Blog

Blog

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

Your feelings when you learn about other people’s financial decisions

Posted by on | Featured

There is a risk when you share specific financial numbers: other people may feel either envy or disdain. Some people will see a budget of $40 a day for food for two people and say, “Must be nice. That’s how … Read More … Read More

Tags: ,

Real numbers: Budgeting for a weekend away

Posted by on | Featured

Repeat after me: track or you will fail. It doesn’t matter if it’s money, or fitness, or watering your plants, if there is something you want to accomplish and it takes more than a single step to get there, you … Read More … Read More

Tags:

Why you waste energy trying to save on things that don’t matter

Posted by on | Featured

Have you ever spent five minutes in the grocery store trying to decide between the organic and non-organic item? Have you ever stood outside of Starbucks asking yourself if you could rationalize spending money on a coffee? Have you ever … Read More … Read More

The weirdness of checks

Posted by on | Featured

I was recently in a food hall, one of those ones compiled by a real estate development company to give the illusion of a grass-roots, DIY, small-business-friendly establishment. Anyway, one of the more “hip” stalls had a sign by the … Read More … Read More

Tags: ,

The bridge: What you need when you retire early

Posted by on | Featured

One of my life’s goals is to become financially independent. This means that I won’t need to rely on work to earn an income. (Yeah, it would be nice if we as a society could move to something approximating universal … Read More … Read More

Tags:

Book review: Everyday Millionaires

Posted by on | Featured

I review the book “Everyday Millionaires” by Chris Hogan and its fundamental question: can anyone truly become a millionaire? The word “millionaire” has a lot of emotional meaning. It carries the weight of financial success, even if it doesn’t necessarily … Read More

Tags: , ,

What happens when you don’t track your spending on vacation

Posted by on | Featured

I love traveling. I love seeing new places, or even old places with a new eye. And vacations, those limited periods of time when we uproot our normal routines, are most often when we experience travel. While vacations are salutary, … Read More … Read More

Tags: ,

When to create a savings bucket

Posted by on | Featured

A bucket is my term for a savings account, used for either one-time or ongoing purchases. It’s certainly not a standard financial term. I don’t see it used much on personal finance sites. But the analogy should be clear enough. … Read More … Read More

Tags: ,

Here are the times when I use a credit card

Posted by on | Featured

Once of the very first posts on this site was called “How credit cards are like alcohol“. In it, I stated that I didn’t believe that there was anything inherently bad about credit cards, but only that some people can … Read More … Read More

Tags: ,

Is there a limit to how much you can earn?

Posted by on | Featured

I want to talk more about this enigmatic quote from personal finance and I-will-teach-you-to-be-rich guy Ramit Sethi: There’s a limit to how much you can cut. But no limit to how much you can earn. Ramit Sethi I talked about … Read More … Read More

Tags: ,