$1M in Investment Gains: A Finance Professor’s DIY Two-Fund Portfolio

If you’ve followed this blog, you will know that I find tracking personal finances both fascinating and insightful. With the recent bull market, our cumulative (nominal) investment gains since the birth of the blog 8 years ago surpassed $1M last month.   Some Backstory A little over eight years ago, I completed my twelfth year … Read more

Financial Update – Sept 2024

Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I enjoyed this Costco Connection article on their operations (link). Life For years, I would bike our unfrugal dog about 4 miles a day to give her some exercise. However, in preparation for the triathlon this past summer, I started running her the ~4 mi/day … Read more

US Bank Altitude Reserve Card Review

  Disclaimer Usual disclaimer. This blog loses money. I don’t get money from credit card referrals. YTD, I’ve earned $15.42 in Amazon affiliate income and incurred $64.37 in web hosting/domain costs. There are no affiliate links in this post. The thoughts below are my sincere thoughts unclouded by profit motives.   Background About six weeks … Read more

Alaska Packrafting Adventure (Whale’s Tail)

For the past seven summers, I have gone backpacking with a group of undergrad friends (who I met in 1999). We’ve gone to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Peru. 25 years after meeting each other, we decided to backpack Alaska. Ironically, it was a Bogleheads post that inspired that decision. We eventually converged on this packrafting … Read more

Financial Update – Aug 2024

Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Zooming into iPhone chip kind of blew my mind (link). Beau Miles completes his Seinfeld recycling arbitrage (part 1, part 2). Another month, another massive data breach in which our personal info is permanently exposed to the world. If you aren’t already operating under the … Read more