Evolving Personal Finance » debt
I Learn Something New about Taxes Every Year
My dad loves to encourage me to “learn something new every day,” and that’s certainly a great way to grow. Kyle and I submitted our tax returns last Saturday, and I realized that we learned quite a bit about taxes this year for our personal return. (I additionally learned a lot about grad student taxes, but that was more academic for me.) This year was our most complicated tax return to prepare to date, and we did … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt, giving, investing, self-employment, taxes, transitions
3… 2… 1… WE’RE STILL IN DEBT!
My official graduation from my PhD program is this month, which means that my subsidized student loans from undergrad are coming out of deferment. Kyle and I at long last had to come to a decision about what to do with the loans. We have had the money set aside to pay them off since we got married in 2010, and our original plan was to pay them off right before they came out of … Read entire article »
You Must Try with Your Finances. What’s the Alternative?
One person at my Financial Peace University table this fall has what Dave would term a relatively small “shovel” (income) in comparison with his outstanding debt. He was also a little older than the average table age, though still quite young in objective terms. This person asked a couple questions a long the lines of “Do you think any amount of debt can be paid off?” and “Is it ever too late to start saving … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt
Get Your Credit Score (ish) for Free (ish)
As part of the seminar on personal finance I gave this week, I did some research into how one can obtain a free credit score. In general, I don’t think you need to know your exact credit score. You should check your credit reports regularly to make sure there are no errors, but beyond that you really don’t need to do much else to guard your credit score. Part of the complexity on this issue is … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt, Uncategorized
Do You Practice What You Preach?
It’s so true that trying to teach a subject forces you to truly learn it. I’ve been working hard on preparing my presentation on personal finance for grad students (it’s tomorrow!) and it’s really helped me fill in some of the remaining gaps of my knowledge, particularly regarding debt acquisition and repayment. I haven’t had a lot of interaction with debt in my life, and the interactions that I have had didn’t make a big … Read entire article »
Virginia Sent Me to Collections for Dodging Taxes
That sounds like an exaggerated, sensationalist headline, but it isn’t! The commonwealth of Virginia thinks that I failed to pay the income tax I owed in 2009, and last month they sent my information over to a debt collector, who renewed the efforts to track me down. Me – the personal finance blogger and tax reporting enthusiast – accused of not paying my taxes! In this post I will detail this experience, which from my perspective … Read entire article »
Why We’re Holding on to My Student Loans
While reading a blog this week (can’t remember which, sorry!), saw a paraphrase of some advice from Suze Orman wherein she called student loans the most dangerous type of loan you can have and advised paying them off before paying off any other type of debt. Even though I’m not a Suze Orman consumer (the way I am with Dave Ramsey and Ric Edelman) and so I’m not familiar with her philosophy, I could hardly believe that this was an accurate portrayal. But it was. Check out this short clip of her telling a questioner to pay off student loans first, regardless of interest rate. I understand that it’s noteworthy that student loans aren’t bankruptable, but is the possibility of bankruptcy so immediate for so many borrowers that it becomes worthwhile to … Read entire article »
A Peek at Graduate Student Loan Debt
An article popped up on my personal Facebook feed last week that was accompanied by a spirited discussion in the comments about PhD student stipend levels and the necessity of taking out student loans even for students who are “fully funded.” Of course I clicked over and eventually found my way to this spreadsheet of student loan balances created by Karen Kelsky of The Professor Is In to demonstrate her point that even funded humanities PhDs can result … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt, grad school
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Dave Ramsey: Swapping Baby Step Order
This is the fourth installment of this series on reasonable way to adapt Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps program to fit your financial goals. You may want to reference last week’s post on intra-Baby Step modifications to familiarize yourself with the steps before we dive into this week’s discussion of inter-Baby Step modifications. The big difference between Dave Ramsey’s approach to managing debt and investments and other financial professionals’ is that Dave Ramsey does not care about … Read entire article »
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Dave Ramsey: Reasonable Baby Step Modifications
As we discussed in the two prior posts in this series, Dave Ramsey’s (DR’s) program for getting out of debt and building wealth works very well for some people but may be inappropriate for those who don’t agree with all of the underlying principles. The next two posts are intended for people are curious about following the Baby Steps loosely but who want to know what some reasonable modifications may be. In this post, we … Read entire article »
Filed under: choices, debt, emergency fund, giving, goals, psychology, savings
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