Long Time No Taco

Welcome to Part 3 of " Why Did No One Tell Me?!? " or, " What High School Should Have Taught Me. " ( Part 1 is here. ) Buy a house. You need to live somewhere, right?  It seems obvious and an oft mentioned part of The American Dream, but if you're like me, you grew up in an apartment. If high school taught how to get from living with your parents to moving into your own home, I must have been sick that day. Besides what we learned in Part 2 about needing good credit , I was 25 years old before I heard anyone mention that the typical down payment for a home is 20%. To give you an idea of size of that challenge: According the the U.S. census , the median price for a new home in the U.S. is $315,100, so 20% of that is $63,000!! By the time I realized this, I had already been in the workforce for 9 years, and had saved nothing toward that - overly concerned with paying off student loans quickly, which I also discussed in Part 2.  Another thing I ha...

Credit, Debt, and Savings, - The Real Triforce of Adulting You won't learn this from your teachers, and your parents may fret about it constantly, without ever actually sharing their concerns or insight, but these three sides of your finances are key to your Golden Power. Each one affects the other, and there many misconceptions you will have to re-learn. It may even mean educating your own friends or family, because so many people have it wrong. Credit , as in "credit cards" and "credit score", is not just good, it is vital  to success. If you want to know how vital, Muhammad Yunus  got a Nobel PEACE  Prize for helping people in extreme poverty find a way to get credit. Not a Nobel Economics Prize, which is also a thing.  This guy got a peace prize, because he made their lives so much better by allowing them a small (micro, in fact) amount of money to get their careers started. Anyway, you may think: Credit is bad,  Credit cards are only for emergenc...

This weekend I walked down Steinway, in Astoria. The area has a large Muslim community and I thought about this great interview of Millennial Muslims I had seen on the CBS Evening News . I often ponder the merits of religion. Without reviewing all the obvious pros and cons, the aspect I want to discuss here is the deceptively dangerous positive: a sense of belonging. This feeling of community that religion provides, can come from other sources as well, such as nationalism. For a few more weeks, before I move to California, I remain an Astorian, along with those Muslims on Steinway. I enjoy the pride that comes from belonging to this community of amazing people. There are myriad other ways to group people, but that same action of combining-together has an opposite, divisive effect. I am "proud to be an American", and I love my home state, Arizona. That does not mean I love what my government does all the time, or the type of questionable bills and laws my state has become ...

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving today, and you may think "Oh, that's a whole month earlier, but I guess even they have a Thanksgiving!" You may even read or hear about it in the media, like this article with an annoying autoplay ad: http://www.ibtimes.com/why-canadas-thanksgiving-october-all-ways-holiday-differs-americas-turkey-day-2133869 But never forget, while Canadians seem like slightly-friendlier Americans, with a better health care system, THEY DRINK MILK FROM BAGS! BAGS PEOPLE! That's right Canada, I've got your number! Happy Thanksgiving Day Canadians!