The 7 Personal Finance Articles We Loved This Week

It’s no secret that personal finance was never something I thought I’d be interested in. I grew up and went through college thinking money was just for men in suits. But eventually, especially when I was living on my own after graduation, I came to realize that the reason I never wanted to think about money was that I grew up never needing to. My parents were well-off, and even beyond that, they were always willing to pay for the big things in my life — nice family vacations, extremely expensive dance classes, my college tuition, etc.

I was always taught that most people had it much worse and that we were very fortunate, but that didn’t truly sink in until I was on my own. And after a year or two of flailing, I finally started to get it: in order to not worry about money, I needed to actually start thinking about it.

But personal finance is a slippery slope. Yes, you can pinch every single penny and live off the bare essentials and hoard everything else, but at some point, it can become obsessive. Money is supposed to be a tool for us to establish personal security, but also to enjoy life. If we’re doing the former, but not the latter, what’s even the point?

That’s why I absolutely loved J. Money‘s first pick this week, from The Holistic Wallet. Here’s my favorite tidbit:

I realized I needed to establish boundaries in the same way I did trying to control my finances, being conscious and present, but not obsessing.

My net worth was not my self-worth. And maybe having less money in the bank but living a life full of balance might be the healthier option.

Now I’m at a place where I still try to spend less than I earn, I save for a rainy day when I can, and I still don’t buy stuff as a pursuit of happiness.

Be sure to check out the full post, as well as the rest of this week’s great picks!

1. True Life: I Was A Personal Finance Addict – The Holistic Wallet 

“You may think that you can’t possibly overdose on personal finance, but when you spend most of your waking minutes obsessing over it, you kind of forget to live your life.”

2. 4 Best Ways to Invest In Your 20s – I Will Teach You To Be Rich 

“Too bad time machines don’t exist…UNTIL NOW. That’s right. Little do you readers know, I’ve been hard at work constructing an advanced piece of machinery that allows you to actually know exactly what you should invest in during your twenties. Hop inside, and I’ll show you how.”

3. The Barbell Strategy For Creatives – The Deep Dish

“Taleb suggests targeting the two extremes of the spectrum at once. On one end of the barbell, you play it safe with a secure, staid career. On the other end, you take a lot of highly speculative risks. In the middle, as little as possible.”

4. If You Can Afford a Vacation, You Can Afford to Invest – Reaching Your Balance 

“The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but unfortunately we often do only one at the expense of the other.”

5. 9 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Borrow From The Library – The Penny Hoarder 

“Many libraries lend science tools such as microscopes, binoculars, meters, globes, and even human and animal skeletons.”

6. Use Money to *Subtract* Things From Your Life, Not Add Them – Big Law Investor

“I’d say that’s the single greatest use of money and a guaranteed happiness return: use money to remove something you don’t like.”

7. Do You Need That? – Alexandra Franzen

“The key, I think, is to keep asking these kinds of questions. To stay awake and curious, not complacent. It’s so easy to get lulled into the undertow of ‘what everybody else is doing.'”

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