A recent article in the New York Times (linked below) synthesizes several studies about people who speak several languages fluently. I am relatively confident that the ability to converse in more than one language adds to your human capital, increasing the likelihood of earning more money over time. There are some surveys that show that ... Continue reading this article…

The option to work from home has been shown to benefit employees and employers. This type of flexibility in working arrangements, when appropriate based on the employee’s responsibilities, increased productivity and retention for the employer and job satisfaction for the employee. The same benefits apply to working arrangements that include flexible hours. As Margaret Heffernan ... Continue reading this article…

There’s a chance you could become a multi-millionaire after repeatedly slamming your head into other people and suffering through the resulting mini-concussions and minor brain damage, but not everyone can be a professional football player in the NFL. There’s a safer and less harmful path toward financial independence. Cognitive ability is an important part of ... Continue reading this article…

A recent article in Fortune Magazine predicts that one of the hottest jobs ten years from now will be data scientist. If this prediction is true, parents of teenagers in their first year of high school and their parents might consider encouraging their kids to develop the skills necessary to be in high demand by ... Continue reading this article…

Every year around Mother’s Day, Salary.com looks at the role of a typical mother in a typical household and calculates an annual salary based on the market rates for the various jobs she does. Using the Mom Salary Wizard, I determined that the media salary for a mother of two school-age children living in my ... Continue reading this article…

I’m an accidental entrepreneur. I never quite fit in with big hierarchical systems, like public education (as a teacher) and corporations. Getting things done, particularly accomplishing various things the way I wanted to accomplish them, has always been a struggle for me in these structures. I knew from the day I started working at a ... Continue reading this article…

Focusing solely on your net worth is an approach too narrow if you want to become financially independent over time. To increase your chances of being secure, think about your personal human capital, a set of skills and experiences that will improve your finances in the future. Establish yourself as an authority in your field ... Continue reading this article…

While saving money, reducing expenses, and earning income all help improve your net worth, these tactics often ignore the larger picture. Improving your personal human capital is like a form of insurance; you’re protecting your ability to increase your net worth over a long period of time. Boosting your human capital through gaining education, adding ... Continue reading this article…