For years, my step-father has talked about the value of “funding” accounts for savings purposes. He would accomplish this by tracking, with a hand written ledger, all the money earmarked for a specific purpose. Growing up, I often heard him talk about the value and importance of practicing this habit. I guess I was lucky […]
Archives for June 2015
We have lived as a one car family for years
I have enjoyed riding a bike from the very first day I learned how to ride one, somewhere around the age of five. It is such a marvelous invention to use human-powered effort to propel a machine down the road, at greater speeds than you could possibly achieve by running. This is almost as exciting […]
How Does it Feel to Pay Off a Mortgage?
My goal—and one that my wife and I share—has always been to be mortgage-free. Although this has felt like a huge obstacle, it has been an important milestone in planning for our retirement. These days, the trend seems to be that more people are retiring with mortgage balances. To me, it appears fiscally irresponsible and […]
Part 2: Is Debt good, bad, or just something we can’t live without? (Like oxygen and water)
About a month ago I discussed “Bad debt” in part #1 of this two part series. If you missed that post, please take a moment to read that first. In Part #1 we defined what debt is and determined that several things could be detrimental to your finances. The basic ideas of incurring debt to […]
The “Reverse Latte Factor”
In his bestselling book, The Automatic Millionaire, David Bach coined the term, “The Latté Factor.” In doing so, he prompted us to take a careful look at the impact of even the smallest purchases on our long-term savings. The latté that so many people enjoy each day on the way to work took a head-on […]
I have a case of “The Mondays”
It is one of those Monday’s again. Certainly you know what I must be talking about – having no motivation, energy, drive, or desire to go to work today. Perhaps I am just having a case of “The Mondays”? Or perhaps I am just having a vision problem? I can’t see myself going in! […]
How Liquid is your Real Estate?
One of my longtime passions and investment strategies has been residential real estate. Many of the blogs and books that I follow talk about real estate, and I will definitely get into more detail regarding real estate in future blog posts. However, for now I think it is important to talk about liquidity (the ability to […]
Emotional Biases that Affect Money Decisions
I spend a lot of time looking at possibilities of how our future may develop and second-guessing some of the decisions we made along the way. It is not uncommon for me to spend hours discussing and analyzing the potential outcomes of each decision with my wife. Thankfully, she is patient and receptive of these […]