I remember it like it was yesterday. I was newly married and we were saving money wherever we could. That's why I was riding the bus to work despite that fact that we made over $100k per year as a couple. I was at a bus stop on a highly-trafficked street in downtown Pittsburgh, 10 minutes or so early for my bus. For some reason no one was around, which was … [Read more...]

This is going to be a rant. If you don't like rants, turn your eyes and run away. I'll have a new post up in a couple days. If you like them, you've come to the right place. Let's get started... Terrible Customer Service On the opposite end of the customer service spectrum from Costco (who has great customer service IMO) is Comcast. Or, as they call themselves now, … [Read more...]

Update: This was originally posted as a list of gift ideas for the holidays, but it's really a list of awesome products to buy at any time of year. I'll be adding to it from time to time so anyone who's hard-pressed for some birthday, anniversary, special occasion, etc. ideas will have a good resource.  We all have someone on our holiday shopping list who is hard to buy … [Read more...]

As we approach Thanksgiving here in the U.S., I thought it would be a nice change of pace to talk about thankfulness. Specifically, I thought I'd list what I'm thankful for and you could do the same. Now I have been so blessed that I could probably write 10,000 words on all the things I'm thankful for. Assuming you don't want to read that much, I'll just share my top … [Read more...]

I normally don't do a post on Tuesdays, but there are several miscellaneous announcements I want to share. If you're not interested in knowing what's going on here at ESI Money, another money-related post will be available tomorrow. But if you are, here are some things you'll want to be aware of... New Interview Series My Millionaire Interviews series is very popular … [Read more...]

This is a related post to Stop Making Money Excuses. Don't worry, it won't be as rant-y as that one. :) But it will address an objection that I come across all too often. Not Rocket Science Let's begin with the obvious: understanding personal finance is not rocket science. The concepts needed to become wealthy are few in number and easy to understand. In fact, I've … [Read more...]

I listen to a ton of podcasts over the course of a week. Most of my listening is done when I walk (I try to get in 14,000 steps a day, 7,000 minimum). Podcasts are great at making walking more interesting when my wife is not walking with me. I listen to a lot of personal finance podcasts (of course), but also have a good number of "self-improvement" ones as well. One … [Read more...]