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Blog

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

Bank Vault

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

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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 More … Read More

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

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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 More … Read More

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Why not debt consolidation?

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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 More … Read More

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Mountain wall

The debt doldrums: how to manage a single large debt

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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 More … Read More

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U.S. Capitol

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

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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 More … Read More

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Cluttered desk

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

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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 More … Read More

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Toll booths

Why everything is like a regressive tax

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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 More … Read More

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Roller coaster

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

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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 More … Read More

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ATM withdrawal

Another way to track cash expenses

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People have very widely varying attitudes toward cash. While some people feel money more when they spend cash, other people don’t feel it at all. In fact, the way some people have explained it to me, if the transaction doesn’t … Read More … Read More

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Anxiety

How having more money can make you anxious

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People think that money can solve all of their problems. Yes, there’s the old saw about how “money can’t buy happiness”, but usually people see past that and think, “yeah, but it would certainly help“. And that’s true. When you’re … Read More … Read More

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