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Musings on personal finance and more...

Water drop splash

Your past performance doesn’t guarantee your future results

Regardless of what decisions you’ve made and what you’ve believed, you are not bound by your past self. Your future can be different. The phrase “past performance doesn’t guarantee future results” is ubiquitous in financial sales literature. It has to … Read More …

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Glass Globes

Past performance is no guarantee of future results, or is it?

Any time you read any financial prospectus or ad, or watch a commercial about any investment opportunity, or really, ingest any financial media at all, one phrase will always show up in one form or another: “Past performance is no … Read More … Read More
Pocket ledger

Keep a list of bill payment methods

So just like with expenses, there are a number of methods which can be used to pay bills. And there are pros and cons to each method. One of the issues that comes up with bill paying is that you … Read More … Read More
Old bank statement

What payment method(s) to use for bills

Choosing your method of payment for things isn’t as straightforward as you might think. That’s why I created a short guide called “How to spend money“. But I was really just talking about expenses in that post. What about bills? … Read More
Plant Spiral

Is there someone at the IRS who’s a math lover?

WARNING: This post contains math. I love math. You know this. I think math is one of our world’s ways of expressing beauty. To me, there are few things more pleasing to the eye than a elegant mathematical statement. (People … Read More … Read More
Bracket

Don’t fear moving to a new tax bracket

Do you know your tax bracket? I’d say a good number of people do. But do you know what happens when you jump up to a new tax bracket? I’d say a good number of people do not. Tax season … Read More … Read More
Umbrellas

How much is that cheap thing costing you?

I’m a big fan of purchasing responsibly. I’m not profligate with my spending, but I do feel like it’s important to spend a little extra on certain things that provide a significant return, be it personally or financially. But I … Read More … Read More
Dollar Store

The moment I learned that dollar stores aren’t a good deal

In 2003, I was living in New York City, working a retail job where I made around $13 an hour. (That’s a $26,000 salary equivalent.) My rent was $675, which meant that I was spending 50% of my take home … Read More … Read More

The past and future of home prices, or how no one remembers history

In many areas of the country, home prices are going crazy. Or at least that’s the narrative. I just discovered an amazingly engrossing interactive chart by The Economist where they show home prices in various U.S. cities as a function … Read More … Read More
$20 bill closeup

How to potentially double your money’s impact via lump sum debt reduction

It can be hard to visualize how paying a debt off works. There’s an interplay between principal and interest. You pay money to reduce the principal, but during that time, interest on the debt has piled up, reducing the impact … Read More … Read More

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