About James HendricksonThis afternoon I was just reflecting on an interesting conversation with one of the interns from my old research center at the U of Maryland. This young man was just finishing his Bachelors degree, but had begun to make good progress towards paying off his debts and was beginning to think about saving to buy a home.
Author Archives: James Hendrickson
About James Hendrickson
Care About Your Money
Folks – get educated and learn about money. Develop good financial habits and watch your bottom line. If you don’t care about your financial health, nobody else will.
Yes Virginia, You Can Invest With Just $5 Bucks
Fidelity has pretty much been beating the pants off the competition in the low cost investing space.
I just heard about their latest – no cost, no minimum index funds – from a friend and checked their website. Its true, they’re basically offering zero fee, no minimum investing opportunities.
Are We In A Recession Yet? Bank Failures Say No
Mainstream media has been continually talking about an impending recession. Given the fact that recessions tend to have a huge impact on your wealth, you may be wondering about whether a recession is coming – and one bellweather of poor economic times are bank failures.
Ah…The US Debt Clock
I tend to spend far too much time messing around online. This afternoon I came across a very cool website called usdebtclock.org and I wanted to share it for all the finance nerds on this site. USdebtclock.org is basically a super simple data aggregator that gives you a broad view of the economy as a whole.
August 2019 Net Worth Update
Since Dual Income No Kids is a personal finance blog, I wanted to take a few minutes to share our own personal wealth building journey. My wife and I sit down every few weeks and review our budget and net worth. Here is what the figures looked like at the beginning of August 2019.
For those of you who don’t want to read the whole post, here is the story: net worth of $828,000 driven by stocks and real estate.
Couples Financial Discussion Questionnaire
In case you and your significant other are looking to integrate your finances, here is a great questionnaire I found on Reddit’s personal finance subreddit.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17106o13FmL59X9S8kgTKk9Zy8ZpFylLvcHf0G1m2l9c/edit
Check it out if you’re interested.
Hat tip: Gonzodamus
More Solid Advice From Eric Tyson
Last month, we wrote about Eric Tyson’s simple tips for improving your personal finance. Today, I wanted to follow up with a few more useful suggestions by Tyson. The idea here is to give you some basic personal finance principles that you can apply to your own wealth.
PT Barnum on Debt, Family and Credit
PT Barnum wrote the following back in the 1850’s:
“Mr. Beecher advised young men to get in debt if they could to a small amount in the purchase of land, in the country districts. ‘If a young man,’ he says, ‘will only get in debt for some land and then get married, these two things will keep him straight, or nothing will.’ This may be safe to a limited extent, but getting in debt for what you eat and drink and wear is to be avoided. Some families have a foolish habit of getting credit at ‘the stores,’ and thus frequently purchase many things which might have been dispensed with“.
Looks to me like not much has changed since the 1850s.
Click here for the rest of Barnum’s writings on finance.
Hunting Does Not Build Wealth
Back in 2015, I moved from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Oregon to be closer to family. After moving, I gleefully discovered that you could legally own firearms and hunt in the state. This wasn’t something that could be easily done in the District.
(more…)