Whoa! It’s already the middle of August and I’m just getting around to posting July’s numbers? Sorry folks! It’s been that kind of summer!
I’ve been busy hanging-out with the kids a lot this summer, and July in particular was filled with a lot of fun family activities at very affordable prices…
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Yep, we’re still on vacation! Last week we were exploring around Dallas and having a great time, but our vacation isn’t over yet! When you’re financially independent and “mostly” retired, you could argue that everyday is a vacation, but I still like to make the distinction when we’re away from home it’s a “vacation”…
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Most of the year I keep myself busy being a stay-at-home dad and “closet” personal finance blogger. Those two activities are usually more than enough to fill-up my limited spare time…
But when summer finally comes, I tend to slow down on the blog updates and spend time traveling with my family.
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Investing? Who has time for investing? Like many families, we’ve been enjoying a very busy summer in the warmer weather. Investing has been on the back-burner compared to other activities like going to the pool, BBQ’ing, riding bikes to the library, and working on summer projects.
Even with investing on the back-burner however, I still find myself reading 10Q’s and news about all the investments I’m interested in. Call me crazy, but investing is where my interests are. Some people like to watch TV, but I read a quarterly earnings reports…
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Do you feel wealthy? Almost certainly the booming stock market has people feeling richer than ever, but according to a recent survey by Ameriprise Financial, the vast majority of American millionaires with between $1 and $5 million dollars don’t consider themselves wealthy. Most of the surveyed millionaires consider themselves as having a “middle-class” lifestyle. Only 13% of these millionaires consider themselves “wealthy” or “upper-class”…
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Imagine for a moment you owned stock in a very good business… but the stock just did nothing for years. It lagged behind your other investments. Let’s say those shares under-performed the S&P 500 by 2% annually. Would you sell? How long could that investment under-perform before you finally gave-up and decided to sell it?
This is one of the most important investing questions that every investor needs to answer…
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If each moment in life has a season, then June was definitely one of the busy seasons. The month just flew by! For starters, Tako Jr. #1 finished kindergarten and I went back to my full-time stay-at-home-dad gig. I decided to take it easy on blogging this summer, so I could spend a lot more time with Tako Jr. #1. So far it’s working out great, and I think he’s having a lot of fun…
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Ah, depreciation! It’s a fascinating money topic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. If you happen to find yourself talking about deprecation … say at a dinner party, you’ll quickly find yourself no-longer being invited to those dinner parties.
Depreciation is about as popular of a conversation subject as say … differential calculus. That is to say, it’s extremely unpopular…
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The school year is over and summer is finally here! My oldest son, Tako Jr. #1, just finished his first school year as a kindergartner! I’m amazed at how much kids learn in kindergarten these days. They seem super-smart now! Tako Jr. #1 learned a ton of new stuff — reading, writing, and math. All in just a few short months!
It was an amazing school year…
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