If you ask 10 different couples how they manage their money, you’ll probably get 10 different answers… including something along the lines of “We don’t. Budget? What budget?” Let me go ahead and say that might be the only wrong answer here. Some couples keep separate finances, both before and after marriage. Others combine everything…
The Surprising Skill You Need If You Want to Maximize Your Money
The other day, my wife, Kali, mentioned she wanted to thank me for something. We recently bought a home we both love in upstate New York. It sits on a little mountain and has an incredible, western-facing view. We were sitting on the deck watching a gorgeous sunset (an activity we don’t imagine tiring of…
The Unusual Financial Planning Process to Buy a Vacation Home
My wife and I rarely do anything in what could be described as “the usual way.” We think outside the box and generally choose to forge our own path instead of following the well-known and mainstream; from the fact that we’re both extremely independent and prefer to work for ourselves to choosing to rent in…
Some Favorite Books for Personal Finance and Personal Development
Reading personal finance blogs and listening to podcasts is great (here’s one you might want to try if you haven’t already), but sometimes there’s no substitution for the deeper dive that well-researched and well-written books can give you. The right books for personal finance and personal development can provide an incredible amount of powerful knowledge…
Have Equity Comp? Make Sure It Doesn’t Put Your Wealth at Risk
A version of this article was originally written for and published on Kiplinger. Equity compensation can be an extremely useful tool when it comes to building wealth. And just like any other tool you may use, you can leverage your equity comp to build something great — in this case, significant wealth — or, you…
Disability Insurance: Use This Process to Help Determine What You Need (and What You Don’t)
No one likes to think about what would happen in the event of an emergency, disaster, or loss — but the reality is that things don’t always go according to plan. The good news is we can prepare for this in practical terms by getting the proper insurance coverage, or knowing how to self-insure against…
The Truth About Financial Advice Most Experts Won’t Tell You
If you go and seek out financial advice, you will find a lot of people ready to give you their opinion on the best thing to do with your money. And they might actually have great advice that is sound, reasonable, and wise. The problem, however, is that it may or may not apply to…
Does Your Financial Plan Lack This Critical Piece?
It’s pretty easy to give basic financial advice or to create your financial plan outline from broad rules of thumb and generic suggestions that you can find online. Things get trickier, however, when you start getting more specific; when you start digging into details and wanting to know the answers to far more complex questions….
How to Manage Your Personal Finances Through Tough Times
Figuring out how to manage your personal finances is never easy. Most of us didn’t get a formal education in money, and even majoring in something like business or finance doesn’t help much when it comes to personal finance. If we learn anything, it usually comes from our parents — and that might not be…
Spend Better: 5 Ways to Be Smarter About How You Use Your Money
The majority of personal finance advice can be boiled down to some simple rules. The biggest two? Spend less. Save more. This is good advice, and certainly part of the fundamentals to master if you want to be financially successful. But putting all of the focus on spending less and saving more means we’re telling…