Evolving Personal Finance

Carnival of Money #6

November 19th, 2013 | 8 Comments

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Carnival of Money! Thank you to those of you who participated. General Financial Advice Jack presents Tips for a Great Financial Year posted at Money Saving Ethics, saying, “Improving your financial situation is not as difficult as it might sound, but it does require dedication and thought. It is really just a matter of starting and maintaining healthy financial habits.” Danielle presents Financial Tips That Sound Bad but Work Well posted at Saving Without a Budget, saying, “If you ask most certified financial planners you will find that one of the things they are constantly warning their clients against is making bad money choices based on popular financial advice, which is often wrong.” Matt presents The High Cost of Using Cash posted at Budget Snob, saying, “It has been calculated that … Read entire article »

Filed under: carnival

I’m Grateful for Automation in Our Finances

November 18th, 2013 | 32 Comments

I know I’ve been repeating this ad nauseam in the past few weeks, but Kyle and I have been working a lot in the past couple months. I’ve been running into problem after problem with my experiments and am under a deadline to produce. Kyle has been writing his dissertation in typical Kyle-style – to the exclusion of everything else. We barely have time to keep up with our laundry and dishes and I’m falling … Read entire article »

Filed under: spending, targeted savings

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 10November2013

November 17th, 2013 | 7 Comments

As you can see from the late post today, we’re still very busy with work! I’ve worked full days Saturday and Sunday in addition to evenings during the week… Ugh. But Kyle deep-cleaned the entire kitchen while I was at work on Saturday, which was wonderful to come home to. (I don’t might light cleaning but I hate deep cleaning – gross.) We did see Gravity yesterday ($25! I remember when…). My work was going terribly so I knocked off at 7 PM and we went to a 10 PM showing. We were practically the only ones in the theater. The visuals were great, of course, and we had a wonderful conversation on the inaccuracies later. 🙂 Sorry for not leaving many comments around the blogosphere this week. There were plenty of … Read entire article »

Filed under: weekly update

When Plans Change

November 15th, 2013 | 28 Comments

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

Who Is the Accountability Partner for What?

November 13th, 2013 | 27 Comments

I had an interesting conversation with a couple of my FPU students a couple weeks ago. I was telling them about how much I like Republic Wireless and they asked if I am planning to upgrade my phone when they release the new one. I said that Kyle has been pushing me to upgrade but that I didn’t see the need – to me upgrading a functional smartphone after only one year of use seems … Read entire article »

Filed under: lifestyle creep, marriage, spending

Republic Wireless Graduates from Beta and Offers the Moto X

November 11th, 2013 | 22 Comments

Over a year ago when I was looking for a new cell phone I heard about Republic Wireless, a company trying to offer something new in the cellular market. The main premise of Republic Wireless’s business model is that there are wireless networks all around us (especially at home and work) and we should be taking advantage of them. Most businesses these days use voice over IP (VoIP) for their telephone needs. When cell phones … Read entire article »

Filed under: frugality, spending

Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 3November2013

November 10th, 2013 | 4 Comments

What can I say about this week? It was grueling, as most of my weeks have been recently. I’m really working at an unsustainable pace, but I only need to sustain it through the beginning of December. 🙂 I did have kind of a funny one-car incident on Saturday. Kyle was working at church from 12:30 PM through the service, which starts at 4:00 PM. He dropped me off at work in the morning and we thought he might be able to steal away for a few minutes to pick me up close to 4:00 PM, but it didn’t seem like it would work out because there was also a football game starting at 4:00 PM and we thought the campus might be difficult to drive in and out of quickly. … Read entire article »

Filed under: weekly update

Accepting Money for a Favor

November 8th, 2013 | 35 Comments

This week, one of my colleagues asked me if I would edit a document he’s working on – and he offered to pay me to do it. I said that I would help with the edits but turned down the payment offer twice and we left the money issue unresolved. I’m still not sure what to do. I feel a little strange accepting money from a friend for what I consider to be a favor. I … Read entire article »

Filed under: income

Would You Take a Break from Working?

November 6th, 2013 | 42 Comments

As Kyle is drawing closer to graduating, he’s facing a job transition. His advisor has offered for him to stay in his current lab as a temporary measure until he finds a postdoctoral position at another university. Academic labs seem fairly flexible in when personnel come and go so between a flexible end date in his current lab and a flexible start date in his next lab, Kyle could choose to go basically immediately from … Read entire article »

Filed under: career

HuffPoLive Segment on Boomerang Kids Paying Rent

November 5th, 2013 | 3 Comments

Today I participated in a HuffPost Live segment with Erin from Broke Millennial that was inspired by her great post on why parents should charge their boomerang kids rent. Erin asked me to join her as someone who paid a rent-equivalent while I lived with my parents post-college. So for those of you who are curious about my and Erin’s faces/voices, the segment is embedded below. It was supposed to be 20-25 minutes but was cut to about 10 – can you tell I didn’t get all my talking points in? 😉 About a year ago I wrote two posts of my own about boomerang kids, based on my experience as one: Boomerang Kids, Listen Up: It’s Not All about You How to Be an Exemplary Boomerang Kid Thanks so much for asking me … Read entire article »

Filed under: blogging, family