3 Tips for Choosing an Assisted-Living Home for Your Parent
Expert Also Shares the Biggest Mistake You Can Make

Seventy percent of people age 65 and older will need long-term care at some point in their lives, according to a 2014 study by CareScout, a division of Genworth Financial Services.

"But that doesn't mean they have to sacrifice their quality of life," says Peder Johnsen, CEO of Concordis Senior Living, www.concordisseniorliving.com, which owns, operates and develops senior housing communities.

"In fact, a person who needs some assistance with day-to-day living will often find he or she is much happier in a good assisted-living community with an atmosphere that reminds them of their former home."

And it doesn't have to be outrageously priced, notes Johnsen, a third-generation ALF operator whose family pioneered the contemporary congregate community model.

The median price for a private, one-bed home in an ALF community is $42,000, he says, citing the CareScout report. By contrast, a semi-private nursing home bed costs a median $77,000 a year.

But it's up to prospective residents and their families to ascertain the quality of the community and whether it's a good match for the person who will be living there.

"ALFs are not federally regulated and states vary widely on the breadth of oversight they provide, so you can't necessarily rely on the law," Johnsen says. "And don't rely on salespeople either - that's the biggest mistake people make."

There are, however, a number of easy ways to see if a home has a truly caring atmosphere and well-trained staff.

Johnsen offers these tips:

•  Ask to see the home's state licensing survey, an assessment that usually includes inspections, audits, interviews with residents, etc.

Every state has an ALF licensing agency and all have some form of survey system for ensuring that certain standards of quality are met, according to the Assisted Living Federation of America.

"Requirements vary from state to state about how often the surveys are conducted and how the public can access the reports, but no matter what state you live in, you should be able to ask the ALF for its most recent report, or obtain it from the licensing agency," Johnsen says.

The surveys will tell you if problems were found - or not - and what the ALF did to address them.

•  Visit the ALF during non-business hours.

Go before breakfast or after dinner - times when the administrators aren't around. What's the atmosphere? How do employees behave with the residents?

"That's a good time to talk to residents, too," Johnsen says.

Be a "mystery shopper," he suggests. Pretend you're just visiting the community - not scouting it out as a prospective customer.

•  Ascertain how truly "homelike" the community is.

In your own home, if you don't feel like eating breakfast at 7:30 a.m., you don't have to. You can have breakfast at 10. You can get snacks when you want them.

"Depending on what's important to your loved one, there are potentially many rules that can affect how 'at home' a person feels," Johnsen says. "Some communities allow residents to have pets, others don't. Some provide lots of activities. At some, residents can quickly and easily arrange for transportation or a service like hair styling."

Not every community can offer everything, he notes. That's why it's important to look for those features that are especially important to your loved one.

About Peder Johnsen

Peder Johnsen is the CEO of Concordis Senior Living, www.concordisseniorliving.com, which owns, operates and develops senior housing communities. He's a third-generation assisted-living specialist whose grandfather and father built one of the first contemporary-style ALFs in Florida more than 30 years ago. Johnsen took over administration of two small facilities at age 18. Today, he specializes the full spectrum of ALFs - from "ALF lites," where most residents live very independent lifestyles but know assisted-living services are available if they should need them, to homes specializing in care for residents with Alzheimer's and dementia. He is an industry leader in staff development and training, and has overseen the development, acquisition and financing of several communities.

Sugar: The Secret Skin Assassin!
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of a Favorite Food Pastime
By: Ron Cummings

The Good

Wow, we sure like our sugar. After all, what's not to like? I mean, what's better with a glass of milk than a couple of chocolate chip cookies? Imagine that it's the end of a long, hard day; you get home and put on your favorite TV show, kick your feet up and dig in to a bowl of your favorite ice cream covered in an assortment of decadent toppings.  And, for millions of us, that mid-day candy bar is just a regular part of life. Let's face it - our favorite sugar-laden goodies are just flat out pleasing, comforting and of course delicious! Sugar satisfies one of our favorite desires: instant gratification. We love sugar; we crave it. It's just plain good.

The Bad

With that being said, there's not a single one of us who doesn't know that sugar, especially in excess, is bad for us. It's terrible for our teeth, destroys our mood, makes us gain weight and severely alters our overall blood chemistry. We have to admit that sugar simply ruins our health. Naturally, we continue to indulge our sugar obsession, despite the detrimental consequences of eating sugar. We can all agree life is too short not to enjoy our favorite dessert, right? - Lots of things are bad for us, so what's the big deal?  If enjoying sugar means an extra few pounds around my midsection, then I guess that's okay, right?

Some of us think that, maybe, if I just watch my sugar intake a little and not go too crazy, then I'll be able to enjoy the good of sugar and, maybe, the bad of sugar won't really affect me too much. When it comes to sugar, most of us are willing to take the good with the bad, because we want to have our cake and eat it too.

By now, most of us have been bombarded by endless antisugar messages. There are always new studies on how sugar adversely affects our health, our kids' attention spans, and the obesity problem that seems to be getting worse by the year.  No matter what anti-sugar messages we read, see and hear, we simply refuse to give up our beloved sugar.

However, there is a new and powerful message coming out from the scientific community about sugar, and whether it's time for us to give it up.

The Ugly

Sugar is making you ugly! What? - Yes! Excess sugar in our bodies is now being revealed as one of the most damaging elements to our appearance. As it turns out, these sweet little sugar molecules are leading a double life. After they pass over our taste buds and give us that amazing sugar buzz, these appealing friends of ours change their personalities and go on a seek-and-destroy mission. In a process called glycation, excess sugar in our blood stream in reality attacks the proteins throughout our bodies. As a matter of fact, these sugar molecules attach themselves to proteins - much like a parasite. Once bonding happens, that particular protein becomes glycated; or, in other words, sick.

A recently glycated protein becomes misshapen, hardened, does not function correctly and excretes exotoxins that affect surrounding proteins. After the glycation process has run its course, the protein is referred to as an Advanced Glycation End Product, or A.G.E. for short.

A real-world example of glycation in action is the browning and hardening process when placing a piece of bread in the toaster.

This is where the ugly part comes in. Our skin is essentially one giant protein suit that covers us and protects all of our inner workings from the outside world. Most people are aware that the main protein in human skin is collagen, the proteins of which are very long lasting. They have a half-life of approximately 15 years and are not immune to the effects of glycation. Just like other proteins, when collagen becomes glycated, that protein is now considered an A.G.E. Like others, collagen proteins become misshapen, hardened, brittle and excrete exotoxins. While you can't see the effects of most proteins in your body when they become glycated, the effects of glycation on skin proteins becomes very evident.

Essentially, every visible sign we attribute to aging skin - including wrinkles, fine lines, discoloration, sagging, uneven skin tones, stress, loss of elasticity, etc. - can all be attributed to the process of glycation.

Glycation becomes more evident in your appearance when sugar molecules attack the surface proteins on the fine capillaries of your skin. This process causes your capillaries to leak, causing what we recognize as spider veins. The same process can happen in the under-eye area, which we recognize as dark circles.

The most demoralizing aspect of glycation is the fact that once a protein has become glycated, or is now considered an A.G.E., the damage is permanent. Glycation is an additive effect and probably begins as soon as we're born, affecting us throughout our lifetime.

If you've read or have been told that environmental factors like the sun, wind, weather and pollution age our skin the most, that would be correct, but it's not the whole story.  Glycation is the chemical process which enables these environmental factors to damage our skin. For instance, when radiation from the sun strikes and penetrates our skin, it accelerates the glycation process. (Recall my mention of toasting a piece of bread.)

It seems a little unfair. In most cases, if I give up a certain vice, then my body, given enough time, will generally recover. If I start eating a better diet, I'll most likely lose weight and be healthier. If I give up smoking, in most cases, my lungs, heart and blood pressure can return to normal. Nevertheless, once your proteins have been glycated, you're pretty much out of luck; the damage has been done - end of story.

Well ... almost. You see, if you go online right now and do a search on the process of glycation, you will read much of what you've read here, including the fact that once a protein has become an A.G.E., it's irreversible. Recent studies have shown some promising discoveries that may allow us to not only help prevent further damage from glycation, but also help affected proteins return to their normal state, function and appearance!

Powerful, new and topically applied serums have shown the remarkable ability to help block the glycation process and break the bond between the sugar molecules and the protein affected. In a recent clinical trial conducted in France, 500 women were treated with a serum derived from a naturally occurring plant extract. At the end of the 60-day trial, the 500 women appeared an average of 8 to 10 years younger.

No doubt that a whole new category of anti-glycation treatments will soon be available in the marketplace. Based on projections, anti-glycation products will become as popular as the anti-oxidants, sunscreens and moisturizers of today.

For a detailed description of how glycation ages your skin and how you can stop and even reverse the process, go to www.controlyourage.com

About Ron Cummings

Ron Cummings is the founder and CEO of AminoGenesis Skin Care, which utilizes amino acids as the key ingredients to its age- and damage-reversing products. The formula for the solution features 17 plant-purified amino acids, which are necessary for healthy and radiant skin. The company's formulas include anti-glycation properties, which are very rare in today's skin-care products. Cummings donated one of his products, a protective agent, to support military forces in Afghanistan and received a hearty letter of gratitude from the Marines of Special Operations Company Bravo, which described the product's excellent performance, as well as a flag that was flown "in the face of the enemy, over Forward Operating Base Robinson in Sangin, Afghanistan."

It's a simple fact of business: Without sales, no one else downstream can do their jobs, says veteran sales manager and business speaker Jack Daly. Because of how vital sales are to a company, CEOs frequently tend to misuse their best people, he says.

"There are three sins that minimize the sales management role, which ultimately holds the company back from achieving its growth," says Daly, author of "Hyper Sales Growth," (www.jackdaly.net).

"When they misallocate key players, small to medium-sized businesses tend to go into one of two directions. They either stay small to medium, or they go out of business. When you ask why, it most often comes down to a violation of one or more of these three sins of sales management. Having the right people in important spots is absolutely the secret to success."

To ensure continued growth, Daly says the people at the top must avoid the following:

Sin No. 1 ... is committed when the CEO or owner wears the hat of the sales manager. If you are doing that, you're essentially relegating both the CEO job and the sales manager job to part-time status. In effect, you're saying, "I'm going to grow my business part time." If you want your business to grow, you must grow your sales force, and you need someone doing that full time.

Sin No. 2 ... is to make the best salesperson the sales manager. It can work, but seldom does. The usual scenario, however, is you lose your best salesperson and get a mediocre sales manager. The role and the responsibilities are entirely different. A salesperson's role is to win new customers and nurture the ones you have, thereby differentiating you from your competitors. The sales manager's job involves recruiting, training, coaching, building and developing. Being effective at one of those jobs is not an indicator that a person will be equally effective in the other. Salespeople are used to immediate gratification, involving a deal-to-deal routine. Sales managers, by contrast, must take their time to recruit, train and coach. A salesperson might easily become disenchanted with the pace of the new role and look for another sales job, perhaps with your competitor.

Sin No. 3 ... is probably the most grievous of all. The best salesperson is made a sales manager, but he or she is also required to continue booking business. It's absolutely ruinous. The person's focus will remain fixed on the customer, as that is how their compensation is driven. Accordingly, the sales team will be underserved, missing the opportunity for leveraged growth.

The key to growth is to put the right people in the right places, Daly says.
"Since sales drive business, it's essential to match skills and personality types to the jobs, and to ensure the people can focus on their roles," Daly says.

About Jack Daly

Jack Daly, author of "Hyper Sales Growth," (www.jackdaly.net), is an experienced and inspirational sales trainer and sales coaching expert who, as a sought-after speaker, motivates audiences to take action in the areas of sales planning and training, and customer loyalty. Daly draws upon more than 20 years of business experience, with several successful stints as the CEO of fast-growing companies. He has a Bachelor's in Science degree in accounting, a Master of Business Administration degree, was a Captain in U.S. Army and is an accomplished author with audio and DVD programs.

3 Lessons on Retirement Planning from 2 Classic Old Cars
Financial Advisor Shares Tips for Pre-Retirees

Classic car aficionado David Rosell, CEO of Rosell Wealth Management and author of "Failure is NOT an Option," (www.DavidRosell.com), says pre-retirees can learn a lot from their beloved old cars about financial planning for a secure retirement.

This story alone holds valuable lessons:

"I love adventure travel and, years ago, I went to New Zealand, where I bought a charming old Morris Minor from a German traveler who was heading home," Rosell says.

"I paid $200 for the car, thinking if it got me to the Bay of Islands 150 miles to the north and back again, it would have been worth the money."

As it turned out "Kiwi" carried Rosell all over the North Island. He took a chance and made a second investment of $200 to have the car ferried to the South Island to roam the mountains and rainforests.

The car not only hung in, he sold it for $600 to another newly arrived traveler when it came time to leave.

Years later, fondly remembering the Morrie, he found a convertible version for sale in the United States. "Peaches" had been lovingly maintained, so the asking price was much higher, but she was a far more reliable bet than old Kiwi. Rosell bought it and continues to carefully maintain it. At 57 years old, it's humming along smoothly.

So, what can a pre-retiree learn about financial planning from Rosell's Morris Minors? Plenty, he says.

•  There's a time for taking risks, and a time for avoiding them. Rosell was a young man on that trip to New Zealand, and he planned to stay a few weeks. He could afford the risk of driving around in a charming old clunker because, if it broke down, he had time and other resources available.

"When you're young and building your wealth, you can and should take more risks. Small- , mid- and large-cap stock funds, and international stock funds are the most volatile - riskier - so they generally have the greatest potential for growth," Rosell says.

Once you retire, your focus should be on a lack of risk and volatility, although you still want some growth to overcome the damaging effects of inflation.

•  If you look after your money the way you would a beloved old car, you can live the life you imagine.
Many people contribute to company plans such as 401(k)s or pump their money into other savings and investment plans and then ignore them. That's like investing in a car like Peaches and never checking the oil, Rosell says.

"Whether you're managing the funds yourself or you hire a financial advisor, you need to be monitoring your progress toward your goals and making adjustments during your accumulation years," he says.

"As you get closer to retirement, you need to begin planning for how much you'll be able to withdraw each year without stressing your portfolio; how that affects the date  when you can retire; and when you should start collecting Social Security benefits."

•  Gather all your important paperwork - and an index to it - and keep it where your family can find it.
When Rosell bought Peaches, its owner had a stack of paperwork documenting everything he'd done to maintain and restore the car. That has helped Rosell be proactive and focused in his maintenance efforts.

"If something should happen to you, you can make it much easier on your family by compiling the information they need," he says.

Make sure all important financial information and other important documents are organized and stored in a fireproof box, and provide a list with information such as:

Location of wills and other important papers; bank accounts; investments; retirement assets such as 401(k)s; insurance policies; business interests; real estate; personal property; debts and money owed

Rosell says Peaches taught him many life lessons as well, including this one: "Like Peaches, one does not need to be flamboyant or showy to get positive attention!"

About David Rosell

David Rosell, author of "Failure is NOT an Option," (www.DavidRosell.com), is a sought-after speaker who has addressed international audiences including the Million Dollar Round Table. He is a recipient of the Retirement Distribution Certificate from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, and has been featured on NPR and FOX Business News.  His company, Rosell Wealth Management, was a select finalist in 2008 for the management of the $500,000,000 Oregon 529 College Fund. He is the past chairman of the Bend, Ore., Chamber of Commerce, the City Club of Central Oregon and his Toastmasters chapter. With a current tally of more than 65 countries on four different continents, Rosell has a love of extreme travel and adventure.