How important is homeownership to building wealth in the United States? I’d put it on a list of the top five most important things people should do. Off the top of my head the other four are probably Stay out of high-interest debt Automate your savings and investments Invest in risky, not safe, things Invest […]

A significant portion of the Financial Infotainment Industrial Complex dedicates itself to selling you gold, as an investment. Resist. I have already written about the three other horsemen of your personal financial apocalypse: variable annuities, times shares, and bitcoins. The commonality of these four horseman is that they are sold to credible people as “investments” […]

Transitioning from being a paycheck-to-paycheck person to a person with actual accumulated savings in the bank is one of the classic problems of personal finance. Maybe you got there easily, as soon as you started earning money. If so, you are not the majority. Some never get there. A large number of people are in […]

Among the best known of the Obama-era financial regulations is the so-called “Fiduciary Duty Rule” for investment advisers of retirement accounts. It declared that financial advisers for retirement accounts act as “fiduciaries” and therefore must offer conflict-free advice, avoid misleading statements, receive no more than reasonable compensation, and always act taking into account the client’s […]

Invasive vines creep over the hedge separating my house from my next-door neighbor’s house. Sometimes those vines even touch trees in my yard. That’s why every night I stand on the top of a giant ladder, shouting into a megaphone, straight into their yard. “You’re going to cut those weeds right now! And then you’ll […]