Now that we’ve sold the condo and the mortgage is gone, we’re down to one debt in our family, our primary mortgage. What irks me about owning a home with a mortgage is that I need to have a full-time job to cover the payment. No duh, right? That’s a typical situation. But I look…
Over the years, I’ve been indebted numerous times for one reason or another — mostly car loans and a few mortgages, but a few personal loans too. After college, my parents lent me $5,500 to buy a used Mazda. The interest rate was better than a traditional car loan, so I was grateful to take…
A few months back, I had a conversation with a woman from a well-known advocacy organization for retirees and the elderly. One part of the organization’s mission is to promote financial security among its membership base. However, the organization seemed to be targeting a younger audience, where I met the representative. So I asked her…
Powerful financial maneuvers are meaningful decisions you make with your money and lifestyle that have a significant long-term impact on building wealth. Too often, we focus on the little ways to save money. We used to be a coupon clipping couple before having kids. We had more time back then. Coupons influenced our shopping choices…
More than five years ago, I started reading an anonymous money blog called 1500 Days. The writer had a similar idea to mine, to escape the rat race early and stop working on his terms instead of what’s traditionally considered normal retirement age. Since the beginning, the 1500 Days blog has hosted an almost weekly…
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…
This article is about how I measure progress toward financial independence (FI), which I consider a prerequisite to my early retirement goal. The terms financial independence and early retirement are often used interchangeably. I consider them different. Financial independence is a financial milestone. Retirement is when I’ll stop working completely. I plan to reach financial…
I use a simple Excel spreadsheet with pivot tables to track spending. I’ll explain why I started this exercise this year and why I felt the free online tools were inadequate for my purposes. Tracking spending this way is a compliment to tracking net worth and my taxable investment portfolio. With an accurate annual spending number…
What’s the difference between investing vs. gambling? The simple answer is math, but there’s more to it than that. In my mid-teens, I went to Atlantic City with my family for an evening on the boardwalk. I was deeply interested in money for someone my age, so gambling intrigued me. You must be over the…
One mistake that I see people making today is reminiscent of the years leading up to the last big recession of 2008-2009. When economic times are good, people tend to assume it will stay good and do little to prepare for the next recession. A good economy and job market are validation to take risks…
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…
In personal finance, excess cash flow is the money that’s left over in your checking account at the end of each month. Your success with money is heavily dependent on creating and doing smart things with it. If you don’t have any excess cash flow, you may need to change shit up. Each of my quarterly…
Achieving success in personal finance is simple but not easy. Make more money. Spend less than you make. Invest the surplus. That’s the formula to become wealthy over time. The Nintendo fanboy in me calls this the Triforce of Wealth. But doing those things requires habit, persistence, and a steady income. If personal finance were…
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…
Are you living paycheck to paycheck? If your monthly budget is tight already, any recession or economic fallout will make matters worse. Now is the time to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle and start building wealth. For years, I’ve assumed most of my readers don’t live month to month. But according to a recent…
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…
My recent 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…
Back in January of 2017, most personal finance professionals, advisers, bloggers, and just about anybody willing to give you money advice said to avoid investing in crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin. The price of Bitcoin at the close of 2016 was $963.74 per $1 USD. On the last day of 2017, the price was $14,156.40. That’s…
Very few decisions during your time on this earth actually change the trajectory of your life. After a party in 2007, I scanned the huge Evite email list to try to find a woman I met there. Then I ‘stalked’ her on Facebook and asked her out. We have three kids together now. Though truly…
If you own a home, you might be contemplating how extra mortgage payments may or may not fit into your overall financial plan. As is with all personal finance choices, your mortgage payment strategy is personal based on many factors. You don’t find many people who paid off their mortgages and regret the paid off debt….
The financial firm UBS publishes a quarterly report called Investor Watch that analyzes investor behavior. One of these reports has remained on my mind since publication in 2015. The report was called When is enough… enough – Why the wealthy can’t get off the treadmill. The premise is that more than half (52%) of millionaires surveyed…