Marcus Chen
Founding Editor
Marcus Chen is a former software architect who left the tech industry in 2019 to become a stay-at-home dad to three kids (ages 6, 9, and 12). He started tracking his kids' allowances in a PostgreSQL database 'as a joke' and accidentally built a parenting philosophy around it. Marcus believes every family problem can be solved with the right algorithm, much to his wife's occasional dismay. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family and a whiteboard covered in chore optimization diagrams. His writing focuses on applying systems thinking and engineering principles to family finance education.
Specialties
Articles by Marcus
I Accidentally Taught My 6-Year-Old About Inflation (And Now She Won't Stop Auditing Me)
It started with a granola bar. My daughter asked why the Costco box now costs $12 when it 'used to cost $10.' I should have said 'prices go up sometimes' and moved on. Instead, I explained inflation. Now she audits my grocery bills and demands COLA adjustments to her allowance.
December 20, 2024
The Dad Tax Must Also Inflate: A Technical Implementation Guide
I inflation-adjusted my daughter's allowance. She understood purchasing power erosion. Then she asked the logical follow-up question: 'If my allowance goes up with inflation, shouldn't your Dad Tax go up too?' Reader, I had no counter-argument. So I built a floating tax rate tied to CPI. This is that story.
November 28, 2024