Category: Blog

The cost of living varies greatly from state to state. Even though a dollar is a dollar everywhere, you can’t exchange it for the same amount of gas in California as you do in New Jersey. The costs of selling that gas varies with local tax structures and distance from the source. Local competition could…

Ronald Howard, A Stanford professor, introduced the “micromort” in 1980 to measure the impact that particular behaviors have on the risk of death. He assessed individual actions and decisions at a very small scale to see how it all adds up, by utilizing a microprobability (a one-in-a million chance of some event) to quantify how…

When a software creator such as Apple or Microsoft makes changes to their main platform or operating system, they either adjust the number before the decimal of the system or afterward. One might expect, when going from Windows 10.1 to 10.2, to have minor incremental changes, but going from 10 to 11 to have more…

A recent working paper “HOW MUCH LIFETIME SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS ARE AMERICANS LEAVING ON THE TABLE?” from the National Bureau of Economic Research takes lots of data, including the spending and taxation of families, and suggests: “More than 90 percent should wait till age 70. Only 10.2 percent appear to do so. The median loss…

Recently an associate recounted for us a family experience that we would like to share. My Dad was born in 1929, so he was too young to be drafted for World War II. His Uncle Ray, a farm boy, did serve. Ray was posted to Europe, but I don’t know how much fighting he did.…

If you are alive to read this, then it isn’t too late to plan ahead and create an estate plan. In fact, it doesn’t need to be delayed until you are close to death—especially if substantial assets are involved. Thinking about death is hard. When it’s your own death, it’s even harder. However, thoughtful planning…

Yogi Berra once said “records and achievements are meant to be broken”. His words were likely meant more to apply to actions of new players rather than the value of the denotation of earlier players by their baseball cards. Nevertheless, his words are applicable as another baseball record is surpassed: the most ever paid for…