Author: admin
I bike to work five days a week, and every once in a while, I like to reflect on how fortunate I am to be able to do that. It’s a wonderful situation that I find myself in. I live close enough to my office that biking to work isn’t a particularly difficult thing for me to do. And, by biking to work, I get to avoid all of the costs of car ownership, while at the same time collecting all of the cost and health benefits that come with biking. It’s a great choice that I’ve made – one…
One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is how quitting my job has really changed the way I think about work, and specifically, how I think about the way work fits in with my life. Take my current schedule as an example. Last week, my wife and I went on a week-long trip to Alaska (naturally, using credit card points to cover our flights and hotels). Over Labor Day weekend, I attended CampFI, where I gave a presentation to a group of 50 attendees about how to create your own version of financial independence. And this coming week,…
Without a doubt, podcasts have to be one of my favorite ways to acquire knowledge. I listen to podcasts pretty much anytime I’m walking around or doing anything that doesn’t involve a ton of mental energy. With the way technology works today, pretty much anybody can become an expert on any topic – all you have to do is spend a little bit of time each day soaking up information from smarter people. Just think about all of the time you spend each day commuting, walking your dog, or doing chores around the house. That’s all time that you can…
If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably seen or read something about this whole college admissions scandal. In mid-March, the Department of Justice busted a bunch of rich and famous people in a nationwide scheme in which parents paid people to cheat on SAT or ACT exams and/or bribed school officials to help get their children into particular schools. It’s the largest college admissions case brought by the Department of Justice, and it’s getting a lot of press because of the people involved – famous actresses, bigshot lawyers, bigwig finance people, etc. This bribery scandal is interesting to me,…
Many credit card companies offer rewards to attract new customers. And it works! A 2018 study found 79% of people choose credit cards for their rewards. But is it always a good idea to use credit cards for rewards? Once you sign up for a card, credit card companies hope you’ll continue to use it (and perhaps pay their high-interest rates, too!). Offering rewards pays off for the credit card companies. Credit card points and rewards can be beneficial to you too. They can certainly save you money—when you read the fine print and avoid costly mistakes! Before you…
Homeowners insurance provides little, if any, protection for operating a vessel.” The risks of operating watercraft are similar to those of driving a car. They include running into other vessels, a swimmer, a diver, or a fixed object such as a dock, resulting in injury to others and damage to boats and property. In 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard reported a staggering 5.2 deaths per 100,000 registered vessels. In total, that year brought 4,168 accidents, 613 deaths, 2,559 injuries, and $55,000,000 in property damage. Not included in this report were liability settlements for personal injury, making the true cost of…
One of the great benefits of starting up a side hustle is the ability to get paid as an independent contractor. When you consider all of the sweet benefits you get from side hustling, you have to assume that the government must want us to pick up a side hustle. Take tax deductions, for example. The government lets you deduct expenses related to your side hustle for things you might already be doing anyway. With a little planning, someone driving for Uber in their spare time could easily offset some or all of the costs of driving that they’re already doing anyway.…
Your kids will be bringing report cards home soon, and you may be getting ready to hand out some cash for good grades. And if that isn’t the deal you have with your kids, you’ve probably thought about it at some point. Should I be Paying my Kids for Good Grades in School? If your parents pulled out their wallets for great grades when you were a kid, it might make sense for you do the same thing. Just a few years ago, this T. Rowe Price survey showed almost half of all responding parents used money as a…
A personal loan is a loan you can use to fund any purpose. But before you start scheming about what you’d do with an extra few grand, it’s important to understand how this type of loan works. Then you can determine if taking on this debt is right for your situation. Common Reasons to Get a Personal Loan While you could take out a personal loan to update your wardrobe or hit the slopes in Aspen, that’s not what most people do with the money. Typically, funds from a personal loan go towards: Paying off or consolidating higher-interest debt…
One of the things I wish I had done differently was to not be in such a hurry to rush into a career. For some reason, when I was 22-years old, I felt like I had to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life right away, and that if I didn’t do that, I’d fall behind and never catch up. This rationale was partially the reason that I went to law school soon after graduating from college. I felt like I needed to get started with something, and becoming a lawyer made sense to me –…