Everyone of a certain age remembers Sally Struthers’ Save the Children TV commercials, encouraging viewers to improve the life of an impoverished child in a developing nation by sponsoring him or her for the price of a cup of coffee a day. Many organiz… Continue reading
New York City winters are sometimes so unseasonably warm that one holiday week, tree sellers wore shorts while hot chocolate vendors lost their shirts. As I browsed the balsam and cedar potpourri then, absentmindedly humming along to “Jingle Bells,” I … Continue reading
Nobody ever said going through divorce is easy. Aside from the normal emotions of a broken relationship and family, there’s the paperwork, the attorneys, the courts and, of course, the money. As if dividing up assets wasn’t difficult enough, new tax ch… Continue reading
My grandma was what the polite would call “a character.” The third of nine, my Gram was born the year the Titanic went down. She spent her life doting on her Italian family, even if she couldn’t remember who she was bossing around at the moment, callin… Continue reading
(Editor’s note: This story is part of a special report for The John A. Hartford Foundation.) Before his mother, Dee Dee, died from emphysema in 2009, Larry Sernovitz spent a lot of time at her bedside, keeping her company. Toward the last few days of D… Continue reading
The noise of the blow dryer caused Deborah Aquilino, known as Deb, to raise her voice as she spoke in the New Jersey hair salon where she works. Her five-foot nothing frame was barely noticeable over her generous personality as she told me the story th… Continue reading
When the parents of Natalie Perry and her sister sat their girls down for a family meeting, Perry learned that their father, a chief judge for the Court of Appeals in Boise, Idaho, was gay. The next day he moved out of the house and kept his secret in … Continue reading
The holidays are supposed to be a time of thankfulness, reflection, observance and celebration. But too often, the idealistic visions of a perfect holiday are marred by tensions and stress. Financial pressure, over-commitment and unrealistic expectatio… Continue reading
Research shows that keeping gratitude journals has many benefits, including sounder sleep and more optimism.
The post Be Grateful and Be Happier appeared first on Next Avenue.
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At Thanksgiving, you might be getting together with your parents, your grown children, your brothers and your sisters. Seems like an ideal time to discuss vital family money matters, no? Well, the actual answer is: maybe. “No one responds well to being… Continue reading