When my mother died, she left behind a few collections of porcelain objects. (Think lots of Hummels, lots of Lladro, and lots and lots of birds.) My girls each took one for memory’s sake, and each grandchild selected an item or two. Other than a remembrance, nobody wanted my mother’s collections, which meant I had to figure out what to do with dozens and dozens of items. Here's my story and how it might help you.

If you’re wondering why (and how) the stock market keeps going up during a war with Iran that has caused oil prices to spike, you’re not alone. It seems the Wall Street Journal can’t write enough articles about why the market is up or down, and what it may or may not do next. Spend time reading all of them, and the result will be two Advil for your headache.

We used to warn our clients about the ‘run-of-the-mill’ phone scams, such as calls from ‘agents’ pretending to work for Social Security, or desperate phone calls from ‘grandchildren.’ Then there were the ‘Oh no, your computer has been compromised’ pop-ups that seemed to target all of us. (Hopefully, you all now have McAfee, or a similar virus protection software. Don’t you?) It may be hard to believe, but those calls and scams were from the good old days, because scams have gotten a lot harder to detect.