If you want to get to know someone, take a look at what they spend their money on. A quick peek at their expenses and their priorities become clear. Even better, turn this exercise back on yourself. There is nothing quite like taking a long hard look in the mirror. But most of us never will. We will just keep on spending our way through life wondering why we can’t get ahead. I could argue...
When it looks like a purchase is going to run me more than a few hundred dollars, the analysis process starts. It is automatic, and I can’t stop it. Some might consider this a telltale sign of a cheapskate. But I know there is a difference between being cheap and being smart with your money. As a purchase moves into the several thousand-dollar range, a deeper analysis is required. It might even require an excel...
If you are anything like me, you might be a bit rusty on your Roman numerals. So for clarity, this is the 11th edition of Max’s Back Pocket. That comes out to eleven weeks and almost fully encapsulates the height of the pandemic. When data-mining archeologists dig up this blog in 1,000 years they will be glad I meticulously documented everything. In theory, we will have ten more pandemics by then. Things started ramping up...
What can I say? I guess the quarantine got me curious. The current state of the markets and ongoing pandemic motivated me to check in on our spending patterns for the first three months of 2020. In finance, we call this ‘quarter one’ (Q1 2020). I was thinking this would be more of a ‘yearly’ update on the blog. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to check in more often if I feel like it. To...
Max isn’t in the habit of diving too deep into legislation. I normally would leave that interpretation to the experts and let them spell it out for me. I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures so I am going to take a stab at it. This is probably a good time to remind everyone that I am not an attorney. That said, I have watched A Few Good Men on more than one occasion....