We will all stumble and fall. What matters is getting up again. — While perfection may be achieved in some instances, think acing a math test, most of those are quantitative in nature and aren’t often repeated. The rest of our lives are qualitative and perfection is pretty much impossible. And that’s okay. That’s how it’s meant to be. We are not creatures…

How to accept that life gets in the way, then work around it. — The past few articles about starting a personal transformation journey have covered accepting yourself for where you are in life right now, being completely honest and descriptive about both your current self and envisioned future, and finding the right metrics to measure (and manage) your progress. The next step is…

Distilling a complex problem into mere numbers is quite difficult. — When starting on any endeavor, you need to begin with the end in mind. As I have written earlier, it is great to write a descriptive version of your “end” with as much narrative as possible. It puts you in the mindset of the future and crystallizes your vision. The…

The truth may sting, but we only grow through pain. — In my last article, I wrote about starting out any journey of self-improvement from where you are now. Not where you were 10 or 20 years ago, or where you think you should be. Just right where you are, right this minute, right here. That article was mostly about accepting…

What Medium authors are missing. — Most of the high-performing articles on Medium sell you on one thing: you can be a rock star if you just do X. …

All the stuff you need to know. — This post isn’t meant to go viral or convince you of my awesome writing abilities. Rather, it’s a functional way to let everyone know that I’m not perfect. Many of my early articles focused on personal finance, and I used to put the same disclaimer at the end of each…

You took a chance on yourself…now own it. — For student loan borrowers, it’s bad enough to deal with our repayment plans, trying to find some way to scrape together enough cash to meet the minimum monthly payment. It gets worse when the rest of the world starts carping on us for our struggle. The world is awash in…

How a big family can save you big(ish) money. — Unless you are one of the dwindling few student loan borrowers who are on a fixed payment plan, your monthly student loan amount is heavily dependent upon two main items: income and family size. Most Income Drive Repayment (IDR) plans rely on calculating your family’s “discretionary income”, which is calculated…