Picture yourself at 65: (Whoops, I might have overdone the aging a bit.) Are you taking road trips to visit friends and family, volunteering at your church’s VBS, and working P/T because you want to? Or are you still working 40-60 hours a week because you have to? The path to the former is clear: […]
Something More Valuable Than $113B And Lessons from My Daughter’s Graduation
You know what is more valuable than $113B? That’s how much money 92-year-old Warren Buffett has, give or take a few billion. Ask yourself: Do I want to trade places with Warren? If you are like most people, you wouldn’t, because time is more valuable than $$$. My advice to you (and to me): Act […]
5 Things I’ve Done in the Past 60 Days to Save Hundreds of Dollars
I’ve told you before about how service providers will often punish your loyalty. They’ll push prices up and see who bolts or complains. If you do neither, they figure you are happy. It’s a form of price discrimination – the practice of selling the same product at different prices to different buyers, in order to maximize […]
Hey Gen Z, You Want Guap at 80? Put Aside the Bread Now
There are perks to being a personal finance blogger. I get positive feedback from readers. I was invited to help ring the NYSE bell on Wall Street. And you get sent free things to review occasionally. That’s where Wealth by Virtue by Chad Gordon came from – it showed up on my doorstep one day. Because I […]
Quick Takes: Riding Greyhound, Winning Mega Millions & Human Composting
Pippa and Grey returned to college this month – Grey in his car, Pippa on Greyhound. When I tell people Pippa takes the Greyhound bus back and forth to her college when Covid isn’t raging, they’re like: But it’s a great way for a college student to save money – it’s way cheaper than flying, […]
Know Your Value
There is an old story that goes something like this: A father said to his daughter, “You have graduated with honors, here is a Jeep I bought many years ago. It is pretty old now. Take it to the used car lot and see how much they offer you for it.” The daughter went to […]
My Tiny Bitcoin Investment Lost 64% of Its Value
Last month, I told you about how you hardly ever get something for nothing. Nevertheless, I received this email from Venmo in August 2021: I’m curious like everyone else, so I nabbed the free opportunity to dip my pinkie toe in the digital currency waters. I bought $5 of bitcoin. A couple weeks later, Venmo […]
Credit Card Benefits, a Car Insurance Hiccup, and Another Bike Rack Disaster
In this life, you rarely get something for nothing. Here’s the list in ranked order: God’s grace Credit card benefits On a recent road trip to Ohio, my buddy Oscar was telling me how he financed most of his family’s flights to Cayman Islands using card mileage. Nice! Related: Read about how Oscar saves big bucks on […]
We Paid $5,100 More for a Car Than We Ever Have Before
Nora finally retired her PT Cruiser. It was her second one and she took it pretty hard. It’s a terrible time to buy a car, especially a used one. But buying a new car just seems profligate, so Nora hit google, looking for something about the same size as a Cruiser, but with a manual […]
Five Micro Stories
I got the first of two shingles vaccine shots the other day. They start to recommend it when you hit 50, as I am now. Our health insurance paid for it 100%. And my sister suffered through a recent bout of it, so it’s top of mind. What about safety or side effects? Honestly, I […]
A More Modest Bucket List
Baltimore is slowly – very slowly – joining other cities in building more bike lanes and trails. In 2014, $2M was allocated to extend the Inner Harbor-originating Jones Falls Trail to downtown Mount Washington, from Cylburn Arboretum. Construction wasn’t completed until 2020. Better late than never, and it does have an impressive elevated wooden boardwalk […]
I’m Not Losing Sleep Over a Sloppily Delivered Mattress
As with cars, we drive mattresses to beyond embarrassing. What’s a few stains when you can conceal them with a fresh set of sheets? When she is home, Pippa sleeps on a 35-year-old full mattress. Not only was it visually sketchy, but it had more swayback than a decrepit old nag. It was time. I […]
I Take a Commission for My Matchmaking
A neighbor knew I like to cycle, so before he moved out of town, he gave me an ancient Raleigh bike that had been languishing in his basement. It was mummified by a thick layer of caked-on dust. The tires were so dry rotted, I had to bear down to get it to roll. I […]
Spending $42.69 a Month for Cell Service for a Family of Four – Including Two Teens!
Did you see the NYT article (apologies if you’re at your paywall limit) about the true cost of upgrading to the hot new phone? Buying a fancy $1,000 iPhone is the equivalent of giving up $17,000 in retirement savings, they say, because an investment of $1,000 in a retirement account today should balloon to about […]