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I started this blog in part because I thought internet financial advice was wrong or outdated or at least incomplete because it didn’t apply to someone like me.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...
Most errands are boring, but shopping can be exhilarating. Stores have figured out how to convert the pursuit of saving money into spending too much. Bargain hunting is making you broke. When you think about it, shopping should be full and painful. You have to...