Category Archives: Financial

In my role as annoying father, I regularly talk to my sons about financial matters and this post summaries a recent discussion on budgeting. One reasonable goal for a young person's budget is called the "60% solution". Continue reading →

I have recently been computing a lot of percentage differences – mainly in variance calculations. I have been using the formula that I was taught in 7th grade and recently discovered that this formula fails miserably when dealing with negative quantities – I had never considered what happens when the O variable is negative. Continue reading →

As I thought about it, people really need a spreadsheet that will allow them to try different retirement options – I have not been happy with any of the web-based retirement planners that I have worked with. Continue reading →

It has been reported that 90% of spreadsheets have serious errors (source). These errors occasionally are large enough that they have international implications (e.g. London Whale). In my small part of the world, one small company I worked at had an error in a cost estimation spreadsheet that cost it hundreds thousands of dollars on one contract. This caused that company great hardship. Continue reading →

I have had a number of posts recently on saving for retirement. These posts ALWAYS follow discussions I have had with my family on the importance of starting to invest early – both for retirement and general financial health. I do not want my family members to get to retirement without an investment portfolio (Figure 1), a situation that I have seen and is not pretty. Continue reading →

Because I am an annoying father who wants to encourage his sons to invest, one of the things I like to collect on this blog are stories of successful, long-term, investors. I loved this story about a janitor, Ronald Read (Figure 1), who recently died at 92 and left an estate worth nearly $8 million dollars. Continue reading →

Quote of the Day The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. - Dwight Whitney Morrow Introduction I recently have been hearing politicians lamenting the growth of income inequality in the United States. … Continue reading →

Quote of the Day You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures. — Charles C. Noble I was reading this article on the importance of young people understanding compound interest. The meat … Continue reading →

Quote of the Day The secret of joy in work is contained in one word -- excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. - Pearl Buck Today, my youngest son and I were talking about … Continue reading →