Fearless Money

I’m home for the evening from a weekend Buddhist meditation retreat, and I was thinking about how unlikely it was that I’d have much to post on this blog about it.
But then I realized that there is something of value for my readers. I’ve blogged before about giving gifts and feeling better about spending […]

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I continue to be astounded at how well the ETFs I bought this summer are performing.I thought they’d be goodI was sure they’d do well, I just didn’t know I’d see this kind of result so quickly.

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Wow, the ETFs I purchased this summer are spanking the market.FXI: Up 18.2%EWW: Up 20.52%IVE: Up 9.62%Total percent increase, corrected for my share allocation: $15.93%, approximately 60% annualized.

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A couple weeks ago, my rollover transfer from my last employer’s 401K to a dedicated IRA finally completed.

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Hey, it has been over a year and my family is still going strong on our budget!
I just realized that we started keeping a formal budget last June. What a difference a year makes. A year ago, we were still operating on the “quick check method”. You know what I mean:
“Bunny, do […]

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While playing the Prosperity Game, I got to thinking about my personal rule-of-thumb for handling real-life windfalls.
This has definitely changed over time. When I was younger, I would simply split the money in halves. 50% to pay down debt (which always needed paying down), and 50% for "something nice." That was nice, […]

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Yesterday was my last day at my old job, and a simply outstanding day for me.

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I changed my mind and opened college accounts for each of my three kids. Up to now, I’ve been thinking that I shouldn’t do that until I was already maximizing my contributions to every tax advantaged retirement account.

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Last year was the first year I’ve ever managed to pay myself first! Almost every book tells you to do that, to take a certain percent of your income and sock it away before you pay the rest of your billsI spent much of this lovely Portland day doing my books.

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One of the parts of my family budget which has been working the best for my wife and me is the gift budget.

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