At the beginning of last school year I was chagrined to learn that I had been tasked with one of the most reviled administrative duties there is, at least in a high school: morning bathroom duty. Morning bathroom duty sucks. Like, seriously sucks. It basically entails standing ... Read more...
The Secret To Succeeding At Personal Finance
I have officially been blogging about finances for four whole years. Four years! That seems like a really, really long time. It's longer than either of my nephews has been alive, longer than the amount of time I spent in college, and longer than 25% of Elizabeth Taylor's ... Read more...
Being Able To Say “Fuck You” Is The Ultimate Financial Luxury
I'm a basically upstanding citizen. I pay my taxes, vote, and yield to pedestrians. I wait patiently in lines, give up my seat to pregnant women on the bus, and recycle. I pretty much go with the flow, follow the rules, avoid rocking the boat. But deep down, beneath the ... Read more...
Good Enough
A common refrain in the personal finance community is "personal finance is personal." I think that this idea is absolutely true. We all have different values and responsibilities, different ideas about what constitutes a worthwhile splurge and what we would never in a million ... Read more...
Fake It ‘Til You Make It
When I first started teaching I was 22 and totally in over my head. I was barely older than my students, fresh out of graduate school, and had no clue what I'd gotten myself into. There were a lot of moments - a lot of moments, guys - that I had no answer to a student's question, ... Read more...
Should the Basics of Money Management Change if You Have a Troubled Past?
A few days ago I read an interesting piece over at XOJane. The author is basically saying that people judge her all the time for living paycheck-to-paycheck, but as a 29-year-old woman who formerly struggled with an eating disorder and an addiction to drugs, she doesn't really ... Read more...
So. You Probably Won’t Like This.
But in the spirit of Andrea's post yesterday over at So Over Debt, I'm going to tell the total, 100% truth: Last week, I withdrew $2,400 from my Roth IRA to pay off my credit card and beef up my cash savings. This was an undoubtedly bad long-term move - from a financial ... Read more...
Are You a Spendthrift, a Tightwad, or Unconflicted?
I read this interesting article over at Jezebel yesterday that I thought I'd share with you guys; apparently, a professor at the University of Michigan (as well as other researchers) have found that when it comes to making large purchases - the kind that are expensive, but that ... Read more...
I Cannot Imagine The Day That I No Longer Worry About Money
I'm feeling very down in the dumps about my finances these days. I guess it's because when I started getting serious about getting my finances under control - almost four years ago - I felt like there was going to be some kind of "end." I thought there would come a day when I ... Read more...
I Have No Financial Ideology, But I Do Have a Few Money Rules
If you caught my post on Friday, you know that I'm a little disturbed at my lack of a financial ideology. It's true: I don't have any firm, overarching financial beliefs. No go-to money mantras. On the one hand, this sucks. When I have tough financial decisions to make, I have ... Read more...