Hull Financial Planning

We just finished a little over a month in Manchester, England. How much did it cost, and what did we think?

Our Expat Costs and Observations of Manchester, England - Hull Financial Planning We spent over a month in Manchester, England as long-term travelers. Find out how much it cost and what we thought of the city.

Did we like Izmir, Turkey as a long-term destination?

Izmir, Turkey: A LOT of Cigarette Smoke Prevents Us From Loving It - Hull Financial Planning We just got back from a six day trip to Izmir, Turkey. We wanted to love it, but the lack of clean air affected our impressions.

My wife caught COVID on our transatlantic cruise. Here's what happened:

I Got COVID on a Cruise Ship. Here’s What Happened. - Hull Financial Planning This is what happened when I got COVID on a Norwegian Cruise Line transatlantic cruise. This was the NCL Escape.

Fear and Loathing: Early Retirement Into the Coronavirus Pandemic This article is part of a series on personal finance during the coronavirus pandemic. Please check out the Coronavirus and Your Finances Series (link will open in a new window).

Sometimes bad luck hits you like in an ancient Greek tragedy, and it's not your own making. When you have a plane crash, it's not your fault.
--Werner Herzog

My wife and I decided about a year and a half ago that we were going to pull the plug and retire early at the end of 2019. We'd done all of the calculations and projections and felt very secure about our sources of passive income and our safety net going into retirement.

Three months later, most of the country is under lockdown. HUD just announced a moratorium on evictions. While we don't expect our renters to take that as a blanket moratorium on paying rent, we also are quite aware that some of them will face financial hardships, and we'll have to work with them. It will

Fear and Loathing: Early Retirement Into the Coronavirus Pandemic | Hull Financial Planning This article is part of a series on personal finance during the coronavirus pandemic. Please check out the Coronavirus and Your Finances Series (link will open in a new window). Sometimes bad luck hits you like in an ancient Greek tragedy, and it’s not your own making. When you have a plane crash,...

Why Me Caring About You Makes the Medicine Go Down a Little Better

“Be tough minded but tenderhearted.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

I recently went to the eye doctor. It’d been about twelve years since I had my LASIK surgery, and I hadn’t been since we moved to Texas. I wanted to find a local optometrist with whom I could establish a relationship and make sure that everything was still functioning the way it should.

When I had my surgery, my eyesight improved dramatically. I had 20/12 vision. I knew that my vision wasn’t quite as good as it had been after the surgery, but I felt like it was still quite acceptable. As it turns out, I was right on both counts; I still have 20/17 vision. I also got a test for macular degeneration, and passed that with flying colors. I was nowhere near the readings which might be a cause for concern.

So, with all of that information in hand, I expected to be given the clean bill of health, a thank you very much, and instructions to

Why Me Caring About You Makes the Medicine Go Down a Little Better | Hull Financial Planning “Be tough minded but tenderhearted.” ― H. Jackson Brown Jr. I recently went to the eye doctor. It’d been about twelve years since I had my LASIK surgery, and I hadn’t been since we moved to Texas. I wanted to find a local optometrist with whom I could establish a relationship and make sure...

Paying Off Your Mortgage Early Will NOT Destroy Your Finances

A goal properly set is halfway reached.
--Zig Ziglar

Recently, Forbes magazine published an article entitled "Paying Off Your Mortgage Early Will Destroy Your Finances".

It was nice clickbait.

I clicked on it, after all.

The premise of the article was that, if you don't have your mortgage paid off, then, in a financial emergency, like layoffs due to COVID-19, the bank is going to foreclose on you, and having tried to pay extra down on your mortgage isn't going to help you. In fact, the bank will be happier because they'll have more equity when they sell the house.

This is half right.

First off, if a foreclosure auction gets more than the amount owed and what it cost to foreclose, , the bank does not get to keep the extra money. Bids in excess of what is owed go to the homeowner. So, there's not equity that disappears from the former homeowner.

However, that's not the main point of my disagreement

Paying Off Your Mortgage Early Will NOT Destroy Your Finances Forbes suggests that paying your mortgage off early will destroy your finances. Are they wrong?