Over the weekend, I went to the wedding of two friends in Chicago. It was so much fun. Because it was two friends marrying each other, I knew the majority of the non-family at the wedding, and it was wonderful to see everyone.
I split a room with a good friend of mine, and we realized that something has happened since we all graduated college. We’re all more concerned about money – and now we actually have money to spend! People ordered fewer drinks in the bar, and a number of people opted to drive in the day of the wedding rather than the night before and spend on a hotel room.
I was definitely glad to have someone to split the room with. I actually spent less than I budgeted, which was a delight, as in August, I blew my budget in just about every other category. Here’s to a no-spend September!
I think it’s a sign that we’re all growing up. We have reasons to save money (and many of us are dealing with grad school loans). We’re looking at buying houses and having families, maybe not soon, but at some point in the future.
I’m still not sure how I feel about this whole being a grown-up thing. Thankfully, we can still get together at weddings and dance like idiots, just like in college.
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.
I’m not sure how I feel about this whole being a grown-up thing either. It’s weird how many weddings I’ve been to/am going to in the near future. I’m still not used to that.