News media, bloggers, influencers, advisors, and others, are often guilty of creating hard and fast rules. Writing authoritatively, we declare no flexibility or exceptions. It’s a “my way or the highway” message.
I buy used books whenever I can. The books are almost always in really good condition, and come at half the price. Some books you’d never even be able to tell are used.
I often hear people talk about personal finance like there is only one pathway to success. “Do this, not that” “The only way to get wealthy…” “That way is for suckers” “The only way is to make more” “Nothing else will work”
We all need to take a break and have fun now and then. Some call it a vacation, others call it a trip, travel, or holiday. Whatever you call it, we all need to hit the pause button on daily life and get away now and then.
We’ve all heard about the lottery winner going broke after 3 years. Or the celebrity declaring bankruptcy 5 years after their prime. Being successful with personal finance is really about the process. And a huge part of the process is creating healthy financial habits.
Should you pay off debt or invest? There are so many answers out there—it’s confusing. One financial expert says to pay off all debt first, while another says invest before anything else. Your parents both think you should pay off debt before doing anything, while your aunt says you have to start investing young.
Personal finance can be like a rollercoaster. Money left over in the checking account one month, an onslaught of unexpected expenses the next month. 3 or 4 good months in a row followed by 1 or 2 not so good months. This is completely normal.
Most people equate shopping to buying things like clothes, cars, and electronics. It’s exciting, fun, and cool. When people think of saving and investing, words and phrases like “boring”, “long term future”, and “I’m becoming my parents” comes to mind. The future seems so far away, while buying cool stuff is right now.
Lifestyle creep is arguably one of the biggest barriers to wealth building. It’s running in quicksand, spinning on the proverbial hamster wheel. Working hard every month but never getting ahead financially. There is one simple and easy way to avoid lifestyle creep that anyone can do with very little effort and time.
One of the most common personal finance questions I hear is how much should you have in your emergency account. So many of the “experts” give different answers. 3-6 months, $3,000-$5,000, 9 months, one-year minimum, two years. The answers are all over the place—it can be seriously confusing.
Over the weekend my wife and I took the kids camping to Anza Borrego State Park, about an hour and a half outside San Diego.
When people talk about money, they usually bring things up like budgeting, debt, retirement, interest rates, etc. Which are all important topics. Not too many
Leveraged debt. The very word strikes passion and controversy. There are two main camps: adamantly for it or against it. Very few people are in
I don’t know why, but the other day on the way to work I was thinking about this house that was listed in Pacific Beach
