Guest Columnist

Raising children can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. It is also very costly.

Happy New Year! January is the eighth annual Positive Parenting Awareness Month in Santa Cruz County. Although parenting is a non-stop job that deserves recognition every day of the year, this month is an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a...

Dear Nicole, I want my kids to learn the value of money. My partner and I both work two jobs to make ends meet, and we live on a tight budget.

I recently read that “According to a [2007] report by the A.C. Nielsen Company, parents spend only 39 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with their children.”

According to reports from the Huffington Post, the number one New Year's Resolution is to lose weight. That's not surprising as they also report that about one in every three adults in this country is obese.

A wonderful new event has surfaced in our Aptos community thanks to Friends of the Library and Denise Ward, a local resident who also loves to read and to bring community together.

As we are writing this month’s article, the Dow Jones Industrial Average just crossed over 22,000 for the first time in history (Aug. 2, 2017). Year to date the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up approximately 11.4 percent while the S & P 500 is up approximately 10.61 percent (as of Aug. 1, Source: Morningstar).

A community is defined by the people who take a leadership role. In the 20th century, Paul Johnston was constantly involved in the development of Aptos Village for more than 100 years.

Both Seacliff and the Rio Del Mar developments were severely impacted by the depression which started in 1929, the same year the Rio Del Mar Hotel opened.

2017 was a boring year for the financial markets. It seemed like every day last year the S&P 500 and NASDAQ creeped higher and higher. In fact, 2017 was one of the calmest year for the markets in decades. 2018 has started off a different story. After blasting off in January with the S&P 500 rising almost 6 percent, February and March have been met with large swings up and down, ending down 0.8 percent on a total return basis at the end of March. With this recent volatility, now is a good time to understand what is going on and how you might be affected.