The Mission Critical Blog
Why “Get Rich Slow” Could Be the Best Way to Save for Retirement
The Biggest Loser, which ran on NBC from 2004 to 2016, was a reality-TV hit for a number of reasons. It dealt with a concern of many Americans (losing weight). It revealed the personal struggles of the contestants who were often overcoming lifelong challenges with food. And it delivered the results everyone wanted to see. The contestants lost considerable amounts of weight (100 lbs. on average) in a relatively short period of time (30 weeks). Each season, the [...]
Why it’s Harder to Pick a Winning Stock Than a Losing One
“The sky has finally fallen,” said Eeyore. “Always knew it would.” While you might not want to adopt the pessimism of Winnie-the-Pooh’s gloomy friend in every aspect of your life, when it comes to picking stocks, having a glass-is-half-empty attitude can give you a statistical advantage. It’s not because the market as a whole has been contracting. In fact, quite the opposite has been true over the past several decades. It’s because, for any given timespan, the number [...]
Why Humility is a Necessary Ingredient in Long-Term Self-Improvement
Nearly 20 years ago the Fox network began airing a TV show called American Idol. Thousands of unknown singers showed up to audition. And after multiple rounds of competition, the cream rose to the top and we saw that there really was great talent just waiting to be discovered. (Kelly Clarkson won that first season.) But that was only half of the show’s appeal. The other half was seeing the auditions of the contestants who believed they were excellent [...]
“I’ll do it tomorrow.”
The custom of setting new year's resolutions has been around for quite some time (as far as the 1700s, by some counts). People worldwide make promises to themselves to start or stop a behavior that is supposed to better their lives. Some folks aim to kill their bad habits, like smoking, drinking or spending too much time on social media. Or they want to create a new good habit, like eating out less, setting aside more money from [...]
Here Comes 2022: Will History Repeat Itself?
Whether we're ready for it or not, 2022 will be here in a few days. Another year will have passed. You'll look at your schedule, your finances, maybe even at the bathroom scale and wonder if this time next year you'll be any closer to achieving the changes in your life you'd really like to make. Setting aside his politics for a moment, Karl Marx once wrote an interesting observation, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as [...]
Holiday Charitable Giving
Imagine it’s the height of the holiday gift buying season and you’re walking with many other shoppers toward the entrance of a major retailer. Above the sound of nearby traffic and tinny holiday music being piped out of the store, you hear the familiar ringing of a Salvation Army bell. The bell ringer is wearing a flopped over Santa hat. His arm moves rhythmically up and down as he holds the door, wishes everyone “Merry Christmas!” and nods [...]
