The Tainted Apple We All Adore

Posted On: January 23, 2018
Comments: No Responses Earlier this month, some powerful Apple shareholders (including teacher retirement funds) raised a stink about the addictive-ness of the iPhone, particularly for youth. Then they went back to their abacuses and high-fived themselves for 1)…

Merry Christmas…In a Box! (The Annual Holiday Rant)

Posted On: December 18, 2017
Comments: No Responses The Amazon Christmas ad running lately features smiling, otherwise faceless boxes travelling from a robo-warehouse to a little girl. It’s a fine ad that no doubt brought prosperous smiles to some ad agency. And that…

Boomer Bust: Beware the Retirement Burst

Posted On: October 27, 2015
Comments: No Responses “When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.” ~Oscar WildeWealth is the ability to fully experience life.…

Stuff = Stress

Posted On: April 27, 2015
Comments: No Responses As the CFO of my household of four, I was forced into action recently when a pile of credit card statements finally got my attention, and were packed with pages of purchases for … who…

Can Career Breaks Buy Happiness?

Posted On: September 9, 2012
Comments: No Responses Happiness gets a lot of attention. In fact, Americans seem obsessed with it (or the pursuit of it). This closet curmudgeon sometimes gets crabby about this simplistic word—and wonders if we ought not to increase…

Countdown @ 9: $ Matters

Posted On: May 27, 2012
Comments: No Responses You don’t want to think too much about $ when planning a BreakAway for four people. But you can’t ignore it either. And you’re guaranteed to have some snags get into your face. Today’s short…

Loyalty Programs: Bogus!

Posted On: December 11, 2011
Comments: No Responses Everybody’s looking for a way to save money these days.  And nobody’s got more brilliant ideas than Corporate America.  You can’t buy a cup o’ jo or a paperclip without some store-clerk puppet mouthing that…

The Annual X-mas Rant

Posted On: December 26, 2010
Comments: No Responses Christmas has come and gone.  Again. Beautiful; we still take a few days to BreakAway from our jobs, routines, and rat race.  With any luck, we even reflect, rest, and renew old ties. But the…

American (Money) Idiots

Posted On: December 2, 2010
Comments: No Responses We Merr’kuns may still be learning our money math. But if a downturn is good for anything, it’s for ruthless fiscal forehead-gripping—for economists and Joe 6-Packs alike.  The good news:  Americans are reducing their credit…

Excess & the Stuff of Life

Posted On: April 16, 2010
Comments: One Response When schlepping more stuff into the house the other day, a brilliant idea hit me:  How about a family project in which we try to acquire nothing new for one month. (Okay, except for food…