In a virtual world, it can be hard to connect to students with learning disabilities, but I have learned to adapt and form real bonds with my students. I have been working in the education sector for around 30 years and started teaching virtually in 2020. With degrees in special education, interpreting for the deaf, and educational leadership, I did not expect to be working as a 2nd grade teacher at New Mexico Destinations Career Academy, but taking that position opened doors for me to learn a new avenue of communication with students online.

I love teaching virtually because it allows me to work my schedule into what works best for me. It takes a certain person with resilience to...

‘Layin’ it on the line’

By Lawrence Castillo

Guest Columnist

“10% of the people in this world use debt to get richer. 90% use it to get poorer.” -Warren Buffett

Getting rid of debt at any time is a great idea. After all, carrying a heavy debt load is known to cause various psychological and physical ailments. Being shackled to a pile of bills leads to the loss of opportunities and options that can improve one’s life.

These issues are magnified when a person is ready or forced by circumstances to retire. Although an alarming number of people are doing so, entering retirement with debt is highly inadvisable.

I often tell my clients, many of whom are retiring from...

Let me pose this question, do you insure your home?  Your Cars? Your valuable possessions?

Of course, you do.  Why?  You pass that obligation to a risk bearer, an insurance company, because you do not want to be exposed to risk or loss.  It is human nature to wish to protect our possessions if something devastating occurs.

Now let me ask a critical follow-up question, do you insure your investments? Your retirement accounts?  The sad fact is that many people do not take the same precautions for their essential money.

If your investments are in risk-based assets like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and variable annuities, you may be exposing these investments to market risk. I am...

There have been a lot of game changers since COVID-19 began - including the virus itself, which has completely upended our way of life, across the globe. For two years we have been in a dead heat, racing against emerging variants, lining our tool kit with the most successful vaccine in human history, collectively postponing big life events to save the very lives we are meant to be celebrating…and so much more. How are we faring in this race? A look back helps define where we are, how far we have come, and why what we do now matters.

The first game changer and the most prolific is of course the ground-breaking mRNA vaccine. A remarkable medical wonder, years in the making, released...