It’s always fun to unearth some esoteric piece of personal finance history. I know there are only a few nerds out there who care (hello, Grant Sabatier!), but those of us who care really care. Two years ago, I published an article exploring the history of financial independence in which I noted that the earliest …
My mother turned seventy a couple of weeks ago. This means a couple of things: First, she’s reached the age at which she can receive maximum retirement benefits from Social Security. Second, it’s time for her to start taking Required Minimum Distributions from her retirement accounts. If you’ve been reading Get Rich Slowly for a …
When I woke up last Thursday, I thought my mother was flat broke. I went to bed with the shocking realization that she’s a millionaire. Long-time readers will recall that my mother has struggled with her health for a number of years. She’d been living on her own, receiving ongoing treatment for schizophrenia, since my …
Note: This article is from J.D. Roth, who founded Get Rich Slowly in 2006. After a year off, J.D. is once again writing here at GRS. His non-financial writing can still be found at More Than Money. ¡Saludos de Ecuador! For the past two weeks, I’ve been enjoying my third trip to that seldom-remembered continent, …
I just returned from my annual weekend trip to Oregon’s Opal Creek Wilderness area. Every year, I join five other friends to hike into the forest, pitch our tents on the banks of the creek, and sit around the fire talking about life. We drank a lot of whiskey this year, and spent a lot …
This is the last of a five-part series about the “stages” of personal finance. These stories have intentionally been less polished than most articles at Get Rich Slowly. This is a chance for me to think out loud, to explore an idea with you in an informal way. In February, I wrote that I was …