Category: Blog

Have you ever heard of Jeanne Calment? She was born in France in 1875 and lived until the ripe old age of 122 years and 164 days before dying in 1997. She met Vincent van Gogh and watched the first space shuttle launch! What an amazing lifespan, especially considering the average life is about 82 years in France. Could your retirement lifestyle hold up through those extra 40 years…

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You’ve probably heard the old saying from Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” This sentiment was echoed by Margaret Mitchell in her famous book Gone with the Wind in 1936, “Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.” It would seem that across the ages, everyone agrees that death and taxes must occur. But high taxes are NOT…

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Many people assume that what worked yesterday will work today. Or that you can solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. That brings us to the story of the pot roast syndrome: A new bride makes her husband a pot roast. She cuts off the ends the way her mother always did. Her husband is curious and asks why she cuts off the ends. She replies, “That’s the way my mom…

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The “three-legged stool” is a financial term that has been used for years to describe a stable, long-lasting retirement. Do you know why a three-legged stool is so sturdy? Here’s a quick mathematical explanation: if you hold a cane in your hand, you can move it any way you want. It has no constraints and can move in all 3 dimensions. If you put one end on the ground, you…

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What do the giant panda, the polar bear, and a pension plan have in common? All three are nearly extinct. In fact, the dodo bird is extinct. Usually, some organization is actively raising funds to save these endangered animals. They run awareness campaigns, have catchy slogans, and sell buttons. What about pension plans? Also endangered, almost extinct. In our grandparents’ day, some people worked for the same company for 50 years…

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Successful people rarely bet. Certainly not in a big way, and certainly not when it comes to their lifestyle and security in retirement. Relying on the government and Social Security to provide anything other than a minimal part of your retirement income and security is… well… betting on the future. It’s like buying a lottery ticket as my retirement plan for the future. Many changes are coming to Social…

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Imagine living in a world where everything is identical. You come home from work in a white Buick that looks just like your neighbor’s white Buick. You pull into the drive of your little white house that is identical to every other little white house on the street. There is only one restaurant, and it serves only one entree and one dessert. After dinner, you head to the movie…

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This past Sunday, The Toronto Raptors played the Charlotte Hornets. With just 3.1 seconds remaining, the Hornets were down by two, and Jeremy Lamb received the ball. As the clock ran down, Lamb was forced to throw a Hail Mary from half court… Swish! Three points and a winning basket at the buzzer. The crowd goes wild, as the Hornets beat the Raptors by a single point! Anything could…

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Procrastination is funny. A recent article prompted readers to share things they had not “gotten around to.” Here are a few examples: “A bathroom that began its redecoration twelve years ago and has yet to be painted. Oh, that hurts!” The Christmas tree is still up from the year before… and it’s September. A reader bought a book called ‘52 Steps To Defeating Procrastination’ ten years ago… and still…

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Each fall, monarch butterflies migrate over 2,000 miles to Central Mexico. Interestingly, monarchs do not simply take the shortest turn to get back on course. When making course corrections, they align themselves according to what’s called a “separation point”. If a monarch begins flying off-course, it realigns itself relative to that separation point, without crossing it. Monarch butterflies plot and re-plot their course corrections throughout their long journey, in…

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