How often have you heard the following? A complaint that someone ‘can eat whatever they want’ A complaint that something is easy for someone, such as ‘you like to run so it’s not as hard for you’ The implication is always that the person being talked about has it easy in some way that the…
What the old Disney movies can teach us about men and women.
I haven’t seen any of the old Disney movies – the pre-2000 movies I mean – in decades. But I had heard about them. Specifically I heard that these movies used to teach girls to be helpless princesses who need to be rescued by men, and that we needed more modern stories for our girls. …
Going into debt is borrowing freedom from your future
Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self. –Nathan W. Morris Never spend your money before you have it. —Thomas Jefferson When the tide goes out you can see who was swimming naked. –Warren Buffet Aside from it’s potentially (and looking ever more likely) high direct human cost, the Coronavirus epidemic is playing…
How to think about staying the course with investing
The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient. –Warren Buffett There is a lot of anxiety in the FIRE community about the stock market dropping. It has dropped faster than it has in generations and as more information becomes available about the effects of the virus and the measures…
Where Rationality and Logic fall short
In our current society, rationality and logic are put on a pedestal as the best parts of the human mind. I think if you asked, many people would say they are the only real part of conscious thinking. Emotions and instincts are suspect. This has been true in the West since the Age of Reason…
Take the opportunity to learn from Coronavirus shopping realities
The Internet is full of examples of stores being cleaned out – and of the weird things that people are buying or (by contrast) not buying. We’ve all seen them. We know that this is because people are panic-buying things. And it feeds on itself. If you see someone panic-buying things, you start to wonder…
My experience with holding a weekly marriage meeting
My wife and I – following the advice here – have been holding a weekly ‘marriage meeting’ for several months now. I’d like to share how that has worked for us. I’d definitely recommend it to any married couples, but especially young married couples who are learning to live with each other. Marriage is not…
Should children be put in sports? How much does it matter if they don’t love it right away?
Sports and athletic games have been a staple of childhood in cultures the world over. The formality differs from place to place, and we modern Americans have been known to emphasize organized sports from a very young age. Some people have criticized the extreme versions of this tendency and I see their point, but we…
What is the difference being masculine and being a man?
Masculinity, and manliness, are two words that I hear thrown about by all sorts of people. Feminists, their opponents, and everyone in between use these words and use them differently. But there is a real meaning that is being forgotten and it’s an important distinction to make. Manliness and masculinity are not synonymous and we…
What is the most basic investing info you need?
A lot of Americans don’t have any savings, and many more don’t have any real investments. Remember, your home is never an investment <link>. But if you’ve been working to gain financial literacy and turn your situation around, you might start to have savings. And you might then start to wonder, how should I invest…