“It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.” -Henry Ward Beecher Money is important, there’s no denying that. But it’s not the most important thing. Being a good person and having a big heart will always be more important than the money in your bank…
Almost exactly one year ago, we bought our dream house. It was a 2,700-square-foot Spanish mission-style house with two master suites, a fireplace in the kitchen and a 1,200-square-foot courtyard in the middle of the house. We bought the house for an incredible price and we renovated every square foot–from the glitter popcorn ceiling to the yellow, vinyl, floral-printed floor. But as we…
“If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” -Edmund Burke I used to rarely check my bank account. The number was always lower than I wanted it to be and I wanted to avoid the pain of disappointment. But by not knowing how much money was coming in…
In 2013, I completed my English degree. Up to this point, I had been living in the typical fairyland of student loans and credit card debt that I never bothered to check. As my years in school rolled on, I became the queen of “If my credit card is letting me buy this, I must be fine.” I didn’t even…
Steve Jobs didn’t have an impressive sense of fashion, did he? We kept seeing him in the same type of clothes, day after day. Maybe he chose minimalism because he wanted his company’s products to be the focus of attention. Maybe he did it for the same reason why many other successful people choose to stick to simplicity: decision fatigue….
“Never spend your money before you have earned it.” -Thomas Jefferson With a regular 9-5 job and direct deposits into online bank accounts, it’s easy to become detached to money. Numbers on a screen don’t always seem real. We work hard and do our jobs, but it can be hard to see how we truly earned our money. When I…
Woo-hoo! I made it one year! Blow the horns, pop the champagne and set off the fireworks! Let’s dive right in and see how I did: Credit Cards/Personal: $0! (down from $4,998.93) Medical: $1,001.36 (down from $4,521.62) Student Loans: $24,182.89 (down from $26,000.56) Bringing my GRAND TOTAL to $10,336.86!!! WHAT?! Are you frickin’ kidding me?! I paid off more than…
“We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties.” -Anna C. Brackett What we often don’t think about when we add stuff to our lives is the weight that stuff carries– physical and mental. When we add things, even when things seem like a convince, we also…
It’s that time of the month where we get to see how all the hard work we’ve been doing with the Spending Fast and Spending Diets have been paying off! We had another great month! Seriously, I’m constantly blown away! Are you ready? In May, we saved an incredible $67,190.48! That brings our Collective Savings total to $2,597,040.87! You guys are killing…
I’m an all-or-nothing person, but until I read Anna’s book, The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living, it never sank in that perhaps I should try that approach toward my debt. I’d reached a point where my debt was piling up over my head and beyond. I couldn’t always make minimum payments with my part-time paycheck. I felt embarrassed every time…
“Know what you own and know why you own it.” -Peter Lynch Lately I’ve been doing a bit of spring cleaning. And even though I live in a small house and I try to be a minimalist, I still keep discovering stuff that I didn’t know I had and I have no idea why I own it. But getting rid…
When starting out on a Spending Fast, so many of us assume that we must focus solely on paying off debt. While there is some truth to that, it doesn’t mean we should forget ourselves altogether. No spending shouldn’t equal no fun. “But I don’t have money to go out anymore,” you protest. Who said anything about going out? These…