Actors don’t like to be typecast. Exhibit A is Paul Rudd, who has made a career out of playing funny parts in goofy comedies, examples include: Knocked Up, Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and I Love You, Man. Even when Rudd went the action route, it was as the semi-tongue-in-cheek superhero, Ant-Man.
Get ready to enjoy one more hour of sleep on Sunday. It’s time to set your clocks back one hour as Daylight Saving Time (DST) comes to an end on the first Sunday in November, this year on Nov. 4, at 2am! DST is the practice of setting the clocks forward one hour from standard time during the summer months, and back again in the fall, in order to make better use of natural daylight. And while we all love that extra hour of sleep as we gain back the hour we lost over the summer months, the downside of DST is we lose an hour of natural day light in the evening.
Did you know that October is National Pizza Month? Who doesn’t love a piping-hot slice, fresh from a brick oven with a crispy, golden crust covered in rich tomato sauce and melted mozzarella? According to pizza.com/national pizza month, the soldiers returning from Italy during World War II brought with them a hunger for pizza pie and pushed its popularity over the top. America has been in love with it ever since.
On August 25, the Flint Monarchs took on the Chicago Breeze at Dort Federal Credit Union Event Center for the Global Women’s Basketball Association (GWBA) Title.
Many of the nation’s filmgoers will satisfy their annual Halloween movie fix this month with Venom, Goosebumps 2 or the this-is-the-last-one-we-promise Halloween reboot with the indestructible Michael Myers and the inimitable Jamie Lee Curtis.
“The last one is finally out of the house.”
As we enter Michigan’s beautiful fall season, we remember that it is the uniqueness of life’s seasons that create opportunities for us to reflect on our experiences and learn from our past. There is a time for everything: Ecclesiastes 3 of the Christian Bible reiterates exactly that. “A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.” As a financial planner I will add one of my own – a time to store and a time to use.
The cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent is the centerpiece of the Tax Cut Package that took effect this year. This put the United States in line with the rest of the developed world, which has a 24.1 percent average corporate tax rate.
Growing up a proud Michigander, I was under the impression that all the lakes worth visiting were in my home state. If not only for the beauty, majesty and bragging rights that come with being the “Great Lakes State” but for the sheer number of bodies of water found here. Minnesota, “land of a thousand lakes”? We scoff at you. Michigan is home to over 11,000! No matter where in the state you are standing, you are never more than six miles from one of these refreshing beauties. Can that be topped? Michigan is surely the epicenter of all things freshwater and deserves every lake-related accolade.
Well, it happened … in August, I turned the BIG 4-0! Honestly, I’ve kind of felt like I was 40 for the last ten years, so it’s really not much different. One thing that this old man has noticed lately is “Help Wanted” signs posted just about everywhere. As the economy officially printed its second quarter GDP at 4.1% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the official unemployment rate is wavering between 3.8% and 4%, it seems like even local McDonald’s restaurants are looking to hire at above $11/hour. Bank tellers I’ve asked are starting at $12/hour and more seasoned vets are now making $15/hour. Employment demand is outpacing people looking for work and it is resulting in average wages starting to make notable increases. This is a good thing, being that it has felt like wages really haven’t moved in about a decade!
President Trump’s so-called “trade war” has gotten a lot of media attention. Tariffs raise prices for consumers, as illustrated by the recent price increase for washing machines, a good that recently received tariff protection. Tariffs on raw materials raise costs for U.S. manufacturers, which cuts into their profits and reduces their competitiveness. Second quarter 2018 earnings for General Motors decreased by three percent due in part to higher aluminum and steel prices resulting from tariffs. The auto maker recently said that proposed tariffs on auto parts might result in layoffs and reduced investment. Tariffs also close markets to domestic producers if foreign countries retaliate. Recently, the European Union retaliated with tariffs on U.S. agriculture products and the U.S. government has pledged $12 billion of taxpayer money to farmers to partially offset the loss of overseas markets after China.
