Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments April 2014
As much as I’m trying to focus on finishing my work and writing my dissertation, my ideas for PF related projects keep dogging me. This month I attended a PF seminar for med students and residents as part of my university committee participation and then had a follow-up meeting on improving the seminar to be given to the grad students next fall. After that, I couldn’t get my various website and ebook ideas out of my mind. It didn’t help that I started listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast while doing labwork. Thankfully, so far I’ve kept myself from actually working on these projects, but they are so tempting!
Kyle got his official offer letter for his postdoc (in his current advisor’s lab, for the short-term). We’re so glad that the hiring process has moved forward quickly. He’ll start on July 1 and we know his new salary so I can start budgeting. 🙂 Percentage-wise, it’s a sizeable bump, but it’s still not what most people would consider a good salary.
I also heard back from the job I applied for a few weeks ago. I got a first-round interview! 🙂 (Only two more progressively competitive hurdles to go!) It’s scheduled for a few days before Kyle’s defense, so we’ll both be stressing at the same time. Now I really need to get on studying for the interview. I’ve already scheduled next week pretty full with practice interviews with other applicants. I really, really want this job, y’all. Wish me luck! And Kyle too, for his defense this month!
Favorite Posts
Living Rich Cheaply really riles me up with his exploration of whether it’s really okay to take paternity leave.
Brian from Luke1428 shares his opinions about why people hate Dave Ramsey.
Done by Forty explains what he wants out of retirement: activity diversity.
G.E. Miller from 20 Something Finance defines usable net worth.
Ninja from Punch Debt in the Face creates his own money-related PostSecret in the comments section.
Michelle from Fit Is the New Poor explains why she considers her $30,000 wedding to be cheap – and then highlights my comment in her post on reader reaction.
Mrs. Pop from Planting Our Pennies shares her lessons from a year of bike commuting.
Cloud from Wandering Scientist details how she suddenly resigned from her job.
Michelle from Making Sense of Cents explains why you shouldn’t spend all your money while you’re young.
Cat from Budget Blonde finally got her husband’s med school assignment and announces where she is moving on short notice.
Matt from Mom and Dad Money explains index fund investing. THIS IS A MUST READ.
KK from Student Debt Survivor has heard many insulting assumptions regarding her debt repayment.
Carnivals
What Constitutes Joint or Separate Finances? was featured in the Carnival of MoneyPros and the Festival of Frugality #425.
Incentivized Viral Advertising was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance #456.
March 2014 Month in Review: Money was featured in the Carnival of MoneyPros.
Why Harvey Mudd College Tops the Payscale ROI Rankings was featured in the Financial Carnival for Young Adults and the Carnival of Financial Camaraderie.
Top Comments
nicoleandmaggie and Lauren reassured me that I am not the only one being chased for taxes I don’t owe:
“CA and MA have had no trouble tracking us down and directly contacting us after we moved away from them. No collections agents involved, just paperwork saying yes, we really did owe no taxes because we’d moved.”
“Earlier this year, I was audited by my home state for nonpayment of taxes in the first full year I lived in NC! With the fine, it was pretty much the same amount you “owe.” Fortunately, .they sent the letter to my parents’ address and it didn’t make it to a collector. It was easily taken care of by emailing a scan of my W2 and NC tax return.”
Kelly hit exactly the tone I’m trying to now that I know I’m being kicked out of grad school this summer: “Congrats!! That is super exciting. Even if you weren’t ready to be done, sometimes a “forced retirement” from grad school is the best thing to happen. Otherwise it can drag out longer than needed or helpful!”
Sara added some great points to my call for premarital finance questions: “We talked A LOT about our families, and in particular our plans for providing financial assistance in the future… I’ll throw in another one I’m grateful we discussed – ideas of how we’d raise our kids… One thing we didn’t discuss is what our wills would look like pre-kids. If/when we have kids, all of our assets would go to the widowed spouse but now we’re torn on what we should do in the interim.”
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Filed under: weekly update · Tags: defense, interview, offer letter
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Congrats on the interview, and it must be a bit of a relief for the paperwork on Kyle’s job to be proceeding so quickly.
And thanks for the mention, too!
Mrs PoP recently posted..PoP Income Statement – April 2014
Yes, it is wonderful that we know the transition will really happen, especially since the end of grad school period has been so protracted. And I’m excited to know his new salary! Previously, we only knew the minimum for that type of position at our university and he is earning a bit more.
Thank you so much for the mention! And awesome job on the interviews!
Michelle recently posted..Weekly Roundup #28: April Income Review
You are welcome and thanks!
Thanks for the shout out Emily! And I know the feeling about having a million different things you want to work on. Sometimes I get a little too much ADD and don’t actually end up accomplishing much. Gotta focus!
Oh, and congrats on the interview! You guys have a lot of exciting stuff going on.
Matt Becker recently posted..How Long Will it Take For Buying a House to Pay Off?
Yes, I’m at the point where I’m getting overwhelmed – do I do labwork or rewrite my paper or write my dissertation or study for this interview? Or daydream about PF?? I just need to commit to things for a shorter period of time instead of wasting hours trying to decide what to do.
Thanks! Yes, the period I have anticipated since the founding of this blog is FINALLY upon us!
Thanks for the mention. Good luck to you and Kyle!
Andrew@LivingRichCheaply recently posted..Small Baby, Small Apartment, Small Budget
You are welcome and thanks! Exciting month for us!
Good luck!
nicoleandmaggie recently posted..Ask the grumpies: Classroom gender resources
Thank you!
Thanks for the mention Emily! I know how tough it is when those ideas roll around in our head and we can’t get to them. Sometimes I think that might be good though…gives us a longer time to process them. I often find myself rushing into ideas/projects too quickly and then they don’t turn out great because I didn’t think it through well enough.
Brian @ Luke1428 recently posted..Wrestling Against Something Twice Your Size
That’s a good point. I actually have already made a lot of refinements to my idea for another major website just by kicking it around in my mind for several months. But I probably could have done that during the development stage, too, since I’ll work on it for a long time before launching.
I remember when I found out how much a postdoc made, and I was so shocked. Especially where I am, because it was going from a non-taxed stipend (aka, all the money was mine) to paying taxes. It didn’t put you that much farther ahead. It made me realize I really didn’t want to do the postdoc route until I received external funding 🙂
I’m so impressed you got a job interview that quickly with one application! Not that I think you’re not a strong candidate, I just remember applying for a lot of post-grad jobs and only hearing back from about 1 in 5 (or 10). Good Luck!
Yeah, I can see how going from not paying taxes to paying would eat up a large amount of the increase. Kyle is actually going to start paying social security taxes on this new salary so we have to account for that. It’s a nice jump but not nearly what he would be getting in industry.
I can give you more details through email if you want… but this company is hiring a lot of people for this position at many office locations (it’s rather generic) and there are multiple rounds of interviews so they will weed out a lot of candidates between the first and last. I’m pleased to get this first interview but it definitely does not indicate I’ll be hired. 🙂
Hey Emily! Sorry I didn’t see this until just now! 🙂 Thank you for the link. So excited about your interview too!
You’re welcome and thanks!
I hope you get the job!!!
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted..How to Deal with Online Criticism
Thanks! It’s very competitive so my expectations are low, but I’m trying!
[…] So with those observations about our current budgeting system, it was easy to divide up the wants from the needs to create budgets for three scenarios come summer/fall, for after Kyle starts his new position: […]
[…] 4) Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments April 2014 […]
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