Due to technical difficulties (meaning that I wrote a post and have no idea where it went), today’s post has been postponed. Maybe the blog decided to leave early for Memorial Day Weekend. It definitely appears that my office has done so.
Memorial Day Weekend kind of snuck up on me this year. I’m hoping to get down to the War Memorials this weekend, maybe bring some flowers with me and thank all the veterans who are visiting and remembering fallen comrades. It’s a nice way to spend the holiday.
I know a lot of people are traveling this weekend. Anyone taking any good roadtrips? Be safe, and remember to pack snacks! It’s so much cheaper than buying food at the gas stations (though not nearly as fun – I still think of Combos as vacation food thanks to many childhood roadtrips). What’s your favorite roadtrip snack?
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.
TGIF indeed! I don’t know if this counts, but on road trips I love drinking milkshakes. It’s messy-free, only requires one hand, and somehow makes the time go faster. Today though, on my seven-hour drive, I’m have along a bag of Trader Joe’s kettle corn. YUM-MY! Hope you have a great weekend. 🙂
happpppy weekend indeed! my fave snack is beef jerky, but only from the random gas stations…much tastier there than bringing for sure 😉
My emphathetic regards! I was up until about 30 minutes after midnight last night due to losing my post, and had to re-write it. I’m glad to know we have that in common on this Memorial Day weekend 🙂