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The first lesson I learned in Econ 101 was the concept “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” As a freshman college student on a prepaid meal plan, I was initially skeptical. Over time it has become a simple but useful lesson for me that “cost” has many meanings, and a monetary exchange is just one type.

In the Northern Virginia area, we come across many successful professionals who have significant philanthropic desires. As financial professionals, it is important that we understand different charitable gifting options to explore with the client as part of their financial or estate plans.

I recently attended a Fidelity sponsored webinar in which they presented their new whitepaper on bitcoin. In general, I’m skeptical of digital assets such as bitcoin and other digital currencies, as well as Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the like.

We Americans love our pets and are spending more and more money on their care and wellbeing. Based on the May 2021 ASPCA1 survey, 23 million American households acquired a pet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns about potential challenges of pet ownership as people’s lives return to normal, post-pandemic have not yet reached a critical level, according to the survey.

There are many reasons to look for a larger home – feeling cramped in your current space, family changes (marriage, kids, family moving in), increased work from home, and desire to spend more time with loved ones. My lovely wife and I, and our 5 kids, had several of these squarely on our minds when we started our home upgrade journey in 2019.

Our parent company is big on community involvement. There is a whole Season of Sharing campaign, supporting multiple causes with donations of cash and goods. While it is always nice to give to a good cause, sometimes we forget that giving our time is another viable option that is just as important to a lot of charities.

Did you know that as adult women age, they begin losing muscle and bone mass, putting them at greater risk for injury?

When we meet with retirement plan participants, an almost universal recommendation is to try to increase savings each year by one percent. But in order to get to that extra one percent, you have to be maintaining a positive cash flow. And the best way to establish and maintain savings is to prepare a budget.

Kids are expensive. At least, that’s what I hear.

Have you ever wondered how much wealth is enough?