'WATER DEMYSTIFIED' or 'CLEARING THE AIR ABOUT WATER'

 

 ‘WATER DEMYSTIFIED’

 or

 ‘CLEARING THE AIR ABOUT WATER’

 

H2O, 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen is the combination that gives us liquid life.  Our bodies are mostly made up of it and the earth is mostly covered by it.  Today’s question is what do you really know about water?

There are more than 220 billion trillion gallons of water on the surface of this ever changing planet.  Unfortunately most of it is salt water found in the oceans.  Nature has an amazing process for desalinization of ocean water.   It’s called evaporation.  When the salt water becomes a vapor the salt is left behind so the vapor can reform as a more pure raindrop.  Of course, when that raindrop falls and if it makes its way back into the ocean it becomes salt water once again.  Every day the process continues and the earth just keeps on turning.

So much for science 101, I want to talk about the water in your home.  It is either well water or treated ‘city’ water.  Oh, I almost forgot, there are a few places where the water is actually trucked in for consumption.  I’m not sure what category that falls under.

When you boil this topic down (pun intended) there are only two areas of water that really should be of concern within your living space.  Those things are water hardness and water filtration.  They are, in fact, two very different things.  Hardness and filtration are not interchangeable topics.

Hardness

Hard water will not cause you any physical harm.  It may make your water taste strange and it also may give it an odor, but with regard to health the point is moot.  I have city water and although treated for chemicals and other crap that may cause physical and health problems, it is not treated for hardness.  Very hard water has 7.0 to 10.5 grains per gallon (GPG) of hardness.  Our city water has 19 GPG, which easily exceeds the standard of very hard water.

So if it is not a health problem do you really need to treat hard water to make it softer?  You may want to because of two other issues.  1) Calcium and Magnesium precipitate out of hard water in the form of scale.  These appear as white deposits that are left behind in the separation process.  It’s the same scale that leaves your skin feeling dry and sometimes itchy after a shower in hard water.  It’s the same scale that will eventually build up in plumbing and appliances, which can be a cause of future problems and shortened appliance life.  2) Hard water cuts into a soaps ability to lather.  It also causes soap to leave behind a sticky filmy scum.  With hard water you will need to use more soap to get the same effect of a clean wash in soft water.  

Since we’re about money savings here, hard water will cost you money.  So now the question become how do I fix it and at what cost?  A water softener is the fix and the cost will vary depending on the type and who installs it.  Figure the cost to be anywhere from $500 to 2K.  If you go much higher than the $2,000 mark you will have a hard time getting the return on your investment during the life of the softener system.  There are several types of softeners to choose from.  I’ll mention the most common here.  They are magnetic and chemical softener systems.  

Magnetic…..Although it does alter the ionization of water, which will turn hard water into SOFTER water, this is gray area technology.  It should also be noted that magnetic or electromagnetic softeners (Such as the Easy Water system) must have the water used quickly after being altered.  If the water is not used for its intended purpose it will return to its hardened state.  

Chemical…..Salt water softeners are the most economical and, contrary to what some water softener companies would have you believe, very little salt remains in the water during the softening process.  I repeat, very little salt remains with the water.  Some very expensive water softening operations would have you believe salt softeners are bad.  They will point to some areas where it is against code to install a salt water softener.  Here’s the down on dirty on the code issue.  In a few areas of California and Texas it is against the law IF you have a septic system and are not on city sewage.  This is not done because the salt in your potable water is excessive.  This is code because during the backwash process the salt will go into septic tank, which often have outflow lines and leach beds.  These leach beds COULD let the salt makes its way into an aquifer.  Notice I used the word COULD and not WILL or DOES.  This code thing is a precautionary measure and there is no hard evidence of this ever happening.  It’s an err on the side of caution thing.  Very California in nature. 

There are also Potassium water softeners.  If the salt thing really bothers you regardless of the facts, simply go potassium.  It will cost you three to five times as much in buying the potassium, but hey, it’s your choice.  

Watch the warranty on the softener you buy.  Remember you get what you pay for and this is no exception.  If you buy a $500 softener with a 5 year warranty, don’t be surprised if you are having a funeral for it in 5 or 6 years.  This is especially true in very hard water areas.  

Filtration

Filtration is the area you should really be concerned with because this CAN affect your health.  Notice, again, I said CAN and not DOES or WILL.  If you are on city water it must meet certain Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, which removes the bad stuff down to a defined safe level.

Here’s a fun little fact.  Blind taste tests have shown some city water is favored over bottled water.  If you’re buying bottled water to drink at home you really need to ask yourself “WHY?”

If you want the ultimate in pure water for cooking and drinking then your best option is to install a Reverse Osmosis (RO) water filter under your kitchen sink.   For every gallon of RO filtered water used an additional 4 gallons are washed down the drain in the filtering process.  At an initial cost of less than $200 (Oh, you will be buying filters after the initial cost at a cost of around $30 a pop and some units use 3, 4 or 5 filters.) The water pouring out of these devices is about a pure and clean as it gets.  In fact, RO water purification systems are used in many bottled water plants.  Yep, and you can have it at home for pennies compared to what bottled water costs.  

DID YOU KNOW BOTTLED WATER COSTS MORE THAN GASOLINE?  If you pay $1 for a 16 oz. Bottle of water that makes the cost of water $8 per gallon.   I’ve seen places charging $3 a bottle or $24 a gallon for water.  I truly do understand the OCCASIONAL need to buy a bottle of water, however, I don’t understand how any sane person is willing to pay big $$$ for tap water that costs …… less than $1.50 per 1000 gallons.  (NOTE:  EPA guidelines for bottled water only apply if the water is shipped across state lines.  State guidelines apply for product produced and sold within the state.  In many states it is perfectly legal to bottle city tap water and sell it.)

Oh, for those of you that regularly buy bottled water just because you THINK it tastes better or you THINK it is better for you, I’ve got this bridge in New York that I’m selling for a real bargain price…………….

 

© Krystalco LLC 2013  Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is prohibited.

Economic Wisdom from the Stupidity of Our Government

Learning Economic Wisdom from the Stupidity of Our Government

There’s an old saying that goes something like this; a lawyer that would represent himself has a fool for a client.  Likewise, a doctor who would operate on himself has a fool for a patient.  

The nice thing about fools is that wise people can watch their costly stupid errors and learn from them.  The wise person learns for free while the fool picks up the tab.  

In this ‘Gold Nugget of Truth’ the fools we will learn from are from both sides of the government aisle.  They are both Democrats and Republicans, and foolish beyond belief.  Of course, there is the Queen of Fools, Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) who once said, “We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.”(Referring to Obamacare)  After making a statement of that type you really don’t need to see her brain scan to see what’s in it or not in it.  Duh. 

Politicians often have their hearts in the right place, but have their heads up their asses.  That disease is also known as ‘Craniumrectus’ and the cure for it is a ‘POPULECTOMY.’  The Populectomy got its name from the way the treatment works.  The patient suffering from Craniumrectus is pulled by the underarm area until you hear a popping sound which indicates the head is now removed from the rectum.   Since it’s a disease I invented I can also come up with any cure that suits the need.  So there.

Back in the days of the early 80’s politicians from both sides of the aisle were pushing the fact that every good hard working American should own a home.  Those well intentioned albeit stupid elected gurus encouraged banks to loosen up credit.  That encouragement gave way to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Those government started pseudo institutions led the way for more money to loan.  Easy loans with looser qualifications were becoming the rule.  Eventually rules became so loose
that you could work at McDonalds and qualify for $400,000 home loan.  Are you starting to see the flaws in this yet?  If so, you have probably just passed the IQ of the typical Senator or Representative. 

No money down, no problem.  Give money away, print more, build more homes because our economy is expanding.  It looked that way on the surface but in reality it was a false economy. 

At some point reality must set in and it did, in the form of a real estate crash.  Our elected officials would have you believe it was the banks fault, but it was the boys and girls in Washington that encouraged and backed those loans.  So those same deluded geniuses in DC decided they needed to do something.  “Hey”, said one of ‘em, “Here’s an idea.  Let’s borrow money we don’t have.  Run up the debt.  Do some kind of ‘feel good’ rescue home loan thing, oh, and spend a trillion bucks or so on economic stimulus.  You know, green projects.  That leaves us with the ‘feel good’ home thingy and a ‘look good’ environmental thingy.”  And thusly, nearly all the lemmings in Congress voted to approve it. 

Now the Man-In-Charge, who just spent a year lying to the nation about healthcare, decided to make bad loans to green companies.  Enter Solyndra, which took around $500,000,000  in taxpayer money and then went four paws to the ceiling.  That was only the beginning.  Several other companies followed suit and some of them used inside track (questionable tactics, if you prefer) to get those wonderful, screw the taxpayer, loans.  

Ah, but the best (sarcasm) was yet to come.  Obamanation decided to loan $132,000,000 to an upstart battery company called A123 Systems.  You could also call it Solyndra Junior because it too went belly up.  Here comes the good part. You see, China holds more than a trillion bucks in U.S. debt.  Much of the money for the stimulus was borrowed from China.  China, seeing a potentially good thing, swoops down and latches on to A123 for nearly nothing.  The U.S. Taxpayers are out the 132 million and the absolute worst part is we are paying interest to China on those millions I just told you about.  Yep, they get a free U.S. company and we pay them interest.  We the people…just got screwed….AGAIN.

So what’s the message in here for you?  Well, there’s three of them.  1) Paying interest never benefits you the borrower.  But there are times, specifically when you buy a home you will need that loan which leads us to #2) Live below your means.  If you can afford a $250,000 home why not settle for something considerably less expensive.  Something you can pay off early and pay less interest on the loan.  Wow, what a novel concept.  Going into debt is NEVER something you should take lightly.  Besides ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ is so 1970’s.  3)  Think before you vote and only vote if you think.  Remember career politicians and lawyers RARELY make good Senators, Representatives or Presidents.  What we need are good common people with good common sense.  

Current office holders need not apply. 

© Krystalco LLC 2012  Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is prohibited.

2 Rules for Instant Saving

Advertising 101 - - Ways of separating you from your money and/or influence your thoughts.

Let’s start this with the simplest rudimentary definition I could come up with for advertising.

Advertising – a presentation designed in part or whole to create a predetermined desired response.

Now let me break this down a bit further for you.  The presentation of an ad can be in a nearly endless variety of forms.  You can have newspaper, radio, television, internet, magazine, billboard, word of mouth, direct mail, and testimonial ads, just to name a few. 

Ads are designed to appeal to you on one of two different levels:  emotional or intellectual.  Please note, most ads are emotional with only a very very small percentage going for an intellectual appeal.  Of the few that do go for an intellectual appeal, most of those ads are still driving you for an emotional response.

You probably have no idea how much research goes into marketing a product.  Demographics, packaging, color, shape, even down to a product release date all go into the final mix. 

Professional product and ad people along with focus groups, study, inspect, digest, dissect, analyze, and scrutinize, everything involved with the product and its collateral just to come up with the perfect winning combination.  The sad part is regardless of time and money spent there is no sure fire way to guarantee or predict a winner.  There have been times when companies have spent hundreds of thousands of bucks only to have the ship of their dreams sink more disastrously than the Titanic.  Then there have been those totally goofy-assed, totally insane ideas that defied all logic only to become million dollar babies.  

Let me name some name of some losers.  Before I do let me add this, you may not recognize some of these because they are losers, but at one time they did exist.  Here goes – Libby’s Fruit Float, Wine & Dine, Soakee (Bubble bath), Yucca Dew (Shampoo), Waterford (Cigarette), RCA 8 Track Quadraphonic Player, Bowmar Calculators, 4 Track Tape Players, Betamax, Laser Disc players, Soybean Hamburger Extender, Polaroid Big Shot Camera, McDonalds Hula Burger, McDLT, Arch Deluxe, McLean Deluxe, Edsel (automobile), The Baconeer, PSSSSSST (spray dry shampoo in a can), Action Detergent, and this list could go on.

Now here are some products that became big winners, regardless of sensibility – Troll Dolls, Mood Rings, The Pet Rock, Beanie Babies, Snuggies, just about any Ronco product (Splatter Screen, Pocket Fisherman, Smokeless Ashtray, etc.), Instant Coffee, Breeze (Detergent), Oxi Clean, Duz (Detergent), and I’m sure you’ll think of a lot more.  

You could spend hours analyzing each of the above winners and losers to determine what went right or wrong with the product.  Actually some would require very little thought, like PSSSSSST.   If I remember correctly you sprayed it on, rubbed it around, combed your hair and it was supposed to be clean.  Yeah, this works how???  Oh, I add more crap to my already dirty hair, comb it and it’s magically cleaned by who?? Houdini??

I saw an ad on TV the other day advertising a flashlight with a magnet attached. At one point in the ad it claims to be “as bright as daylight”.  Really?  I’d love to know how that works.  

Oh, when you get that 25 foot “Shrinking Garden Hose”, be ready to open the box and see a hose that’s only a little more than 8 feet long.  Just add water and expands to 3 times its length.  So you just paid $19.99 + Processing and Handling for an 8 foot garden hose.  But wait; add some more money for processing and handling and we’ll include a second 8 foot garden hose for free.  Hell, we may even through in the ‘Old Brooklyn Lantern’ (you know, with the ‘Authentic Antique Globe’ – Think about that line of BS), and if you call within the next 10 minutes we may throw in a ‘Slap Chopper’ plus an AMAZING anywhere light bulb (which is really just another flashlight because it produces light and is battery operated) and we’ll also start sending you advertising cards in the mail that are never a standard size so they stand out and make you want to read them (usually this is reserved for political hacks trying to get into office so they don’t have to work for a living), but if you email right this very minute we’ll include a Lint Lizard which will prevent you from having a ‘DANGEROUS Dryer Vent Fire’ (as opposed to a non-dangerous dryer vent fire??).  Oh, but remember you must pay additional processing and handling.  That used to be called S&H or shipping and handling until they marked up the shipping so much that consumers were getting wise to the gimmick.  Thus, change the name and change the game.  

So there you have it.  If you want to save money there are only 2 things you need to know:

1             1)    The difference between a want and a need.  Example – People often want a 

                     new car, but do they really need one?  Often the answer is no.  Always live

                     by needs and not wants.

2             2)   Keep emotions out of EVERY purchase.  When emotions creep in, money 

                     drains out.

Congratulations – you are a wiser consumer.

 © Krystalco LLC 2012  Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is prohibited.

The End Game and How To Get Exactly What You Want

The End Game and How To Get Exactly What You Want

Life can be full of disappointments.  Maybe your career wasn't exactly what you hoped it would be.  Maybe a marriage or two didn't work out the way you had hoped.  You get the idea, life doesn't always live up to your expectations.  The life of possible problems is almost endless.  It doesn't mean you had a horrible life, but it just wasn't what you had hoped for or wanted it to be.  

I'm not trying to be funny as I write this, but I am being sincere.  If you find some humor in this, that's okay, but please think about what you are reading.  

Back to where I started, so life let you down.  You're not alone.  Everybody, EVERYBODY has had their share of 'not so great' moments.  Shouldn't you deserve....No, don't you deserve.....No, YOU DESERVE to get at least one shot of perfection.  By that I mean perfection on your terms.  Perfection, not the way everybody else thinks it should be, but exactly the way you want it to be.  I'm about to let you in on how to make that happen.  Follow what I'm about to write here and in the end, the very end, you will get something exactly the way you want it.  Not only will you get what you want but it will last and last and last. 

The end game I'm talking about it death.  If you are breathing today you will eventually face the end game.  I'm constantly amazed at how many people plan everything in their lives but ignore what will eventually be a very permanent arrangement.  After all, the final plans of your funeral and interment are just that - FINAL.  Not only are they final, they are forever.  

Not only are they final and forever, but you, yes you, can have total control of this event.  Yep, total control.  You can have it your way - TOTALLY.  You can pick what you wear, where you will be planted, and even some of the smallest details.  What I am talking about here is a prearranged funeral and I'm going to give you the basics to get you started on your final journey. 

Oh, there are two more even better reasons to prearrange your funeral.  The most vulnerable time to be screwed out of money on needless expenses is at the time of a loved ones death.  An unscrupulous funeral director knows how to play on emotions and run up a bill in the process.  Here's another great reason to think ahead and out of the box.  Let's say you prearrange your funeral today and live another 20 years before you kick, the price for your final bash is locked in the day you set it up (provided no major changes are made to the arrangements).  If the cost of that funeral goes up 3000% in 20 years it won't cost you a dime more.  Hey, just because your dead doesn't mean you have to be dumb.  PRE-PLAN!

I'm sure I'll get some funeral directors that will disagree with what I'm about to tell you, however, I would not prearrange my funeral before at least the age of 30.  During your 20's most people haven't settled to the point of mostly knowing where and how you are going to spend the rest of your life.  Even in your 30's you run the risk of moving to a different area and having to rearrange what you've prearranged.  Which brings me to my next point.  Be sure any prearranged funeral plans are transferable to another funeral home in another location.  The funeral home where you make the arrangements can help you with that.  At its very basic element, a prearranged funeral is an insurance policy that pays the funeral home a preset amount in the event of your demise.  The funeral home determines the amount the policy needs to be based on what you decide for your funeral.  These arrangements include the cost of cremation or embalming, urn or casket, services, death certificate(s), plot, memorial cards, etc.  Finally, and I do mean finally, at least one thing in your life will go the way you want it.  Of course, it will be the very last thing. 

Earlier I mentioned making sure the plan you buy is transferable.  Here's why.  Let's say you live in Blue Ball, Pennsylvania and you prearrange your final arrangements at Frans Funeral Farm at the age of 35.  Thirty years later you retire and move to Freedom, Florida and being shipped back to Blue Ball for burial is something that no longer appeals to you.  With a transferable prearranged policy it's not much of a big deal, however, please note you will have to pay additional expenses for the transfer of the policy and associated costs.  Let's say that you still want to be planted in Blue Ball.  Your estate will incur the additional costs of prepping the body in Florida and shipping it to Blue Ball.  The rest of your expenses at Frans Funeral Farm are still prepaid and complete.  Even with the add-on costs it will still save you money over not having any prepaid arrangements. 

If you prearrange your funeral properly when you check out all your loved one has to do is call the funeral home where the arrangements were made and let them know where to pick up the body.  Done properly, the rest is all taken care of.

Summing this up with a prearranged funeral - Your loved ones have less stress because all of the arrangements are made - You saved money - At the final curtain call, You get exactly what you want.

One final thought, pick a nice casket or urn.  You'll be there for a very long long long time.

The End. 

© Krystalco LLC 2012  Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is prohibited.

Do you have what it takes to be successful?

Do you have what it takes to be successful?

This time around I’m going to applaud some successful business models and business people.  I’ll also share with you some of the reasons for their respective successes.

One thing for sure every success has at least, to some varying degree, one or both of these elements – Devine guidance and/or plain dumb luck.  But that is just part of the story.

Company #1 is the single most successful story of a business in my lifetime – Apple.

Let me first say, I am not an Apple fan.  Admittedly I own an IPod and have ITunes on my computers, but that’s where my love affair with Apple products ends.  Notice I said with Apple products and not the company.  

Apple as a company has my undying respect.  Any company that can run its stock up from $2 to nearly $675 per share in just around 30 years sincerely WOWs me.  For the companies first 18 years as a publicly traded stock it rarely got above $30 a share.  It seemed like nearly every year during the first 15 years the company existed someone was talking about its demise.  I’m not saying Apple has done everything right, but the very few wrongs and misses they have had were, like most companies, in their formative years and they managed to recover beyond what anyone could have imagined.  

What attributes to Apples success?  I would have to say first and foremost its illustrious and imaginative former leader Steve Jobs.  Jobs was shear genius.  He hired people that were his equal or smarter than him.  He listened.  He learned.  He observed trends and got in ahead of the curve.  He watched for and seized opportunities.  He developed solid, well designed, innovative, and useful products exclusive to his software, cornering both the hardware and software development of the Apple line.  Of course, what I mentioned in the last sentence also gave him total price control.

First Apple established a niche market with a computer and software that became a graphic artist’s best friend.  Then it established strong branding.  This was followed by new product development and the rest of the company’s success is now, as they say, history. 

KUDOs to Apple.

The next company I’m about to gush over has so many interests and sidebar operations I don’t know where they all exist.  Owner of television stations, a television network, films, television shows, themed amusement parks, and it all started with a dream and a mouse.  It’s the ‘House that Mouse Built’ – Disney.

Walt Disney had a cartoon/fairytale idea and turned it into a mega-reality.  The Disney business model may have led to the Steve Jobs business model because there are so many similarities.  Listening and learning, like Jobs, Disney hired the smartest “Imaginers” he could find.  In the early days of television he chose to market to the youngest generation, children.  He appealed to the families, and was one of the early pioneers in bringing color to, what was then, black and white television.  

The Disney brand and Disney collectables are worth billions and billions of bucks and to think this empire all started with a black and white cartoon mouse.  Thank God for the genius of Walt Disney.

This last business is a family owned and operated film franchise that has made billions of $$ due to near perfect branding, smart business decisions, taking on varying degrees of risks, but most of all knowing one very basic and cardinal rule – “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” 

 

Albert “Cubby” Broccoli also knew if it was broke to fix it fast and always protect the franchise which in his case was “Bond, James Bond.”

In the early days, and it took a while, for Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to get the rights for the Ian Fleming James Bond stories.  Together, and for around $1,000,000 Broccoli and Saltzman brought Flemings spy character to life on the big screen with Dr. No.  Who knew in 1962 that 50 years later the Bond formula films would still be alive and well, long after Saltzman sold his rights to Broccoli and long after Cubby Broccoli died?  

Broccoli taught his daughter and ex son-in-law well.  Don’t mess with the formula.  The formula is fairly simple.  Make a film that gets the audience to the edge of the seat before the opening titles, use exotic and great locations, have a bevy of beauties for both bad and good, sex sells, the title song should be sung by a strong and current recording artist, there must be obligatory car chases, Bond must always be in danger until the bad guy is dead, a big finish action scene is a pre-requisite, explosions must be big and frequent along with shoot ‘em up action, the James Bond theme and variances of the theme song must be used throughout in the background, sell product placement ads in the films, and even though bruised and injured in the end our hero must live to fight another day.  

Make no mistake about it, the Bond business is big business to the tune of billions for many others besides the Broccoli family.  There have been spin-off cottage industries and mostly because of strong and very intense “BRANDING.”  There have been toys, model cars, lunch buckets, after shave, clothing lines, trench coats, ties, watches, champagne, trading cards, books, magazines, BMW cars, 7-up, tickets to locations where Bond films where shot all have been sold because of the Bond brand.  

Every time a license is issued to a product in the name of Bond, the Broccoli family can afford to eat Beluga Caviar.  So now you know that champagne and caviar go with Broccoli. 

The stories of Jobs, Disney, and the Broccoli family all have very common threads.  They were willing to take a chance, were good listeners, were willing to learn from both success and failure, understood the value of a strong brand, understood what to fix and what not to fix, knew how to hire skilled and quality co-workers, and knew to think big and dream even bigger.  

You really have to respect that kind of drive and the success which results from it.

© Krystalco LLC 2012  Any publication or reuse of the information on this blog, in part or whole, without express written consent is prohibited.