Easy Change

Go all cash. It is not a revolutionary idea. Don't wait for something amazing and new in terms of an idea in Personal Finance. It's just cash. That's what I am thinking about as I head into this Month. Sitting now on the 5th, I was considering whether or not I should just go all cash for a month. But let me start with my motivation: I feel like I spend a lot of money. I mean A LOT. More than I should. Perhaps more than anyone should. And that makes me wonder if perhaps the credit card and my personal good fortune to have a good salary really has kept me entirely insulated from how expensive everything is and what my spending habits are. Again, not revolutionary, but this morning it really hit me for some reason.  After I completed this exercise, I found two key takeaways: 1. I spend entirely too much money on coffee out. For me that was a response to spending so much time at my desk at work. I needed an 'excuse' to get outside. Near my office, there is 'ch...

Comparative Compromise, Coping with Change This is the last article in a series of short posts about reflections on divorce. While I would not wish this on anyone for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the financial impact that such an event can have, I certainly feel excited to be working through this process and wanted to take just a few moments to share some of the insights that have really affected me. One of the biggest skills that you need to cultivate as part of the divorce process is being comfortable with change an uncertainty. While this is a financial blog, there are several items that I found very helpful in this manner and these have had immense benefits for my entire life, not just my finances. The Untethered Soul - By Michael Singer Living Beautifully with Change and Uncertainty by Pema Chodron Besides these books I also found three additional pieces of advice are extremely helpful: 1. Go easy on yourself. In a word: compassion. With all of the ...

Dating with Data, Digging for Gold This article is part of a series on divorce which describes my experiences as part of going through a divorce. In short, I found that the dating world had changed somewhat by the time I returned to it as a result of my divorce. Now, the internet has changed dating, changed it even more than when I had originally met my spouse on America Online almost 20 years ago. Now the internet bustles with all sorts of applications for smart phones related to dating. Many of them are related and part of larger conglomerates at this point. I wanted to take this post really to just give my own personal impressions of dating as a result of this experience. I personally used an app called OKCupid which I found to be very good and helpful. Here are the things I liked: 1. It provided pictures and some opportunity to give a description. 2. It did not require for other people to know I was looking at their profile. 3. It allowed me to be able to answer questions...

This is a post in a series on divorce. The list of divorce topics  is here.  Understanding this process can be incredibly difficult, I felt compelle to share some of what I have gone through and learned personally. If you'd like to read the first post, click the link above. Once the assets have been divided, it is then time to start living a separate life. For me this meant dealing with a series of issues around money, time, and space. This post talks a little bit about the money aspect of the separation/initial divorce period...this IS a finance-focused blog after all! In the next post, Reclaiming Life, Restarting Goals, I will discuss more about the other aspects, time and space, but for this post, I am focused solely on the money aspect and the impact that living separately has on someone in this situation. Personally, I was fortunate while I divorced to have a good job and to be able to afford my own apartment and living expenses. While this may seem good at first, th...

Reclaiming Life, Restarting Goals is the title I chose for this post, one in a series of posts about coping with the aspects of divorce. Originally I wanted to write these posts because this is mostly a blog about my finances but I also realize that largely this is a blog about life. Reclaiming Life is something that is hard to imagine, but it is an absolutely necessary step if your divorce was tragic and had a profound impact on you. I'd imagine that this is true for most people, but it is worth noting that I am speaking only from my personal experience. Reclaiming is from the verb to reclaim: re·claim rəˈklām/ verb verb: reclaim ; 3rd person present: reclaims ; past tense: reclaimed ; past participle: reclaimed ; gerund or present participle: reclaiming 1 . retrieve or recover (something previously lost, given, or paid); obtain the return of. "he returned three years later to reclaim his title as director of advertising" synonyms: get back, ...

When it comes to making the decision to divorce, unless there is some overarching circumstance, I view it as a mistake to do it rashly. In order to make the decision, dealing with the feelings and emotions involved first made the most sense. Often when things get changed in our lives it is because we have become fed up with the current state in some way or shape. In this case, there is a feeling that the time for Divorce has come. Deal with your Feelings and Emotions first, noticing that there may be some distinction here. For me my emotions are concrete: Happy, Sad, Complacent, and perhaps fearful. Feelings are a bit more nebulous. I might feel trapped. I might feel subservient. I might feel powerful. None of these are truly emotions, but they are intangible, and somewhat subjective. For me, once I felt unhappy in the situation, I tried on various occasions to deal with why I had these unhappy feelings. The feelings, more than the emotions were the primary driver of the change. M...

Wealthtrack remains one of the most fascinating and enjoyable shows out there for financial topics. Consuelo Mack continues to host this show with a variety of guests ranging from the practical experts on retirement like Erin Botsford and Mary Beth Franklin to more bookish and technical guests like Donald Yacktman and Cliff Asness who have 'been there, done that' with respect to investing large sums of money for their clients. This week was interesting because for one of the few times I've seen on the show Consuelo took a personal turn with her guest, Erin Botsford. She described a scenario when Erin was young where she was involved in an accident and was subsequently involved in a lawsuit as a result of a death in the accident. Being very young at the time, this sounded like a terribly challenging event for Erin (it was made clear that she was not at fault during the episode). This tragic story turned to news you can use: get umbrella insurance for your house and your...