The first year out of grad school was the loneliest year of my life. It was 2012, and I was 24 and worked from home.

As an introvert, I was surprised to find that for the first time in my life, I crazed more social interaction, not less.

Nine years later, I can say that I can’t remember the last time I felt lonely.

I want you to know that loneliness is not a permanent state; yes, it will come and go through life, but you don’t need to stay stuck.

Here are 6 activities that I regularly use to…

The ‘Great Transition’ to full-time work is jarring.

It can feel like you are stepping out from a cool room with a controlled environment into a harsh Australian summer with no sunscreen.

You feel naked and unprepared. And possibly sunburnt.

For the first time in your life, you have no real structure or clear goals. You have no roadmap to help you or a curriculum telling you what your workload will be like.

The once safe environment provided by the classroom is gone. …

Whether you’re a seasoned freelance writer or just starting out, making money is difficult without a full-fledged client list. As someone who started freelancing in November and is still learning the ropes, these are the best suggestions I have in order to make more money while valuing your time.

1. Accept projects unfamiliar (and interesting) to you

Part of being a freelancer is getting approached to work on a variety of strange projects. Some of these projects will fall within your skillset and others will be new experiences.

If you are confident in your ability to learn how to complete a new project and you find it interesting…

I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Ohio called Dublin. It was the kind of suburb where people had formal dining rooms and parents bought their children cars when they turned 16. Our town’s official motto was, I shit you not, “It’s greener in Dublin.” (They changed that a few years ago.) Residents of Dublin had another name for it: the Dublin Bubble.

Inside the Dublin Bubble, life was upper class. Nobody dropped out of high school or got pregnant— and when students inevitably did, their name was spoken in hushed undertones and quickly forgotten. Everyone went to college…

Most personal finance advice on the internet is garbage. You might as well throw it in the trash where it belongs.

The reason? A lot of it isn’t practical or useful. And more often than not, it’s not applicable to the vast majority of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck. For them, making a 5% return on the stock market isn’t a priority. They just want to put food on the table and support their family.

I want to share several financial strategies that enabled me to save a lot more money each month. …

From 2015 to 2020, I dedicated every available minute to building a bespoke fabrication business. During the later part of those years, I was also slowly growing a career in writing and co-editing a large publication in my ‘down time.’

As the pandemic took hold early last year, a problem was developing. As much I convinced myself I could keep all the necessary plates spinning, the reality was more complicated. It was becoming more perilous by the day, with many of the plates beginning to lose momentum, their spin slowing to more of a wobble. Most of the time, I…

In my senior year of college, I worked part-time as an intern for a magazine. Proofreading keylines, writing short news items, editing letters to the editor. As my graduation date approached, the editor-in-chief approached me to offer an assistant editor position.

As an English major with few prospects, I was thrilled. Landing a job before commencement would relieve pressure. I was ready to say “yes” before I was even asked.

But when he handed me the formal offer a few days later, it was $500 less (let’s be clear…$500 less PER YEAR — this was that late ‘80s) than I…

“Deposit 200 USD”

‘Darn, Tom. Are you really doing this?’ I thought as I punched in the deposit order from my bank.

My mouse hovered over the BUY button for Ether, which was priced at about $2,140. ‘A few days ago it crashed to under $2,000, maybe I should wait,’ I thought.

I wish I could keep embellishing this tale of me sitting at the computer wondering if I should buy crypto for the first time.

The truth is, it wasn’t too difficult. It was sort of like jumping off a diving board as a kid. …