And other questions I’ll have to see some I.D. to answer I don’t know about you, but I’m still signing stuff. I do it seldom enough now to feel a shock when it happens, and, if I’m honest, irritation. Then comes regret, nostalgia, fear, and an obscure self loathing. (I…

October Financial Check-In No one is more surprised than me to find that last month we actually climbed out of debt. A lot. Now I worry that I won’t have a leg to stand on when, once again, I stand in the kitchen warning my family that the Financial End…

And other thoughts about turning 60 To the surprise of absolutely no one, I turned sixty last month. Adding to the intrigue of the occasion, I remain firmly up to my ears in Debt and Regret™. It’s a funny thing about these decade markers. Even though the calendar is not…

It’s Purslane season, darlings Context is everything. Chances are, if you saw this succulent plant packaged up in the cool refrigerated transepts of your gourmet grocery store, you’d be all curious to pay and try. But if you’re yanking it from your own garden, familiarity breeds contempt. This is purslane…

August Financial Check-In When I was a kid, like many a kid, I had a complicated relationship with Barbie. First of all, my mom didn’t let us have new Barbies or Barbie accouterments, so I mostly had to play Barbie at other kids’ houses. In our house, we settled for…

Well, my mom did. What if I told you that five dollars would gain you access to savings and checking accounts, other investment products, financial counseling, a variety of loans at favorable terms, and a community of other savers and borrowers — all from a financial institution that actually invests…

Don’t forget the things you’ve done right I lied the other day. I left out a crucial story when I was talking about how to reckon with your financial mistakes. I left it out for the dumbest reason ever, and also the most telling: I’d forgotten that it ever happened…

Also, freeze your credit. A few months after the utter cluster caused by the hacking and data breach at Equifax in 2017, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Brian Schatz sat down to hash out some long-needed consumer rights for the American people. Equifax Is Your Disappointing Boyfriend. The breach — and the rollback on compensation — were both preventable.cheapbohemian.medium.com The result was the Freedom from Equifax Exploitation (FREE)…

You can’t know what you know until you know. So be kind to yourself. When I was in high school, my father took me to the bank to open a big investment account in my name. “This new investment is called a money market fund,” he said, standing in the…