A graphic showing both the official and average retirement age in countries around the world. Sneak Peek: The US compares poorly. You may want to find a different group to use for comparison. I came across an intriguing graphic which compiles both the official retirement ages as supported by government programs as well...
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$187 Billion vs You: One Trick To Combat Social Pressure In Your Purchases
Companies in the U.S. spend over $187 billion a year trying to insert their opinions into your buying decisions. How can you protect yourself from their influence? One easy trick. Introducing the perspective of the Negative Purchase. I was playing a game with a few friends the other day. We were talking about...
Your Biggest Mistake Is Ahead Of You: 60% Efficiency And The System To Catch The Leaks
If you think you’re doing all the biggest things you can to build your nest egg, you’re probably wrong. Here’s the system that will prevent you from missing the biggest opportunities. I am asked often what my biggest mistake was on the road to financial independence. It’s a good question. The person asking...
50 And Nothing Saved For Retirement: What To Do, Where To Start
A plan of action for those who are approaching retirement age with little saved. I get some really interesting reader mail through the Contact page. By far the most common question I get is a variant of the below: I’m 53 years old and through a combination of unforeseen medical expenses/helping ailing...
The 5 Minute Plan That Could Save You $1000-$5000 In A Health Emergency
The CDC reports that 1 in 5 American adults will visit the emergency room each year. Spend five minutes doing research now to save yourself thousands of dollars if you ever have a health emergency. Several years ago, I went on a business trip to a developing country. I came back with some...
Buying A Home – How To Write A $3,000 Letter
How writing a thoughtful offer letter can save you thousands of dollars in your home purchase, plus the letter we used in our own process that saved us $3,000. The Hubs and I closed on our first property! It means an elevator for the world’s stumpiest corgi. It means central a/c, a refrigerator...
Revealed! What We Spent In The First Full Year of Retirement
When I was planning out my retirement, one of the things I was most curious about was what actual spending looked like post-career. I saw a lot of budgets that I knew wouldn’t fit our lifestyle, because we lived in a highly urban, very expensive city whereas many early retirees were living in the...
Move Your Money: A Rotation Strategy Worth $1000-$4000 Per Year
I’m a big fan of low-hanging fruit when it comes to personal finance. There are myriad opportunities to make hundreds or thousands of dollars when you are an active steward of your money, and most of them don’t actually require much work at all: they simply require knowledge. You just need to know they exist....
A 6 Step Guide To Scoring Great Deals
In college I sat in on a few workshops at the graduate school about negotiation. It was an eye-opening experience to realize that there were tried and true tactics to reaching a fair deal, and I wish that it was taught more widely. We all do so much negotiation regularly. While I’m no...
The Zero Dollar Prescription For More Happiness and Well-Being
I was at brunch with four of my girlfriends in 2011. We were trading thoughts on the intersection of work, identity, and parenthood. How could we get more meaning out of the work we did? How could we balance the projects we were working on with wanting to having kids, who are a notorious...