What is it to Buck the Budget? As you might guess by the name alone, we are throwing conventional budgeting advice out the window. This may seem like an outrageous suggestion, after all, we have been told to use budgets to contain our spending so that we (ideally) have something leftover in the end to […]
Do I Need a Financial Plan?
How do you know if you need a financial plan? I have received a recent onslaught of financial planning questions from friends and clients. Perhaps it’s the logical next step after taxes are filed? Or maybe the economic upheaval resulting from the pandemic has people looking more closely at their financial position. For starters, let’s […]
Should We Track Expenses?
Should we track expenses? We’ve previously been spoon-fed the notion that we must track what we spend in order to understand where our money goes and to adhere to a budget. Some do it using Quicken, Mint, YNAB, spreadsheets, whatever. Done diligently and precisely, tracking can make you aware of when you come up against […]
How to Grow More in Your Retirement Account
This is a story of how to grow more in your retirement account. Following is an account of one of my retirement investments which has well exceeded the returns of my other accounts. I have three individual retirement accounts – all at Vanguard (irrelevant to my story but I want you to know it nonetheless): […]
What Sheltering Has Taught Us About Money
A new order of life is emerging from our sheltering under this pandemic. Different behaviors and habits are emerging, replacing old ones that no longer serve us personally or as a society. No more shaking hands? Continued compulsive handwashing? Increased radius of our personal comfort bubble of up to six feet? Sheltering has also taught […]