When You’re Depressed During the Holidays

(This article originally appeared in 2017.) In the midst of frenetic advertising, pressure to shop for gifts and the ubiquitous seasonal music, the holidays can be an especially hard time if you’re depressed or missing a lost loved one. The contrast be… Continue reading

Four Jews and a Christmas Tree

(This article originally appeared in 2016.) I grew up in a Jewish household where Christmas dawned each year with only one thought in mind: “Woo-hoo, the ski slopes will be empty today!” As my mother made clear, the trees, the ornaments, the music — th… Continue reading

An Empty Nester’s Christmas Morning

(This story was originally published on Next Avenue in 2015) The presents are piled under the tree. The stockings hang from the mantle. The Yule log blazes on the TV. The big plastic Santa that my son and I rescued from a dumpster behind the local beau… Continue reading

A Guide to Finding Long-Term Care for Your Loved One

If you are one of the many people in the U.S. faced with helping a parent or another loved one find long-term care, then you are probably grappling with a lot of questions. Among them: How can I bring this up in a way that won’t upset him? How is she, … Continue reading

The Baseball Player Who Lived a ‘George Bailey’ Life

Imagine growing up in a Michigan farm town, shipping off for WWII training and landing on a U.S. Navy baseball team with Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams. Imagine pitching for a military squad with teammates who played for the New York Yankees, the D… Continue reading

Workers and Retirement: Employers Just Don’t Get It

Two new studies — one of 143 large American companies and another of 2,043 retirees show, stunningly, how clueless employers are about workers’ retirement challenges and wishes. “The phrase that leapt to mind is ‘benign neglect,’” said Paul Rupert, fou… Continue reading

These were the biggest iBuyer stories of 2018

The iBuying market exploded this year, to the point that its rapid expansion has become one of the year’s most dominant real estate stories. Continue reading