Retirement

The maximum employee 401(k) contribution limit for 2026 is increasing by $1,000 to $24,500 according to the IRS. For workers over 50, the catch-up contribution rises to $8,000, bringing the total to $32,500. With the median household income of roughly $80,000 today (employee 401(k) max = 30% of income), that’s a substantial amount of money to shelter in […]

A poor millionaire sounds like an oxymoron, but they definitely exist. Roughly 6% of U.S. households are millionaires, yet many of them still don’t feel rich. A poor millionaire is someone worth over $1 million but unable to access much of their wealth. In other words, their net worth is highly illiquid. A layoff, bear market, or

I love Halloween, especially seeing how much fun the kids have. But for financially aware adults, the real chills don’t come from ghosts or goblins. They come from spreadsheets, surprise bills, and market meltdowns that turn your net worth chart into a horror movie graph. After over three decades of studying, working through, and writing

Despite finally having the permission to live it up in retirement, I still find it hard to spend money on things I don’t truly need. A big part of building wealth has always been about endurance and suffering. The more we can withstand—long hours, delayed gratification, and the occasional investment blowup—the greater our odds of

One of the key conclusions from getting a free financial consultation with Empower is that I should be able to live it up more in retirement. In fact, we should all be able to live it up more in retirement based on a higher recommended safe withdrawal rate by Bill Bengen, one of America’s best retirement

On October 8, 2025, we decided to go on a family vacation I was decidedly unexcited about. That entire week was supposed to be my time to attend the Fairfield Challenger tennis tournament every day with my buddy Richard. September and October are tennis paradise months in the Bay Area, with multiple tournaments and ideal

If you want to FIRE, one of my regrets was pulling the ripcord too early at age 34 in 2012. Even though I started writing about FIRE in 2009 with the launch of Financial Samurai—trying to uncover as many blind spots as possible before taking the leap—I still feel like I made a mistake. In

I haven’t checked my net worth for four and a half months until recently. That wasn’t on purpose, because normally, since 2012, I check at least three times a week using Empower’s free app. The only reason I stopped was because I could no longer log in. One day, I was suddenly locked out of

After a week of reviewing the tax-free exclusion rule for selling a rental property, I decided not to sell. I’d already used my $500,000 tax-free exclusion amount and would need to wait at least two more years before I could potentially use the full amount again. Most importantly, I’m on a mission to boost my