By Matthew Brandal, Owner
GYMGUYZ Goodyear, 855-496-4899

Forms of progress on your health and fitness journey that are not just focused on your weight:

1. You are more flexible
2. You move without pain
3. You are stronger
4. You can do more reps with a given weight
5. You are not as tired
6. You are seeing muscle definition
7. You have a healthy relationship with food
8. You do not make excuses to exercise
9. You are sleeping better
10. You look forward to exercise

Consistency is key, but do not be so hard on yourself about numbers on a scale. There is much more to health and fitness than that...You got this!

Matthew Brandal, after years in the corporate world, made a change to improve his life and reach his goals. He adopted a philosophy to help others have a healthy, happy, and fulfilling lifestyle in today’s situation. The goal of GymGuyz is to is to ensure your overall health and well-being by bringing the fitness lifestyle to you. It’s a goal he lives every day and happy to help others get where they want to be. 

Kenn Weise, Sales Director, Risk Assessment Group, Inc., 480-455-3392

Background checks on prospective employees serve many purposes. First and foremost, they verify the skills and experience necessary to perform the tasks detailed within the job description. But they also serve to protect you and your company by verifying that other critical information presented by the applicant is truthful and accurate.

Background checks do more than validate an applicant’s past employment history. They check for prior criminal records and behavior, look at education, credit records, motor vehicle records and even perform reference checks. Depending on the position and expectations, these searches can lead to red flags to be discussed prior to the final hiring decision.

Let’s look at these areas in a little more detail:

Criminal Background

• Hiring someone with a criminal record can carry a stigma – both real and perceived. Employers need to consider many things when making this choice. That includes the types of offenses, how they may relate to the duties of the position and who the hire may interact with in the company. Time removed from incarceration is another important factor of consideration. While criminal checks are important, hiring trends are moving away from asking applicants to divulge past discretions on applications. If your company still carries the “former conviction” check box on applications, it is quickly becoming a best practice to remove it.

Education Verification

• Is the applicant being truthful about schools and accredited institutions- and do they meet the standards you are seeking in an employee? One thing to be on the lookout for is fake diplomas, generated by “diploma mills”. Diploma mills are essentially what the name suggests: an entity that proclaims itself to be an educational institution while providing fee-based academic degrees and diplomas. Some applicants may consider these diplomas as a legitimate level of schooling. However, in the end, diploma mills merely provide an easy route for those who seek a career path without putting in the leg work. Remember, a well-educated and trained candidate adapts quicker to the task at hand, particularly in more complex fields that require true higher-learning classroom work

Credit Records

• Much like criminal background checks, information uncovered in a credit check can often raise questions about the suitability of the applicant to the task at hand. Will they handle money? Will they budget for their area or be in charge of procurement? If they have not proven themselves able to do this in their past personal or professional lives, they can prove to be a huge risk to your company.

Motor Vehicle Records

• Driving records can be indicative of bad behavior and bring a tremendous risk to your company in terms of safety and financial liability, making them an important area to explore. Driving infractions like DUI’s or DWI’s, drag racing, driving with a suspended license and more can be uncovered during a Motor Vehicle Record check. These findings should only be used in a hiring decision if they negatively relate to the applicant ability to perform the duties listed in the job description.

By Rob Lamb, licensed in property/casualty and life/health insurance
Soliman Insurance and Financial Services, 602-842-2333

As a personal lines insurance agent quoting auto insurance for prospective clients, I often hear, “I’ve got full coverage.” Prospective clients often look perplexed when I ask them what they mean by “Full Coverage?” Full coverage, to most consumers, means they have Comprehensive (also known as “Other than Collision”) and Collision coverage on their policy. But, are you fully covered?

If your car gets hail damage, for example, your comprehensive coverage is the coverage that would repair your vehicle minus your deductible. If you are considered “at-fault” in an accident, the collision coverage could be used to repair your vehicle less the cost of the deductible.  In the same “at-fault” accident, what about the people who may be injured in the other vehicle? What about the cost to repair their vehicle? This is where you really want to be “fully covered”!  The liability portions of your auto insurance policy are quite possibly the most important part of your coverage, and depending on your driving habits, these could be the least expensive portions of your policy.

Most states set “minimum” liability coverage amounts all resident drivers are required to have on their auto policy. For example, in Arizona, where I am an insurance agent, the state minimum coverage amounts are $25,000/50,000/$15,000, commonly referred as (25/50/15).  These are the coverage limits of liability the insurance company is going to pay out to the other party injured as a result of you being deemed “at-fault” in an accident.
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The ways these numbers breakdown is like this: 

The $25,000 and $50,000 represent the bodily injury limits of liability.
$25,000 maximum per person and $50,000 maximum for the entire accident for bodily injury damages to include items such as: transportation to the hospital, medical bills, rehabilitation costs, loss of income, and numerous other costs associated with the bodily injury of the victim.

Example: The other vehicle has 2 passengers. Passenger 1 has $35,000 of medical bills associated with the accident, and Passenger 2 has $10,000 of medical bills associated with the accident. Assuming you had the Arizona state minimum liability limits, your insurance company would pay $25,000 of Passenger 1’s medical costs and $10,000 of Passenger 2’s medical costs leaving a remaining $10,000 of Passenger 1’s bodily injury liability you are responsible to pay.

The $15,000 represents the limit of property damage liability the insurance company will pay out to the other parties involved in the accident.

​Example: The cost to repair (or replace via “totaling”) the vehicle damaged as a result of the accident above is $16,000. Your insurance will pay $15,000. Again, leaving you short, and responsible to pay an additional $1,000 to the other party involved in the accident.

As a result of the accident in the example above, you are liable (responsible to pay) for an additional $11,000 out of pocket. Each state has laws, if taken to court, the other party can use to legally remedy the shortfall. Often times, these result in a judgment lien of some sort to extract the shortfall from you if you do not have the $11,000 immediately on hand. This lien could result in a wage garnishment (up to 25% of gross income in Arizona).

But you had full coverage didn’t you? Or did you?

Insurance serves two purposes: transfer of risk, and to make you whole again after an accident. It is not intended to make you rich, or improve your position. It is intended to transfer the cost (risk) of a very big claim from you to the insurance company for a considerably smaller monthly premium (smaller than the cost of the claim). Full coverage insurance is more than whether or not there is Comprehensive and Collision coverage on the policy. Having the right amount of liability insurance coverage is very important, relatively inexpensive, and sadly many consumers do not have enough to cover the cost of an accident and protect the things they have worked so hard to acquire.  When you are considering how much liability insurance to purchase, considering asking yourself one question: “How much of the claim am I willing to pay if I have a really bad accident?”

When shopping for auto insurance, of course you will need to consider the cost of the premium. However, when setting the liability limits, you should also consider what assets you may have: savings, 401k, IRA, or wages. Each consumer’s “risk threshold” is as unique as the individual and is dependent on their financial situation. Hopefully you will avoid the old adage of: “counting pennies and throwing away dollars.”