It seems every generation wants to dump on the next one. Or, the one before it. Boomers complain about Millennials and Millennials say, “OK, Boomer”. Millennials say Boomers left the world a mess and Boomers say Millennials are ruining the world with their decisions. The irony of the situation is that the Boomers parented the Millennials themselves. (I’m a Gen X’er and our son’s a … Continue reading Gen Z Growing Wealth: The Kids Are Alright
The current federal debt ceiling debate is running 24×7 through the financial media. A retired friend I went biking with last week seemed pretty caught up in it. He said he was keeping money out of stocks & bonds in case things “got real bad.” No surprise he felt that way, given the way it is being reported in the hysterical media. The financial press … Continue reading Debt Limit Hyperbole
My friend, Jeff, texted me last week asking for an insurance agent reference. He just got his homeowners insurance premium estimate for the coming year and it was up a whopping +29% higher than what he paid last year – which was +23% higher than two years ago! I haven’t gotten my new home insurance estimate yet, but we are definitely going to competitively shop … Continue reading Home Insurance Premiums Rising
When I was at MegaCorp, I had the opportunity to have lunch with Bob Johnson, the wildly successful founder of BET Television. Johnson was on our board of directors and I was on-hand to present an initiative at their offsite meeting. Johnson is a dynamic character and I’ve followed him through the media for the last 10+ years. He’s not afraid to jump into politics … Continue reading 401k Focus
A friend has a senior role in operations at one of the largest banks in the country and said they get more complaints about removing coin machines from their branches than about anything else. It turns out that most of the biggest banks – Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, PNC, Wells-Fargo, and Capital One – have all done away with them. We found this out … Continue reading Coin Counting Charges
We’ve spent the last few weeks working on clearing out my wife’s father’s house. He passed away earlier this year. Let me tell you, the man had a lot of coins! I wrote earlier about his collection of valuable coins, but he also had a lot of ‘everyday small change’. I would estimate that they add up to about 2-3 coffee cans worth. To give … Continue reading Small Change
Quite unexpectedly this is the second post in an unplanned series about preventative insurance care coverage. After I posted on Monday about being charged for my annual check up, I ran across this article stating that annual check ups and other preventative care claims will no longer be covered under the Affordable Care Act. Link: Court Strikes Down Coverage of Preventative Care It seems that … Continue reading Preventative Care Coverage Prevented?
I’ve always been good about going in for my annual checkup, both when I was working and now 7 years into early retirement. I was blessed to work for MegaCorps that had on-site health clinics and executive health programs, that made it easy. I recently went in to our post-retirement clinic for my annual check up and was surprised to get a bill for $278 … Continue reading A Good Question To Ask At Your Next Check-Up
My wife & I took her Dad’s collection of old coins to an appraiser last week. Her father had collected them his whole life. We weren’t at all sure how much they might be worth. We learned a lot about the state of coin collecting today from the floor manager. It turns out, it’s not good. Not many young people are collecting coins anymore, they … Continue reading Collecting Coins?
With interest rates rising and housing prices up, it’s no surprise that home affordability is in the headlines. I thought I’d share these two charts that highlight trends in the ‘starter home’ market … First, this US Census chart is making the rounds as evidence that young people can’t afford homes … You can see that the gap between 35 & 65 year olds has … Continue reading Starting Out or Waiting – Homeownership
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