Monthly Archives: August 2026
Back to School Blues
Financial stress is painful all year long, but especially at times that are supposed to be joyous occasions. Even though your children’s expectations of material comforts are probably less than you think they are, every free candy cane in a basket in front of a bank teller’s booth reminds you of the Christmas presents… Read More »
Can a Mindset Shift Get You Out of Debt?
There are so many books, podcasts, and social media channels about thinking your way to wealth, but it isn’t that simple. If it were, everyone with a vivid enough imagination would be financially secure. As it stands, the only people getting rich from the “think yourself rich” industry are the authors of the books… Read More »
Goals and Budgets Are Not the Same
Budgeting, like dieting, is an inherently demoralizing experience. People who have done it successfully tell you, with a hefty dose of Schadenfreude, that if you are not able to replicate their success, there must be something wrong with you. They tell you that only the weakest, most foolish, and most morally corrupt among us… Read More »
Avoiding Disaster After a Job Loss
Some people tell inspiring stories that begin with them losing their jobs. What they all have in common is that they are telling you the stories after the plot has resolved. When it first happened, they did not know how long it would be until they found a new job, started a business, or… Read More »
The Dilemma of Taking On More Debt
Beware of success stories where the path to success is linear. For every sober living blogger who has not touched alcohol since he walked into an AA meeting 35 years ago and is now living one day at a time, there are numerous people living one day at a time, with or without blogs… Read More »
Is a Multigenerational Household Your Only Option?
Economic policies after the Second World War led to the era of the single-family home, in which the single family included a married couple and their children. As the decades wore on, houses got bigger and families got smaller, until by the beginning of the present century, it was common to find three people… Read More »
Debt Consolidation Is Not a Panacea
The generation that grew up playing video games on the original Nintendo game system remembers what it looked like when you were in the Tetris equivalent of checkmate. The pieces piled up on the screen, and even though you frantically rushed to line them up to clear some spaces, they eventually reached the top… Read More »
The Plight of Florida’s Condo Owners
If there were a Family Feud game where contestants had to think of a word to describe Florida, the word “flat” would probably be somewhere on the leaderboard, behind “hot,” “dangerous,” and “unhinged.” One story buildings are the norm, both in residential and commercial architecture. For kids who grew up in Florida, elevators are… Read More »