Fall 2004

One month from delivering her third child, Jennifer Jackson Buckner boarded the elevator of her New York high rise holding the hands of her two young boys. Partway down from the twenty-ninth floor, a professionally dressed woman joined them. After watching the family for a few moments, the woman said as she exited the elevator with a smile, “Easier to start a company.”

This is the first of a five-part personal financial planning series sponsored by the Peery Institute of Financial Services. The next installment, addressing insurance, will appear in the Winter 2005 issue.

Volumes have been written and taught over the centuries on the subject of personal and economic self-reliance. Everywhere I go, the cries of the poor ring out—often with the plea, “Please help us.”

I want to describe a few of the people who surround me at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). My deputy has a PhD in Islamic philosophy. The person in the office next to mine is a former reporter for National Public Radio. A woman in our administration office is a concert pianist.

Professorships and Fellowships