Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "goals"

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

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

Funemployment Report: August 2014

Funemployment Report: August 2014

My funemployment officially started on Monday!  I spent all of Monday at home or doing errands, then spent all of Tuesday on campus, and I’m spending today at the public library.  I want to figure out quickly which places and times are most conducive to me working efficiently (similar to Erin trying to get in the zone for working).   Last week I started this 30 day workout challenge that my sister recommended on top of doing … Read entire article »

Filed under: funemployment

Funemployment Report: Goals for August 2014

Funemployment Report: Goals for August 2014

My funemployment officially starts in September because I am still employed full-time as a graduate student through August.  However, now that I am post-defense, I have the time to set myself up well to transition into funemployment.   I’m going to attempt to document my funemployment through a series of goal posts.  Just after the start of each month, I will report how I did on my goals for the month that just ended and set out … Read entire article »

Filed under: blogging, career, funemployment, goals, grad school

Stretch Goal: FinCon 2014!

Stretch Goal: FinCon 2014!

I have absolutely devoured all the FinCon13 recap posts in my RSS reader this week!  I know some of the writers think they are boring/tedious for their readers, but since I “know” so many of the participants it’s interesting to me to hear about them hanging out together.  I am considering buying the Virtual Pass so I can at least learn from the presentations, although I know that the in-person networking is the more important … Read entire article »

Filed under: blogging, goals, income

Grocery Challenge Update for December 2012

Grocery Challenge Update for December 2012

This is our December review for our attempt to take control of our grocery spending through seven goals and a new grocery budget cap.   In December we spent $502.54 on groceries, about 25% above our budget of $400.  I don’t feel terrible about this overage because there were a few unusual circumstances, and I think we’re on track to meet our budget next month.  We did pretty well accomplishing our goals aside from the time we … Read entire article »

Filed under: food

Living Your Real Life Now

Something I hear often from grad students (and say often myself) is “When I have a real job…” followed by some fantasy about the future like saving for a house downpayment or going on a big vacation or not being in the lab after midnight.   Since these sentiments come out of my mouth, too, I obviously understand where they’re coming from.  In grad school, like in college, during an engagement, or just before starting a family, there is a sense of now-but-not-yet.  I have this life and it’s not quite what I want it to be because there is a waiting period, a working period until I can achieve something that will usher my life into its next stage.   But the fact is that just because I don’t have a real job … Read entire article »

Filed under: choices, grad school, values

When Top-Down and Bottom-Up Budgeting Clash

When Top-Down and Bottom-Up Budgeting Clash

In my observation, there are two totally reasonable approaches to budgeting: top-down: decide where your money should go de novo without reference to your current spending i.e. percentage-based budgeting like the Balanced Money Formula (BMF) bottom-up: observe where your money goes and create a budget reflecting that, perhaps with small tweaks   The bottom-up approach is the most straightforward for most people because, you know, they already have financial lives. They rent or have a mortgage, they eat, they pay … Read entire article »

Filed under: budgeting, transitions

What Do You Want Your Life to Be Like in Five Years?

What Do You Want Your Life to Be Like in Five Years?

Today I want to hear from you about your dreams and ambitions!  Tell me how you envision yourself living five years from now.  What do you want to accomplish in that time? What transitions will you go through?   In five years Kyle and I will be thirty-two!  I see us on a beach near San Diego playing with our 1-2 small children.  We both have PhDs; Kyle has finished one postdoc and has a research position … Read entire article »

Filed under: transitions, values

Blog Statistics Update May – June 2012

Blog Statistics Update May – June 2012

This is my one-month update on how EPF is doing based on our May 16 – June 15 data.  Probably only other bloggers will care about the statistics stuff, but I found the list of most viewed posts pretty interesting (two were from before this period) and of course comments are still welcome!  I’ll definitely read and respond to them.     Statistics   People who listen to us, as of June 15, 2012 RSS subscribers: 66 (+13) Twitter followers: 51 (+18) Facebook … Read entire article »

Filed under: blogging, month in review