Iconic Daredevil Evel Knievel Dies at 69

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundel said Knievel had trouble breathing at his Clearwater condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital.

"It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" Rundel said.

Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.

Though Knievel dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, the image of the high-flying motorcyclist clad in patriotic, star-studded colors was never erased from public consciousness. He always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

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Retirement: How much you'll really need

(Money Magazine) -- Question: My wife and I are both 55 and plan to retire in two years.

Our combined yearly income is approximately $240,000, and I keep reading that you need 70 percent to 80 percent of your pre-retirement income when you retire.

I may be naive, but I don't think that's true for us. What do you think?

The Mole's Answer: You're referring to an old rule of thumb that financial planners toss around quite a bit, and may I suggest you pretend you never heard it.

Clients often come to me with this same question, and I can't answer it without knowing how much they are spending. Some clients making $100,000 per year are only spending $50,000, while others are earning $110,000 and getting further in debt.

So you should really ask, What percent of my current annual expenditures should I expect to spend in retirement?

The best place to start is determining how much you are spending in pre-retirement. If you're not doing advanced tracking with a software program, then at least have a look at your checking account.

Your current annual expenditures amount to all your income (take-home pay, dividends, etc...) less what you put into savings.

Then you should think about what adjustments you'll make in retirement. Here are just a few life changes that might dramatically reduce expenditures:

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Foreclosure Predators

Constance Smith Bridgewater was in default on her mortgage payments, and she was desperate to keep the snug two-bedroom house in San Francisco's Portola district where she lives with her teenage grandson.

It seemed providential when an acquaintance proposed a solution, claiming that it had worked for him: A network of investors would save her house from foreclosure by taking over ownership then renting it to her, promising that she could buy it back.

Sure, the plan involved deeding the home to someone else, but Bridgewater was told that was just temporary so a person with good credit could get a mortgage at a favorable rate - which would help Bridgewater, too, because her rent would be half of the mortgage payments.

The promised advantages were appealing: up to $100,000 from the sale, lower monthly housing costs, assistance in improving her credit score and the chance to make money referring other people for similar lease-back plans. She said the investors assured her she would be able to buy back the house after two years. Bridgewater signed documents last December believing that she was saving her house. But the promised benefits didn't happen, she said.

"I signed away my house and got nothing," she said.

Bridgewater thinks she fell victim to a classic foreclosure rescue scam. She has filed a civil suit against the investors alleging that they used "predatory bait-and-switch tactics ... designed to take both her money and her home." An attorney representing many of the investors denied the allegations.

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The Fifth Royal Oak

I started this blog because I enjoy real estate. I'm into the financing, the construction, the marketing, the transactions (buy/sell), deal making, money making, market trends, gaining equity, investment... so much to love. I have to tell you though, being based out of MI, the real estate market sucks. At least, so it appears. (Btw, I've declared the word "sucks" as an official economic term).

Still toying around with what I want this blog to be, and the more I think about it, maybe consistency isn't what I'm after, my interests are broad, so this blog is going to be about what I want it to be about. (That's gotta be a run-on sentence). And that way nobody gets bored. (At least I don't anyway). It should get pretty interesting in here from time to time. Anyways, why I'm posting tonight...

I like a happy story, a positive story, something going good. And a project here in Royal Oak, MI is really setting the town on fire. Every builder in town is slashing prices. Not this one. They're all giving huge deals, seller concessions, no money down, anything to move the units. Nope, not these guys, they're taking large deposits because their units are in demand.

Alright, you've seen The Fifth Royal Oak featured a few times in this blog already. Well, like I said, I like a positive story (especially considering how negative the rest of the news is lately). I've toured the building dozens of times as it was built, and since it's been completed. Not a penny was spared in getting it right. It's simply magnificent!

Click on the title to view their new website, and if you live in the area, get down to Royal Oak to experience it for yourself! Tour the amazing condos at The Fifth, have lunch or dinner at one of Royal Oak's incredible restaurants and, I'll tell you this, your wife will officially count it as a full date, and you can sit around the house, or do whatever you want for the rest of the weekend. Just keep your mouth shut about it being a date. She'll know.

Homes that still stand surprise some owners

Warren Allen had the hose out Sunday afternoon, wetting down his roof again just to be sure.

Allen and his wife escaped their Malibu home in front of a fast-moving wildfire early Saturday morning, grabbing their three dogs and two cats, along with Allen's childhood baseball glove and his grandfather's violin. As word of the fire's damage spread, they began to fear the worst.

"We thought we'd lost the house," Allen said, "but our house was actually standing, which I couldn't believe."

"There's no rhyme or reason to what burned."

A change in winds, rising humidity and cooler temperatures helped firefighters get the upper hand on the Malibu wildfire Saturday afternoon, and by Sunday, the only visible flames were from backfires set by firefighters to burn off brush.

A day after the Corral fire chased them out, the Allens returned to their Lockwood Road home in the Malibu Bowl area to find several of their neighbors' homes reduced to ash and twisted metal. A neighbor's classic car collection, including a 1965 Shelby Mustang GT-350, was a charred, mangled mess nearby.

"We know everybody on this street who lost a home," Allen said. "I looked into that garage, and literally I cried.

"It's odd; you're so happy your home is here, but then you look up the street."

Investigators said the fire, which broke out early Saturday along a dirt road off a paved highway, was caused by humans, but they had not determined if it was started intentionally, Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Rick Dominguez said.

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Holiday Party Buzz: Get a New Job, Not a Hangover

One of the most common job-hunting mistakes people make is putting the search on hold from Thanksgiving to New Year's. It might seem like entire offices are hibernating, but the truth is, they're at holiday parties. Join them there.

The holiday season, with all its socializing and merry-making, is prime time for networking. Since managers tend to hire people they--and their colleagues--know, networking should play a major role in any job seeker's process.

But don't go blindly to every holiday party you're invited to. To get the most out of each one, you need to develop a strategy.

Start by doing your homework about each event. What type of people are attending--are they likely the type of people you want to meet? If it's for a trade association or professional group, ask the organizer to forward you the list of people who are attending, says Lynne Waymon, co-author of Making Contacts Count. Peruse it to see if anyone's name stands out.

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