You’ve probably heard it all before. Be your own boss. Control your schedule. Own your time. As attractive as it sounds, it’s a lie. Many people believe that working for yourself means unlimited flexibility. You can work where you want, when you want, and with whom you want for the rest of your life. What’s not to like? Unfortunately, things are rarely so simple. Going out on your own seldom creates the time freedom that you expect. Why? Because, as a business owner, you will still have huge demands on your schedule. Those demands will just come from customers and vendors, instead of a boss. Don’t get me wrong, calling the shots is far better than having no autonomy in a job you hate. But “owning your time” isn’t always the fantasy it’s made out to be either. All of your problems in life don’t magically go away when you run the show—they just change. While you may not have a boss expecting you at a meeting at a particular hour, you’ll have other things that are just as urgent. You’ll get client requests at an inopportune time. You’ll have to fit part of your schedule to someone else’s. You’ll have employees quit on you (sometimes en masse). And when they do, guess who has to find their replacement? Hint: It’s you. In my experience, the more successful someone is, the busier they tend to be. While they have control over their calendar in theory, it rarely turns out that way in practice. When you rise that high, everyone wants a piece of you, and it can become incredibly difficult to say “No.” Unless you are actually retired (i.e., you don’t work anymore), your time freedom will be more limited than you think. After all, do you think Kim Kardashian has a lot of time freedom? What about Mark Zuckerberg? How about Jamie Dimon? I doubt it. They have to answer to sponsors, regulators, or shareholders when called upon. While they have some control over their time, the demand for it is also enormous. It wasn’t always this way, though. Historically, those with the highest incomes worked fewer hours than those with the lowest. But this has changed in recent decades. As researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found: In 1983, the most poorly paid 20 percent of workers were more likely to put in long work hours than the top paid 20 percent. By 2002, the best-paid 20 percent were twice as likely to work long hours as the bottom 20 percent. The “leisure class” of the past has been replaced by an industrious one. Daniel Markovits, a professor at Yale Law School, reaffirmed this trend in 2019: The rich today work harder than they used to and they increasingly work harder than the rest, including the middle class … The bottom 60 percent of the United States today work about 10 or 11 hours less per week on average … and the top 1 percent today works

    Gift cards can be great gifts, but only when they’re for stores or restaurants you actually use. We’ve probably all received a gift card that ended up sitting in a drawer because we had no plans to use it. Instead of letting an unwanted gift card collect dust, you may be able to…

Previously we’ve run through how to open an online broker account and how to buy and sell ETFs. Today we’re going to look at purchasing an index tracker fund. Next stop, the world – muhaha! (Oops, did I say that out loud? I meant to write: ‘Next step, a globally diversified passive portfolio’…) What is an index tracker fund? An index tracker fund is typically an Open Ended Investment Company (OEIC). In normal-person speak, this means […]

Traveling with your dog can turn an ordinary getaway into a memorable experience filled with fresh air, scenic walks, and shared adventures. A little preparation before you leave makes the entire trip smoother for both of you. Whether you are heading out for a weekend road trip or planning a longer vacation, thinking ahead about … Read more

Many people think financial specialists only work with wealthy investors or retirees who already have sizable portfolios. In reality, these professionals serve clients from all walks of life, helping them make informed choices about saving, investing, taxes, retirement, insurance, and long-term financial goals. Whether someone is just starting a career, raising a family, or preparing … Read more

For many families, supporting parents, siblings, and extended family members living in India is a deeply meaningful commitment. For many of these families, however, that financial support would add to their already difficult work of managing household finances in the United States. In addition to domestic expenses in the United States, many families also haveKeep Reading Bridging the Distance: A Parent’s Practical Guide to Budgeting and Overseas Family Support was originally published on WhatMommyDoes.com

“Oh, look. They bought something else…” You love your spouse. You want them to enjoy their life. And yet, sometimes watching them spend money is strangely irritating. Maybe they come home with a new gadget, a pair of shoes, or something for a hobby. You might not even think the purchase was unreasonable. But something about it bothers you. Why? A lot of it comes down to how you manage money as a couple. The Problem With Keeping Your Money Separate One strategy to manage money as a couple is to keep your finances mostly separate. You have your money. Your spouse has theirs. You pay your share of the bills, they pay theirs, and you each decide what to do with whatever is left. There are some obvious advantages to this arrangement. You don’t have to explain every purchase. You can spend your money however you want. And your spouse can do the same. But there are hidden costs. What happens when one of you gets a big raise? That’s great for them, but it doesn’t necessarily improve your financial situation. What happens when one person is a much better saver? You may start to wonder whether you’re contributing equally to your future. And what is the plan for retirement? Do you each save as much as you can and hope it works out? Are you on track for the same kind of future? It feels awkward to talk about these things when you’ve intentionally created a boundary around your money. You don’t want to pry into your spouse’s finances because you’ve both agreed that their money is their business. So you end up with two people who love each other, share a life, and share a home and children, but they are quietly managing two separate financial futures. The Problem With Sharing Everything So perhaps the obvious answer is to do the opposite. Combine everything. One income. One bank account. One financial plan. One future. And in many ways, this is much better. Now you can look at your finances together. You can decide how much you want to save for retirement. You can work toward shared goals. If something unexpected comes up, you’re solving the problem together. You aren’t thinking, “How am I doing?” You’re thinking, “How are we doing?” This is a powerful perspective for a marriage. But shared finances create a different problem. Every dollar your spouse spends is a dollar that you could have spent on something else. Suddenly, a $500 purchase isn’t just your spouse spending $500. It’s $500 leaving the household. And that can make even perfectly reasonable purchases feel threatening. “Did you really need that?” “We’re trying to save for retirement.” “Why can you spend $500 on that when I can’t spend $500 on this?” The problem isn’t necessarily that either person is irresponsible. The problem is that every purchase now has two owners. When all of your money is shared, it’s easy for every spending decision to become a negotiation.

If you’ve searched some version of “does passive income actually exist,” you’re not being naive. You’re being appropriately skeptical. Someone I had just met said it more bluntly at a friend’s house recently. He told me flat out he didn’t believe passive income exists. His reasoning: “It’s a fantasy. The idea that you can do nothing and get paid.” He’s not wrong about the thing he’s describing. He’s just describing the wrong thing. This distinction […]