With housing prices rising and student loans at an all-time high young adults are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase their first homes. Paradoxically, many of them could afford the monthly payments on a home – in fact they are paying as much for rent as a monthly mortgage payment would cost – but they…
There is a big myth out there that knowledge is power, and…we throw that around a lot, and it’s actually a lie. Knowledge is only potential power. And it only becomes power when we…use it and apply it.…We can talk about principles all day long, and if we don’t apply them, it’s just potential. –…
For me the Christmas season isn’t complete without reading or seeing a theatrical presentation of Charles Dickens’ “Ghostly little book” A Christmas Carol. Nothing conjures the Christmas spirit quite like watching the miserable old miser Ebenezer Scrooge transform into a jolly philanthropist due to a trio of ghostly visitors, the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present,…
My father, Kent Esplin, was destined to be frugal. The first reason was that he raised during the Great Depression. My grandfather and grandmother, Frant and Annie Esplin (we called them Mom and Pop), lost their sheep ranch near Zion National Park at the start of the Depression. Dad was six or seven at the…
What is Bitcoin and how does it work? The first thing you need to know is that I am the furthest thing from an expert imaginable. I am not invested in Bitcoin and have never seriously considered investing. However, I am interested in all things related to money and since I have been asked about…
Money skills are truly 21st century survival skills. – Richard B. Wagner Wagner goes on to say, “…money skills access the stuff of survival. For first world ‘us’ money is our key for food, shelter, and clothing.” This is undoubtedly true, and since every parent’s goal is for their children to one day leave the…
Laughter is the best medicine, and we should make sure we get some every day, but humor can also be a great teacher. With that in mind, here are 9 clever comics about money by various cartoonist. Correlation and Causation It is impossible to study investing without encountering statistical concepts, among them the devilish difficulty…
I don’t have much to complain about from my childhood. I was born of goodly parents who loved each other and loved and supported me in all I did. However, they did make one mistake. It’s a mistake I suspect many loving, involved, well-meaning parents make. You see, they were always telling me that I…
I have always admired people who can teach an important money principle with a simple graph, chart, or drawing. I have been collecting them over the years and thought it was time to share some of my favorites: The Micawber Principle in Pictures The simplest interpretation of this drawing is that you are rich, or…
