As I’ve talked about many times in the past, nearly every problem in personal finance can be solved by pulling one of the two levers of personal finance. 1. The income lever 2. The saving lever 99% of money problems can be solved through some combination of making more money (the income lever) and saving […]
The big 3 Housing, transportation, and food account for more than 60% of the average household budget. That is why whenever I talk about budgeting, I lump these expenses into one category that I call “the big 3”. While it is important to get a handle on all of “the big 3” expenses, in this article, […]
I am a big believer in the idea that we should all be more comfortable talking about money and finances. It’s difficult to improve your financial situation if you don’t talk through your issues with people that might be able to help you. One of the reasons people don’t talk about financial issues more is […]
Reevaluating the 4% Rule The 4% rule is a rule of thumb for the safe withdrawal rate during retirement. A safe withdrawal rate refers to how much of your retirement portfolio you can withdraw under normal market conditions, each year without running out of money during retirement The 4% withdrawal rate refers to how much […]
The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach was one of the first personal finance books I ever read. It’s a fairly easy read with some very practical lessons. The book has three major concepts that are still very relevant nearly 14 years after it’s initial release. Pay yourself first Put it on automatic The “latte factor” Pay […]
One of the fiercest debates in personal finance is over your morning coffee routine. People have extremely strong opinions about whether you should spend money buying an expensive, fancy coffee. I’ll refer to this as the great latte debate. The latte factor The “latte factor” was a term first coined by David Bach in his book […]
There are some well-known people in the personal finance community that advise people that it makes the most sense to buy a house with 100% cash rather than getting a mortgage. Setting aside putting 100% down on a home is not an option for 99% of the population, I want to address why I would […]
Personal finance and managing money are more about psychology than it is about technical knowledge. I’ve known many people much smarter than I am who don’t know the first thing about how to manage their money. You don’t need to be a genius to manage your money. You simply need to develop good habits and […]
The first personal finance article I ever wrote was titled “Your Pumpkin Spice Lattes are costing you $250,000 and Pushing your Retirement Back Years”. The point I was trying to get across is that the little expenses in life add up to large amounts of money. In this article, I’m going to discuss the number […]