Safeguard Your Money When You Travel

When you do use an ATM, any ATM, don’t key in your PIN with your fingers. Use a key, a coin, a card, anything but your hands. Even from down the street a thief can capture your PIN by pointing a device in your direction that reads what you key in using the heat in your fingertips.

Quotation Quotient

"An idea isn't worth much until a man is found who has the energy and ability to make it work." -  William Feather

Coping with Grueling Eldercare: 6 Tips for Boomers and Seniors

Surrender. When you’re making zero headway, it’s time to let go. Allow out-of-the-box solutions to come forward. Loss of “control” is not caving.

Chips off the Old Klock - Volume XXII

It may be true that when two people get married, they are one, but it becomes troublesome when they bicker over WHICH one.

A Low House Edge Isn’t Necessarily the End All, But It Sure Helps

Essential to every player’s success is understanding two fundamentals that will increase one’s chances of winning: They are, as you state, sticking to bets that have a low house edge — like two percent or less, and, developing competence in those games.

Ex-Burglar Reveals What Makes Your Home a Good Target

An air conditioner in a window is thief bait. Not because he wants the AC, but because he knows it can easily be pushed inside or pulled outside, leaving him an open window and access to get inside.

What’s Your QQ?

“There are two great days in a person's life -- the day we are born and the day we discover why.” – William Barclay

A Push Is a Push, Except For…

Fun books can be had by going up to the Player’s Club welcome booth, casino cage, or by just asking for one from a casino host. When a player uses a match play coupon with a real “even money” bet, the match play will be converted to a like amount in cash if the player wins.

When Housing Needs Change, What are Your Options?

The choices are so much better than they once were. Creating safe, homey, pleasant residences for seniors is a strong industry in the United States these days. Instead of waiting till the need is immediate, think over the possibilities while there is time.

Travel Insurance May Save Your Bacon

If you are outside of the United States, your existing health insurance will probably not cover your expenses, and Medicare will never cover you abroad. Medical care in other countries can be iffy at best, depending on where you are. If you are on a cruise and the ship is foreign-flagged (as most are) your health insurance may not cover you.

Best 4th of July Celebrations Will be Traditional Music and Fireworks Extravaganzas

The tradition of fireworks bursting in the sky over water while an orchestra plays Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” is 40 years old this year.

What’s Your QQ?

"As to the Seven Deadly Sins, I deplore Pride, Wrath, Lust, Envy, and Greed. Gluttony and Sloth I pretty much plan my day around." - Robert Brault

Everyone Loves a Bargain

Negotiating over price can trigger anxieties in those who feel incompetent in this skill. Nothing can be more aggravating than thinking you are being taken advantage of or that you might be overpaying. Lack of trust or not feeling in control could plague you. But wait! There’s hope.

Mega This and Mega That

You are playing an individual machine, linked to a statewide network of progressive slot carousels that produces those prodigious payouts. Each machine’s payback percentage, albeit extremely low because of its ginormous progressive, is the same as the payback percentage on all the other machines linked to it.

Canes and Able

We can’t go back to our own days of no wrinkles, no Social Security checks, no Medicare cards we need to carry. But, if a cane is needed now for support, do it, and find one that suits your personality and lifestyle.

Clueless About Car Insurance: You’ll be Surprised What You Don’t Know

The average score on the 10 question quiz was only 32 percent. Yet auto insurance is something we pay a bundle for each month. More importantly, a person with such limited knowledge who gets into an accident will likely have no idea what his or her policy covers.

What’s Your QQ?

What’s Your QQ?

Could You Become Car-Free?

When we need to go somewhere farther, we trade services or pay cash to a neighbor or friend for their time. This is much cheaper than a taxi, more sociable, and we aren't bogged down with worries about maintaining a vehicle. Both sides appreciate the trade, and our lives are enriched.

Three Reasons Why the Offer to Color Up

The first is for the player’s convenience, as it makes a player less likely to drop chips all over the floor on the way to the cashier’s cage. There is nothing more entertaining than the ensuing free-for-all when a sizeable lot of $25 chips hits the floor.

How Fishing Improves Your Vocabulary

I assure you it’s possible to cast out your bubble and fly thousands of times without catching a fish. This does not mean you are a bad person or that the fishing gods are against you.

Did You Say… Food Stamps for Pets?

Animal shelters and pet rescues across the country have been maintaining pet food banks and helping pet owners in need for years. So while the idea is not new, calling it Pet Food Stamps puts it in a familiar frame of reference.

What’s Your QQ?

What’s Your QQ?

Making Money Music

Whether playing blackjack or any other casino game, there is nothing wrong with using the stop-loss method as your money management, profit-taking system.

Who Has to Pay for That?

If your dog bites or otherwise injures someone, you may be liable if you knew the dog had a tendency to cause that type of injury, if the state you live in has statutes that make you liable even if you did not know, or if the injury resulted from your unreasonable carelessness.

A Slippery Slope for the Weary Wallet

Given a choice between a six-deck game and 6 to 5 single-deck blackjack, avoid the latter. A six-deck shoe game is three times more advantageous for you than is 6 to 5 single-deck blackjack.

A Truly Timely, Taxing Question

Reportable gambling winnings can come from the casino games, as well as lotteries, online poker, raffles, bingo, horse racing, Tiddlywink tournaments —  you name it. If it’s any form of gambling wins, you’re on the hook to Uncle Sam for your windfall.

New Habits: In With the Good, Out With the Bad

Rather than torpedo your chances of success by taking on too much, look at it this way. A year passes at warp speed, and by slowing down and tackling one issue at a time, you could change 12 things you don’t like about yourself in one short year.

Too Old to Hire, Too Young to Retire? Nonsense! Research Shows Older Workers are a Bargain

Certainly technology doesn’t come as easily to most older people, and younger individuals almost seem born with a knack for computers. But surveys show that for many employed seniors they put high priority on finding challenges in their work and they value learning new things.

Dividing Up Estate Assets – Some Easy Steps, Some Complicated Ones

There is one other complicating factor that you need to consider when dividing the assets between you and your sisters. Because you now legally own those assets and as a result are not legally required to share them with anyone, your dividing those assets with your sisters will be deemed to be a gift from you to each of them of a one-third interest in those assets.

Feed Your Dog Love

Like humans, dogs also dig a variety of foods. Perk up your dog's meals by adding in fresh greens and meat stock to their meals. Ground flax seed brims with omega-3 fatty acids, critical for skin and coat health and prevents dry, itchy skin, shedding, and hot spots.

What’s Your QQ?

What’s Your QQ?

Creative Holidays and Celebrations in 2013

Also notable in February is Hoodie-Hoo Day. Hoodie-Hoo Day is February 20th, when at exactly 12 noon, everyone is supposed to run outside, shake their hands in the air above their head and shout, “Hoodie-Hoo.” This is supposed to scare away winter. There are YouTube videos available for those needing more instruction.

Just Another Truth-is-better-than-fiction Call

And then there was this time when I was boxing a $1 crap game, the point was four, and a die flew off the table and down a young lady’s blouse, and somehow got stuck in her undergarment. Without hesitation, she unbuttoned her blouse, then her bra, and out pops, among other things, a two tumbling to the table, matching side-by-side the two already on the felt.

Container Gardening Has Many Advantages

If the containers will be in the sun for a good portion of the day, add some water-saving polymers which are available at garden stores. The bead-like polymers (which are used in disposable diapers) swell when exposed to water and then release the moisture slowly.

The Art of Downsizing

A professional organizer and author, Marcia Ramsland of San Diego, recommends taking pictures of different part of your home before dismantling it preparing for a move. That’s one way to keep memories alive.

What’s Your QQ?

What’s Your Quotation Quotient?

‘Duck’ or ‘Duct’ – It’s the Tape that Holds the World Together

During WW II, the military enlisted the company Johnson and Johnson Permacel Division to create a waterproof tape to help keep moisture out of ammo boxes –  thus the name, duck tape. After the war, the tape was used on AC ducts to join them together and so was called duct tape.

Dealer Goofs – The Road to Riches

When I pitched cards, it amazed me how many players jumped on the opportunity of taking even money, or insurance, when I showed an Ace. Except for counting cards, making either of these wagers is fiscally not a sound move, even if, as in your case, being dealt a blackjack.

How to Prevent Foodborne Illness

If you think you have a foodborne illness, save a portion of the suspect food, wrap it securely, mark "DANGER" and freeze it. Save all the packaging materials, such as cans or cartons. Write down the food type, the date, other identifying marks on the package, the time consumed, and when the onset of symptoms occurred.

Myth vs. Reality of Wills, Trusts and Powers of Attorney

Actually, having a last will and testament has nothing to do with avoiding probate. This is a common misconception. Probate will be required any time you die leaving assets in your name alone, whether you have a last will and testament or not.

What’s Your QQ?

What's your quotation quotient?

Stretch Your Strategy until It Whimpers

For starters, Jay, let’s change up the game you’re playing: lower your bet size, but maintain making bets that have a casino advantage of less than two percent. Sticking to this strategy will keep you in action longer and temper the flow of your hard-earned money into the house’s catch-basin.

Budget Perfect Christmas Ideas

Grandparents living on a fixed income, living close to the family, can be their grandkids' personal clipping service by clipping school activities, church projects and sports articles to assemble "a year in the life" scrapbook.

Feeling Sandwiched? A Rising Trend in Today’s Economy, Multiple Generations Under One Roof

If this is something you are thinking about, you may be anticipating the change positively, or dreading it as the end of life as you know it. You already know the advantages – help paying the mortgage or rent plus utilities, the ability to keep a watchful eye on elderly relatives who can no longer live alone, possible help with babysitting the grandkids, shared company (assuming you like each other) – and nobody goes homeless.

Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

If you have inadvertently brought home an invasion of these pests from you travels, there are some defensive moves. Scoot your bed away from the wall; tuck in bed linens so they don't touch the floor; and declutter  --- bed skirts, canopies, curtains, picture frames, chairs, storage boxes and area rugs are their hot spots.

Coping with Disabilities and Poor Health for Sound Legal Planning

If your wife still has legal capacity to do so, you could have her resign as trustee, which, from an emotional standpoint, is much different than being removed due to a disability.

New Guide Books for Today’s Complex World

As retirement approaches, many people wonder “What next?” and fall into traps of looking for happiness in inactivity and no commitments. Phil Burgess’s book Reboot! What to Do When Your Career Is over but Your Life Isn’t maintains that retirement the American way is neither historic nor natural.

What’s Your QQ?

What's your quotation quotient?

Cherish (And Record) Your Life's Memories

Now here's advice from me, your long-time friend. Work with your family. Thank them for every goal they helped you achieve. But most important —  and I can't emphasize it enough —  take that recording equipment I know you have.

The Rigged Slot

All this is not to say that slot operators in bars and restaurants didn’t rig out machines to pay or stiff patrons. Mechanical slot machines of the past were easy to manipulate and thereby cheat naive players.

Helping Your Parents Through a Later Life Move

Respond if your parents tell you it's time for you to come and get your stuff (you know, all those things you asked your parents to keep and store for you all these years).

Over 50 and Headed Back to School?

It is true that, since 2007 when the economy began to slide, the unemployment rate for people 55 and up has doubled. But it is considerably lower for this age group than for American workers in general.

What’s It Like to Go Back to College?

We all know that time goes faster as we get older. Here’s one area where you may have a real advantage over your younger fellow students. My sister and I both noticed how, when assignments were given with a deadline, for example two weeks out, we got on it right away, as in “I only have two weeks.” The younger students said “Why would I mess with this now? I’ve got two whole weeks! Let’s play Frisbee.”

Our Old Pal Hobson

One more thing. Now that you have won a jackpot and received a W2-G, don't try to pull a fast one and assume the payment delay has excused your tax liability.

The Odor of Old – Better than the Younger Folks, Actually

But old-people smell is not necessarily bad, like the odor of most people usually resulting from sweating.  The fact is, the study determined that for most of the people involved, the scent of an old person was preferable to the scent coming from people who were from 20 to 50 years of age.

“It Wasn’t Me, Grandma, Really!” Body Language May Help You Decide Who’s Telling the Truth… and Who’s Not

There are three “tells” related to the eyes to watch for. Rapid blinking is one. Avoiding eye contact is another. Both of these show there is a mental struggle going on, that makes the liar uncomfortable. But according to Wilkes, the greatest sign of lying is when a person looks up or to the left while speaking.

What About Fido? Do You Have a Backup Plan for Your Pets if You Can’t Care for Them?

It’s always a good idea to post an “in case of emergency” notice somewhere, like inside the back door, specifying how many pets you have and their names. If emergency personnel need to come to your home, they can’t rescue pets they don’t know exist.

What’s Your QQ?

What's your quotation quotient?

The Fun Way to Pitch Good Money after Bad

The three problems with this money management system are: 1) you do not have an inexhaustible bankroll, 2) the casino owns the bank and sets the rules — like the table limit, and 3) your hourly wage if you win could be something like $0.01.

Lifestyle Right-Sizing Made Easier

I fully understand that the downsizing process and physical move can be a huge hurdle to get over. So I set out on a quest many years ago to refine the lifestyle right-sizing process to make it as easy and streamlined as possible through research, lots of trial and error, and close monitoring of what worked and didn't work for those going through this experience.

What Is Work?

Work is energy harnessed and by it, a small portion of the world is shaped or reshaped. It is why the vast majority of people feel such a great sense of satisfaction when they do it.

Ten Tips for a Safer Garage

The best defense against CO poisoning is a good carbon monoxide alarm. Smoke detectors do NOT detect carbon monoxide. You need both or a detector that includes both functions. Buy a battery-powered that will work even during an electric power outage and replace the batteries periodically.

The Secret to Letting Go of Excess Stuff: Replace it with Something Better!

Reading this simple sentence also felt like finding the missing piece to the puzzle of how to better support those who find this process difficult, or even impossible. I realized that it's not enough to just tell people to LET GO. It's also important to help people think of ways to replace what they're releasing with something better

Blackjack’s Most Revered Fallacy: Collateral Damage

The remaining cards do not recognize that you just lost the previous hand thanks to beginner’s goof, and decide you, too, deserve a whupping for your contempt. The next hand remains an independent event, and your chances of your winnin

What’s Your QQ?

What's your quotation quotient?

A Stitch and a Story: Quilts Tell the Stories of Families and Generations

Today, the stigma of quilting as "women's work" is gone, and many men enjoy quilting as much as women.

Medicare Open Enrollment is Right Around the Corner: Should You Change Your Plan or Stick With the Old One?

Take some time to reconsider the plan you’ve chosen and you may be able to improve your benefits, or lower your premiums, or both. Or perhaps you just need to tweak your plan to suit your current medical needs.

Renting a Car for Your Summer Travel? Tips for Saving $$ and Avoiding Problems

Don’t assume you will be told about all available discounts. Ask. And while you are asking, be sure you are made aware of all restrictions. For example, it may be cheaper to rent for a week than for two or three days. Ask!

Sweet, Beautiful Corn Fills Summer’s Corn-ucopia

The average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows with one piece of silk for each kernel. One bushel contains about 27,000 kernels. Each tassel on a corn plant releases as many as 5 million grains of pollen.

The Three Payout Terraces of Roulette

What you want to search out, Cheryl, is a single zero roulette wheel. With only 37 numbers (0-36), instead of 38 (0, 00, 1-36), and payoffs being the same as on a double-zero wheel, the house edge is reduced to 2.7 percent.

Simple Tools Can Be a Big Help with Change

Let me share a very simple tool that has been the biggest help to me with initiating changes in my own life. Best part: it's something most of you likely have in your home right now.

The Power of a Smile

Smile, because it is a facelift that costs you nothing and gives the world everything.  If you wear a smile often enough everyone will think you are good looking. The person who smiles as a constant habit has a beauty that can be found in no other way.

FREE Lunch!

Some museums let you take photos of stuff so old even the staff of the “Antiques Roadshow” doesn't know what it's worth, while other museums make you leave your camera at the entrance so they are absolutely sure you can never fully explain what you saw to your friends and family.

What? No Spare Tire!

Today many vehicles, especially smaller and sportier models, are no longer fitted with spare tires, not even those small, donut spare tires that will get you to a repair shop at reduced speed. In some cases you can still order a full size spare, but in most vehicles there is no place to store one.

Shopping List for the Right Blackjack Setup

Play in a casino that offers the following combination of rules: fewest decks possible; surrender, both early and late; double down allowed on any two cards; double down allowed after splitting pairs; multiple pair splitting allowed, plus re-splitting aces; dealer stands on a soft 17; deep deck penetration; and, of course, 3:2 for a blackjack.

Keepers and Weeper Partial-pay Machines

I want to make sure you understand the difference between a full-pay and a partial-pay 9/6 machine. The full pay 9/6 machines (9 for a full house 6 for a flush) compensate you the maximum for each winning hand; the partials do not.

Preparing for a 55-plus Community Visit

Be sure and ask if this 55-plus community plans to one day turn into a 45-plus. Remember, these homes were originally built for the "active" adult. But one day, we must all mature into those golden years. (Sorry, had to say it!) And the baby boomers will do the same.

Internet Caution – Keep Your Computer and Yourself Safe

Forums, pornographic sites, web sites offering free software from an unknown source, and social networking sites are where con men get precious data and plant spy programs. Never respond to emails promising profits that are too good to be true.

Clean Out Your Closets and Make a Few Bucks: Eight Ways to Sell Your Stuff

Why not try turning some of that stuff into extra cash? Instead of just wondering how, take action. Once you’ve dug into your closets and garage and have items to sell, here are some ideas.

Updating Your Estate Plans When Changes Happen

When preparing your amendments or new documents, you should think about naming one or two backups to the fiduciary you name so that you have people in place to act if that person is unable to act for you at the time he or she is needed to act.

Cosmetic-Counter Junkie

This was not the first time I had scanned endless shelves overflowing with lotions, potions, and, most of all, promise. Every elixir sang out: “Buy me! Try me!” And, of course, I did just that.

Strike up Some Senior Silliness Before Your Next Round Birthday

Be greeted by sunshine every morning to maintain a sunny personality. Tape a cheerful paper sun to your bedroom window or blinds.

To Assure a Win, Hold Your Breath and Count to 13

Nevertheless, it is always courteous to ask, “Do you mind if I join your game?” when stepping up to any table. Who needs the wrath of the players whose flow of cards suddenly changes because you jumped in? In their eyes, you intruded on a game in progress, and abruptly their “perceived” luck changed, which erroneously becomes your fault.

Help Fido Enjoy the Trip Too

Never drive with a pet in your lap, or even the lap of a front seat passenger, since it could impact the dash or windshield during a sudden stop. Worse, it could cause serious or fatal injuries to both the person and pet should the air bag deploy in a crash.

Early Worm in Robin-swallowing Spring Training

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said; “I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.”

Brightening the Cloudy Slots Scene

This upping the ante strategy with limited funds is akin to lambs being led to slaughter. When taking a beating, I advocate a move to a reduced denomination machine, not an increased one. Otherwise, you are either playing with money you can't afford to lose, or scared money, which makes for poor playing decisions.

The Four Must-Have Estate Planning Instruments

The following is a summary of the types of estate planning documents all individuals should consider implementing regardless of their age, the size of their estate, or whether they are married or single:

Beware the Danger of Carrying Your Medicare Card

Yet ironically, your Medicare card also bears your Social Security number, and Medicare advises that you must carry that card. Thieves know about this inconsistency, and that is why one of the easiest ways to have your identity stolen is if your Medicare card falls into the wrong hands.

A thief who can get your SSN, especially if combined with your birth date, has a powerful tool that can strip your assets. So if your Medicare card and your driver’s license are both in your wallet and the wallet is lost or stolen, you could be in serious jeopardy. Most people associate identity theft with computer use, said Conti.

Divorced and Over Fifty? You’re Part of a Growing Trend

The 1990 Census showed among those 50-plus, one in ten individuals was divorced. Leap forward two decades to the 2010 census, and the “divorced” category skyrocketed to one in four adults. Also rising is the number of adults who choose not to marry at all, preferring either to live with a mate without marriage, or just to remain on their own.

The Art of Solace: Seven Tips for Pushing Through the Discomfort and Truly Connecting with a Chronically Ill Person

The good news is, you can learn how to relate to chronically ill people. You can learn what to say and what not to say. You can create a relationship that brings comfort and peace of mind, even during a difficult time.

Moving Forward for the Next Phase of Life: What are Your Housing Options?

Most people still think of the old traditional nursing home when senior housing is mentioned or discussed. They don't understand that nursing care facilities are now an option the vast majority of older adults may never even need to consider, because of all the new types of housing that's available.

The Only Armed Queen in the Deck Often Delivered

For example, back before card readers, in peeking under the hole card, some inexperienced dealers would unknowingly bend 10s, faces and aces upwards, causing them to have a different shape than the rest of the cards in the deck.

Tending Our Little Flock – It’s All It’s Cracked Up To Be

For us – empty nesters that we are – raising chickens has become a point of conversation, a joint endeavor, something unique we have created together. Visiting children love it. It’s fun!

Teaching Grandma to Text

The problem had more to do with becoming constantly aware of her phone, the way young people are. Unlike those among us whose phones are like a second heart beat, Kate’s silent phone had lived its entire life, tucked somewhere in the dark bottom of her purse, existing mostly for emergencies.

Your Home, Your Choice?

Fortunately, the marketplace seems to be listening. Many CCRCs today operate similarly to college campuses. Moreover, alternatives to senior communities – hybrids between senior communities and living with the kids – are expanding.

Things to Do NOW to Start the Downsizing, Right-Sizing Process

Need a list to get you started? The following are great tasks to start working on to begin the downsizing, right-sizing process for your simplified and "lighter" future.

Mother Earth: Change, Exchange, and Blessed Reciprocity

Our hearts and souls bind us in our commonality and connect us to our home here. Our heart is our operating system. Mind is simply the program we are running.

The Grass Is Always Greener

Therefore it only makes sense to try bonsai‑ing cannabis. Kind of pot in a pot if you will. I even have a name for my signature crop – Ernie's Journeys.

A Truly Thoughtless Object – The Roulette Ball

Streaks often occur in a casino environment, and as the ball bounces along to its destination, it knows nothing about where it is supposed to land. With the millions of trials going on in any casino on any day, the improbable is a certainty.

Number of Decks Versus Number of Players, But Skill Is Still the Undisputed Champ

My concern, is that with just two players on the game you will be dealt far more hands per hour, which allows the casino edge to eat away at your bankroll at a much faster clip. Let’s run some numbers.

Gone – the Buggy Whip, the Kerosene Lamp, and Now Live Keno

When playing video keno, the speed of the game increases almost tenfold, so, that 7.5% casino advantage versus the 28% live game edge is deceiving, because your hourly loss to the house can end up being much, much higher.

Pirates of the Caribbean

So, what can a one-time player expect in terms of paybacks from these luxury liners? Take out a dictionary and look up words like horrific, horrendous, horrid, hideous or hellish.

Courtesy Hold While the Lady Powders Her Nose

Many of today’s coinless machines even take away the fun-factor of yanking a handle. As one cheerful senior citizen told me recently, the captivating sounds of winning might be gone, but it sure is easier to hold a Vodka OJ while playing.

Bad Beat for the Book

Blackjack games that offer 6/5 for a blackjack and just not worth playing. You want to get maximum value for your blackjacks, James, and you do that by getting paid 3 to 2, not 6 to 5.

Ah, Those Cash-Comp-Currency Calculations

What comps are NOT, Robin, is free. Because the house edge on slot machines is substantial, you are paying for your own comps with your losses.

Where Speed Can Sometimes Outrank Craft

Some tournaments have both hand and time limits, so you want to play smart, but quick enough to make sure you play all the hands allowed. If the sessions are strictly time-limited, the Quick Draw McGraw player tends to do better.

Love Candlelight? Enjoy It Safely

Candles should burn for one hour for each inch of diameter. If you burn the candle for less time, the candle core will burn down the middle and the burn time is thus shortened.