Are You Planning the
Rest of Your Life?

There were three reasons which led to this story. The first one was an obituary article in the local paper. My wife Elfa read it because the story was about a man who outlived his wife by three days after being married for seventy years. The other story was a dedication to a friend who died at the age of sixty, of lung cancer, about which I read in the book “Create Your Best Legacy” written by Michelle Lerman (I strongly recommend the book and Ms. Lerman’s Services). The third one was an article titled “Life Expectancy Ticks Up Slightly for First Time in 4 Years“ written by Janet Adamy, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2020. The article stated that “Women are expected to live five years longer than men, to the ages of 81.2 and 76.2 respectively, according to the 2018 figures.” Since I just celebrated my 73rd birthday, it means that I only have (statistically) three years to be around. This math cannot be right. Recently I read in the Torah that the patriarch Jacob lived until the age of 147. According to this math, I am in the middle of my life. This makes perfect sense, since I still have so many things to accomplish while being alive. For starters, I still have to publish forty books in the “42 Encounters” series, which will take me to the age of 112, and then I will have 35 years to sell those books (just kidding). Of course, there are other things I will have to do while I am still around, like helping my clients find mortgage solutions, to better their lives. Well, all of this might not be significant for you, but at least I have the reason why and a plan to stick around. Do you?

I met a new client recently. At the age of 67, she was fired from her job after forty years in the same medical occupation. My original inclination was to help her get a reverse mortgage. However, after we talked, I realized that getting rid of her mortgage payments was only a partial solution. I was fortunate to be able to help her to find a part-time job at an attorney’s office. Now she is considering learning how to become a paralegal. Meanwhile, in addition to her work, she is going to be busy and enjoy her life practicing yoga, making jewelry and spending time with her friends and family until at least the age of 81 (statistically speaking). As far as her mortgage is concerned, I was able to refinance her loan, combining and paying off her debts and lowering her payments by almost $1,000.00 a month. Not everyone is so lucky, but all have a choice to plan the rest of their lives.

P.S. These images show four people, who seem happy to have reached their retirement age.

Enjoy and Share with A Friend!

  

Library Lovers’ Month

While driving and listening to Public Radio, I heard that February 2020 is Library Lovers’ Month. When I checked about it online, the first thing I saw was a quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, who lived 106-43 BC. “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need”. Anyone who lives in San Francisco has both – Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Public Library. While Golden Gate Park opened in 1871, the San Francisco Public Library was established in 1878. It was funded by a specially created property tax (now you know where your money goes to fund the budget of close to 130 million).

But we also have other sources for books like the “Little Free Library”, that are located throughout many areas of San Francisco. In our neighborhood, Monterey Heights, there are four little boxes on a pedestal. I even created a walking routine with Max to visit each of them to check out what is new and to bring some of my books for an exchange. The trend started in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin by Todd H. Bol. Nowadays more than 90,000 public book exchanges are registered with the organization and they are present in 91 countries. Their purpose is “To inspire a love of reading, build community, and spark creativity by fostering neighborhood back exchanges around the world.” You do not have to travel around the world to find a good book. Just visit one of your neighborhood libraries.

P.S. Max cannot read books, but he likes to visit Little Libraries and to pose for you. And if you want to give someone you love a gift for Valentine’s Day, (or any other event) “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers” could be a perfect idea, check it on Amazon.com.

Enjoy and Share with A Friend!

  

Where to Experience
The Food of the Gods

In the article titled “Chocolate”, which appeared on December 21-22 in The Wall Street Journal, written by Simran Sethi, I learned that the botanical name of chocolate is “Theobroma Cacao”, which means Food of the Gods. In the article I also learned that by 2024, the cocoa growing industry is expected to reach over 161 billion in revenue. It seems that I am not the only one in the world who loves chocolate. I first discovered good chocolate in the late 90s. A friend introduced me to Robert Steinberg, co-founder of the chocolate company, Scharffen Berger. We visited the one room factory located in South San Francisco (which later relocated to Berkeley). It was acquired by Hershey in 2005, and was the first American company in the past 50 years to make chocolate “from bean to bar”. Online I found the list of the World’s top 10 chocolate bars (Scharffen Berger was number four). Many chocolates later, it seems that that the field of chocolate making is getting crowded. There are so many artisanal brands, which vary in taste, ingredients, components, and of course price. The question remains – what is a good chocolate? Turns out, that the bottom line for defining a great chocolate is the amount of cocoa solids present. To be dark, it has to be over 70 percent. Anything below is considered milk chocolate. This is why 72 percent chocolate bars are so popular.

As it often happens when I am looking for information for my stories, it appears as a book. This time it was “Bean to Bar Chocolate. America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution” written by Megan Giller. There I found a lot of valuable information about chocolate as well as recipes for hot chocolate. The book also gave me an idea for one of my next photobook projects – “42 Encounters with Chocolates”.

P.S. Until the book is going to be ready, please enjoy these four images that I photographed at One 65, and do not forget to visit the place to have a real chocolate experience.

Smile, Enjoy chocolate and Share with a Friend!

  

How To Celebrate Being Alive

My original title for this story was “How To Celebrate my 73rd birthday“, which was on January 13th. Some people think that I cannot be that age, since I have a younger look, in spite of my gray hair. And for those who ask for my secret, the answer is very simple – I feel young in my heart and enjoy being alive every day. Since I am not planning to retire, I have all the reasons to be alive. I enjoy everything I do and work on becoming a better mortgage broker, writer and photographer. To celebrate my birthday, we decided to spend some time with our daughters. The oldest one Alona, lives not far from Palm Springs with her boyfriend Jeff. We flew there on Thursday and stayed in a resort hotel.

From there, we drove to West Hollywood, where our younger daughter Tamar lives with her husband David. There we spent quiet family time, visited the LACMA museum to see Thomas Joshua Cooper’s photography exhibit, ate at some of the local restaurants, and otherwise relaxed in preparation for a very busy year, since mortgage interest rates are quite low and many of our clients will benefit from refinancing. I also found two interesting books about chocolate, the subject I am going to write about next week.

We flew back on the day of my birthday, which we celebrated with the dinner at the “One 65” Bistro located on O’Farrell Street, the place I will write about next week, as well.

P.S. The sense of calm, while being alive, already started to produce results. During the trip I obviously photographed and got a few interesting images.

The flowers you see are wonderfully simplistic. I photographed them in the desert and the images I posted last week.

Enjoy and Share with Friends!

  

How To Be Positive

There is a lot of talk about positive thinking, which is often just talk. How can one be positive when “bad things happen”? I heard a story about a boy who came to his father and told him that he thinks that he had flunked his test in school. “Son, you have to be positive,” father told him. “OK, I am positive. I flunked the test.” I decided to write this story after reading an article in The Wall Street Journal from December 28-29, 2019, which was titled “For the New Year, Say No to Negativity”. It was an adaptation from the new book, “The Power of Bad: How the Negative Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It”, Written by John Tierpey and Roy F. Baumeister.

In my view, positive thinking can only entail expecting a good outcome, regardless of the circumstances. One of my favorite sayings is, “Seek for seeds of victory in every defeat.”

When people habitually ask me, “How are you?” I habitually answer, “Always good”. Some hearing this respond by telling me that I cannot always be good. But I am, because I strive to be good. It is not because I think positively; but rather, this kind of thinking comes from making an effort to be good. And I do not need scientific research to prove that this is the way to enjoy every day of my life.

Last week I wrote that the year 2020 offers infinitive possibilities. It means that all of us have a choice. Choose to be positive. You can read the above mentioned book if you need help with this endeavor, or call me.

P.S. Two weeks ago I shared with you four images from my 2020 calendar. Here are four more. You can see all of them on mannykagan.smugmug.com. I printed 200 calendars and all of them are gone, primarily to my recent clients. Next year I will have another beautiful calendar. It is going to be easy to get – you have the whole year to become one of those clients who needs a mortgage solution, or refer me to someone who does.

Smile, be positive and share your positivity with your friend.