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It started on a bike ride around Pulau Ubin. We’d rented bicycles at the jetty and were slowly making our way along the coastal path — no traffic, no malls, just dirt tracks, mangroves, and the four of us pedaling at a pace that felt almost foreign after the usual rhythm of city life. Halfway through, we stopped by the water to catch our breath. My daughter was looking out at the mangroves for a […]
Save, invest, prosper with My Own Advisor. Financial regrets of retirees (and how to avoid them) A recent article caught my eye on this subject, and as a newly minted (early) retiree I thought I would offer my own takes on common financial regrets of retirees (and how to avoid them). I’ll link to some related top-10 retirement mistakes at the end… Early retiree thanks to DIY investing in stocks and ETFs. The article Financial […]
A few months ago I saw this video of Kevin O’Leary (Mr. Wonderful) arguing that $5M was enough for a lifetime of financial security. On the surface it seems hard to argue with this, but it was how O’Leary recommended investing this money that gave me pause. As he said: I tell everybody this. You should strive very hard if you’re an entrepreneur to have $5M in T-Bills. Not in anything else, just T-Bills. Making 3.82% this morning. You know you’ve made it and you’ve safeguarded your family for the rest of your life if you can get $5M liquid in T-Bills. O’Leary wants everyone to just “T-Bill and Chill.” I see his point. With 1-year U.S. Treasury bills currently yielding around 4%, $5M in T-Bills would generate around $200,000 per year (or about $160,000 after tax) for the rest of your life. That income would be exempt from state income tax as well. The vast majority of people could live off of this with ease. But living off of this amount now isn’t the problem. Living off of it later is. Why $5M in the “T-Bill and Chill” Strategy Eventually Fails While it’s tempting to look at $5M in T-Bills and think you’d be set for life, in reality, two factors will probably derail your plans. The first is inflation. $5M is a lot of money today, but it won’t necessarily be in 40 years. I use 40 years as a benchmark because research shows that if your portfolio can survive 40 years, it will likely survive even longer. But when you invest solely in T-Bills, your nominal investment never grows in value. You have the same $5M for the next 40 years. And how much will $5M buy in 40 years? No one knows. But we do know how much $5M today would’ve bought 40 years ago (in 1987). The answer is $1.66M. In other words, $1.66M in 1987 has the same purchasing power as $5M in 2026. You can see the amount of money that has the same purchasing power as $5M in 2026 in the plot below: As you can see, you don’t need nearly as much money in the past to have the same purchasing power as $5M in 2026 dollars. Taking this a step further, we can adjust O’Leary’s original statement (above) for inflation going back to 1987. If we did so, it would be as-if he said the following in 1987: You’ve safeguarded your family for the rest of your life if you can get $1.66M liquid in T-Bills. At the time, this would’ve seemed like a good idea because $1.66M felt like what $5M feels like today. But, today $1.66M is still just $1.66M. It’s a lot of money, but it’s not $5M. In fact, it’s 67% less. That’s the problem with sitting in T-Bills for so long. Both your purchasing power and your income get destroyed over time. Today, someone with $1.66M in T-Bills would only be making around $66,000 in
I love our local library. We bring our kids, they feel like it’s Supermarket Sweep but for books, and it saves us money and clutter around the house. The other day, I went in and saw a whole display for art you could borrow. These were framed prints you could borrow for six weeks at a time with a limit of two per customer. (the overdue fines were steep though, $2 per day whereas they suspended overdue fines for books after Covid) That sent me down a rabbit hole that showed me all the amazing things you could borrow from the library. Table of ContentsEbooks & Audiobooks in LibbyDigital SubscriptionsMovies & TV ShowsFree Museum PassesTools, Camping, DIYMakerspaces Ebooks & Audiobooks in Libby If you love your library too, you’re probably familiar with Libby. Libby is an app that lets you borrow ebooks and audiobooks directly to your phone, tablet, or Kindle. You set up your account, add your libraries, and are able to put holds and borrow from each one. You can expand your available catalog by adding additional libraries because each one has a separate catalog. Reciprocard lists reciprocal borrowing programs so you can find and join other libraries that partner with yours. They also list library programs that allow non-residents to join, typically for a fee. Here’s my short Instagram video explaining how Reciprocard works: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jim Wang | 💵 Money & Investing (@bestwallethacks) Digital Subscriptions One of my favorite hidden benefits is free access to premium research databases and online subscriptions. Many libraries now offer subscriptions to premium research like Consumer Reports, Morningstar, and others. This is in addition to online subscriptions to newspapers and other sites like the New York Times. Ours collects them under Digital Library and the terms for each subscription is different. For the New York Times, there is a daily code you can redeem onto your own account to get 24 hour access to news. I save it as a bookmark and load it whenever I see a NYT article I want to read. Movies & TV Shows Many libraries provide access to two streaming services for free – Kanopy and hoopla. They’re separate services with different catalogs but many libraries offer you access to one or both for free. Kanopy is primarily streaming video with thousands of movies, many classics, as well as television series and documentaries. Hoopla has video but also includes audiobooks, comics, magazines, and music. Free Museum Passes Many libraries have museum and park passes that you can “borrow” to help save on entry and or even parking. For example, the Boston Public Library offers a DCR ParksPass. It’s a physical pass that gives you free parking at 50 facilities in the Massachusetts State Parks System. The New York City Public Library offers a Culture Pass if you have a library
I recently presented “Back to the Future: Is Your FI Journey Stuck in 2017” for the ChooseFI Los Angeles chapter–coming soon to the San Diego ChooseFI chapter! It struck me that back in 2017, most in the Financial Independence community would have said “let that Roth IRA grow tax free for as long as possible!” […]
I’m running the next cohort of my course Launch in 48 right now. Registration closes tomorrow, June 30. That’s something I haven’t said in a while. Because for the last two years, I told myself I was done with cohorts. I stopped doing them. I stopped updating my courses. I stopped most of the work that built my writing career in the first place. And I told myself a story the entire time about why […]
Password manager providers are naturally attractive targets for hackers. So a critical question to ask is: what happens if an attacker manages to access the servers of the company that provides your password manager software? And the answer to that question will depend on both your own practices as well as the policies and practices of the password manager provider. Here it’s worth backing up a step and looking at historical security breaches in general. […]
This is a guest post from Chris at PortfolioAtlas (a tool that maps 100+ cities to the portfolio size you’d need to retire in each one). If you’ve been around the FIRE community for more than a week, you know the drill… Spend less than you earn, invest the difference, and let your savings rate do the heavy lifting. Push your savings rate from 40% to 50% and you knock years off the timeline. Push […]
Today we review the Emma Budgeting App, looking at if using the app to budget can aid your financial plans and help you save money. The post Emma App Review (2026): Is the Budgeting App Safe & Worth It? appeared first on The Financial Wilderness.
🎙️ Episode #494 – Sometimes the smartest real estate move is to sell, even at a loss. Learn the simple framework that can help you… The post Why Selling Your Rental At A Loss Beats Holding It appeared first on Coach Carson.
Eric Pemper Founder, CuraDebt · Est. 2001 BBB A+ Rated · BBB Accredited · ACDR Member · 1,600+ Five-Star Client Reviews Last updated: June 15, 2026 Peoples Bank Settlement Letter (Real Bank Loan Sample) This is a real, redacted Peoples Bank settlement letter, showing a bank loan balance of $13,554.64 resolved for a payment of […] The post Peoples Bank Settlement Letter (Real Bank Loan Sample) appeared first on CuraDebt.
In this week’s stock market outlook, Joel Wenger examines the current market trend, price performance, and headline risks.
I have been so busy just going about my everyday business, that not only did I forget my blog anniversary earlier this year but I completely skipped last year’s anniversary! Must have been menopausal brain fog! Oh well! Happy belated … Continue reading → The post A Dirty Dozen appeared first on Quietly Saving.