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I have been writing about money for nearly 20 years and believe that personal finance is one of those subjects that is made complicated because it benefits a select few. Our aim is to help make it easier to understand so that regular folks can use what we teach to take control of their money and build wealth.
Good morning Reader! We had our first cold week in Maryland where temperatures were in the high 30s at night. We live in a home built in the 1980s with an oil furnace that burns #2 heating oil - which is now 124% higher than a year ago. We have a heat pump too, for the shoulder seasons, but the price per kilowatt-hour has jumped too... it's something we'll all have to contend with this winter. Regardless of how you heat your home, if you need help check to see if your state offers any...
Good morning Reader! When it comes to your money and investing, there are three distinct phases - the setup, the accumulation, and then the drawdown. Early in the process, there's a lot of work to set it up. You create a budget, you dial in your spending, and you save and invest your money. Then there's the accumulation phase, the "boring middle," where you simply wait. You make automatic contributions, you go about your life, and you wait until your portfolio hits "the number." Then, of...
Good morning Reader! I was chatting with a friend who works at a consumer products company and she's seeing consumer behavior change. More and more people are using a barbell budgeting strategy when it comes to their spending. This is where you spend spend more on high-end luxury while cutting aggressively on the basics. People are choosing to spend on the things that bring them joy. An example of this is when you choose to go out to a fancy meal on the weekend but during the week you're...