Category Coaching in Boston
Put Your Money Where Your Values Are
Jan 2019 – My office floor is quiet as I put down my steaming tea and open the filing cabinet. I withdraw a folder labeled Mr. C and blow scraps of dust from the cover. Plopping it on my desk, I opened it like a fragile artifact and read the first note: Ten Student Loans… […]
Fifteen Teenagers
My favorite thing to do, when speaking to a room of teenagers, is open it up for fifteen minutes of free questions. Most of the time, everyone starts quiet, until one brave hand goes up and asks a question like “what is credit?” which always makes me smile. A financial coach doesn’t deal with complex […]
The Cliff Effect
We’re sitting on the ground level, next to tall glass windows, but to her, we might as well be on the 26th floor of a skyscraper. She’s wearing bright colors, emblematic of her good mood from when she arrived. Now, however, her expression drops, her eyes dart back and forth, and I can tell she’s […]
Three Spending Lessons From The Holidays
You already track how much money you use – so up your game by studying your holiday habits. It’s Black Friday season and everyone is super aware of their purchases. We’re buying presents and feeling the pain in our wallets; we’re going to see family as tickets and gas prices rack up. And although these […]
Why Personal Finance Is Interesting
Working in finance is incidental to my career. It just so happens I speak three languages: English, Spanish, and money. I get excited when I tell stories in these vernaculars. I use them to interest people in the things they otherwise wouldn’t see. I bring meaning out of numbers.
Compound Interest For Millennials
The instructor pointed to an exponential curve on the graph. Thirty of us sat in the room, listening and studying the magic purple line. I was the youngest there by five years at least. Honestly, I was probably twenty years below the average. There was a lot of experience around me, but my eyes were […]
Always A Pleasure In Concord
It was 28 degrees when he rolled the window down. “This is the first time I’ve been in a car with the window down in nine years.” We sat in my pickup, humming along route 90. Patchy snow whizzed past our periphery. The trees were without leaves and the sky was a brittle blue. We […]
Three Steps To A Better Budget
If there’s one basic metric for your personal finance, it’s your budget. It’s the first thing I do with a new client after hi and hello. Until we know exactly how much discretionary income there is to play with (the amount you have left), it’s difficult to make decisions. Your budget gives you a realistic idea of whether or not you can handle the goal your considering.
Financial Checkup
August 22nd – 3:30 pm The doctor tilted back his head and looked through his glasses. “Are you exercising regularly?” His fingers were cold under my jaw. We stood in a tan room with florescent lighting. I answered his questions as he inspected me like a prized horse. The stethoscope slid across my chest under […]
Shipping Up To Boston
I pulled onto the highway outside New York City, blasting Shipping up to Boston, by the Dropkick Murphy’s. ‘Blasting’ is an overstatement, since there was a gaping hole where my car radio used to be. My iPhone rested on the seat instead. The truck was no great shakes, but it carried all my belongings on […]
Jeff Paddock
Suddenly-Human 