Fly Away Princess
I sat down today to write about investment property. I have a post half finished, full of numbers and insight and the kind of thing I usually love to work through. I tried hard but could not get through it.…
The Beginner’s Guide to Building Wealth
Introduction Most people think building wealth is out of reach—and because of that, most people don’t think about it at all. That mindset is a big reason why so many people live paycheck to paycheck. This beginner’s guide to building…
Blessings Come From the Worst of Times
Welcome to the Inspiration side of this site. I shared the short version of my story in the ABOUT section. I am 58 years old so there are a lot of stories to my life but this story is THE…
How to Evaluate an Investment Property — The Honest Math
I strongly believe in utilizing investment property to supplement your income and diversify your wealth. If you do not want to be dependent on Social Security income in retirement, investment property is a great way to lessen that dependency. It…
Weekly Notes — July 11, 2026
This one is going to be a little different from usual. I want to open with something personal and let the market piece follow. It has been an unusually hard week for me at home, and honestly, showing up to…
Dear Isabella
In June of this year I wrote a letter to Thalia as she prepares to leave home for college next month. That letter is called Fly Away Princess and it is on this site. What most readers do not know…
I Believe In Angels
This post first appeared on my old blog Good Plus One in July 2011. That blog was started when my wife was diagnosed with cancer a second time. I am bringing it over here because it is a big part…
Weekly Notes — July 4, 2026
Happy Fourth of July weekend. Some quick housekeeping before we get started. The U.S. stock market was closed Friday for the Fourth of July holiday, so this week’s official close is Thursday July 2. On to the notes. I will…
Trump Accounts: Is the Money Really Tax-Free? Not the Way You Think.
I want to preface this post with a few comments: Now to the post. After reading so much about these accounts, the main question I kept coming back to is likely one you might have as well: Does the money…
Weekly Notes — June 27, 2026
Quick note before we get started. This was a very tough week personally. Some hard news on the medical front along with some other challenges. It will never compare to the bad week, weeks, months and years when Isabella passed…
Weekly Notes — June 20, 2026
Quick housekeeping note before we get started. The U.S. stock market was closed Friday for Juneteenth, so this week’s closing prices are Thursday’s. The week was four trading days long. That actually fits the story it tells. Let’s get into…
The Hardest Part of Retirement Is Spending the Money
I recently wrote about the retirement issue of having most of your wealth tied up in your home. You can read about that at House-Rich Cash-Poor in Retirement. This post is covering a different topic and I do use my…
House-Rich, Cash-Poor in Retirement
My mother owns her home outright, owns a rental property outright, and has a retirement account that I manage for her. I tell her all of the time she is a millionaire on paper. That does not matter to her…
Weekly Notes — June 13, 2026
This was a wild week. The market swung in both directions on news that mostly was not about the companies whose stocks were moving. Alphabet’s record stock issuance from last week kept teaching its lesson. And on Friday, the largest…
$1M Isn’t Enough. Let’s Build a Path.
When I was younger, “millionaire” was the finish line. It was the lofty goal. It was the word people used to mean you had made it. It showed up in game show titles, in song lyrics, in the quiet way…
Weekly Notes — June 6, 2026
This week the AI rally finally took a real punch to the gut which it does from time to time. The priced-in lesson we have discussed on this site scaled all the way up from individual stocks to the whole…
Why Your Mortgage Rate Doesn’t Move When the Fed Does
I have gotten to the office early my entire working life. First one in, every job I have ever held, because I get a lot done before the world wakes up and I have never needed much sleep. I am…
Manage Your Money Like a Business: A CFO’s Framework for Household Finance
Why Businesses Succeed and Households Struggle After more than three decades working in some type of finance role, I have come to learn what makes businesses successful — and what makes businesses fail. The companies that survive and those that…
Weekly Notes — May 30, 2026
This week the AI rally got bigger, the rules from last week kept proving themselves, and the Cerebras story I started telling last Saturday continued in a way worth watching. Three items, all connected. Let’s get into it. 1. The…
Finding Meaning in the Worst Moments
I just finished watching The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson and felt very compelled to put pen to paper. I was feeling compelled during the entire documentary, but it was the words of her mother and father at the…
Should You Pay Off Debt or Invest? The Honest Answer
Before anything else, let’s acknowledge something: if this post applies to you, that is a win. It means you’ve worked your way to a place where there’s money left over — money that isn’t already spoken for by a bill…
When to Sell a Stock
In How Many Stocks Should You Actually Own?, we covered how to build a portfolio of individual stocks. Now comes the question that experienced investors often say is harder than buying — when should you sell? Selling is one of…
Weekly Notes — May 23, 2026
Welcome to Weekly Notes. This is the first one, so a quick word on what it is. Once a week — Saturdays — I’ll pull together a couple of things that caught my eye in money and markets, and try…
Paying Off Debt — What Actually Works
Paying off debt is one of the most common financial challenges I have helped people work through, and one of the most misunderstood. I have been in some type of a finance role my entire life. Along the way I…
What Researching One Stock Actually Looks Like: A Walkthrough Using Johnson & Johnson
In a recent post, How to Research a Stock Before You Buy It, I walked through the framework — what to look for, what matters, and why. This post is meant to accompany that one with a real stock research…
Taking the First Step
“Faith is taking the first step even when you do not see the whole staircase.” — Martin Luther King Jr. There are quotes you read once and quotes you live with for a lifetime. This quote is one that has…
How Many Stocks Should You Actually Own?
In How to Research a Stock Before You Buy It, we covered the basics of figuring out whether a company is worth owning. Once you start putting that knowledge to work, the next question is — how many stocks should…
How to Research a Stock Before You Buy It
In my last post, ETFs and Index Funds vs Individual Stocks, we talked about when it makes sense to start adding individual stocks to your portfolio. If you have decided you are ready to take that step, the natural next…
ETFs and Index Funds vs Individual Stocks: Which Is Right for You?
If you have read What Is an ETF? and Index Funds vs ETFs, you understand how to get into the stock market with one simple investment that instantly diversifies your money across companies and/or technologies. The next question almost every…
Index Funds vs ETFs: What’s the Difference (and What Actually Matters)
If you have learned what an ETF is, you have probably come across the term: index funds. In What Is an ETF?, we discussed the confusion of where to put your money once you have started saving it. Stocks, bonds,…
What Is An ETF? A Simple Beginner’s Guide
If you have started saving money — or are starting to think about it — or are sitting on money you have been afraid to invest — the next question is simple: What do you actually do with that money?…
Start Saving with Your First Paycheck
As retirement is likely not on your mind when receiving your first paycheck, it is easy to think that saving some of that first paycheck doesn’t really matter. This is why it is so important to start saving with your…
