Category: Time
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Everything is a tradeoff
A nearly constant temptation in the world of money is to over-optimize for taxes, or returns, or safety, or income, or leisure, or political preference, or whatever it is that floats your boat. It’s a temptation because the idea of optimization seems inherently good, and indeed there are many things…
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Scrolling spending
Sometimes our spending becomes like the mindless scrolling we often engage in with our phones. When this happens, I think there are a couple of things that can be helpful: Both of the above are basically a tactical way to get our minds back into the game, kick-starting our awareness…
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Giving Tuesday
I grew up in a home where generosity was such an integral part of our reality that it was hard to identify on its own. What I mean is, if my family was a soup, and you asked me to strain out the generosity in the soup, I couldn’t. It was…
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The problem with financial drugs
I wrote yesterday about the problem with one-time advice, and drew a parallel there between going to the doctor and getting financial advice. Today, in the spirit of follow-up posts, I want to draw another parallel between the practice of medicine and the financial services industry. So first, a story.…
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The problem with one-time advice
I wrote awhile back about my ten-year gap between doctor visits (I have since been to the doctor, thank you). But you know, going to the doctor for a checkup gets increasingly less useful the further you get past that visit. You got a clean bill of health when you went…
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Outside is always free
Here’s a thing to try: Set your phone and your wallet on the couch at home. Then put on some walking shoes. Then open up your front door. Then step outside. And then just stay there for awhile. Maybe right there on your porch, or maybe some woods, or a…
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Can Marvel teach us to be more ordinary?
Here’s a link to the Wikipedia page which shows the list of live-action films that have come out of the Marvel Comics universe. From 1944 to 2001, there were seven films. From 2002 through this year there have been THIRTY-NINE. Another nine are already planned through 2019. There’s nothing wrong…
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and customer service
Look. I have a cell phone. It’s an iPhone. I don’t own it. It sometimes owns me. I’m not proud of the situation from top to bottom. Perhaps you can relate. But anyway, I think my wireless provider (who rhymes with Horizon) does own the phone, and they also own me,…
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Leaf season: Fasting and feasting for financial health
There are two twin maple trees near my office in Raleigh, beautiful old trees that greet me as I make the turn on to our street. And each year at just about this time, they start changing colors from top to bottom: dark green to greenish-yellow at first, and then…
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Million Dollar Baby and planning the end of your vacation
Have you ever seen the movie Million Dollar Baby? It won four Oscars, somehow, (including Best Picture) despite it being the worst movie ever. Seriously. The one line plot summary from IMDB is, “A determined woman works with a hardened boxing trainer to become a professional.” What it should say…
Meaningful Returns 