High Income Couples Living Paycheck to Paycheck: A $300K Dilemma
According to PYMNTS research, roughly 40% of Americans earning over $100,000 report living paycheck to paycheck. If you and your partner bring in $300,000 or more, you probably assumed you’d never be in that group. Some of you aren’t. But some of you are — and you’re not entirely sure how you got here. Here’s […]
Joint versus Separate Accounts: The Decision That Can Undermine Your Relationship
According to a Fidelity report, 45% of couples argue about money from time to time. That stat always strikes me, because in my experience working with clients, the argument is rarely actually about money. It’s about what money represents — fairness, autonomy, control — and whether both people genuinely feel like equal partners in the […]
High Income Financial Stress: The $300K Trap Silently Draining Dual-Income Couples
After diligently saving for over 18 months, my wife and I bought a house. We were very conscious about what the savings would go towards: the down payment, the closing costs, and most importantly, the costs to furnish the place. A few months into making the home ours, the savings stash was lower than either […]
The 5 Surprising Benefits of Budgeting
When you hear the word “budget”, you might instantly cringe. After all, many people think that the sole purpose of budgeting is to keep your spending in check. While that’s certainly one big benefit, budgeting can be a powerful process for several reasons that you may not expect. To that end, I’m going to highlight […]
Why Spending $5 Matters
If you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck or you’re looking to save more money, how do you better control your spending, especially when it comes to the small purchases that seem insignificant? For an example of a small purchase, allow me to pick on coffee, the omnipresent, caffeine-laced symbol of micro-consumerism in the 21st century. When faced with your $5/month […]
The Worst Time To Buy Something
To most of us, October 2006 has no material significance. For me, the date didn’t matter much either. However, it was a sign that the odds were against me. When was in my basement this week, I happened to notice a pool of water coating the floor in one of the unfinished rooms. Naturally, my […]
3 Simple Tests to Know If You Can Afford Anything
My brother is a gearhead with dreams of owning a airplane hanger full of Ferraris.* Even though it’ll be some time until his dreams come true (as of this post, anyway), I half-jokingly pressed him to buy a used Porsche. After all, he could snag a pre-owned Boxster for maybe $40k. He chided my sarcastic […]
Defense Before Offense
According to a survey from Payroll.org, 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Even worse, a Forbes survey found that 29% of people can’t cover their standard expenses. When you’re in a financial bind, you have two options: control your expenses or boost your income. From my point of view, controlling spending is a form of financial […]