One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes is called “The Opposite.” In it, George (the perpetually unsuccessful main character) realizes that every decision he has ever made has been wrong, and that his life is the exact opposite of what he wanted it to be. His successful friend Jerry convinces him that if every instinct he has is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right. That feels pretty logical and George goes on to experiment with doing the complete opposite of what he would do normally. I won’t tell you what happens so as not to spoil it for you, but the basic concept from my favorite ..read more

I was reading Kiplinger and saw a reference to an app that helps parents to introduce kids to saving and investing. This app is called Greenlight and it allows you to send your child or children money to be used for various use cases: spending, saving, investing, and allowance. It’s probably most useful for older children because one of the key features of the app is a debit card. However, I set it up for my 7-year old to get him exposed to some key personal finance concepts early. I got him a debit card with his face on it for security and fun. The debit card he will use when he goes to the ..read more

Own. Don’t just earn. Thankfully, my first job out of college was at one of the most important companies of our time – Google. It was also the first stock that I owned and I owned it because tech companies typically give all employees some stock (stock options in earlier stages and Restricted Stock Units at later stages) that vests (becomes theirs) over some period of time. Typically, you have to work at least a year at such a company for some portion of the stock to vest (typically one quarter of the initial grant because the most common vesting period is four years). I started working at Goo ..read more

I admire Warren Buffett and very much look up to him. Unfortunately, I only started to follow him closely when I was in my 30s, after I met him in person. He has such a wonderful way of turning complex financial topics into simple digestible concepts that are very easy to understand and put into action. When I look at his financial journey, I admire his annual return of about 20% vs. the S&P average (1965-2021). For me, the key reasons for his winning record are 1) picking the right companies to invest in, and 2) not trading their stock often because he thinks of them as businesses and no ..read more

Taking a step back and evaluating my life goals at least once a year without distraction is one of the most important things I do. Over the last several years, I have focused on creating structured processes for teams and companies to develop strategy, establish goals, and execute on those goals. I have lead strategy offsites, driven OKR setting and scoring, and developed frameworks to guide resource allocation to top priorities. A few years ago, I decided to apply my learnings to my own life and set up an annual ritual I call Personal Offsite. What it is: A personal offsite is a ~24 hour jour ..read more

Books are cheap but education is priceless. I enjoy investing and ever since I came to live in a capitalist country, I’ve been hooked. That said, even when I lived in a communist country, I knew that the most important investment one could make is in education. Education can set you up not only for a more lucrative career, but also for a more informed and interesting life. My parents invested everything they had in my education and I benefited from that investment mightily. So, as soon as my kids received their social security numbers, soon after birth, I set up their 529 plans. I looked at di ..read more

Time is on your side Ever since I started working, I’ve been putting money away into a 401(k), except for the two years I spent in grad school and wasn’t working in the US. I certainly max it out now, although I don’t recall if I was maxing it out in my first few years. I probably was. In any case, it’s almost impossible not to have a million dollars saved in a 401(k) account at retirement age if you regularly max it out throughout your working life. A 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored retirement account defined in subsection 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. It basically allows you to p ..read more

Net Worth is a very important personal finance term that I’ll describe below. Before I do that, I want to make one thing clear: while it’s perhaps my favorite personal finance metric, it is a dangerous phrase because some may mistake it for a person’s actual worth. Despite economists’ attempts, there is no financial way to value a person’s worth. Each one of us is so much more than the money we have in the bank. We are parents, children, spouses, brothers, sisters, friends, doctors, pilots, teachers. We are funny, smart, kind. We are so many things. We are complex. Since this blog is about pe ..read more