Manny Kagan

There is no typo in the headline.

Movember originates from two words—moustache and November.

Movember became an annual month-long event to raise awareness for men’s health. It initiated in Australia, where in 1999 a group of young men (who coined the term Movember), decided to grow moustaches to support charities for men’s health throughout the month of November.

In 2004 (again in Australia), a different group of 30 men grew moustaches for 30 days—this time specifically addressing prostate cancer awareness. Today Movember has become a movement which has spread all over the world.  TheMovember Foundation encourages men to join the movement by growing a moustache for the 30-days of November.

After registering at Movember.com, a participant will start the month clean-shaven, then grow and groom their Mo (slang for moustache), asking friends and family to donate to their efforts. With their new moustaches, these men bring much needed awareness to men’s health issues by prompting conversations wherever they go. 

Since 2003, Movember has helped raise over $446 million towards men’s health issues.  In 2012, over 1.1 million men and women around the world joined the movement, raising $147.0 million.  In the US, over 209,000 people raised $21.0 million.

A few months ago, my daughter Tamar’s boyfriend, David, told me about this and asked if I would grow a moustache in November in support of men’s health awareness.

Without hesitation, I said yes.

David works for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, one of the beneficiaries of the Movember Foundation and the leading philanthropic organization funding and accelerating prostate cancer research globally. The number of men affected by prostate cancer is alarming.

David sent me some information. Unfortunately, most men discover that they have a problem when it is too late– regular and annual medical check-ups are important for everyone, and early detection is the key to treating and surviving prostate cancer.

Facial hair is probably the most distinctive (at least regarding appearance) between men and women. In some Arabic countries, moustaches are associated with power. It is probably true for other countries as well—just take a look at the police officers on motorcycles in San Francisco. 

A moustache (or Mustache in American English) also separates the boys from the men. Not to be excluded, some women keep their moustaches. Just take a look at the images of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, but it was men who created the moustache culture.

The oldest portrait showing a man with a moustache is an ancient Pazyryk horseman from 300 B.C. Since then, men have used the moustache not only as a power symbol, but also as a fashion statement. In the past, when moustaches were more popular, there was an intricate culture of how to take care of a man’s facial hair. (Perhaps you are familiar with the Agatha Christie TV series detective, Hercule Poirot, played by David Suchet.)

This year’s election date is Tuesday, November 5^th. Every year a few weeks before the election, some friends gather in the house of Ahuva and Emanuel Jolish. Emanuel is retired and he loves San Francisco. He is a guide and is interested in the local politics, attends meetings, convenes with those who run for various offices, and helps those of us who are busy with our lives to understand what is really going on.

On our get togethers, we exchange views and opinions. This helps us make educated decisions for whom to vote for, and which issues to support. What is interesting is that Jolish’s family (like in many other families), spouses and growing children might have opposing views. I guess this is what democracy is all about.

The newspapers print  opinions on whom to support. Some have similar views, some differ. This year, the SF Chronicle and Examiner are on opposing sides. And then of course, there are flyers in which, like in any election, each side is claiming that the other is wrong.

What is unusual this year is that those who run for all three major positions are not opposed. It seems no one else wants to deal with our city’s dirty laundry. When it comes to the measures, all four of them could be resolved internally among the supervisors, and not brought up to the ballots. One of the participants in our group pointed this out and as a protest, thought to vote “no” on all of them. During the discussion, she’d change her mind and instead decided to abstain from marking the ballot.

Jane used to be self-employed. She recently found a great new job with a very good salary and felt she was ready to buy a new home. She had owned one in the past, but sold it without recouping her down payment. 

The problem was that she had very little left in her savings account. Fortunately years ago, she served in the Army and could use her certificate of eligibility to buy a home without any down payment by getting a VA loan. Those loans can be used for the refinance as well. 

Whom do you know who is a veteran?

John and Kim had a loan fixed for 5 years at the interest rate of 4.125% since 2011. John called me six months ago, since he wanted to buy another property. When we ran his credit report, we discovered that his credit score dropped to 625 because of some mix-up in payments. I referred him to a person who helps restore credit scores.

When we ran his credit again six months later, his score went up to 767. At the same time, I checked interest rates and we could refinance his $1,350,000 loan to 3.00%, lower his monthly payments by $851, and extended the loan life for 5 years without any out of pocket closing costs, and with no prepayment penalty. In addition, I was able to secure a line of credit for them of $50,000.

Mr. Cramer needed a pre-approval letter. He was selling a single family home in San Francisco that he owned together with his sister. The proceeds would go to buy a four unit building in the North Bay.

He and his wife own their home with $250,000 balance of the mortgage of 4.00% and 28 years left to pay it off. He is 69 years young and recently retired. His wife is younger.

After checking interest rates and realizing that conforming loans (up to $417,000) dropped to 3.25% for 15 years amortized loans, I asked him if it would make sense to pay off their current balance 14 years sooner?

It did.

He wanted to be sure that by the time he is gone, his wife will have a smaller mortgage or not at all. Their payments are increasing, but would be offset by the extra rent on the new rental property.

Whom do you know who needs to lower their interest rate?

“It’s the economy, stupid.”, was one of three messages campaign strategist,James Carville coined in Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 Presidential campaign. The other two messages were, “Change vs. more of the same” and “Don’t forget healthcare.”

As the wise King Solomon reminded us—“There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11). 

“It’s the economy, stupid” was my response to a question my friend and client asked, “Would the actions of those damn Republicans help lower the interest rates?”

He missed the last refinancing wave, procrastinating in providing us with the necessary documents. This time, he would not mind if it would be the actions of the Republicans, with whom he obviously was not in agreement with, to help the interest rates go down again.

I really hope so too, since it would help millions of borrowers lower their monthly payments, whose property values increased during the last year (and it would help us pay off debts accrued from the previous economy slow down).

A new yearly cycle of reading the Torah started on Saturday, September 28^th. Five books of Moses are divided into 54 chapters, which are read every Shabbat in the synagogues around the world. The Jewish calendar follows the lunar cycle. To adapt to the days we use from the Gregorian calendar (1582) in certain weeks, some chapters are combined. Every morning, I read the chapter of the day as an inspiration and a reminder, and I would like to share some of my observations with you.

The first book and the first chapter in English are called, “Genesis”, and as you probably know, describe the story of creation of the world. Among us, there are those who take the story literally. Some believe that the narrative is the product of human imagination, while others claim that there is no God and no story.

I personally believe that there are the sources of creation and sustaining of the life beyond our comprehension—this is what some of us call God. The Torah is not a history book and presents its narrative often in an allegorical form. For example, six days of creation is an evolutionary process, which scientists have calculated took place over 15 billion years ago. But what is remarkable for us readers, is how this complicated process is described in the Torah:

“In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth—when the earth was astonishingly empty with darkness upon the surface of the deep, and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters—God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated between the light and the darkness.”—Genesis 1/1-5

Upon completion of each daily task:

 “God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”—Genesis 1/26-27

The question comes to mind, how it is possible to see good! After all, as we know, good is a relative term (Good vs. Bad).

I was taking my daughter Tamar to the airport. We left a little bit late and Tamar was nervous. I was considering between either Highway 280 or 101. It was a little past 9am, so I reasoned that the traffic on the 101, which is shorter in distance, would be okay.

When we got on the ramp, we saw that the road was a sea of slowly moving cars. Since there was no way to turn back, I made the only decision I could—“To stay in the traffic and enjoy life”. The traffic turned out to be because of a small accident up ahead. Meanwhile, the damaged vehicle, the tow truck, and the police car were on the other side of the road. Drivers were slowing down and did what Tamar said in LA is called “rubber-necking”. After that, traffic gained speed and we got to the airport on time.

Looking back on my life and reflecting on the times when I was late to something, I realized that I actually do not remember missing anything. Once when we just arrived to the United States, I was driving in heavy rain to a job interview for a property manager position. I could not get there on time and as a result, I did not become a property manager. I was not late to my next appointment and became a mortgage broker instead.