In the good old days, the world was a simple place. You went into a store to buy goods, or to an agent or broker to buy services. The price was quoted and you paid it out of the cash in your bank account. If your account was poorly stocked with dollar notes, you had [...]
Life is never fair. Just when you think you have hit rock bottom and things cannot get any worse, they get worse. You would have thought that a recession would mean premium rates would stay the same. In your dreams, you might have hoped for the rates to fall. After all, there’s massive unemployment – [...]
The new Administration is taking over facing an unprecedented economic crisis. The country is already deep in debt and proposes to spend billions more to help prevent a long-lasting recession. Looking overseas, the war in Iraq still has eighteen months to run and there is no end to the war in Afghanistan in sight. So [...]
Christmas is all about the year just past. You look around, gather in your family and friends, and celebrate the strength of your friendships by giving and receiving presents. Then comes New Year and, in a gesture to taking some responsibility for what happens in the next twelve months, people traditionally make resolutions. Most commonly, [...]
It is all too easy to run your life on autopilot. You managed to get up into the air on your own as you came into adulthood. You punched in the destination code and then clicked the switch. Life was up above the clouds, running swift and true across the skies. Decisions were made by [...]
If you look around these days, you’ll see a lot of bad news. More unemployment, more foreclosures, and more instability in life for simple people. This month has seen President Obama sign the new Stimulus Package into law, but that is somehow a bit distant. New laws may sound great, but it takes so long [...]
The world used to be such a simple place. Everyone had cars, gas was cheap and no-one thought twice about driving everywhere. Suburbs became exurbs and journey lengths expanded. Public transport wilted, and people added extra pounds of body weight as walking dropped out of favor. Now, the world has changed. Gas prices peaked at [...]
When you’re sitting at home worrying about the mounting pile of bills to pay, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. Fact is, just as you’re in a new world of hurt, there are other people hurting as well. In this case, the people are the inventors in the insurance industry. They all [...]
Wherever you look right now, there is bad news on the economy. Unemployment higher than for the last twenty years and more. Personal levels of debt almost unmanageable. Foreclosures crashing like waves on the suburbs and exurbs, washing away property values. However you try to spin it, this is a bad time. Some people have [...]
The majority of people who start up a business want to define an exit strategy. No-one intends to work until the final days before they die. Even if they want to go for something long-lasting to pass on to their children, there has to come a time when they retire, put up their feet and [...]

