Evolving Personal Finance » goals
First Values and Goals, Then Strategies
When you first encounter the subject of personal finance, you may be tempted to jump right into trying to understand the best debt payoff method, the right retirement savings vehicle, which investments to buy and when, or how to get the best credit card rewards. But without being properly motivated and focused by your own values and goals, hectic personal finance activity won’t result in satisfaction and will possibly burn you out. Before getting into … Read entire article »
My Sister’s Awesome Financial Decisions
I don’t talk about my family of origin a lot on this blog (for privacy reasons) but I want to suspend that policy for today’s post to brag about my sister. My sister is 25 and not a nerd. Like, I’m a nerd, right? I went to a nerd high school and a nerd college and now I’m doing a PhD in engineering and I picked up an interest in PF along the way, which … Read entire article »
Filed under: college, debt, family, goals, investing, retirement, savings, stock market
When to Start Saving for a Mid-Term Goal
Mid-term goals – what the heck do we do with them? Kyle and I currently have no mid-term goals, but I’ve put some thought into them this week because of some interactions I’ve had with friends and financial clients. Some of our peers in NC are looking forward to buying homes! Mid-term goals take a bit of different thinking than short-term and long-term goals. For example, the long-term goal of retirement is something we expect to … Read entire article »
Filed under: goals
Budgeting, Tracking, or Neither?
I’ve added a new podcast to my rotation – Ric Edelman’s The Truth About Money. I don’t know how well-known RE is nationally, but he works in the area where my parents live so I’ve heard of him a few times. He has a totally different money philosophy than Dave Ramsey (low-interest debt is great!) so I started listening to it to safeguard against becoming brainwashed by DR. During last week’s show the hosts were discussing … Read entire article »
Laying a Path from Here to There
I’m afraid of drifting through life – of letting time pass without accomplishing anything. Sometimes I feel like we’re drifting financially while we’re in graduate school because we don’t have several major monetary objectives toward which we are working. While I think goal-setting has been a bit overblown and doesn’t necessarily work well for everyone, I believe we all need to have a vision for our lives and to take steps to realize those visions. If … Read entire article »
My Dream in 23 Years – What’s Yours?
One of the important components of the All Your Worth Balanced Money Formula is the Dream Fund. Of the 20% of take-home pay that is supposed to go toward savings, 25% of it is for your dreams – aside from retirement and all of that. When I was a kid I thought I would want to own a beach house. Maybe some other people want a plane, an around-the-world cruise, or to pay for their … Read entire article »
The Fact and Fiction Behind “Two Can Live as Cheaply as One”
Everyone’s heard the phrase “two can live as cheaply as one.” In one sense it’s absolutely true: when you live in a home by yourself and someone moves in with you – a roommate or spouse who pays his own way – your per capita expenses will go down. You have someone to split the rent and utilities with. But the way the phrase is usually applied is to married couples – as if just … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, choices, frugality, goals, lifestyle creep, marriage, spending
Where Should We Give?
In March 2009, I pledged a certain amount of money to our church for an expansion campaign. It included an up-front donation and monthly installments over a three-year period. Next month is the last I’ll make that monthly installment and (after re-adjusting my tithe) we are going to have $58 a month freed up in our budget. Since we are accustomed to giving away that amount of money, we are not just going to completely keep … Read entire article »
Where Are My Resolutions?
It seems like the blogosphere has exploded with financial, health, and other goals this week – all for the first, I suppose. I love goals and I love watching other people accomplish them (or admit failure/delay). However, my husband and I haven’t made New Years goals of any sort. And why not? 1) New Years is not my favorite time for goal-setting – my favorite time for goal-setting is immediately. My last two major goal projects … Read entire article »
Christmas 2011 Goals Recap
We did fairly well accomplishing our monetary goals for Christmas. Goal 1a: Cap spending at $10/recipient for extended family members. Result: While we didn’t succeed in capping each individual gift at $10, we did get the average under $10 – $9.65/recipient for Kyle’s extended family (about 15 recipients) and $5.30 for my extended family (one gift for a family). Goal 1b: Cap spending at $50/recipient for extended family members. Result: We succeeded in spending less than $50 per recipient … Read entire article »
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