I recently made our favorite slow-cooker beef stew recipe. The result was good…but not great. I realized later that it was my own fault—I had forgotten the dash of Worcestershire sauce that the recipe called for. It seems such a small thing, but it made all the difference between a delicious winter meal and, well, a dud.
This is a bit similar to the recipe for each issue of Bottom Line Personal. The big stories are the meat and potatoes. But the items that appear on the last pages of each issue—covering health, money, travel, insurance, money savers, family and so much more—may be small, but they are mighty. And without them, an issue of Bottom Line might be a bit like my beef stew—a dud!
To create those items, all the members of our team keep our ears to the ground and our eyes on the Internet and other media for topics that are important to our readers. Then we do more research, talk to our experts and put the Bottom Line special spin on them—adding a bit more to the information and telling readers just what to do about it. In some ways, these short items are more difficult to put together than our larger stories—it is tough to get so much information in so few words—but they are well worth it. In almost every conversation I have with readers, they mention the “tidbits,” the “shorter items,” the “back cover stuff.” In our office, we call these “brainstorming items,” and readers just love them!
So I hope you enjoy the larger stories in this issue—about heart attack, money moves for 2024, migraine treatment and the latest nutrition news. And then I hope you find even more helpful information in the shorter items—the Worcestershire sauce of the issue, so to speak.
Happy reading!
