Mighty Bargain Hunter hosted this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance: American Flag Edition! I have to say, I really like the history included in the Carnival this week. The themes are always fun, but as an American history buff, I was delighted to see all the flags.
My post on going cashless was included. As usual, here are some articles that caught my eye.
Surviving on a Single Income – Great tips for any families considering going to a single income.
Debit Card Fraud Much More Damaging than Credit Card Fraud – I have presented this view many times when explaining the reasons that I prefer credit cards to debit cards.
Career vs. Family – I know this is a struggle for a lot of young female professionals right now. It’s not something I’m facing right now, but I’m sure that it’s something I will be facing in the future.
Don’t Gamble Your Safety Net – My retirement accounts have taken a sizeable hit in recent weeks, and I find myself wanting to pull out, but I just don’t know what else I would invest in. Plus I have no plans to retire anytime soon, so I plan to just stay the course.
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
