It’s no secret that I hate my mortgage. It’s no secret that I don’t believe there’s such a thing as good debt. But we do really love our house, our neighborhood, our short commutes, and our proximity to family. So we grin and bear it. Since I fell into personal finance, I’ve taken a Bandaid … [Read more…]
Last year, I couldn’t make up my mind when it came to our debt. At first, it seemed like we had paid off just shy of $20,000. Then, I remembered came clean about the fact that we still had a car payment. So we clocked in right around $24,000 when it was all said and done. … [Read more…]
Four years ago, I bought our house. I know what you’re thinking. But no, this isn’t one of the many times where I type I even though I really mean we. I purchased our house. And it seems like the strangest secret in the world to finally share and celebrate because even though the house was … [Read more…]
Alright, personal finance blogosphere. Enough with the haterade for new cars. Are they depreciating assets? Yes. Is interest bad? Yes. Is financing a car the worst thing someone could do financially? Not necessarily. In fact, as someone who financed a $27,000 car several years back, I wouldn’t change a thing. Except maybe I would have … [Read more…]
You know FOMO and YOLO and adulting. You’re probably familiar with regifting. But what about degifting and frugle and debth? It turns out, that as we sort through our money, millennials are creating new language right along side of it. Why the need for the new vocabulary? Our generation is looking at money differently. Sometimes … [Read more…]
I am terrible at setting goals. I also don’t really share numbers here. At least not in any streamlined way. If you read my posts about unexpected expenses and the $24k in debt we killed last year, you’ll get a fairly decent picture of my income and my spending. But let’s leave a little mystery … [Read more…]
Here’s the thing: I don’t drink coffee. I can count on one hand the number of sips I’ve tried. It’s so repulsive to me, I cannot swig it down in a Frappuccino that is 87% sugar, 11% heavy whipping cream, and 2% coffee. I won’t even eat tiramisu, failure of an Italian American that I … [Read more…]
Where are all my bi-weekly paycheck people at? If you pick up a paycheck every other week–or every week–then you know that there are months where you’ll land an “extra” paycheck. For me, one of those months happens to be September this year. While my monthly budget is structured based on two of my husband’s … [Read more…]
Last month, The Minimalists did a podcast on debt. That podcast led to a profusion of tweets about the drawbacks of credit scores. In fact, the underlying message–ripped out of Dave Ramsey’s playbook–was that no one should want a credit score. The Minimalists by way of Ramsey tweeted out that a credit score is nothing … [Read more…]
Is your budget really as smart as you think it is? One of the first things many people do when they are trying to get their financial fitness on is to create a budget. Undeniably, there is a requisite amount of trial and error involved in the first few passes. A budget should meet everyone’s … [Read more…]