I contend there’s no better city in the world in the summertime than Chicago. Kanye put it in a song, so it must be true. Though summertime Chi does coincide with construction season (if you’re not familiar, that’s any season that there isn’t still snow on the ground), summer is a pretty magical time here. … [Read more…]
Every journey begins with a single step. We’ve all see the footprints that accompany this quote on a motivational poster or the viral pin. Sometimes they mimic toes strolling through the sand. Sometimes they mime business shoes stepping across a floor. What they don’t mimic is real life.
It’s a funny thing: to write about the meaninglessness of words. On a blog. Using my words. But I stumbled upon a quote that seemed really profound. Essentially, our words are who we’d like to be, but our actions are who we are. I set some lofty goals for the second quarter of this year, … [Read more…]
Do you see your success? I don’t. Sure, everyone once in a while, I’ll stop to toot my own horn on Twitter or on the blog. I’m a big fan of sharing extra mortgage payments or totaling up how much debt I’ve destroyed in a year. But I don’t know that I’ve ever actually defined … [Read more…]
I am about to close the door on a decade in the classroom. For ten years, I have been able to pursue my passion and do what I love. It isn’t ever easy, but it’s always been worthwhile. Here are ten things that I’ve learned after ten years in my career. 1. Pursue your passions. … [Read more…]
I’m not sure what it is about time. Some moments, it feels like it’s crawling. Then, all of a sudden, you blink and almost half the year is gone. I started off the year with good intentions. Scratch that. I started with priorities. Rather than worry about where I’m headed or how far I still … [Read more…]
There’s perennial talk about the importance of goal setting in personal finance. SMART goals, checklists, apps abound. All of these posts and tools are designed to set people up for success. Looking ahead, though, I am not just interested in success. I’m looking to fail. Here’s why: Looking to Fail There’s real bravery and power … [Read more…]
True to tradition, I will share my debt pay down numbers for 2017 in early January. While I’m eager to crunch the numbers, I wanted to start 2018 with a slight shift. Instead of emphasizing numbers right off the bat, I wanted to share my priorities for the new year, in addition to recapping some … [Read more…]
There are two camps in personal finance: those who pay their mortgages early and those who don’t. We are in the first camp. Rather, we were. When we found out I was expecting, we took the interwebs’ advice and stopped making extra payments toward our mortgage, funneling the money into a Baby Fund instead. Now … [Read more…]
28, 30, 31. Then, there’s the really unusual 29. No matter how you flip the pages, each month only has so many days. I’ve recently gotten into the groove of setting goals for each month, and I’ve been met with varying degrees of success. Instead of looking at the end of the month as the … [Read more…]