I have no plans of allowing my son to have a cell phone until he’s old enough to drive. I just don’t. Part of my aversion toward children, tweens and young teens carrying cell phones stems from my years of teaching and the fact that I would really like to avoid adding another distraction to my child’s academic life. I also worry about the financial aspect of cell phone usage. Small children are lacking in […]

Happy New Year everyone! Before I get into 2026, I want to take a look back. I wrote about my 2025 Financial Goals back at the end of 2024, and then did a pulse check mid-year. Now that the year is over, let’s take stock of how I’ve done: Image credit: Pixabay/Mohamed_hassan Travel Less: B During my mid-year pulse check I’d given myself a C- because I still did quite a bit of traveling during the first half of the year. After our Hawaii trip, however, we’ve stayed close to home! My Mom and StepDad came to visit us for Thanksgiving (which was a really special treat!), and we haven’t gone anywhere or done any traveling since June. So ultimately, I’ve increased my score to a solid “B.” Investments: A My goal was to increase and diversify my investments this year. I’d mentioned the possibility of dipping our toes into the rental market. That’s still a possibility for down the road, but I feel like we’re sitting at the edge of a housing bubble right now and I’m in no hurry to buy until prices and/or interest rates (or both) come down a bit. I’m still thinking lots about diversification (see my most recent blog post), but I’m not perfect. ChatGPT thinks our portfolio is over-represented in cash and high yield savings accounts and underrepresented in taxable brokerage accounts. I’ll continue to keep an eye on our assets and work to continue diversifying across time but I think we’re in the solid “A” range for investments overall. Open an LLC: A+ Excuse me to dust my shoulders off, but I think we’ve hit this out of the park. We opened an LLC and hired a CPA to help us manage certain aspects (like sending 1099s to our employees, our two children). It has truly been a joy to be able to teach my kids certain aspects of bookkeeping and accounting, and they’ve been able to help me with various aspects of social media content creation to take some of those tasks off my plate. I’m very excited about the future of our little business and hope to see it grow in 2026. Interview (& hire?) a Financial Planner: A+ We’d met this goal by mid-year and wrote all about it in our pulse check-up. Long story short, we interviewed SEVERAL financial planners but decided not to go that route. Instead, we hired a good, well-recommended CPA and feel really good about that decision. We’re managing our money ourselves, with the CPA’s tax advice. “Invest” in what matters: B-/C+ Here, I was thinking about the health and wellness space. Switching to cleaner products for cleaning, skin/makeup, personal hygiene, purchasing higher quality nutrient-rich foods and supporting local and sustainable brands. At mid-year, I’d given myself a higher score (B). I’ve lowered it slightly for end-of-year because I don’t think I made any real progress since that mid-year check-up. I feel we’ve done pretty good with purchasing high quality meats and produce,

I was looking at the stock market recently, and I simply shook my head. I almost always have a pretty clear idea of what is cheap and what is expensive. However, everything looks expensive. For the first time since November of 2020, I felt like we’re in a true TINA situation. For those who don’t know, TINA is an acronym for There Is No Alternative. When I say something “looks expensive”, I mean that it […]

I was listening to a recent podcast with Morgan Housel. I have a lot of respect for Morgan, so was disappointed to hear him say this: Everyone I know who retired early has gone back to work. My experience has been almost the exact opposite of Morgan’s. I know plenty early retirees and almost none […] The post Introducing The FI Collective appeared first on 1500 Days to Freedom.

So here’s the deal. The job market has been a bit weird lately. If you’ve been looking for work or thinking about a career change, you’ve probably noticed that employers have been acting like they’re about to hibernate for winter. Economic uncertainty, tariff talk, AI anxiety, and all this crap has made companies super hesitant to pull the trigger on new hires. But hold up for a minute. There’s actually some good news coming down […]

The post Ziggma Analytics Review 2026: Smarter Portfolio Tracking for Modern Investors appeared first on Real World Investor.

The first of the videos from the 2025 Bogleheads Conference are being posted, with more coming on a regular basis. They’re being posted in chronological order from the conference, so we have the initial keynote discussion, followed by the “Bogleheads University 101” videos. Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji in Conversation with Christine Benz Key Investment Building Blocks & Asset Allocation Basics with Christine Benz The 11 Bogleheads Principles with Jim Dahle How to Use All-in-One Funds […]

Most doctors I talk to don’t actually want to quit medicine. They just don’t want to keep doing it like this forever. They want more time with their families.More energy.More flexibility. They want medicine to fit into their life again, instead of their life constantly being rearranged around medicine. And yet, the idea of “retirement” makes a lot of physicians uncomfortable. It feels extreme. All or nothing. Like you either keep pushing or you walk […]