If you work in tech, there’s a good chance a meaningful portion of your income doesn’t show up in your regular paycheck. It shows up as RSUs. Stock options. ESPPs. Equity that may—or may not—translate into real wealth over time. And that’s where things get complicated. That’s because equity compensation isn’t just “extra income.” It’s a set of financial decisions with real tax implications, real risk, and real opportunity—especially in a place like Seattle, where […]

The next regular military payday is Wednesday, 1 July  2026. When will you get paid? That depends on the policies and practices of your bank or credit union.  Long Pay Period Alert If you recieve your June mid-month pay early, your June end-of-month pay period is going to be long. For example, if your bank… | Read More… The post When Is The Next Military Payday? appeared first on KateHorrell.

Paze is a digital wallet offered by the same company that gave you Zelle and they have this incredible promotion where they will give you a $10 statement credit whenever you spend $10 or more using Paze. You can do this up to ten times before September 10th, 2026 per card. You can read their PR release of the offer. Paze works a lot like other digital wallets. When you go to a merchant that offers Paze, you can select it as a payment option. Then check out as normal. The first time you use it, you have to set it up and link up your cards. In subsequent visits, you just pick the card you wish to use for that transaction. Most of the major credit card issuers are involved with Paze including Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, PNC, Truist, US Bank, Wells Fargo, and Citi. How to take advantage of this offer Newegg will sell you $10 gift cards delivered via email and Newegg accepts Paze. (or you can just shop as normal and accept $10 off your purchases at various merchants) People are just buying $10 gift cards from Newegg. I did it this morning and when you check out with Paze, they even tell you about the offer: You could do this ten times for every single card that works with Paze. That’s $100 in gift cards for every eligible card in your wallet. Remember, the $10 statement credit is per transaction. You’ll want to make ten separate purchases of $10 gift cards. Get $50 from Rakuten too Want to take this to the next level? If you haven’t signed up to Rakuten yet, sign up with my referral link and you will get an additional $50 after your first purchase. Newegg is in their network and pays you 1% cashback. Just make sure you click through the Rakuten website before you go to Newegg to make a purchase. So if you buy a $10 gift card, Rakuten will give you $50 for your purchase and then you’ll earn an additional ten cents in cashback. Tip: Avoid merchants with wonky gift card rules Here’s a quality of life tip – avoid merchants with inconvenient gift card rules. Let me give you an example. As a regular purchaser of Chipotle, their app only lets add one gift card at a time. And you can only use one gift card per app order. Which makes $10 gift cards a real pain to use in the app. You can multiple cards in person, just not on the app. You want to pick a merchant, like Starbucks, that lets you combine gift cards so it’s easier to use. Or a merchant that lets you use multiple gift cards at checkout (Home Depot lets you use up to 10). Act quickly I’m seeing information about this everywhere online – such as this discussion on Reddit about whether multiple transactions would get flagged. So far it doesn’t appear

Working in England in the 14th century was difficult to say the least. Between the harsh conditions and low wages, you also had to fight against the occasional disease outbreak and a repressive government. As the Black Death spread across England, killing anywhere from 30%-50% of the population, King Edward III issued a decree to freeze wages and prevent workers from asking for more. Anton Howes summarized what happened next: As the plague still raged, in 1349 Edward III issued an emergency ordinance to try and contain the economic fallout. Even though half the population died, their gold and silver coins survived, so that there was suddenly twice as much coinage in circulation per head. And so one of the immediate effects was for the price of everything, including both goods and services, to rapidly rise. This rapid inflation, brought on as it was by so many people dying, inevitably led to higher wages being demanded for all kinds of work. “Seeing the necessity of masters and great scarcity of servants”, the ordinance explained, workers now found themselves able to pick and choose who they worked for, and to hold out for much higher wages than before. While the ordinance (with its threat of imprisonment) was successful in preventing wages from rising too rapidly, the market found an alternative solution to this problem—non-monetary compensation. Once again from Howes: Although the statute stipulated the amount of cash that workers could be paid, both with and without providing them with food and drink, it didn’t say anything about the quality or even the quantity of that food or drink. So instead of giving them bread made of rye, barley or beans, perhaps with a slice of old salted bacon to sweeten the deal, employers now had to provide their workers with only the best-quality wheaten bread, and with freshly-cooked meat still warm from the pot. Instead of providing them with mere water to quench their thirst, employers now had to give them the freshest of ales. As one contemporary complained, the servants were now demanding “to be better fed than those who hired them”. Ultimately, it was supply and demand that determined how workers were compensated, not royal decree. This example illustrates how market forces find a way to triumph over human intervention. But is the same thing true in the stock market? Can supply and demand tell us anything about future stock returns? Some data suggests so. The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) has tracked aggregate investor allocations to stocks, bonds, and cash going back to 1987. Over this time period, individual investors allocated 62% of their portfolios, on average, to equities. You can see this in the chart below, which plots the aggregate investor allocation to equities over time (in black) along with the long-term historical average of this measure, 62% (in gray): When I look at this data I notice two things. First, the average allocation to equities tends to decline during market crises (e.g., DotCom, GFC, COVID,

I cannot believe it’s been almost 2 weeks since my mom went home to Heaven. Thank you so much for all of your kind words, prayers and thoughts. This unexpected but expected loss has changed the whole outlook of my summer plans. My plans were to stay heads down working and caring for mom and dad all summer. Once I returned from my roadtrip, I was ready to just dive into every and all work. Go to the pool, feed and change mom, cook for dad, and just concentrate of stacking money. My girls both had plans to visit. Gymnast and History Buff are both local now. It was going to be a productive summer. The much needed break gave me a renewed purpose and outlook. Now everything is upside down. Mom’s Celebration of Life I’ve spent the last couple of weeks planning my mom’s Celebration of Life. Two of them. We will have a service this week here in Texas and then another one in Georgia in August. I’ve been editing pictures, writing and publishing the obituaries, putting together the service program, video, and a fun video montage. Add to that travel plans for everyone coming here and going there. There’s been no work time. I take that back, I’ve worked exactly 2 hours in the last two weeks for actual clients. Made a total of $82. I’m not complaining. I’m just sharing the current status of my life. I’m so grateful that I’m in a position to not “need” to work so much. Thankfully, the planning is about done. I will meet with the church tomorrow, finalize everything, text the AV, and then sit back and give myself a few days to breath and mourn properly. New Summer Plan Dad and I are struggling. For the last 9 years, my mom has never been left alone. And for this past year, Dad and I have coordinated every move to make sure there are two of us here for changing times, bathing times, and assuring that none of our commitments or appointments ever over lapped. It’s been a heart wrenching habit to break. Especially with the empty hospital bed sitting within view. (Dad is not ready for any movement.) But the reality is, I am free now. While I will continue to live here and make sure dad is eating properly, and generally be around. My Rover services can expand. And actually my contract work has really begun to take off again. (I spent a good portion of my trip honing my offerings and applying and interviewing for project/contract work.) Paid Work Picking Up I am booked solid from the end of June until the middle of July with house/dog sitting jobs. Then I’ve signed an 8 month part time project manager contract at $65 per hour. And a short term software implementation contract at $65 an hour. Both kicking off this week. I actually fly to Seattle on Sunday after mom’s service to spend a few days with

Save, invest, prosper with My Own Advisor. The Cash Wedge – Managing Market Volatility If you want to withdraw income from your portfolio, how much do you take out and when? With the stock market up or down at any given time, what can you do to fund your retirement lifestyle? Well, this is where your cash wedge comes in – to… Early retiree thanks to DIY investing in stocks and ETFs. The article The […]

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What every passive real estate investor needs to understand before they’re in this moment. You invested passively in a real estate deal. You did your diligence on the sponsor. You signed the documents, wired the capital, and started receiving distributions. Everything was going according to plan. Then you got an email. Subject line: “Important Update on Your Investment.” It wasn’t a distribution notice. It was a capital call. The sponsor needed additional capital from investors […]