Summer is still far off and everyone is predicting a recession is on the way. I do feel for the American farmers who are not selling their soybeans, and the energy sector workers who have lost their jobs, and the federal employees who had to suffer through a partial government shutdown. I don't envy anyone being in those positions. But most of us are still earning money even if the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. As a father I have to think about what we're going to do when Read more [...]

One of the first pieces of financial advice my dad gave me when I started living on my own was to run my household as if it were a small business.  Sorry, dad, but it took me years to get the hang of that.  I'd never run a small business so how could I relate to the advice?  Dad meant well but that was one of those last-minute thoughts that need a lifetime of experience to make sense. Every small business shares one thing with big businesses and households: you have only so much income and Read more [...]

The USA has the largest economy in the world.  We outperform every other nation.  And we act like we are the wealthiest nation on the planet.  But if you take away the top 1% of Americans suddenly we look a lot less wealthy.  If you ignore the top 20% of American households we look even more poor. According to economic data compiled by experts, 80% of American households earn less than $80,000 per year.  Those same statistics show that the median net worth of those 80% of families is less Read more [...]

There is no debate about how the economy changes from century to century.  Only 200 years ago about 90% of all American families made their livings by farming.  Now, fewer than 10% of Americans call farming their main source of income.  And our farms are more productive than ever before.  We have long since turned the corner on the industrial revolution. Inventors and investors have turned their eyes from the wheels and gears and electro-mechanical engines of the 18th and 19th centuries to Read more [...]

Whoever invented the wheel changed the world forever.  Unfortunately for him and our history books we don't know who that was.  Honestly, it could have been a woman.  We should not disregard the ingenuity of our mothers and wives.  It was probably they who domesticated animals and plants while the guys were out hunting and fishing.  All we can be sure of is that some early inventions had an immensely profound impact on the world.  The wheel is an innovation that lies at the foundation of all Read more [...]

Changing the world is an obligation in life.  You have to do something every day to make a difference.  Without that difference not only will you stagnate but so will others around you.  And it is human nature to want change, to want to advance and move forward. That is a philosophy in life by which I have tried to live. And then there are the days when I don't want to get off the couch and do anything.  Sometimes you just feel the need to vegetate. Achievement is a four-letter word when Read more [...]

Have you ever settled for less than what you wanted and found yourself bitterly disappointed in relaxing your standards?  I know I have.  I cannot begin to count the number of times I have allowed someone to talk me into accepting less than I was promised or asked for. As a way of teaching myself not to fall for these tactics again I decided that my acceptable fallback position would be "nothing less than ordinary".  What that means is that I always seek out something exceptional in every deal Read more [...]

A great philosopher, my granddad, once said that if you spend all your time thinking about the future you'll miss out on the present and have no past.  Another great philosopher, my grand-mother, slapped on the back of the head and told him to finish working on the next month's budget.  In my book, granddad was right because at the time I was only 7 years old and I wanted to go out to the park.  I was waiting on him to finish the budget and I thought, in my youthful wisdom, that such things could Read more [...]

When we sit deep in thought, ignoring the rest of the world, we find ourselves immersed in new worlds of the imagination mingled with old worlds of memory. So it seems to me. I once spent an entire day dreaming about fantastic worlds and adventures and I had a great time. I was just a teenager and my friends all wondered where I was but my head was filled with thoughts that I could not contain. It was a great day and sometimes I wish I could do that again. The imagination is an endless source Read more [...]

We have no record of when human communication began.  We don't really even know when humanity began.  Somewhere in the past a child was born, the first child who was more human than anything else, when compared to modern humans.  But assuming that mankind survives another million years today there must be children who are more like our million-year descendants than they are like our million-year ancestors.  It's all very confusing. And scientists disagree on when we began communicating, but Read more [...]