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Suffering Inflation: What Should We Do?

I don’t like higher gas prices. Like most people, I blame it on oil companies or the time of year, particularly when holidays are around the corner. Nobody, it seems, likes suffering inflation. Higher prices for consumer goods are spooky and alienating. So what’s really going on when we’re suffering from inflation? Poor Monetary Policy…

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Home Hunting: That Elusive First Home

My first home-hunting trip resulted in purchasing a fixer-upper: A structurally sound house, albeit small, with historic features like clapboard siding and corner boards and one-over-two-pane stained glass windows. My list wasn’t long, and the house sounded right up my alley. If you’re young, a fixer-upper offers possibilities. But there are so many factors to…

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Self-Insuring Coastal Property

Is self-insuring coastal property a way to solve the rising cost of hurricane insurance? Is there a coastal retirement property that looks like a good investment today, considering wind and water damage insurance rates, not to mention the Herculean struggle to collect on claims? A married couple, friends of my Mother’s, owned a quarter million…

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Creating Work Synergy Remotely

Creating Work Synergy Remotely While remote workers arrive at work in housecoats and a favorite home-brewed coffee, critical thinkers say the home office environment lacks the synergy that employees in the typical workplace enjoy. Does that make working from home less of a career move?  How can you increase your synergy with the office when…

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Is the Four-Day WorkWeek for You?

The four-day workweek? In theory, anyway, It’s not ten hours a day, it’s eight, and businesses and a few governments in some countries are considering lowering their overtime threshold to 32 hours a week. What does this mean for your wallet? America’s not a leader in progressive labor policies, so let us look to other countries like…

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Mandatory Tipping, The Way the Wind Blows

Are tips mandatory? Today, Restaurants demand mandatory tipping and call it the cost of doing business. Blame Covid, blame the Great Resignation, the rise in the minimum wage, blame whatever: Tipping today can be demanded in the most unlikely places. To understand when to tip, read this blog! Here are factors to consider when deciding to…

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Understanding Expiration Dates

If you buy from a salvage grocery store, understanding expiration dates emerges as a real issue. In this blog, I discuss the pros and cons of buying salvage groceries, and explain the purpose of expiration dates. I am convinced the salvage-grocery-store is a valuable resource if you want to cut spending, but for many shoppers,…

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Budgeting in Envelopes

While budgeting in envelopes has been around forever, in the past everyone had their health and a financial future. That’s why this blog is different. It’s addressing a leaner, meaner, disenfranchised audience with a budgeting tactic that works. Here are the steps to using this effective budgeting tool: Look over your budget, then take a…