Evolving Personal Finance » funemployment

Funemployment Report: Fellowship Period

Funemployment Report: Fellowship Period

This will be my last funemployment report as I’ve decided to transition from being funemployed to being self-employed! I don’t feel as comfortable putting all my self-employment goals online, though I do have both long-term and short-term goals for my business. Instead, I’ll probably shift occasional reporting on my self-employment progress to the EPF newsletter. –>   I tried to keep my funemployment goals for mid-January to mid-April pretty minimal because I knew my full-time job and … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment

I Never Aimed for Self-Employment, But Here I Am

I Never Aimed for Self-Employment, But Here I Am

I am officially throwing my hat into the self-employment ring from now through summer 2015 (at least). I never thought I would be at this point, but over the last six months I’ve found something I really enjoy doing, and I want to see if I can earn a living from it. Kyle and I are also still anticipating moving in the near future (destination TBD), so it’s not a great time for me to … Read entire article »

Filed under: blogging, funemployment, grad school, self-employment

Funemployment Report: December 2014 to mid-January 2015

Funemployment Report: December 2014 to mid-January 2015

As I expected, December and the first half of January were not very productive months in terms of my funemployment. We spent two weeks of December in California (on vacation, I suppose) and the first two weeks in January involved a lot of shopping on my part in preparation for starting my fellowship. I did make a bit of progress on my goals, but I was stalled from completing some I needed Kyle’s help on … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment

November 2014 Money Puddle and Spending Report

November 2014 Money Puddle and Spending Report

This was an INCREDIBLE month in terms of spending. I think it might be our highest spending month ever (post-wedding/honeymoon), or at least in the last couple years.   The big big spending outlay was that we finally bought a DSLR. We have desired this type of camera for a couple years and started saving for it 16 months ago. We no longer have targeted savings accounts, but the last balance on our camera account was more … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment, month in review

Funemployment Report: November 2014

Funemployment Report: November 2014

I finally feel like I accomplished something this month! I finished a deliverable: my personal finance for grad students presentation, which I gave on November 13. I said earlier that I thought Grad Student Finances was my passion project for the fall, but it turned out that this presentation was.   I’m noticing that my priorities at the end of a month don’t match well my priorities at the beginning of the month. That’s a major component … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment

We’re Evolving!: Our Next Transition

We’re Evolving!: Our Next Transition

When we founded EPF in 2011, a major component of is purpose was to keep us financially honest during our several anticipated life transitions. Well, it took until 2014 for the first one to occur, but now we seem to be on a roll.   Transition #1: Kyle defended and became a postdoc in the same lab he did his PhD in. Essentially the only change was a salary bump.   Transition #2: I defended and became funemployed. The major change … Read entire article »

Filed under: budgeting, career, funemployment, housing, income

What Triggers Frugality: Net Worth or Income?

What Triggers Frugality: Net Worth or Income?

My mindset toward frugality has changed quite a bit even during the few short years I’ve been blogging.     While I’ve never felt poor, Kyle and I used to be very careful with our money. I mean, we would still do a lot of things like travel domestically and pay for entertainment, but we would be very deliberate and tight in how we went about it. We traveled to Chicago to attend a wedding, for instance, but road-tripped … Read entire article »

Filed under: frugality, funemployment, income, net worth, targeted savings

October 2014 Money Puddle and Spending Report

October 2014 Money Puddle and Spending Report

This was our first month under our new money management system! We needed to change things up because with only one regular income plus some side hustles for the fall, we no longer have the luxury of saving into our targeted savings accounts. I consolidated most of our savings accounts in October and stopped our automatic transfers.   I have to admit that figuring out how much money we spent was a bit more difficult that what … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment, income, month in review, spending

Funemployment Report: October 2014

Funemployment Report: October 2014

I was less focused this month than I was in August and September. I think I do need to implement one of the time-tracking suggestions that some commenters told me about last month. Listing what I’ve accomplished each day is going well, but there are still some days that I wonder what I was really up to. Even if I don’t start time tracking, I think I need to be more detailed with my daily … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment

Funemployment Report: September 2014

Funemployment Report: September 2014

I definitely didn’t accomplish anywhere near what I wanted to this month, yet I felt it was a very productive month. I just set way too ambitious goals! I’m going to continue to set ambitious goals and mostly fail at them because I’d rather do that than feel like I don’t have much to do or am not sure what to do next.   In September, I also started keeping a list of everything I worked on … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment