Pepperoni and Cheese Scrambled Eggs

Robert Irvine from the Food Network inspired this delicious breakfast recipe that only takes about 15 minutes to whip up.  The creamy scrambled eggs with spicy pepperoni are the perfect way to start the day.  

Click here to view recipe

Social Security and Medicare Figures for 2014

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced that Social Security and SSI beneficiaries will receive a 1.5% cost-of-living (COLA) adjustment for 2014. According to the SSA's announcement, after the COLA adjustment, the estimated average retirement benefit will rise from $1,275 in 2013 to $1,294 in 2014.

Click here to read full article

Year-End Charitable Giving Enhanced with Tax Planning

As the holiday season approaches, with the end of one year and the start of another, we pause to give thanks for our blessings and the people in our lives. It is also a time when charitable giving often comes to mind. Professional Alliance members Neil Larson and Victoria Trigg remind us that charitable giving can be enhanced using income tax deductions, and so it can be much more effective when it is included as part of year-end tax planning.

Click here to read full article

Nellie Cashman Event

Almost every year for the past thirteen years I have attended the inspiring annual award ceremony with my friend and past Nellie winner, Tish Johnson.  The Nellie is organized by the Woman Business Owners of Puget Sound and it is always motivational listening to the challenges and successes of women entrepreneurs.  I recommend it to anyone thinking of starting a business or running their own.

600 BC - Olive Press Call Options?

Usually regarded as new risk management tools developed by financial engineers, derivatives have been part of our financial landscape for literally thousands of years.  Aristotle is credited with recording the first use of call options in Book One, Part XI of Politics, written in 350 BC.  To illustrate the art of accumulating wealth, Aristotle recounts the anecdote of Thales of Miletus (620-546 BC).

Click here to read full article © Russell Investments 2013. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Fiscally Responsible Pumpkin

My parents are blessed with a wonderful neighbor whose parents originally built the home they live in. The children that now occupy the old homestead are continuing to instill fiscal responsibility in their children by keeping family tradition alive. To this family, pumpkins are more than an ingredient in pumpkin pies and the medium for sculpting jack-o-lanterns. They are a lesson in patience, hard work and fiscal rewards. The family’s daughters were responsible for planting and caring for the pumpkin patch and in the fall would haul the pumpkins out to the road and sell them: they got to keep the proceeds.

The annual pumpkin sale continues, only now it is the granddaughters that offer up bins of pumpkins that sell out in only a couple of hours. The family’s tradition lives on and I can not resist purchasing a few pumpkins to make into jack-o-lanterns to greet the many trick-or-treaters that live in my Ballard neighborhood. I am sure the rewards for these girls’ hard work is much sweeter than any trick-or-treat candy they may have received on Halloween.

Savory Pumpkin Seeds

We always look forward to pumpkin seeds not only because of our annual barbequed stuffed pumpkin, but because of our love of savory baked pumpkin seeds.  Our favorites are the seeds from pie pumpkins as they have the most seeds per pound of pumpkin.  The recipe is at the bottom of the Great Pumpkin recipe.  

Click here to view recipe