Blog

Blog

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

The Roth IRA danger zone (part 4): How to withdraw an excess contribution at Vanguard

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After having decided to remove my Roth IRA excess contribution, I went through the process at Vanguard for making it happen. More posts in this series: The Roth IRA danger zone (part 1): What to do when you almost make … Read More … Read More

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The Roth IRA danger zone (part 3): How I resolved an excess contribution

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With a number of different ways to resolve this problematic situation, here is how I dealt with an excess contribution to a Roth IRA. More posts in this series: The Roth IRA danger zone (part 1): What to do when … Read More … Read More

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The known unknown: On preparation and getting laid-off

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How financial preparation can lessen your anxiety when getting laid-off, and give you more choices and freedom to find your next path. Last year, I wrote about job loss, specifically the loss of a paycheck. I was tempted to call … Read More … Read More

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What does the data say? Reading The National Study of Millionaires

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I review the National Study of Millionaires, the largest study of millionaires ever undertaken, by Chris Hogan and the Dave Ramsey team. Not too long ago, I reviewed the book “Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth—and How You … Read More … Read More

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How to create buckets in an Ally savings account

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Ally has just added the ability to create Buckets, flexible sub-accounts that allow you to save for particular goals. Here’s how to use them. I guess you could say that I’m a pretty big fan of Ally. Maybe it’s that … Read More … Read More

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Don’t let money be your excuse

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Not having money can make things more difficult, but you can modify your goals to be more achievable, once you know what your excuses are. I’ve long wondered whether you don’t really like to travel as much as you say … Read More … Read More

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Course review: How to Win the Game of Advanced Personal Finance

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I review “How to Win the Game of Advanced Personal Finance”, an online course by Ramit Sethi (from I Will Teach You Be Rich). A while back, I talked about purchasing a personal finance course. In response to the obvious … Read More … Read More

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How to determine if a purchase is worth deliberating over

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If you cut down on time spent making decisions on things that don’t matter, you will have more energy for the decisions that do. As you make more money, the way a certain amount of money will feel will change. … Read More … Read More

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I am not me: Capital One and the failure of Know Your Customer

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A frustrating experience trying to login to an account leads to a rumination on how Know Your Customer (KYC) fails us and our humanity. In the financial services industry, you need to be familiar with a procedure called Know Your … Read More … Read More

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Time to be intentional with your accounts

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Verifying your accounts will keep your funds all accounted for, and will help you to decide if it’s time to change servicers. It’s a new year, and with it the usual deluge of good intentions, lofty goals, and everything going … Read More … Read More

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