Why You May Be Pursuing FIRE “You’re not the boss of me!” You can almost see the defiant 5-year-old trying to establish his independence. You can probably still feel that way deep inside where your childhood self lives. Especially when your boss tells you to… stay late on an evening where you set a date […]
I’m just like you. I sometimes buy stuff I don’t really need. Just the other day, I got a digital $30 off coupon on orders of $60 or more. I immediately started browsing and (including shipping and sales tax) paid $54 for stuff I wanted, but didn’t really need. Keeping Up with the Joneses Is […]
Over the past 20 years, I’ve bought three homes, but took out over a dozen mortgages. That’s right, I took out far more mortgages than one per home because early on I used second mortgages to avoid having to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI), and on many occasions I was able to reduce my costs […]
The U.S. tax code is famously complicated. Congress, over decades, has enacted tax measures (and will continue to do so) that it believes will benefit society (or at least segments of society that they care more about than others, a.k.a., earmarking or pork). One aspect that bewilders me is that we’re required to calculate as […]
In my mind, PMI is legally sanctioned theft – you pay tens of thousands of dollars for something that brings you no benefit, and that you could avoid by structuring your mortgage in a smarter way at a fraction of the cost.
Contractors Aren’t Employees, so if You’re a Contractor or Freelancer, Don’t Count on Your Clients to Look Out for You She wrote with exquisite, even painful, candor and vulnerability of how she was betrayed, when her direct client failed to pay what she was owed. “…all came crashing to a halt when the money I was […]
The Definitive Answer on Buying vs. Renting I was in my late 30s and still renting. I’d completely bought into the American Dream, so I knew I was throwing away money each month. I knew I had to do something about it, but somehow just thinking of scraping together a down payment, and worse, committing […]
Social Security benefit rules seem to be designed for maximum complexity and confusion. With multiple benefits, requirements, and amounts depending on specific scenarios, it’s impossible to cover all of it in one go. Since the information on SSA.gov leaves something to be desired, here’s how to maximize your spouse’s benefits. First, the Obvious – Retirement […]
Mortgage Accelerator Offers Are Bad for Your Financial Health When I bought my first home, the mortgage servicer included a pitch with each monthly statement. They called it a “Mortgage Accelerator” offer, which painted a really pretty picture. If I signed up, they would bill me half my monthly payment every other week instead of […]