After years of debating, I finally decided to go with roof-top solar. I’m almost year in. Let’s talk about what worked, what didn’t and what the savings might look like. Why Panels? In 2019, my wife and I bought a hot tub. It sits outside on our deck. It’s a delight. Prior to buying, I […]
Roof-top Solar Panels – Worth It? Read More »
What if I make an investing mistake? In this post, we’ll talk about mistakes, how they happen and what you can do about them. Some of the younger folks in my personal finances classes have expressed concerns about making investing mistakes. And while being safe and cautious with one’s money is admirable, sometimes it can
Investing – What if I Make a Mistake? Read More »
First off, easy for me to say. 78% of Americans report that they are living paycheck to paycheck. If I can’t pay my bills, how can I possibly save for retirement? This is a national crisis in my opinion. That, however, does not make it a problem for our government to solve. I try and
Please Save for Your Retirement Read More »
Buying a car is a big expense. The average new car price is $50,000, and used car prices aren’t much lower. In my days as a car salesman, I often saw folks who over-spent on a vehicle and returned to assess their options to lower payments or trade-down. After the sale, your options are severely
Think Twice Before You Buy That Car Read More »
We all need to save some of our income. It’s not as hard as you may think. We’ll talk about experiences my wife and I have had and some easy ways we’ve found to save money and use those savings to fund our investments. Read on for some ideas that may help. Why Save For
I wanted to share some learnings from a brief review of the Fastenal Annual Shareholder Report. This is the 3rd post I’ve done recently that talks about a public company’s annual report. Some of you may be wondering why I’m dragging you through this. It’s a fair question. The reason is that as a shareholder,
Fastenal – What I Learned From Their Annual Report Read More »
I’d like to share some excerpts from an exceptional annual report. As an investor, you’ll get lots of anual reports from the companies in which you invest. And while each deserves a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share some excerpts and commentary from a truly exceptional example. Yup, it’s the Berkshire Hathaway
The Greatest 15 Pages You’ll Ever Read Read More »
Can I retire comfortably? That’s the big question. Let’s dig in and talk a bit about what it means to retire comfortably and how we determine if we can in fact achieve our goal of comfortable retirement. Credit to my Saturday morning coffee buddy Rich, this was his topic. This is a popular discussion topic
Can I Retire Comfortably? Read More »
In this post we will talk about what a stock split is, why they happen and what it means to you as an investor. Stocks Before we dive into what a stock split is, we need to talk a bit about stocks and stock prices. As we know from the post on stocks here, a
Stock Splits – Meh! Read More »
This morning, I checked my brokerage account and found an $814.57 gift. As a retiree, I rely on investment income to help fund my spending. The $814 really wasn’t a gift, it was a quarterly dividend payment from one of my companies, but it feels like Christmas. Let’s dig in. What Happened? Prudential Financial, ticker
Christmas in March, A Dividend Story Read More »