This was originally a guest post at Boomer and Echo. Thanks so much for posting it Robb! A number of times in my life I’ve found myself between jobs. Usually, this is a euphemism for unemployment, which at times it was for me, but typically it was a natural break between activities. An example of this was I […]
Book Review: How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days
I came across Bill Effros’ How To Sell Your Home in 5 Days years ago at a bookstore. I read about half the book, was hooked, bought it, and have re-read it a number of times since. It’s large print, written in a casual style and most people could read the whole thing in a couple of […]
Needs versus Wants
When I was younger I felt there was a clear division between needs and wants. Spend money on your needs, food and shelter for example, and control your spending as much as you could with wants like video games or alcohol. One day I encountered a persuasive article arguing this was a false dichotomy. Consider […]
The Economy As A Pie
It’s interesting how people make decisions and form beliefs. An argument could be made that people rarely think about the facts and come to a rational decision – instead, they make an emotional decision then come up with rationalizations for it after the fact. Even if we pretend people do make decisions based on the […]
What Are Options?
It’s common in newspaper articles to read references to writing calls, buying puts, and tech companies offering lucrative stock options to employees. It’s easy to get bogged down in the terminology and be left scratching your head. Options are an advanced topic and not something you want to recklessly get involved in. It’s very worthwhile […]
Amateur Landlords
Nelson at the now sadly defunct Financial Uproar recently had a great post called Don’t Rent From An Amateur Landlord. The basic idea was that if you’re renting from someone who is new to real estate, they will be a pain as a landlord. They’ll be so nervous about having the bulk of their investment capital tied up […]
A Simple Technique For Determining Market Rent
Whenever someone tries to rent out their property for the first time, what to charge for rent is the big question. Friends and family will happily indulge us with fantastic sums no one will actually pay. If you’ve shown your apartment to prospective tenants, you’ll realize how inscrutable they can be. Many novice landlords have […]
Picking A Real Estate Agent To Work With
The standard advice for finding a real estate agent to work with is to get a referral from a friend or family member. If a friend or family member *IS* a real estate agent, they’ll probably already have expressed to you that they expect you to work with them. This is fine for what it […]
My Definition Of Rich
A while back, Nelson at (the now defunct) Financial Uproar recently posted about definitions of rich according to a variety of celebrities and polls. I love posts about semantics, and the range of responses to this one shows that “rich” is a complex term. Chris Rock’s comedy routine about wealthy vs. rich is great. In some versions of […]
You Don’t Need An Emergency Fund, Chump!
Big Cajun Man (aka Alan Whitton aka the “Clown Prince of Personal Finance”) at Canadian Personal Finance Blog wrote a post a few years ago about universal advice that all personal finance blogs agree with. I agree with all 6 of his statements, but in the interest of being contrarian, I thought I’d play the devil’s advocate and argue against […]