Author: Nina
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Rent Checks and the Plight of the Poor
“History doesn’t repeat itself – at best it sometimes rhymes.” — Mark Twain I own a couple of rental properties and have given candid opinions about using real estate as part of our retirement plan. At the moment, I’m having trouble with one of my tenants and I’m at the point of slapping her with…
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Ubertrends in Banking
“Innovation is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public.” — Ludwig von Mises Here’s a good resource mentioned by a friend that knows a thing or two about trendspotting. He was wearing trucker caps months before Ashton Kutcher so it makes sense that he would turn me onto Ubertrends.…
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Planning to Death: Pre-Need Funeral Arrangements
“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” — Epicurus With all the talk about how Baby Boomers are ill-equipped for retirement, I find it interesting that at the same time, there’s been a push to get them to…
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Excess: Buying More than We Really Need
“A Big Mac – the communion wafer of consumption” — John Ralston Saul In a recent issue of the New Yorker, James Surowiecki wrote a commentary about the US defense budget on The Financial Page. He mentioned an analogy about excess where some social scientists did an experiment in an apartment building. He writes, “One…
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Money is a Map
“Even the great get greater by doing more of it.” — Colleen Wainwright A Guest Post by Colleen Wainwright… our gay-friendly friend and writer at Communicatrix. Here are her thoughts on money: I have a strange relationship with money. On the one hand, I’ve been fortunate enough never to run completely dry of it. My…
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Book Review: Invest in Your Nest by Barbara K!
“Young people on a lark might keep in mind that all birds, except cuckoos, build their nests before hatching their eggs.” — Anonymous When the complimentary review copy of Barbara Kavovit’s latest book arrived on my doorstep, I felt christened as book critic. Now I could tell my friends that free stuff tops the list…
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Anderson Cooper and Expense Reimbursement
“I am listening to people’s questions and getting answers. I am least of all interested in any TV anchor’s opinion, and least of all my own.” — Anderson Cooper Yesterday afternoon as I was catching up on work and submitting an overdue expense report, my thoughts wandered off to how someone like Anderson Cooper manages…
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The Standoff between Buyers and Sellers
“Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.” — Robert C. Gallagher Several weeks ago, our neighbor put their house up for sale. It created quite a stir because it was listed for twice as much as anything else that has sold on the street: $4.1 million. Everyone affectionately refers to it as the…
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The Baby-Making Business
“Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, has instilled within each of us a powerful biological instinct to reproduce; this is her way of assuring that the human race, come what may, will never have any disposable income.” — Dave Barry As mentioned before, Jeanine and I want to have children… or at a minimum a…
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What It’s Worth? Coming Out at Work
“Yep, I’m gay.” — Ellen Degeneres Back in June, NPR reported, “This may break the hearts of 12-year-old boys. Or fascinate them. But in any case, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. D.C. Comics says the superhero will return to the comic pages as a lesbian. She has flowing red hair, knee-high boots and…
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