The American workforce continues to see an increase year after year in the number of employees who are near or past the typical retirement age. Contributing factors include improvements in healthcare, a growing need for experienced labor, and older Americans who must continue to work because of a lack of sufficient retirement savings. While older employees can be tremendous assets for companies, it's important for business owners to do their part to protect older workers, who are more likely to be injured on the jobsite.

Studies have long shown that if you want a child to master a specific skill set, language, or talent, then early exposure and training is key. For example, a child learning a second language should be immersed in it as early as possible, since it only becomes harder to learn a new language as you age. The same is true when it comes to teaching kids about money and personal finances. If you want them to make smart choices about money and finances as an adult, then it's critical to teach them at a young age and to model wise decisions yourself.

These days, we're inundated with ads that tell us to start planning now for our financial future. The problem with that is that many consumers focus on one area, and neglect other key aspects of financial planning. For example, a family might be protected with Life Insurance, but with no money saved for retirement. Others might have abundant retirement accounts and good Life Insurance, but lack a written will in place to help survivors divide their estate.

Hurricane Harvey has been a major wake-up call to individuals and families across the country about their own level of preparedness in the face of a natural disaster. Improved technology has made it slightly easier to predict certain types of natural disasters and their expected pathways, but it's still next to impossible to predict their full impact or level of destruction. For example, Texas residents knew several days in advance that Hurricane Harvey was approaching our coast, but no one knew that we would receive multiple tornadoes and catastrophic, record-shattering flooding.