Blog

Blog

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

What if your community isn’t supportive of your growth?

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If your family or people you love don’t want you to change or grow, you have to help them along, or find your chosen family. Last time, I talked about David, who was at a crossroads in his life: start … Read More … Read More

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Will your growing wealth affect your sense of belonging?

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Your community may change as you build wealth, but that isn’t a reason to hold yourself back. You will find your people. I’ve long said that building wealth won’t turn you into a different person. If you worry that you’re … Read More … Read More

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What kind of freedom are you looking for?

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A brief philosophical discourse on what financial freedom really means, and if there are other ways that we could define freedom. ‘Always with you this freedom! For your walled-up country, always to shout “Freedom! Freedom!” as if it were obvious … Read More … Read More

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If you’re thinking about taking an early withdrawal from your 401(k)

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New legislation eliminates penalties for some early withdrawals from your 401(k). However, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. UPDATE: This legislation has expired as of the end of 2020. Penalties will apply again for early 401k withdrawals. These … Read More … Read More

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The pastor and the flood: A parable on who can save you

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I use the story about the pastor and the flood to ask who you’re waiting for to come to your aid. Is it someone else, or is it you? My dad used to tell this story. It was meant as … Read More … Read More

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The affiliate trap: How professionals can lose both trust and income

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Amazon just severely changed its commission rate, showing how easy it is to lose not only trust with affiliate marketing, but also income. There are many ways that flout conventional wisdom in building my financial coaching business. For one thing, … Read More … Read More

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The alarm and the weighted blanket

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There are two methods of helping people make meaningful change in their financial lives, which I call the “alarm” and the “weighted blanket”. Your financial situation is like a bed. We’re each lying in ours. (Or sitting. Or reading. Or … Read More … Read More

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Offense and defense: What chess can tell us about financial wellness

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So much financial advice relies on defense, such as reducing spending, but you need a good offense plan too. Just like in a game of chess. I confess I’m not much of a sports person. I collected baseball cards as … Read More … Read More

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Time to plan for the unthinkable

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Now that we’ve seen firsthand how the unthinkable can happen, we need to prepare for other situations that can (and probably will) happen. By now, we’ve all been dealing with “the unthinkable” for many weeks now. “Nobody” thought this could … Read More … Read More

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Why you want to keep a list of how you pay bills

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Keeping a list of payment sources, what you use to pay bills, will eliminate any payment issues when you inevitably have to update your info. I find that a good deal of people’s money anxiety can be traced to feeling … Read More … Read More

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