More than 5 million American businesses earn less than $5 million annually in gross revenues. These businesses account for more than 40 percent of the Gross National Product, yet they have largely been ignored in federal government’s stimulus and financial reform efforts. How are today’s businesses to survive and thrive at a time when the [...]

In the war against distracted driving, banning of texting while driving has been a major battle. But now, research from the Auto Club of Southern California has found that after an initial drop, texting while driving appears to be on the rise 15 months after California’s texting ban was implemented. The auto club says the [...]

Fiat Currency. Global Reserve Currency. Gold Standard. You might have heard terms like this, but what exactly do they mean? How is what’s happening in Greece related to what’s happening here and why should I care? We’re going to use some ink in the next several articles laying out the basics of the ongoing financial [...]

I recently saw a T-Shirt sporting the British Petroleum (BP) Logo along with the slogan ‘Bringing Oil To American Shores.’ It’s easy to poke fun at BP lately. After all, they’ve had one hell of a second quarter. Money just can’t buy that kind of publicity. Throughout this whole fiasco, it’s become pretty clear that [...]

Quickly! Who do you think has faster rising numbers of work life balance dissatisfaction—men or women? Well, if the research from Jeremy Adam Smith’s terrific book, The Daddy Shift, can be trusted (and I know it can), men represent the fastest growing demographic of those who feel work life and family life are out of [...]

There was a big drop on Wall Street last week. You probably heard about it. It seems that our stock market, the Dow, the heart and soul of our nation’s market economy, dropped nearly 1,000 points in one afternoon before rebounding a bit before the close of the day. This sort of thing doesn’t happen [...]

Just as you wouldn’t want to give any personal identity information to someone via email, you want to use the same practices via text message. There is a new wave of fraud that tries to trick you with text messages appearing to be from your bank. SMiShing uses cell phone text messages to deliver the [...]

Buying a car is a big investment – whether it’s brand new or a used car. It can also be an exciting time and thinking about possible defects in the vehicle may not be top of the list of features you’re looking for.   However, the recent recalls have opened our eyes to the possibility that [...]

This past week, I have been helping a gentleman recover from the theft of all of his tax records.  Before it is all over, this gentleman will have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars simply preventing any further fraudulent use of his identity. That doesn’t account for any damages already done to his [...]

Many were surprised – me included – to find that the recently passed Health Care Reform Bill also contained legislation that made significant changes to the Federal Student Loan Program.  And the healthcare uproar has carried over to the college funding program as well.  So why was it done, what’s in it and what does [...]