Maximizing Fun
I love doing fun things! Who doesn’t? Living in Europe provides me with a new playground of opportunities, and after being in France for more than a year I can look back and see how much money I have spent on that fun. My budget is not unlimited, so for the next year I am […]
Keep On Truckin’
In 2014, I started working with Bill. He wasn’t my typical client. Divorced, dad to two teenage sons, not working in finance, law or technology. He was laid back, and he knew what he loved: his boys, his dog, music and surfing. Financially speaking, he felt like a wreck. He wanted a budget, to get […]
WELL VISIT FOR YOUR FINANCES
Every year around your child’s birthday, they have a Well Visit. This gives the doctor an opportunity to check on your child’s health, physical progress and have a discussion regarding the next year and any issues your child might be having. These visits are preventative in nature. As adults, we tend to slack off on […]
THE COST OF COMMUTING
Unless you land a 100% virtual job, most people have some commute to work. If you live in a major metropolitan area, you can either live in the city and paying more for housing or move out of the city to hopefully save on the cost of housing and get some extra space. While urban […]
MONEY = FEELINGS
Money means so much to people and is a representation of our values. Strangely, this is why you are not supposed to talk about it or ask about it. If your parents didn’t talk about it, how are you supposed to know how to talk about money and communicate with your partner. According to Financial […]
The Merkel Plan
Alia and Tim were like many of my clients: living in a major metropolitan city, earning a good living, bought a great house they wanted to fix up over time. They came to me for advice and to learn what it would take to scale back work in ten years and still be on track […]
Should You Both Work?
Affording life in the Bay Area is expensive. In general, it takes two working parents to make ends meet and be able to save for your bigger financial goals like home, retirement and education savings. The breakeven point is trending upward with the cost of housing, which is most families largest expense (25-45% of all […]
YEAR OF THE EARTH PIG 2019 AND YOUR MONEY
Say goodbye to the Year of the Dog, and hello to the Year of the Pig, the final year of the 12-year Chinese Zodiac cycle. Last year, the Dog was supposed to symbolize action and progress, with an emphasis on social awareness and the celebration of life. I do not recall a lot of progress, […]
Cost of Taking Care of You
The sky could be the limit when it comes to spending money on self-care, but as a busy parent, it is hard to find the time and sometimes hard to justify the expense. Adulting is physically exhausting. With grandparents no longer living down the street to help with the kids, most parents are “on” all […]
Keeping up with the Joneses and Social Spending
“Keeping up with the Joneses” refers to benchmarking oneself vis-à-vis your neighbors or social circle when it comes to material goods or social class. This idiom dates back to a comic strip that started in 1913 and ran all the way to 1940. While social climbing and keeping up with your neighbors is mostly seen […]
