Over the past five years, I have lived in 3 different states. I moved because I was offered higher pay and better opportunities to grow my career. My higher pay and career growth would not have happened if I hadn’t moved. How To Choose The Right State The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes excellent information…
Are Annuities Good or Bad? It Depends!
A friend of mine recently asked me if I thought annuities were a good investment idea. For context, her key concern was market volatility which is why she was looking at annuities. I’m not a big fan of annuities but I decided to ask an artificial intelligence to tell me what the pros and cons…
Not Getting Paid Enough? Consider A Career Change!
It seems everyone I speak to these days is struggling in some way and often it is with either money or health. To address the money issue, I’ve been doing some research on behalf of some young struggling individuals. My first stop was the Bureau of Labor Statistics that offers projections for what future job…
Judge, Jury and Jester Justice
I had jury duty not too long ago. I didn’t get picked for the jury but I did make a whole lot of financial observations that got me thinking about who the real victim was in the court case. The Criminal The criminal was a young man accused of committing a theft. The Crime The…
Want Personalized Financial Advice? Learn!
There isn’t a week that goes by that someone asks for personal financial advice. The problem with giving personal financial advice is that in order to give truly useful advice you need to know a whole lot about the person. This week someone asked me how I became so wealthy and what they could do…
What’s The Best State To Retire In?
I have been thinking about that question for quite some time. It’s not an easy question to answer because there are so many variables and everyone has different priorities. I know some people that love being near National Parks so they move to states that have them. Others I know love being in large metro…
How Much Is Enough?
A friend recently asked me if I had enough money to retire right now if I wanted. The only answer I could give her was it depends. Our household has enough money to theoretically never starve or be homeless. I live in a house that is paid off but it has operating costs of $1400/month…
How I Charged $95,000 On Two Credit Cards In 2023
With the end of the calendar year comes lots of goodies and one of my favorite things to do is to see how much and where I spent my money. Today, I am going to cover how I spent $95,000 on two of my favorite travel cards and it ties into this post entitled, “How…
Why You Should Always Cash Out Company Stock Grants
I’m going to share the hardest money lesson and regret that I had in my career but as bad as it was, some had it far worse. The Great Financial Crisis 2008 The year was 2007 and I was hired by a company that offered me $100k worth of company stock every year as part…
2024 Financial New Year’s Resolution
It’s 2024 and I’ve been thinking about my New Year’s financial resolutions and over time I’ve learned that the key to successful resolutions is to keep it simple and achievable so here are mine: 1. Max 401k As I creep closer and closer to retirement, I worry that I haven’t saved enough so for 2024,…