10 Steps to a Rock Solid Personal Financial Plan

Years ago, Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, wrote a very simple one page list to get your personal finances in order. There’s not much to improve off that list though I’d like to provide a more thorough list and some recommended resources for anyone who wants to get control of their finances.  Note that this plan applies to probably 98% of people. The other 2% either have a higher or lower risk threshold, have unique investing knowledge (especially insider) or are a multimillionaire/billionaire where the normal rules don’t apply.  First, let’s start off with some very simple financial principles.  Personal … Read more

Heaven and Hell on Earth: Part 2 (Heaven)

In part one, I went through various scenarios where living on Earth could become a living hell. Of course, to many people currently alive, they would argue that life is already a living hell – and for many, I would agree. In this post, I’m going to get ludicrously utopian and brainstorm what we might do to make living on Earth more heaven-like.  I already know what many are thinking: this type of thinking leads to insane ideologies like Communism, cults, etc. The problem with being that skeptical is that if we’re not even trying to imagine a better future, … Read more

Heaven and Hell on Earth: Part One (Hell)

I believe it’s important to have a future vision of the life you want to live and that the same principle applies to society as a whole. If the last few months (I’m writing this in June of 2020 for future reference) are any indicator, we’re at an important crossroads on planet earth and I think the decisions we as a society make soon will determine whether we’ll soon live in a hell on earth. I’m not trying to be dramatic or terrifying here, but I don’t think I’m alone by saying I see a lot of things potentially and … Read more

Proposal for an App to Help Defeat Covid-19

Note: I originally wrote this on March 24, 2020 and shared it with friends and family as a Google Doc. I’m now publishing it on my blog on April 8, 2020 as a few of the ideas have already been implemented by others (I’m certain independently – many of the ideas are obvious) and hopefully more will as well. If we happen to “flatten the curve” this month, we should work on something to deal with it in case it comes back (as soon as this winter by many experts accounts). Please share if you agree. Can a Smartphone App … Read more

A Gentle Introduction to MattKnee.com

Hello. I’m Matt Knee and I’m passionate about learning to do things better. Since I was young, I’ve been a voracious reader and learner who has collected, according to Evernote, over 7,000 notes. One could say that I’m a “data hoarder”. Now that I’m in my 40’s (and after a few health scares) it occurred to me that these notes will probably never be organized and some plans or ideas I have may simply die in my head. Perhaps they should die in my head but I think there’s a few helpful things I’ve learned that may help others. There … Read more