This post is an installment in the Get Savvy Series– a blog series on the financial basics that you need to get your financial life in order. Cash, in your financial life, means any liquid assets. This is money that’s available to you almost immediately upon needing it and is somewhere with minimal risk. This isn’t money that’s contributing to compound interest, but is money that provides basic financial security. Cash is your emergency fund,…
Right now, we’re fortunate to be financially comfortable. We have a consistent saving routine. Every month, automated transfers send money towards important financial buckets- like maintenance on our house and travel. We’re aggressively paying off the loan on our minivan. We methodically saved for and then bought a house. And we were able to follow the rules and reduce Marisa’s student loan payments to $0/month while taking advantage of the PSLF program. Our emergency fund…
Following my highly anticipated* return to blogging, I decided to tackle a classic personal finance topic- a daily cup of coffee shop coffee Telling people to forego their daily store-bought coffee used to be popular advice. It was the common example used to show how small savings add up over time. You could take $3/day, save it, and have an extra $1095 at the end of the year. Then you can feed it into investments…
It’s been very quiet on the blogging front because my life has been full for a good while now. My writing has been more personal- more journaling and less typing out blog posts. And there’s been no time for regular blog posts. I was engaged in one of life’s busy seasons- with big changes and new responsibilities. But now I’m back and I can talk about the past many months. The House I wrote several…
The Commonwealth of Tax-achusetts has given us a sales tax free weekend every year since 2018. The name is pretty misleading, because there’s a whole host of purchases that are still taxed. And anything more than $2500 is also still taxed. Unfortunately, Tax Free Weekend for Cheapish Things Only doesn’t have the same ring to it. I read a few local news articles on the event and they all talk about saving money. Or flat…
Disclaimer: Credit cards are a great tool for maximizing travel. Going into credit card debt to get travel rewards points is not. Only sign up for travel rewards credit cards if you plan to pay it off in full every month. Some links in this post are referrals that will give me some extra travel rewards points. I’m not being paid for people signing up, it’s the basic referral program that the cards offer. If…
I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich almost every week day for lunch from high school through grad school. I loved them. Through high school and college (as a commuter), my parents supplied me with plenty of food. Even though I had other options, the sublime combination of salty peanut butter and sweet jelly was impossible to beat. It helped that it was also the easiest lunch to make at 6 am when I…
You have a great run of a new habit. For several weeks, you’re exercising daily or finally writing that book. The phone habit that swallows so much of your free time is held at bay. Dare you hope that this routine will stick this time. That this time is different, and you’re a changed creation. For a moment, the path to success- to accomplishing some dream- seems possible. But then you hit The Bump. Maybe…
When I was a kid, I loved the Percy Jackson book series. It’s a great introduction to Greek Mythology with all of the action and intrigue to keep a middle school boy interested. In the first installment, The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson and his companions end up stuck in the Lotus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Here, the characters are convinced by the casino staff to eat a lotus flower. The lotus flower causes them…
Encountering some mishap while getting the new house ready was inevitable. It just came from an unexpected source- the alarm system. Our new house has a robust alarm system. There are motion sensors in every room and a panic button in our bedroom. It even has its own little box next to the circuit breaker in the basement. I think it’s overkill considering how nice the neighborhood is. There’s even a light switch in the…