My Blog on
Money Smarts

My client is standing in a health food store in Kīhei, Maui, looking at her receipt. On the conveyor belt: a bunch of small chocolate bars. She buys them in variety, puts them in little brown paper bags, writes Mahalo Nui Loa on the outside — that’s “thank you very much” in Hawaiian — along with Thank you for your...

Camp costs $2,000. That’s what’s on the invoice. That’s the number in my head. That’s the number I told myself when my daughter asked to go. $2,000. Fine. We can swing that. And then my wife gets “The List” from a friend. The shirts. (Plural. Not one shirt. Shirts.) The skirts. The tights. The slippers. The sandals. (Different from the...

My daughter’s at sleepaway camp in the Catskills. First time. Eight-hour drive from Toronto. She called home. Told my wife it was POOOOOOOOURING.☔ I knew. I’d been checking the weather there every day since she left. Not because I could do anything about it. Just… checking. Imagining how much fun she was having. Or not having. Here’s a weird thing...

My daughter looked at my sneakers and said, “Tatty. No.” (That’s “Dad” in my house.) That’s it. That’s all I got. “Tatty. No.” I’m wearing Nikes. NIKES! I grew up in the era of Bo Jackson. “Bo Knows.” The Slam Dunk Contest. Nike wasn’t just a brand — it was THE brand. My Nikes? Cross trainers from the 00’s. They...

Fractured ribs. Autoimmune illness. Half her savings — gone. Fraudulent startup. Expensive executive coaches who changed nothing. Clothes she never wore. Business ideas she never started. Stuff in every corner. Can’t sleep. Can’t think. “I cannot recognize my place.” “I try to organize a part, and it’s completely scattered the next day.” That sums up an email I got from...