23 hours agoJust Tell Me What You Want“What do you want?” This is the hardest question most people face in their finances. Once you get past the very basics — food, shelter, health, safety — most questions of personal finance are questions of choice. …Financial Wellness2 min read
Oct 24, 2021Is earned wage access the kinder, gentler face of payday lending?In principle, there should be absolutely nothing wrong with requesting an “advance” on your weekly or bi-weekly paycheck. When the electrician comes to my house and completes his task, I don’t say “I’ll send you a check in two weeks.” Labor is performed and payment is due on completion. There…Financial Wellness2 min read
Sep 22, 2021Voting Rights = Financial Wellness. Full Stop.If you care about student debt and the cost of college, housing affordability, child and elder care that does not require you to sacrifice your retirement, medical care that does not bankrupt you, then you care about voting rights. If your job or your passion is to enable people to…Financial Well Being2 min read
Jun 22, 2021It’s Time to Unstack the DecksIn his recent book, Ben Rhodes wrote, “This is the apathy that those with unchecked power seek to engender in others: the idea that it’s not even worth caring about something because it’s not going to change.” He was writing about creeping authoritarianism and the threat to democracy, but I…Financial Wellness3 min read
May 24, 2021The Lost Opportunity of SECURE 2.0Because it was enacted so close to the arrival of the pandemic and the subsequent CARES Act, the SECURE Act of December 2019 barely registers beyond the world of financial planners. And now we have a proposal for its successor, nicknamed SECURE 2.0. Given its bipartisan support, we can expect…Financial Wellness4 min read
Apr 24, 2021Public Policy & The Pursuit of HappinessThe annual World Happiness Report was released in March and we Americans are…not completely despondent. The US ranks 14th on the list and there are no points for guessing that the Nordic and Scandinavian countries came out on top. Our Declaration of Independence asserts that the pursuit of happiness is an unalienable right. Shouldn’t our public policy support this belief? There is a wealth of research on what makes humans happy…Financial Wellness3 min read
Mar 28, 2021Inequality in One Easy ChartA recent podcast pointed me to the Federal Reserve Bulletin of September 2020. The chart below plots average and median household net worth across age groups, based on 2019 data. If you can think back to math class, you will recall that the difference between an average and a median…Financial Wellness2 min read
Mar 18, 2021A More Nuanced Approach to Student Loan ForgivenessIt seems as if we are moving inexorably towards student loan forgiveness of some sort, be it $10,000, $50,000 or some number in between. As currently discussed, these are one-off lump sums that would apply to borrowers with some targeting based on household income. The obvious problem, of course, is…Student Loans4 min read
Feb 21, 2021Why are long term care costs an afterthought for public policy?According to research from PwC, the average lifetime cost of formal long term care is $172,000 for one individual. And while some may certainly experience a lower amount, for a good number of Americans the cost can be multiples of that amount. …Financial Wellness4 min read
Feb 2, 2021A New Approach to 401(k) WithdrawalsWe know that people highly value liquidity when deciding where to save money for the future. This preference lives alongside the seemingly contradictory fact that successful savers often want to have a bit of “friction” between themselves and their nest egg. (The Financial Diaries has terrific real-life examples of some…Financial Wellness4 min read
