It seems just about every day we are confronted with some form of economic information that is intended to help economists and stock market analysts draw conclusions as to the direction and the pace of economic recovery. The problem continues to be, however, that the data fails to interconnect in a way that a uniform conclusion can be drawn. Recent data released maintains the ambiguity of information.
The Conference Board, a consumer research group, released its latest consumer sentiment index for January showing a level… Continue reading
No, I’m not drafting you to become a salesperson for Rolaids.™ I’m talking about the gas that heats your home and you cook with (where was your mind going?!) In today’s world of economic tightening, we as consumers have to explore every avenue we can to save on our fiscal front. 
So if the truth be told, I am clearly a football junkie, enjoying both the college level as well as the professionals! So with this past Sunday night representing the last game to watch until probably around the beginning of August, the Super Bowl should have captured my attention for the entire evening. Besides the football, who doesn’t enjoy watching the bevy of new advertising commercials that are rolled out, hopefully, for our viewing pleasure. After all, shouldn’t we give some courtesy to these advertisers who… 
As a departure from my normal, controlled, educational, instructional, informative blogs, I saw this in the news and thought I would share it for your enjoyment (?) and for you to ponder the way in which our system works. Ponder away- feel free to comment. 
This week Verizon announced that the long awaited arrival of the Apple iPhone to its network has arrived, roughly 4 years after the iPhone has been available to AT&T customers. The iPhone will be available to customers on Feb. 10th, with Verizon stores taking orders beforehand. What does this mean to you? Not a whole lot, in my opinion… 
Did you ever think your harmless interactions with your friends on Facebook or other social networking sites is like handing over the keys to your house and wealth to would-be thieves? If not, think again… 
Well we are just coming off a year where we witnessed a number of major political and economic events and so the question becomes will we begin to see resistance to some of those trends and even possibly a reversal? Clearly with unemployment remaining exceptionally high at the end of 2010 we will hope to see the beginning of job hiring, but obviously that will depend on the economy being able to demonstrate that there is sustained growth, albeit at a low rate, which we did begin to… 
Marriage is a wonderful institution. We meet, court, date and eventually someone (hey- it’s not always the guy) pops the question. Depending on your age, the cycle of life together may be different: if you are young(ish), you may be starting out and having kids. Unfortunately, in today’s society, the loose statistic is that the divorce rate is 50%. This means based on your success, that you have accumulated assets during your first marriage: what happens to your accumulation in the second marriage? More importantly… 
It is that tax deal that I am referring to that continues to linger in Washington while the politicians play out their soap opera! It truly depicts the worst of what politics is all about. We have millions of Americans who have run out of unemployment benefits and are full of anxiety as they wait to hear whether there will be an extension providing some degree of relief to the plight in which they find themselves. Additionally, virtually every American is wondering whether in a few short weeks… 
As we have discussed in earlier blogs, a will is a document that dictates “who gets your stuff” when you go to the great beyond. In the will, we dictate the terms of how and to whom we would like to distribute our estate, the amounts, and all the fine details of passing along that which we spent a lifetime accumulating. We talked about the 