Category: Saving and Spending

What Is a Backdoor Roth IRA (Contribution)? Should I Do it? How Do I Do It?

Flow FP's Block Woman is hit by some tax code changes.

If I had to wager, backdoor Roth IRA contributions are in the top 3 of #personalfinance Slack channel topics.

Meg’s Musings: Your Spending Doesn’t Affect Just You.

Ramit Sethi’s work on the psychology of money, especially around spending, is wonderful and desperately needed. To put it simply: He encourages people to spend more money on the things they love.

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Is your take-home pay too tiny to live on? That’s okay! We can make it work.

But, Meg, what will I live on?

A delightful and Highly Suspicious client asked me this recently when I was talking with her about not only maxing out her participation in her company’s (Airbnb’s) ESPP but also maxing out her after-tax contributions to her 401(k).

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Meg’s Musings: Thriving in the Time of Covid

We are all emerging from the first “stage” of quarantine. We are also all starting to realize that, contrary to what I assumed back in March, this is all going to take a lot longer than just a few months to fix.

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Meg’s Musings: (Reducing) Spending Edition

I offer up these thoughts on spending in the spirit of: If it helps, I am happy. If this is not the right time for you to think about such things, please ignore them! The internet is wonderful (and terrible) in that nothing ever disappears. Come back later if you want.

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It’s 20 (40) years until I retire! How do I save and invest for the between-now-and-then? (Video)

We’re pretty good at saving for the long term (retirement). We have our 401(k)s and IRAs. We’re pretty good at saving for now. We have cash in our bank accounts. But what do we do for the *decades* between now and retirement? How do we save and invest for that?

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Okay, I’ve tracked my spending. But how do I make sense of the data?

Flow FP's block woman has assembled a lot of data, but finds the result confusing.

Tiller. Mint. YNAB. Spreadsheets. Pencil and paper.

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Do Your RSUs Make Your Annual Income Super High? Treat Yourself, Sure, and Also…

…don’t permanently increase your expenses.

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I Make So Much Money. This Should Be Easy. Why Am I So Stressed Out? (Video)

It’s easy to think that if you make a lot of money, your financial life should be easy. But if you’re anxious, you have every reason to be! Finances in tech are straight up complicated. And the risks of loss or lost opportunity are real.

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Do you fear a recession might be around the corner? What can you do to prepare?

Flow FP's Block Woman hides in her foxhole, worried about impending catastrophe.

Have you started to hear rumblings from your friends, colleagues, family, or the media that a recession is probably coming soon? Are you nursing a fair bit of anxiety about it? Continue reading

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Why is it so hard to get a handle on my cash flow? Surely this should be easier!

Flow FP's block woman seems to be struggling a little in the flow of cash.

Do you ever feel that your cash flow should be easier to get a hold of? You should be able to automate it? Not have to think about it so much? Not have to move money around with your delicate hands so often?
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Emergency funds. Yes, they’re boring. But do you actually have one that’s big enough?

Flow FP's block woman contemplates her emergency fund.

You cannot cruise the internet without tripping over articles about the partial government shutdown and the increasingly horrible effects it’s having on many government workers and their finances and their psyches.
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