Pete the Planner: What is life’s most difficult financial task?
I’d now like to introduce you to my candidate for the most difficult financial task a person must accomplish in a lifetime: decreasing an established lifestyle.
Peter Dunn
Articles
PETE THE PLANNER: As pandemic eases, lifestyle spending will increase
The housing market is red-hot, the travel industry is on the verge of poetic justice earned by a year lost, and certain consumer goods are increasingly difficult to find.
Pete the Planner: Encourage grads to start saving for retirement now
New grads will face many challenges, but if they address the retirement challenge from the very beginning, everything else will fall into place.
Pete the Planner: Life insurance is an important financial-planning tool
Twenty years ago, you took action on a major hole in your financial plan and then spent the last 20 years making the best of the time you bought yourself.
Pete the Planner: To sell your home or not (in a seller’s market)
The trick is to understand whether you’ve put yourself in a position to ignore the financial ramifications of a seemingly fortuitous opportunity.
Pete the Planner: Minimalism means less stuff, more enjoyable experiences
The way I figured, as long as I didn’t have a storage unit, or even a garage I couldn’t pull my car into, I was doing just fine.
Pete the Planner: Early commitment to saving is essential for retirement
An early commitment to saving is what got the job done here, and now you get to reap the rewards of that decision.
Pete the Planner: Don’t use stimulus to create habits you can’t sustain
I’m happy that our familiar manifestations of joy are on the horizon, but my crystal ball (my hairless head) tells me 2022 and 2023 could produce the largest consumer debt burdens of all time.
Pete the Planner: Trend-driven risks are not an investor’s friend
When people don’t take the time to develop an investment strategy—generally because they don’t want to see how far behind they are—they’re more likely to adopt an “anything goes” philosophy.
Pete The Planner: Give your relationship with money permission to change
I believe the ability to change your personal financial philosophy is a wonderful privilege that many people simply ignore, if not deny.
Pete the Planner: Don’t share details with kids until you have to
Those very close to you—even well-adjusted adult children raised by you—will struggle to contextualize your balance sheet, which often becomes a detriment to their financial existence.
PETE THE PLANNER: Steer clear of sharing details of your finances with friends
Context is everything, and there’s no way you’ll ever have enough context to understand another person’s financial life, especially in casual, social settings.
PETE THE PLANNER: Turn the page on 2020, but remain vigilant in the new year
Our year-end household financial meeting has become something we look forward to as late December ticks on.
Pete the Planner: Reduce expenditures to get your retirement ship on course
Not needing a lot of money is a better strategy than having a lot of money.
PETE THE PLANNER: Pandemic already has delivered lots of financial lessons
I feel I’ve already learned a ton from this experience so far, and those lessons have brought me a sense of thankfulness.
Pete the Planner: Excessive spending will cause pain in long run
@et meaningful financial goals. These goals should bring a great sense of accomplishment, once you achieve them.
PETE THE PLANNER: Many variables affect retirement planning
The most complicating factor is that we don’t know how much we’ll need because we don’t know when we’ll die.
PETE THE PLANNER: House prices are lofty, so should you sell?
An unemotional, rational approach to this question will always yield the best results.
PETE THE PLANNER: Election uncertainty shouldn’t drive your investing strategy
Whether or not a constitutional crisis–and all the economic and market chaos it would bring–is nigh, it’s impossible to time our exit and re-entry into the markets,
PETE THE PLANNER: It’s time to step up and help save local restaurants
Many restaurants are in very serious danger of not making it to December. Every dollar you can spend matters.