Dear Dad, I’ve been officially “retired” for just over six months now and you still occasionally ask me if I have any income, if I plan to ever work as a lawyer again, if I have health insurance. I explain to you my numbers and my charts and that seems to appease you for the… Read More »
I’m not giving you legal advice. This is more organizational and motivational and…nondenominational advice. I know it’s macabre, but you should get your shit together, because you’re going to die. There’s no way to make this funny. I’m just going to plunge straight into content. I remember watching a young widow on one of those morning or afternoon… Read More »
Recently I was visiting my parents and my dad asked me to check out their bundled bill for television, home phone and Internet. Their 12-month promotion had just expired and the price increased. I had recently convinced my dad to subscribe to my blog, so I think he wanted to test my personal finance skills and… Read More »
Pyramid schemes fall into the same category in my brain as timeshares and timeshare presentations. You might get suckered into the first meeting by a vague advertisement, but your financial avatar will walk away either exasperated or training for perpetual knife fights. Pyramid schemes are scams. It’s not a way to make money. It’s not a way to get rich quickly.… Read More »
The first time someone tried to sell me on the idea of going to a timeshare presentation, I have to admit that my first thought was “that doesn’t sound terrible.” The woman on the other end of the line promised me two plane tickets to Las Vegas and two nights in a hotel for only $99 and my… Read More »
As the title implies, I like to personify money concepts in my head to entertain my financial avatar. (I’m not good with titles.) Here are the cast of characters in my soap opera. Mimi – Mimi is my Financial Avatar. This is who I picture whenever I write “my financial avatar.” She’s savvy. She doesn’t… Read More »
My financial avatar gives money freely and happily for me to have a happy place to lay my head at night and enough good, happy food to eat. These two expenses probably take up the largest part of my budget and I am more than okay with that. I’m happy to sign a lease for a nice apartment for… Read More »
The title of this post is misleading and I should probably change it, but I think “Thriftygal’s 2016 Budget” is more click-baity than “Thriftygal’s 2016 Financial Philosophy” or “Thriftygal’s 2016 Experiment with Financial Independence in an Annoying Bear Market.” I haven’t settled on a name for this operation yet. Maybe I’ll just call it Operation Earl and confuse… Read More »
I have a couple more items that I know that you probably already spend a significant amount of money on and that I didn’t want to point out earlier because I know you’re going to yell at me. But, dagnabbit, these items are WANTS and you really have to think hard if they are worth… Read More »
Money means freedom and power in a million different ways. Sure, there’s the obvious way of being able to structure your own days and not work, but there’s so much more to it. Having some money in your bank account gives you a cushion in your life no matter what dice the universe rolls. Money has such amazing… Read More »