the money tools you need to be set free
Last month I published a post on my Top 4 Most Regrettable Purchases, but of course there is a flip side: all the things I in the last year that I am grateful for. The list got quite long– I don’t regret the plants, the art supplies, or the instruments we have, for example, so I […]
Two days ago, my phone buzzed with a trending post on Reddit. The post detailed someone who had achieved FIRE (financial independence and retire early), but says he is ready to go back to work. “The past year has been horrible for me,” he writes, “The lack of socialization, need to get out of the house, […]
The resounding advice for someone looking to control their finances is to know your finances. We all hear this advice: you should know how much money is coming in, how much money is going out, and ultimately where that money is going. Similar to many others, I did not follow this advice for a long time. […]
The purchase of my first car was an epic adventure. It involved six months of research, flying halfway across the country, and learning how to drive stick. In that time I went from clueless (and could-care-less) about cars to a gear-head. Or, more specifically, a Miata-head.
For a long time, I stashed my money away in a bank earning 0.01% interest. In case you are wondering, that is a very bad rate. I did not really care to check or compare, it was just somewhere to put the money. When I started my first internship I was auto-enrolled in a 401k, […]
How old were you when you had the talk? You know, the one where you sit down awkwardly with your parents, going red in the face as you both dance around a topic you would rather not broach? You know, the one where you talked about your family’s entire financial situation, including their income, debt, and net […]
Humans are funny creatures. We spend weeks getting hyped about something and lose sleep wondering when the delivery will arrive. Yet although we jump around in excitement when the package comes, we are prone to forget about it just a few weeks later. The days following the holidays don’t have the same nostalgic twinge as the […]
I didn’t spend too much time at home this month. I converted from hourly to salary at my new job so I flew down to California to go to orientation. I flew out early in order to take advantage of the weekend and crashed at a family’s place in San Francisco.
I recently started a new job, which meant reviewing the multi-page booklet of investment options for my new 401k. It gave me flashbacks to a time when I first started working. The jumble of options, percents, ratios, and expenses looked more frightening than my differential equations homework.
It is one thing to clock in to work every day, earning a paycheck and steadily working towards financial independence, but it is crucial to remember to enjoy life in the process. One way to avoid burn out is to make sure to intentionally take time off and unplug from the daily demands of work.