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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

  Edit November 11, 2024 The card appears to have been nerfed with the introduction of the new Smartly 4% card on Nov 11, 2024. Existing users can still use the card, but it seems to be closed to new users. RIP. I asked ChatGPT to eulogize it. Here’s what it came up with: Farewell … Read more

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

First, a 40,000 ft overview of 2023: Life flew by, as always. Increasingly so as the years go on. I played many rounds of disc golf and climbed a bunch. I love the competitive, outdoor, social, and physical aspects of disc golf. I like the physical, mental, and social aspects of climbing (mostly indoors, unfortunately). … Read more

The 2023 version of FreeTaxUSA is now live: https://www.freetaxusa.com/ Usual disclaimer: the website’s name makes it sounds like a horrible scam. But it is my favorite tax filing site, found through my favorite resource on the planet for all things personal finance: the Bogleheads forum. How do I use FreeTaxUSA? In November, I take 30 … Read more

*** Edit 10/6/2023 **** Since publishing this post, Tesla has dropped the MSRP most trims of their Model 3 and Y by $2k. They also reduced the referral bonus from $500 to $250.     *** Original Post *** I discovered my favorite musician, Ben Rector, a few years ago. My wife recently shared with … Read more