by Leif Jensen | Nov 3, 2025 | Money Management |
If you ever watched a movie or tv show you are aware of some common methods a scammer might use to commit fraud with a stolen check: Altering information on a check: A scammer may use common household chemicals to change the printed dollar amount and payee name on a...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 29, 2025 | Money Management |
What you can do to protect yourself from mail theft and check fraud. There are steps you can take to help reduce your risk of getting taken advantage of by someone engaging in a mail theft-related check fraud scheme. Here are some tips to keep in mind to help protect...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 27, 2025 | General |
As a follow-up to my last post on Functional illiteracy today, I now address the past. General illiteracy rates in the 1930s In 1930, the US Census reported 4.3% of the population aged 10 and over as illiterate, meaning they could not read and write at all. For those...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 22, 2025 | General |
I was rereading “Pudd’nhead Wilson” by Twain again, I enjoyed it years ago and wanted to reread it. There was a mention of the illiteracy of some of the populace of Dawson’s Landing MO. So, I thought where do we stand as a people today in the US. Functional...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 20, 2025 | General |
It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke, yet it is the truth. William Shakespeare made investments that could be considered annuities to provide him with retirement income, similar to a modern pension. Specifically, in 1604, concerned about his financial future,...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 15, 2025 | General |
How many Americans have $10,000 in savings? Would you believe 4%? Last year, GoBankingRates surveyed more than 5,000 Americans only to uncover that 62% of them had less than $1,000 in savings. Last month GoBankingRates again posed the question to Americans of how...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 13, 2025 | Rant |
We all know that building solid retirement savings takes years, even decades, for good reason. You can easily spend twenty or more years without a paycheck in retirement. That’s why financial advisers strongly encourage everybody to save early and often (just like...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 8, 2025 | Rant |
Scaccarium – A chequered cloth resembling a chess-board which covered the table in the exchequer, and on which, when certain of the king’s accounts were made up, the sums were marked and scored with counters The Medieval counting table was covered in a checkered...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 6, 2025 | Rant |
The abacus, originated in ancient Babylon, is a calculating tool with beads that slide on rods or wires, was in use in the ancient Near East, including regions where Arabic mathematics flourished, says UCDA Design Conference. Structure: An abacus typically features a...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 1, 2025 | Rant |
Excluding counting on the fingers, counting boards are the earliest known counting device, and a precursor of the abacus. Dust boards were used as counting tools: Dust boards, which were essentially tablets covered with a thin layer of dust or sand, served a similar...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 29, 2025 | Taxes |
S corporation shareholders encounter particular restrictions on the amount of losses and deductions they are permitted to claim on their individual income tax returns. These constraints are primarily governed by the concept of basis, which represents a shareholder’s...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 24, 2025 | Running a Business |
For S corporation (S corp) owners who are actively involved in their business operations, paying themselves a “reasonable salary” for the work performed is a requirement. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines this reasonable compensation as an amount...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 22, 2025 | Rant |
While in college a thousand years ago, I had a professor, who stated that if you could successfully get product distribution setup in Chicago, you could get your product distributed nationwide. I am uncertain if he was correct all those years ago, yet I was willing to...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 17, 2025 | Rant |
According to verbal reports given to me by my children Private Equity is removing single family homes, condo and apartment building from the purchase market to create a new class of forever renters. Apparently, they follow the teaching of Lex Luthor’s father in...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 15, 2025 | Running a Business |
Businesses save money primarily to ensure financial stability, manage unexpected costs, and support growth opportunities. Here are the key reasons why businesses save: Financial Cushion for Emergencies and Unexpected Costs Businesses face various uncertainties such as...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 10, 2025 | Retirement |
We have a situation that may sound like bad luck, but it’s a reality for many older Americans. About 1 in 5 people over 50 have no retirement savings at all, according to the AARP. This decline underscores a widening retirement savings gap between high- and low-income...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 8, 2025 | Rant |
As a student of history I think of what it must have been like to see the effects of the Industrial Revolution, the onset of the railroads, cars, airplanes. I have seen the information revolution up front, from calculators, to PC, to laptops, to cell phones, to smart...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 3, 2025 | Rant |
Car insurance premiums have been notably increasing. This trend is supported by data: Lexis-Nexis Risk Solutions’ annual report found average insurance costs rose 10% in 2024, following a 15% surge in 2023. Bankrate reports that full-coverage policies now...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 1, 2025 | Rant |
Have you been hearing all of the yelling is about money? According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it may be because the total cost to own and operate an automobile averaged a frightening $12,296 in 2024, roughly 30% higher than a decade ago. Driving has almost...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 25, 2025 | Rant |
More and more we have companies that insist that you need to keep paying for what you have purchased. Monsanto’s business model for its genetically modified seeds typically requires farmers to purchase new seeds annually rather than saving and replanting seeds...
