Just one link for you today. I participated in this week’s Festival of Frugality. And it was wonderful.
You may have noticed that I haven’t really discussed the election on this blog. Honestly, the main reason is because I am surrounded by political talk all day every day and I would like to keep some parts of my life politics free. Additionally, I believe that people need to truly take advantage of their right to vote and make sure that they choose the candidate they prefer, not the candidate someone else wants you to vote for. I’ve not seen a lot of that on finance blogs, thankfully, and I do appreciate those who have posted comparisons of the two candidates’ tax plans.
The reason I bring this up is because I received a notification from BlogHer that the ads that they are running will include political ads. I had the chance to opt out all together or choose which candidates’ ads I didn’t want displayed, but I decided not to do anything. Why? For the reasons mentioned above. I think you should get as much information as possible, and that includes reading what the candidates have to say themselves. Of course, you should probably always take that information with a grain of salt.
Basically, that is a long way of saying “You will see ads. As always, I do not necessarily endorse the products or people displayed in those ads.”
Megan is a 40-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.
I do understand your sentiment and it is good for you to be honest in how you feel. I do enjoy reading your thoughts and frugality ramblings as I believe that saving money is making money too.