I must admit that I have felt rather overwhelmed recently. On Sunday, I decided that my email was simply demanding too much attention! It seemed as if I was receiving alerts every five minutes. Some were interesting offers. There were low air fares, discounts at stores, menus from restaurants, and so on. There were also(…)
When a colleague has an idea or a new plan, it’s a very good idea to ask questions about it. After all, it shows you’re interested. But you might want to be a little careful if you’re in a position of power. Immediate questions might send a message that you have concerns or that you(…)
It sounds almost too obvious. Investment advisers tell you to buy low and sell high. So what’s the trick? The principle is that you should buy investments at a low price. When those investments rise in price, you should sell them. Most professionals save for their retirements, and they buy mutual funds rather than individual(…)
So, you’re checking out at the grocery store and you have eight items in your basket. The Express Lane clearly says “10 items or less” and you wait in that line. You stand there staring at the sign. Wait a minute! Was that was how you were taught to write at school? Surely “less” is wrong! Shouldn’t it be “fewer”? You’re(…)
Traveling is wonderful! You meet new people, see new places, and gain a view of the world that is new and refreshing. Many people, however, have a bad experience while traveling because someone steals their stuff. Unfortunately, popular tourist spots are also popular spots for pickpockets, not all hotel workers are completely honest, and sometimes the(…)
No business can function well unless it earns the trust of the community where it operates. Without that trust, business is hard to conduct. It’s harder to create deals with local business and government, and employee engagement suffers if a business isn’t a good community citizen. At Johns Hopkins University, we are fortunate to have(…)
Probably every professional has been at the receiving end of a poor presentation. Think of the conversations we have afterwards around the water cooler. “Wasn’t that just awful” we whine, often talking about all the mistakes the presenter made. The most common mistake of all is when the presenters yield to the temptation to tell the(…)
I was talking to a colleague the other day. I said that someone had an oral agreement to do something. She corrected me and told me that I shouldn’t have said oral. Verbal was the preferable word. I politely told her she was wrong, and she politely told me that I was wrong. We did this several times, and(…)
I have to admit this. Some people are good at keeping meticulous records, but I am not one of them. My colleagues laugh at me because I am always losing notes, notepads, and even the pens I use to write my notes. Knowing this, I do use technology to help me. For some bizarre reason(…)
In a previous post, I discussed what a mutual fund is. Today’s post describes another financial instrument, the ETF. ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund. An ETF is very much like an index mutual fund, the kind of fund that buys into a market index rather than actively trying to outperform the market. There is(…)