I sold at the wrong time. TWICE. In the early days of 2020, I was joint owner on two properties. Well, my life experienced a couple of changes, and I sold both of those properties. The property sales took place about six months apart, and I put my equity (which was in the form of cash) into a low-risk mutual fund. And, while that fund has done pretty well over the last two years, it hasn’t kept up with the rate of inflation. Let me be dramatic. If I could buy one of said properties for what I paid for it ten years ago, I could buy two of them. Now I’d be lucky to buy two-thirds. Don’t worry, I do have a plan. Everybody mail just $10 to…just kidding. But I digress. Today, we are talking about inflation. Let Google define it for you:   in·fla·tion; /inˈflāSH(ə)n/; a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. Mmaaaaann, have we seen a huge amount of inflation in the last year! And experts don’t anticipate it getting any better any time soon. Who’s at f...

In 1972, Stanford did a study about delayed gratification with children. It involved giant marshmallows and testing their patience.  You can see a short YouTube video about the study here . Basically, the kids who could sit alone with a giant marshmallow without eating it for a certain length of time were rewarded with a second giant marshmallow. Fun, huh? Some kids could be patient and reap the rewards; some could not. I was a small child when the study was conducted, and I wonder which side I might have been on. I HAVE learned to be pretty patient as an adult. One of the areas in which I’ve seen improvement is in finances. I have become a good money manager–I could be paid once annually and budget so that I won’t run out before year’s end, including having enough money to pay my own quarterly taxes–self-employed people do that. Speaking of taxes, I try not to overpay so that I qualify for a “refund,” because the government does not practice The Marshmallow Experiment. Huh? ...

  When you live in the Rocky Mountain West, there are lots of jokes about the weather. This explains it very well: Here’s another good one, and it’s so applicable this week: If you looked outside my front door right this minute you might think it was Christmastime. Speaking of Christmas…it’s coming. Yeah, I know it was just here (that was LAST year), but it has a way of showing up EVERY YEAR on December 25, and 2022 is no exception. I think the fact that it comes annually surprises some people because they are unprepared– they have no money set aside, they panic, and then they put Christmas on a credit card. We are NOT going to be those people this year! How much did you spend on Christmas last year? If you don’t know, figure it out. I’m going to bet you’ll spend AT LEAST that much this year (can anyone say 8.5% INFLATION?). I have a suggestion for you–start saving for Christmas 2022 NOW. How much? Take what you spent last year and divide it by the remaining months of ...

There are lots of pros and cons to working for oneself. Making one’s own schedule is definitely on the positive side of the page. Having to pay quarterly taxes out of pocket? Maybe that’s a con, but I usually budget for that so it’s not so bad. Not having a 401(k) to which my employer contributes is not a plus, but thank goodness I can still put money into a ROTH Ira. Speaking of retirement investments... (You: Nice segue!  Me: Thanks!) Did you know you have until Tax Day (April 18 this year) to contribute to your IRA for the year 2021 (yes, it’s 2022)? I honestly tried to find an explanation as to why this is and I could not, and I do have a few ideas of my own, but does it really matter? No, I didn’t think so. Now there are some limitations like contributor age, type of income, and contribution amounts. If you are unsure whether or not you can contribute, before you send off a check (if you don’t know what that is, I’ll explain later), ask your tax professional. If you can co...