PSA: Know the key benefits of Roth IRA?

One of the most popular retirement savings vehicles available is the Roth IRA — but what sets it apart?    First of all, when you invest in a Roth IRA, your earnings can grow tax-free, provided you don’t withdraw them until you’re 59½ and you’ve had your account at least five years.

"Reel Reviews: ‘Songbirds & Snakes’ gloss over book details for mediocre storyline" by: Jessica Shepard

I missed the actual book launch of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” since it came out during the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic and thought that seeing the movie might be somewhat decent.

‘Navigating the Flow’ by: Karen Restivo

Watching unprecedented achievements in gymnastics, sports, research, space travel, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), you recognize things once thought unbelievable are now, in fact, believable.

"Tidehaven fans showed up en masse for their Tigers" by: Mike Reddell

Covering playoff games for local schools certainly is an experience.     A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about riding the Bay City Blackcat bus for the Kilgore game at Houston.

"Sometimes learning new things completely out of our hands" by: Jessica Shepard

One of the oddball perks of this job is attending meetings, lectures, and other discussions about topics that don’t interest me at first glance.     Now, I attend these events with the same viewpoint as I do with my movie review columns.

"It certainly looks like a jolly holiday season" by: John Sample

Now that the Holiday season is officially open for business, it seems the Santa Claus rally is off to a great start.       The various averages and indexes have posted four straight weeks of gains with the Dow and S&P 500 stock-index closing in on record highs.

PSA: Can life insurance provide retirement income?

If your children are grown and your mortgage is paid off, do you still need life insurance?     It depends on your situation, but many people find that a cash-value life insurance policy, such as whole life or universal life, can help supplement their retirement income.

"Reel Reviews: ‘Napoleon’ storyline only highlights rise and fall of Bonaparte" by: Jessica Shepard

I’m not going to lie, my main motivation for seeing “Napoleon” last week was to see just which direction the film would take.     Honestly, I feel misled by the trailers I’ve seen the past few weeks.     Everything appeared to show a more realistic view of Napoleon.

‘Accepting Current Conditions’ by: Karen Restivo

Time flies just fine by itself without us counting the days until the weekend or declaring Wednesday as ‘hump day’ in an effort to roll faster through Thursday right on to the weekend.

"Enjoying the local sights en route to a football playoff" by: Mike Reddell

I had the opportunity to ride one of the Blackcats’ team buses en route to Bay City’s area playoff against Kilgore last Friday.    It was quite the convoy of buses ferrying students representing the different groups that are part of the Blackcat Friday night experience.