There’s a difference between complaining about inflation and responding to it. With the inflation rate surging to 6.2 percent in October – its highest level since Thanksgiving 1990 — holiday shoppers are about to feel a pinch harder than anything they may have faced in their lifetime as a consumer. The signs of it are …
I confess to “not feeling it” this year when it comes to the winter holidays. I’m always in the mood for a good celebration, but whether it is because circumstances prevent family visits this year or the pandemic’s spirit-sapping hangover or that inflation and supply-chain issues appear ready to suck a lot of the joy …
My oldest daughter turned 30 years old last month. So did the first of her United States Savings Bonds. Since my children often turn to me for financial counsel, it prompted me to take a fresh look at a stale investment. And right now, there’s a lot more reason to consider the lowly savings bond …
There was a lot of “bad-decision making” at my house this Halloween, and it wasn’t about eating too much candy. Instead, it was the way the children in my neighborhood responded to my annual effort to turn All Hallows Eve into a lesson about money. Each year, it’s a fun evening filled by conversations with …
The big financial headline this week is the unveiling of the first-ever bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund, which made its debut on Tuesday. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (ticker: BITO) is a possible game-changer and can be looked at in many ways, but it’s not the bitcoin fund investors have been waiting and hoping for. Plenty of …
Americans have a complicated relationship with money, much of it stemming from what we learned (or didn’t) as children. In most households, money is a subject every bit as taboo as sex, which is why more than half of Americans reported in a recent study that either no one taught them about money …
We’ve all had that friend who volunteers to help with a chore or a task and whose “help” only makes the situation worse. It’s the buddy who says he’ll help you move, but whose back problem mostly limits him to complaining. By the time you figure out the cost of accepting his help, it’s too …
I recently bumped into my friend Mike, a pilot and former lacrosse teammate who I hadn’t seen in years. After catching up about family and friends, he reminded me that our last conversation had included him asking about where to invest, to which I asked him “What is your greatest financial fear?” I had explained …
Linda and her husband Stan heard me as a guest on a podcast recently. They are retirees, living near Daytona Beach, Fla., unsure of “just what course to take with our monies.” Linda thought I sounded like “just what we are hoping to find, someone who speaks our language, who is honest, who can help …
More than half of Americans report that either no one taught them about money or that they learned how to handle finances on their own. Combine that lack of formal training with a desire to improve personal money management and you create as much potential for trouble as for profit. It’s hard to know who …
