Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "saving"
A Year of Net Worth Tracking
On October 1, 2015, I created a spreadsheet for tracking our net worth broken out by our various accounts. While Mint has been tracking our technical net worth since Kyle and I got married and combined our finances, I consider our true net worth to be slightly different, and those differences were large enough last fall that I wanted a separate place to keep track. (Our “technical” net worth is all our monetary assets minus all … Read entire article »
Filed under: net worth
Effortless Perfection in Your Finances
My (grad school) alma mater is notorious for holding its undergraduate women to an impossible standard: effortless perfection. Effortless perfection in that context means not only being smart and getting top grades; looking beautiful, fit, and put-together; being popular and kind; succeeding at everything you attempt; etc., but doing it all without even appearing to be striving. No one is perfect, and most people have to try very hard to perform well in even one … Read entire article »
Filed under: goals
An Adult-Sized Emergency Fund
Confession time: Until very recently, Kyle and I didn’t have a proper emergency fund. We had some cash on hand and then of course accessible investments (our house down payment and student loan payoff money), but I figured age-30-with-a-Real-Job was time enough to work on that personal finance 101 advice of having a true emergency fund. We’ve let this aspect of our financial life slide for so long because our financial life was rather small and … Read entire article »
Filed under: emergency fund
Short-Term Challenges to Speed Debt Repayment
One of the coaching clients I met with recently is going to be working his way out of debt for a number of years (unless something changes drastically). Of course, as per the protocol, we talked about Dave Ramsey’s plan and about how he thought he would be psychologically motivated by the early win of paying off his lowest balance debt first. The client stated that he has been successful in the past saving up money … Read entire article »
Filed under: debt
Important But Uninteresting PF Topics
I have read broadly on personal finance so I have a passing familiarity with a bunch of subjects, yet here on EPF I stick to writing in the areas of budgeting, finances in marriage, frugality, grad student finances, etc. I don’t often write about debt because we’re not (really) in debt and don’t plan on getting into it again except for a mortgage. I don’t often write about insurance because, after reading the recommendations, I … Read entire article »
Filed under: investing
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
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
How to Cut Your Food Spending – Reducing Grocery Costs
Very early in your spending-tracking or budgeting lifestyle, you will realize that food spending is one of the most highly variable and easily manipulated expenditure categories. If you’re looking to reduct your spending, food is often the primary target of budget slashing, and for good reason! There are lots of ways to cut back on food spending, from temporary fasts from certain products to long-term lifestyle changes like cooking. Take a moment to look up your … Read entire article »
Taxes You Should Be Paying
I had a really strange thought a couple weeks ago – hear me out and tell me what you think! Have you ever considered paying yourself what you think you should be paying in taxes? Do You Think Taxes Will Increase in the Future? I’m not sure if there is much debate over this issue, actually. The US national debt is 100% of GDP and we have among the lowest tax rates of our peer nations. Something … Read entire article »
Filed under: taxes
Can a Net Income Boost Compensate for Not Having Earned Income?
Two weeks ago I got a great comment on my Roth IRAs for Graduate Students post from Joe. He asked “Why would you want fellowship income to be reported as earned income? The payroll tax (6.2%+1.45%) that must be withheld from wages … in my opinion, makes the unearned income classification better.” The payroll tax exception for 1099-MISC income wasn’t something I addressed in the Roth IRA post (although I mentioned it as a perk for some … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, retirement, taxes
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