Evolving Personal Finance » credit cards
Awesome Sign-Up Bonus Ratio with Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard
Y’all know that Kyle and I are not much for credit card sign-up bonuses – we’re more about the long-term rewards or perks. I do keep an eye out for high sign-up bonuses by following some credit card churning blogs, but usually the minimum spend requirements are out of the range of our normal spending. (That is, until we realized that we can now put rent on a credit card, but that has its own set … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards
Putting Rent on a Credit Card: An Opportunity to Churn
Our new townhouse allows us to pay rent on a credit card!! None of the places we’ve lived so far has made that option available to us, and at our current place we actually have to mail paper checks, if you can believe it. But after we move in two weeks we’ll have the opportunity to charge an extra $870 per month! Why are we excited about this? Putting rent on a credit card seems like … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards, housing
Financially Surviving Your First Month as a PhD Student
First month’s rent up front plus a security deposit. A parking permit. Textbooks. Furnishing your new place. In the first few weeks of grad school you’re hit by one expense after another. On top of that, your department expects you to start orientation (followed by classes and research) five to six weeks before getting your first paycheck! How are you supposed to swing this? The best position to be in at the time you enter grad … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, food, frugality, grad school, housing, income, spending, taxes
Pulling Back the Veil on Our Daily Money Management
I thought it would be helpful for some to get really into the nitty-gritty of how we manage our money on a daily (or at least monthly) basis. It’s simple to say “we have joint accounts” or “we use Mint” but what does that really mean? (You can reference a copy of our current budget if you like.) Start with a Clean Slate On the first of the month the only money in our checking accounts is … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, found money, side income, spending, targeted savings
Attend Weddings But Don’t Go into Debt
Wedding season is upon us! I love marriage and I love attending weddings to spend time with and support our friends and family. That’s why I initially felt sympathy for Christopher Sledzik, the face that CNN put on its recent article on the rising cost of wedding attendance and the pressure friends and family feel to attend. Like Sledzik, we are also 27 and in the last three years have devoted all our vacation time … Read entire article »
Filed under: choices, credit cards, debt, marriage, savings, targeted savings, 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
Current Credit Cards Rewards Strategy
When I weighted the advantages and disadvantages of adding another credit card, I decided that the chief disadvantage for us is that we might lose track of how to optimally use the cards for maximum rewards. After all, we use Mint to aggregate all our accounts so we don’t ever lose track of which card needs to be paid off and whatnot. I decided to comb through our current credit cards to make sure we are … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards
Adding Credit Cards – How Many Is Too Many?
Every few months Kyle and I consider adding a credit card to our collection to further optimize our rewards. Most of the time we decide not to open a new account but over the summer we each opened one new one for different purposes. (We never carry a balance and credit cards do not interfere with our ability to stick to our budget. I recommend that you develop a track record of perfect use of … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards
Toeing into the E in EPF
I thought I’d take this Friday post to update you all on the random money goings-on around the EPF household. We are gearing up for our first financial transition, moving from the apartment Kyle’s lived in for 5 years (and I for 2 years) to a townhouse that’s both cheaper and closer to school and church. In addition we’ve had some other small bumps in the road and changes and are looking forward to some … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, targeted savings, transitions, travel
Why We’re Not Getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Even Though It’s a Great Deal
I’ve heard such great things about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card over the last few months – especially the signup bonus! Plenty of bloggers who track this sort of thing have highly recommended it. Top Ten Reviews Daily Markets Nerdwallet Finance Product Reviews The signup bonus for the Chase Freedom card definitely influenced us to get it, but we also knew that we would continue using it for its highlighted rewards categories and it has actually become our primary card. … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards, travel
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