Blog

Blog

Musings on personal finance and more. Not written with AI since 2012.

How a children’s TV show taught me about compound interest

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I discuss a skit from Square One Television involving a doubling allowance to show how our brains can’t grasp how compound interest works. There are some random things that stick in a kid’s brain. I remember a movie called The … Read More … Read More

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More earnings than contributions: your next retirement tipping point

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I finally achieve the point in my retirement savings where I have more earnings than I do contributions, and I talk about what this means. I started my first Roth IRA when I was two years out of college. At … Read More … Read More

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Entrepreneurs, are you also focusing on your personal finances?

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Entrepreneurs, especially solopreneurs, can end up neglecting their personal finances, to the detriment of both their business and life. I can still remember the coaching session with a client who owned his own business. I asked him what his income … Read More … Read More

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America back to normal: Compassion fatigue and the end of unemployment benefits

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As the pandemic rages and unemployment benefits are ending, I talk about how to view the situation and what you can do for yourself. In March 2020, in response to this new pandemic that was causing people to get uncontrollably … Read More … Read More

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Why avoiding dealing with money doesn’t work (and what to do instead)

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Many think that they can escape money stress through avoidance, but this can actually exacerbate stress. Here’s what you can do instead. If there’s one thing I know about how people deal with money, it’s that they love to avoid … Read More … Read More

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What do you love to spend money on?

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Frugality can go too far, and can lead to a scarcity mindset. Instead, I argue that it’s okay to spend money on things you love. My Twitter feed is a full of financial folks with names like*: I’m Crazy CheapThe … Read More … Read More

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Is financial fitness more important than physical fitness?

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I talk about how our culture leads people to focus unnecessarily on weight loss, instead of their own financial wellness. There are countless analogies between money wellness and health wellness. There’s a financial coaching outfit called The Financial Gym, which … Read More … Read More

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What Duolingo taught me about maintaining good habits

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Discussing the importance of building the habit of tracking finances every day, using the language learning software Duolingo as inspiration. A few months back, I had a conversation with my partner about what habits we can use to keep our … Read More … Read More

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The Saver’s Credit: Free money for retirement

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I talk about The Saver’s Credit, and how some people who might have assumed it wasn’t relevant to them might qualify now. (Nothing in this post should be considered tax advice. Please see my Disclosure Policy.) The pandemic probably changed … Read More … Read More

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How to travel debt-free

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Most people travel and then figure out how to pay for it, but with my plan, you figure it out in advance and come home debt-free. We’re at the point in the pandemic where the average person in the U.S. … Read More … Read More

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