I’ve been having trouble with the notion of authenticity for quite some time. My first challenge is one of definition. According to dictionary.com, authentic, whence derives authenticity, is defined like this: adjective: 1. not false or copied; genuine 2. having an origin supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified 3. representing one’s true nature or beliefs; […]

It would be great to find a low cost gym membership. But why just lower the cost? Why not design the perfect gym membership? Here’s my perfect gym wish list: Low cost membership Zero commute time Fully adjustable workouts – easy to grueling A personal coach who can appear or disappear on command Full control […]

Everyone is looking for a way to save on gas. That’s a big change in the last year. Back in 2020, in the middle of the Covid calamity, the world appeared to be ending. Everything was shuttered. Traffic disappeared. With no demand, oil prices plunged and then dropped to negative values. Oil storage tanks were […]

“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.” (George Eliot) As it pertains to the outcome of the midterm elections on November 8th, we’ve been hearing terms like shellacking, landslide, bloodbath, tsunami, wipeout, cataclysm, apocalypse, and fuggedaboudit. One can only hope […]

We recently heard a large, national firm use the slogan, “We do better when you do better,” and we couldn’t help but scratch our heads. On the surface it may seem agreeable; after all, if they’ve helped you build wealth, why not reward them, too? But when you think about what that means, it becomes […]

We’ve written extensively about the risk of long-term care, but most people don’t want to consider the possibility that they’ll need it. Unfortunately, statistics tell us there’s a 70% chance that you will need long-term care if you’re 65 or older. If that’s surprising to you, it’s because the prevailing strategy for preparing for the […]

No one likes extra fees, especially when they are hard to understand or being intentionally hidden. You know the ones: the stealthy “service fee,” the suspicious sounding “surcharge,” or the “handling fee,” which is always a head scratcher. There are two fees we think all retirees should know about: investment fees and advisor fees.    Granted, […]

You probably don’t often think about how much your portfolio could go up or down at any moment—that is, until the market moves so much that it’s front-page news. Upward movement is thrilling, but downward movement is… well, we don’t have to tell you how that feels. The years 2000 and 2008 probably bring back […]

Shara Lewis-Campbell is the co-founder of Beauty & the Beast Publishing, a book publishing and media company. In the spirit of Nadine Gordimer, Shara believes all writers have a social responsibility in all arenas.  Shara’s speciality involves publishing aspiring writers atypically from the industry, providing them with a voice and opportunity as social beings, creatively […]

About Learning and Personal Development Maribel quickly identified that she was passionate about learning and development, especially personal development. Personal development is about developing yourself as an individual, so she flips the camera and directs it at herself. She spent a great part of 2020 doing a lot of self-discovery work.  2020 impacted Maribel along […]