Decisions

The known unknown: On preparation and getting laid-off

How financial preparation can lessen your anxiety when getting laid-off, and give you more choices and freedom to find your next path. Last year, I wrote about job loss, specifically the loss of a paycheck. I was tempted to call … Read MoreRead More

Course review: How to Win the Game of Advanced Personal Finance

I review “How to Win the Game of Advanced Personal Finance”, an online course by Ramit Sethi (from I Will Teach You Be Rich). A while back, I talked about purchasing a personal finance course. In response to the obvious … Read MoreRead More

How to determine if a purchase is worth deliberating over

If you cut down on time spent making decisions on things that don’t matter, you will have more energy for the decisions that do. As you make more money, the way a certain amount of money will feel will change. … Read MoreRead More

I am not me: Capital One and the failure of Know Your Customer

A frustrating experience trying to login to an account leads to a rumination on how Know Your Customer (KYC) fails us and our humanity. In the financial services industry, you need to be familiar with a procedure called Know Your … Read MoreRead More

Time to be intentional with your accounts

Verifying your accounts will keep your funds all accounted for, and will help you to decide if it’s time to change servicers. It’s a new year, and with it the usual deluge of good intentions, lofty goals, and everything going … Read MoreRead More

Year in review 2019: Top 10 posts

The top posts of the year on Empathic Finance, including both my favorites and the ones readers viewed most. At the beginning of this year, I made a big change to this site. After six years of blogging on a … Read MoreRead More

How to break the belief that it’s only okay to spend on your needs

You have much more control over what you define as wants and needs than you think. Some people have a lot of trouble spending money. I’m talking about the people who see spending as a “bad thing”, who feel shame … Read MoreRead More

Don’t be too patient

If you have an opportunity, don’t let it pass you by. I’m sitting in my favorite coffee shop, one that I’ve logged upward of 1,000 hours at over the past decade or so. And I’m here for the last time. … Read MoreRead More

Why you need to work with a digital fiduciary

It’s not just your financial advisors who need to be fiduciaries too. We need to be able to trust people’s online words and suggestions as well. Trust is hard. How do you know who has your best interests in mind? … Read MoreRead More

How could you make $100,000?

I’m challenging you to think big about your income, so big that it’s beyond what you might ordinarily think is possible. … Read More