Recently, I came across an article titled How To Be Broke on $75,000 a Year[1]. As I reviewed the sample budget, one thing that stuck out was the monthly life insurance payment of $100. There seemed to be a lot going on there that didn’t seem prudent. Who Needs Life Insurance Life insurance is for… Continue reading How Much Life Insurance Do I Need?
A couple of years ago, I closed my Wealthfront account. After closing my account, I set out to DIY a tax loss harvesting system, modeled after Wealthfront. I’m tempted to call it my level 5 asset allocation strategy. Building my own tax loss harvesting system has a few advantages, including: Avoid Wealthfront’s .25% management fee… Continue reading Tax Loss Harvesting Update – October 2020
The question “should I delay taking Social Security” isn’t a question that I will personally need to answer for at least two decades. However, I had a conversation recently that got me thinking about the mathematics behind the decision and I decided to take a look. To better understand the tradeoffs, throughout my analysis I’ll… Continue reading Delaying Social Security Benefits
September 2020 Update It’s crazy to think that almost exactly one year ago we’d just arrived in Spain for our 81-day family trip. Remember, back when travel to foreign places used to be a thing? This September has been a little bit different, mostly uneventful. Having our oldest at college has been a little different.… Continue reading September 2020 Update
Exactly one year ago, we arrived in Spain on our 81-day, do-it-yourself, family study abroad in Spain. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we left. Following a gentle nudge, I put down some thoughts on the lessons we learned from our journey. Lessons We Learned It wasn’t as expensive as we thought… Continue reading What I Learned Spending 81-days In Spain
With the annual benefit enrollment period closing at work, it got me thinking about whether I could contribute to a health savings account (HSA). I’ve had HSA accounts with two previous employers, but my current employer doesn’t offer it. Could I still open an HSA on my own to get additional tax savings? HSA Requirements… Continue reading Can I Contribute to an HSA?
It’s that time of year, again: benefit open enrollment. What? It’s only September, you say? Don’t most benefit periods start at the beginning of the year? Turns out, not always. The startup I work for just celebrated its fourth anniversary and the benefits calendar nearly coincides, running from October 1st to September 30th of the… Continue reading The FSA Crystal BalI
Each month, I find that there’s a bunch of small topics that don’t warrant their own post but that I want to share nonetheless. Here are some from August. Beach House In North Carolina In the eight years that we’ve lived in Virginia, we’ve rented houses near the beach on the southern coast of North… Continue reading August 2020 Update
This week my oldest daughter headed off to college. She’s excited and we’ll see how well the university keeps the kids safe during the pandemic. She’s pretty good at following rules but I’m not so sure how well her peers will follow rules. Either way, she’ll be coming home around Thanksgiving and we’re still waiting… Continue reading Gaining Independence
Despite wanting to reduce the number of financial accounts that I have, this month was a giant step backward. Not only did I sign up for a Suntrust checking account to score a $400 bonus offer, but I also opened up six(!) new Virginia529 accounts, one for each of my kids. At the same time… Continue reading Setting up accounts with Virginia529
