Suppose the Johnson family makes $100,000 per year (after taxes). Yet, to maintain their lifestyle, the family spends $114,000 per year on food, clothing, utility bills, gas, school supplies, the dentist, entertainment, lawn mowing services, pool maintenance, etc. Oops. They don’t have $114,000. They only have $100,000. No problem. To bridge the gap between income and expenses, the Johnsons just...
The Danger of Normalizing Extremes
One day during college, my engineering friends, Brad, Carter and I, joked about how difficult it is to be average. The conversation sounded like this. “That guy is incredibly average.” “Yeah, what are the odds of being the exact average person? “Astronomically low really. What an amazing feat.” “Truly an extraordinary accomplishment! His parents should be so proud.” “I wish I could be that...
Practical Advice On Budgeting & Spending
When Sofie and I first married (1994), I was a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University working on my Master’s degree in acoustical engineering. The first year of our marriage was my sixth year in university studies and the last push through student life, or so we thought at the time. Consequently, we were fully immersed in the character-building phase of the student lifestyle poor...
Auction Theory
Like the rest of you, I’ve been thinking about auctions and auction theory because nothing pairs better with a beautiful weekend morning than considering the efficiency of asset pricing mechanisms and writing about it. I’m sure you’ll agree. (I asked ChatGPT to draw a picture to represent the opening sentence. This might be entirely too accurate… minus the suit and tie… and I’m not blue. But...