If there’s life on other planets, ever wonder how bizarre it might be? Certainly not as bizarre as these very real life-forms on this very strange world… So: Is Earth’s Life Unique in the Universe? As for us, we are off to Los Angeles for the holidays. We’ll visit some family and, after a year,… [Continue Reading]
Archives for 2014
Micro-Lending with Kiva
She looks like a good risk to me. For the past few months I’ve had $1500 burning a hole in my pocket. Back in August I was working on a project helping a friend with her business. I had forgotten we had agreed on a $1500 fee until, as I was headed to the airport,… [Continue Reading]
Chautauqua February 7-14, 2015: Escape from Winter
We’ve already missed this one in Abilene, 1929 Courtesy of Daily Yonder If you have read this blog for long, or any of my Chautauqua posts, you know that for the last couple of years each Fall we have taken a small group to Ecuador for a week of adventure and conversation surrounding life, freedom,… [Continue Reading]
Stocks — Part XXVII: Why I Don’t Like Dollar Cost Averaging
At some point in your life you may find yourself in the happy dilemma of having a large chunk of cash to invest. An inheritance perhaps, or maybe money from the sale of another asset. Whatever the source, investing it all at once will seem a scary thing as we discussed in Part XVIII. If… [Continue Reading]
Jack Bogle and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Jack Bogle Jack Bogle on why he started Vanguard Above is a picture of Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, the creator of the modern low-cost index fund and my personal hero. If you aspire to be wealthy and financially independent, he should be yours as well. Before Mr. Bogle the financial industry was set… [Continue Reading]
Tuft & Needle: A better path to sleep
About a decade ago and roughly a mile from where I lived at the time there was a mansion on a hill. As I don’t much care about mansions I don’t recall many of the details. I do remember a huge pool in the center of the house with columns running along the sides and… [Continue Reading]
Nightmare on Wall Street: Will the Blood Bath Continue?
Nightmare on the Wall (Street) Courtesy of jflaxman The headline for today’s (Saturday, Oct 18, 2014) post I ripped off from a major financial media outlet. I’m so ashamed. It was the actual headline from a piece they put up this past week to describe the market action on Wall Street. They should be even… [Continue Reading]
Help Wanted
Pony Express When I launched this blog back in the good old days, I barely knew what a blog was. I had heard the term but I had never actually seen one. I joke that the first blog post I ever read was the first post I ever wrote. If it is funny it is… [Continue Reading]
Chautauqua 2014: Lightning strikes again!
Well, this was a rare delight. Photo courtesy of Kate Last year’s Chautauqua was so much fun, attracted such cool people and was just so damn epic it seemed unlikely to repeat. But it did, and this year we got coffee! Let’s start with that.
Stocks — Part XXVI: Pulling the 4%
Courtesy of Fritz Cartoons At some point, if you have been following the Simple Path to Wealth described in these posts, you will be able to choose to have your assets pay the bills rather than your labor. How quickly you reach this point will have much to do with your saving rate and how… [Continue Reading]
