Category: Personal Finance

The worst type of debt is consumer debt. One reason why consumer debt is so bad is due to people buying things they really don’t need: a fifth pair of designer jeans, another luxury watch, every electronic gadget imaginable, and so forth. But egregiously high credit card interest rates are the main reason why consumer debt is the worst type of debt for your finances. If you keep revolving credit card debt, you will likely stay poor forever. Let’s take a look at the current average credit card interest rate.   The Average Credit Card Interest Rate According to the[…]

If you want to get rich you need to go where the highest paying jobs are. The highest paying jobs come from the fastest growing, economically strongest companies. According to a Deutsche Bank study of over 50 cities in the world, San Francisco is the #1 city to make money. Since 2018, average salaries in San Francisco have risen by 31% and by 88% since 2014. Damn, since I live in San Francisco, I really should have kept working instead of retiring in 2012. I could have been so rich! Alas, there’s always the next life to fix my current[…]

In the middle of the financial crisis, I decided to propose and get married to my lovely wife. It was the happiest moment of my life. When people ask me to recollect the horrors of the financial crisis, I’ve got to think real hard because I proposed in early 2008, got married at the end of 2008, then started my website in mid-2009. Despite losing about 35% of my net worth, I’m overwhelmed with memories of joy during this time period. I knew that even if I lost everything, at least I’d still have my wife. We met in college[…]

Dreaming is the best since it’s fun and free to do. At least once a month, I dream that I can fly. The best is when you know you’re dreaming. That’s when things get really interesting. Daydreaming as a young lad helped me achieve some goals, like getting a job in finance and starting a lifestyle business once I escaped it. Today, my biggest dream is to live long enough to see my son grow up happy and healthy. Although dreams often don’t come true, there’s one dream that comes true for us every year. And that dream is living[…]

The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut the federal funds rate on July 31, 2019, signifies several things: 1) The Fed screwed up in December 2018 by hiking rates for the 9th time in three years. Cutting rates just 7.5 months after hiking rates is like getting a divorce within a year. The signs were everywhere, but the couple simply chose not to look because they were too horny. 2) The Treasury bond market is a better indicator of the economy’s health and dictates the proper interest rate policy, not the Fed. All year and parts of last year, the yield[…]

Men don’t have a culture of readily sharing our feelings. As children, we are told that “big boys don’t cry.” Consequently, we suck up our pain and march on through the mundaneness of life like good soldiers. If we suppress our feelings long enough, bad things tend to happen. It’s unfortunate that society doesn’t treat a man’s mental health with the same equal amount of attention as it does a woman’s health. A simple Google search on the words “mom guilt” and “dad guilt” reveals 2X more results for “mom guilt.” Yet, I argue that dad guilt might is much more common[…]

If you want to build great wealth, you must invest in risk assets over the long term. If you hold most of your net worth in cash, your purchasing power will fall behind due to inflation. Today, $3 million is the new $1 million when people talk about what it’s like to achieve real millionaire status. Heck, some people might double that figure to $6 million if there is a two-parent household. I remember filling up my Toyota Corolla beater for 95 cents a gallon back in 1995. Today, I sometimes have to pay over $4 a gallon. So many things[…]

After writing The Bear Market Checklist, I thought I’d follow my own advice and do a mid-year review. The last thing I want is to get broadsided because things feel so good. So far, this year has been solid on the financial front. I haven’t felt this good since 2007, the year before everything fell to pieces. I truly hope all of you are benefitting from this extraordinary bull market as well. 4Q2018 was such a dicey time period. It was hard for me to imagine things turning out as well they have since. I’ve been trying to live it[…]

A Bull Market Checklist To Living Your Best Life is a good resource for living it up when times are good. But how hard is it really to live the good life when you’re making money hand over fist? Not hard at all. The real challenge is living your best life during a bear market, which tends to happen every 4 – 10 years since the early 1900s. Bear markets are usually a time of worry and remorse. I hated working through the 2000 tech collapse and the 2008-2009 housing crisis. We haven’t had a bear market since 2009, although[…]

Surprisingly, I didn’t receive much pushback from my post, The Amount Of Money Needed To Retire Early And Live In Abject Poverty. Almost everyone got the gist, which was to help you question whether the pursuit of early retirement is counterproductive if you have to live like a pauper. Instead, perhaps finding a job you actually enjoy doing would be a better use of your time. Yes, a couple of readers jabbed at me using the words “coastal elite” as a pejorative term to say how out of touch I am that 200% of FPL is a near poverty wage.[…]