Gimme Shelter…
We all strive to put food on the table. To put clothes on our backs. To put a roof over our heads. And everything else is just that: everything else. {gimme shelter, gimme shelter…} I think that’s what makes my career so incredibly satisfying – I get to help people...
Equifax and Me: Thoughts on my experience (and some advice on what you should do, too)
I sit in a pretty unique seat: I’m a trusted advisor to thousands of present and past clients. That means that I have had a parade of emails and phone calls about what to do in the wake of the Equifax data breach. I’m also a consumer with 45+ years of credit history,...
240 Years Ago
... we began this amazing experiment in democracy we call the United States of America. Those were most assuredly different times than now: Women could not vote or own property, slavery still thrived on our shores, and freedom of religion came with the footnote “as...
Mortgage Moments 1-18-19
I'm making a bold prediction about where rates are headed in 2019. Watch this video and get some insider intelligence on this always emotion-packed issue! https://youtu.be/jA5EwKrkjO0
I Don’t Eat Donuts.
It’s not a health thing. Or even an aversion to sweet, doughy concoctions. It’s that they don’t taste like the donuts my mother made. Just once. (Or, at least, that’s the only time I can remember.) My mother was, and is, wonderfully resourceful and inventive. At the...
A Letter From the Trenches…
My paternal Grandfather, Irving Henry Crowne, served in the Infantry during World War One on the battlefields of France. Barely 20-years old, he penned the letter below to the folks at home, recalling what it was like at the front lines. His nephew, Roger, discovered...
Credit Repair: A Simple Self-Help Guide
Let’s face it – we’re all obsessed with it. Everywhere you turn, you are being inundated with the importance of it, how with ‘good’ ones, you are a master of the universe; with ‘bad’ ones, you are nothing. By now, you’ve figured out that I’m talking about credit...
Lost and Found
It’s a Mars and Venus thing. If a couple is out antiquing or stopping by tag sales, guys look at the big things and women look at the little stuff. And that means I would never in my life have found this treasure. Let me set the scene… Thomas Sykes was a wealthy mill...
I’m Shocked and Dismayed
New regulations took effect this week that require investment advisors to serve their customers’ interests before their own. This is known as a “fiduciary duty” and my SHOCK was in learning that this requirement is only being imposed now, in April, 2016, decades after...
What I Meant to Say Was…
John and I locked eyes and he tilted his head the way Maggie, my Old English Sheepdog does when she doesn’t understand what I’ve said to her, and there was a long pause until Amy, John’s wife, jumped in and explained. And then we all erupted in uproarious laughter...
“I guess not everyone has to do their job right every time…”
Those words came from my best friend last night while he was aggravating over some less-than-perfect underwriting on his new mortgage in a state I’m not licensed in. I hear you, my friend - the world needs more people like you! And what was the speedbump that he...
“There No Crying In Baseball!”
It's one of my favorite movies and one of the best movie lines ever written. It comes from "A League of Their Own" and casts the oh-so-magnificent Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan, a washed-up baseball coach made to lead an all women's baseball team during WWII. If you don't...
There’s Nothing Like Having Money in the Bank…
“… to make you feel like you have money in the bank.” That’s one of my favorite aphorisms along with “Bad things happen when you can least afford them.” At age 76, Judy has a little more than most but not as much as she thinks she’ll need to live comfortably for her...
The Bacon-Cheeseburger Inflation index
It’s true. Someone has created a measurement of inflation based upon the price of bacon cheeseburgers. Who knew? The policy pundits in Washington DC keep telling us that inflation is under control (in fact, they say we have too little inflation in our economy) so we...
I won’t have my son arrested!
That was Yvonne’s reaction when I asked her what she was going to do about her son. He had stolen her identity and opened up numerous charge cards, racking up $75,000 in debt along the way. Now, Yvonne was being threatened with foreclosure for his transgressions. As a...
I know it’s a good month if…
“I have enough money left over after paying my bills to buy a cup of coffee and a donut.” That was Tom telling me how difficult it was to make ends meet on his $1,101 Social Security check. He didn’t mean that he would get a coffee and donut every day, he meant he’d...
“The Divorced, Debt-ridden Dad Who Wanted the Best for His Kids”
When Jeff was referred to me in late Summer of 2015, he wanted to purchase a home in the same town as his ex-wife so that he wouldn’t disrupt his kids’ lives. He’d tried going to a regular bank, however, with his other debt and child support obligations, they wouldn’t...
It’s No Laughing Matter!
You know that old Rodney Dangerfield joke that went “Small? Where I grew up, the house was so small even the mice were stoop-shouldered!” Well, that’s Ryan & Melissa’s story… When Ryan and Melissa first came to me in the Summer of 2015, they were living in the...
My Father’s Favorite Joke
My father died suddenly and unexpectedly on Christmas Day, 2015, a week shy of his 89th birthday. I am blessed with a lifetime of remembrances of this amazing man: he was a gifted neuroscientist, prolific author of 6 books and over 30 peer-reviewed articles, father...
Have You Ever Faced Someone Who Was Crying?
I think it’s one of the most powerful of human emotions and it’s one that connects us, makes us want to help to make the pain go away. So when Angela, an 83 year-old client of mine, began crying during our 1st meeting, I truly wanted to help. Angela and her husband...