By the time you read this, I will have attended my 40th high school reunion. Since I was a class officer back in the day, I am/was on the organizing committee. However, in all transparency, my…
Common Cents Blog
On Friday, August 7, 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released “The Employment Situation – July 2026.” (1) While it wasn’t completely dreadful, it wasn’t a good report. In fact, the only silver lining I…
Last week, July 30th, I finished The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. This was her magnum opus, and a very good read. At one point, I imagine it made any number of ‘required reading’ lists for…
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently took yet another stab at estimating U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 1st quarter of 2026.(1) Ordinarily, by this point, I would have ignored the report. It is…
This past week, I started and finished a book called Mockingbird by Walter Tevis. Truthfully, I had never heard of it until about 15 minutes before I ordered a copy. It just sounded interesting, and strangely…
It has been a long time since I tossed and turned at night, unable to sleep due to all of the worries dancing around in my head. What is the point? Why worry about those things…
It has been my experience people tend to have some of the same basic needs. They must be fed, clothed, housed and shod. Or as my father told my sister and me on much more than…
Everyone has their own way of ‘winding down’ when they get home at the end of a workday. It could be having a drink, cooking, watching television, scrolling through their social media, listening to music or…
I have been around the financial services industry since 1991, and a lot has changed since then. The Internet wasn’t widely available for general consumption. Most people didn’t have an email address. Smartphones didn’t exist. My…
This past week, a friend of mine gave me grief about using exchange traded funds (ETFs) for our allocation(s) to precious metals and other commodities. He argued that holding physical gold, in this instance, would provide…