Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Scottie Scheffler, the world’s best golfer by a decent margin (reminiscent of Tiger Woods), talks frankly about the triviality of the sport and how unfulfilling fame/success is (link). A week after the interview, he won the British Open (one of the four majors) in ... Read more| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches We are enjoying Season 4 of Welcome to Wrexam (link). Ben Rector dropped a new album. It is great (link). Some new favorite YouTube channels: An Italian bikepacker (link). His current plans of a human powered voyage across the globe (link). Dan Cycles the World, ... Read more| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches NYT Podcast on how the much anticipated reduction in real estate agent fees has yet to materialize (link). Older Bogleheads on advice they’d give their 45-year old selves (link). WSJ on how to easily delete personal info (address, phone number, etc) from internet (wsj article). ... Read more The post Financial Update – Apr 2025 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches The Finance Buff on protecting investment accounts from ACATS transfer theft (link). If I were not currently chasing $7k/year of brokerage bonuses, I’d have 100% of our brokerage accounts at Fidelity with lockdown enabled. Hopefully other brokerages follow suit and enable this functionality. Life ... Read more| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I found this YouTube documentary on Malaysian Flight 370 (the Boeing 777 that seemingly disappeared without a trace in 2014) to be fascinating/horrifying (link). Vanguard lowers expense ratios on 87 funds (link). Bogleheads discussion (link). WSJ article (link). Tesla is offering a 10% insurance discount ... Read more The post Financial Update – Jan 2025 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Ben Rector dropped three new songs, which made my month (link). I particularly like the song The Richest Man in the World. Life I took a climbing trip to Vegas where a friend and did a ~1,500 ft classic climb called “Solar Slab.” When ... Read more The post Financial Update – Dec 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
I drafted most of this post before my mom’s passing. I’ll keep it brief this month. Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I found this photography project to be profoundly moving…and sad (link). Coincidentally, I wrote the above before my mom’s passing. Reader Adrian writes about finding joy in running ... Read more The post Financial Update – Nov 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches National Geographic put out a new Honnold/Caldwell bromance on their bike/climbing journey from Colorado to Alaska (DisneyPlus link). Relatedly, Honnold was on Rich Roll’s podcast and provides a bit more context on their adventure (link). Life I discovered how to universally set all websites ... Read more The post Financial Update – Oct 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
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 The post Financial Update – Sept 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
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 The post Financial Update – Aug 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Neurosurgeon becomes disillusioned with job, quits, and now spends his time hiking in the mountains with his dog (link). The video has gone quite viral, hitting 10M views in a month. A lot of it resonated with me, including how broken the medical system is ... Read more The post Financial Update – July 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I didn’t read/listen/watch too much this month, but on vacation we binged the first season of Welcome to Wrexham with the kids, which is basically a real-life Ted Lasso. It is a fantastic show if you aren’t offended by language. Such a beautiful and well-done ... Read more The post Financial Update – June 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Podcast interview with Die With Zero author, Bill Perkins (link). Perkins’ book, along with the above podcast, has certainly given me a lot of food for thought. The podcast made me reflect once again on whether I’m irrationally hoarding/counting/collecting/obsessing about “Chuck E Cheese” tokens. I ... Read more The post Financial Update – May 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches An interesting Bogleheads thread about life lessons (link). The collective wisdom of this particular group of internet strangers never ceases to amaze me. Rick Ferri interviews Larry Swedroe (link). Larry came to visit my campus seven years ago. About five of us finance faculty met ... Read more The post Financial Update – Apr 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches NYT podcast on the collapse of the National Association of Realtors, along with the 6% commission for selling homes (link). A fascinating David vs Goliath story. I had always thought that the downfall would come organically through competitors such as Homie or Redfin. I was ... Read more The post Financial Update – Mar 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Andre Agassi’s autobiography/memoir, Open (link). I heard about the book in the comment section of the WSJ this past month. I checked out the audiobook from the library and devoured it in about 3 days. For those who don’t care about tennis, you could probably ... Read more The post Financial Update – Feb 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches PBS documentary of “The Boys in the Boat” (link). We took the family to see the movie in the theater. I thought the book and above documentary are better. 12-minute documentary about a man who has spent 50 years as Yellowstone’s “winterkeeper” (link). Rich Roll ... Read more The post Financial Update – Jan 2024 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Lex Fridman interviews Jeff Bezos (link). Smartless dudes interview Arnold Schwarzenegger (link). I discovered the YT channel of Peter Santenello, who makes ~45min documentaries of people from all walks of life (link). It’s like a long-form version of Humans of New York. Pretty fascinating content. ... Read more The post Financial Update – Dec 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Jason Zweig reflects on the life of Charlie Munger on a WSJ podcast (link). Relatedly, Poor Charlie’s Almanac is a good read (old edition, new edition). Beau Miles embarks on a 3-day pumpkin-fueled journey (link). Two cyclists have been biking from the very top of ... Read more The post Financial Update – Nov 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Musk’s biography (link). I’m about 1/3 of the way through it. It’s pretty entertaining. A few things I’ve found interesting to far: Musk’s reluctance to “take chips off the table,” but rather doubling down on downstream bets. This repeated “doubling down” seemed destined to make ... Read more The post Financial Update – Oct 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Beau Miles tries his hand at replicating the Seinfeld (Kramer) aluminum can redemption arbitrage (link). His other videos are astounding (link). Mediocre Amateurs continue to inspire me (link). Dolomites 1 + Dolomites 2. Kilimanjaro + Mount Meru. Clipping Chains interviews the White Coat Investor (link). ... Read more The post Financial Update – Sept 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I really liked the Quarterback series, but I’m a sucker for sports documentaries (link). It’s hard not to like Kirk Cousins after watching that show. Relatedly, I learned about Hard Knocks this month. It is also pretty entertaining (link). Life School started again for ... Read more The post Financial Update – Aug 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Steve Levitt (re)interviews Sal Khan on People I Mostly Admire (link). Guy Raz interviews Sal Khan on How I Built This (link). The Finance Buff on: Using Fidelity as a bank (link). I’m still a fan of using the Fidelity brokerage account as my primary ... Read more The post Financial Update – July 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches A fascinating 45-minute BBC documentary on the doomed Titan submarine, filmed many months prior to the recent disaster (link). The amount of red flags documented within the first 5 minutes of this documentary is astounding. For example, during the filmed expedition one of the thrusters ... Read more The post Financial Update – June 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Rational Reminder Podcast interviews Burton Malkiel (link). Malkiel is the author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, one of my favorite investing books. Since recently discovering this podcast, I’m going through many of their archived episodes. Some of my favorites so far: Ken French ... Read more The post Financial Update – May 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Guy Raz interviews OpenAI’s Sam Altman (link). It’s hard to wrap my head around how much the world is about to change. Speaking of AI, I found these 60 Minutes clips to be pretty interesting: Full segment. Bonus segment. Life The end-of-school is always a ... Read more The post Financial Update – Apr 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches The Finance Buff on the safety/risks of money market funds in a brokerage account (link). His money market fund guide was great too (link). I found BigERN’s post on SVB to be worth reading (link). BigERN also wrote an interesting “Basics of FIRE” post (link). ... Read more The post Financial Update – Mar 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Mrs FP and I (+ the two oldest kids) are officially obsessed with Neflix’s Drive to Survive series (link). Prior to this show, we couldn’t have cared less about car racing. But this show is so well produced that it is impossible to not be ... Read more The post Financial Update – Feb 2023 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I really enjoyed this post from Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog (link). The story he linked to at the end of the post was incredible (link). I really enjoyed the most recent videos from Beau Miles (link). The snow kayaking one was pure joy. Life I ... Read more The post Financial Update – Dec 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches My father recommended the series Formula 1: Drive to Survive (link). I had always thought that car racing was boring, but this series is pretty captivating. Life The month flew by. I’m unsure where it went. Most of the fam jumping after our Christmas card ... Read more The post Financial Update – Nov 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches GoCurryCracker on Tax Loss Harvesting (link). I wrote a TLH article a few years back (link). Here are my takeaways from the GCC article: Due to wonky phase ins/outs of various credits (e.g. ACA subsidies), one’s marginal tax rate can be quite high. Therefore, the ... Read more The post Financial Update – Oct 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches WSJ on the versatility of the HSA (link). Not much new here, but it was the first time I’d heard of this trick: Children of parents with HSAs can qualify for their own HSA. This is a mind-blower: Under current law, children such as recent ... Read more The post Financial Update – Sept 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I finished Better Call Saul, which was great. It is the end of an era. Not much else comes to mind. Life I took a trek to Peru (this one). We had three dedicated staff supporting us: our guide (who mercifully spoke English), our cook, ... Read more The post Financial Update – Aug 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches This Bogleheads Live Podcast episode on tax planning for early retirees was moderately interesting (link). The above podcast is different than Rick Ferri’s Bogleheads on Investing Podcast (link). Confusing, I know. Life Despite being vaccinated and boosted, 5/7 of us got Covid for the second ... Read more The post Financial Update – July 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
The commenting functionality was broken for a bit. Sorry about that. I’m pretty sure it’s fixed now. Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches MyMoneyBlog on Schwab’s $187M penalty for shenanigans with their robo-advisor customers (link). WSJ on Roth Conversions (link). Top Gun Maverick (link). We went during the $5 ... Read more The post Financial Update – June 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Everybody Lies (link). I discovered the book via the author’s interview with Steve Levitt (link). It’s as if Freakonomics and Google Trends made a baby. David @ OchoSinCoche published a book on 529s (link). I was a beta reader and found it to be a ... Read more The post Financial Update – May 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Steve Levitt interviews Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert (link). MyMoneyBlog on the upcoming expiration of Vanguard’s patented tax-efficient ETF+MF combo (link). While interesting, it seems that the industry has simply transitioned from mutual funds to ETFs. Consequently, the expiration of this patent seems largely inconsequential. ... Read more The post Financial Update – Apr 2022 appeared first on Frug...| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I watched an interesting video of the mayor of Emeryville, CA who is transforming his city into a biking utopia (link). It is pretty inspiring. It is understandable that nobody wants to ride a bike when it is so easy to get killed by ... Read more The post Financial Update – Mar 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Vanguard hosed their retail Target Date customers with large capital gains distributions. MyMoneyBlog WSJ Lesson learned: Don’t hold funds-of-funds in a taxable account. Beau Miles made some great videos: Planting a tree a minute for 24 hours. Running a half marathon with a wheelbarrow. I ... Read more The post Financial Update – Jan 2022 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches The Rescue on Disney Plus (link). Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (from Free Solo, Meru, etc). Perhaps the best movie I’ve seen since Skid Row Marathon a year and a half ago. Great movie to watch with the kiddos. 14 Peaks ... Read more The post Financial Update – Dec 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
I’ve been busy so this post is a few days late. A concerned reader emailed to ask if I’d died…not yet. Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches I finished reading the book Die With Zero (link). If I could summarize the book, it’d be: The point of money is to ... Read more The post Financial Update – Nov 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches GoCurryCracker on getting a mortgage without labor income (link). A friend shared with me that the newest version of the Democrats’ multi-trillion dollar climate/social-spending bill no longer nixes the (mega) backdoor Roth (link1, link2). Who knows what the final version of the bill will ... Read more The post Financial Update – Oct 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches The Finance Buff: On securities-based lending (link). On the (likely?) downfall of the (mega) backdoor Roth (link). Actionable steps? Complete (mega) backdoor Roths before Jan 1 2022 as a hedge. Bummer; I was getting closer every to convincing my university to allow this. Goodbye ... Read more The post Financial Update – Sep 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Season 7 of Alone on Netflix (link). I’ve only seen about half the seasons of Alone, but this was by far my favorite. Unlike prior seasons, in which the objective was to be the last person standing, the objective this season was to last ... Read more The post Financial Update – Aug 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches My frugal brother and parents introduced me to Ted Lasso on Apple TV+. Season 1 was pretty entertaining. Season 2 is currently being released. I’ve retold this bad joke before, but it seems pertinent. Some day, there will be a technological solution invented which ... Read more The post Financial Update – July 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Beau Miles kayaks to work over 4 days (link). Life During my recent trip to UT, my brother convinced me to get a Fitbit. I’ve really enjoyed tracking my various stats (resting heart rate, exercise, biking pace & distance, sleep). It was well ... Read more The post Financial Update – June 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Berkshire Hathaway’s 2021 shareholder meeting (link). Nice summary by MyMoneyBlog (link). Life We took a quick trip to Utah. Utah is not ugly. I took a couple day brocation to Zion & Bryce. We camped within Zion. The first morning, we woke up at 4am, ... Read more The post Financial Update – May 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches GoCurryCracker’s 2020 tax post (link). $0 of federal income tax on $143k of income. Entertaining two-hour YouTube documentary of a dude biking (most of) the 2,700 mile Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (link). This ride is now on my bucket list (wiki article)! He’s done ... Read more The post Financial Update – Apr 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches One of the Mediocre Amateur dudes (specifically, this guy) owns a ~$1M helicopter. In this incredible series of videos on their new YouTube channel, they document their recent trip to Canada & Alaska. The footage & storytelling is stunning. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part ... Read more The post Financial Update – Mar 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Automotive engineering expert Sandy Munro interviews Elon Musk for 50 minutes about technical Tesla design issues (link). It starts off kind of slow with a prolonged discussion about seats, but it gets better (unless you really like discussions about seats, in which case the video ... Read more The post Financial Update – Feb 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches Prof G interviews NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran about the GameStop frensy (link). TLDR; prices are asinine and will come back down to reality sooner than later. WSJ article on the mastermind behind the Gamestop/Reddit madness (link). Here’s his Reddit post history, including snapshots of ... Read more The post Financial Update – Jan 2021 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor
Goodbye 2020. You will not be missed. Another month, another update. A few random comments. Good Reads/Listens/Watches The Finance Buff on the “CARES Act 2.0” (link). $300 (single) / $600 (married) non-itemized charitable deduction for 2021. Does not affect 2020. Cash only — no appreciated securities. Mankiw’s NYT article on the double-edged sword of ... Read more The post Financial Update – Dec 2020 appeared first on Frugal Professor.| Frugal Professor