Inflation is eating away at our wealth quarter-by-quarter. It appears to have peaked in May 2022, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate increases. But the chart below shows how the products we consume have recently become more expensive. Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi The Federal Reserve is mandated to target 2% annual inflation as measured by the…
After 20 years in information technology (IT), I decided to change careers to be a full-time blogger in early December. It’s an exciting milestone I’d been planning for about five years. Monday morning, after my last day at work, I sat down at a different computer without the looming threat of Microsoft Teams meetings. I…
Traditional retirement is a suboptimal goal. Building a career you genuinely do not want to retire from is better. Writing those words here or in a 240-character tweet takes little effort. But it’s an enormously complex concept for most middle-aged workers. To say: Hey, all you people aged 30-55, with kids, a mortgage, not-enough retirement…
November is American Diabetes Awareness Month. To raise awareness, I’m highlighting 12 diabetes stocks helping to make the lives of people with diabetes more normal. Parents of kids with Type 1 Diabetes laugh that it starts the day after Halloween. My 10-year-old son was diagnosed in September 2021. Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disorder…
The 2022 HBO documentary Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is a fascinating biography of the skateboarding icon. As told through interviews with his Bones Brigade peers — all trailblazers themselves — Tony’s life is a story of risk-taking, failure, persistence, and entrepreneurship. Excelling to the top levels in any sport takes a natural…
Maybe you’ve heard of universal basic income (UBI). UBI is a type of social program administered by governments to provide basic income for citizens — ideally, enough money to cover basic expenses or meet poverty level income. Universal basic income became a popular topic in the political discussion during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, promoted…
A former colleague once told me that if I ever started drinking coffee, I’d never stop. Frida drank ten cups a day. She was an administrative assistant in the media department at my university. I worked in the darkroom developing film and printing black and white photographs for various campus publications. The coffee maker was…
Doing taxes is never fun. But each year, I find that our income has become more diversified than the previous. We now earn more than 7 streams of income — not counting my salary. A salary is great if you don’t mind full-time work. But it can become an unhealthy addiction. You can break the…
Over the life of this blog, I’ve recommended books and blog posts by an author named Joshua Becker. Joshua is the founder and primary writer of the website Becoming Minimalist, one of the leading minimalism blogs. Joshua defines minimalism as the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that…
After two years of COVID-19 apprehension, our family is going on a real vacation — airplanes, amusements, and sit-down restaurants. Planning for upcoming trips reminds me of the kind of retirement travel that I’m ultimately working toward — month-long+ excursions on and off the beaten path — and how I’m getting closer to that kind…
Our family spent the dog days of COVID at home. No travels, no visitors, and zero breaks from each other. By the end of 2020, we’d had it with school and working at home. So we booked a beach house for Spring Break in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. And to treat ourselves, we…
A young reader reached out to me about how investing and finance are underserved topics in high school. He was eager to share that he earned 20%+ returns from day trading in just a few months because he’s spent a lot of time learning how to invest and perfecting his trading strategy. Day trading returns…
On September 13th, 2021, my nine-year-old son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes. A diabetes diagnosis has immediate impacts. Here are a few for starters: Insulin injections at least four times a day for the rest of his life Dozens of doctor, nurse educator, and specialist appointments Finger pricks and…
I’ve come across hundreds of fintech startups and financial products over the years blogging. Founders and CEOs pitch me over email and in person at conferences. Marketing firms looking to drum up exposure for their clients email me constantly, hoping for a guest post or mention on RBD. I decline most pitches and never hear about…