‘I'm 68 and my 401(k) has dwindled to $82,000': My husband committed financial infidelity and has $50,000 in credit-card debt. What now?
Without going into details of my spouse's financial infidelity, I would like your opinion. Here is the bottom line. I'm 68 and my 401(k) has dwindled to $82,000. I have $3,000 in gold and Social Security income for me and my spouse totals $46,180 a year.
Our home is paid off and the estimated value is somewhere between $600,000 and $1 million. We live in a vacation area. Many out-of-state folks have moved in and the price of even a tiny home is outrageous right now. Yearly land taxes at $5,000.
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'I'm 68 and my 401(k) has dwindled to $82,000': My husband committed financial infidelity and has $50,000 in credit-card debt. What now?
'He failed in his fiduciary duty': My brother liquidated our mother's 401(k) for her nursing home. He claimed the rest.
Our adult children owe us a total of $90,000 and are attempting monthly payments of various amounts. My spouse has $50,000 in credit-card debt. I abhor any debt. What is the smartest way to pay off this debt?
Feeling Desperate
Related: My mother-in-law thought the world's richest man needed Apple gift cards. How on Earth could she fall for this scam?
Financial infidelity — keeping secrets like excessive spending a secret — can be as damaging as more traditional infidelity.
Your children could pay off your credit-card debt, almost twice over, if they were able to stick to a payment plan. But lending money to people — children, friends, neighbors, relatives — who have gotten themselves into the red won't necessarily solve their problem. It will merely create a problem for more parties: the lender, who wonders why the money was never repaid in a years-long game of cat-and-mouse, and the borrower, who has added creditor to their list.
The smartest way to pay off your debt is to write all your expenses in one column and your income in another and create your own personal Department of Good Housekeeping. Slash and burn and pay off that $50,000 at all costs. Your husband should also prioritize his credit-card debt before you do anything — including eating out, going to the movies or the theatre, buying new sneakers (even if they're on sale), or taking a vacation.
You don't mention the cause of your husband's financial infidelity, but unless you deal with this first and foremost, the chances of it happening again are high and/or probable. If he has a gambling problem or a substance misuse issue, for instance, it won't go away even if you do pay off the debt. Paying off the debt could even provide him with a new impetus to repeat the errors of the past. If this $50,000 debt was news to you, this is a separate problem.
That said, your priority is to pay off your debt on a regular basis, automating those payments, with a medium- to long-term goal of getting back on track. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling is a nonprofit organization that can help you and your husband put together a budget and a realistic plan to pay off your debt. The American Consumer Credit Counseling is another nonprofit organization that helps people in your situation.
Don't miss: 'I have committed financial infidelity': I racked up $50,000 in debt to help my troubled son — and have not told my husband. How do I get out of this mess?
You could also attempt to renegotiate the debt with the credit-card companies. 'Call your credit-card company and ask to speak with the debt-settlement, loss-mitigation or hardship department,' Bankrate.com advises. 'A general customer-service representative won't have the authority to approve your request. Once you're connected with someone who has the ability to negotiate with you, explain your situation and make your offer. Be polite but firm.'
'Outline your terms,' Bankrate says. 'If you're considering filing bankruptcy or hiring a professional to help you with your debt, let the card issuer know and mention that you'd rather work things out directly. At this point, be prepared for the card issuer to potentially freeze your credit limit or close your account.' Beware of for-profit debt-settlement companies, which frequently end up costing you more money for a less-than-satisfactory outcome.
There are two main methods of paying off debt: the snowball method (paying off the card with the lowest amount on it first) and the avalanche method (paying off the debt with the highest interest rate first). The first is a way to help motivate people to get out of the red, but paying down the highest rate first makes the most sense to me. Your decision is whether these payments come out of your husband's income or joint funds.
Looking ahead, you are sitting on a lot of equity, so you have another choice to make: Do you take this moment to review your finances, downsize, pay off your husband's credit-card debt and provide yourself with a cash cushion in more modest surroundings? Can you trust your husband with a cash cushion in a joint account? My biggest concern for you is that, after you pay off this debt, your husband will repeat the mistakes of the past.
Related: I have $1,000 in credit-card debt. Will I be able to hide my inheritance from the bank?
I met a friend for lunch. When the check arrived, she said, 'Thank you so much for paying!' Was I taken for a fool?
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My father died, leaving everything to my 90-year-old stepmother. Do I have a right to ask her if I'm in her will?
'It might be another Apple or Microsoft': My wife invested $100K in one stock and it exploded 1,500%. Do we sell?
My husband is in hospice care. Friends say his children are lining up for his money. What can I do?
'I'm not wildly wealthy, but I've done well': I'm 79 and have $3 million in assets. Should I set up 529 plans for my grandkids?
My mother-in-law thought the world's richest man needed Apple gift cards. How on Earth could she fall for this scam?
Why bonds aren't acting like a safe haven for investors amid the Israel-Iran conflict
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Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Iran Stands Alone Against Trump and Israel, Stripped of Allies
(Bloomberg) -- Iran's leaders are discovering they're on their own against the US and Israel, without the network of proxies and allies that allowed them to project power in the Middle East and beyond. Bezos Wedding Draws Protests, Soul-Searching Over Tourism in Venice One Architect's Quest to Save Mumbai's Heritage From Disappearing JFK AirTrain Cuts Fares 50% This Summer to Lure Riders Off Roads NYC Congestion Toll Cuts Manhattan Gridlock by 25%, RPA Reports As the Islamic Republic confronts its most perilous moment in decades following the bombing of its nuclear facilities ordered by US President Donald Trump, Russia and China are sitting on the sidelines and offering only rhetorical support. Militia groups Iran has armed and funded for years are refusing or unable to enter the fight in support of their patron. After decades of being stuck in a game of fragile detente, the entire geopolitical order of the Middle East is being redone. The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel was only the beginning. It led to multiple conflicts and tested decades-long alliances. It offered Trump, on his return to power this year, a chance to do what no president before him had dared by attacking Iran so aggressively and directly. Since Israel started strikes on Iran on June 13, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of goals beyond neutering Tehran's nuclear threat, even hinting at regime change. But the risk is that an isolated Iran could become more unpredictable with its once-steadfast allies keeping their distance. 'As Iran faces its most critical military test in decades, further tangible assistance from either Moscow or Beijing remains unlikely,' said Bloomberg Economics analysts including Adam Farrar and Dina Esfandiary. 'While both maintain bilateral strategic partnerships with Tehran, neither Russia nor China is a formal military ally, and neither is likely to provide significant military or economic aid due to their own limitations and broader strategic considerations.' Iran isn't getting any support, either, from the BRICS grouping of emerging markets that purports to want a new global order that's not dominated by Western nations. The organization — set up by Brazil, Russia, India and China and which Iran joined in early 2024 — has been silent over Israel and the US's attacks on the Islamic Republic. Iran signed a strategic cooperation treaty with Russia in January and it was a vital source of combat drones early in President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. However, Russian officials have made clear the pact includes no mutual-defense obligations and that Moscow has no intention of supplying Iran with weapons, even as they say Tehran hasn't asked for any. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Turkey on Sunday he plans to travel to Moscow to discuss the situation with Putin on Monday. He can expect warm words and little practical support. That's a far cry from 2015, when Russia joined Iran in sending forces to Syria to save the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, which was eventually toppled by rebels last year. Moscow risks losing another key ally in the Middle East if the government in Tehran led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei falls. Yet while the Kremlin has condemned the Israeli and US attacks, Putin is distracted and stretched — militarily and economically — by his war in Ukraine. China, too, 'strongly' condemned the US strikes as a breach of international law. But it hasn't offered assistance to Iran, which sells some 90% of its oil exports to Beijing. Iran's Gulf neighbors urged restraint and warned of potentially devastating implications for the region if Iran retaliates against US assets in the Middle East. Nations such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates spent months trying to use their geopolitical and economic heft to bolster nuclear talks between the Americans and Iran. In the end, the talks have been overtaken by military power. Iran's proxy militant groups are mostly absent too. Hezbollah in Lebanon, hitherto the most potent member of Tehran's 'axis of resistance' was pummeled by Israeli forces last year, much as Hamas was. Israeli strikes on Assad's military in Syria, meanwhile, played a part in his government's collapse. Hezbollah still poses a threat and on Sunday the US ordered family members and non-emergency government personnel to leave Lebanon. Still, the group's not threatened to back Iran by firing on Israel, as it did right after Hamas' attack in 2023. The Houthis in Yemen are an exception and hours about the US strikes on Iran, they issued fresh threats against US commercial and naval ships. Yet they risk another American bombardment like that one Trump ordered before a truce with the group in May. The Europeans, meanwhile, are increasingly irrelevant, in terms of swaying Trump and Israel, and Tehran. The UK, France and Germany have historically held an important role in the Middle East. They represented the dominant economies in Europe. The first two were colonial powers in the region and in the case of Germany, given its Nazi past, there was a strong pro-Israel voice. Both the UK and France have had to handle a vocal voter constituency that was pro Palestinian and complicated their messaging. That was not always an easy needle to thread. The current UK government is led by Labour, whose legacy was damaged by Tony Blair's decision to join US President George W. Bush in his invasion of Iraq in 2003. So for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has finally wrested control of the country from Conservatives, there is no upside to supporting any US military involvement. Trump didn't seem to need it, and the UK was happy to stay out of it even though it has enough of a presence that it could have been useful. Europeans find themselves sidelined with little power to influence the outcome. At the Group of Seven summit, Trump put France's President Emmanuel Macron in his place for suggesting the US was working toward a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. That did not stop Macron from working the phones, but the harsh reality that has filtered through is that Europe has its own existential crisis much closer to home. It needs Trump to at least make a cameo in The Hague for a NATO summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. The organization's leaders want assurances the US post-World War II commitment to stop Russian expansionism still stands. Europe has provided back channels for Iran in the past. In a climate where Europe and the US aren't working together on Iran, it's possible some valuable diplomatic signaling may be lost. That's one side effect of the US going it alone and of Europe being a bit player, as the crisis in the Middle East deepens. --With assistance from Eric Martin. Luxury Counterfeiters Keep Outsmarting the Makers of $10,000 Handbags Is Mark Cuban the Loudmouth Billionaire that Democrats Need for 2028? Ken Griffin on Trump, Harvard and Why Novice Investors Won't Beat the Pros The US Has More Copper Than China But No Way to Refine All of It Can 'MAMUWT' Be to Musk What 'TACO' Is to Trump? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data


TechCrunch
39 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
The stablecoin evangelist: Katie Haun's fight for digital dollars
In 2018, when Bitcoin was trading around $4,000 and most Americans, at least, thought cryptocurrency was a fad, Katie Haun found herself on a debate stage in Mexico City opposite Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who had dismissed digital assets as near worthless. As Krugman focused on Bitcoin's wild price swings, Haun steered the conversation toward something else — stablecoins. 'Stablecoins are really interesting and really important to this ecosystem to hedge against that volatility,' she argued on stage, explaining how digital tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar could offer the benefits of blockchain technology without the volatility of traditional cryptocurrencies. Krugman dismissed the idea entirely. It wasn't exactly a turning point in Haun's career, but it was one moment among others that have helped define it. A former federal prosecutor who had spent more than a decade investigating financial crimes, including creating the government's first cryptocurrency task force and leading investigations into the Mt. Gox hack and corrupt agents in the Silk Road case, Haun had an unusual background for a crypto champion. She wasn't a libertarian ideologue or a tech founder. Coming instead from law enforcement, she understood the criminal potential and legitimate uses of digital assets. By 2018, she had already made history as the first female partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where she co-led their crypto funds. Founding Haun Ventures in 2022, with more than $1.5 billion in assets under management — its team is now investing from a brand-new set of funds that have yet to officially close — she has been even more free to pursue her specific convictions about the future of money. The leap to hanging her own shingle hasn't been without its complexities. Despite her role at a16z and the industry connections that came with it, the two haven't publicly co-invested in anything since early 2022, shortly after she launched her fund, and Haun, who joined the board of Coinbase in 2017, stepped off it last year, while Marc Andreessen, who took colleague Chris Dixon's seat in 2020, remains a director. When asked Wednesday night at TechCrunch's StrictlyVC event about her relationship with Andreessen Horowitz, she downplayed any potential friction while acknowledging they aren't collaborators exactly. 'There's no gentleman's agreement,' she said, echoing this editor's question about whether there's any understanding to avoid competing with her former employer. 'In fact, I still talk to Andreessen Horowitz. You're right that we haven't really done any deals together of late.' Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The apparent lack of co-investment could reflect the cutthroat industry or the challenges associated with leaving one of Silicon Valley's most prominent firms to compete directly with former colleagues. Whatever the case, Haun is now charting her own course, and at the heart of it is stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to traditional assets like the U.S. dollar. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can swing wildly in value, stablecoins like Circle's USDC or Tether's USDT are meant to trade at exactly $1, creating a digital representation of traditional currency that can move on blockchain networks. Indeed, fast-forward to today, and Haun's belief in stablecoins looks increasingly prescient. Stablecoins — which barely existed in 2015 — now represent a quarter of a trillion dollars in value. They've become the 14th largest holder of U.S. Treasuries globally, recently surpassing both Germany and Norway. For the first time this year, stablecoin transaction volume exceeded Visa's. 'I think people who looked at stablecoins a few years ago thought, what is the value prop?' Haun said Wednesday night. 'You've asked me this before. You said, 'Why do I need stablecoins?' And I said, 'I refer to this as an 'If it works for me, it works for everyone' problem.' In reality, for most Americans, the existing financial system works reasonably well. We have Venmo, bank accounts, credit cards. But Haun, drawing on her prosecutor's understanding of global financial systems, says she has long been aware that the U.S. experience isn't universal. In countries with unstable currencies or limited banking infrastructure, stablecoins offer something unique, she argues, which is instant access to stable, dollar-denominated value that can be sent anywhere in the world for pennies. 'People in Turkey don't think of Tether as a cryptocurrency,' she said Wednesday, 'They think of Tether as money.' The technology has evolved dramatically since those early debates, certainly. Stablecoins once cost $12 to send internationally. And Circle says its USDC stablecoin is fully backed one-to-one by dollars held in JP Morgan bank accounts and audited by Big Four accounting firms. It's important to note that while Circle and Tether are committed to having enough reserves to support their tokens, unlike traditional banks, there's no insured government protection behind these reserves. Still, the corporate world is taking notice in a big way. Walmart and Amazon are reportedly exploring stablecoins, as are other goliaths like Uber, Apple, and Airbnb. The reason is simple economics. Stablecoins provide a way to move the value of U.S. dollars using cryptocurrency rails instead of traditional banking infrastructure, potentially saving these retail-heavy companies billions in processing fees. But the shift has critics worried about economic chaos. If major corporations can issue their own currencies, what happens to monetary policy and banking regulation? The concerns run deeper than just economic disruption. Not all stablecoins are created equal, and many lack the backing and oversight that companies like Circle provide. While well-regulated stablecoins like USDC are backed by actual dollars in U.S. Treasury securities, others operate with less transparency or rely on complex algorithmic mechanisms that have proven vulnerable to collapse. (TerraUSD has had the most specular crash to date, wiping out $60 billion in value when it nosedived.) Corruption concerns in particular came into sharp focus recently when President Donald Trump's family issued its own stablecoin, a move that highlighted potential conflicts of interest in an industry where political influence can directly impact market value and regulatory outcomes. These concerns came to a head as Congress debated the GENIUS Act, legislation that would create a federal framework for stablecoin regulation. The bill passed the Senate early last week with bipartisan support, with 14 Democrats crossing party lines to support it. It now awaits a House vote before potentially reaching the president's desk. But Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, has been particularly vocal in her opposition, calling the legislation a 'superhighway for Donald Trump's corruption.' Her criticism centers on a notable gap in the bill: while it prohibits members of Congress and senior executive branch officials from issuing stablecoin products, it says nothing about their family members. Asked about Warren's concerns on Wednesday night, Haun practically rolled her eyes. 'I think it's really ironic that Elizabeth Warren or other Democrats who do call this corruption are not running to pass crypto legislation,' she said. 'Had there been rules of the road in place [already], there would have been a framework, there would have been clear rules for what's a security, what's a commodity, and what are the consumer protections around that.' Haun, whose venture capital firm has made numerous stablecoin investments including Bridge (acquired by Stripe for reportedly 10 times forward revenue), is largely supportive of the legislation, unsurprisingly. But she has one notable criticism: the bill's prohibition on yield-bearing stablecoins. 'I'm not sure that yield-bearing stablecoins are a good idea for consumers in the U.S., but I'm not sure that a prohibition is a good idea,' she told StrictlyVC attendees. The issue comes down to who profits from the interest earned on stablecoin reserves. Currently, that money goes to companies like Circle and Coinbase. But Haun wonders why consumers shouldn't get that yield, just like they would with a savings account. 'If you had a savings account or checking account and you're getting yield on that, you're getting interest,' she explained. 'What if you just said, 'No, the bank gets interest, not you,' and they're lending out your money?' Haun was less nuanced when it comes to another Warren concern: that if the GENIUS Act is signed into law, stablecoins could become a vehicle for money laundering and terrorism financing. 'Criminals are great beta testers of all technologies,' said Haun. 'But this technology is highly traceable, way more traceable than cash. The largest criminal instrument is the dollar bill.' (According to Haun, the Treasury Department has testified that 99.9% of money laundering crimes succeed using traditional bank wires, not cryptocurrency.) Meanwhile, she said, the regulatory clarity that legislation like the GENIUS Act provides could actually make the system safer by distinguishing between legitimate, well-backed stablecoins from more experimental or risky variants. In fact, as the stablecoin ecosystem continues to mature, Haun sees even bigger changes ahead. She envisions a future where all kinds of assets — from money market funds to real estate to private credit — get 'tokenized' and made available 24/7 to global markets. 'It's just a digital representation of a physical asset,' she explains. 'BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, they've already tokenized their money market funds. That's already happened.' According to Haun, tokenized assets could democratize access to investments in ways similar to how Netflix democratized entertainment. Instead of having to be wealthy enough to meet minimum investment thresholds, someone with $25 and a smartphone could buy fractional ownership in a share of Apple or Amazon, for example. 'Just because something's inevitable doesn't mean it's imminent,' Haun said on Wednesday. But she's confident the transformation is coming, driven by the same forces that made stablecoins successful: they're faster, cheaper, and more accessible than traditional alternatives. Looking back at that 2018 debate with Krugman, Haun's persistence seems to have paid off. A major question now isn't whether digital dollars will reshape the financial system but perhaps more importantly, whether regulators can keep pace with the technology while addressing legitimate concerns about corruption, consumer protection, and financial stability. Haun doesn't seem concerned. While critics point to the fact that stablecoins represent just 2% of global payments, questioning their product-market fit, Haun sees this as a familiar tech adoption story — one that has played out repeatedly and often takes longer than people initially imagine. 'We think it's really early days,' she told the crowd.


Forbes
39 minutes ago
- Forbes
From Cognitive Debt To Cognitive Dividend: 4 Factors
Benjamin Franklin portrait and light bulbs idea concept on white background When an eye-catching (not yet peer reviewed) MIT Media Lab paper — Your Brain on ChatGPT — landed this month, the headline sounded almost playful. The data are anything but. Over four months, students who leaned on a large-language model to draft SAT-style essays showed the weakest neural connectivity, lowest memory recall, and flattest writing style of three comparison groups. The authors dub this hidden cost cognitive debt: each time we let a machine think for us, natural intelligence quietly pays interest. Is it time to quit the AI train while we still can, or this the moment to adopt a more thoughtful yet pragmatic alternative to blind offloading? We can deliberately offset cognitive debt with intentional mental effort, switching between solo thinking and AI-assisted modes to stretch neural networks rather than letting them atrophy. Drawing from insights into physiology, this might be the moment to adopt a cognitive high-intensity interval training. To get started think in terms of four sequential guardrails, the 4 A-Factors — that convert short-term convenience into the long-term dividend of hybrid Intelligence:. Attitude: Set The Motive Before You Type (Or Vibe Code) Mindset shapes outcome. In a company memo published on 17 June 2025, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy urged employees to 'be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops, and experiment whenever you can'. Curiosity can frame the system as a colleague rather than a cognitive crutch. Before opening a prompt window, write one sentence that explains why you are calling on the model, for example, 'I am using the chatbot to prototype ideas that I will refine myself.' The pause anchors ownership. Managers can reinforce that habit by rewriting briefs: swap verbs such as generate or replace for verbs that imply collaboration like co-design or stress-test. Meetings that begin with a shared intention end with fewer rewrites and stronger ideas. Approach: Align Aspirations, Actions And Algorithms Technology always follows incentives. If we measure only speed or click-through, that is what machines will maximize, often at the expense of originality or empathy. It does not have to be an either-or equation. MIT Sloan research on complementary capabilities highlights that pattern recognition is silicon's strength while judgment and ethics remain ours. Teams therefore need a habit of alignment. First, trace how a desired human outcome, i.e. say, customer trust, translates into day-to-day actions such as transparent messaging. Then confirm that the optimization targets inside the model rewards those very actions, not merely throughput. When aspirations, actions, and algorithms pull in one direction, humans stay in the loop where values matter and machines are tailored with a prosocial intention to accelerate what we value. Ability: Build Double Literacy Tools do not level the playing field; they raise the ceiling for those who can question them. An EY Responsible AI Pulse survey released in June 2025 reported that fewer than one-third of C-suite leaders feel highly confident that their governance frameworks can spot hidden model errors. Meanwhile an Accenture study shows that ninety-two per cent of leaders consider generative AI essential to business reinvention. The gap is interesting. Closing it requires double literacy: fluency in interpersonal, human interplays and machine logic. On the technical side, managers should know how to read a model card, notice spurious correlations, and ask for confidence intervals. On the human side, they must predict how a redesigned workflow changes trust, autonomy, or diversity of thought. Promotions and pay should reward people who speak both languages, because the future belongs to translators, not spectators. Ambition: Scale Humans Up, Not Out The goal is not to squeeze people out but to stretch what people can do. MIT Sloan's Ideas Made to Matter recently profiled emerging 'hybrid intelligence' systems that amplify and augment human capability rather than replace it.. Ambition reframes metrics. Instead of chasing ten-per-cent efficiencies, design for ten-fold creativity. Include indicators such as learning velocity, cross-domain experimentation, and employee agency alongside traditional return on investment. When a firm treats AI as a catalyst for human ingenuity, the dividend compounds: faster product cycles, richer talent pipelines, and reputational lift. 4 Quick Takeaways Attitude → Write the 'why' before the prompt; the pause keeps you in charge. Approach → Harmonize values and tools; adjust the tool when it drifts away from the values you believe in, as a human, offline. Not the other way → Learn to challenge numbers and narratives; double literacy begins with you. Ambition → Audit metrics quarterly to be sure they elevate human potential. Cognitive Debt Is Not Destiny Attitude steers intention, approach ties goals to code, ability equips people to question what the code does, and ambition keeps the whole endeavor pointed at humane progress. Run every digital engagement through the 4 A factor grid and yesterday's mental mortgage turns into tomorrow's dividend in creativity, compassion and shared humanistic value for all stakeholders.