A father who is raising 2 kids, 2 dogs, married 20 years, works a job to pay bills and kill time between vacations, and looking to share stories, advice, thoughts, etc with other Dads out there also trying to simply navigate “Life”.

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THE FATHER BLOG

I want to share my experiences with other working fathers and welcome the thoughts of all dads out there because I certainly don’t have all the answers myself.

I welcome you to add comments to my posts

LINK TO ALL POSTS:

https://thefatherblog.com/category/uncategorized/

Days of the Week Post Topics

  • Monday – Finance
  • Tuesday – Beer/Liquor/Booze
  • Wednesday – Family
  • Thursday – Travel and Sports
  • Friday – Miscellaneous

  • What are they drinking at the Olympic Games?

    The 2026 Olympic Games are underway in Milan, Italy and it made me think…..what beer would I be drinking if I was in attendance?

    A simple Google search gives you the “official” sponsors of the games. Apparently AB InBev is the global sponsor promoting it’s NA beer. And the USA sponsor is Michelob Ultra. I’d rather drink a few cups of water from the Navigli Canal but to each his own.

    So I pressed on further with my Google searching skills and came across this list of Italian beers. So please, if you are from Italy or have spent any time in Milan, or even currently attending the Winter Games, let me know if this beer list is somewhat accurate or if the locals are drinking wine or something completely different.

    https://www.tastingtable.com/1761596/popular-italian-beer

  • What is the cost of a financial advisor?

    Happy Monday everyone! I have touched on the topic of utilizing a financial advisor vs doing your own investing in the past. As I’ve also shared, I have a few avenues myself utilizing two financial advisors/institutions (each managing about 25% of my total portfolio) and myself doing the last 50% through a trading platform.

    If you are using a financial advisor…do you know what you’re paying them to manage your portfolio? Here are some common fee structures:

    • Assets Under Management (AUM): The advisor takes a percentage of the total assets they manage, typically 0.75% to 1.5% annually. A $500,000 portfolio often costs $3,750–$7,500 per year.
    • Hourly Rate: Generally costs $150 to $500 per hour, suitable for specific, one-time advice.
    • Flat Fee / Retainer: A set annual fee for comprehensive planning, usually ranging from $2,000 to $9,200.
    • Project-Based: A one-time fee for a specific plan, such as retirement or estate planning, averaging $1,500–$5,000.
    • Commission-Based: Advisors are paid via commissions from investment products sold, usually 3% to 6% of transactions.

    Here is my #1 suggestion if you are using them: Look at your statements and see what type of return they have gotten you annually and then adjust based on the fee you are paying. Are they averaging more than 7-8% annually after it’s all said and done? Are you doing some of you own investing through a trading platform (Etrade, Robinhood, Fidelity, Vanguard, etc) and giving yourself a better return without any annual fees? You realize after awhile you can just see where the financial advisors have put your money and you can do the same thing.

    Once again, you may not have the time or interest to manage your own money (I don’t understand that but I get that it happens) and the financial advisor/institution is the way to go for you. And if you have money in these institutions, I’m not saying to pull it all out of there and start doing it yourself. But if you can take $10 or $20 or whatever each month and start investing yourself on the side….you just may surprise yourself how well you can do.

  • What to do if your flight gets delayed?

    I’m back from Florida….got home last night….but not as expected.

    I was tracking not only my flight from Orlando back to Philadelphia, but also always track where your plane is coming in from at that time. Last night my Frontier flight (that airline flies fairly often and very inexpensive between PHL and many Florida destinations) was coming down from Philadelphia…and was getting constantly delayed. I was supposed to get home at 10:30pm, then it was 11pm, then 11:30pm, and then around midnight. I didn’t like what I was seeing. That round trip flight only cost me about $100. So I looked to see if anything else was flying back home. Spirit Airlines…another inexpensive carrier…has a 7:30pm flight getting home at 10pm…for about $100. SOLD!

    Of course that flight was getting slightly delayed as we sat on runway but only a little and plane was more than half empty…so we landed at 10:15pm…I ran off plane, got to the parking lot, and was home by 11pm.

    To me, that was worth the $100. Depends what you think is worth dealing with and what options you have available.

    There are many decent flight apps and websites to monitor this stuff. I use Flight Aware (https://www.flightaware.com/) and it serves me well.

    Bottom line…I’m back from the Florida sun and into the New Jersey frozen tundra. Happy Weekend everyone!!

    Hanging in the Florida sunshine by my buddy’s pool with his awesome pets

    The winter wonderland that is still NJ