Blog

Blog

Musings on personal finance and more...

How to respond to hardship

  I don’t wish hardship on anyone. But then again, I don’t need to; there’s enough of it to go around without me doing anything. With that in mind, knowing that hardship, pain, and hurt are a necessary part of … Read More … Read More

Don’t invest until you understand

  You don’t have to look hard to find a celebrity (musician, movie star, athlete) who has been bilked out of a large portion of their earnings through mismanagement. And while some of this mismanagement could be via too much … Read More … Read More

On cultural programming, or why a home is not necessarily a house

  While writing why you probably can’t afford to buy a home, I found myself subconsciously substituting the word “house” for the word “home.” That article, one of the longest I’ve ever written for this site, has the word “home” … Read More …

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Five reasons why you can’t afford to buy a home

  It seems like lots of people I talk to these days are thinking about buying a home. Perhaps it’s the season, or the particular intersection of age and socio-economic background in the circles I travel in. Perhaps it’s coincidence. … Read More … Read More

The complicated ethics of peer-to-peer lending

  “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.” – Exodus 22:25 “Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both … Read More … Read More

Don’t plan for a 12% return (but earn it anyway)

  WARNING: This post contains math. How much return do you expect to make on your stock market investments? (Don’t say zero.) There are those who will say that you can expect to earn a 12% return on your investments … Read More … Read More

How are you “weird”?

  Admit it: there’s something about you that makes you different. Perhaps it’s some thing that you do (or don’t do) that is out of sync with others. Perhaps there’s something about you that others who meet you tend to … Read More … Read More

My social media roundup (sort of)

  I recently switched my Twitter handle. It was @exvelleitier (read here for details on what that means), but for brand reasons, and because it’s admittedly a bit hard to spell, I decided to use the longer-but-easier @unlikelyradical. If you … Read More … Read More

Monty Python vs. David Bowie: A study in creative legacies

  I’ve talked about the different types of creative legacies as a way for you to think about your goals, and how to balance your creative goals with other concerns, be they financial or critical. I find that artists respond … Read More … Read More

What I learned about creative legacy from watching Ratatouille

  When you are engaged in a creative pursuit (and I’d argue that most of us are), you don’t necessarily think much about how you will respond to success. Most of us prepare ourselves only for failure, and therefore may … Read More … Read More

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