Blog

Blog

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

Mountain Climbing

The resolve of the mountain climber, or how to deal with financial overwhelm

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I think of building wealth and becoming financially secure as a process not unlike climbing a mountain. It’s a big one, and it’s hard going, and it involves a lot of successes and setbacks along the way. The top of … Read More … Read More

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Sunset on the balcony

How do people do it?

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It’s not hard to look around and be amazed. You hear about your co-worker’s most recent trip to Hawaii. Your friends post on Instagram a gorgeous sunset taken from the middle of the South Pacific. And then you move on … Read More … Read More

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Bucket being filled

How to pay for non-emergencies

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We know what an emergency is. It’s an incident that is both unexpected, urgent, and unavoidable (and unfortunate). When you have an emergency, you use money from your emergency fund. (And if you have debt, here’s how you can still … Read More … Read More

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U Boat

How to know when something is really an emergency

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I’ve talked a lot about emergencies, those unfortunate aspects of life that you have to deal with sometimes, ones that often require a monetary outlay (dipping into your emergency fund, if you have one). I’ve made comments as to things … Read More … Read More

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Ambulance

What to do when you have an emergency

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Emergencies happen. We can minimize our exposure to incidents as best we can, but there are some things that we can’t control. That’s why they’re emergencies. We can debate what counts as an emergency. For example, I don’t believe wear-and-tear … Read More … Read More

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Explosion

The debt blunderbuss, or can you have an emergency fund and still pay off debt?

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There is a financial cage match article that I can’t write: debt vs. the emergency fund. It’s not hard to see why there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to question of what comes first before the other. How much debt you … Read More … Read More

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Flooded street

I don’t understand European bathrooms

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Having just come back from two weeks in Europe (as part of my one new country per year challenge) I had a myriad of different experiences. Most of them were positive, though a few were unfortunate and of my own making. … Read More … Read More

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Approved/denied stamps

Does your bank know you’re traveling?

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If you’ve got international travels planned, I bet you’re excited for them. You might want to throw all of your stuff in your bag and just get to the airport as quickly as possible. I know the feeling. I just … Read More … Read More

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Plate with fork

The pleasures and sorrows of ordering a special meal in flight

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I’ve talked about how anyone can order a special meal on a flight if it’s one of the rare ones that still serve meals. It just so happens that I had such a flight recently, flying British Airways from Seattle (SEA) … Read More … Read More

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Lunch pail

Why not order a special meal on your flight?

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Long gone are the days where one got served meals on flights by default. These days, you may get served a meal if you’re flying domestic first class, but aside from that, you really only get something approximating a meal … Read More … Read More

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