Okay, so my net worth update is late. I was out of town for the holiday weekend. Why? Because I ran a half marathon!
That’s right, my legs, 13.1 miles, COMPLETE.
It was a hugely exciting accomplishment, though around mile 6, I wondered why in the world I was doing this and couldn’t believe that I actually paid money to do it. But then I crossed the finish line and someone put a medal around my neck and I realized it was all worth it.
Running has become a bit of an expensive addiction for me, with gear and race entry fees and traveling to races, but I love every minute of it. Except for maybe a few of those mid-race miles. But nothing worthwhile is ever easy.
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.