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January 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report
January was another blockbuster month for spending. I think we’ve set a new record for high spending month after month! I hope it is the last one for some time, though. I’ve already addressed one of the big spending areas – new clothes! I bought a bunch of pieces for a new business casual wardrobe for my fellowship, and Kyle also bought two new pairs of jeans and spent what he called an Emily-level of money on them rather than getting them from Target (those kept wearing it super fast). We also repaired and re-registered my car. I will probably write a whole post on becoming a two-car family (again), so for now I’ll just say that we spent about $1,000 on an initial repair and then another $200 when another warning … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
My Speaking Website (with Video!)
I don’t have a real post for you today because Kyle and I have been working hard on the speaking side of things: My speaking website is now online! (Done with Goal 4b!) It’s super simple right now but includes outlines of my talks and a handful of video clips from my Duke presentation last November. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments of this post! I am writing a bunch of pitch emails to student groups and administrators at various universities, and it takes significant time to research exactly who I need to contact at each place (both student groups and administrators). If you want to help me with my research by putting me in contact with the right person/group at YOUR university, please email me (evolvingPF at … Read entire article »
Filed under: side income
Our New Money Management Issues
Kyle and I are 1.5 weeks into living apart but managing money together. This post is on my initial observations on the money management implications of my move to a new(ish) city, living apart from Kyle, and being paid in a lump sum for three months of work. I’m sure that over the course of my fellowship how we manage our finances will change a bit and I will have new insights by the end. Lump … Read entire article »
How to Budget from a Lump Sum of Income
What do you do when there’s more money than month? Some people find budgeting over a whole month difficult enough – but what if your payment needs to last multiple months? It’s not a common problem, but it does come up for students receiving loan disbursements or fellowships as well as others who have highly irregular income or who receive bonuses. Just this last week, I received a check for $8,500 that is a fellowship payment (non-employee) … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting
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
My Unfrugal Shopping Spree
In the last three weeks, I have been on the largest shopping spree of my life, bar none. This week I am starting my three-month fellowship in DC, which necessitated a professional wardrobe. Thankfully, the dress code is business casual four days per week and casual on Fridays, plus there will be occasional events that call for business dress (one instance is on my first day, actually). Even with that fairly lax (for DC) standard, … Read entire article »
Filed under: spending
Personal Capital Review: Investment Services Pitch
Personal Capital has been getting some buzz around the personal finance blogosphere because of its identity as a technology company (and because it pays high commissions to bloggers for leads). If you sign up for free and link your account information, Personal Capital provides a tool for visualizing investments as well as tracking your spending. It is similar to Mint but way better on the investment displays and such. So that is all great and … Read entire article »
Filed under: investing
Personal Capital Review: Software
A few months ago, Kyle and I signed up for Personal Capital after reading positive reviews from other bloggers. We linked up all our accounts and have been using the free software periodically. We also went through a series of meetings with a Personal Capital advisor to see if we wanted to use them as our investment advisors. In this post, I will share how I like using Personal Capital’s software, which they provide for … Read entire article »
Filed under: investing
December 2014 Money Puddle and Spending Report
December is always a crazy month between gifts, travel, and socializing, and this year was no exception. We spent two full weeks in California with Kyle’s parents in December, which obviously threw off our food and transportation spending quite a bit. Right before the end of our visit, we both got sick – me with a stomach bug and Kyle with a head cold. My stomach bug caused us to do some ‘emergency’ spending that … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
What We Learned from Our Short-Term Investment Experiment
Three and a half years ago, Kyle and I embarked on an investing experiment. When we got married (4.5 years ago) and consolidated our finances, we had enough money to pay off my outstanding student loans of $16,000. However, as the loans were subsidized and deferred while I was in graduate school, we decided to invest the payoff money. Our anticipated timeline was 2-3 years. We wanted to earn a bit of a return, yes, but … Read entire article »
Filed under: investing
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