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OCTOBER 2020 WISE & WEALTHY NEWSLETTER
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How I Survived Sending My Kids to College at the Worst Possible Times TWO KIDS, TWO RECESSIONS, ONE FINANCIAL BREAKTHROUGH
Do you have kids struggling through online school right now? If you do, then you understand what life is like in my house! My daughter, Savannah, turned 18 this summer and is working on her first year of college and, unfortunately, she’s doing it at home. I’m proud that she’s moving up in the world, but man, I wish she could go to school in person. There are two big reasons why I’d love to see that. First, because of the pandemic, she hardly got a high school graduation, and it seems unfair that she’s stuck missing out on the college experience too. Second, if she’d gone off to school, that would mean it was any other year but 2020. It’s almost comical that after sending my son, Shelby, to college in 2008, now I’m sending Savannah during another awful economic year. Once again, I have a kid who wants to go to school in the middle of a nationwide financial crisis. I’m two for two folks! The good news is that this time, I’m not in the same crappy financial position I was stuck in all those years ago. Back then, I was broke. My family had lost 50% of our money in the stock market crash, then lost even more to the government when we tried to cash out our retirement accounts to survive. With all of that hanging over me and with our income in the toilet, I had a kid and his dreams to worry about. I didn’t want to let my son down, so I figured out a way to scrape together the money to get him through college. The best part was seeing him graduate from SDSU with NO student loans.
Honestly, that was the worst financial crisis of my life, but it was also a tipping point. Going through that hell motivated me to do things differently. I realized that just because I was good at making money before the financial crash didn’t mean I was being smart with it. I’d gone the traditional route of investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds via 401(k)s and IRAs, and I got taken to the cleaners. So, I started looking for a better way – but this time, I ignored conventional wisdom. Instead of going back to school, I became a financial information sponge. I started seeking out mentors – people who had actually thrived during the market crash – and asked them how they’d done it. I picked their brains, read as many books as I could get my hands on, and attended more financial classes than I care to remember. During that time, I pretty much lived and breathed finance because I was hellbent on learning what I needed to know so I could skip the next crash. And it paid off because the March 2020 crash didn’t affect me at all. Once I figured out that I put my faith and confidence in the wrong people (politicians), I became a financial expert and got a whole fistful of financial licenses. As I shared my story, more and more of my clients, who were already thrilled with the mortgage advice I had given them, began asking me for financial advice. As a result, I founded Principal Shield Financial.
in to a personal crusade to introduce as many people as I can to unique, innovative, and time- tested alternatives to traditional retirement schemes. In fact, I used the COVID lockdown to write my first book titled “Who’s Stealing Your Retirement? 7 Cunning Thieves Who Are Trying To Ransack Your Nest Egg (And How You Can Catch ‘Em)” to more easily share what I’ve studied, learned, and perfected. Long story short, between kid one and kid two, I figured out how to protect and grow my assets and safeguard my income. When the COVID-19 recession hit this spring, I didn’t lose a single dime. My money is safe and growing, and I’m sending my daughter to college without scrambling, which is a world away from the precarious position I was in back in ’08. If you’re reading this and thinking, “Shawn, are you going to let me in on the big secret of how you kept your money safe and growing this time, or what?” the answer is yes, of course! It’s all in my book, and there’s a free copy waiting with your name on it. Just open up this newsletter to find out more. I hope that the information in my book can change your financial life as much as it has changed mine. In the meantime, if you want to talk about virtual learning struggles parent to parent, I’m here for that too.
What started out as a mission to protect and grow my own hard-earned dollars has turned
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5 STEPS TO A SAFER HOTEL ROOM
KEEP STRANGERS AND VIRUSES OUT WITH THESE QUICK TIPS
Staying home is the best way to protect yourself and your family from illness, but sometimes life gets in the way. Maybe you need to travel for work, to help a relative, or just to keep your kids from bouncing off the walls. If you have a hotel stay on the books, worrying about safety is understandable. But by taking these precautions, you can protect your loved ones and increase your odds of coming home healthy. 1. Bring a sanitation kit and use it! Most hotels are going above and beyond to sanitize their rooms these days, but it never hurts to take extra care. Before you check in, pick up cleaning supplies like disinfectant spray, wipes, plastic bags, and gloves. Then, use them to wipe down your room. Focus on big surfaces as well as features like faucet handles, doorknobs, lightswitches, and microwave buttons. 2. Skip the decorative linens. Many hotels don’t wash decorative bedding like comforters and fancy pillowcases. To be extra safe, strip these off the bed and wash your hands afterward. If you’re chilly, opt for the hotel’s spare blanket (it’s probably hiding in a closet) or bring one from home. 3. Quarantine your remote control. As USA Today puts it, “It’s common knowledge that one of the germiest items in a hotel room is the remote control.” To avoid the ick, pick up the remote while wearing gloves and drop it into a Ziploc. Then, remove your gloves and seal the bag. Now you can use the remote without touching it directly! 4. Invest in a rubber door wedge. Viruses aren’t the only risk in hotel rooms — break-ins are another concern. To keep your room secure, bring a rubber door wedge. They cost less than $10 on Amazon and make kicking in a door much more difficult. 5. For maximum security, bring a door alarm. Simple travel alarms hang from the handle of a door and have two prongs that slide between the door and its frame. When the door opens and the prongs separate, that triggers the alarm. These simple devices send thieves running, and Lewis N. Clark makes a model for just $14.99.
Did you know that Oct. 4 is National Taco Day? Corn or flour tortillas, hard or soft shells, we really love our tacos here in the USA. According to NationalTacoDay.com, Americans ate more than 4.5 billion tacos last year. End to end, that’s 490,000 miles of tortilla-wrapped beans, meat, and cheese. By far, the biggest peddler of light-speed tacos in the country is Taco Bell, the fast-food scion of Americanized Mexican cuisine. In 2012, Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco went the food equivalent of viral, selling more than 500 million tacos in just 14 months. It seems like there’s a Taco Bell on every street corner, but how much do you really know about the chain? To celebrate National Taco Day, we’re serving up three Taco Bell facts that will blow your mind. 1. Home Depot helped bring Doritos Locos Tacos to life. After Frito-Lay reached out to Taco Bell to suggest a collaboration, the development team turned to a hardware store for help. To create the famous snack, they “basically went out to Home Depot to buy a paint-spray gun” and blasted a taco with Dorito dust, according to Grub Street. 2. Taco Bell killed Taco Kid. Before it bought Taco Bell in the 1970s, PepsiCo tried to compete with it. The company launched a restaurant dubbed Taco Kid under its Pizza Hut banner. According to Mental Floss, Taco Bell swiftly stomped out its kid brother. In response, PepsiCo opened its wallet and bought the chain for $130 million. 3. The U.S. government was behind the Quesalupa (sort of) . In February 2016, Taco Bell launched the Quesalupa, a taco featuring a shell stuffed with melted pepper jack cheese. It was the chain’s cheesiest offering to date, perhaps because it got a boost from Dairy Management Incorporated, the branch of the United States Department of Agriculture 3 MIND-BLOWING FACTS ABOUT TACO BELL The Secret Link Between Home Depot, the Government, and Fast-Food Tacos
Hopefully, these tips give you some peace of mind on your next trip. Happy trails!
in charge of unloading the country’s 1.4-billion pound cheese surplus . That’s right: The Quesalupa was (kind of) a tasty government conspiracy.
This is just the tip of the Taco Bell iceberg. To learn about the chain’s wacky endeavors (including putting a bullseye in the ocean for astronauts and flying 10,000 Doritos Locos Tacos to Alaska by helicopter), visit TacoBell.com/History.
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COULD A LLAMA SAVE US FROM COVID-19? Meet Winter, a 4-Legged Hero of Vaccine Research
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people have turned to their four- legged friends for help and comfort . In Nebraska, an 11-year-old girl and her pony, Peanut, cheered up nursing home residents through their windows this spring, while in Pennsylvania, an award-winning golden retriever named Jackson starred in videos that kept thousands laughing. Pets like these have given the national mood a boost, but another four-legged critter deserves just as much recognition. Her name is Winter, and she’s the 4-year-old llama whose antibodies could help us beat the coronavirus. At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Llamas? Really? What will these scientists think up next?” But in fact, Winter wasn’t an outside-of-the-box discovery during the COVID-19 vaccine scramble. Llamas have been helping
scientists battle viruses for years. That’s because, along with her fuzzy brown coat and long eyelashes, Winter has a unique virus treatment hidden in her blood: llama antibodies. According to The New York Times, Winter has participated in past studies for both SARS and MERS — diseases also caused by coronaviruses — and her antibodies fought off both infections. Llamas have also helped out with research for HIV and influenza. It turns out llama antibodies are smaller than the ones found in humans, which makes it easier for them to wiggle into the tiny pockets in virus-carrying proteins. This superpower gives them the ability to “neutralize” viruses, including COVID-19. Studies are now showing that using these llama antibodies in humans could potentially keep coronaviruses from entering human cells as well. At least two separate llama studies have shown the effectiveness of these antibodies on coronavirus infections. This summer, a team of researchers from the U.K . discovered that llama antibodies “have the potential to be used in a similar way to convalescent serum, effectively stopping progression of the virus in patients who are ill” when given to those patients in a transfusion. They also suggested that a cocktail of llama and human antibodies could be even more successful at temporarily blocking the virus. Studies of the latter are in the works, and scientists around the world have their fingers crossed for success. In the meantime, Winter will continue peacefully grazing in Belgium, unaware that she just might play a role in saving the world.
SPOOKY STRAWBERRY GHOSTS
TAKE A BREAK
Inspired by Candiquik.com
Ingredients
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16 oz white chocolate, chopped
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1 package mini dark chocolate chips
24 strawberries
Directions
1. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the white chocolate at 50% power for 30 seconds. Remove it and stir, then repeat the process until melted. 2. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper. 3. One by one, dip the strawberries into the melted white chocolate and set them on the parchment. Allow the extra chocolate to pool to form a “tail” effect. 4. Before the chocolate coating fully cools, add three mini chocolate chips to each berry to form two eyes and a mouth. 5. Let chocolate set, then serve your spooky snacks!
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INSIDE 1
Two Kids, Two Recessions, One Financial Breakthrough 3 Mind-Blowing Facts About Taco Bell 5 Steps to a Safer Hotel Room Could a Llama Save Us From COVID-19? Spooky Strawberry Ghosts ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Is Finally Here — Yes, Really!
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‘WONDER WOMAN 1984’ IS FINALLY HERE 5 Release Dates Later, Gadot Returns to the Screen
When the first “Wonder Woman” movie hit theaters in 2017, it was a box office smash, making more than $821 million. People all over the world fell in love with Gal Gadot’s portrayal of the famous comic book superhero and Chris Pine’s performance as her sidekick Steve Trevor. Globally, they waited with bated breath for the release of the sequel: “Wonder Woman 1984.” Despite the hype, that film has been a long time coming. Incredibly, it has blown through four different release dates: Dec. 13, 2019; Nov. 1, 2019 (yes, they moved it up ); June 5, 2020; and Aug. 14, 2020. First, pre- and post- production issues wreaked havoc with the film’s schedule, then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and slammed movie theater doors shut. When the fifth and (hopefully) final release date of Oct. 2, 2020, was announced, it seemed almost too good to be true. Even star Gal Gadot sounded surprised.
“Wow, it’s finally happening, & I couldn’t be more excited!” she tweeted, adding that she appreciated her fans’ patience and was excited for everyone to see the film. “... It will be worth the wait,” she said. Award-winning director Patty Jenkins joined in the Twitterfest on Aug. 15, saying, “Wish we were sharing our film yesterday, but there are more important things going on in our world we’d rather you focus on for now. Thank you to our fans for being so great, by our sides. Can’t WAIT for you to see it! Sending love and healing to the world. See you October 2nd!!” Critics and fans are crossing their fingers and their toes that the prophetic October release date comes true and they get to see Wonder Woman battle her nemesis, Cheetah, this fall. The postponements have been a roller coaster ride, but at least consumers can console themselves with “Wonder Woman 1984”
merchandise, which rolled out far in advance of the film. Some favorites are the “Wonder Woman 1984: Meet Wonder Woman” children’s book (which includes sneak-peek photos) and the Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah LEGO model complete with a secret bunker, both of which can be found (appropriately) on Amazon.
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