One of the distinguishing factors in the landscape of Winona Lake is the canal, which was dredged in 1902. The original idea of dredging a canal came from John Thorpe of Chicago, a landscape artist of note.

The Triton Trojans boys’ basketball team is headed to their fifth state title contest since winning the Class 1A championship on their first try in 2008. It’s easy to forget the 2008 champs were the first of four squads altogether making trips to Indianapolis in late March.

The weather here has been crazy this week. I think we have experienced all four seasons in just a few days. Regardless of the weather, spring officially started this week, and spring here in Kosciusko County sometimes brings severe weather. Natural disasters and other catastrophes could require you to leave your home with little or no notice. That is why we believe every family should prepare what we call an “evacuation box.”

I get a lot of questions from you all during the course of a normal week, and I think some of them are questions more people want to ask but don’t.

Every evangelist has a music man — a partner who leads the choir, warms up the crowd with congregational singing, and sometimes plays an instrument. For evangelist Billy Sunday, that person was Homer Rodeheaver. And Rody’s chosen instrument was the slide trombone.

The morning begins with some non-sports thoughts.

The market has been a bit chaotic lately as it digests the geopolitical events of the last few weeks. Volatility is back, not just for stocks but for oil, gold and crypto too. We believe all of this has renewed inflation fears, even as evidence mounts that the economy is slowing.

One of the difficult things about sports is also the best thing about it.

The subtitle of the centennial history of the Town of Winona Lake uses the words “Third Wave Rising.”

We are already at the preseason scrimmage portion of spring scholastic sports. Fans, parents, friends, and the athletes they’re supporting and cheering will begin regular season competition around the time the state boys’ basketball finals take place at the end of this month.

A common topic for this column and the Smart Money Management radio show is simple portfolio building and the importance of having a plan for managing your long-term investments, particularly your retirement accounts.

There are things in life that we know are coming, and we still are not and cannot be prepared enough to experience them anyway.

The town of Winona Lake is blessed with many good churches, but the oldest is Good Shepherd Church, located immediately behind Westminster Hall with the church entrance on College Avenue.

I was wondering why I haven’t been gravitating to the NBA as much as I had among several post-COVID seasons.

We talk and write a lot about the importance of having a plan for managing your long-term investments, particularly your retirement accounts. Regular listeners of Smart Money Management know that I have a major concern about how we fund retirement in the United States.

Even though it’s rainy this week, the warmer temps and the ending of basketball season for most schools have us all thinking about spring and the spring sports season.

As some winter sports (girls’ basketball, girls’ and boys’ wrestling, boys’ and girls’ swimming and diving) have reached or already completed their state finals, folks are celebrating achievements and also evaluating how well next year’s team and individual sports will fare.

In financial planning, we spend a lot of time thinking about, talking about, and working toward long-term goals that are integral to attaining the life you want to live. An important aspect that sometimes gets ignored is protecting your assets and all that you’ve worked for from unexpected events. That’s where insurance comes in.

Teams have slogans they rally around, and the older you get the less slogans influence you.

The death of Dr. John Huffman Jr. on Sept. 23, 2025, brought to a close the remarkable story of three generations of a family’s leadership that left its indelible mark on Winona Lake.

People recommend starting new habits when you spend a week on vacation. I’ll spare you the details on things like stretching, and improved sleep patterns.

We spend many years planning and saving for retirement, but priorities change when retirement looms on the horizon.

I want to spend some time in this space this week remembering someone who I called ‘friend’, and many of you did also.

If you lived in or near a major city, such as Chicago, New York or Boston, you could easily attend a symphony performance, a lyceum lecture or an appearance by a celebrity such as an explorer or a literary figure.