Most of my working life has been freelance. I’ve only had a real job for a handful of years. Now that I’m back to being successfully unemployed, here’s what 20 years of freelancing taught me about financial security. I spent 20 years freelancing, building a career that let me work from home, spend time with my son, travel, and give back to my community. During those years, I also learned to manage irregular income, navigate […]

Kids fighting, public meltdowns, disrespectful behavior, “I hate yous” — all behavior even the best moms see. So, today, I’m sharing how I navigate five really hard parenting moments with 3 boys under 5 years old. If you’re a mom, you’re in the right place. This is a space designed to help you overcome challenges and live your best life. I’d love for you to join me inside the Mom On Purpose Membership where we take this […]

What’s top of my mind: Getting over jet lag. It’s been nearly a month since I posted on this blog, after arriving home from Nepal and Bhutan. As my crazy 3 years of travel come to an end, it seems to be taking me longer to bounce back from jet lag. I think I may […] The post Wednesday W’s #141. appeared first on Burning Desire For FIRE.

One of the nice things about having a bunch of credit cards is that they come with all sorts of benefits that most people don’t know about. In particular, many credit cards come with insurance benefits that can help you out when something goes wrong. For example, several years ago, I had a flight get canceled because of a snowstorm. Luckily, because I’d booked the flight with my Chase Sapphire Reserve, the trip delay insurance […]

Secrets from the Millionaire Teacher, Andrew Hallam The subject line of the email read: “Review or door stopper.” Now that is a book review request I enjoy. Make me laugh, and you have my attention. And Millionaire Teacher, Andrew Hallam does not disappoint. This is not going to be a traditional book review. Instead, it offers actionable tips from inside the book. Suffice it to say, Millionaire Teacher is a comprehensive personal finance guide for beginning and intermediate investors alike—and I highly recommend reading it! To Become A Millionaire: Take Action Read this article and come away with actionable steps you can implement today to become a millionaire. Some of these strategies may not be entirely new, and that is because they represent tried-and-true methods for growing your wealth. First come the quick tips, followed by in-depth information and motivation. Nine Rules of Wealth Checklist 1. Spend like a millionaire if you want to become rich. That means living conservatively rather than extravagantly. 2. Start investing early to allow your funds to compound and grow over time. 3. Invest in low-cost index funds to maximize your future wealth. 4. Learn about stock market history, greed, and fear, so you do not fall into the trap of buying high and selling low. 5. Learn to build a complete stock and bond portfolio using index funds, which can help you beat most professional money managers. 6. Understand all fees, both advisor fees and fund expense ratios. 7. Don’t fall for an advisors “hard sell”. 8. Watch out for “too good to be true” scams that promise outsized results. 9. If you want to dabble in individual stocks, do so only with a small portion of your portfolio. In Depth Advice for Wealth Building More details pilfered from Hallam—a high school English teacher who built a million-dollar investment portfolio on a teacher’s salary. Spend Like you Want to Grow Rich You’ve heard it before, the millionaires are not the folks riding around in Cadillacs and Porches but are those living in the modest home driving an older car. Hallam’s path to millionaire status was peppered with a cheapskate lifestyle for many years. This guy rode his bike 70 miles per day to work through rain and sleet. He lived on clams salvaged from the beach accompanied with low cost pasta and potatoes. Free rent was the byproduct of house sitting gigs for those Canadians wintering in the south. That’s how he can afford to live well today; travel, live in a condo with a pool and squash courts, and drive a classic Mercedes. What’s the takeaway for you? I certainly don’t want to get my food from the beach or ride a bike to work. Yet there are other ways to live conservatively with an eye towards the future. Substitute low cost alternatives for life’s necessities. You need a place to stay, you don’t need a luxury apartment. Take in a roommate or two. You need food, but you can cook

The limits of good intentions: Matt Sonsini on philanthropy’s feedback problem, startup term sheets, and learning to be an optimist. 🎙️ Listen on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Matt Sonsini is Managing Partner and co-founder of Ravello Impact, and the former CEO of The Sobrato Organization. Before moving into investing and philanthropy, he spent almost two decades as a corporate lawyer in Silicon Valley, working with startups, venture capitalists, and public companies. […]

Is it just me or have train tickets got ridiculously expensive? Honestly, sometimes it’s cheaper to fly abroad than get a train to London! Anyway, I recently needed a Railcard and, being me, I wasn’t about to pay full price if I could help it. I had a little look around and found that TrainPal offers discounted Railcards, so I managed to save myself some money before I’d even booked a train ticket – instead […]

Last Friday, the Federal Reserve released the results of its 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which takes a detailed snapshot of American households’ finances every three years. And the big takeaway from this year’s release is clear—older Americans got richer while younger Americans got poorer. From 2022-2025, the median net worth of households 75 and older went up 38%, while the median net worth of households under 35 fell by 23% (adjusted for inflation): Households in between saw far smaller changes, with no other age cohort seeing more than a 6% shift in median net worth in either direction. [Author’s Note: the SCF surveys only a few thousand households, so changes within smaller groups (like a single age bracket) can be noisy. Therefore, you should focus on the direction of these trends (which are more reliable) over the exact percentages.] To put these numbers in perspective, below is a table showing the actual net worth changes across age cohorts (in 2025 dollars): Age 2022 2025 $ Change % Change