Trainspotting For Nerds

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As a child, I walked with my head in the clouds and my eyes on the ground. I was a born scavenger. There was definite joy in finding dropped coins that others missed or pocketing unique and shiny metal contraptions that fed my daydreams (shortly after Star Wars came out, I excitedly mistook a hex shank socket driver for a …

Given The Choice Between You And Them They’ll Win Every Time

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I started this blog in September of 2016, and I’ve been dropping a post at least twice a week since that time. I’m not convinced I have all that much to say, and I’m certain that many others could express it more eloquently or memorably than I do. Yet I persist because I relish the relationship this blog permits me …

Should I Want My Kids To Suffer Financially?

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I recently wrote about one child’s wolfing down buckets of blueberries, which I consider to be a luxury fruit, and how it triggered in me a desire to have my kids experience certain financial milestones on their own path to financial literacy. Here’s where it gets complicated. Although I used the term milestones it was a poorly disguised euphemism for …

A More Precise Definition Of Passion

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During a long family car ride, we collectively listened to an excellent interview with the Swiss-German, three Michelin star chef and owner of Eleven Madison Park, Daniel Humm. He is not the typical role model one might hold up as an example for children. He dropped out of high school at age 14 to cycle competitively. He was living with …

The Trapdoor Roth

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Almost a decade and a half ago, we had our first child. Around the same time my parents adopted a grandparenting style that echoed the ethos of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. [For the record, it was not Facebook’s popular guiding principle of Move fast and break things. Between arthritis, artificial joints and gait instability on downsloping surfaces, they only ever developed …

A Ritual Spanning Generations

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It’s a relaxed summer evening. I’m enjoying a swim with my daughter during a visit to the grandparents. Tonight there is a creamsicle colored dusk that seems to stretch implausibly late in a manner analogous my my daughter’s implausibly long legs extending above the water’s surface as she performs underwater handstands. I remember when the whole of her body fit …

Love Hertz

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The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything – you can wait for your pitch. -Warren Buffett I don’t day trade. I don’t own cryptocurrencies. I don’t directly own rental real estate. I have friends who have done incredibly well in each and every one of those areas of investment, and I enjoy learning …

Pilfered Ideas From The Opposite Of Spoiled

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This summer, we decided each kid is getting $20 a month to spend on whatever they choose. One kid went to a favorite chain restaurant and ordered a sandwich online in advance using an e-coupon. Another went to a meal with a friend, did not order online, was unable to use the coupon (it was only available for online orders) …

Financial Milestones I Want My Kids To Experience

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This morning, I opened the refrigerator to find a paucity of blueberries. This is all the more surprising because we buy 2-3 enormous boxes of blueberries at Costco every 2-3 weeks. What used to be arrive in a single delicate box presented like a Rolex when I was a kid now comes in economy size buckets. I’ve developed certain morning …

Has Medicine Helped You Become Comfortably Numb?

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We’ve entered that stage of life: begun to lose parents, seen peers stricken with cancer as the youthful patina of invincibility fades, and started to give up pastimes we thought we’d never stop enjoying. As a result, the typical conversation with a non-medical friend my age tends to follow a template. Dissatisfaction is expressed regarding a new boss, the latest …