Winter break started early for us this year – we have already been in California for a few days! It’s been a working vacation so far as Kyle had to negotiate a few remote work days to be able to leave town so early, and of course my funemployment ‘work’ follows me everywhere (and I enjoy it!).

The last two weeks have consisted of holiday parties, basketball games, discussions about my PhD PF talks, some volunteering, and the end of my internship. Kyle and I also crossed an item off our NC bucket list: eating at Lexington Barbecue, which is about a 75 minute drive from Durham. (The verdict: not worth the travel – but at least we know what we’re not missing!)

Kyle and I took advantage of the dedicated attention forced by an hour of one of our flights to finally, finally make a decision about whether or not to pay off my student loans and how our mid-term taxable investments will change from this year to next. I’m very happy with the plan we formed and will post about it in the coming weeks! We have the deadline of the end of the year coming up fast to put some changes into action and finally commit.

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After I shared how I got into personal finance, many commenters shared as well. Mrs. Pop from Planting Our Pennies started early as well but for a different reason than me: “I knew that I didn’t want to replicate my parents’ financial mess… Plus there was the fact that I knew if I ever failed financially I would have absolutely zero support from them. No moving back home, no occasional cash for groceries, nothing. So the motivation was there. The education then probably started with borrowing Millionaire Next Door from Mr PoP when we first started dating… With some basics under my belt I was on my way.”

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