Evolving Personal Finance » Archive
Lessons Learned from My First Year Building a Public Speaking Business
A bit over a year ago, I gave my first presentation as a (future professional) public speaker. Last month, I received a speaking fee check that was – for the first time – in the full amount that I had requested from my host. While I have certainly grown as a speaker in the intervening year, the biggest lessons I’ve learned have been as a new entrepreneur in this arena. Today I’ll tell you the top … Read entire article »
Filed under: self-employment
November 2015 Budget Report
Good things about this month: I had two speaking gigs and finalized one last booking for 2015 college basketball has started we celebrated Thanksgiving twice with local friends we saw a friend from Durham while he was in town for a conference there have been some sunny days We did a pretty good job with our spending, too, even with Thanksgiving! We booked our Christmas travel and are really looking forward to that trip. Sources of Income Our budget is based on two … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Living on One Income: What to Do with the Other?
With Kyle’s and my new phase of life comes a new phase of our budgeting methods. We are trying to live on Kyle’s income alone for all our expenses and save my income. “Living on one income” (for two people) has always sounded nice to me but also a bit vague and arbitrary. Which income would you choose to budget around? What if the incomes are highly skewed? How do you account for taxes and saving … Read entire article »
October 2015 Budget Report
October was our third full month living in Seattle, so our expenses are becoming more regular/predictable, which is great. I traveled three times in October for my business, all three times to California. The weather in Seattle quickly transitioned in October from summer-ish to winter-ish (at least, that’s how it feels to us!), so my jaunts to warm, sunny California reminded me of the importance of our goal to move there sooner rather than later. Other than … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Irregular Expenses Are Still Kicking Our Butts!
Somehow I thought that doubling our income would solve our irregular expenses problems, but I guess I was wrong! Our targeted savings accounts were our budgetary saviors during grad school. Our income was pretty low, so irregular expenses like plane tickets and car repairs would have totally overwhelmed our available cash flow in a given month. Our targeted savings account converted large irregular expenses to small regular expenses and helped us plan, save, and make spending … Read entire article »
Filed under: targeted savings
Living in Someone Else’s Awesome
Last year I posted an explanation of why high cost-of-living cities are so expensive: a lot of people think they are awesome and want to live there. At that time, Kyle and I were living in a medium cost-of-living city that we thought was great but not ideal. Now, we have moved to not only a high cost-of-living city but a city that is rapidly expanding both in population and cost (Seattle). And for us, … Read entire article »
Filed under: housing
September 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report
This was our second full month living in Seattle and our spending is finally settling down. We have our apartment more or less fully furnished and stocked now. We have a weekly routine and we picked a church to attend. This was a very fun month as we are now starting to explore the city a bit. We are trying to figure out what our new hobbies will be, so we took a stand-up paddleboarding lesson. … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Seattle Staycation with Another Couple
Last week we had our first houseguests in our Seattle apartment! My sister and her boyfriend came to see us for a long weekend – they were here from Thursday morning to Monday morning. My sister said she wanted to spend “100%” of the whole long weekend with me, so I took Thursday and Friday off from work (and the weekend, too – I usually work quite a bit on Saturdays and sometimes on Sundays). … Read entire article »
Filed under: travel
Running a Location-Independent Business from the Same Room Every Day
When I stumbled into self-employment, I accidentally created what is apparently a very coveted form of entrepreneurship: running a location-independent business. Nearly all of my time spent working could be done anywhere (with an internet connection). On a day-to-day basis, I don’t have to be anywhere in particular, and I spend my time writing, producing videos, talking to people over the phone/Skype, rehearsing my presentations, and interacting with people through social media. On a few days … Read entire article »
Filed under: self-employment
What We Did in Graduate School to Enable Our Risky Career Decisions
Since our move to Seattle, Kyle and I have been meeting lots of new people as well as updating our friends and acquaintances about the changes in our life. These conversations often go as follows: new person: So what brought you to Seattle? Kyle: I got a job at a small biotech start-up. new person: Oh, wow! That’s great. And what do you do? me: I’m self-employed. I’m starting a business teaching graduate students about personal finance. new person: A … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, choices, savings, self-employment
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! […]…"