Posted on

Financial Survival Guide – Pandemic Edition

Wow. Has the world gone crazy or what?

Since the last time I wrote to you, the world has hurtled headlong into a pandemic brought on by the spread of COVID-19, aka “the coronavirus”; the US economy has experienced historic unemployment, entered a recession, and somehow seen the stock market recover its losses for the year; and the largest human rights movement in history has exploded onto the streets of major cities across the globe following the callous murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

a dog sitting in the middle of a house that is being consumed by flames and saying "this is fine."
2020 in a nutshell

Unity, equality, and inclusion are some of the founding principles of this blog. Part of my goal in publishing my writing here is to help uplift you. I firmly believe that we all have more opportunity than we realize. That there is a light at the end of the tunnel, much closer than we ever thought possible. That the journey there should be fun, and that we can learn things about ourselves and each other along the way. Our culture doesn’t teach us these things, and it doesn’t equip us with the tools to take advantage of these simple truths and the endless opportunities that exist right at our fingertips. My goal in writing to you is to empower you by sharing the tools and experiences that have helped me along the way, in the hopes that you can learn from my mistakes as well as my successes, to live a happier, freer life. And perhaps while we’re at it, I can provide some entertainment as well.

Continue reading “Financial Survival Guide – Pandemic Edition”
Posted on

How to Freeze Your Spending

spending freeze - a credit card frozen in a block of ice

As it has for many people, the pandemic/recession combo has caused some disruption to our financial life. Mrs. Wallet lost her job, our tenant has been unable to pay rent for months, and our mortgage company overpaid our property taxes by thousands of dollars and increased our escrow payments by ~$800/month at precisely the worst time possible. I’ll have to write about that last one more later in its own post! To add to the dumpster fire, we’ve also had some big unexpected expenses, such as dealing with termites (the kind the insurance doesn’t cover of course, because there are apparently different kinds). In total, our net income was reduced by over 55%. Cue for us to freak out, sell everything, and start living on the street and eating out of garbage bins, right?

Continue reading “How to Freeze Your Spending”
Posted on

My First Dog Boarding

Earlier this month I had the pleasure to board my first pup, Bailey! I’ve written about dog boarding in the past (via Rover and Wag), but up until now I’d only ever managed to walk dogs or get paid to do nothing.

I was eager to start building my dog boarding business and excited to play with a new pup, so I accepted Bailey’s booking even though she wasn’t a perfect match (she was about 40 lbs, which was larger than ideal; my dog is maybe 10 lbs at most).

My first boarding didn’t go perfectly, but it wasn’t all bad, either. Let’s look at what went right and what could have gone better.

Continue reading “My First Dog Boarding”

Posted on

Side Hustles – November 2018

side hustle picture

It’s easy to underestimate the power of side hustles, so I think it makes sense for us to spend some time on them. In this post, I’m going to review side hustles I’ve taken advantage of recently or am in the process of trying out. Some of these may seem like they wouldn’t be worth your time, but just like compound interest, the impact of making consistent, small changes over time can grow into a wave which propels you forward into a far brighter future than you could have imagined.

Continue reading “Side Hustles – November 2018”