$pent is a personal finance cartoon concept by Steve Kautz, with illustrations by John Grabar. Steve is a long time personal finance teacher, former Maine Jump$tart Board Member, active consultant to Maine Jump$tart, and personal finance blogger. John and Steve have been friends since grade school. ... Read More
Steve Kautz
Financial Stairmaster
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. Mastering the Steps to Success with those Finances Last week while rereading my posts, I realized that I often say things like "start your emergency fund," or "contribute to a retirement plan." I also realized you ... Read More
Thinking About Expenses on an Annual Basis
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. All that talk last week about fitness made me think about my gym membership. When I re-activated my monthly membership this past weekend, it got me thinking about another aspect of budgeting. That is, the importance of ... Read More
When Fitness Meets Finance
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. "You make your mistakes to learn how to get the good stuff." - Quincy Jones As I make progress on my financial journey, I have an annoying tendency to think about the mistakes I've made. I try not to use ... Read More
Don’t You Just Love the Smell of Fresh Ground Beans?
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. I love coffee. Portland is a great place to be a coffee lover. We enjoy an incredible mix of strong franchises with cheap, weak coffee, local businesses with strong, expensive coffee, and everything in between. There ... Read More
Being “Loyal” to Yourself
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. I mentioned in my last entry the idea of choosing how we live (from a financial point of view) in our economic system. In the American version of capitalism, personal finance isn't all about managing your money so that ... Read More
Saying “No” to $14.60
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. I'm not really sure where to go with this. A recent shopping experience inspired me to talk about this modern consumer classic; "Would you like to save 20% on your bill today by signing up for a Kohl's card?" But as I ... Read More
Budgeting: Part II of Infinity
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. That's right, the topic of budgeting can never be thoroughly covered. Just do a quick Google search and you'll find a million pages of advice containing another million or so formulas for success. For now, ... Read More
“It’s Clearly a Budget. It’s Got a Lot of Numbers in it.” – George W. Bush
By Steve Kautz, a former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. Budgeting. Oh, This is Going to Be Fun Sorry, that was a bit of a lie. I suspect most people don't think budgets are fun or interesting. I do, but "Kautz, you are such a geek" has been overheard in my classroom ... Read More
The Case for Financial Literacy
By Steve Kautz, former Maine mathematics teacher and personal finance expert. I Like Numbers First, thank you for reading, for your comments, encouragement and suggestions. I am enjoying the conversation, and you have motivated me to keep learning and teaching and blogging. Picking up on ... Read More
Maine Jump$tart Coalition
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