The 7 Personal Finance Articles We Love This Week
This week, I’ve had at least four personal finance revelations, and it’s only Thursday. I learned that I need to give people in New York City more credit for budgeting, because it is insanely difficult. (I’ve been in NYC for about 10 days now, and have more respect for New Yorkers who save than I ever have before, because shit is EXPENSIVE here.) I’ve also learned that health care providers, no matter how neutral they can be on the phone, will try to screw you over, just on principle, once every three months without fail. And from the round up of articles below, I’ve figured out how I’m going to save for my next vacation. Among the articles on this list is J.Money’s 29 Quick Money Tricks, and one of the tricks is to save money for travel by practicing “no-spend weekends.” Already a “no-spend weekend” is something I want to try, so I’ll keep you all posted on that.
Another piece on this roundup (the one by The Escape Artist) sparked my final financial revelation for the week. It’s something that we’ve discussed on TFD a few times: the idea of paying yourself first. I’ve generally been thinking a lot more about when is the exact right time of the month for me to transfer money into my savings. (If I had direct deposit, it would transfer automatically, but I do things differently because I have incomes from multiple clients.) For a long time, I transferred money into my savings around the end of the month, and I’ve been considering changing that in order to pay myself sooner.
In general, the seven articles below pushed me to think more critically about my finances as I read through them. While we do some expert content here on TFD, we’ve decided to take some time every week on the site to welcome other articles from the PF blogosphere. So we’re teaming up with our friends at Rockstar Finance to bring you some exceptional articles from around the internet. Rockstar Finance sorts through tons of financial content (including TFD’s!) every day and picks some of the most helpful money tips, and interesting PF pieces. It’s pretty much a one-stop shopping trip for personal finance content, and we’re thrilled to give them some space on TFD to share their wisdom. Below, you’ll find seven interesting personal finance reads, and a pull quote from each to help you decide whether you’d like to ~read on.
1. 10 Baby Steps for Future Millionaires — The Escape Artist
“Remember: a journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step. Re-programming our habits eventually creates incredible results. The magic is in the aggregation of marginal gains.”
2. Does This FICO Score Make Me Look Fat? — Pad Adventure
“A $20,000 car will set you back $21,248.95 at 48 months and 4 percent. The same at 12%? $25,280. That’s a $4,000 difference on the exact same $20,000 car, all because your credit has a mullet.”
3. 29 Quick Money Tricks — Budgets Are Sexy
“Every time we do a load of wash we put $2 in a jar. (Insert “laundering money” punchline here.) Although technically earmarked for a replacement washing machine at some point, the cash recently went toward the purchase of a new fridge.”
4. Do You Want It Bad Enough? — Financial Samurai
“I’ve highlighted Sean Cooper’s story about how he put his life on hold for three years so he could pay off his mortgage early. No sex. No fine dining. No fancy car. No travel. No main house living. Lots of extra freelance work. And now, no mortgage debt. Sean wanted to get ahead, so he did it.”
5. How Much You’ll Earn and Spend in Your Lifetime — Money After Graduation
“It’s easy to spend impulsively if you think there is always more money to come, that every day you go to work in order to earn more. But this is a self-sabotaging perspective. It’s a much better mental exercise to pretend that all the money you’ll earn in your lifetime is already there, and going to work every day is just the contingency you need to fulfill in order to access it.”
6. Before You Take a Step, Look at Where You Are — Retire 29
“Tracking your expenses is probably the most important thing you can do on your path to financial independence and early retirement. Despite the ‘80% of your pre-retirement income’ rule of thumb that gets bandied about, all that really matters is what you spend. If you have investments that exceed 25-times your expenses, then you are safe to retire and are considered financially independent.”
7. The Average American is Richer than John D. Rockefeller — Fee.org
“Your wi-fi connection was painfully slow — oh, wait, right: it didn’t exist. No matter, because you had neither computer nor access to the Internet. (My gosh, there weren’t even any blogs for you to read!)”
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