Who Wants to be a Socialist?

Last week Jeff and I were talking about Watson (the IBM supercomputer) as a result of a visit by a friend from France who works for a large telecom company. He is a corporate IT guy, a socialist AND believes super computers will make huge inroads within the next few years. (including medicine--his example was oncology--and investments, and law, and engineering.)

As Good As It Gets

On the phone today with a 92 year old retired nun--(is that possible?)—she said—“you have no idea how important these conversations are to me.  You give me the courage to keep on going.”  WOW!  I immediately got up from my desk and proclaimed—“It’s time to go home cuz it can’t get any better than that.”

How the Minimum Wage Earner is Like a Big Bank ?

On the Sunday Morning Show recently there was a piece regarding the minimum wage and a story about a divorced mother of two who has worked for McDonalds for 10 years and is still paid the minimum wage with no benefits.  She indicated that she has decided not to take promotions and that she gets assistance for child care.  I wondered about what the real implications are from a couple of points of view.

Health Care Priorities

I have heard that 65% of statistics are made up on the fly; but Bill Frist, Senator from Tennessee, said he thinks 1/3 of our health care spending is due to waste and fraud.  He goes on to say that the 3 major points of healthcare reform should be:

     1)  Get the uninsured into the system;
     2)  Lower the costs of healthcare; and
     3)  Eliminate fraud and waste.

Practical Dreaming

Sometimes financial planning conversations can go places one might not expect.  Take for example the following inspiring story of one business owner's dream to live in California.

I get an email asking if I would be willing to meet and discuss financial planning issues.  I replied by saying--"Don't you work with another CFP(r)?"  To which she replied--"I'm not working with her anymore and I have been working with another CFP(r) guy but they don't really do what you do." 

Anyway we agreed to meet and see where it goes.  Well in a little over an hour