Evolving Personal Finance » cars
How Losing Track of My Car Title Cost Me Hundreds of Dollars
In a recent post, I confessed that I lost track of my car title for about six years and only tried to have it sent to me once selling the car became a near-term possibility. I was a terrible fool to ignore that problem for as long as I did, and in the end it took nearly a year for the DMV to mail me my car title. Insane! Of course, I wish I had … Read entire article »
Filed under: cars
Life Lesson: Don’t Lose Track of Your Car Title
When I was growing up, my parents had a large filing cabinet in their home office that was filled with important paperwork. My parents didn’t keep a perfectly clean and clutter-free house or anything, but this filing cabinet was meticulously organized. All the documents my parents wanted to keep track of – from birth certificates to insurance policies to repair records – were safely stored in this cabinet and accessible within moments. When I moved to … Read entire article »
Filed under: cars
I Love My Car Even If No One Else Does
Kyle and I have transitioned from being a one-car family to being a two-car family once again. I bought my car in 2008 just after I started grad school, and we stopped driving it in 2012 but didn’t sell it, anticipating a time when we would need two cars again. That time came much later than we expected, but it has come. My car has been the butt of many thinly veiled jokes over the years … Read entire article »
Filed under: cars
Time vs. Money vs. Experience in Commuting
If my first job out of college, I was a megacommuter. My home (with my parents) and my job were both in the DC area, but about 120 degrees away from one another around the Beltway. I got a ride from my parent to the Metro station (about 15 minutes), went from the end of one line into DC and then most of the way out another (70 minutes), and then walked to my building … Read entire article »
Filed under: cars
Targeted Savings Accounts and Funemployment for the One-Car Win!
I had a great experience last week – about as good of an experience as you can have running errands, that is. 🙂 This funemployed spouse/homemaker gig is pretty nice, both for me and for Kyle. We noticed that our car needed to be repaired, so we made an appointment with our mechanic to drop off the car one weekday morning. The last time we did this, we dropped the car off together and then took … Read entire article »
Filed under: cars, funemployment, targeted savings
A One-Car Snow Day Adventure
On Wednesday, it snowed – kind of a lot, for the piedmont of North Carolina. We got about four inches of accumulation within a few hours. It’s thickest snowfall I’ve seen in the six years I’ve lived here. The Triangle was caught unprepared in a way that was reminiscent of Atlanta two weeks ago (though, from my understanding, not as extreme). I’ll tell you about the adventure we had getting home on Wednesday and then connect … Read entire article »
When Plans Change
I have a personal update for you today! It’s about how our protracted time to graduation has affected our plans, careers, and finances. I though we had some timelines and plans down, and then they were shot to heck, and now the picture is re-coming into focus. Grad School I’ve mentioned in my weekly wrap-ups here that for the past several weeks Kyle has been working around the clock on writing his dissertation. We were hoping that … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, cars, goals, marriage, personal, savings, spending, transitions
Inexpensive House, Expensive Car
I’ve been taking frequent walks around our townhouse complex recently and I’ve noticed that there are a lot of pretty nice cars parked in the lots – sports cars, muscle cars, and some luxury brands. Two people just across the parking lot from us own an Audi and a sporty convertible. Beyond just the expensive models, many cars look close to brand new. Another thing I’ve noticed on my walks throughout this year are townhouses up … Read entire article »
Money Updates from the EPF Household
Today’s post is a collection of odds and ends – thoughts and observations about our life as it intersects with our finances. None of these topics are enough for a full blog post at this point so this is a clearinghouse for our thoughts at this moment. Townhouse Water Damage We had a bit of a scare a couple weeks ago with the townhouse we rent. A leak developed in the ceiling of the lower floor, directly … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, cars, housing, marriage, personal, savings, targeted savings, transitions, travel
Our Experiences with Paying Off Debt
This post is a personal story about how debt has intersected our lives and not intended to be any big lessons. You’ll see that how we paid off our debt doesn’t necessarily apply to others as I’ve been rescued a couple times! We also still go back and forth over whether or not we are officially debt-free. Between me and Kyle, I have more experience with debt so I’ll start with mine. Student Loans I took out some … Read entire article »
Filed under: cars, credit cards, debt
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