Blog

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

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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Why I’m going for my AFC® certification

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I started the process of becoming an Accredited Financial Counselor®, to gain more skills and for people who prefer want to work with certified professionals. Years ago, I wrote a post called, “Do you need to be certified in order … Read More … Read More

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The uncommon color of the swan

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I don’t how to talk about the current health crisis better than anyone else, but I still want to acknowledge the reality we’re living in. I don’t know if you know this, but black swans do in fact exist. Unfortunately, … Read More … Read More

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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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