Evolving Personal Finance » Archive
Welcome Get Rich Slowly Readers!
Today I have a guest post up on Get Rich Slowly. EPF readers, please check it out – this is the post in which I reveal our net worth! Get Rich Slowly readers, thanks so much for surfing over to check us out. If you want to hear more you can subscribe through RSS, follow us on Twitter, or fan us on Facebook. We have new content up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It feels so strange to tell our whole story on another blog where I can’t link back to all the posts I’ve done on the individual components of it! I hope you came over to this post because you were interested in learning more about some aspect or another of our story, so I’ll use this post to … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 13October2013
Another uneventful week for us – I’m still doing my normal activities and Kyle is still thesis-writing like a madman. I’m trying to get some work out to my collaborators but it hasn’t been going terribly well. The timing of this retreat that I’m on (I’m in Wilmington, NC!) wasn’t the greatest for that reason, but isn’t that always how it goes? I’m happy for the break in routine! I have a guest post up at Get Rich Slowly this morning – please check it out and leave me comments! Posts I Liked My Money Design shows graphically how to prepare for early retirement with savings, investments, and passive income. Robert from The College Investor retells in detail how he set up his will and trust. Michelle from Making Sense of Cents is considering long-term … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
What Are You Gazelle Intense About?
This post was inspired by the recent Get Rich Slowly article on pushing vs. relaxing in personal finances. A “pushing” phase is when you are super intense about your finances and making sacrifices in other areas of your life, like relationships and health. Circumstances that should bring about pushing are living beyond your means, feeling a lot of stress about your finances, or when you are nearing default on a loan. Similarly, Dave Ramsey would … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, debt, psychology, spending
You Should Spend More and Save Less (Especially Grad Students)
The same episode of Freakonomics that I wrote about last week contained another segment that I thought worthy of comment here (and actually there is one more!). Levitt told Dubner some advice that he received from an older faculty member when he was just starting out as a professor of economics: “You should spend more and save less. You’re never going to be poorer than you are today… Your salary would only go up and your … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, grad school, savings, spending
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 6October2013
Nothing out of the ordinary to report this week. Just lots of work for me and lots of thesis-writing for Kyle. Oh, and I decided at the last second to attend a retreat with my church next weekend so that’s $110. I’ve said a zillion times recently that I need a vacation so this is a good holdover until Thanksgiving/Christmas/Kyle’s defense. Posts I Liked Congratulations to Eric on his engagement and Cat on her pregnancy! Cat from My Personal Finance Journey plans on renting for another decade. Pauline from Reach Financial Independence has a budget for people who hate budgets. Tonya from Budget and the Beach jumped on a great deal on a trip to Iceland. Mentions Jacob from iHeartBudgets listed The 3 to 6 Month Emergency Fund in his good reads. Carnivals Losing Half Our Buffer was featured in the Carnival … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
Would You Live in Company Housing?
I saw an article this week that piqued my interest – Facebook is building an apartment complex close to its Menlo Park campus for its employees. The article and comments are highly critical of the idea, recalling the company towns of the nineteenth century. The author sarcastically asks, “Who isn’t sick of their healthy work/life balance?” Many of the commenters voiced that by living in a Facebook apartment, Facebook employees will be constantly monitored by … Read entire article »
Filed under: housing
What is the Purpose of an Emergency Fund?
In my last post on emergency funds, I looked at Dave Ramsey’s (and many others’) suggestion of an emergency fund size of three to six months of expenses and calculated what that would be for our current budget ($7,500 to $15,000). But at the end of the post I questioned whether a three to six month emergency fund is really appropriate for us. I am an overthinker, so I have trouble just accepting that we … Read entire article »
Filed under: emergency fund
Perfect Articulation of Plastic as Real Money for Young People
In episode of Freakonomics from 10/3/2013, Steve Levitt and Steve Dubner discussed a listener question that I thought was a perfect articulation of my opinion concerning the studies that show that people tend to spend more when using credit cards in comparison with cash. Steve Reta wrote: “This morning I was reading an article on how credit card spending is making us ‘irresponsible’ because it removes the ‘pain’ of paying with cold hard cash. I found … Read entire article »
Filed under: credit cards, psychology, spending
Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments Week of 29September2013
We are keeping our nose to the grindstones this week so there wasn’t much time for extracurriculars. A certain someone has started writing his dissertation and has a tight deadline so I’m being supportive/expressing solidarity by working at most of the same times he is (well, when those times are before midnight – that is my bedtime!). We have switched from attending church at 11:00 AM on Sundays to 4:00 PM on Saturdays – well, we’re trying to commit to the switch. It’s a little weird to change our weekend routine, but I’m happy to have the Sunday mornings free. Anyone else attend church on Saturdays? Oh! We spent $180 this week! On tickets to my 10-year high school reunion! I’m so excited! I got to see a bunch of my … Read entire article »
Filed under: weekly update
Recent Comments
- Adam on Home Equity Is Funny Money
"Hi Emily - I just stumbled upon your blog. Great post! Up in Canada this is a…" - Emily on Home Equity Is Funny Money
"I agree that an appraisal is the best number to work with. I can't think of why …" - JL on Home Equity Is Funny Money
"I only note it as round numbers, in $50k or $100k estimates. I also usually upda…" - We Maxed Out All Our Retirement Accounts for the First Time! - Evolving Personal Finance | Evolving Personal Finance on Avoiding an Expensive 401(k) Plan through Self-Employment
"[…] was the first year that we contributed to Kyle’s expensive 401(k…" - Business Goal Tracking for Week 8 of 2022 - Evolving Personal Finance | Evolving Personal Finance on Business Goal Tracking for Week 6 of 2022
"[…] Done as of two weeks ago! […]…"
Blog Statistics Update September – October 2013
October 18th, 2013 | 24 Comments
This was kind of a weird month. Traffic was way down, but comments were quite a bit higher than usual. I find the comments more personally fulfilling, but for general blog growth (and getting more commenters) I want traffic to increase. Alexa also dropped a lot (that’s the desired direction) but MozRank decreased a little (not the desired direction). Analytics Data from September 16 to October 15, 2013 People who listen to us, as of October 15, … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, month in review