Jim Wheeler
BS, USNA, Annapolis, 1959; MSA, The Geo. Washington U., 1975; Submariner, Commander, USN, 1959 - 1981; Aerospace battery engineer & mgr., 1981 - 1999; Political affiliation: Mainly of the Democratic persuasion but not a fan of the extremes on either side.
Copyright Notice
Still Skeptical After All These Years by James R Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at jwheeler59@me.com. Copyright 2015 James R. Wheeler
Category Archives: Personal Finance
We’re Talking Real Money Here!
Personal finance has always been an interest of mine, but I haven’t always done a good job of it. Turns out, I’m not alone. The Atlantic recently published an article that leads out with the following simple quiz: Do you … Continue reading
Posted in Personal Finance
Tagged Ben Franklin, Exchange-traded fund, Index fund, Investing, money, Money market fund, Mutual fund, Personal Finance, Saving, Uncle Sam, wisdom
28 Comments
Student Loan, Leech on Society?
In a previous post I asserted that the quality of a college degree is more a function of talent and work ethic than it is of instructional quality, and that universities are basically selling prestige and a monopolistic imprimatur. The … Continue reading
Selling The Sizzle But Not The Steak
America’s lucrative education industry touts the meme that a college degree is necessary to success in life. This notion is firmly embedded in our culture, in the minds of students and business leaders alike. A typical article on this appeared … Continue reading
Financial Reputations
Americas have a continuing love/hate relationship with government. On the one hand we hate to be told what to do, but on the other we like to have someone in a neutral corner to arbitrate disputes in the interest of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Government size, Personal Finance, Privacy
Tagged Big Brother, bureaucracy, Credit history, debt, Employment, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Great Depression, red tape
1 Comment
The Regular Recurrence Factor
“Ain’t it awful?”, my life’s companion and domestic engineer asked. She was referring to our electric bill which was about $95. Why, she asked rhetorically, should it be so unreasonably high? Well, it has been inching up over the last couple … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Personal Finance
Tagged bottled water, land fills, Personal Finance, Saving, Water, Water heating
2 Comments
Gas Prices Bad For The Economy!
Headlines seem to be a bit like movie titles. I understand there is no prohibition or law against using a movie title that has been used before, and I think book titles are the same. Similarly, headlines are apparently made … Continue reading
Wisdom and Tough Love
Anson Burlingame’s latest post, “Intoxicated by Government”, prompts me to reply with a post of my own, wherein I can access more writing tools than on just a comment. Anson addresses the age-old conundrum of the relationship between the government … Continue reading
What’s A Sheepskin Worth, Anyway?
A college education is one of life’s largest expenses and probably the biggest source of personal debt next to houses. The costs are all over the board and generally greater for private schools than public. Just out of curiosity and … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Education, Personal Finance, Philosophy
7 Comments
Still Skeptical After All These Years 