Evolving Personal Finance » Archive
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 30June2013
We had a bit of a weird week! We had planned on working three days and taking the 4th and 5th off. We still took the last two days off, but on Monday morning we were confronted with a leak in the ceiling in our townhouse. We kind of freaked out and spend the day cleanup up and trying to get in touch with our property management company. We both worked a bit later in the day but it sucked to miss the most productive part of the day in an already short week. On Thursday morning we flew out and we’ve spent the long weekend in Madison, WI for a wedding. It actually has felt like a vacation for once and not a jam-packed trip! I’ll have a post up … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
June 2013 Month in Review: Money
We did an excellent job sticking to our budget this month! We came in under budget in every single category! Plus we had a big-spending month from our targeted savings, so months like these really validate why we have those accounts in place. We paid for much of our July 4 trip to Madison, WI as well as a quick drive up to northern Virginia. The Everyday Budget Top-line items INCOME: Our paychecks from our university plus $172.40 from … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Reader Question: Where to Open an IRA?
Last week I received a great question on where to open an IRA from a reader! I think this is an important question that doesn’t necessarily get the discussion it deserves in comparison with the question of asset allocation or particular investments. I’m not a financial advisor, though, so please do your own research as well! Hey Emily, I’m starting my first “big kid” job at the end of the summer. So this got me thinking about … Read entire article »
Filed under: retirement
First Values and Goals, Then Strategies
When you first encounter the subject of personal finance, you may be tempted to jump right into trying to understand the best debt payoff method, the right retirement savings vehicle, which investments to buy and when, or how to get the best credit card rewards. But without being properly motivated and focused by your own values and goals, hectic personal finance activity won’t result in satisfaction and will possibly burn you out. Before getting into … Read entire article »
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 23June2013
Just in case you missed the zillions of reminders from Google Reader itself or any of the other blogs you read, today is the last day of Google Reader’s life! You will have to switch to another RSS reader if you want to keep having all your great blog content organized in one place. There are many other options – Kyle is now using The Old Reader and I am using Feedly. And if you’ve never signed up to get EPF’s content through an RSS feed, this is a great opportunity! We had another week of heavy work this week and not much else. We’ve tried to fit in as much tennis as we can but it’s been raining quite a bit. That’s also put a damper on our grilling but … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
When We Were Just Starting Out
One of our objectives with this blog is to show graduate students – particularly PhD students who receive livable stipends – how to live well while being financially responsible. But I’m afraid that we’ve come so far, both in time and in net worth, from where we were when we first started grad school that pictures of our current state are not actually helpful or inspirational but perhaps even intimidating to someone just starting out. … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, grad school
Do I Want a Camera or Subjects?
I’m “that person” in my group of friends – the one who always has a camera out, taking awkward candid photos. I estimate that I have tens of thousands of photos that I’ve taken with my two Canon point-and-shoots over the past 7 or 8 years. (But for all the flak my friends give me about annoyingly documenting everything, they frequently tell me how much they appreciate my efforts and several times have asked for … Read entire article »
Filed under: choices, spending, targeted savings
How Emerging Is Your Adulthood?
There’s been so much news coverage in the last several years (and perhaps this has happened with previous generations as well) about how 20-somethings are no longer adults in the same sense that our grandparents were when they were the same age – we are engaged in “emerging adulthood” or “adultescence” instead. Sometimes finances are implicated as a cause of this extended adolescence/delayed adulthood. “Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: … Read entire article »
Filed under: transitions
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 16June2013
I have had such a good week! I’ve been putting in long hours at work and have been rewarded with real progress. Kyle and I also played tennis a couple times, which was really fun. Regular playing is really shaking the dust off our games. We need to find another local couple to play doubles with. Not too much else is going on for us right now except that we fiiiiiinally got our new grill! We … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
Blog Statistics Update May – June 2013
Despite our falling traffic, we have had a good month on the blog. I write this blog for the comments, and some of the posts I’ve written have had a very good discussion/debate, particularly: my review of Lean In and Getting to 50/50 my reasons for not currently pursuing ER/FI Guest Posting I had two guest posts this month: Side Hustle Series: I’m a Human Guinea Pig at Budgets Are Sexy Your Credit Card Prescription at Money Life and More We also … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, month in review
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