The other day, the owner of a local business came in to work and discovered he had apparently been laid off. It came as something of a surprise, since he knew for sure he had not laid himself off. He had not laid anyone off in many years. But his human resources manager had an […]
A customer came in to talk to Canton Co-operative Bank Branch Manager April McKee. He had received an email that seemed a little off and wanted to get an objective second opinion from her. April was able to reassure this gentleman immediately. “Between the email itself and what he told me, the email just sounded […]
As a banker and someone who uses the internet a lot, I have become increasingly alarmed about the extreme lack of privacy people have online. The spotlight today is on Venmo. Venmo is convenient. It’s easy. It’s time-saving and popular. There’s a lot I like about it, but Venmo’s “public by default” settings mean that […]
In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Dilbert creator Scott Adams makes the case for a list of skills he believes all adults need a “working knowledge” of in order to live a successful life. By success, Adams says he is talking about an overall happiness — something, he writes, “good […]
Though the coronavirus is very much still with us, as the months go by and many things are starting to feel more normal again, some people are looking around and asking, “What now?” While no one saw the coronavirus coming just the way it did, looking for ways it might be possible to benefit in […]
News reports are covering stories about lenders and landlords offering forbearance to homeowners and tenants who can’t pay their mortgage or rent because of the pandemic. Some people are starting to wonder whether they can hold off on paying their mortgage or rent too. It’s a fair question. No one wants to miss out if […]
Anyone graduating from high school in 2020 has had a unique opportunity to see firsthand and very young how life actually works. In life, there are many things to look forward to. There are also many things that no one looks forward to — losses of all kinds, including for many of this year’s graduates […]
Over the course of the past several weeks, the entire world has been through what will almost certainly be an indelible experience of dealing with sudden, drastic, unwanted change. Even many people who had the time, opportunity and determination to prepare for such a scenario found themselves shocked and shaken by the reality of it, […]
It’s all too easy to lose track of the reality that gift cards are cash equivalents. A skeptical consumer might wonder if the companies like it that way. After all, every gift card that’s not fully redeemed is “free money” for them. Gift cards that aren’t redeemed at all are obviously even better. State governments […]
A personal finance blogger recently wrote a post encouraging his readers to beware of financial “experts” offering “contrarian advice.” His point was that there are a lot of people out there trying to make a name for themselves — and, hopefully, get rich — by becoming financial gurus. The catch is that practical advice isn’t […]
