Good morning Reader, Over the weekend, we visited the German Christmas Village in Baltimore. It's one of the best German Christmas markets around and the first time we visited. It's being sponsored by Chase and at several stalls, you can get 50% off if you use a Chase card. 50%! I've seen $1 off or $5 off at some stadiums if you use their bank's card (Citi Field in NY does this, so does Capital One Arena in DC), but 50% off? That's pretty insane. We're slowly accumulating various "holiday...
15 days ago • 1 min read
Good day Reader, Isn't it funny how it doesn't matter how old you are, you always feel like you missed it? Personal example - I graduated college in 2002 with a degree in Computer Science. When I started in 1998, the dot com boom was already roaring.. that's kind of why I chose CS. By 2001, the bubble collapsed and I felt like I missed it. (well, I technically did miss it) The bubble may have burst but I didn't miss the rise of the Internet. I caught that one. There's always another wave....
22 days ago • 1 min read
Good morning Reader, To my friends who are about to celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope your turkey is moist, the pumpkin pie crust is crisp, and the conversations and eggnog are flowing. I have one small ask - my lovely wife (Martha Wang) is a finalist for the Community Builder of the Year Award from BioBuzz, a hiring platform for life science professionals. The award is based on votes (and you can vote daily and you have to enter your email into a Google Doc) and I'm hoping you could be willing...
29 days ago • 1 min read
Good day Reader, We're celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday this weekend with a bunch of family in town. 🎈🎈🎈 We'll have balloon arches, a scavenger hunt, goodie bags full of Maryland treats, and a few other fun things. I have a question for you - what do you think would be a fun idea for the weekend? With four kids, our best ideas involve playing Pass the Parcel because Bluey is on repeat (not complaining though!), which may not fit the demo. 😂 What are your best ideas??? Thanks! (View...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Good morning Reader, As I write this, Bitcoin is at $87,923, up almost 44% in six months. Yet I still own almost no bitcoin. (I have a smidge on Coinbase from who knows where) I'm not anti-bitcoin. I think it's cool technology albeit a tragic consumer of natural resources. I'm just anti-speculation. I also don't like how rabid bitcoin fans identify so strongly with their investments. I don't need it in my life and so I haven't devoted the time and attention to learn it enough. For those...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Good morning Reader, With Donald Trump winning a second term, it will be interesting to see how his policies (and what he's able to enact) will impact our finances. We're likely to see tax cuts (some of the cuts he enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 are set to expire at the end of next year) and tariffs, which could raise costs of some goods on Americans. Either way, it's still too early to tell. (View this email as a webpage) 💵 IRS announces 2025 tax brackets Every year around this...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Good morning Reader! Last night, we had an almost full load to run the dishwasher and so I threw a pot in. I looked at my wife and said "we made it!" 😂 It sounds silly but growing up, our dishwasher was mostly a drying rack. We'd rarely run it. In my mind, sticking in a massive pot seemed decadent. What was something from your childhood that seemed only for the wealthy that you now realize is fairly normal? (View this email as a webpage) 👶 Should parents help their kids financially? A...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Good morning Reader! When I started working, someone told me that if you switch jobs too often, you'll get labeled a "job hopper" and it'll be harder to get a job. True or not? What do you think? I think it's scare tactics by hiring managers. 🤣 (View this email as a webpage) 🐇 How long do people stay at jobs? Three years into my first job, I switched companies for a 36% raise. I didn't think twice about it. Turns out, the average tenure at a job is less than 4 years. It's a lot shorter than I...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Good morning Reader! The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics' jobs report came out last week and showed the labor market is better than ever. Employers added 254k+ more jobs (compared to 140k+ expected), plus they revised July and August figures up by 72k jobs. What does this mean for us? It means the Federal Reserve won't be cutting rates as quickly as they probably would've otherwise. The markets still see an 88.7% chance of them lowering to 4.50%-4.75% in November, a 25 basis point drop. As...
3 months ago • 2 min read