Blog
The Kingmaker Review
Lifestyle

The Kingmaker: a Damning Documentary of Imelda Marcos’ Greed and Excess

If you haven’t heard of Imelda Marcos’ legendary 3,000 pairs of shoes, it’s either you’re too young or live under a rock. Imelda Marcos was the Evita Peron of the Philippines, only greedier and more corrupt. Her conjugal dictatorship with the late president, Ferdinand Marcos, is listed in the Guinness …

Read More
Anatomy of an American Paycheck
Income
2

The Anatomy of an American Paycheck

If only more people paid attention to their paychecks than credit limits, we would have less poverty, homelessness, divorce, and more happy millionaires who don’t stress about money.

Read More
Net worth update
Financial Planning

Net Worth Update: Four Years Later

While this might come off weird for people outside the FI community, sharing our household net worth over the internet is a Labor Day tradition that I’ve observed since I started the blog four years ago. It’s all for transparency, accountability, and validation that the lessons I’ve been writing about …

Read More
How Vanderbilt Heirs Squander the World's Greatest Fortune
Lifestyle
2

How the Vanderbilt Heirs Squandered the World’s Greatest Fortune

A common adage among wealth advisors is “The first generation makes it, the second maintains it, and the third blows it.” Succeeding generations are left scratching their heads in wonder where the money went. No one epitomizes this better than the Vanderbilts. Considered as the first tycoon, Cornelius “The Commodore” …

Read More
Life without retirement savings sucks
Retirement

Life Without Retirement Savings Sucks (and what you can do about it)

Living longer is certainly a blessing. But being a 90-year-old with no money is not a particularly good problem to have. Your quality of life diminishes, and you become a huge burden to your kids, who already have responsibilities of their own.

Read More
Lifestyle
5

How Benjamin Franklin Pioneered the FIRE Movement

The “Financial Independence Retire Early” or F.I.R.E. movement is gaining traction among millennials, and for a good reason. The idea that one could retire in his prime through a high savings rate and frugal living, as opposed to waiting until you’re old enough for Social Security, Medicare, or your funeral, …

Read More
Preparing for the invevitable: Death of a Loved One
Financial Planning
4

Preparing for the Inevitable: Death of a Loved One

Over the course of two weeks, I’ve learned several things that must be done when a family member is dying, which I plan to share in this post.

Read More
Money Taboo Social Media
Relationships
6

Money Taboo (or why people would rather share their sexual escapades than talk about money)

Not long ago, my wife asked me if she could share on her Facebook thread that we’ve paid off the house. My knee jerk reaction was a big N-O! Money is supposed to be taboo— people would rather share their sexual escapades than talk about money. Along with sex, religion, …

Read More
Spending
2

Best Ways to Spend Coronavirus Stimulus Check

We woke up this morning $2,500 and a few nickels and dimes richer. The amount was automatically credited to the checking account we use to pay Uncle Sam at tax time. In case you haven’t heard, the president has signed into law a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package known as …

Read More
America's Richest Immigrant in 2018
American dream

Here are America’s Richest Immigrants in 2020

Forbes recently published its annual list of billionaires for 2020. For the third time, I’ve painstakingly gone through the billionaire list to figure out which ones are immigrants based on information that I’ve gathered from the web. “But why should we follow these super-rich guys we have no chance of …

Read More