Have you ever been on the phone with a customer service representative for several minutes before realizing the “person” you are conversing with is actually just a machine? I recently had that experience, and it surprised me how authentic and genuine this robot was in mimicking actual human behavior and [...]
It has been a long tradition in the Examiner for Ronald Finke to write a column of Thanksgiving every year. It’s something I personally always look forward to, and perhaps many of you do as well. That’s why I was very excited to be granted the privilege of writing this [...]
Recently, Investopedia made headlines with their findings on how much it actually costs to live the American Dream. According to the study, it costs roughly 4.4 million dollars to have all of the things traditionally viewed as part of living the dream. This includes such things as a home, a [...]
As I am writing this article, we are mere hours from the 2024 Presidential Election. As you are reading this, I truly hope a winner has been determined and regardless of the outcome, that both candidates have accepted the voice of the people, and we can move on together as [...]
Last week, I wrote about the importance of having insurance because you never know when you might be the victim of a tragic event. Little did I know less that seven days later I would experience a real-life example of this. Sunday afternoon while my wife and I were on [...]
The past few weeks have seen multiple hurricanes ravage the southeast portion of the United States, with states like Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas worst hit. I wish I could say the severity and frequency of these storms are anomalies, but sadly they are becoming the norm. According to the [...]
This past Friday, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its job numbers for September. To the surprise of many experts, the labor market added 254,000 jobs. This was substantially higher than the projected 150,000. Revisions to July and August numbers resulted in an additional 72,000 jobs for those months [...]
I know many of you don’t want to hear this, but it’s about that time of year again. Time to start thinking about end of year tax planning. If you are retired or receiving Social Security benefits there are actually some things to be excited about as you project what [...]
There has been a debate raging for many years amongst associates in our firm about whether it is better to pay more for items of higher quality because they work better and last longer, or to buy lower priced items and pocket the difference in price. Regular readers can probably [...]
Recently while visiting my parents, my oldest son Ethan uncovered large amounts of the baseball cards I collected as a kid. While not a huge baseball fan himself, he does like money and recognized some of these cards might be valuable and began sifting through them to find cards he [...]
