Streamlining all things personal finance, family, and lifestyle.

Tag: personal finance

  • Why is Getting Auto Insurance in CA state so difficult?

    Why is Getting Auto Insurance in CA state so difficult?

    💡 This post is a continuation of my previous post How to Save on Auto Insurance in Under 5 Minutes, after realizing that my process wasn’t as simple as I had expected and that I needed a separate post to write about this 🤦🏼‍♂️. Summary Starting with GEICO Now that I had a good sense…

  • Why Robinhood’s New Gold Card is a Killer

    Why Robinhood’s New Gold Card is a Killer

    Summary What is the Gold Card? The Gold Card is Robinhood’s new and first credit card product for its Gold members. You need to be a Robinhood Gold member ($50 membership fee annually or $5 a month) to utilize the Gold card but don’t have to be to get on the waitlist for the Gold…

  • Why I Picked NerdWallet as First My Budgeting Tool

    Summary Review of Budgeting Apps I never seriously approached budgeting until last year when my daughter was born. Previously, I had a sense of what my household’s cash flow looked like (paycheck as cash in, credit card bills as cash out essentially) and tried to budget casually by downloading transaction data from my Chase and…

  • Easy Guide to Applying for a New Credit Card

    Maintaining a healthy credit profile involves regular check-ups and strategizing credit applications to optimize credit scores and bonuses. Utilize the annual free credit check to monitor activities and update strategies. Space out credit applications; consider credit card company policies for sign-up offers and understand the impact of hard pulls. The analysis revealed a preference for…

  • Never Say Never – How I Purchased My First Life Insurance Policy

    Summary Introduction About two months before my wife’s due date, I started doing some research on life insurance policies. Rightly or wrongly, my research was kickstarted by the all the fear and uncertainty related to money, as I was preparing for the delivery of our daughter. I first started out by reaching out to the…

  • Putting the Owning vs Renting Debate to Bed

    Putting the Owning vs Renting Debate to Bed

    Summary Introduction I drank the Kool-Aid on stocks at an early age (note to come back to this for my lessons on stocks) and was never a big believer in real estate until I met my wife, learned more about the tax advantages of real estate, realized how both sides of my families had built…

  • How to Save on Auto Insurance in Under 5 Minutes

    How to Save on Auto Insurance in Under 5 Minutes

    Tl;dr Introduction Little did I know that what started with a simple renewal process and my desire to get some savings and move my policy to California, ended up being a weeks-long time-consuming process. Towards the end of Jan 2024, I received an email from my current auto insurance carrier, Progressive, that my policy is…

  • 4 Underrated Ways to Maximize Your Costco Membership

    4 Underrated Ways to Maximize Your Costco Membership

    Intro I have found that existing resources on how to maximize your Costco are a little underwhelming and not that insightful. While my family’s not heavy Costco shoppers by any means (our annual 2% cash back doesn’t even cover the $120 Executive membership), the benefits that we get from shopping at Costco is immense that…

  • Struggles of a Hustling Young Professional

    Struggles of a Hustling Young Professional

    Introduction As my first post, this blog entry is intended to be an extension of the “About Me” section to tell everyone a little more about me. Here, I’ll walk you through a condensed version of my life story up until now. In addition, I’ll show you where I’m planning on heading next. Birth to…