Become a Patron! I've written many times before about higher education, mainly from the perspective of financing it. Thanks to Aunt Becky, for the last few weeks the national spotlight has focused on much more fundamental questions: what is post-secondary education for? Who should pursue it, and why? What should they study, and where? Fortunately, the definitive answers … [Read more...] about The Indy Finance guide to why, where, and how to seek higher education
Why can’t financial journalists give financial advice?
Become a Patron! I started this blog because the more I learned about the personal finance industry, the more I saw the same problems that are pervasive in my other line of work in the travel hacking community: people are either paid to lie, or too ignorant to know if what they're saying is true or not. So, I figured I'd start a blog where I could tell people the … [Read more...] about Why can’t financial journalists give financial advice?
Beware Republicans bearing robust debate and compromise
Aparna Mathur is a Resident Scholar, Economic Policy, at the American Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank with an excellent kitchen that I periodically visit when I want to save money on lunch or cocktails. If you're ever in DC I strongly recommend visiting their events page to see if you can enjoy one of their catered meals or open bars. Scholar Mathur has … [Read more...] about Beware Republicans bearing robust debate and compromise
That’s not how any of this works, Amazon edition
The recent debacle in New York over Amazon's plan to open an office there under the hilarious marketing slogan of "HQ2" (or maybe HQ1.5, or maybe HQ2.14159?) gave finance journalists, who I've long insisted are the laziest people on earth, the opportunity to cluck their tongues about the poor state of "financial literacy," and gives me the opportunity to debunk a few of the … [Read more...] about That’s not how any of this works, Amazon edition
There’s no such thing as an “American retirement model”
There's no cliche more beloved by the financial press than the "changing American retirement model." The beauty of the changing American retirement model is that you can use it to prove any point you want: if you want to cut Social Security old age benefits by raising the full retirement age, the changing American retirement model is that people are living and working … [Read more...] about There’s no such thing as an “American retirement model”