Money Matters for ME

Boston, Spring of 2012 Waynflete School’s team has made it to the finals of the Boston Federal Reserve Cup Challenge for Economics and Personal Finance, and we wouldn’t have gotten that far without Alysa, who was the team’s default personal finance expert, successfully fielding questions on credit score, insurance, banking, and more. And…we won! Fast […]

There are many definitions of interest, but this one has been my go-to for a long time. Short. Simple. Strong. in · ter · est The cost of money. Let that sink in. It means that there is a cost associated with money’s existence; not just for borrowing or lending. There is also a cost […]

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard Feynman, Nobel laureate and physicist, from his speech to the Caltech Class of 1974. ***** Wow, all I had was, “Graduates, as you head out into the world, remember to be good to one another… […]

About a year ago we released the first post for this blog, and I’m still here, 15 posts older and more eager than ever to keep the conversation going. In those 15 posts, I touched on economics, the monthly payment mindset, budgeting, financial aid for education, personal finance terminology, insurance, reflection on my own… Uh… […]

Economic conditions are increasingly volatile and stressful, and that is the perfect time to take a deep dive into our budget, look for leaks, cut where we can, and build our financial defenses. ——– Okay, that’s $25/month saved by cutting one streaming service and changing another to the plan with ads. Then $2 more/month by […]

“Kids these days.” – said by everyone who is not a kid, in every decade since the beginning of kids. A funny thing has happened to me during the decades that I’ve been working on personal finance – both as a teacher and a learner – I’ve gotten older! And despite my youthful glow, I […]

If you Google, “Personal Finance Tips for 2025”, you’ll get 800,000,000 results. Not only did I not read all 800,000,000, but I also didn’t even get through the first eight before I found contradictions. This didn’t really surprise me as I see plenty of tips and tricks from a variety of sources, and, yeah, they […]

“Out of college, money spent. See no future, pay no rent. All the money’s gone, nowhere to go.” -The Beatles Most of the ideas for these posts come from my personal experience with money or from my experiences teaching personal finance. However, inspiration for which topic to cover in a particular month sometimes comes from […]

Recently I’ve been running into “top financial mistakes” lists in the form of articles, social media posts, news stories, etc. I imagine this has something to do with my internet browsing and cookies, even though I haven’t been purposefully reading up on that exact topic. Maybe the www is trying to tell me something. Whether […]

What season is it? Ask most folks and of course, they will say fall, but ask high school seniors, their parents, and counselors, and they might just come back with FAFSA season. Once again, it’s time for a critical part of the higher education access process—paying for it. FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid  […]