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...
9 days 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...
16 days 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...
23 days ago • 7 min read
Susan's Scoop What if Later Never Comes? As much as I love writing about tax strategy and financial topics, I thought I would write about something a little more personal today. This past weekend I attended a family wedding and saw relatives that I haven’t seen in a long time; most of them had heard through the grapevine that my husband and I “early retired” from our W-2 jobs a few years ago, and a lot of them had opinions about it. One of them accused us of being “reckless”, a few said we...
30 days ago • 3 min read
Caitlin's Corner Save the Most Taxes Today, or Save More Later? Around this time of year, one of the internet's favorite debates is about the tax refund: should you celebrate a big refund, or does it mean you did something wrong? The answer could be a little bit of both. First, you should understand that when the tax policy changes in a pretty dramatic way halfway through the tax year (looking at you, OBBBA), you're more likely to be in a position of having over or under-estimated your tax...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Susan's Scoop Would you still work if 95% went to taxes? If the government took 95% of your wages for income taxes, would you still go to work? What about 70%? Or 50%? (Surprisingly, rates north of 50% actually can happen to self-employed U.S. residents in places with high state/local taxes!) Since tax day was yesterday, I thought it would be interesting (fun?!) to take a deeper dive into the psychology behind paying taxes. I recently was invited to speak at an event for the Black Women in...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Caitlin's Corner Your Life, on Oil Whether you've been tuning into the news or not, by now you've inevitably heard about the US-Iran conflict, and what it means to the global oil supply. Perhaps you hadn't heard of the Strait of Hormuz until last week. Maybe this whole time, you've optimistically thought: So many countries, including the US, have invested in alternative energy sources throughout the decades- so we should be more insulated to hits in the oil supply. Or: I'll budget for more...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Susan's Scoop Granny's Getting Rich! The Great Wealth Transfer to Women There’s a really intriguing phenomenon happening right now; Baby Boomers have amassed great wealth, but the males are now dying off and older widowed women are set to come into over $40 trillion dollars over the next two decades. As Caitlin discussed in her newsletter last week, these are women who have historically been left out of the money conversations. These women couldn’t open their own bank accounts until the...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Susan's Scoop Is "Dying at Your Desk" a Valid Retirement Plan? I was out with a family friend recently when he casually mentioned that “one of my coworkers just died at his desk at age 84 – that’s my retirement plan too.” I’m sure I looked taken aback (I unfortunately have one of those very expressive faces that gives everything away 😬), and then stammered, “well, you are contributing to a retirement plan anyway, right?!” I’m guessing you know what the answer to that was. (No). This friend is...
2 months ago • 3 min read