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Blog

Musings on personal finance and more...

Tug of war

How not getting the sale can still be successful haggling

Haggling for purchases is a great idea. Not only does it allow the obvious benefit of getting something for less than the original price, but it also forces you to decide how much you want something, and forces you out … Read MoreRead More
Push pins

Is a credit card safer than a debit card?

I recently got some pushback about using debit cards. I always appreciate this. I want ideas to be battle-tested, and I welcome the opportunity to think critically about decisions I’ve made and suggestions I’ve given. I don’t need everyone to … Read MoreRead More
Bank Vault

Here are some better ways to spend $600 than on hard drive recovery

I spent roughly $600 to recover personal files from a dead hard drive. Now, $600 is a lot of money. It was half of the price of my first car when I bought it. It was more than what my … Read MoreRead More

À la recherche du hard drives perdu: my data recovery experience

So as I reported earlier, a hard drive containing valuable personal files died on me recently. I thought I hadn’t backed up in a few months, which would have been hard enough, but it turns out that I hadn’t backed … Read MoreRead More

Why not debt consolidation?

Paying off debt is hard. Chances are that you have debts in a number of different places (car, student loan, credit card, and even perhaps medical or personal debts as well), all of which have different payment dates, rates, and … Read MoreRead More
Mountain wall

The debt doldrums: how to manage a single large debt

Do you have a really big debt? I do. It’s called my mortgage. Last year, I was able to successfully pay down my mortgage such that my loan-to-value ratio (essentially, the percentage of how much I owed on my home) hit … Read MoreRead More
U.S. Capitol

What’s wrong with an interest-free loan to the government?

Every year, amid the discussion of taxes and rebates and the like, there is usually a talking point that goes like this: “Getting a rebate of any amount is a bad idea, because all you’re doing is giving the government … Read MoreRead More
Cluttered desk

Is it possible to pay in advance exactly the amount of tax you owe?

Welcome back to tax season! It’s an interesting time that can seem extremely fraught to some, and a little exciting to others. For some: so much work to do. For others: big rebates! I’m fortunate to be young enough that … Read MoreRead More
Toll booths

Why everything is like a regressive tax

With all the talk on how to fund our government and the various projects we need to undertake, it’s made me think about that phrase “regressive tax”. As in, “there was no support for that initiative, because it was seen … Read MoreRead More
Roller coaster

That time I almost tried to time the market (but didn’t)

At the beginning of the year, the news reports started piling in: the stock markets were overvalued. P/E ratios were at highs not seen in years. Some people even used the curious phrase “melt-up” (which, correct me if I’m wrong, … Read MoreRead More

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