The Lab – Blog
Practical articles for consequential decisions.
The NJL Design Lab blog publishes source-backed guides, models, and operating systems for financial independence, investing, real estate, family finance, AI, and the non-money side of life.
Explore the archive
Search every published article or follow a topic.
Filters run across the complete archive. Featured series keep multi-part ideas in a deliberate reading order.
View the seriesFamily and Financial Independence
View the seriesRetirement Drawdown
View the seriesAGI Household Resilience
View the seriesOptions Education
View the seriesReal Estate Decisions
View the series
AI
Raising Children in the Age of AGI: Skills, Education, and Human Agency
When information becomes inexpensive and AI can perform many cognitive tasks, the goal of education changes. Children will still need knowledge, but they will need judgment, initiative, relationships,…
Family Finance
What It Really Costs to Raise a Child in the US
Part 2 of a two-part series on financial independence with children: a source-backed framework for estimating child-related costs and their effect on an FI plan.
Family Finance
Financial Independence with Children Is a Family Design Project
Part 1 of a two-part series on financial independence with children: designing a calmer family system around flexibility, intentional trade-offs, and practical money habits.