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Blog

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

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Why frequent flyer miles but not grocery stores? A study in contrasting loyalty programs

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I’m a big fan of collecting frequent flyer miles and points. While the airlines and hotels have done their best to devalue the extreme opportunities that there once were, I believe that there still are some great deals to be … Read More … Read More

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What to do when an emergency isn’t unexpected

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I’ve long said that you can gauge whether something is an emergency if the following three “U” words describe the situation: Unexpected Urgent Unavoidable I use this metric to be able to distinguish between actual emergencies and things that feel like … Read More … Read More

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Gift cards

How to offload (or combine) unused gift cards

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After the debacle of trying to use a prepaid card to anonymously purchase VPN service, only to find that I couldn’t use it for purchases outside of the U.S., I decided to just buy the VPN service outright. But I … Read More … Read More

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Cameras

Online trust, or How to figure out your biggest threats online

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Greetings from Seattle, Washington! Actually, hello from Charlotte, North Carolina! On second thought, salutations from somewhere in Azerbaijan! It’s fun to be anywhere at the click of a button. By this I mean, anywhere as far as my computer traffic … Read More … Read More

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Corner store

Why prices actually fall as you build wealth

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Cost is a psychological phenomenon as much as it is a mathematical phenomenon. Back in my college days, the question was, which can I afford to get at Denny’s, a soda or fries? Could I afford to get both? (Actually, … Read More … Read More

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Why prices will seem to change as you build wealth

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(I don’t condone software piracy. But this is a story where some rules were bent. And then un-bent.) In college, when my income was basically nil, I was just starting to get into audio engineering. While I was primarily working … Read More … Read More

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Statue blindfolded

How I tried to buy something totally anonymously online

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My experiences with trying to buy something online without revealing anything about my identity, and why this is so difficult. (I talk about using products or services, but I received no commission for this. I do not do affiliate marketing. … Read More … Read More

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Mask ornament

Why it’s so hard to buy online and maintain any privacy

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In a perfect world, no one would have any right to know what I buy, where I go, and what I do unless I gave them that access. This seems rather quaint now. Today, everything you do is scrutinized, advertised, … Read More … Read More

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I want you to be your own insurer

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As I’ve stated before, I have a natural built-in aversion to many insurance products. Mainly, this is because they are so heavily marketed and advertised (and you know how I feel about that). I just am usually not convinced that … Read More … Read More

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Safe door

Can your money ever really be safe?

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I feel like there are a lot more radio programs of a financial nature than there used to be. This might be a confirmation bias, in that I’m seeking these things out. I could just as easily say that I … Read More … Read More

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