A year ago, I started seeing ads for Kalshi, a prediction market platform, all over social media. At first I ignored them. Then they started appearing during commercial breaks while I was watching the World Cup. Apparently, I wasn't clicking "Not Interested" aggressively enough. The ads claimed prediction markets were a smarter way to make money by predicting current events. Some influencers even described them as investing. That immediately raised a question: Are prediction

I'm currently watching the FIFA World Cup—my favorite sporting event. A friend and I have even placed a few bets on the matches. We couldn't approach gambling more differently. He'll happily throw hundreds of dollars on long shots. I stick to "sure things," and even then, I rarely bet more than $20. Gambling makes me nervous. But here’s the strange part. That same person who hesitates to bet $20 won't think twice about investing $20,000 in a stock. You might be thinking, “But

I get an email every time my FICO credit score changes. This week, I finally checked it for the first time in months. 847. After years of hovering around 835, I was suddenly three points away from perfection. Naturally, I ran to tell my wife because we're just competitive enough to compare credit scores. Unfortunately for me, she's one of the fewer than 2% of Americans with a perfect 850, so I never win. Apparently an 847 credit score still loses in my house. When I look at o

Here’s a story that has stuck with me for over 30 years. When I was still in college, my best friend, who was majoring in Finance, once asked me what Annual Percentage Yield (APY) I was getting on my savings account with the local bank. “About four percent,” I confidently told him. There was just one problem. I had absolutely no idea what APY I was earning. At some point, someone had told me it was around 4%, and I assumed it stayed there forever. Because that's how banks wor

I recently received a Gallup survey regarding the cost of healthcare where I live. One question asked whether I'd ever been unable to afford a prescription medication. That question got me thinking. Picking up a prescription often feels like pulling the lever on a slot machine. You don't know what you'll pay until the pharmacist scans the order and the number appears on the register. Luckily, I’ve never been unable to afford my prescriptions, even when the price was more than

CostPal alerts shoppers when Costco purchases drop in price, making it easy to claim refunds through Costco's price adjustment program. Costco can save you a lot of money—as long as you don't leave with a kayak, a giant teddy bear, and a 72-pound wheel of Parmesan cheese you never intended to buy. What many Costco shoppers don't realize, though, is that Costco has a 30-day price adjustment policy. If something you buy goes on sale within 30 days, Costco will refund the differ

Last week, I shared how you can tap into Morningstar’s investment research database to unearth investment ideas for free. In this post, I’ll show you how I use Morningstar to quickly check a company’s financial numbers before spending hours researching a company. And definitely before buying a stock. Because finding a company with an economic moat and a great CEO is only part of the equation. Eventually, the numbers have to prove the company isn’t all hype. Learning how to re

Let’s return to the topic of stock investing, shall we? We previously covered how to uncover great companies by identifying those with economic moats and fantastic leaders. Many of these companies are behind the products and services you love. But finding these companies can feel overwhelming, especially if you're a beginner investor. When I first started researching stocks, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. Sometimes I would randomly come across ticker symbols online

After putting together our FIRE plan in 2009, my wife and I adopted several frugal habits—not because we enjoyed deprivation, but because we wanted to spend more intentionally. Those habits helped us reach financial independence in 2019 and eventually retire early in 2025. What surprised me is that even after FIRE, we never stopped doing them. Some habits stick around long after reaching FIRE. Sure, we occasionally splurge on business-class airplane seats or a ridiculously ex

Last week, I shared what our first year of early retirement looked like financially. Going from a paycheck and employer-subsidized health insurance to being fully self-sufficient was a big shift. At the six-month mark, I wrote about some of the early adjustments and surprises we were already experiencing. But money is only one part of the equation. Leaving my job also meant losing structure, schedules, social connections, purpose, and identity. This post is about what the ear

When I hit the six-month mark of early retirement back in October, I was still adjusting. The sudden abundance of free time was overwhelming, and not having a job title or clear responsibilities felt… strange. I wasn’t just figuring out the financial side—I was trying to picture what life would actually look like for the next 30+ years. Now, after our first year of early retirement, that picture is a lot clearer. There’s a lot to unpack after a full year of retirement, so I’m

I watched the Tyson Fury fight on Netflix recently and pointed out the giant Netflix logos all over the stadium to my wife. She didn’t think twice about it. Of course Netflix was streaming it. That’s what Netflix does. But if you remember the days of red DVD envelopes showing up in your mailbox, that moment is kind of wild. And that’s not an accident. It’s leadership. We’ve already talked about economic moats—the defenses that protect a business. But defense alone doesn’t win

Last week, I talked about why healthy lifespan matters more than just living longer. But that got me thinking… What if the real problem isn’t how long we live— but when we’re actually able to enjoy it? Because three things determine how good life feels at any moment: Your health Your money Your time And here’s the problem: They peak at completely different times. This is the health, wealth, and time tradeoff most people never think about THE HEALTH CURVE (WHY YOUR BODY PEA

My dad celebrated his 80th birthday a few days ago. Eighty years old is a pretty big milestone, and it got me thinking about something slightly uncomfortable: How many years does he have left? And maybe more importantly… How many do I have left? I know—it’s a morbid thought. But when you have aging parents and a lot of time to think, mortality tends to sneak into your brain whether you invite it or not. That curiosity led me down a rabbit hole researching life expectancy. I w

We’ve now covered four of the five economic moats : Cost advantage moat Brand moat Network effects moat Switching costs moat Today, we’re finishing the series with the final moat: the intellectual property moat . Quick note: Most great businesses don’t rely on just one moat. Many of the companies below have several. But today we’re focusing on just one weapon in their arsenal — legally protected ideas. WHAT IS AN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MOAT? An intellectual property moat is a

In the previous posts, we explored three economic moats : the cost advantage moat , the brand moat , and the network effect moat . Today, we’re looking at another powerful competitive advantage: the switching costs moat . With a network effect moat, a product becomes more valuable as more people use it. Customers stay because the service keeps getting better. But what if customers stay even when they’d rather leave? That’s exactly what happens when a company has strong switch

In this economic moat series, we’ve covered two types of competitive advantages: the cost advantage moat and the brand moat . Now let’s talk about one of the most powerful economic moats in investing — the network effect moat . Imagine a business that gets stronger every time a new customer joins. More users make the product more valuable. A more valuable product attracts more users. And the cycle keeps reinforcing itself. WHY NETWORK EFFECTS CREATE POWERFUL COMPETITIVE ADV

I got really excited when I finished filing our 2025 tax return last week. You might assume it’s because we’re getting a huge refund. Nope. The real reason I was excited? My tax optimization spreadsheet actually worked. Last year, I shared a spreadsheet I built to estimate how much long-term capital gains we could realize while staying in the 0% capital gains tax bracket . I had tested the math every way I could think of. But until you actually file a tax return, you never

In my last post, we looked at the cost advantage moat — how being the lowest-cost provider can protect profits. But there’s a tradeoff. Competing on price often means thinner margins. This week, let’s look at the opposite approach: companies that can charge more and still keep customers. That’s the power of a brand moat . WHAT IS A BRAND MOAT? HINT: IT’S NOT JUST A FAMOUS COMPANY NAME OR LOGO. You might assume that a company with a brand moat is just one that has an easily

In my previous post, I talked about economic moats —a durable competitive advantage that protects a company from competitors. A moat keeps market share from being stolen. It protects long-term profits. And in some cases, it gives a company pricing power —the ability to raise prices without losing customers. Today, we’re looking at one of the most powerful—and slightly counterintuitive—types of moats: The cost advantage moat. How can being the cheapest player in the market al