Posts by Tim Brinkhof:
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The mind-blowing cost of raising a family
Posted on: 20 Apr 2023
What do diapers, braces, and weekly piano lessons have in common? They all serve as reminders of the surprisingly high cost of starting a family and raising kids — a cost that, in general, is only rising as the years go by. This increase can be partially explained by shifts in our culture. For example, […]
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Is it ever right to buy a home?
Posted on: 13 Apr 2023
Should you buy a home or rent one instead? It’s a question that nearly everyone must ask themselves, especially when they are about to start a family and have children. We are often told that buying is the superior option. But renting is not as bad of a choice as it’s commonly made out to […]
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How to overcome “oniomania” — compulsive spending disorder
Posted on: 06 Apr 2023
The term “oniomania,” which is used to describe people with obsessive, problematic shopping and spending behaviors, consists of the Greek words “onios,” meaning “for sale,” and “mania.” Also known as Compulsive Buying Disorder (CBD) and Impulsive Compulsive Buying Disorder (ICBD), oniomania can leave a devastating impact on your financial health and mental wellbeing if left […]
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Will the FIRE movement really allow financial independence and early retirement?
Posted on: 31 Mar 2023
Increasingly popular among millennials, the “financial independence, retire early” movement, or FIRE, is a lifestyle that encourages people to save as much money as possible as quickly as possible to become financially independent and retire earlier than a traditional retirement plan would permit. In theory, the FIRE mentality has benefits. With financial independence, people are […]
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The surprising business model of Alibaba
Posted on: 10 Jan 2023
The company that would eventually blossom into Alibaba Group Holding Limited was founded on June 28, 1999, by Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma in Hangzhou, the capital city of China’s Zhejiang province. The plan was to launch an online marketplace that could capitalize on and improve upon China’s nascent e-commerce market by connecting manufacturers, sellers, and […]
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The surprising business model of Costco
Posted on: 22 Dec 2022
On September 15, 1983, Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman opened the first Costco location in Seattle. The concept, a membership-only store that sells goods at a discount, was borrowed from retailer Sol Price and his son, who ran a similar business called Price Club. Sinegal had worked with the Prices, who operated Price Club out […]
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How Amazon made $200 billion a year in pure profit
Posted on: 14 Dec 2022
In 1994, a successful but relatively unknown businessman named Jeff Bezos resigned from his position as senior vice-president of the Wall Street-based hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. when he learned that World Wide Web usage was growing at a staggering annual rate of 2,300%. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bezos was convinced that the […]
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How do movie theaters make money?
Posted on: 05 Dec 2022
In order to make money, movie theaters must do more than show entertaining movies. They also have to differentiate themselves from their competitors who are generally showing the same movies. As such, it’s no surprise that cinemas have evolved at a rapid clip, developing from nickelodeons (cheap but highly social venues that showed films in […]
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What makes a piece of art worth $450 million dollars?
Posted on: 20 Oct 2022
Many philosophers, not to mention artists, believe art has some kind of intrinsic value. They argue that works of art should be considered valuable in and of themselves because of aesthetic and conceptual qualities that exist independently of the sensibility or knowledgeability of the audiences interacting with them. It’s a neat idea. Unfortunately, art history […]
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How the Dutch East India Company inadvertently created the world’s first stock market
Posted on: 16 Sep 2022
To tell the story of the world’s first stock exchange is to tell the story of the Dutch East India Company, as the creation of the latter led directly to the formation of the former. The Dutch East India Company was formed to solve numerous problems plaguing the Dutch shipping industry. For one, the voyage […]
