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Three reasons to consider diversifying into global stocks

When it comes to daily market news, most coverage focuses on familiar U.S. benchmarks like the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That emphasis can make it easy to overlook opportunities beyond our borders — but doing so can mean missing a meaningful portion of the global investing ...

Something’s Bloom(ing) in downtown Marshall

Sometimes the well runs dry for a columnist. That happens every so often when I did reporting in Barstow, California. When that happened, I would take a stroll in the downtown area. Besides checking out businesses that might be closing or opening up, I’d talk to homeless people with ...

Liberated and set free! Our daughter finally gets the chance to be herself

Our youngest daughter, and last child at home, graduated high school, and moved away from us, all within the span of two hours this past week. Twenty-eight years of raising children, and in the span of minutes … “POOF!” … Shelley and I found ourselves staring at each other across our ...

Addressing the Sons of Norway

I was recently asked to speak at a meeting of a secret society. I was surprised when they invited me as it’s widely known that I can’t keep a secret. My wife and I went to an innocuous building located in the midst of a sleepy college town. We descended a set of concrete stairs that led ...

Here and gone

In a season where a mix of winter and spring suddenly gave way to summer, I found myself gently dangling my hand off the side of my kayak in a backwater connecting two lakes. It was a Memorial Day weekend tradition for me to fish the mud-bottomed stop just downstream from the cabin, and a ...

Like a river

A while ago I read a book that has always flowed through me. The name of the book is “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean. It's a story about the author's growing up in rural Montana, and his relationship with his brother. Although different in some ways, they usually bonded over their love of fly fishing in a local river. What they learned is that life is like a river — it flows and has many different personalities. I was drawn to that image of the river. About two years ago, some of the family took a trip to Yellowstone National Park. It was during winter so the skiers ...