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 accidental deaths. Strokes claimed 133,103 lives, Alzheimer’s disease 93,541 more and diabetes another 76,488. Those were America’s leading causes of death.1 Notice what that list did not include. It did not include war, ter
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 engaged on the job. According to a Gallup poll, even fewer Americans truly like what they do for a living: just 32% of employees are “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace.”1 If you fin
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 put off retirement planning until your fifties, you may end up having to devote huge chunks of your income just to catch up, at a time when you may have to care for elderly parents, fund college educations, and pay off a
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 across the past 12 months (0.28%) is roughly half the historical average seen since 1959 (0.54%).1,2 While the personal spending rate has slumped recently, the personal savings rate has not. In March, it was at 5.4%. It