Don’t Make a New Year’s Resolution, Start a Plan
One of my proudest accomplishments is being able to finish our basement with my own hands. It now comes with a full bath, laundry room, home theater, and a mini gym. I did most of the labor myself, including the electrical and plumbing, working mostly weekends with occasional help from …
The Shortest Path to Wealth is Not Necessarily the Best Route to Take
What is the shortest path to wealth? Frankly, I have three words for you: “Marry for money.” Either that or “Win the lottery.” Neither is realistic nor practical unless you happen to be extremely attractive or incredibly lucky. If you ask a few personal finance gurus, however, you’ll get differing …
Dying Without a Will Could be Your Ultimate Horror Story
My first real encounter with death occurred while I was in Manila many years ago. I was riding a cab on my way to the City Hall when I was awakened from my short nap by the driver who was frantically exclaiming in Tagalog, “May tao, nasagasaan ng trak!” A man …
Net Worth Update: Four Years Later
While this might come off weird for people outside the FI community, sharing our household net worth over the internet is a Labor Day tradition that I’ve observed since I started the blog four years ago. It’s all for transparency, accountability, and validation that the lessons I’ve been writing about …
Preparing for the Inevitable: Death of a Loved One
Over the course of two weeks, I’ve learned several things that must be done when a family member is dying, which I plan to share in this post.
The Road to Riches Starts Here: Track Your Net Worth
It may not be a surprise to my readers, but I have a confession to make. I’m obsessed with tracking our net worth. Every month, I update a spreadsheet to keep track of our numbers, in addition to logging into various sites that aggregate our financial data over the web. I’ve …
Net Worth Update: Three Years Later (since I started the blog)
It’s Labor Day again. Do you know what that means? That means it’s time for me to share our net worth. Net worth reporting for Personal Finance bloggers is like show-and-tell in kindergarten except you’re not showing a toy— you’re showing a potentially embarrassing report card. I’m starting to doubt …
Homeownership: Don’t Let Your American Dream Become a Nightmare
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can …
Suze Orman Could be Right, This Calculator Can Tell You Why
If you’ve been following my posts, you probably know by now that this is not a FIRE (Financially Independent, Retire Early) blog. For one thing, I’m already in my forties when I wrote my first post. There’s no way I could retire in my 30’s without sneaking into my sister’s time …
Net Worth Update: Two Years Later
One reason why I share my net worth over Labor Day Weekend is that of something with symbolic importance. The holiday is meant to celebrate the achievements of American workers. To quote the U.S. Department of Labor, “a tribute to the contributions of workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being …