Mind Over Money

My daughter will be 32 this summer, but she’s still my baby. I’m just so proud of her. Recently, she let me read a proposal she had written for academic research. I was astounded by her command of the English language and her ability to communicate an idea… especially since she had the disadvantage of [...]

I don’t live in Jackson, but neither do most of the folks on my Facebook feed. That didn’t stop them from ranting about the outcome of the Jackson mayoral primary. The Facebook equivalent of “run for your lives” filled my screen. Shocked posters declared the election had been rigged. With only about 37,000 votes cast [...]

I ordered a shirt from L.L. Bean a few months ago. I liked it so much I ordered another one — same shirt, same size, different color. So certain I was that the second one would be as perfect as the first that I threw away the tags and shipping papers. Much to my surprise, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]