The negative news is overwhelming if you spend the day consuming it on your phone or TV. My wife worried a lot about the virus and all that’s happening until she deleted Twitter. I’m very comfortable with our new lifestyle. On the first day I worked from home, I came up with a list of…
Viewing category: Family
Estate Plan or Vasectomy — What’s Worse?
One of my biggest failures as a parent and personal finance aficionado was waiting seven years after our first child was born to finish our estate plan. It seems that doing an estate plan is more prone to procrastination than most other grown-up checklist items, even vasectomies. (Be sure to answer the two survey questions…
Is Retirement Age the Wrong Goal?
I named this blog based on a goal I set back in 2002, to retire at age 55, one year before the age my Dad retired. The objective drives many of my financial decisions. It has all the markings of a SMART goal – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. But now that I’m older…
Two Early Retirement Concerns that Should Scare You
The concept of early retirement has gained in popularity and legitimacy over the past decade fueled by knowledge sharing over the internet and healthy market returns. Though I’m 12 years away from my retirement goal and have plenty of time to prepare, I still harbor early retirement concerns for the future retired me. Most people…
Eliminate Car Payments from Your Life (and Never Go Back)
If you want to get serious about taking control of your financial life so you can build wealth, it’s time to eliminate car payments. Car payments are a persistent nag on the lives of U.S. consumers. But they don’t have to be, and shouldn’t be even with low interest rates. Because they crush your monthly cash…
It’s Only Money
Every week I write about money. Sometimes in a roundabout way. But ultimately, this website is about growing wealth by making better financial decisions. Life is not about money, but money can help us live a better life. When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, unexpected expenses can be extremely stressful. The news of a major home…
Life Without the Constraints of Time and Money
It’s summer break for our kids. They don’t have much to compare this summer to, but life is good. No school. No homework. No job. No workday calendar. No bills to pay. They had Lucky Charms cereal for dinner Saturday night. Parenting fail. This is the best dinner ever. – My 4-year-old daughter The marshmallows are way…
Craft A Better Life Than Your Parents
Having your first child is a truly life-altering event. Far more-so than marriage, a new job, or a trip around the world. Parents make extraordinary sacrifices for their children. But few realize the extent of those sacrifices until becoming a parent themselves. When I think back to my life before kids, I still can’t get…
A Three-Pronged Approach To Funding Your Child’s College Education
About twelve years ago before starting a family, I met up with an old college friend for happy hour at a bar in Washington D.C. called The Big Hunt. I remember the booth, nachos, and the conversation like it was not so long ago. My friend was a new Dad. He told me about the college…
Teach Kids Money Management Skills With These 9 Awesome Tools
This week’s article is a guest post featuring Beau Mueller. Beau is from Hawaii and a proud father of two young boys. He is also the founder of The Moneywise Teacher, a site where educators can find useful information, advice, insights, resources, and inspiration to help them make and save more money. I’m personally looking…
The #1 Reason To Simplify Your Finances (And What I’m Doing About It This Year)
My latest article on U.S. News & World Report recommends tips to simplify your finances in retirement. Retirement isn’t the only time to simplify. Anytime is a good time to simplify. But I’m a bad role model for simplifying finances because I’m on the far side of the spectrum with multiple personal investment accounts and bank…
Does Growing Up Mean Outgrowing Your Dreams?
Last April on a long solo drive, I listened to the Mad Fientist’s interview with Vicki Robin on the Financial Independence Podcast. Vicki Robin is the co-author of , the book that popularized the term financial independence. The 2018 version includes a foreword by Mr. Money Mustache, who in 2012, wrote about the book causing a…
10 Lessons I Learned From 4 Months Of Unemployment
The warning signs grew more obvious over the course of last summer. But I still thought I’d survive the impending funding cuts that my IT project was facing. By the time fall arrived, I had already dodged a few rounds of layoffs. But it wasn’t much longer before my number was up and I was…
Financial Pitfalls Of Suburban Life
Six years ago, we moved to the suburbs from a one-bedroom condo in a densely populated and walkable area. We wanted more space, risk-free parking, better schools, a yard for kids to play in, and a friendly neighborhood. We got all of those things. But moving to the suburbs came with a bunch of financial…