PERSONAL FINANCE, ELEVATED.
Confession: My student loan story is boring. It took me seven years to pay off 17k in student loan debt. Seven whole years. That’s a little over $200 paid per month. Meanwhile I get whiplash by so many awe-inspiring debt payoff stories like this or this. See? My story is unsexy in comparison. The $200 didn’t […]
My mom thinks that if she had $1,100 a month she’d be able to retire rich. That’s just $13,200 a year. To most people reading this that amount is poverty level. You need millions to retire, right? My mom and I have this tradition: since she can’t read or write, she puts any unfamiliar mail […]
I think I may be an Accidental Minimalist. I’ve never sought out to be a minimalist, but over the weekend I’ve realized that I may have been an unassuming minimalist this entire time. Over the years, I’ve naturally developed a system for making small, everyday decisions that simplify my life AND help out my wallet. […]
*Today I was supposed to write about credit cards, but after what happened in Charlottesville, I didn’t feel like it. So I decided to write what was bugging me instead. I hope you don’t mind. Your regularly scheduled programming will start up again this Thursday.* I have a funny-sounding name. It doesn’t just sound funny, […]
A few months ago I told you that if you want to meet your goals you might want to broadcast them to people. Because if you do, to avoid embarrassment, you’re more likely to follow through. So here I am, oversharing on my goals. Because I want to crush them. There’s nothing like being competitive. […]
People get worked up about engagement rings. Just last week a coworker announced she was engaged. The first thing other women did? Rush over to scope out the engagement ring. That’s just what people do. Anyway who’s ever contemplated marriage has felt the intense social expectations about “the ring.” So when I tell people I […]
Compared to today’s parenting ideals, my mom broke every rule in the book, whether she knew it or not. She was illiterate, so there were no books in the house. She didn’t believe in babysitters, and left my sister and me home alone when we were as young as four and six. She didn’t know […]