The biggest splurge for me, perhaps ever, is getting a custom sauna built on our property. I’m working with an architect. It’s very bespoke with a weird shape and will cost a few times more than a standard sauna. The designs are approved and it should be done, weather permitting, by the end of the year. It’s going to sit right under our treehouse and look out into the woods. Most of my writing in […]
In my update last November, with our family’s move out of Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley and welcoming child #3 out of the way, I thought the next 12 months would be far less eventful. For the most part, it has been. But it also hasn’t been without some twists. You can see all my past personal finance updates right here. Note: All content here is for informational purposes only and do not constitute any investment […]
What a difference 15 months makes. Since my last update in August 2022, my life has changed in ways that I did not anticipate. We welcomed a new child, moved out of Brooklyn, and traded in 3 mortgages plus a car payment for 1 mortgage and 3 car payments. Overall, personal finances are in good shape with monthly expenses going down and liquid savings going up. I won’t try to predict what the next 12-18 […]
It’s been a little over a year since my last update. In that time, there’s been a lot of changes to the financial side of my life. The biggest factor has been the purchase of a 2nd home, which has introduced all kinds of costs. Also, my stock portfolio, heavily concentrated in growth tech stocks, took a huge hit through the first half of this year, wiping out most of my gains from 2021. You […]
It’s been almost 9 months since my last personal finance update. You can see all my past personal finance updates right here. Over the years, I’ve gone from talking about personal finance tools to focusing more on asset allocation, the investment decisions I make with my money. Note: All content here is for informational purposes only and do not constitute any investment advice. Please do your own due diligence and make your own investment decisions. […]
It’s been an eventful past 6 months, and I wanted to revisit my personal finances to see how things have changed since my last update in March, when COVID-19 started turning into a pandemic in the United States, the market had hit its lows, and there was much uncertainty about what would happen next. The High-Level Summary In March, I saw our investments decrease by nearly 20% from their highs in late February. Luckily, my family […]
In this troubling and uncertain climate, I thought it would be a good time to review my personal finance stack head on and to share some of the moves I’m making. Like most others, there’s been a great deal of pain seeing my investment portfolio take some big hits. However, there’s opportunity to do some discounted buying in the coming weeks which may pay off in the long run. Then again, as a small business […]
I came across this tweet by Gumroad founder Sahil Lavingia: Lavingia’s epic post “Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company” on his founder’s journey is worth reading. He also openly shares the progress of the business in both a public dashboard and in tweets like this, always fascinating to see as a business owner. I wanted to save his tweet about owning capital in a capitalist economy because it made me think about […]
I last wrote about my personal finance “stack” in the summer of 2017. A lot has changed since then, so I want to make this an annual activity and use it as an opportunity to examine how I’m managing my money. Without going into any absolute figures, I’ll share how I organize my money, what types of investments I’ve made, and the services and tools I use. Money is something that’s still a tough topic to […]
I’ve been revisiting the way I handle my personal finances in recent months and thought it would be good to list out my “personal finance stack” – the different accounts, tools, and workflows I have in place to handle my finances. Back in March 2015, I wrote about how I had missed golden opportunities in my twenties to invest earlier (see blog post). It was only when I turned thirty that I seriously considered putting my […]
I’ve been slowly going through all of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder letters by Warren Buffet. I love the way he writes about investing, finance, and accounting with such easy-to-understand clarity and an easygoing tone. I’ve been thinking a lot about Buffet and his Vice Chairman Munger’s approach to business, good managers, and decision-making. One takeaway is the adherence to the fundamentals, and to keep things simple and to patiently stick with an approach in a […]
In my twenties, I rarely thought about my personal finances. I paid my bills, paid off my credit card each month, and kept up with my student loan payments. I didn’t think too much about retirement savings, and whatever leftover money I had, I kept in a savings account. It was only when I was close to turning thirty that I started to think more about my finances. A couple of blogs influenced me: Mr. […]
Here’s why I like eating brunch at home: You save money. Eating brunch at a restaurant can be pricey. $20-$25 has been the typical average for me with the occasional $40+ brunches where cocktails are involved. No long waits. Especially in New York, where brunch traffic can be horrendous. You make your own brunch time at home. I guess reservations help, but not all places take them. Healthier, if you want it to be. You […]