// archives

Archive for February, 2009

musings on child-free lives

Parents like to justify having kids. I know this because I encounter it a lot. It’s fairly often of the *kids give life meaning* variety. You know, *kids change you so much, and that’s always good therefore everyone should have kids*.
Since I’m planning and hoping to remain child-free by choice, although I think it’s wrong, [...]

the magic money cupboard

One of my friends is an actuary with an insurance company. His favourite concept is that of the magic money cupboard. He reckons that when it really gets down to it, a surprisingly large number of people (who should know better) believe that when you take out an investment policy, the insurance company puts it [...]

historic returns: looking back more than a century

JD @ Get Rich Slowly highlighted a municipal bond issued in the mid-Victorian era in New York state that is just now coming to completion. It was paying out annually at 7% per year, which is a very respectable rate of return, even though inflation has seriously ravaged away the purchasing power of the original [...]

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