Visiting Washington, DC
It’s been a while since I last wrote a post. Not sure If I’m going through what fellow bloggers call blogger burnout or if blogging has just become a low priority in all aspects of my life.
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Side Hustle Interview – A Passion for Photography
I’m fascinated with the idea of exploring and finding ways to expedite reaching Financial Independence. The common thought is that one should try to live below your means and attempt lowering monthly expenses while increasing income if possible.
…A Model To Estimate Your Savings Rate – The QDIKW Pyramid
I’m a big fan of the DIKW model or DIKW pyramid. It is a method that aims to explain the ways we move from Data to Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom with a component of actions and decisions. Simply put, it’s a model to look at various ways of extracting insights and value from all sort of data. It’s often depicted as a hierarchical model in the shape of the pyramid and also known as the data-information-knowledge-wisdom hierarchy.
…Resolve to Make Tomorrow Better
Last year was without a doubt, one of the most challenging ones in my professional career. As a team, we accomplished major goals, but more importantly, we made significant strides on key initiatives that will set us up for success in the new year. While this is all great news, as an outsider, you might think that I should be nothing but proud of 2018. Don’t get me wrong, I am; however, I can’t avoid feeling frustrated, exhausted, tired, burned out and in need of a sabbatical.
…Think About Your Response to Failure and Consider Failing Forward
Life is not perfect and in all honesty, it was never meant to be. We certainly control what we can control in hopes of influencing our destiny but sometimes we get hit by events that can have positive or negative effects. Whether these situations have long-lasting effects or not, depends entirely on us but more specifically on our behaviors and the way we proceed when handling them. However, I truly believe the most important thing we can do is to take the time to learn so that we can at least fail forward. …
How I Manage My Health Savings Account
A lot has been said about a Health Savings Account (HSA). It is by far the best tax-advantage vehicle created by mankind that allows eligible individuals to divert a portion of their income to an account from which they can reimburse eligible expenses tax-free and efficiently save for present or future health care expenses. If you have not yet taken advantage of an HSA, I highly encourage you to think about it but more importantly, to do your due diligence to evaluate if it would be beneficial for your personal situation. …
Finding Community: Might Be Easier Than You Think
In recent years, the Personal Finance (PF) community has grown at exponential rates. Rockstar Finance, PT Money and Modest Money list hundreds of websites dedicated to spreading the message around Financial Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE). Saving and investing are core elements for achieving FI; however, sites like ChooseFI have elevated the message to one that is centered around intentionality and building community. …
8 Steps for Becoming More Present
On a previous post, I described the performance review process my wife and I go through to give each other constructive feedback. Initially, we start with a few thank yous, then we cover opportunities for improvement, our goals and finally we wrap up with starts and stops. My biggest stop in 2017 was to minimize the time spent on social media and this blog and to start making an effort in being present when spending time with the family. Getting this type of feedback from my wife was not necessarily music to my ears but it made me realize my passion around personal finance was definitely taking a toll on us. …