One of the surest ways to lose money in the long run is to play the lottery every week. The more you play them, the more likely you are to meet the overall probability of the game you’re playing. The odds are never in your favor. Regardless of where the money raised from the lottery … Read more
Happy Veterans Day! I thank all of the men and women who serve, or who have served, in the United States Armed Forces — especially our veterans. I deeply appreciate your service to our country. Jeff Rose served in the Army National Guard, and is an Iraq combat veteran. He’s now a Certified Financial Plannerâ„¢ … Read more
Retailers are. A Facebook friend snapped a picture from his local Walmart. The sign read “Days Until Christmas: 47.” When I was young, I made an advent chain out of red and green construction paper. I hung it on one of the lights in my room, and tore off one link of the chain each … Read more
I overheard a conversation at customer service at my financial institution as I was standing in line for the teller. Someone had an issue with their debit card. The cause was a $96 hold from a gas station. The customer service rep then said that they recommend that customers choose the “credit” option rather than … Read more
I know that my wife tolerates a lot. Even though she’ll say that I’m worlds different than when we first got married, I still occasionally work on increasing my troll level. You know — for trolling. I’m getting really close to Level 46. Before we went to Costco for some hot and heavy unit pricing … Read more
After church today we went into town for a few things. We stopped in at Costco. One of the items on our list was gummy multivitamins. (Yes, I know, these are quite a bit more expensive than tablets that get chased down with water. However, if these get people to look forward to taking their … Read more
A couple of days ago, I asked my fit Facebook friends for recommendations on a starter strength training plan to complement an aerobic exercise plan. Because I’m Really Serious This Timeâ„¢ about losing weight. When I heard the story of a North Dakota woman who was to hand out “fat letters” to obese kids instead … Read more
In the middle of last month, a maintenance power outage caused the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system to go down in 17 states. One side effect of this was the disappearance of spending limits on the cards at checkout. Xerox, the company in charge of those servers and for providing EBT services to state governments, … Read more