On a very personal note, I’d like to share with you some tragic news that has deeply affected us here at Kiplinger. Senior editor Jane Bennett Clark, one of the most talented members of our staff, has passed away of head injuries she suffered recently after being struck by a bicyclist while walking to the Metro just a few blocks from our Washington, D.C., office. Kiplinger’s readers know Jane as our retirement expert. She wrote our March cover story (6 Steps to Retire When You Want), and in her final Rethinking Retirement column, she wrote about moving to be closer to adult children and grandkids.
Our staff knew Jane as a gifted author who could write about anything and make it sing. In fact, she did write about anything and everything during her career at Kiplinger—which began in 1977 and resumed full-time in 2002 after a hiatus to raise her three children. She once shopped with Marvin Hamlisch for a story on how to buy a piano. She did a feature story on bathroom remodeling, and in writing about sinks she led off with this sentence: “They’re so pretty you kind of hate to spit in them.” It was pure, witty Jane, painting an evocative picture.
No one could top her ability to conjure up just the right word to use in a headline. Last year she coauthored our series on women and money, which has so far won two journalism awards from her peers. She also supervised our annual college rankings project. Reacting to her death, one of her longtime college sources wrote to us, “I have greatly appreciated her compassion, sensitive nature, intelligence and rational, professional judgment. I know of no reporter who was more responsible or concerned with getting the story correct. And she always did. A thoroughly magnificent lady.”
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After I described her recently as a “beautiful wordsmith,” I realized that Jane, ever the stickler for language, would have chided me that the phrase has a double meaning. Did I mean that she wrote beautiful prose, or that she was a beautiful person who wrote prose? In Jane’s case, both of those things are true.
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AI Stocks Lead Nasdaq's 398-Point Nosedive: Stock Market TodayThe major stock market indexes do not yet reflect the bullish tendencies of sector rotation and broadening participation.
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Top Tech Gifts to Grab at Walmart Before ChristmasBig savings on Apple, Bose, HP, Vizio and more while there's still time to shop.
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AI Appliances Aren’t Exciting Buyers…YetThe Kiplinger Letter Artificial intelligence is being embedded into all sorts of appliances. Now sellers need to get customers to care about AI-powered laundry.
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Stick With Your PlanFeature Timing the market is nearly impossible. The worst thing you can do is sell stocks when prices are tumbling.
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Complain and Be HeardFeature Getting our money back for the extended warranty and gap insurance we didn't want took patience and persistence.
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Getting Good ServiceFeature We rated the customer service of large financial service firms for accessibility, reliability, responsiveness and knowledgeable answers.
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Rethinking Retirement Income StrategiesFeature When interest rates are this low, it might be time to revisit some of the old rules of thumbs about reducing the risk of outliving your money.
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A Level Playing FieldFeature Doug Glanville says baseball can provide a great example of teamwork, fairness and communication for the U.S.
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Test-Driving RetirementFeature The pandemic hasn't pushed up our retirement timeline, but it has presented an opportunity to test out our retirement lifestyle.
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Why I’m OptimisticFeature If we look ahead and see straight—and focus on what’s good for all of us—we will emerge from the darkest hours even stronger.
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Reaching for a Lifeline
Feature The theme of this issue is what to do about your money in the time of the coronavirus and a distressed economy.
