Teaching your teenagers to drive is not for the squeamish.  (And all the parents said, “Amen!”) Years ago, I had a friend whose 15 year-old got his learner’s permit. Like every teen, he wanted to drive his parents everywhere. However, each time the boy got behind the wheel he would obsess over what was in […]

It takes a lot to be an optimist these days.  Just consider a handful of headlines from two national newspapers, one left leaning, the other right. These all appeared on the same day this week.  Pandemic Reshapes US Employment Across Industries Pandemic Leads Schools to Halt Ph.D. Admissions Airlines Aren’t Making It Easy to Use […]

The 1980s brought us cable TV, personal computers, parachute pants and mullet haircuts (powerful proof that not every “innovation” equals progress). The decade also saw the rise of the 401(k) plan.  Before the heyday of mullet haircuts, the phrase “retirement plan” referred to a pension plan. A pension was a social contract between workers and […]

Do you get the feeling that it’s the coronavirus, not the Grinch, that’s trying to steal Christmas? I’m sure I don’t’ need to recite all of this year’s national and international economic disappointments that have come as a result of this pandemic.  For the unemployed oil field worker, the exhausted nurse or teacher, the farmer […]

Sometimes when I ask people, “What are your financial goals?” they say things like: “Other than having enough one day to retire on, I’m not sure I have any clear financial goals.” After a pause they add, “That’s not a very good answer, is it?” That’s usually when I say, “Maybe if I asked better […]

If you’re over 50, you may remember AAA TripTiks booklets. From AAA’s website: “In the days before Google Maps…or even the internet…a AAA agent would draw the route with a highlighter on a series of numbered maps, going through the route with the driver before they started. The end result, a guided route through a […]