Evolving Personal Finance » Archive
Time and Money Spent Reveal Your Values – After You Normalize
I often hear axioms along the lines of “If you look at a man’s checkbook register, you can tell what his priorities are.” Ugh, that sounded a bit dated… “If you log into a person’s Mint account, you can tell what her priorities are.” The point is that you will naturally put money toward the things you value most and skimp on the ones you don’t. Your money tells the truth about what you care … Read entire article »
Filed under: values
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 19January2014
The only really out of the ordinary thing that happened this week was that Kyle and I babysat for our friends’ kids one evening this week while they went on a date. Their kids are three and a few months and were super easy, so it was quite fun. I got lots of baby cuddles and Kyle got lots of playtime with the older child. I think that taking care of cute, well-behaved, fun children is supposed to make biological clock tick or something, but no dice so far. Kyle finished debugging his code and is generating results again after being stuck for a few months. After a week of panic, I found out that an animal study I’m doing with some collaborators is going forward, with a deadline extension for … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
What Happened to the Term ‘Independently Wealthy?’
Recently I heard the term ‘independently wealthy’ twice in a weekend. To tell you the truth, I had forgotten that term even existed – I can’t think of a single time I’ve read it in the PF blogosphere since everyone uses ‘financially independent’ instead. I think they mean the same thing, though, right? They both mean that the person doesn’t have to actively work to sustain her lifestyle. The money could come from passive income … Read entire article »
Filed under: psychology
Our Best (Pain-Free) Money-Saving Moves
In this post I will detail how much money we have saved (that is, not-spent) by making simple, painless changes in our life. We really haven’t given up anything by making these choices, although sometimes the workarounds can get a bit creative! I’ve ranked our choices from most money saved per year to least. Moving Closer to Work While Reducing Our Rent Two years ago, Kyle and I were living in a luxury apartment and we really … Read entire article »
Filed under: choices, credit cards, frugality, housing, luxuries, spending
A Peek at Graduate Student Loan Debt
An article popped up on my personal Facebook feed last week that was accompanied by a spirited discussion in the comments about PhD student stipend levels and the necessity of taking out student loans even for students who are “fully funded.” Of course I clicked over and eventually found my way to this spreadsheet of student loan balances created by Karen Kelsky of The Professor Is In to demonstrate her point that even funded humanities PhDs can result … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt, grad school
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 12January2014
This week Kyle and I went to two basketball games! We’d only been to a couple so far this season because we drew so many ACC games. We ended up with two Ws but one of them was a nail-biter, so that was fun to be present for. We were able to bring friends from our church small group to both because there’s a very generous guest policy in place right now. I had an idea for a new website a week or so ago and this weekend Kyle and I bought the domain! It’s not a blog, just a little side project. I’m excited to announce it here when it’s ready to go up and I hope you all will contribute to it and/or help promote it! That’s all I’ll … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
Blog Statistics Update December 2013 – January 2014
I had hoped that this month would be the one I got ahead in my posts, and I did a little bit but now I’m right back to writing 0-3 days in advance! I have plenty of ideas for posts still but keep putting off the ones that require more research. It’s disappointing that EPF’s traffic is lower than it was a year ago. Mostly I think that is from lost search engine traffic. I need … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, month in review
How Do You Decide If You Can Afford a Purchase?
Lately I have been thinking about how to determine whether to make a purchase of a “want” and I’d love some feedback from you all about how you make that decision. One of the purposes of a budget, in my mind, is to help you make that decision. A budget gives you guidelines for what you want your spending to be, and then all you have to do when contemplating a purchase is ask yourself … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, spending, targeted savings
Financial Heroes or Financial Zeros?
I hope this post doesn’t come off as too mean-spirited. I love listening to personal podcasts (non-NPR/APM) partially because you get to know the hosts rather intimately over many episodes. One of my current favorite podcasts is hosted by a married couple and they talk about their life and relationship quite a bit. Over the course of a hundred or so episodes, I’ve picked up a lot of tidbits about this couple’s financial situation, and … Read entire article »
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 5January2014
This week went about how you would expect given where we were last week – lots of work and sickness. I kept my nose to the grindstone through Wednesday (my deadline), and then allowed myself a sick day on Thursday – which I then made up for on Saturday, sheesh. I received my Moto X this week! I think Kyle is jealous since his iPhone 5 is no longer the hottest phone in the house. It … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
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