This last week, my son and I sat on a ski lift overlooking one of the world’s nicest cities. We were in Vancouver for the kids’ spring break, and we had stumbled on the greatness of Grouse Mountain. Skiing within 30 minutes of downtown Vancouver – on slopes particularly appropriate for younger kids like ours […]
TGIF: Saturday Edition Read More »
Last year I finally got around to doing something that was popular long ago (a sentence said with startling regularity in my life…): I read (affiliate link) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. And today, I finally do something I planned last year: write a
Comedy plus Decluttering: A Winning Combination Read More »
Student debt. It is the bane of folks everywhere, if, by “everywhere”, I mean the United States and by “folks”, I mean those people who have gone to really expensive private schools. College and graduate degrees can certainly cost a pretty penny, and many a personal finance blog is devoted to amassing a mountain of
How I Paid Off $65,000 in Student Debt in 2 Minutes Read More »
Raising children isn’t always fun. If it weren’t for the whole survival of the species angle, humans might even have given up on it long ago. Since we do need them, though, it’s good to study best practices for raising them. A schoolteacher friend once shared with me a quote from Dennis Mitchell, an expert
Someone Will Discipline Your Finances Read More »
Early in the oughts, I was sitting with a colleague to discuss the staff who worked for us. I commented on one of his reports, who seemed to be very intelligent, friendly, and competent. I was thinking of using her for some extra work on one of my engagements and wanted his opinion. He winced
The Key to a Successful Career Read More »
Many moons ago, I dined with a British partner of the consultancy I called home. This was supposed to be a reward of sorts – if you had done well on the engagement and/or he heard good things about you, he’d invite you to dinner. Just the two of you. On the plus side, you’d
The Case for an Inheritance Read More »
I saved my 2nd grade Valentines for about 25 years. I’m not terribly proud of that fact. I didn’t intend to save them that long. I just decided to keep them at the end of the 2nd grade. I remember telling my parents they were really important, but I didn’t want to keep them in
What to Store in Your Attic Read More »
To figure out how much one needs for retirement, many turn to a 4% withdrawal rate, which is based on studies that suggest this could have been a “safe” (you wouldn’t have run out of money) strategy in the past. So once folks get a portfolio large enough that 4% of it equals their annual
The Best Withdrawal Rate Read More »
Let’s start today with a fun exercise, which may seem hard but really isn’t. Let’s go back to 1 A.D., and I want you to pick the world’s top two economies at the time. Then let’s jump to 300 A.D. and do the same. This is fun, so let’s do it for the years 600,
TGIF: The World’s Greatest Economies Read More »
One of the biggest financial asymmetries we all face is retirement. Saving too much for retirement is not ideal, but saving too little is a disaster. A lot of retirement planning is therefore focused on not running out of money before you die. The most ubiquitous reference you’ll see nowadays is to the “4% safe
The Warm Embrace of a Safe Withdrawal Rate Read More »