Black Friday, Yours or Theirs?

The Friday after Thanksgiving has long been called the single largest shopping day of the year.  It is a perfect storm of availability, as many American’s enjoy the day away from work, and transition into the Christmas season. Retailers have hyped us into believing that today is itself a shopping holiday.  Early morning door busting openings and sales that once started at 7 or 8am are now launching...

Think Thanks!

  As we enter this week of Thanksgiving, I think it’s important that we pause and connect with our inner gratitude.  It is so easy to become lost in the mechanics of day to day living or the want for things we don’t have that we often fail to appreciate the bounty that is readily available to us every day. …I’ve been going to the same guy for haircuts for over 10 years now and along the way...

Manatory Healthcare Reform – Part 2

  In my last article I elaborated on the four led forces at work in our modern day healthcare system – Physicians, Pharmaceuticals, Payers, and Patients.  I also strongly recommended a two-part podcast series presented by This American Life, which explores and explains the inter-workings of these forces with great color and high entertainment value.  If you have not yet taken the time to give...

Manatory Healthcare Reform – Part 1

  Healthcare reform is perhaps as complex an issue as we are facing in our society today – and the recent bill passed in Congress promises to further murky the waters.  On one hand, the diversity of the intertwined issues that constitute the fabric of our system may simply be too impossible to unravel.  But on the other hand, solving this dilemma may well hold the key to preserving life as we...

Link Round-up – Thanks In Advance edition

  Hello everyone, today I want to take pause and share with you some good stuff from other sites I’ve been keeping an eye on.  I hope you’ll check out the efforts from these talented and insightful folks. I also want to call your attention to a 2 part series I am launching next week on the issue of Healthcare Reform.  The timing of last weekend’s vote and my article is ironic...

Crap On A Bun Is Still A Bad Sandwich

  A couple months ago I wrote an article asking if your money likes you.  In a transitive way, I was really asking if you like your money.  Of course you may think that you like your money, but your actions are often the final arbiter. I’ll let you have the morsel for free, because today I want to spend some time talking about a group that I know who does love your money – Retailers. Of course...

Too Smart For Their Own Good

  I was listening to a Dave Ramsey show podcast and just had to offer up a brief rant about one of the callers.  It seems that this couple was calling under the guise of wanting to buy a larger home and did not know if they were ready.  That is not such an unusual question and Ramsey certainly has a sound theory on the characteristics that indicate when someone is ‘ready’. However, as he started...