We’ve been told over and over that being single is more expensive than being married. But when you look at the real cost of marriage, there are many reasons why marriage can be more expensive than being single. The Real Cost of Marriage is Higher...
Financial infidelity (keeping money secrets in a relationship) is strongly frowned upon – except when advising women. Instead, when discussing finances to an audience of women, the relationship advice is geared toward protecting oneself. This leads me to put on my Carrie Bradshaw advice column...
It’s a surprisingly controversial statement – women should pay in relationships. The notion that the man should pay is engrained in our culture. People usually bring up reasons like the pay gap and tradition. The difference these days is that we can’t assume anymore that...
A money and power imbalance is why dating sucks for female lawyers. Couples often fight about money, particularly if the distribution of money is uneven. Money is a proxy for power, and power imbalances lead to disagreements. When the Woman Earns More Because of the...
Being single seems like it would be an impediment to advancing in your career or to obtaining wealth. For instance, a significant other can halve your chores and expenses and provide advice and support – clear benefits. For me though, being single helped advance my...
As a Chinese American attorney, I was eagerly awaiting the TV adaptation of Helen Wan’s novel, The Partner Track. Wan is Chinese, and an alumna of both my high school and my law school. Her novel’s story follows a Chinese American woman as she seeks...
This is a very silly story. Yesterday, I received a random four hours of vacation. I checked to see if it couldn’t be transferred to another day or if I could take it at another time, and I couldn’t. Further, I wouldn’t get “credit” for...
My parents are immigrants so thrift is deeply ingrained in me. Pinching pennies in my 20s and living a zero waste, one-meal-a-day lifestyle means that I really don’t check prices on things anymore – my lifestyle is cheap. The retirement calculators tell me I’m doing...
Between reading Die with Zero and attending my first death cafe, I’ve been thinking a lot about death lately. And it’s not necessarily morbid (i.e. an obsession with death) because I use these events to think about life. When I think about the shortness of...
Personal finance books and articles are always my source for post ideas. Mostly it’s because I disagree, with their advice. Consider the following tweet: What counts as an emergency? According to Vanguard, an emergency fund is a stash of money set aside to cover the...
I started this blog in part because I thought internet financial advice was wrong or outdated or at least incomplete because it didn’t apply to someone like me. And without necessarily meaning to, my most controversial posts are the most popular because there isn’t much...
A popular quote these days is “Not all who wander are lost.” To me, this is strange because if you’re wandering, you can’t be lost. You have to have a destination in order to be lost and if you’re wandering, your destination is wherever you...
Around this time, people start complaining about how stressful it is to shop for Christmas gifts. I just nod and pretend I have any idea what it’s like. I am fortunate not to have the stress of figuring out “perfect gifts” for my family, because...
Recently, more states are adding financial education to their curricula. Some people cheer the change but I question the utility of it. When I was in school, we were taught how to write checks (oh I’m so old). But there are objectively wrong ways to...
Apparently, retail sales are up because of pent up demand due to Covid. Personal finance people are pleading, “Don’t go shopping if you don’t need more stuff!” This effort seems futile and wrongly focuses on the action rather than the motivation. It reminds me of...