We recently received our first snow of the season. I am not one to count down to the first snow of the year. For me, it primarily serves as a reminder that it will be quite some time until golf season starts again! Our 3-year-old son, however, was much more excited about the snow. He stared out the window, fascinated by the weather, thinking it was Christmas again already. Later… Read More

From time to time, I take a class at the gym called Grit. It’s a half hour of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). It’s called Grit for a reason. Usually after about 10 minutes of the class, my brain is telling me that I really don’t need to be working this hard and it would be fine to stop. Most of the things that have value in our lives are only… Read More

We hope you had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with family and friends! You are probably reading this blog post during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Have you started to formulate your annual New Year’s resolutions? More importantly, will your recent celebration of Christmas help to shape your goals and resolutions for 2022? Allow me to elaborate on that last question. In our fast-paced culture, we plan,… Read More

If you have been shopping lately or following the financial headlines, the story of the day continues to be the inflationary pressures on the U.S. economy. November’s inflation increase, known as “Headline CPI” came in at 6.9% year-over-year, which is the highest reading since 1982. Supply and demand pressures, consumer spending, and a job environment where there are more jobs available than workers to fill them are all factors contributing… Read More

It is hard to believe that it is the middle of December already. Pretty soon, we will turn the page on 2021. Think back to the beginning of this year with me: did you have anything you wanted to accomplish in 2021? If you answered in the affirmative, were you successful in achieving your goal? As we prepare to enter 2022, here is some advice related to setting goals: Be… Read More

Here we are in the final month of the year! This is typically a busy time of year for most all of us. We certainly hope you are taking the time to enjoy meaningful Christmas gatherings and year-end celebrations with friends and family. As we approach year-end, it is an opportune time to evaluate three key financial categories: Savings – Make sure you are maximizing all the savings vehicles available… Read More

In this blog series on generosity, we have discussed the heart behind stewardship, the ways generosity benefits our health, and were challenged to live with a heart of gratitude. As we wrap this series up, I am encouraging you to think about how you can be generous in a practical way; by using a giving ‘system’. Once we have established our desire to be generous, we next need to devise… Read More

My wife and I have three children, ages 4, 3 and 1. Around this time of year, we start to receive catalogs in the mail filled with pictures of various toys. My children enjoy looking through the catalog at the pictures of the toys, pointing out the ones that stand out to them. These catalogs serve as a reminder that we live in a society that leans heavily towards consumerism,… Read More