So, you want to buy your first house, but the market has been white-hot, and it just wasn’t within reach. But higher interest rates have cooled the market (at least a bit) and you’ve been saving for a down payment. A few more rate hikes and a few more dollars in your savings account and… Read More

The idea of living as an expatriate is nothing new. Ernest Hemingway wrote about it, and Jimmy Buffett made the idea a staple of his music. But back in Hemingway and Buffett’s heyday, ex-pats were more of the exception than the rule. Today, lots of U.S. citizens live in other countries The lure of foreign… Read More

You turn on the television, and there it is, an ESPN ad touting the first college football game of the season. And where there’s college football, there is, well, college. That’s right, it’s back to school time for millions of students across the United States. But whether you are entering your first semester or your… Read More

Rising inflation has made personal budgets a hot topic again. And the internet is full of articles on the elements needed to create an effective budget: income, fixed expenses, variable expenses, and unplanned expenses. Those things are important, and plenty of financial experts can tell you how to incorporate them into a budget. But there are other… Read More

Sustainability is one of those business buzzwords that creates a lot of confusion. You’ve probably seen it describe everything from how a business approaches social justice to its environmental impact. And let’s be honest, when used in that context, sustainability is a political munition, ready to explode into arguments, eye-rolling, and who knows what else. But… Read More

Employee turnover. Those two words can make any small business owner or CEO cringe. And with good reason! Replacing an employee costs, on average, $4,000 and takes 24 days, according to one Glassdoor study. That study only considered initial costs. Add in long-term costs like lost productivity and the number goes even higher. No wonder there… Read More

Hitting 50 is one of the milestones in life that cause many to pause and reflect. Some think about relationships with family and friends. Others use the moment to learn from past successes and mistakes. But it’s hard to deny that many also have one thought about the future. That is, will I be able to… Read More

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve probably been hearing and reading news about a possible recession in the U.S. economy. Every day seems to bring new speculation, and the headlines grow more and more sensational. So, you should be worried, right? Well, not exactly. We haven’t officially entered into a recession, at least not… Read More

The economic ocean in the United States has been clear and calm for the last decade. Cheap lending rates made some bad stocks seem good. They also brought in a lot of new money into other investments like real estate and cryptocurrency. But with the Fed raising interest rates, the tide is pulling back quickly.… Read More

Businesses have enjoyed over a decade of interest rates that barely registered on balance sheets. Unfortunately, that low interest environment has made it easy to forget what to do when the Federal Reserve does raise rates. Some of you have been there, but it’s been a while. Others may be navigating uncharted waters. Either way,… Read More