Family Finances

Growing up, my dad would grab a quick breakfast with us before vanishing into the workforce. He’d resurface after 6pm, visibly depleted. The highlight reel of my childhood memories: throwing a ball around the backyard, some genuinely fantastic family dinners out, and the times he watched me lose tennis matches and declare, “you’re just not good […]

After publishing my piece on the shocking cost of eldercare, a question kept nagging at me that I couldn’t shake: when money is finite and the people you love are not, how do you decide who to help or save first? A $230,000-a-year group home in Hawaii for one person. Four parents to potentially care

At the Diamond Head pickleball courts in Honolulu, I met a man who said he had just put his 94-year-old mother in an eldercare home. Since my parents are 78 and 80, my ears lit up. I know it will be up to me to take care of them when they can no longer take

Since 2009, I’ve been writing about all the ups and downs of my financial independence journey, the good and the bad. What I can clearly say is that who you partner with in life is one of the most important variables for achieving financial freedom. Get that right, and everything else gets easier. Get it

One of the biggest conundrums parents face is managing their own emotions when a stock market, real estate market, or any other risk asset takes a dive. On one hand, it’s painful to watch your portfolio shrink. Every dollar you lose represents time, the most valuable commodity of all. On the other hand, there’s a

I recently realized something that completely reframed how I think about income in America: a $200,000 household income is no longer middle class. Instead, under increasing college financial aid formulas, earning up to $200,000 now qualifies as low income or even poor. Being labeled “poor” or “low income” doesn’t sound great. But if $200,000 is the new poor according to

So you’ve read my post on the growing importance of Identity Diversification and now you’re wondering what it actually takes to prove your ethnicity and heritage. Doing so can help you better navigate the shifting socioeconomic winds of society and, in some cases, even improve your odds of getting into school, landing a job, winning

If you are a parent, your mission is clear: develop into a rich Bank of Mom & Dad to save your children. Without your financial support, they might never launch. If you don’t have wealthy parents yourself, then unfortunately, life might stay on hard mode forever. It’s up to you to break the cycle for

Nobody enjoys a stock market downturn, especially those who rely more on returns to survive due to a lack of active income. But as parents, we can use these sell-offs as an opportunity to help turn our kids into future millionaires. Although I’m a perennial optimist, I believe our kids are kind of screwed. The

With a likely recession and potentially stagflation on the horizon, I suspect many more families will join us as DUPs: Dual Unemployed Parents. Mass layoffs and company shutdowns will ripple through the economy. According to USA Facts, there were approximately 38 million single-income households in 2022. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were

One of my goals is to put my kids to work so they can earn money, contribute to a Roth IRA, and learn the value of hard work and the power of investing. By age 18, they’ll have roughly 10 years of work experience and compounding behind them. If they earn an average of $7,000

I recently came across an eye-opening chart by the National Association of Realtors showing that the median age of first-time U.S. homebuyers is now 38 years old. That’s a significant jump from 30 years old between 2008 and 2010. Meanwhile, the median age for repeat buyers has risen to 61 years old. What is going

If you don’t believe the world will grant your children a fair chance to succeed, you may want to take matters into your own hands as parents. One way is to set them up for financial independence—ideally making them millionaires before they graduate high school, finish college, or leave home. If your children are millionaires

If you’re a FIRE parent, one of your biggest concerns might be raising a spoiled and entitled child who takes hard work and money for granted. If this happens, it may feel like a significant failure—not only for your child’s future but also for society, which would have to contend with the consequences of their

“Flexing” is a slang term that means showing off or boasting about one’s accomplishments, possessions, or skills, often with the intention of impressing others. For example, someone might “flex” on social media by posting pictures of their new Porsche or sharing stories about their achievements. Personally, I’m not a fan of flexing—what’s the point? It

As a parent, your top priority is to protect your children until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Protecting your children requires good health, being alive, having resources, self-defense skills, and using common sense. If you’re missing one of these, the chances of your children and partner being harmed go up. After a

In April 2017, I made a commitment to be a stay-at-home parent for the first five years of my son’s life. When my daughter was born in December 2019, I made the same commitment for the sake of equality. Research shows that the first five years are the most crucial for a child’s development. Supposedly,