Evolving Personal Finance » budgeting
The 80/20 Rule Applied to Personal Finance
I’m sure that most of you are familiar with the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle, but in case you aren’t… The basic idea is that 80% of outcomes can be attributed to 20% of causes (Investopedia). This originated as a business principle but has been loosely applied in many other areas. This post from Money Peach on excuses for not budgeting (and counter-arguments) really got me thinking about how simple most of personal finance is. Really, … Read entire article »
Lifestyle Inflation Analysis
One of the big purposes of me creating this blog, right from the beginning, was to keep Kyle and I from succumbing to lifestyle inflation as we transitioned out of grad school and into our careers. I knew that many people, upon experiencing a jump in salary, would mindlessly let their spending increase across various areas of their budget. I draw a strong distinction between lifestyle inflation and lifestyle increase. I see lifestyle increases as … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, transitions
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 »
Looking on the Bright Side of a Tough Financial Situation
After my Eeyore post from Wednesday on the reasons I’m experiencing financial ennui, I thought it would be nice to kind of give myself a kick in the butt to try to re-energize about our finances in a minor way while we’re still here in Durham. In this post, I’m going to list the positive things we have done in our finances since our defenses last summer, however small they may be, and some tiny goals. Good … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, frugality, goals, income, side income
Financial Ennui
I’m finding it difficult to care much about our personal finances these days, easily noted by the infrequent posting here. I actually find it very weird that I am not more engaged with our money, as I used to enjoy that so much. (Part of this is that I’m putting a lot of energy into thinking about other people’s finances for my business so there is less left for our own.) I know exactly when … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, goals, income, psychology
Our New Money Management Issues
Kyle and I are 1.5 weeks into living apart but managing money together. This post is on my initial observations on the money management implications of my move to a new(ish) city, living apart from Kyle, and being paid in a lump sum for three months of work. I’m sure that over the course of my fellowship how we manage our finances will change a bit and I will have new insights by the end. Lump … Read entire article »
How to Budget from a Lump Sum of Income
What do you do when there’s more money than month? Some people find budgeting over a whole month difficult enough – but what if your payment needs to last multiple months? It’s not a common problem, but it does come up for students receiving loan disbursements or fellowships as well as others who have highly irregular income or who receive bonuses. Just this last week, I received a check for $8,500 that is a fellowship payment (non-employee) … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting
We’re Evolving!: Our Next Transition
When we founded EPF in 2011, a major component of is purpose was to keep us financially honest during our several anticipated life transitions. Well, it took until 2014 for the first one to occur, but now we seem to be on a roll. Transition #1: Kyle defended and became a postdoc in the same lab he did his PhD in. Essentially the only change was a salary bump. Transition #2: I defended and became funemployed. The major change … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, career, funemployment, housing, income
Revamping Our Money Management System
Kyle and I have had a fairly stable money management system for the last few years, which we laid the basis for shortly after we were married. I have trumpeted its benefits in many blog posts over the years and think it worked very well for us for those years, though it was probably more hands-on than most people would like. In brief, our money management system between 2010 and 2014 was to: Practice percentage-based budgeting in … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, targeted savings
Dollar-Cost Averaging vs. Percentage-Based Budgeting
Kyle and I had the most ridiculous fight about our budget two weeks ago. Our positions were only slightly different, yet we were so entrenched we couldn’t come to a resolution and had to drop the argument for the night! Both of us are very opinionated and stubborn and I am definitely not the only PF nerd in the family. I’ve been preaching percentage-based budgeting on EPF basically since the start of the blog. What I … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, retirement
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