category / Personal
Money is never just math. As financial therapist Aja Evans, author of ‘Feel Good Finance’ teaches, our relationship with money is shaped far more by emotion than by optimization. Every financial decision—how much we save, how we invest, how we react to surprises—is filtered through lived experience, nervous system responses, and...
Liquidity, Control, and the Emotional Safety of Accessible Capital As one of my readers, I know you already know this about me: I am a big fan of investing heavily in pre-tax accounts early and then methodically converting those dollars into Roth accounts over time. That framework has served me...
Author’s Note This post is based on my personal experience as a Black homeowner building financial independence in an under-resourced community. It reflects my lived reality navigating homeownership, appraisals, and wealth-building systems in America. This is not financial or legal advice — it’s a story shared to raise awareness, encourage...
In America, value is often discarded long before it’s actually gone. Cars are the clearest example. Most vehicles aren’t replaced because they’re unsafe, unreliable, or unusable. They’re replaced because the body style changed, the tech feels dated, warranties expire, or expectations reset. The car didn’t fail — the story around the car...
It Was About Losing Margin — and What Happens When a Society Lives Without It When The Two-Income Trap was published, most people misunderstood its message. They thought Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi were criticizing: They weren’t. The book wasn’t cultural commentary. It was systems analysis. And two decades later,...
Ahhh… the good old stress cycle. At first, everything feels fine. The week is smooth. The workload feels manageable. Then a deadline approaches. People start freaking out. Stress gets pushed around the room. You feel it land on you. Suddenly you’re under arrest — except there’s nothing actually happening. There’s...
I didn’t expect going back to work to feel this hard. After stepping away from full-time work — after tasting what control over my time actually feels like — returning to a five-day workweek has been a shock to the system. Not because the work is difficult. Not because I...
Let me take you back for a second. We’re at this family reunion—kids running around, grills smoking, laughter, the heat 🥵—and I overhear two dudes in the corner talking money. Not the elders. Not people who’ve studied the game. Just two boyfriends of family members trying to out-talk each other...
It’s been a long time since I’ve sat down to write like this. Life has been loud, unpredictable, transformative; and honestly, I’ve missed contributing to this blog more than I can explain. But here we are… back at it again. A little older, a lot wiser, and definitely stronger. So...
If I only had ….. If I only had a new car I would be happy If I only had a woman/man that made over six figures, I’d be happy. If I only had a 3,000 square foot house with 5 bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms, I’d be happy. If I...
