My wife and I are halfway through paying off student loans. When the federal student loan payments were paused due to the pandemic, we made a different decision than most. Instead of using the money that was going towards the federal loans for something else, we added it as an extra payment towards the private student loans. We also made a couple lump sum payments along the way. This decision to pay the private loans…
I divide personal finance planning into short term, medium term, and long term categories. By thinking in different time frames, it’s easier to see if I’m meeting all my financial goals. Each time period serves as a different metric. The short term period tells me about our immediate financial health. The medium term time period is about saving for larger purchases, like a house or planning for eventual car replacements. It’s a measure of intentional…
The most pressure I’ve ever felt was in the late summer of 2020. With a job offer in hand and twins on the way, I needed to finish my Master’s thesis. I was stressed about being able to provide for my family and overwhelmed by the undertaking of writing the thesis. Partly because of the stress, I had trouble motivating myself to write all day. Sitting down in front of my laptop and writing this…
Yesterday I came across a shocking article about TSP investors. With the recent bear market (of the past 6-8 months), TSP investors have been transferring their investments to the G Fund. This is exactly the kind of panic selling that I warned about in a recent post. Moving all your TSP investments from the S or C Funds to the G Fund right now is bad. If you are feeling the overwhelming urge to do…
I tried many different life hacks for decreasing phone use in the past. Deleting social media apps, putting the phone color into black and white, the list goes on. None of it really worked. There was always a work around. Willpower alone wasn’t enough to overcome the social engineering that drives smartphone use. But recently, I have made serious changes to how I use my smartphone. It didn’t take any life hacks. I only had…
Nobody can avoid the Expensive Month. You can be consistently hitting the same spending mark for half a year until it takes you by ambush. A car breaks down, an annual bill comes due, or something else requires repairs. Suddenly all your diligent savings seem to be for naught. It breaks up your rhythm, saps you of your frugal mojo. But I’m here to tell you that it’s going to be okay. The systems and…
At this time last year, I felt dissatisfied with my job. I remember sitting at my desk in the morning and wondering why I didn’t feel passionate about it. This subject that I spent two years getting a Master’s degree in! I thoroughly enjoyed my graduate program and learning the ins and outs of sonar and underwater acoustics. But now that I was out in the field working, something wasn’t quite right. And my thoughts…
The stock market is down 20% this year. A discerning eye may recognize this as not great! It’s not all doom and gloom though – and certainly not a time to sell off all our investments. Instead, this bear market presents another opportunity to reevaluate our personal risk tolerance. Let’s go through the difference between this crash and the last one. Then we can sort through the psychology behind investing and chart a course forward. …
Old Dracula movies always have himuse the weirdest hand gestures. Bram Stoker is responsible for a lot of modern vampire characteristics. From garlic warding them off to driving a stake into a vampire’s heart, that’s all in the popular imagination because of Stoker. Another interesting aspect of Stoker’s Dracula is how he enters into his victims’ lives. Dracula cannot sneak through an open window and start sucking your blood. He must be invited in. All…
My wife and I aspire to own a house someday. Our goal is to be “in the game” around this time next year. In the game means that we’ll be looking for a good deal, knowing that it could take a while before we find something. The biggest barrier for us is saving for a down payment and trying to figure out where to put the money. Current inflation is over 8% for the year.…