Blog Posts

By Marc C. Shaffer

Americans take wellness pretty seriously.

We’re tracking our steps, sleep and health patterns on wearable devices to make sure we stay on track daily. We’re getting our social fix in healthy ways such as group fitness classes, fun runs and endurance obstacle course events. We’re getting organic ingredients delivered to our homes to make meals as a family and taking customized mixes of health supplements. We’re even planning our vacations around a mix of relaxation and athletic opportunities. According to a 2018 MyProtein study, we’re spending more on fitness over a lifetime than we pay for college tuition.

By Jessica Searcy Kmetty

In Part I of this blog series, we introduced you to Meredith, a self-described community creator, home curator, minimalist, hipster mama who is raising 3 “wonderful wilds” in NYC. We talked about how she manages finances for her family, how she and her husband discuss their money scripts, and her philosophy on debt and spending. In Part II, we’re going to dive deeper into something she has been trying out with her family – no spend months.

They are hard pressed on both sides. They manage the needs and challenges of several households. They firmly occupy the middle ground between two generations.

They are members of the sandwich generation. Typically middle-aged, they often help support parents 65 or older and children under the age of 18.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “prepare” as making or getting ready for something that will happen in the future. It also states: “to expect that something will happen and to be ready for it.”

A capricious planet Earth makes natural disasters inevitable. Some years are worse than others, and relatively brief stretches of recorded history demonstrate the ferocity nature can superimpose on unsuspecting civilizations.

Three generations. That’s all you have. And then you’ll be forgotten. Completely. Only your name may remain. Memories of you will have long since passed into the annals of parochial history.

“There is no remembrance of those who came before; and of those who will come after there will also be no remembrance,” wrote Solomon thousands of years ago.