Take a Walk on the Mild Side?

A friend sent me an interesting article entitled How Happiness Comes With Age - Becoming Okay With Being Boring. I’m guessing I liked the title so much because I am a CPA and have mastered the art of being boring. If you ever need someone to liven up…Read more

What Pot Pie Can Teach Us About Investing

I was recently shopping for note cards on a popular paper company’s website. I know that has the potential to win the ‘least interesting opening sentence in a blog post’ award this year, but do your best to hang with me here. This shopping experience started out in…Read more

What Traffic Can Teach Us About Investing

Sitting in Washington, D.C. traffic always make me think of an instructive story I heard some years back. It went something like this: Imagine that you are in your car, leaving Washington, D.C., for a fifteen-hour drive to Florida. Unfortunately, half an hour into your trip, you see…Read more

Burger, Fries and a Plane Crash

Well-known risk consultant Peter Sandman wisely observed that, “The risks that scare people and the risks that kill people are generally entirely different.” Why is this? His conclusion is that it has to do with control and familiarity. It seems that we are much less afraid of things…Read more

Warning: Being Helpful Might Hurt Your Marriage

A study by Norwegian researchers Thomas Hansen and Britt Slagsvold found that equally sharing housework between spouses might be bad for your marriage. After analyzing data of thousands of Norwegian couples, Hansen and Slagsvold found the divorce rate was higher for those doing equal amounts of housework than…Read more

Beware the Average

Many years ago, while on a family trip to California, we enjoyed some time at the pool. Watching our youngest son splashing around in the pool reminded me of how obstinate he was in learning how to swim. This wasn't for lack of ability -- he just flat-out…Read more

Creative Destruction

A Fossil By My Driveway A while back, I was outside taking the trashcan to the curb when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, something yellow and shiny in a plastic bag. I went over and picked it up. It was a book,…Read more

How To Tell Your Spouse You Lost $262 Million

Easy Come, Easy Go In his book, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, Gary Belsky relates a fable that goes something like this: By the third day of their honeymoon in Las Vegas, the newlyweds had lost their $1,000 gambling allowance.  That night in bed, the groom…Read more

What Voting Booths and Scales Can Teach Us About Investing

Years ago, a technical glitch knocked out trading in all Nasdaq Stock Market securities for three hours.  If you are a true long-term investor with a good financial plan, then your attitude toward a market closure of three hours or three months should be one of indifference.  As…Read more