Weekly Update 19

Slow week for us!  I’ve been procrastinating preparing for my lab meeting presentation this coming Monday.  The only out of the ordinary thing we did this week aside from returning from our trip to the NC mountains last week was to see West Side Story at our local theater.  It was the first time I’d ever seen a live production of the show, and it was a lot more vulgar than I was expecting!  Maybe the language and/or choreography has been updated.  Also, much of the dialogue spoken and lyrics sung by the Puerto Rican characters was in Spanish, which was a bit surprising but I guess felt more authentic.  However, since we’re not fluent in Spanish it was a bit hard to follow the longer/faster stretches – more like seeing an opera than a musical, I guess.

 

 

Posts I Liked

 

Michelle from Making Sense of Cents wrote a primer on how to start building credit with a credit card.  Key point: pay off the balance every month!

 

Leigh from Leigh’s Financial Journey shared how she came to a balance that works for her on tracking and budgeting the details within her spending.

 

Albie D. from Talking Cents shared the results of their poll on financial dishonesty within relationships.

 

Well Heeled Blog observed that exotic travel is becoming yet another way the Jones pressure us to spend money.

 

J.D. from Get Rich Slowly asked his readers how much they spend on fun.  Our categories that I consider “fun” are eating out, entertainment, and travel, which for us add up to a bit under 10% of our income.

 

 

Mentions

 

Jason from Work Save Live included How Might Your Spouse’s Love Language Affect Your Finances? in his weekend reading.

 

Edward Antrobus included How Might Your Spouse’s Love Language Affect Your Finances? in the places he’s been.

 

Earth and Money linked to Oh, Look at That in his 3-month recap.

 

Economically Humble linked to Decisions We Are Wrestling With in his week in review.

 

 

Carnivals

 

Joint and Separate Money Series: Odds and Ends was included in the Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #35.

 

My Dream in 23 Years – What’s Yours? was included in the Financial Simplicity Carnival.

 

We Have Too Many Gift Cards! was included in the Financial Carnival for Young Adults – 15th Edition.

 

How Might Your Spouse’s Love Language Affect Your Finances? was included in the Carnival of Money Pros and the Festival of Frugality #339.

 

Why Do Stay-at-Home Parents Need Their Own Credit Cards? was included in the Carnival of Money Pros.

 

 

Top Comment

 

Well Heeled shared a very specific vision for how she wants her future wealth to manifest itself in her life – she wants “to make enough money to travel business class on every one of my trips.”  I love that she has made her vision of her future wealth so specific!  By articulating it this way, she makes it clear that she wants to be wealthy so that travel and comfort can be top priorities.

 

 

Most Frequent Commenters


  1. Leigh @ Leigh’s Financial Journey
  2. Edward Antrobus
  3. Renee
  4. Well Heeled Blog
  5. From Shopping to Saving
  6. Jason @ Work Save Live

 

 

Top Blogs Referring to EPF


  1. Freedom 48
  2. The Happy Homeowner
  3. Well Heeled Blog
  4. Get Rich Slowly
  5. Life in Transition

 

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3 Responses to "Weekly Update 19"

  1. Lauren says:

    Interesting links, do you think its worth taking out a credit card as a way to build credit or does the application process, if failed, cause you to lose credit rating? Is getting the 1st card not a real struggle?
    Lauren recently posted..Your house is your home

    1. Emily says:

      Well don’t quote me on this, but I’ll try to answer your question!

      I think you do take a slight credit score hit when someone checks your credit and when you open new accounts – I don’t think you will be any more affected by being rejected, though. If you have absolutely no credit history those factors won’t affect you.

      Getting your first line of credit can be difficult if you have no credit history and are quite young. In my case I was approved for the first card I applied for because I had student loans, which had given me a credit history. Some young people are added to their parents’ credit cards to lay a credit history (although I actually wouldn’t recommend this to parents generally). I think it’s easier to get a secured credit card than a normal one starting out.

      In general I do think it’s worth it to take out a credit card to establish a credit history as long as you pay it off in full every month. I didn’t trust myself yet when I got my first credit card, so I continued using debit cards for three years and only made rare purchases with my credit card until I knew I would not ever carry a balance.

  2. Leigh says:

    Thanks for the mention! 🙂
    Leigh recently posted..Sleeveless shirts: the answer to spring and summer

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