Evolving Personal Finance » Archive
What to Do with Side Income
Admonitions to ‘earn more’ are fairly rampant in the PF blogosphere (of course, balanced by the ‘spend less’ mindset). I read all the time about bloggers’ and commenters’ side hustles and what they do with their extra money. We have not been immune to this trend, either – a few years ago, Kyle started earning a small side income from a hobby job, and when I stopped working full-time last August, I developed a variable … Read entire article »
Looking on the Bright Side of a Tough Financial Situation
After my Eeyore post from Wednesday on the reasons I’m experiencing financial ennui, I thought it would be nice to kind of give myself a kick in the butt to try to re-energize about our finances in a minor way while we’re still here in Durham. In this post, I’m going to list the positive things we have done in our finances since our defenses last summer, however small they may be, and some tiny goals. Good … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, frugality, goals, income, side income
Financial Ennui
I’m finding it difficult to care much about our personal finances these days, easily noted by the infrequent posting here. I actually find it very weird that I am not more engaged with our money, as I used to enjoy that so much. (Part of this is that I’m putting a lot of energy into thinking about other people’s finances for my business so there is less left for our own.) I know exactly when … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, goals, income, psychology
The Ceremony of Graduation
This past weekend, Kyle and I participated in our university’s graduation ceremony. This was the fourth time we’ve celebrated finishing our PhDs, and definitely the least fun or important of any of them. Just shy of a year ago, Kyle defended and we had a big family dinner. About nine months ago, I defended and we hosted a party for our friends and family. Eight months ago, my parents threw us a party where they … Read entire article »
Filed under: grad school
Why I Love Personal Finance: Universal Math Meets Individual Values
From about fifth grade forward, I wasn’t a big fan of math. Not to be too Barbie about it, but math class is tough, right? I apparently was fairly good at it, though, because I was put in an advanced math track in school (which just made it all the harder). By the time I got to calculus, I was pretty sick of the whole subject. Then, in my senior year of high school, I … Read entire article »
Filed under: values
April 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report
This month, I transitioned from living in the DC area with my parents to living in Durham with Kyle again. So we had a half-month of my DC expenses (public transport, gas to get between the cities) and a half-month of our normal Durham expenses. We had a nice fat income because we were both working full-time in March and fairly low-ish expenses. We still were not focused in April on keeping our discretionary spending … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
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
As a Contractor, It’s Up to Me to Protect My Time
Since my defense last summer, I’ve been contracting with a company that provides scientific services. This job has been my main source of income outside of my fellowship from this past spring. I’ve stuck with this job even though most people I know who have done it have quit after a short time, and I think the difference is that I’ve decided to fiercely protect my time. I am a perfectionist, as are many scientists. I … Read entire article »
Filed under: income
Creating Our Self-Tax Refund
While most people might love to receive a fat tax refund following tax season each year, it seems that personal finance nerds converge more on either owing tax on April 15 or getting very close to getting zero refund. Kyle and I seem to have split the difference for our 2014 taxes, gaining the pluses from each side of that argument while avoiding the minuses. For the last few years before 2014, we managed to match … Read entire article »
Filed under: taxes
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
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