Strategies & tactics to get ahead financially & in life
I remember when I proposed to my lovely wife. I was nervous, we were hiking to a summit that was nearly 10,000 feet, and I fought to catch my breath because the air was so thin up there. I was hiking with a massive pack that included our tent and other supplies because our plan […]
Did you hear the news that Chase has added a forced arbitration clause to some of their credit cards? I first read about it in a Fast Company article by Cale Weissman and the first group to get this notification were Chase Slate credit card holders: According to Chase, the new agreement includes a new […]
Chase has some of the best credit cards on the market right now. But there’s just one catch – you need to have pretty good credit. Technically, you need good or excellent credit to get it. Experian says a good credit score is a credit score above 700. An excellent credit score is when your […]
If you’re looking for a new cash back credit card, you’re in the right place. When it comes to the perks of a credit card, cash back is king. Years ago, 1% was the standard offer. As competition has intensified, you’re now seeing more and more cards that offer 1.5% cash back on all purchases […]
A short time ago, my lovely wife and I were out at an afternoon event with our kids at home with babysitters. We’d set them up with a lunch and some afternoon snacks, but we anticipated being home before dinner and didn’t make plans for them. We love our main babysitters (they’re a couple) because […]
Earlier last year, we replaced our clothes washer and dryer. Both appliances were old, nearing the end of their useful lives, and, more importantly, we were renovating our pantry area after a burst pipe and flooding incident. We were only a few years from replacing them and, using a small surplus of insurance money, we […]
When I was looking to buy our first house, back in the mid-2000s, I was surprised to learn that there were so many different types of mortgages. I’d heard about 15-year fixed and 30-year fixed mortgages. But then you had jumbo mortgages. And adjustable rate mortgages. And interest-only mortgages. Then FHA and HUD and VA […]
Package theft is a huge problem around the holidays. It’s so huge that police in New Jersey have teamed up with Amazon to deliver “fake” packages with real GPS transponders. They’re doing it areas with a lot of package theft and it’s designed to catch “porch pirates.” Porch pirates are thieves who steal packages off […]
When I started by business, I researched business credit cards. I was hoping to find one with juicy sign up bonuses. Alas, credit cards weren’t as generous as they are today. Many offered cash back with slightly higher percentages on business related charges. Those included travel, office supplies, and telephony bills (cell phone, internet). I […]
Every New Years, we rent a vacation house with friends from college. We get one of those big 12-bedroom vacation homes, fill it with food, games, adult beverages, kid beverages, and then we spend 3-4 days celebrating another year gone by. When we started, there were no kids. Now there are close to a dozen! […]