a hackers guide to managing your money
When I read The Millionaire Next Door by William Stanley, I was amazed at how many millionaires lived in plain sight. If you think about popular exposure to wealth – it’s pretty flashy. We’re trained, by television and social media, to think that millionaires live a life of excess. Big mansions, expensive cars, lots of […]
Twenty years ago, people were worried about typing into a chat box online. Today, people are meeting their life partners online with dating sites like Match, OKCupid, Bumble, and Tinder. Twenty years ago, buying a book online made people nervous. Today, it’s nothing to buy a car online. (I bought my first two cars on […]
In 2012, Warren Buffett appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box with host Becky Quick. Warren Buffett told Quick that if it were practical, he’d buy up a couple hundred thousand single-family homes. It’s a very attractive asset class. It’s now six years later and while the residential market has heated up in many areas (just ask […]
LearnVest was founded in 2009 by Alexa von Tobel with the goal of bringing financial planning to women. They would eventually expand their target market to include everyone. Once thought to be the domain of the rich, many Americans found professional financial planning out of reach – LearnVest was designed to overcome this. Through online […]
As much as possible! Just kidding. It’s 2 months of your salary. Or is it three? Six? Actually, all those benchmarks were created by the marketing department of a major diamond company (hint: rhymes with “The Beers”). The whole idea behind “diamonds being forever” and why diamond engagement rings were even a thing in the […]
If you’re a fan of Greek mythology, you’ve probably heard of the king who was punished for his greed and deceit by being forced to push a boulder up a hill. Whenever the boulder neared the top, it would magically roll away from the king and back down the hill. Sisyphus would be forever punished […]
It’s often said that real estate is one of the more reliable paths to wealth. Then the subprime mortgage crisis happened, the housing bubble popped, and historical data has shown that from 1890 to 1990, after adjusting for inflation, home prices only rose 0.2% a year. Yikes. Feels neither reliable nor a path to wealth! […]
I do a ton of shopping on Amazon and we have Amazon Prime because it’s freaking awesome. One of the things that is less awesome is how often they pitch the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card. I understand why they do it because credit cards are big business and at least they’re offering […]
Early retirement is a popular subject lately and with good reason – being able to tell your boss to “shove it!” is appealing (unless your boss is cool, then maybe it’s bittersweet… but still a little sweet). There are a lot of fantastic early retirement blogs that can show you the path but the steps […]
When I started investing, there were no apps. It was the late 90s and early 2000s. Practically the stone ages. I had a Vanguard account, paid gobs of money for trades, and basically kept all my money in various mutual funds. Back then, you didn’t have much of a choice. Trading commissions were expensive and […]