Evolving Personal Finance » Archive
A One-Car Snow Day Adventure
On Wednesday, it snowed – kind of a lot, for the piedmont of North Carolina. We got about four inches of accumulation within a few hours. It’s thickest snowfall I’ve seen in the six years I’ve lived here. The Triangle was caught unprepared in a way that was reminiscent of Atlanta two weeks ago (though, from my understanding, not as extreme). I’ll tell you about the adventure we had getting home on Wednesday and then connect … Read entire article »
Internships and Other ‘Experiences’
It’s no secret that we’re in a slowly improving but still tough job market right now. Those of you with PhDs (in progress) are probably being constantly inundated with doom and gloom about how there are virtually no academic jobs opening up and PhDs have difficulty being hired to do anything else, either – so our fancy degrees don’t exempt us from the troubles of the national economy. There is a rising awareness of how valuable … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, grad school
My Inappropriate Reaction to Being Asked, “Do You Coupon?”
Last week I was standing around with a group of friends and one of them brought up my blog and asked some critical questions about my having PF as such a huge hobby, so we were chatting about those concepts. (It’s so fun to have my IRL friends know about this blog. I love connecting with them over this unusual but revealing topic.) An acquaintance that didn’t know about EPF walked up to us and … Read entire article »
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 2February2014
I’m pretty overwhelmed with work and sort-of work and on top of that we had a lot of social activities this week! I’m in the middle of a big push with my research and trying to juggle that with a group project for my professional development course. I worked more hours M-F than I normally do between those two activities plus a few on the weekends. Thankfully the group project is shaping up nicely, because my research isn’t going well! Of course this week was the Superbowl and Chinese New Year, both of which we attend parties for. We also attended a basketball game, our normal church small group meeting, and another church activity. By the time Friday evening came around, we were beat! Kyle was also sick enough to go … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
January 2014 Month in Review: Money
Big spending month for us! We had several large expenses come out of our targeted savings accounts and almost no money go in. Kyle finally convinced me to upgrade to the Moto X on my Republic Wireless service. We upgraded my plan to the unlimited talk/text/date with 3G for $25/month so the ongoing monthly costs will be a couple dollars higher than they have been before. We’re going to experiment with the different plans pretty soon … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Why I Love Joint Finances
For those of you who don’t know already, my husband, Kyle, and I keep joint finances and we are advocates of joint finances for married couples. We have a completely joint money management system, which means that we have no separate money whatsoever, not even monthly ‘allowances.’ We have just one Mint account so it’s easy to keep track of our accounts and either one of us can check up on the activity at any … Read entire article »
Filed under: marriage
What Would You Do If Money Were No Object?
Last week I was asked to respond to this question through free writing: What would you do if money were no object? This was in the context of developing a mission statement, which I’m doing in the professional development course I just started. Other questions related to leaving a legacy and so forth, so my mind was primed to think about the long-term impact of my work. My answers surprised me a bit. They related to … Read entire article »
Filed under: career
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 26January2014
The big excitement this week was that we got a snow day! I think we’ve had maybe one other in the time I’ve been in grad school – the university is very reluctant to cancel and we don’t have snow every year. So we took advantage and stayed home for the day. On Friday I spent all day at the first session of my professional development program. I think it’s going to take a lot more … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
Easy Travel Redemption with the Barclaycard World Arrival MasterCard
Last week we redeemed the sign-up bonus on my Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® – Earn 2x on All Purchases for $425 toward a flight we had recently bought to California. The whole time I’ve been learning about and using this card I kept asking myself “Is it really that easy? Where’s the catch?” This post is my report from the other side of the redemption process and let me tell you, it really is easy and … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards
Do You Support More Openness About Finances?
I guess I haven’t fully understood why money is the last taboo topic in our society. Obviously, I wanted to talk about money so much in my real life that I created a blog about it and I’ve only gotten worse since then. You can connect almost anything we do or value in life to money somehow, which is why writing in the “niche” of personal finance actually opens you up to writing about almost … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, goals, grad school, psychology, values
Recent Comments
- Adam on Home Equity Is Funny Money
"Hi Emily - I just stumbled upon your blog. Great post! Up in Canada this is a…" - Emily on Home Equity Is Funny Money
"I agree that an appraisal is the best number to work with. I can't think of why …" - JL on Home Equity Is Funny Money
"I only note it as round numbers, in $50k or $100k estimates. I also usually upda…" - We Maxed Out All Our Retirement Accounts for the First Time! - Evolving Personal Finance | Evolving Personal Finance on Avoiding an Expensive 401(k) Plan through Self-Employment
"[…] was the first year that we contributed to Kyle’s expensive 401(k…" - Business Goal Tracking for Week 8 of 2022 - Evolving Personal Finance | Evolving Personal Finance on Business Goal Tracking for Week 6 of 2022
"[…] Done as of two weeks ago! […]…"