to you will never do it.  It is kinda like quitting drinking or stopping smoking unless you really want to you won’t succeed at doing it.  I have seen many people try to quit smoking, they try to cut back, they try the “patch”, the gum but they never really succeed.  One has to want to quit, I know, I quit 30 years ago this October and I did it cold turkey after smoking three packs a day for more than 10 years not to mention we saved a ton of money! One more point on this, food is a lot like alcohol it is addictive to many of us but is nothing we can’t fix with a little help and support.

Changing your lifestyle is also hard.  Who wants to change?  I know I didn’t.  I loved the way I was living.  I was on the buffet circuit, a different buffet every other night.  I was also on the late dinner train.  I used to have dinner at 6:30 or 7 PM and then go sit on my favorite exercise equipment; you guessed it, my recliner.  I would do some finger exercises with the remote and give the TV a work out.  Then I would include 12 ounce wrist and elbow curls. Finally after that workout I got some sleep.

I know, this isn’t funny, it’s sad but that was my reality. That is when I hit bottom and started an almost no carb diet.  You know, it almost worked.  I actually went from 300 plus pounds to 208 in a 6 month period of time.  I even had to buy a new wardrobe.  Man I was “stylin’ and profilin’”!  I had new duds and my wife thought I looked pretty good too.

So, remember back when I said that diets don’t work?  Well this one was no exception.  I came off of that diet and went right back to what I was doing before. Ah, a little bread won’t hurt and then a little more and a little more until I went to the Doctor’s office and got weighed and tipped the scales at just shy of 260 pounds!  That’s when I realized that if I didn’t change my lifestyle I would be at the 300 pounds I was before and probably more.

So what did I change,  I decided to do a little exercise, after all I was almost 60 and hadn’t done a lick of exercise since I retired out of the military in 1993 and this was 2012.  I decided to walk, nothing strenuous, I started with 20 minutes a day 2 or three times a week and am now doing 40 minutes a day of a nice leisurely pace, I don’t even break a sweat.  I started having a meal replacement shake for lunch every day except for weekends and I did self-imposed portion control.  Finally the wife and I agreed to eat at between 4 and 5 every day.  This gave our food a chance to digest and I do not eat anything after 8 pm.  Did I see a drastic drop in weight?  No but I weighed myself at my PT’s office and I noticed that I weighed in at 235 which is 25 pounds less than what I was when I started the change.

To make this long story short, changing my lifestyle probably extended my life and will yours. For more tips and ideas contact me at bincalventures@gmail.com.

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Lets Take A Walk

Let’s Take A Walk

I posted part of this post on Linked-In but I wanted to put this on my blog as well, so here goes.


News Flash! A sedentary lifestyle, you know the kind that is spent behind the computer, on the couch or in your recliner is not good for you, but you already know that. 


I know, you work and when you get home you really don’t feel like exercising or you have more work to do behind that computer or your couch or recliner is too appealing to get out of or you feel like exercise will kill you.  You know, I felt the same way and I paid for it.  I worked as a Computer Geek and put on the pounds to the tune of weighing 300 plus pounds.  I was out of breath, my heart was working double overtime and my knees were giving me hell.  On the up side I had a place to set my coffee whether I was walking or sitting and that was my belly.  I am here to tell you that this was not good.


Thanks to my wife, a change of jobs and a health scare I went to work changing the way I lived my life.  I started eating healthier by cutting carbs drastically, no breads, no pasta and the hardest thing of all no SODA!  But there still was that exercise thing.  You see I don’t do gyms.  They are too expensive, too smelly, and I hate people trying to kill me because of an exercise program they think is good for me.


So I went searching for an Easy Button, something that would get me moving but was cheap, didn’t stink and that I chose rather than someone else and I think I found it, 40 minutes a day.


Are you interested in starting an exercise program or maybe even a weight loss program but don't want to buy a gym membership and have some trainer beat you up every time you go?


Then think about this.  Walking just 40 minutes a day will get you started on your journey to wellness and quite possibly weight loss.  Yep, that's what I said 40 minutes a day. 


It doesn't have to be a high speed walk, a 20 mile hike and you don't have to get your heart beat up to 130 beats a minute you just have to walk.


Doctors say that a 40 minute walk 5 times a week has very good health benefits to fight those diseases that are exasperated by being sedentary like high blood pressure, arthritis and diabetes.  It moves muscles you haven’t used in a while, it gets you out from behind that computer that my wife call my second wife, and it gets you out of your recliner and off that couch that has become form fitting with your backside.  40 minutes a day that’s all.


Pick a place that is pleasing to you and someone you would like to just take a walk with and go on that stroll in the park or at the sea shore on the beach. Leave that pesky cell phone at home and talk to the person you are with.  Open your eyes to the beauty of the world around you and soon you will be ready for a more speed or a little more exercise.


My point here is to get off of that couch or from behind that computer or out of that recliner and move.  The healthy eating can come later but right now just get out there and enjoy the world.

Seven Essential Supplements for Men

Reprint from USANA Australia and New Zealand

Whether you want to build more lean muscle to supercharge your metabolism, or you just want to feel great and have as much energy as possible, what you eat counts. And, while there’s no doubt that every man is unique, men do share some particular health challenges.

So, once the fundamentals are covered – healthy mixed diet, regular exercise, regular health checks, relaxation and sleep – think about your supplemental health.  Here are seven supplements – and their role in men’s health.

1. Essentials™

You definitely don’t need a multi-vitamin and or multi-mineral if you are eating a widely mixed diet that contains all the right proportions of nutrients. The trouble is, most of us don’t – at least not all of the time, anyway.

That’s where wide-ranging and potent products like Essentials (or HealthPak™ if you want the added benefits of an extra antioxidant boost plus calcium) come in.

2. BiOmega™

Many studies have shown the benefits of long chain omega-3 fats, the kind that you find in oily fish, for brain and heart health. Omega-3s have a natural anti-inflammatory action whilst helping to reduce the stickiness of blood so that it can flow more freely. If you are taking blood thinners like warfarin, be sure to speak with your doctor before taking any kind of supplement, though.

So how much is enough? The Australian Heart Foundation suggests that for generally healthy men, around 1,000mg a day is about right. If you have heart problems, you may need 2,000 to 4,000mg but check with your doctor first. Take BiOmega with meals to boost absorption and avoid any fishy aftertaste.

3. Vitamin D

More and more research is showing the many benefits and the many reasons why people can be low on this fat-soluble vitamin. A staggering number of men are short of it despite the fact that the major source of vitamin D isn’t diet at all – it occurs when UV light in sunshine reacts with a cholesterol-like substance in the skin.

Low levels have been linked with a number of health problems including low immunity and depression.

4. Probiotic

These are the bacteria that naturally live in your gut. Here, they process foods and play an important part in protecting your immune system. Try taking one stick pack of USANA Probiotic every other day to feed your internal bacteria and help your immune system. This has a preventative effect – the good bacteria can simply crowd out the bad ones and keep infection at bay. Probiotics also have a role in keeping you to stay regular helping you to feel good from the inside out!

5. Palmetto Plus™

This men’s health formula contains ingredients to protect men’s physiology. For example, it contains saw palmetto and two powerful antioxidants, lycopene and soy isoflavones.

According to one study published in the Journal of Urology,

·       Evidence suggests that saw palmetto may have a significant effect on urinary flow rates and symptom scores compared to placebo in men with lower urinary tract symptoms.

·      Its effects are thought to be due to its reaction with testosterone; it appears to shrink the inner lining that puts pressure on the tubes that carry urine.

·       Studies suggest that combining saw palmetto with isoflavones, antioxidants found in foods such as legumes and soy may help to improve its effectiveness.

·       Plus, both of these plant pigments seem to help retain prostate health.

6. CoQuinone30

Coenzyme Q10 – or CoQ10 for short – is made by body cells. It keeps the tiny engines that fire cell functions burning and in this way, providing the energy that cells need to keep working to their best. Less CoQ10 is produced with age so if you want to revive those energy levels, it may be a good option.

7. Procosamine®

If you’re feeling the odd ache and pain in your joints, consider Procosamine.

Adequate levels of glucosamine may help to rebuild lost cartilage. But unlike regular glucosamine products, Procosamine contains Meriva® curcumin a potent anti-inflammatory which is nearly 29 times more bioavailable as regular turmeric to supercharge this Indian spice’s already super effective action.

Vitamin supplements should not replace a balanced diet.

If you have heath issues talk to your Doctor before starting a supplement regimen. Use only as directed. Always read the label.

If symptoms persist see your healthcare practitioner.

For more information contact Pete Caldwell at healthwealthandfreedom@outlook.com

Customized Nutrition

Back in my day it was every guy's dream to buy a car and customize it to the hilt.  My car was the '57 Chevy or the Nomad.

Now a days people love to have things customized just for them.  One size fits all doesn't cut it. Supplements are the same way. Do you remember when the only vitamin supplements on the market were Flintstone’s for kids and One A Day for adults?  Well those days are gone.

There are many makers of over the counter supplement manufacturers, some cheap and some expensive and many middle of the road. The supplement industry has grown massively and more and more it is the buyer that has to beware when buying supplements and nutritional products since the supplement industry is not as closely regulated at the Pharmaceutical industry it is very important that one checks the vitamins they buy.  Make sure that the supplements you buy have what they say they are supposed to have, are high quality and that they are manufactured in an FDA approved manufacturing facility.  Very few will allow you to select just the supplements or nutritional products you need.

Our product partner, USANA Heath Sciences, has designed a full line of customizable nutritional supplements and food products just for you.  You decide what you need.  But how do you know what you need?

We always start out with our True Health Assessment. This lets you input your health information and from that input makes lifestyle recommendations and prioritized product suggestions just for you.  Then from those suggestions you choose which supplements to take or which ones not to take.

Supplementation with our products takes another customizable step with the My Health Pack line.  This line allows you, using the suggested product list to choose supplements you need and have them available in a morning and evening packet without the need to have a bunch of separate bottles and having to remember which ones to take in the morning and the ones to take in the evening.  Another unique thing about the My Health Pack product is that it has your name on it! 

Our Low Glycemic line of shakes and snacks provide you with a quick meal when you are on the go or help you lose those extra pounds and they are satisfying and filling leaving with no cravings through your day.  It has three different types of Protein shakes and several different flavors to choose from.  They even have additional fiber and protein that you can add to your taste.

So you see you can get the nutrition you want and actually need.

Pete Caldwell

The Game of Life

The Game of Life

It seems to me that too many people are getting sick and we don't know what is causing it.  It could be the environment, the food we eat or the way we live but we are all getting sick. Too many people wait until they are sick with very bad diseases like Diabetes, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, and ALS and then try to find a cure.

Whatever the cause, the key to fighting these debilitating diseases is nutrition, not after you have the diseases but before, way before they show up.

Let me tell you a story.  I recently went to the Philippines on an extended vacation and business trip (2 months) and I probably weighed right at 250 lbs. when I left.

While there I ate food that was fresh and grown locally, fish that was still alive when I picked it out at the market, meat fresh off the farm (and the hoof I might say) and I took my supplements as usual. I walked a bit more then I was used to, because that was the preferred method of transportation for short trips and the Market was two blocks away. And to my surprise, I lost weight. The heat might have had something to do with it but that was probably only for the first two weeks. After that, I had become accustomed to it.  To make matters even more interesting, I had felt better than anytime over the last eighteen to twenty-four months.

In the States I have a heck of a time losing weight. To be honest, I am lucky if I lose weight at all. Why that is I do not know but my feeling is that the food here does not have the same nutritional value as the food over in the Philippines.  And it might even be that the genetically modified food in the US is causing the obesity problems and illnesses that we see. Take for example the hormones pumped into our chickens that give them bigger breasts. Could that be why we are all getting bigger around the middle or men having man boobs? I don't know for sure, and I don't have any empirical evidence that proves my supposition, but that is what my gut is telling me.

The best way to keep ourselves healthy is through proper nutrition.  I am not saying one must  become a Vegan or stop eating food that is bad for us, (God knows that I don't strictly follow those rules). I believe that you can actually eat anything you want but in moderation.  With proper sleep and nutrition plus high quality supplementation to make up for what is lacking in the American diet, we stand a better chance of aging well. By getting up off that couch and doing  a little something to get our heart beating, we add to those chances.  Superior quality food and supplements might cost a little more but the benefits reaped will make it worthwhile later in life.  One might think health is expensive, but that's because they haven't price disease lately. As for me, that’s how I plan to stay in the game of life a little longer.

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