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Beating the latte factor: One money nerd’s quest for the best cheap coffee
Like J.D., I'm a recent convert to coffee. For most of my life, I preferred to consume my caffeine cold in the form of Diet Coke. And then…fate intervened.
Four years ago, when my family moved to Oklahoma, my sister-in-law gave us our first Keurig coffee maker. I thought, “That's an interesting gift for a family that doesn't drink coffee.”
But a set of sample k-cups came with the machine, so we started trying them.
The kids liked the sugary cups which were more like hot chocolate than coffee. And I found that I liked the taste of coffee now and then. I played with combinations of coffee, sugar, and milk until I found out I liked it a lot. I later dropped the sugar and went straight for the coffee/milk combo.
How would you spend $100,000?
What happens when a half dozen money nerds spend 48 hours together in Clearwater, Florida? Do they romp on the beach? Swim in the ocean? Cook dinner together? Drink copious quantities of alcohol? Stay up until three in the morning, laughing and telling stories? Yes. Yes, they do all of these things.
But they also spend a lot of time talking about money. A lot of time talking about money. (That's what makes them money nerds!)
Suze Orman hates the FIRE movement. She hates it, she hates it, she hates it.
Yesterday, my pal Paula Pant published a podcast interview with financial guru Suze Orman. Based on reader requests, Paula asked what Suze thought of the FIRE movement. (For those unfamiliar, FIRE is a a term used to talk about folks who have achieved financial independence or retired early.)
As it turns out, Suze Orman does not like the financial independence movement. In fact, she hates it. She hates it, she hates it, she hates it. Take a listen to this one-minute teaser:
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What I learned (and taught) at Fincon 2018
Greetings from sunny and sweaty Orlando, Florida!
It's been a long, lovely, crazy week behind the scenes at Get Rich Slowly. I've spent the past ten days hanging out with fellow money nerds at Fincon, the annual “money and media” conference. Fincon started in 2011 with just 225 attendees. Now there are over 2000 attendees — including nineteen of us who have been to every iteration.
Here's a quick run-down of what I learned (and taught) at Fincon 2018.
Bond with Friends and Colleagues
Fincon is first and foremost a chance to meet and bond with friends and colleagues. When you're a money writer (or money podcaster or money YouTuber, etc.), you spend a lot of time holed away by yourself. It's a lonely existence. It's rewarding to see each other, even if it's only once a year.
Potential needs versus actual needs: Re-writing my financial blueprint
Last week, I was a guest on the new Fire Below Zero podcast. The interview was fun. (It'll probably be several weeks before the episode airs, though.)
Toward the end of our conversation, the hosts asked a question that my mind keeps returning to: “What's something you spend money on that other people might question?”
At the time, I had two answers:
Spending rate versus saving rate
For years, I've argued that your saving rate is the most important number in personal finance. “Saving rate” in the world of personal finance is the same as profit in the world of business. We all understand that a company needs to earn a profit in order to grow and thrive, but what most people fail to realize is that people need profit too.
The greater the gap between your earning and spending, the faster you're able to grow your wealth snowball and achieve your goals.
Last week, the always-excellent Michael Kitces published an interesting article that argues spending rates matter more than saving rates. He writes:
A visual history of U.S. bull and bear markets since 1926
Who am I kidding?
I can't go an entire month without publishing anything here at Get Rich Slowly. I need to write. And judging from the feedback regarding my planned sabbatical, you folks want me to write! Tell you what, let's change the premise.
Instead of taking all of September off from publishing, I'll instead vow that for the next four weeks, I won't tackle any major articles. If there's something that I want to share and that thing can be shared in 20-30 minutes, I'll do it. This plan will serve the same objective — freeing my mind to focus on the other tasks that need to get done around here — while also giving me an outlet for my writing (and giving you something to read).
Sound like a plan?
Wake me up when September ends
For the next month, this blog will be on sabbatical.
That's not to say that I won't be working on Get Rich Slowly — I'll be working just as much as always — but that I won't publish a new article here until Monday, October 1st.
The sad truth is that this is the only way I can force myself to work on the non-editorial side of my business. Left to my own devices, all I do is read and write about money. That's great! The problem is that when I'm solely focused on content, none of the other stuff that needs to get done actually gets done. It's only when I force myself to take time off that I make progress on the business side of the business.
So, I'm forcing myself to take a month off from publishing.
In the meantime, most things will continue as normal:
An index to every money book I’ve reviewed during the past twelve years
I read a lot of money books. As a result, a large section of my large library is devoted to books about personal finance. (And if I hadn't purged hundreds of money books when I sold this site in 2009, I'd have even more books — and no place to put them.) Last week, a […]
The post An index to every money book I’ve reviewed during the past twelve years appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.
What early retirement was like in 1957 (according to Life magazine)
Sometimes I hit the jackpot in my quest to find old material about retirement and early retirement. Last week, for instance, I was reading Early Retirement Dude's history of the financial independence movement when he mentioned a Life magazine photo essay about early retirement from February 1957. Say what?
Within minutes, I was reading the article via Google Books. Within an hour, I had ordered not just that issue of Life but three others with retirement articles. Within days, the magazines were on my doorstep. I'm telling you: We live in the future!
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