Cheaper Insurance – 60 Minutes, Two Phone Calls = $4,187.69

I got a letter this week that kind of got on my nerves.  My car insurance rates were going up by $200 per year with USAA.  This on the heels of those same rates going up another $140 last year.  So, in 18 months, my insurance had gone from up $340 per year.  I hadn’t […]

The Lost Art of Frugality

Your Money Or Your Life – The Book To Read If You Are Serious About Early Retirement

If I had to reduce the key books to two books instead of five, I’d pick A Random Walk Down Wall Street and today’s book, Your Money Or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Like A Random Walk Down Wall Street, YMOYL is not an easy book to summarize.  It’s packed with different […]

Social Status – How To Strut Like a Rock Star, Without Breaking The Bank

I’ve written here and here about how people spend money to try to project (purchase) social status. The urge to signify success and attractiveness is quite human and normal, in my opinion.  Yes, people can blow it way out of proportion and become obsessed with their Instagram accounts–modern day incarnations of Narcissus, mesmerized and trapped […]

The Pitfalls of Financial Freedom

Financial Freedom.  Ahhhhh.  It beckons like an oasis on the horizon. But let me tell you what financial freedom doesn’t automatically provide: Context.  If you are just living off of investment income, you aren’t necessarily part of something larger, a context or theme for your life. Tribe.  Related to the first point, if you are […]

TURBOCHARGE Your Financial Life. Buy A Used Car.

So this one is pretty darn simple. Unless you are quite wealthy–as in into the seven figures of liquid net worth–buy a used car. This has to be one of the simplest and smartest ways to massively jumpstart and accelerate your financial future.  Even if you are a car person, I suggest you still buy […]

Advice From Rich Dudes

Have you ever noticed how some of the most financially successful people in America say, “do what you love?”  Well, keep in mind that “what they love” happens to be insanely lucrative.  It’s not the same thing to love value investing as opposed to love mastering the xylophone (lovely though that instrument may or may […]

Return Stuff You Don’t Like or Want

I wouldn’t write this, but I have personally known people who just can’t be bothered to return clothes they bought that didn’t fit or that they didn’t like–or to send some item back to Amazon that just didn’t match their expectations. Yes, you can take stuff back.  It’s no big deal.  The people at the […]

Spend More Money, Be Happier

In the personal finance space and discussions of financial independence, so much of the conversation is about how to save money strategically.  Indeed, I’ve written quite a lot about smart saving, including, here, here, and here.  (Bonus video here.)  However, life is life.  And some things really do bring joy.  Sometimes you need to Spend […]

A Random Walk Down Wall Street – A Key Book For Financial Freedom

Burton G. Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street is another key book for anyone interested in investing and financial independence.  First published in 1973, Malkiel’s classic has emerged as