ANN REILLY DOWD is a columnist for The Fiscal Times and editor of its Life + Money section. Dowd is a Certified Financial Planner™ and former vice president of investment research and communications at Charles Schwab. Prior to that, she spent more than a decade at Fortune and Money Magazines, where she was Washington bureau chief and member of the Fortune Board of Editors, while covering the White House, national politics and economic policy. Dowd has also written for Kiplingers, George and the Washingtonian. From 1976 to 1977, she was a press secretary to then Congressman Larry Pressler (R-SD). From 1975 to 1976, she worked in the White House as an editor of the President’s News Summary.