Mind Over Money

Pearl used to be the red-headed stepchild of the Jackson area. It had a stretch of Highway 80 littered with half-empty strip malls and fast food restaurants. In many cases, the neighborhoods were old and rundown. We laughed when the town was mentioned. Puuhhrrrl? We always stretched out the one syllable and put on our [...]

I know Mississippi Rep. Andy Gipson. He’s a really nice guy, has a nice family, very sweet people. You’ve heard the phrase, “He’s a renaissance man?” Doesn’t apply to Andy. Instead, I’d call him a solid nineteenth century man, as in “His feet are solidly planted in the 1800s.” When I knew Andy, he lived [...]

Saturday morning. Not a cloud in the sky. It had been a cool start to the morning. We pull our chairs into the sunshine. A sigh of relief. This was a scary and tragic week from terrorism to mushroom clouds to the insanity of an Elvis impersonator. And we thought we were completely safe in [...]

Communication with clients has drastically changed over the last decade. While we still send out quarterly reports in the old U.S. mail packet with a formal letter, other mailings are rare. E-mail is the favored method these days, and it surprises me that my older clients are well-versed in this area. We even text clients [...]

I’m a finance junkie. I love studying markets and tracking economic indicators, all with an eye for finding opportunities or avoiding investing traps. It’s a joy to share this with my students. This past week, I was able to combine that with my other love — travel. I took three students to a financial conference [...]

In 1975, about 8 percent of the U.S. population was on food stamps. Currently, that number is 15 percent. Much of the growth in usage can be attributed to the recent recession. In fact, since 2008, the food stamp program has ballooned 70 percent. No surprise there. The bigger surprise is the “stickiness” of these [...]

Ask any accountant, “How do you increase the bottom line?” The answer will always be one of two things. You either increase revenue or you decrease expenses. To increase your bottom line without one of those options is to defy the laws of bookkeeping. It can’t be done. As legislators pore over the State budget, [...]

Every generation of women has found it easier to step into a man’s world and compete. During my early years as a business owner, one potential client decided against signing up because I might get married and quit. As a woman, credibility was hard to come by. I knew I had to have more letters [...]

Good news is always welcome. Just days from the pronouncement of the expert panel at the annual CFA Forecast Dinner, the market performed as predicted and hit an all-time high. Kathleen Hays of Bloomberg Radio moderated again this year, much to the delight of the audience. Food and atmosphere at Jackson Country Club met our [...]

Bubba strikes again! Our House of Representatives here in Mississippi recently passed a bill allowing ANY school employee to carry a gun on school grounds. From the Lunch Lady to Joe the Janitor, they’ll all be armed. This could be the break the homeschoolers were looking for. Junior didn’t do his homework? Forget detention. Now [...]