Exactly this. I remember a client who thought he'd covered every base, but still got hit with a surprise roof assessment. Those docs can be slippery.....

I've noticed the same thing about psychology playing a big role. When I first started tackling my debt, I was all about the avalanche method—felt like...

I've seen a few people go down the equity-for-investment-property route, and honestly, it's a mixed bag. A good friend of mine tapped into his home eq...

I had a client who did something similar—but instead of separate accounts, they went old-school and used envelopes with cash for different spending ca...

I think the fixer-upper analogy fits pretty well. Personally, I'm all for gut feelings but only when they're backed by cold, hard math—I once let exci...

Good points all around. Reminds me of a client who refinanced to a shorter term, thinking they'd save big on interest...then their furnace died mid-wi...

Careful with that deduction though... a buddy of mine redid his basement, thinking he'd get a nice tax break too. Turns out, IRS tightened things up r...