Zeke just turned 5! I have to say, despite how crazy these past few years have been, they are so, so sweet. I told Emily this week that I would do his ages 3 to 5 on repeat for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy.

If you’ve ever stepped inside a Costco food court, the churro has probably called your name. This is the story for Zeke every time we walk by the food court on our way out from buying our 10-year stockpile of toilet paper. “Dad, I neeeeeed it” Zeke whined pointing at the churro…

About a decade ago when my wife and I got married, we were referred to a travel agent. We went to his office, gave him our budget and a few preferences, and about an hour later we had booked every detail of our honeymoon.

It was a great experience that saved us a lot of time and uncertainty. He also beat the price I had seen on the “Cheap Caribbean” website and had gotten us a free upgrade! 

It is common practice that a typical emergency fund should be 3 to 6 months of essential expenses. Typically 3 months is sufficient if you have a secure job with consistent pay or there are two spouses working full time in the house. Typically 6 months is best if you have inconsistent pay (commissions, bonus, etc) or only one household member works.

However, how much your expenses are in an emergency is much different than how much your typical expenses are…

My 4-year-old is fairly spoiled. Between his Nana, Grandpa, Gigi, Chief, aunties, and uncles, he pretty much has gotten every toy his heart desired. The other day he was watching a show and there was a commercial for a Disney train set.

Without thinking about it, he turned to me and asked if he could have it. I said no. He turned to his mom and tried her. She responded with a little more grace and humor - “Sure. It costs about 25 dollars. Do you have the money for it?” He looked bewildered. And rightfully so - up to that point, I don’t think we had mentioned “money” to him…

The other day my wife and I were driving when she broke a few minutes of silence to ask - “If you had limited water and were lost in the jungle, how would you ration it?” She loves asking me these types of questions because she knows I will struggle to find an answer longer than most.

I gave complex answers about how long the body can go without water and hypothesized about how the humidity levels in the jungle might affect hydration. After multiple attempts, I gave up... 

Back in 2019, I wrote on this blog about your options for the Equifax breach if you were one of the millions of people who had their personal information stolen.

Well, another two years went by before they finally sorted out the credit monitoring for all those that chose it. To be perfectly honest, I had forgotten about it. But then I got an email last week that read “Equifax Data Breach Settlement (Credit Monitoring Instructions and Activation Code)…”