A concept that I’ve always really liked the idea of and that I’ve heard thrown around quite often lately on the financial podcasts that I listen to and financial blogs that I read is the “money meeting”, “money date”, or “money talk”, as some call it. No matter what you call it, I think it’s important to set aside time to have serious conversations about your finances with your spouse or significant other.
Drew’s Method
Halfway Through 2019
3 minute read
Somehow, we’re already halfway through the year. I have no idea how that happened, but it did and there are some things that we can do now to evaluate our progress towards our goals, and get ourselves back on track if we need to, that will help to set us up for success over the next 6 months to end the year strong.
Cars
3 minute read
My uncle, who is the master of finding deals on vehicles and somehow actually making money from selling used cars even after he drives them for a while, sent me an article titled Opinion: The road to riches is this simple: Drive a junky car by Jared Dillian. Obviously, this article resonated with both of us, but I suspect that many wouldn’t even begin to read it simply because of the title.
What Does Money Mean To You?
3 minute read
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of money is, “something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment…” However, money can mean a lot of different things to different people.
One Year In
2 minute read
One year ago today, on June 11, 2018, I shared this blog on my personal social media channels for the first time. I had been posting shorter “mini blogs” about personal finance topics on my social media since the beginning of 2018, but I decided to create the website as a way for me to store my writing. I want to say thank you very much to all of those who have at least taken a second out of your day to read what I’ve written. I know that there are some who read everyone of my posts, no matter how terrible they are, and there are some who have seen them on social media tons of times and have never bothered to read. I understand how many different ways your attention gets pulled and how much information is out there to consume, and I truly appreciate those who direct their time and attention to reading what I have to say even for a couple of seconds of their day. I can only hope that I’ve provided you with some value and have been able to teach you something or challenge your thinking in a positive way.
Back In The Groove
3 minute read
I’ve fallen off the wagon when it comes to blogging over the past couple of weeks. I started posting mini blogs to social media in the beginning of 2018 and created this website in May 2018. I think this is the first time I’ve struggled this much with writer’s block and coming up with ideas to write about along with being so busy that I haven’t found the time to sit down and be intentional about writing down ideas and topics to brainstorm. Hitting a bump in the road like this can affect many areas of your life from writing and creating ideas to fitness to spiritual to your personal finances to everything. I think the key is to not let it discourage you and become such a large hurdle that you let it get in the way of your progress. Progress may be slow, nonexistent, or even negative at times, but what really matters is what happens over the long-term. Having a short period of slow or no progress doesn’t mean that it will be a long-term trend or even that it will have a significant effect over the long run.
Eminence Career Day
4 minute read
This morning, I went back to Eminence Elementary School to speak to 4th and 5th graders about what I do at their Career Day. I’m sure that my presentation was much more boring to them than when they got to speak with a police officer or an EMT, but I hope I was able to at least teach them something. I tried to keep things very high level through asking for examples of goals that they have and how to reach them as well as goals that they have for their money. To my surprise, many kids had savings goals that they were working towards by saving their allowances or money they get from doing chores rather than spending that money when they get it. Some had very realistic goals of things they wanted to buy and would be able to afford in a relatively short time-frame and some had goals that they’re not likely to be able to afford themselves, but maybe their parents will help them out with. Overall, most students were able to explain a goal they had whether it be financially related or not.
What Do You Do?
3 minute read
Last week and this week are full of me “giving back” to the community. Last Thursday, I attended an Indiana State University Financial Planning Advisory Board meeting where we answered students’ questions and had lunch with some of them, this Thursday I will be at Eminence Elementary School for 4th & 5th Grade Career Day where I believe other middle school and high school teachers may be expecting me to speak to their classes as well, and on Friday I will be participating in Student Day with the Financial Planning Association of Greater Indiana. I have a hard time calling these types of things “giving back”, but that’s what others call them so I’ll stick with it.
Hire A Pro
3 minute read
As I mentioned in my last post, I recently moved to a new apartment and it pretty much took a whole day. This reaffirmed that moving may be the thing that I hate most in the world. It’s just a cumbersome process from packing to cleaning to loading everything up to driving to unloading everything to unpacking and on and on and on. I thought that Amanda and I didn’t have much stuff until we started packing and loading everything. And I’m still pretty sure that we have less stuff than a lot of people our age, which is scary to me. There was so. Much. Stuff. We ended up taking two truck-loads to Goodwill and countless other bags to the dumpster and still had a ton left over to move.
Pay Up
3 minute read
I moved to a different apartment over the weekend and between everything that comes up during the moving process I was reminded of a money-saving lesson: Sometimes paying a large sum up-front can save you money in the long-run.
