Weekly Update 1

I’ve decided to add a weekend feature summing up what’s been going on in our lives in the past couple weeks as well as linking to some other blogs that have published great articles recently.

Our Last Two Weeks

I was totally consumed preparing for a second-round internship interview I had last Thursday.  I traveled to Atlanta for the day and had a great time at the interview, but unfortunately I wasn’t asked back for the third round.  It sucks to work so hard for something and not get it, but I got to meet a lot of great people, both the employees and other interviewees.  (Also, no chance for a big income boost this summer.)  I basically did no work and less blogging-stuff than I usually do, aside from a pre-prelim meeting, which was pretty casual but a good milestone for my progress toward my dissertation.  Kyle has been very supportive and encouraging during this process.  He’s been working hard at editing a paper to submit for publication so he’s been working closely with his PI and collaborators on that.

We love that the college basketball season is heating up!  We don’t have cable so we went over to our friends’ house a couple times to watch our team play.  We also saw Memphis at our local performing arts center last week, which was awesome.  It is my favorite of the season so far.

Last weekend we traveled back to my hometown for a memorial service for a family member.  The service itself exceeded everyone’s expectations and we enjoyed looking at the photo albums and letters/journal entries that my grandmother compiled about their family life in the fifties through seventies.

Link Love

G.E. Miller at 20somethingfinance explained why he thinks the advice “spend less than you earn” is inadequate.  While I disagreed with his reasoning, he made an important point about pushing for a high personal savings rate and there was a good discussion in the comments.

Tim Sullivan at Get Rich Slowly listed some alternative ideas to traditional wedding registries.  While we had a traditional registry (and honestly needed everything we put on it, as broke grad students who owned all secondhand stuff) we also had a honeymoon registry.  I am definitely on the side of people registering for what they want, so if that is cash for a bigger purchase or for charities, more power to them.

Ninja at Punch Debt in the Face had a unique perspective on Mitt Romney’s tax return release; he compared the giving rates of several top candidates.  I also enjoyed the comments on his post soliciting income information from his readers.  It was one of the two posts that inspired my post on high income commenters and feeling rich.

Jeff at Sustainable Life Blog posted an honest and introspective post on why his motivation to become debt-free has flagged recently.  I enjoyed the post because I have similar feelings about our emergency fund – it exists but it’s not up to par and we have prioritized many other goals over it.

Erika at Newlyweds on a Budget shared her struggles in communicating with her husband about money and a great discussion ensued in the comments.  Also, congratulations to the Newlyweds on finding a new home to rent!

Earn Save Live wrote a very comprehensive post on how to create and achieve savings goals.  I particularly like her emphasis on windfalls and lifestyle inflation.

Best Comment of the Week

Jon from JW’s Financial Coaching wrote “it always bothers me when we judge whether or not someone is rich by how much their income is” on What’s the Deal? Are We Poor?

Top Sites Referring to EvolvingPF

1. Punch Debt in the Face

2. 20somethingfinance

3. Girl with the Red Balloon

4. Sustainable Life Blog