Radical Finances

Rain window

Here’s the risk tolerance we ought to be talking about

I was a little hard on people who have a low investment risk tolerance. But that’s not because I’m a mean person. I have very good reasons. I get that the idea generally is that we want to protect against … Read More … Read More

Scary hand

Why it doesn’t matter what your risk tolerance is

When investing, whether for retirement or for any longer term goals, there is often a discussion of “risk tolerance”. Risk tolerance in this context means how much variability in the investment return process that an investor is willing to withstand. … Read More … Read More

Gift cards

How to offload (or combine) unused gift cards

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

Shadow selfie

I want you to be your own insurer

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

Safe door

Can your money ever really be safe?

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

Push pins

Is a credit card safer than a debit card?

I recently got some pushback about using debit cards. I always appreciate this. I want ideas to be battle-tested, and I welcome the opportunity to think critically about decisions I’ve made and suggestions I’ve given. I don’t need everyone to … Read More … Read More

Bank Vault

Here are some better ways to spend $600 than on hard drive recovery

I spent roughly $600 to recover personal files from a dead hard drive. Now, $600 is a lot of money. It was half of the price of my first car when I bought it. It was more than what my … Read More … Read More

Why not debt consolidation?

Paying off debt is hard. Chances are that you have debts in a number of different places (car, student loan, credit card, and even perhaps medical or personal debts as well), all of which have different payment dates, rates, and … Read More … Read More

Mountain wall

The debt doldrums: how to manage a single large debt

Do you have a really big debt? I do. It’s called my mortgage. Last year, I was able to successfully pay down my mortgage such that my loan-to-value ratio (essentially, the percentage of how much I owed on my home) hit … Read More … Read More

U.S. Capitol

What’s wrong with an interest-free loan to the government?

Every year, amid the discussion of taxes and rebates and the like, there is usually a talking point that goes like this: “Getting a rebate of any amount is a bad idea, because all you’re doing is giving the government … Read More … Read More