One of the most common pieces of advice in personal finance is to increase your income. It’s a solid suggestion. Until it’s not. The truth is that you can’t always make more money. There are a lot of instances when layering on a side income or two is hugely advantageous. I’d argue that in just … [Read more…]
Originally, I considered writing a post in order to crowdsource input, advice, and insight regarding car buying. But then I remembered that there’s exactly one stance espoused by personal finance gurus: Spend a few grand on a car (always pay cash)…or better yet, ride a bike. Don’t worry. No bikes were purchased in the making … [Read more…]
I’m not going to lie. I’m not even sure when I lost sight of my goals this quarter, but I do know that by the time March 31 rolled around, those goals were the last thing on my mind. The fact that I was truly worried about trying to get more sleep and save money … [Read more…]
Bow, curtsy, tap toes, wave, smile, nod. These are just some of the handshake alternatives that are enjoying their turn in the limelight. There are also peace signs, Spock signs, salutes, air high-fives. If you’re my middle school students, you might just take to greeting one another with a squirt of hand sanitizer. (Actually, don’t … [Read more…]
Last week was weird. It alternated between feeling like a typical February in the classroom (Children climbing the walls! Teachers climbing the walls!) and something totally atypical. Between worries on Wall Street and people bracing for the possibility of a pandemic, things just felt strange. Still, saving and earning took priority over worrying in our … [Read more…]
There’s so much talk about teaching kids about money. When do you start? How do you start? What’s saying too much versus saying too little? I can’t claim that I have that entirely figured out. Heck, I can’t claim that I have anything about parenting entirely figured out. But I do know that our toddler does already … [Read more…]
There are all sorts of ways to make kids expensive. Celebrating every holiday for instance. But as a family that really does love to celebrate, no matter how made up the occasion, we knew that we were going to say yes to Valentine’s Day! We knew we wanted to avoid a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift … [Read more…]
There’s a scene in the movie Clueless where Alicia Silverstone’s character is accused of being aimless. She insists that she has direction, and is promptly chided, “Towards the mall!” That, friends, was me in a nutshell for years. Decades really. I didn’t have any concrete financial ambitions or direction. And I shopped like it was … [Read more…]
Six years ago, it was a late Thanksgiving. I know because we celebrated it with my nana the same as we did every year, and my mom ordered the biggest cheesecake anyone had ever seen. After all, it was Thanksgiving, and it was also my nana’s birthday. She turned 93. She squeezed my hand so … [Read more…]
You probably thought the definition of insanity was doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. That is…until you read the title of this post. Then, maybe you reworked your definition, huh? But we actually purposefully make the choice to take our toddler grocery shopping. Every. Single. Week. And we like the results! In … [Read more…]