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Money and the Timing of Children

Money and the Timing of Children

Kyle and I have been married for 3.5 years, and 1) we don’t have any kids, 2) we’re not pregnant, and 3) we’re not trying to get pregnant.  We do want to have (two or three) children in the future.  And the timing of those decisions has nothing to do with our finances.   This week, our church started a series titled “God and the Rest of the Week,” which is about not segregating God into solely … Read entire article »

Filed under: family, grad school

Oops, We Need to File an Estimated Tax Payment This Month

Oops, We Need to File an Estimated Tax Payment This Month

When I wrote about how to have a financially successful first month of graduate school back in August, I added to my editorial calendar for this January a post on how to file estimated tax payments.  I thought that would be perfect timing for those first-year grad students to consider filing estimated taxes on the fellowship money they’d received in their first semester, if they didn’t set up withholding.  I never considered at that time that … Read entire article »

Filed under: taxes

Anchored in this Anomalous Economy

Anchored in this Anomalous Economy

I read often about the kids who have come of age during the Great Recession and Great Recovery (Millennials, broadly) and the predicted to be lifelong implications of having one of those birth years.  While I think that many of those assertions are overly dour and do not ring true for me personally, I have been reflecting recently on how this current economic climate is such an anomalous one to become my anchor for all … Read entire article »

Filed under: psychology

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 29December2013

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 29December2013

We had a very busy week!  We were staying with my parents in northern VA until Thursday.  On Sunday we went downtown with my parents to see the Air and Space Museum and the American Art Museum.  For New Year’s Eve, Kyle and I went out with my sister and her boyfriend.  On Wednesday we attended a wedding in PA.  Thursday was all packing, driving, and grocery shopping.  On Friday I returned to work and … Read entire article »

Filed under: weekly update

December 2013 Month in Review: Money

December 2013 Month in Review: Money

Given that this was December, we actually had a pretty normal spending month.  We bought all of our Christmas presents, but the cost was reimbursed out of our Travel and Personal Gifts account, as was our spending on gas to get to my parents’ house for the holidays.  Our discretionary spending was remarkably close to 100% across all five categories.  We had an unusual number of miscellaneous purchases this month, but they were all fairly … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

How to Calculate and File Estimated Tax Payments

How to Calculate and File Estimated Tax Payments

If you are being paid but aren’t having any money withheld for income taxes, you may need to pay estimated tax quarterly.  If you don’t know what those are or how to do them, read on!  Grad students, please pay special attention.  You have to pay income tax on your stipend if it doesn’t go toward qualified educational expenses (your rent does not count).  If you do not have withholding set up, you will likely … Read entire article »

Filed under: grad school, taxes

When to Pass Up a Company Retirement Match

When to Pass Up a Company Retirement Match

I know this is practically heresy around the personal finance community, but I don’t think everyone should contribute to his 401(k) or equivalent, even when a company retirement match is available.  I didn’t think that I held that opinion until I advised a coaching client to pass up his unlimited 100% company 401(k) match.   I am supposed to advise my coaching clients according to the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, perhaps with some reasonable modifications.  Starting Baby … Read entire article »

Filed under: budgeting, choices, investing, retirement, savings

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 22December2013

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 22December2013

As I told you last week, we drove to my parents’ place on Sunday for our Christmas break.  Since then, we’ve been: spending time with family cooking hanging out with friends reading (I’m working on Gulp by Mary Roach, but I have two more books to get to after that!) watching movies (47 Ronin and Elysium, and some older ones) and Modern Family napping helping my mom with some of her errands   One of the errands we helped with was taking, touching up, … Read entire article »

Filed under: weekly update

Christmas 2013 Recap

Christmas 2013 Recap

It seems that every year Kyle and I try a slightly different approach to Christmas gifts shopping, but our choices this year didn’t work out so amazingly.  (I’m still waiting for my giving revolution, y’all.)  The first year we were married, 2010, was a disaster because we spent way too much money and made the whole event stressful.  In 2011, we instituted a per-person spending cap that was very successful in keeping the whole affair … Read entire article »

Filed under: family, food

The Thinking Person’s Guide to Dave Ramsey: Realistic Wealth Building

The Thinking Person’s Guide to Dave Ramsey: Realistic Wealth Building

You commonly hear, “Dave Ramsey is great on debt, not so much on investing.”  To his credit, he does advocate that everyone who is debt-free saves 15% toward retirement, which is a great start.  But listening to his specific investing advice sets the expectations of the portfolio growth too high and will likely cause the investor to take on too much risk.   Unconventional Strategy   Dave Ramsey’s investment advice for everyone is to invest in four types of … Read entire article »

Filed under: investing