perspective
Changing the Conversation About Privilege

Did you hear the one about how you, too, can pay off $220,000 in debt in three years? Ba dum tss. Let me fast track this to the catch. It involves a whole bunch of hard work piled on top of the generous gift of a home combined with the gift of somewhere else to … [Read more…]
Pencils, Mansions, and Tone Deafness

How many pencils does it take to function in a 22,000 square foot mega mansion? Zero, if you’re Betsy DeVos. If you somehow missed the tweet that one of her staffers posted after her first day of work at Secretary of Education, it was a joke that backfired tremendously. Politics aside, it proved something I’ve … [Read more…]
When You Tell Me Not to Be Scared

This isn’t about economics. This isn’t about politics. This is me letting you know what it feels like when you tell me not to be scared. Last night, much of the world got a lesson in stock market futures. Now that I’ve had this personal finance thing under my belt for a while, I actually … [Read more…]
Finding Contentment in Well Enough

Weekends are hard for me. Sundays in particular. No, I don’t dread going back to work the next day. The problem is that the weekends are a chance to slow down. Sometimes. And when I do slow do, I spend time catching up. Often times, I’ll read posts like “How to Pay Off $100K in … [Read more…]
What I Do Have, Not Could Have

Sometimes, I wonder if I was happier before I fell into the world of personal finance. My life is more fulfilled now. My priorities are more concrete. But there is something to be said about blissful ignorance. Yes, it’s ephemeral. It was only a matter of time before that bliss came crashing down quite literally. … [Read more…]
Hustle Like You’re in High School

Last week, I found myself feeling all sorts of things: sick, tired, sick of being tired. The trimester was coming to a close. It seemed as if I was spending every waking moment planning, grading, putting together the literary magazine, supervising an intervention group. Plus, a former student asked if we could resume our evening … [Read more…]
Can’t Versus Won’t in Finances

No one actually lives like that. It’s impossible to retire early. Sure, anyone can say those things, but you’re not actually doing that. The amount of vitriol at the bottom of significant savings or early retirement posts on sites like Yahoo Finance could give the Fashion Police on E! some serious trolling competition. It is easy … [Read more…]