Caitlin's Corner Vacation Spending: How to Track & What it Means Happy midsummer, friends. Our family recently got home from an east coast vacation, and after several loads of laundry, unpacking suitcases, catching up on sleep, and returning to (sort-of) real life, I sat down to do our monthly spending review. I know that's not as exciting as vacation, but if you're a data nerd like me, you might just geek out a bit when you can do a little retrospective on how spending went while on your...
9 days ago • 3 min read
Susan's Scoop What if Your Vacation Fund Built Itself? I hope everyone is having an amazing summer and staying cool! I appreciate Caitlin keeping the newsletter going while I was busy taking the Series 65 exam (I passed!) and then spending most of June on a road trip around Puerto Rico with my husband and our two kids. (The whole vacation cost under $4,000 - including flights, two rental cars (Vieques and the mainland), Airbnbs (my kids refuse to share a bed now 😄), ferries, and a bunch of...
16 days ago • 4 min read
Caitlin's Corner 250 Years of Women and Money in America America turns 250 this week. I have to admit that I struggle to feel celebratory when I think that after 250 years, several wars, and the movements of Civil Rights, Indigenous Rights, LBGTQ+ Rights, Labor Rights, and Women's Suffrage, our country is still far from every man, let alone every human, having "unalienable rights" to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". And yet, our country still has made a lot of progress in those...
23 days ago • 6 min read
Caitlin's Corner The Best Response to a Vile Comment Is a Better Story This past Sunday night, on the South Lawn of the White House, UFC fighter Josh Hokit grabbed the microphone from Joe Rogan after winning his fight. First he praised his “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,“ and then screamed to a cheering crowd, “Michelle Obama is a man, am I right, America?” What a vile thing to say... Not even considering that any decent person would choose more joyful words after celebrating his biggest...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Caitlin's Corner Financial Conversations for Even the Healthiest of Relationships I recently read the book Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden. In case you haven't heard the buzz, the book chronicles the abrupt collapse of the author’s 20-year marriage. I have so many thoughts on this book, few of which I'll dive into here. What I do want to focus on is why this book matters as a financial memoir for women. Early in the book, Burden details how she and her family are bonding in...
about 2 months ago • 11 min read
Susan's Scoop All Aboard at Inflation Station! Should I be excited that my car now holds $80 worth of gas when it used to hold just $40? All jokes aside, the inflation rate lately has been no laughing matter, with overall prices up 3.8% in the past year, and gasoline up over 50%. If you’ve come to one of my tax strategy presentations, you may have seen my slide where I identify inflation and taxes as the two biggest wealth killers – and then I go on to say there’s not much we can do about...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Caitlin's Corner 10 Skills I Wish for Every Graduate A couple decades ago on a hot June morning, I sat sweating in a maroon cap and gown, having just finished a mediocre speech to my graduating class. I slid my heart-shaped sunglasses back up my sweat-beaded nose for the 100th time. Gearing up to throw my cap, I had no idea what a Roth IRA was. A conversation I hear often among parents is how we can best set our kids up for financial success. I believe strongly in building a healthy money...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Susan's Scoop The New FIRE: Financial Independence, Recreational Employment As most of you know, my husband and I “retired early” from our W2 jobs almost 3.5 years ago now. As you would imagine, it’s been 3 years of waking up late and lounging by a pool all day – except that’s not how it’s been at all. Today (and yesterday, and the day before that), my husband has been at our properties dealing with maintenance issues – a cracked floor, limbs down from recent storms, and a broken-off toilet...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Caitlin's Corner Motherhood Math I was not planning to write an article about Mother's Day. I had an entirely different subject mapped out, but then I felt called by Lindsey Stanberry to share my career vs. motherhood story. The media seems to have waged a war against working moms, so rather than reminding you of how worthy you are of the flowers, brunch, and gratitude (and you ARE!), I want to highlight why the weight of motherhood in the US in 2026 cannot be so easily relieved by those...
3 months ago • 7 min read