I’d love to share with you guys some of the tid-bits I’ve been reading across the interwebs. Hit the jump to see the full list.
How a Student Loan Consultant is Saving us Thousands a Month
Ah student loans, the millennial’s persistent foe.
This may sound trite, but make no mistake, student loans are no joke. The problem is especially so if one goes to graduate school, where the greater number of years of borrowing and the much higher tuition costs make getting an education one of the most expensive things someone can acquire in the US.
We too fell into this position with my wife attending medical school and neither of our families being in the position to pay for our schooling out of pocket. All together, we have approximately $340,000 of student loan debt.
So what has helped us tackle this formidable foe? Well, we got a student loan consultant.
Continue reading “How a Student Loan Consultant is Saving us Thousands a Month”
Finance Library Starter Pack
A good personal finance connoisseur, that is, someone who’s savvy in personal finance, should make sure to gather as much information as possible on a topic in order to make informed decisions. If you don’t know, research! And one of the best ways to do this is with an ol’ stack of paper we call a book.
So what’s my starter pack? Here’s the list…
Physician Loans: What You Need To Know
Physician Loans are a huge benefit to anyone with an MD hanging behind their name. Furthermore, those benefits extend to anyone married to an MD, as well!
If you haven’t heard about these, let me introduce to an amazing loan product.
Our Side Hustles: What’s Worked and What Hasn’t
I’m going to continue our posts on side hustles by sharing with you a few of the side hustles that my wife and I have engaged in. Hopefully these will give you a few ideas if you’re looking to start one of your own!
Here are the ones that come to mind: Teaching a course, part-time researcher, cryptocurrency mining, and starting a blog (this one!). Continue reading “Our Side Hustles: What’s Worked and What Hasn’t”
Why We Like an Automatic Life
Our life is hectic. We are busy.
My wife and I both work 40-50 hours a week, we have our own side hustles, we parent 3 kids (6, 4, and <1), and we still aim to have home-cooked meals nearly every night of the week. This isn’t to brag, but more to give you a taste of the, let’s say, condition, of our household.
In the midst of this craziness, we still need to do things to keep life moving, like pay bills, invest, and save. So how do we do it?
We automate as much as possible. We are like financial robots.
What’s a Side Hustle And Why Would I Want One?
Ah yes, the old American adage of work, work, work. Fortunately though, work is often rewarded. But nevertheless, there is a lot of discussion these days about having a side hustle: something that’s income generating that’s outside of your primary occupation. In other words, a second job.
Why might you want a side hustle? Let’s discuss:
Continue reading “What’s a Side Hustle And Why Would I Want One?”
NYTimes: When She Earns More
As I write this post, my wife is at work, on a Saturday, as I corral our three kids at home. Truthfully, we have an active day — kids went to sports practice this morning, put the little one down for a nap, gave my middle child a haircut, and just finished cooking and serving lunch.
By many standards, we have a reverse lifestyle of the traditional family: the Wife does the childrearing while the Husband goes to work to bring home the bacon. However, ours is not a complete flip, since I am not a stay-at-home-dad, instead I work a full-time job. Despite working full time, I would say that my wife’s work is prioritized, because (1) she earns substantially more and (2) her working is necessary for us to satisfy our student loan debt. As such, her job has the weight that a single-income household might have.
With this in mind, you can imagine how I was interested to read the recent NYTimes article entitled: “When She Earns More: As Roles Shift, Old Ideas on Who Pays the Bills Persist”
Fidelity Introduces Zero Expense Ratios
In a first for mutual funds, Fidelity Investments announced that they have introduced two index mutual funds that have a zero expense ratio — FZROX (Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index Fund) and FZILX (Fidelity ZERO International Index Fund).
Of course, since these are both brand new funds, they do not have any history to go on as to how well they are faring on the market, however, the ability of Fidelity to offer such funds is a huge shot-across-the-bow in terms of pushing others to offer similar funds, especially Vanguard.
But for those of us who follow a Bogleheads’ philosophy of going for index funds and keeping costs low, going from a low-cost fund with an expense ratio of 0.2-0.5%, for instance, will this be a huge benefit over the long term?
Introducing…
Thanks for swinging on by. This is my new blog, “My Wife Brings Home the Bacon.” My aim is to take personal finance and cater it to a modern (cough::cough::millennial) audience. Along the way, I plan to share bits of personal finance that are relevant to families of high-income earners.