Author: gstc

The economy is a bit big for anyone to conceptualize all that well. It’s easy enough to go from $10 to a hundred, thousand, or even a million. One can still think of individual products that can be purchased in those terms and the people that interact with those products and their wealth levels. The…

Americans are generous and charitably minded. How charitably minded? According to the latest annual report Giving USA 2024: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2023, last year we broke the record once again in terms of total dollars given of $557.16 billion! Although the record for total dollars given was broken, the increase…

A little over 50 years ago, an experiment was run at Stanford University regarding delayed gratification, known as the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. The idea behind the experiment was to see if children would be willing to wait about 15 minutes and not eat a marshmallow in order to obtain an even larger reward, a second…

There is no “best” way to experience grief. It can be almost unbearable at times. However, those that have experienced the passing of loved ones know that that pain comes from missing the cherishing of another. They may wish to mitigate that pain, but not experiencing grief would diminish the relationship that causes it as…

The Department of Labor released a final version of its fiduciary rule for retirement advisors last month. This would affect the roughly $1 trillion in assets that’s rolled over from 401(k) and other retirement plans to IRAs every year, and would take effect in September, unless it is delayed by court action. Financial advisors generally…

The right to privacy may seem like something that shouldn’t be given up. However, the sharing of personal data is sometimes required to get lower prices. In many cases, the choice isn’t whether to pay or give up privacy, it’s whether to give up privacy in order to use the product or not use it…

We all grow old, but we may not want to acknowledge we’re getting older. However, there are benefits to getting older too, and not just experience. Many products are built specifically to make life easier for older Americans. Some of these products are so nice, people may wonder why they waited until they are older…