Mind Over Money

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 [...]

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, [...]

Show me somebody with money trouble, and I’ll show you a crook in the making! While not everyone who finds themselves in a financial bind ends up breaking the law, many are tempted to cross the line when their wallets get squeezed. People with money troubles are desperate. They take chances. They make questionable choices. [...]

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 [...]

Clinton is the only small town in the Metro Jackson area that boasts a four year college. Mississippi College is one of the oldest institutes of higher learning in the country. Take a drive some evening to Clinton. As you exit I-20, you’ll head north on the Parkway. Topping the hill, you’ll see the college [...]

Steve Palazzo is the Republican Congressman from the 4th district, aka The Coast. He followed Democrat Gene Taylor who served during Hurricane Katrina and spent much time and effort to get relief for his constituents after the massive storm. People who live on the Coast of Mississippi understand the grief of a storm. They’ve lived [...]

Did you catch Tom Coburn on “Face the Nation” during the holidays? Coburn is a Republican senator from Oklahoma. He also happens to be a medical doctor. This western representative is a straight shooter with sterling conservative credentials. He served on the Simpson-Bowles Commission and is well-versed in the federal budget. Unlike Paul Ryan, he [...]

I read Nick Kristof’s column in the New York Times on Sunday. It was entitled, “Do we have the courage to stop this?” Kristof writes about common sense gun regulations in Canada and Australia that we might consider implementing. The first time the column below ran, I received some of the nastiest and scariest e-mails [...]

Wonder what happened the first time someone said, “Hey, let’s build an ice skating rink in Madison?” Dead silence. Then, “Are you nuts?” Hasn’t that been tried before? Ice skating, ice hockey … do we think Mississippians will grab onto anything as exotic as ice, as long as it doesn’t show up in our glass [...]