Lee Rosen

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An empty wooden chair under a single spotlight on a bare stage, a folder of papers on the floor beside it, rows of empty theater seats in the dark beyond

You Won

Six financial advisors auditioned. Most skipped the hard problem, and my favorite looked at the balance and said, “You won.” What fee-only actually buys, and why the hire isn’t for me.

Colonial-era tropical office with a banker's lamp and old filing cabinets

The $800 Corporation

Eleven years, one Seychelles corporation, zero payroll tax: the legal architecture, the real costs, and what it does to your Social Security check.

A bound stack of insurance policy documents beside a glass jar of rolled dollar bills on a dark wooden desk under lamplight

The Life Insurance Nobody Will Help You Leave

Everyone will sell you cash-value life insurance and everyone will tell you not to buy it. Nobody will help you get the money back out. The exits, the tax traps, and where I landed.

ATM machines on a wet European street at night

Get Some Cash: ATMs, Foreign Banks, and the Cards That Beat Them

Foreign ATMs want to charge you. Foreign banks want to charge you. Your own bank wants to charge you. With the right cards, all three charges go to zero. Here's the setup that actually works.

Open handwritten notebook on a desk with reading glasses and warm lamplight

The "So Lisa Doesn't Have to Figure It Out Alone" Memo

A practical memo covering the finances, accounts, insurance, and logistics that keep things running — written for the person who'd have to figure it all out if I wasn't around to explain it.