When most of us reach a certain point in our professional and personal finance journey, we start to experience lifestyle creep, the pressure to spend more. The causes could be social, financial or even boredom. After a certain minimum livelihood is met, each raise or goal accomplished allows us to potentially spend or save more. [...]
Basel Equity and Its Impact on Banking and Lending
Posted By Last updated January 22nd, 2013 2 Comments
Although this blog regularly deals with personal finance, economics and politics, our interests span a wide array of other areas of life. One of my personal favorite blogs, The Volokh Conspiracy (a legal blog that has a mostly Libertarian bent, I’d say if I was permitted to classify them) recently featured a fascinating article by Nick Rosenkranz on a [...]
Guaranteed 348,000% RoE
Posted By Last updated October 8th, 2012 11 Comments
Last month I wrote an article celebrating my occasion of hitting $1 net worth. This month my net worth has skyrocketed to $3,481. This provides an RoE of 348,000%. Now I know that most personal finance writers assume returns closer to 5% for most of their investments, so I will temper my expectations down to [...]
The Mexican and the American Tourist
Posted By Last updated September 24th, 2012 7 Comments
I saw this proverb a few years ago through StumbleUpon and I re-discovered it recently. As part of the PF blogosphere, a lot of our attention is focused squarely on attainment of financial independence and eventual retirement. For your reading pleasure, a different take on the rat race: (source) Author Unknown An American tourist was [...]
Why I Don’t Own an iPhone
Posted By Last updated September 26th, 2012 12 Comments
I have a shocking confession. I don’t own an iPhone. Nor do I own an iPad. Revealing this dark truth about myself often inspires remarks of sympathy, disgust and genuine concern: “How can you live without an iPhone?” Civilizations have been around since about 12,000 BCE so I sometimes find it astounding that humans have [...]
I Am Completely Worthless
Posted By Last updated September 11th, 2012 22 Comments
Bells are ringing! I am finally worthless! With my paycheck today my net worth has finally passed the literal and psychological $0 barrier. My financial leverage given a net worth of $1 is about 45,000-to-1. Let this be a lesson to everybody: massively over-leveraged financial positions can only end positively. Look at Long-Term Capital Management, MF Global, Bear Stearns and AIG: their executives still managed to escape with millions of dollars!
Payday Lending and Short-Term Liquidity
Posted By Last updated September 6th, 2012 3 Comments
Personal finance experts frequently tout the advantages of having a six month emergency fund, if not a more conservative twelve month fund. There are many reasons that a citizen would need to dip into their emergency savings: family illness, death, severe medical expenses, unplanned pregnancy or job loss to name a few. Many reports however, indicate that many (>25% or >50% depending on your definition) Americans still are not prepared for a downturn scenario.
Taxing Fat Citizens and the Health Care Bill
Posted By Last updated July 23rd, 2012 7 Comments
The multi-payer system sets up the incentive for those without their own insurance to be unhealthier. Car accident deaths increased after the seatbelt law was instituted. When I finally have to foot some of the bill, do I still want to see Americans wolfing down their Wendy’s?
Inflation is Good! (Or not horrible)
Posted By Last updated June 27th, 2012 9 Comments
Media and fellow bloggers alike enjoy bemoaning the hazardous plague of inflation. I will show that not only is this argument not grounded in reality, but that it also ignores many ancillary benefits of an inflationary rate: spending encouragement, debtor relief and avoidance of a deflationary spiral.
Mortgage Interest Deduction A Good Idea?
Posted By Last updated June 13th, 2012 7 Comments
It has been mentioned here and elsewhere that the mortgage interest deduction in the tax code is a roundabout way of subsidizing banks. If interest rates are determined by supply and demand then the demand for interest rates is only dependent on what a taxpayer’s “effective interest expense is”. A new study suggests that most of the benefits fall into the hands of lenders.
