The other day I was listening to a Planet Money episode on the topic of escheatment or unclaimed property. It was a fascinating episode, including a dude who lost thousands of dollars in stock gains all because he didn’t log into his etrade account for years. And the key takeaway from the episode is maybe… Continue reading Unclaimed Money
I’ve had a Google Voice since 2007. That was actually in the pre-Google days when it was called Grand Central. I love a lot of things about Google Voice beyond the frugality of it, but there’s also some annoyances. My Google Voice Setup Google Voice provides a single phone number that you can route to… Continue reading Saving Money Using Google Voice
While writing the post about front-loading my 401(k) contributions a couple weeks ago, I made some additional calculations that I thought were interesting enough to share in a separate post. In the post, I used a theoretical example using a single fund, VTSAX, over a 10 year period. After 10 years of front-loading the annual… Continue reading Is 401(k) Front-loading worth it?
Shortly after we bought our first home, I threw together some spreadsheets to examine the amortization of our mortgage. I wanted to experiment how prepayments towards the principal of our loan would affect the total amount of interest we paid to the bank. I learned a couple things that I thought I’d share. More Interest… Continue reading The Effect of Early Loan Payments
The other day, a coworker asked me if making a lump sum contribution to a 401(k) with the market depressed in the midst of COVID-19 would be a good idea. In essence, he was looking to time the market, buying when things looked low. I reminded him that “time in the market is more important… Continue reading Front-loading 401(k) Contributions
A few weeks ago we closed on a refinance of our mortgage. We kicked off the process mid-February, before the COVID-19 storm really kicked in. We closed just shortly after the market did the dizzying drop mid-March. Why refinance now? Rates had dipped in early February to the point where we could drop another .75%… Continue reading Is A Refinance Worth It?
My previous twenty tax returns are a treasure trove of lessons learned. In many ways, my experience can provide a road map for young, up and coming professionals that are fresh out of college and embarking on the rest of their life. Here’s a one sentence, Jeopardy-summary-plus-commentary for each of the previous twenty tax seasons.… Continue reading Twenty Years of Tax Lessons
It was Thanksgiving 2017 and I was having an investing conversation. During the conversation, I tried to explain the dangers of “return chasing”, picking investments solely based on past performance and projecting past performance into the future. Picking a fund that has had a good run is not an effective investment strategy. Instead of return… Continue reading Return Chasing
The A1C is the number that a diabetic uses to determine how well they’re doing managing their diabetes. Over time, a diabetic who consistently runs a high A1C, they face significant health risks. By checking their A1C regularly, diabetics can track how well they’ve been managing their diabetes over time. When I read about J.… Continue reading My Financial A1C
Despite complications to my taxes, I have personally found the financial benefits of participating in employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs) to outweigh the cons. What’s an ESPP? In a nutshell, ESPPs give employees the opportunity to buy company stock directly from the company at a discount. Employees choose a percentage of their salary to set… Continue reading A Tale of Two ESPPs
