Who We Are

There are two of us writing this blog. We think we're pretty typical college-educated middle-of-the-road Americans. Our formative years were lived in places like Minneapolis MN, Portland OR, Ogden, UT. We've spent our careers working in legendary blue collar cities like Cleveland OH and Baltimore MD. One of us has primary responsibility for blog content and writing the weekly posts while the other works as webmaster and "beta tester" for ideas—making sure the materials and explanations resonate, or it's back to the drawing board. We added it up and between us we have 3 bachelor's degrees, 2 PhDs, 1 MD and an MBA. Oh yeah, and there are 3 cats.

Like most of our middle-American counterparts, we got caught in the recent meltdown and share the concerns that currently swirl around retirement. One of us is recently retired and adjusting to the notion of living on a fixed income. The other figures she's probably going to be working for another 8-10 years, with some of that time spent making up for lost investment ground. Biggest lesson-learned? Probably that investing pension money in a mutual fund may buy the time and expertise of a qualified and experienced fund manager but there’s also a significant down-side: It's still me eating the losses . . . paying fees on my shrinking pension funds while watching the big financial houses reward themselves with large annual bonuses. Ouch. Note to self It's time to assume a greater share of responsibility managing my long-term investments. Time to do my homework, sharpen my stubby pencil, drag out that slide rule . . . I know I've got some plastic pocket protectors around here somewhere . . . 


Biosketches:

Irv McQuarrie, MD, PhD
BS - (Biology/Genetics) University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
MD - Cornell University Medical College, NY, NY
PhD - Neuroscience and Behavior, Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, NY, NY
Executive MBA - Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH


email at:  irv.mcquarrie@investtuneretire.com


Linda Lund, PhD
BS - (Biology/Chemistry) Portland State University, Portland, OR
BS - (Psychology/Math & Computer Science) Portland State University, Portland, OR
PhD - School of Medicine, Dept of Biochem & Molecular Biol, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR