Go from burnt out to FIREd up.
I started this blog in September of 2016, and I’ve been dropping a post at least twice a week since that time. I’m not convinced I have all that much to say, and I’m certain that many others could express it more eloquently or memorably than I do. Yet I persist because I relish the relationship this blog permits me …
I recently wrote about one child’s wolfing down buckets of blueberries, which I consider to be a luxury fruit, and how it triggered in me a desire to have my kids experience certain financial milestones on their own path to financial literacy. Here’s where it gets complicated. Although I used the term milestones it was a poorly disguised euphemism for …
During a long family car ride, we collectively listened to an excellent interview with the Swiss-German, three Michelin star chef and owner of Eleven Madison Park, Daniel Humm. He is not the typical role model one might hold up as an example for children. He dropped out of high school at age 14 to cycle competitively. He was living with …
Almost a decade and a half ago, we had our first child. Around the same time my parents adopted a grandparenting style that echoed the ethos of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. [For the record, it was not Facebook’s popular guiding principle of Move fast and break things. Between arthritis, artificial joints and gait instability on downsloping surfaces, they only ever developed …
It’s a relaxed summer evening. I’m enjoying a swim with my daughter during a visit to the grandparents. Tonight there is a creamsicle colored dusk that seems to stretch implausibly late in a manner analogous my my daughter’s implausibly long legs extending above the water’s surface as she performs underwater handstands. I remember when the whole of her body fit …
The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything – you can wait for your pitch. -Warren Buffett I don’t day trade. I don’t own cryptocurrencies. I don’t directly own rental real estate. I have friends who have done incredibly well in each and every one of those areas of investment, and I enjoy learning …
This summer, we decided each kid is getting $20 a month to spend on whatever they choose. One kid went to a favorite chain restaurant and ordered a sandwich online in advance using an e-coupon. Another went to a meal with a friend, did not order online, was unable to use the coupon (it was only available for online orders) …
This morning, I opened the refrigerator to find a paucity of blueberries. This is all the more surprising because we buy 2-3 enormous boxes of blueberries at Costco every 2-3 weeks. What used to be arrive in a single delicate box presented like a Rolex when I was a kid now comes in economy size buckets. I’ve developed certain morning …
We’ve entered that stage of life: begun to lose parents, seen peers stricken with cancer as the youthful patina of invincibility fades, and started to give up pastimes we thought we’d never stop enjoying. As a result, the typical conversation with a non-medical friend my age tends to follow a template. Dissatisfaction is expressed regarding a new boss, the latest …
H explains why he always bets against his favorite baseball team: If they win, I am happy because my team was victorious. If they lose, I find solace in having won the bet. A dear friend relayed this true story about a shared acquaintance from our high school days. It is an adolescent’s attempt to reconcile the tension between the …