How To
You Don’t Have To Suck At Negotiation
I am thrilled to bits that Bayalis Is The Answer has been chosen to be a Plutus Award Finalist. I am grateful to all my readers for making this possible. The Plutus Awards are the Oscars of the financial blogging world. Winners will be announced on the 28th of October at […]
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
The Health Savings Account (HSA) is the darling of the personal finance world. It struts and preens and shows off its triple tax advantages, much to the envy of the far less fancy IRAs and 401ks. The HSA is sexy, and it knows it. Today’s beast of a post, in […]
How To Make Money Despite Yourself
A Step-by-Step Guide for the Determinedly Dense “I just don’t understand numbers”. “I want to invest, but I just don’t know where to begin!” “I don’t want to think about all that stuff!” “Finances are so boring!” Does this sound like you? If so, today is your lucky […]
Exploring the World with a Toddler in Tow
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson When Progeny BITA popped […]
A Lazy Person’s Guide to Earning and Using Ultimate Rewards Points
This September the BITAs are going to gallivant around Europe. We’ve booked tickets from San Francisco to Lisbon, Lisbon to Amsterdam and Amsterdam back to San Francisco. For a family of three we coughed up the princely sum of $248.58 for these tickets and I’m going to tell you exactly […]
The Complete Backdoor Roth How-to
What is a backdoor Roth? A Roth IRA is a retirement account that is funded using after-tax earned income. You earn $X annually. You pay your taxes on $X, leaving you with $Y. You can take up to $5500 (in 2017. Check the IRS link for the latest limits) out […]
Is there Spare Change in your Couch?
You know that feeling of putting your hand in your jacket pocket and finding $5? Or the feeling of lifting up a sofa cushion to vacuum and discovering loose change? Finding forgotten money is a happy feeling. And maybe, just maybe, if Santa agrees that you have been a very […]
A Step-By-Step Guide to Opening a Taxable Brokerage Account
Once you get your financial house in order, and are consuming personal finance blogs and books at a rate that practically ensures that you are violating one of the seven deadly sins, it is only a matter of time before you decide that you are going to have to open […]
How Not to Blow your Budget on Houseguests
The BITAs moved into the house we currently live in in late 2012. Between then and now we’ve had over twenty sets of house guests (what can I say? we are just such fun people to be around). Parents, in-laws, siblings, nieces, nephews, friends, aunts and uncles, second cousins – […]
Your 529 on Steroids: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Superfunding
When Progeny BITA was a mewling babe, bawling and puking, peeing, cooing and spitting, we took one look at her and just knew she was college material. We did a bit of research, asked our friends for advice and eventually toodled off to good ‘ol Vanguard and opened a 529 college […]
