What are the biggest risks to our lives? Some are overblown. What are the major risks to our lives? If we look at the statistics of what claims lives, some of our collective fears look unfounded. According to the Centers for Disease Control’s most recent tally, 614,438 Americans died of heart disease in 2014, and another 591,699 from cancer. Chronic lower respiratory diseases (not including the flu and pneumonia) took 147,101 lives in that year, while 136,053 people died acci

Should you change jobs in pursuit of them? Or position yourself in a new way at work? Is your career unfolding as it should? If not, maybe it is time for a change; either a change of jobs, or a change in your role at your workplace. Pay attention to the signals of a stalled career. If the status quo at your office bothers you, or if you feel apathetic or nonchalant about your work, you have company. A recent Aon Hewitt poll found that only 63% of employees felt sufficiently e

Some simple steps may make a major financial difference over time. If you are younger than 35, saving for retirement may not feel like a priority. After all, retirement may be 30 years away; if your employer does not sponsor a retirement plan, there may be less incentive for you to start. Even so, you must save and invest for retirement as soon as you can. Time is your greatest ally. The earlier you begin, the more years your invested assets have to grow and compound. If you

Have our memories of the Great Recession altered our habits? Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity in the United States. Lately, that spending has moderated. Across the 12 months ending in March, personal spending advanced 3.4%. That matched the gain seen in 2015.1,2 Is a 3.4% annualized gain in personal spending adequate? Not in historical terms. During 2014, consumer spending accelerated 4.2%. The average monthly gain in consumer spending