One of the eternal questions that’s raised in the personal finance world is whether one should be investing or paying of a mortgage. I made my choice 15 years ago. In hindsight, my choice could qualify as a mistake but, if so, it’s not the worst one I’ve ever made. As I’ve said before, personal […]
As a non-expert financial person, my advice to nearly everyone is to adopt a buy and hold strategy because it works over the long-term. When the pandemic was declared in March 2020, the stock market took a dive. And it wasn’t a sweet, gentle decrease either. It was a stomach-churning drop that saw me lose […]
This week, I made a slight tweak to my savings account and it will result in my savings account earning 12.5x as much interest as I was earning before. Yes – you read that correctly. I will earn 12.5x more interest by making one small adjustment to my automatic transfers. At the time of this […]
With age comes wisdom…or so they say. Speaking from personal experience, I can say that my wisdom is arriving in dribs and drabs. For their part, the birthdays arrive at a seemingly more frequent pace. I’ve made plenty of money mistakes, but I’ve finally learned to go beyond the letter “A”. Blue Lobster, what the […]
This week, I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine about spending money. She made the observation that if she spends money today, then there’s that much money less to pay for her retirement. I couldn’t argue with her. In fact, I was happy that someone else in my circle of loved ones […]
When I started investing, I had no idea what I was doing. It’s true. I was in my early 20s, and my local newspaper had a column about personal finance. I’m older than the internet, so I grew up reading newspapers. I’ll never forget a column about David Chilton’s book The Wealthy Barber. That book […]
As I’ve said before, you need not make every mistake yourself. You can learn from the mistakes of others and make better choices for yourself. Luckily for you, my hindsight is 20/20. If you’re facing the choice between paying off your debt or investing your money for growth, perhaps my experience can offer you some […]
A car fund is a tool that will help you stay out of debt. Avoiding car payments is a great way to keep your financial stress to minimum. Your car fund is the place where you save money for your next vehicle. It’s a sinking fund dedicated to the purchase of your next motorized chariot. […]
When I was younger, I was convinced that student loans are an anchor. I believed that the best course of action was to eliminate them as soon as humanly possible. Full stop – no further discussion needed. Paying off student loans ASAP was a sign of being a mature adult. One did not carry debt […]
Who doesn’t love the word “free”? This week, I decided to buy myself some new jeans. I went to the website of one of my favourite jeans-buying retailers, and discovered to my delight that everything was 50% off. Hooray! Jeans I want at a price I wanted to pay… how could I possibly ask for […]