By: Laura Walton AFC® In 1969, Joe Dominguez quit his Wall Street job at age 31 with $70,000 saved (the equivalent of $466,000 today). His book, Your Money or Your Life, co-written with Vicki Robin, has inspired generations world over to re-evaluate their relationship with money. First published in 1992, it offers 9 steps designed to…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Grab a friend, family member or co-worker and challenge them to this 30-question financial literacy quiz. Find the 30 questions at WalletHub’s WalletLiteracy Survey. It takes just a few minutes. Most respondents scored a B or B+. It’s not a slam dunk – I learned a thing or two – I’ll share…
By: Laura Walton AFC® It’s all what you get used to. Since 1973, our average house size has increased by 1000 square feet while the average household size has dropped from 3 to 2.5 persons. And how do our homes compare with those in other countries? Only Australia beats us – see the chart. The…
By: Laura Walton AFC® It’s Warren Buffett in beige and white trunks in the index fund corner vs. Ted Seides in red and gold trunks in the hedge fund corner – who’s winning this 10-year bet? A recent NPR Morning Edition story brought us up to date on this 2008 bet. Apparently Buffett responded to a question…
By: Laura Walton AFC® The line for charitable donations is often left blank when I create a budget with a client but that’s not to say they aren’t charitable. In 2015, a Gallup World Poll asked over 150,000 people which of the following three charitable acts they had undertaken in the past month: helped a stranger, or…
By: Laura Walton AFC® With 750,000 unique visitors to his website each month, he must have a compelling message! A friend passed along an article by Nick Paumgarten featuring Mr. Money Mustache that appeared in the February 29th issue of The New Yorker – I’ll be quoting liberally from it to introduce you to Peter Adeney and his…
By: Laura Walton AFC® When I started driving, gas was 35 cents a gallon! Adjusted for inflation that’s $2.26 a gallon today. Who would have ever imagined today’s prices would be lower than that? Below are the average annual miles driven by age group according to the Department of Transportation: Age Male Female 16-19 8206…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We are told that in order to learn from experience we need frequent practice and immediate feedback. How does this play out in money decisions? Richard Thaler’s book Misbehaving gives lots of everyday examples of how we humans make illogical decisions. Traditional economists assume we are logical thinkers and have all the relevant…
By: Laura Walton AFC® This week I’m talking with seniors at the University of Hawaii at Hilo about personal finance. They have a dilemma. The median price of homes on the Big Island of Hawaii is around $350,000 but the majority of jobs won’t support the attendant mortgage payment. The disconnect means they may have…
With the recent market downturn, I bucked the trend. Instead of selling, I bought. Carl Richard’s napkin drawing from his book, The Behavior Gap, reminds us of our instincts – run the other way when things get bad. But with the discipline of a long-term investor, I chose to take Warren Buffett’s advice to “buy…