If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed I was recently looking into different HELOC options. The first lesson I learned was to never give a real phone number to LendingTree when attempting to check rates. Luckily, I thought ahead and used a google voice number instead of my regular cell […]
Stockpile Review: Gifting Stocks and A Free $5 to Start (No Purchase Necessary)
Not too long ago, Becky and I were invited to our nephew’s first birthday party back in Chicago. While we weren’t able to make the trip back home, we did want to send a gift but didn’t want to go with the standard clothes and toys option. His parents were insistent that they already had plenty of […]
How to Remove Escrow From Your Mortgage and Save Hundreds Each Year
Are you currently making payments towards a mortgage? If so, do you know what the different parts of that payment are comprised of? Most commonly, there are 4 different parts that make up a standard mortgage payment and those 4 parts are often abbreviated into PITI which stands for Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance. Principal and […]
Auditing Our Points, Miles, and Long Term Churning Goals
Taking a step back every once in a while and evaluating your goals is important to make sure you’re still taking the right actions to meet them. In this case, I thought I’d take a step back from our points, miles, and credit cards to see if we’re still focusing on the right items. The […]
Nav Review: How to Check Your Business Credit Score (and More) for Free
Recently, I applied for a new business credit card and was denied based on data in my Experian business credit report. After calling to ask for reconsideration, I was first told that there was a negative mark on my business report and there was no way to get approved! This was rather concerning because I […]
Why Are We Invested In Bonds? Good Question!
In response to my post explaining our simple investment strategy of 90% stocks, 10% bonds, several readers inquired why we were in bonds at all. It’s a great question and one that I’ve been researching a bit over the past couple weeks. As with most of our financial decisions, I try not to reinvent the […]
My Latest Obsession: Obstacle Course Racing
It all started with a goal of getting into better shape that I set for myself around the holidays last year. I wouldn’t say I was ever “out of shape”, but I did manage to pack on 15 or so extra pounds and haven’t challenged myself physically in a while. 2017 would become the year I stepped […]
Our Simple Investment Strategy
We’ve been aggressively saving money for the past few years, specifically after discovering financial independence (FI). Not only are we putting aside a large percentage of our income each month, but it’s important to make sure that money continues to grow, particularly in a safe, long-term fashion. The places that we invest our money in today […]
Long Game Savings App Review and Optimal Strategy
Long Game is a new startup company based out of San Francisco that is encouraging users to save more money by making a game out of the saving experience. Instead of a boring flat interest rate like most savings accounts offer (although you get that too!), you are rewarded with coins for saving money and keeping […]
My New Favorite Everyday Spend Credit Card – 2.5% Back Everywhere
Regardless of our attempt to put all of our spending towards signup bonuses, there will always be extra spend in-between new credit cards that we can’t fit into a 5% bonus category. I recently went into great detail on how we distributed our spend across credit cards last year to earn an average 14% back, but part […]