Category: Budgeting

To Think or Not to Think: The Financial Question

I hope you are all enjoying some crisp fall weather, wherever you are.

With my latest quarterly net worth check-in, I discovered that I have nearly doubled my net worth in the three years since I started tracking my progress! The beauty of compounding is at play here: The more money I have invested that is making me money, the more money it continues to make. It’s that simple!

Other than that, I want to update you on what I have been thinking about vs. what I have been (choosing) not to think about when it comes to my money lately. This is sometimes by design, as a behavioral finance trick. Each link in this list will take you to a category of articles on this blog for you to explore further.

  • Bank accounts—I think about them weekly, but don’t always check them that often. My checking account and regular savings account are my most visited; my two high-yield savings accounts are reviewed quarterly for my net worth update, and are regularly invested in whenever I have savings from a biweekly paycheck ✅
  • Budget—I don’t think about it as much as I used to; I have regular payments that aren’t accounted for in my budget ❌
  • Credit cards—I think about them a lot, sometimes multiple times per week. This is the primary focus of my finances: What am I spending and—when it comes time to pay the bill—how much do I owe? This is also a good way to prevent fraud, but your credit providers should be alerting you to any unusual activity ✅
  • Investments—I don’t think about them, but I check my Charles Schwab brokerage account periodically during market shifts (thanks for the heads up, AAII!) and review them for performance and potential deletions twice per year ✅
  • Retirement accounts—I don’t think about them because I check my progress quarterly, I have a system in place ✅

The aspects of my personal finance that regularly haunt me are my bank accounts and credit cards. These are top of mind since I handle them on a short-term basis, whereas my investments and retirement accounts are for the long term. The one area I need to improve is my budget, hence the “x” instead of the checkmark. At this point, it’s next year’s problem!

The state of my retirement accounts

My retirement accounts are doing well, especially when I don’t think about them! I still have my first 403(b) plan account with Vanguard from AAII, and it remains invested in the mutual funds I chose at the start of my retirement savings journey. My second retirement account is with Fidelity from my current job at Red Ventures. It’s a straight up 401(k), so now I have a fun collection of all these letters and numbers!

I’m actively contributing 5% of my salary to my Fidelity account on a biweekly pretax basis, meaning the money comes out of my paycheck before I even get to see it. Meanwhile, with my employer matching most of that contribution, I’m sitting on nearly $6,500 after over a year of steady contributions and positive returns!

I invested my Fidelity account in these mutual funds that were available to me, using the same weights I applied to similar funds in my Vanguard account: 30% invested in the T. Rowe Price Large-Cap Growth fund (TRLGX), 20% in the Fidelity Mid Cap Index fund (FSMDX), 20% in the Fidelity Small Cap Index fund (FSSNX), 20% in Emerging Markets II (ticker not listed) and 10% in the Principal Real Estate Securities Fund Class R6 (PFRSX).

When I invested in these funds back in fall 2024, two of them had higher expense ratios than I would like for my investments: the real estate fund’s was 0.81%, and the large-cap growth fund’s was 0.70%. My investing strategy is to find mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with expense ratios under 0.60%, otherwise we’re getting dangerously close to 1%, which is way too much to be giving any fund or money manager. Thankfully, the large-cap growth fund’s expense ratio has since decreased to 0.55%.

My petsitting venture

This year, I started petsitting cats and dogs. It took off when I started networking through the dogs, finding more animal friends to hang out with. My closest human friends also have some of the cutest cats ever, so I can’t resist spending scheduled time with them when they are required to pay attention to me 😂.

So far this year, I have made over $1,600 from this venture! Since I haven’t been as regular with saving this year as I would like, at the end of 2025 I plan to match the amount I’ve made from petsitting and move it into my emergency savings account.

When I initially drew up my rules for this savings account, I wanted to keep $10,000 in it at all times. However, I’ve learned since that I don’t really need that much money available, even for emergencies. I settled on maintaining my emergency savings at $7,000. In the current market environment, it makes more sense to keep money in my high-yield savings accounts so they can make more than the measly 0.01% interest my emergency savings will.

Some other financial decisions I made since we last talked:

  • I signed a two-year lease for my current apartment so I could lock in the increased rate of $1,450/mo. for the next two years to save myself another $50/mo. increase down the line
  • I chose my health insurance plan for 2026, and went with the lowest tier for around $30 per paycheck

I’ll be back in early 2026 for another portfolio review! Wishing you all a wonderful and safe holiday season.

More articles on rethinking retirement:
Retiring Early: Memoir or Fiction?
Should Young People Still Save for Retirement?
How Much Should I Contribute to My Retirement Account?

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Setting Goals With an Uncertain Budget

Hi all, I know it’s been a bit since you heard from me! I was a little busy changing my entire life there for a second, but I’m back. I wanted to wait until everything settled, but that’s not really how life or money works!

I moved into a new apartment at the end of August, and I’m still not sure what my monthly expenses are going to be since I’m paying for cooking gas. Now that my gas meter is readable after the guy from Peoples Gas came by twice to join me in the treacherous, spiderwebbed, possibly rat-infested basement of my 107-year-old apartment building, and I can take baths again without water leaking into my downstairs neighbor’s bathroom, I’m looking at fixed expenses upward of $1,550 per month. On top of all that, I got a new job and now freshly qualify for their retirement account, so my income is also in flux due to those contributions. Once I know the details, you’ll know. Promise you that!

My uncertain budget isn’t going to stop me from setting goals, though. The more I allow money to live in its liquid form in my head, the more I feel like I can actually do something with it. I have also been carrying this new feeling that everything is going to work out, so I’m happy to share that energy with you.

I have two relatively short-term goals that I want to save up for. One is focused on skincare. Back in the day when I was a wee lass with terrible acne, I used to get facials consistently. I’d like to thank my mom for being so understanding and funding that venture, because it really helped my skin at the time. Now that I’m in my 30s, the evil acne hormones are back and I’m about at the end of my rope with them! One of my friends is getting facials regularly again, and I know it’s the only thing that will help my skin in the long run. I just recently changed my skincare regimen to almost entirely Korean products containing rice water—please save me and my microbiome!

My plan is to save up for six facials in 2025, accounting for $150 per facial plus a tip. Being generous with my future facialist and my savings, I’m rounding up to $200 per facial. It will also add a cushion for these savings should I want to spend this money on other skincare next year, or visit a dermatologist. This amounts to $1,200 I’ll have to save for this goal. Honestly, I’ve spent more on travel expenses in the past. I was always so worried about spending too much on skincare, it annoys me that I didn’t do this sooner!

The beautiful thing about setting goals is it changes my mindset. I’m putting this money aside for a specific purpose, so I can think about it as if the spending isn’t really cutting into my overall net worth. I would have spent this money anyway, but having a goal for it gives the spending more structure. Then, when I finally spend the money, it can instead be a gift I’m giving to myself. Here’s to clearer skin in 2025, sheesh.

My second goal is to save up for traveling to the East Coast a couple times next spring. You guessed it, the Kills are touring again! This time, they’re opening for their friends Queens of the Stone Age, a band I’ve always wanted to see live. Also, St. Vincent is opening for the man who gave her a name, Nick Cave. It should be a great year for concerts, and hopefully new music and a Chicago show from Banks! I still have some budgeting to do on this goal, but I’m going to shoot for around $2,000.

The Kills live at Webster Hall in New York City, New York, February 27, 2024

I love being able to afford to see my favorite people whenever I want. I wouldn’t be able to without all this personal finance work I’ve been doing. AAII’s teachings remain at the forefront of my investing strategy. I would like to thank president John Bajkowski, editor Charles Rotblut and managing editor Jean Henrich for their support of the blog from day one and for giving me this amazing opportunity to continue it. Stick around for more of my investing discoveries!

Read these next!
A Money and Music Memoir
The Carrie Finances: Honey, I Shrunk the Budget
My Payday Routine

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Under Budget and Overwhelmed: Real Talk on My No-Buy Year Journey

I’ve been dreading updating you all on my budget and how the no-buy year is going, because it’s not going great! However, I want to be transparent with you all about my finances and how I handle the times when I don’t want to think about money. I split my money feelings into two categories below in an attempt to compartmentalize them, similar to how I distribute my savings to multiple accounts so I can see my goals clearer.

Top

  • I came in under budget for May, which after an expensive first few months of 2024 was much needed.
  • I only overspent by about $50 in June!
  • The loan I took out last year to buy a new mattress is finally paid off, which makes some room in my budget.

Bottom

  • Though I’m actively spending on one of my goals—moving—I still have the psychological toll of watching my savings decrease.
  • My new apartment is more expensive, which stretches my budget a bit, and some of my utilities charges for September are unknown.
  • I bought some clothes that I didn’t really need but made my life easier. Clothes were on my red light list for the no-buy year, but I thrifted them to maintain my sustainable strategy in that area.

Whew, I feel better already now that we’re all on the same page. Grace Nevitt, who gave me the idea for the no-buy year, recently posted a video with tips for readjusting and refocusing on the no-buy strategy over halfway through the year (we’re so in sync!). She highlights how she has been engaging more in do-it-yourself (DIY) projects instead of using money to solve a problem—and rewiring that connection in your brain. One example is she wanted pink nail polish and didn’t want to buy it, but she conveniently had a red bottle that she mixed with a white bottle. Mixing them also made the consistency of the final product smoother.

Grace also mentions that she is community sourcing from family and friends and relying more on her “buy nothing” neighborhood group. I’ve been trying to do the same with my family and friends for odds and ends I’ll need for moving, which has taken some adjusting as a Very Independent Person.

Remember Your Why

Grace mentions that we should remember our initial reason for doing a no-buy year. Her “why” is that she wants to save up for a homestead in New Zealand, but throughout the year she started focusing more on her relationship with shopping and overconsumption. My “why” is that I want to save up for my goals and generally not accumulate more stuff (especially since I’m moving, my back already hurts enough!).

Without further ado, here is my budget for September:

Though my rent will be $100 more, I will finally have a dishwasher (please clap!), which will save me time and energy. Don’t tell the dishes, but I’ve kind of enjoyed washing them recently—a whole new level of adulthood unlocked. My new place is also closer to some of my friends, which will cut down on travel expenses. I temporarily stopped one of my subscriptions for a vitamin since I have enough of it to last me a while. My sole monthly subscription is Spotify, which recently increased to $11.99. My whole life in music is on there at this point, so I’m not going anywhere unless they completely change the program.

Most importantly, I thought it was time to increase my monthly savings amount. Now that my loan is paid off and I have a little wiggle room, I increased my savings goal from $500 to $530 to begin replenishing the savings I’ll be spending on moving. Grace emphasizes that if we don’t know what we’re spending on, we can’t see where the problems are and where we need to fix the rules of our strategy. Not only do you have to be transparent with your budget, but also with yourself. I want to focus more on having experiences in the second half of the year. Though experiences are technically on my yellow light list, I still have to live my life to make all this budgeting worthwhile!

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The Carrie Finances: Honey, I Shrunk the Budget

Now that I’m in my 30s and my health app has officially launched me into the 30–39 age group, I thought it was time I rewatched my beloved “Sex and the City” again.

In the first episode of season one, Carrie Bradshaw rekindles things with an ex (who has been resurrected a few times) and her best friend Stanford Blatch says, “Are you out of your mind? What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Carrie replies, “Oh, calm down. It’s research,” after making a “date” for 3:00 p.m. to inspire her next column.

My own research boils down to what mistakes the characters are making with money, and how I can avoid them at all costs. By the time your 30s roll around, you are expected to have certain things figured out. But I’ve learned that this timeline can be restrictive—and, at times, misogynistic. Women have different reasons to spend money. As much as I would love to have a 3-in-1 shampoo instead of mixing three different ones to get my desired results, the majority of products marketed toward women are meant to only serve one purpose. This means we must buy more and more things to stay socially acceptable as we age. (I resent this fact, but the older I get the more I see it happening.)

When I started tracking my spending at the end of March, I was trying to figure out how I could be budgeting and still overspending. A lot of money went to my short-term goals, but there was still not enough room in my budget for what was needed. I got some new cleansers for my skin, trying to figure out my latest flare up. I was going more places and doing more things, which was good for my mental health but not my bank account. I still struggled to find balance and maintain my no-buy strategy for the year.

Later in season one, Carrie exclaims, “My new shoes shouldn’t be punished just because I can’t budget!” Once I saw the damage of March, I knew April could not be a repeat if I wanted to stay on track with my savings. When I broke my spending down by category (transportation, groceries, restaurants/coffee shops, clothing and pay later payments), I was able to see where the problems were. I managed to reduce the amount I spent on transportation by more than half in April. So far in May, I have been avoiding spending any money on transportation since I know that I have some activities planned for later in the month.

For my May 2024 budget, I am allotted $233 per week. My utilities have been steady with a mild start to spring, and I’m almost done with my monthly loan payments (as of publishing this, only three more to go!). So far, I have come in under budget, but I want to make sure I can keep this momentum going.

When I reflect on how hard it has been to both live my life and not buy things I don’t absolutely need, I think about how I used to spend all day at the mall when I was 12 years old and only spend around $20. Of course, this was the early 2000s, so everything was cheaper back then. The economy was good and even in my naive state I had some semblance of a community. The park, the public library and other places where you can be part of a community and not necessarily spend all your money are considered “third places” outside of home and work. The mall, a café, a bookstore and the gym are also on this list but have become places geared more toward spending money than interacting with others.

You could argue that tipping your barista gives back to the community, especially if you’re a regular at your coffee shop. But this still relies on spending money in order to build a community, instead of using the resources we already have to make connections with people.

Social media could also be considered a third place, but I’m not seeing much community there lately. If anything, social media has gone so far as to replace community with buying things in the way our outside world has monetized every interaction we have with others. In the same way, this transactional way of thinking can hinder us from getting together with others when there is no monetary incentive. Think of a friend charging you for having a home-cooked meal at their house even when they invited you over or sending you an invoice after hanging out in one of those public third places. Yikes!

Grace Nevitt, who gave me the idea for the no-buy year strategy, recently posted a YouTube video about how to discuss it with your loved ones. I never really ran into this issue since I announced it on the blog for everyone to see! But she cites the level of American consumerism and how ingrained it is in our society as part of why she thinks a no-buy year is important. If we can train ourselves to not feel the need to buy something just because it’s new, or because we feel like the world is doomed, maybe we can connect with each other in more meaningful ways than capitalism currently allows.

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My Payday Routine

Featured image credit: https://beyondspx.com

When I first started working, holding a physical paycheck in my hand wasn’t necessarily the cliché reward I thought it would be. Instead, it was more of a signal that I could buy things again. Back in the debit card days, I would say goodbye to $100 of my paycheck at Sephora almost immediately. I would put some money into savings, and at the time I was paying off some student loans, but it was never strategic.

Having a credit card has completely changed my mindset. Now, payday is a signal for me to distribute the money I don’t need to spend among my goals. With Beyoncé’s voice singing, “Wait, I hear you just got paid. Make it rain energy,” in my head, I open my checking account to make sure the money actually made it in there! You laugh, but one time that happened and I swear the world stood still for a few hours. If you receive a physical pay stub from your employer, make sure the number matches what was added to your bank account.

The first thing I do is type the number on my checking account balance into my phone’s calculator. Then, I determine how much needs to stay in checking for any fixed expenses like rent, utilities, etc. Take a look at what has gone through since your last paycheck to ensure everything looks correct and you haven’t been hacked.

If it’s not a paycheck that needs to be saved for rent, I go to my credit card statement and assess the damage. I subtract my credit card balance from the big checking account number. I almost always pay my card off in full if I have the funds to do so. Sometimes I wish Discover would let me pay off the pending payments too, so I’ll include them in my calculations just for fun!

Now that I have a better idea of what I’m working with after my fixed expenses and credit card are accounted for, I determine how much I can put in savings before my next paycheck. This time, I have $700 available to save. First, I move this amount from my checking account into my emergency savings account since they are with the same bank. Then, I distribute this amount to my high-yield savings accounts.

This is a good time to check in on your savings goals. Right now, my short-term goals of saving up to invest more and moving are the most pressing. My intermediate-term goal of buying property is nicely funded for now, so I’m going to leave my LendingClub high-yield savings account untouched. I set up a transfer so the $700 will be added to my SmartyPig high-yield savings account. This takes a few days to settle, but I like doing all these moves when I get paid on Friday mornings so they can make their way through the system faster at the beginning of the next week.

This money isn’t just going to sit in my account though, it’s going to be distributed to my two separate short-term goals using SmartyPig’s goals feature. This way, I can clearly visualize how much I have saved for each goal and how much more I have to save until they’re both funded. My goal for investing another $2,000 lump sum into my Charles Schwab brokerage account will need to be satisfied sooner than my moving goal. I have $500 out of $4,000 saved up for moving right now, so once my latest savings transfer has settled into my SmartyPig account, I plan to move $200 of it into the moving goal and $500 to start saving up for investing.

Depending on which payday this is, I will also take a look at my spending for the month, but I’ll save my findings for next time when we look at my budget. Stay tuned for more of my investing discoveries!

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Financial Goals to Accomplish by Age 30

If you’re reading this on the day it comes out, I have officially turned 30. I’ve been ambivalent about turning 30 for a while now, wanting to stay 27 forever (unfortunately, I never found a vampire to make that happen). The last time I felt I hit a big milestone was when I turned 19. At the time, I was in college and co-running a YouTube channel with my best friend Ilana. I filmed a video about what people can do when they turn 19, the most exciting of which was being able to drink legally in all of Canada! Inspired by this, I looked at the most common financial goals people should achieve by the time they turn 30. Of course, everyone will be on a different trajectory, but I always find benchmarks helpful when it comes to money.

1. Build and Replenish an Emergency Fund

The decade of my 20s was all about saving, and I’m so thankful I was able to focus on this goal. Building an emergency savings fund is the first step you can take to achieve financial independence. A common guideline is to have at least six months of living expenses saved in this fund, but you can work up to this. I have my emergency fund in my regular savings account that is attached to my checking account. This means it’s not earning me much interest, but that’s quite literally the price I pay for this money to be easily accessible in an emergency. If you end up tapping your emergency savings, be sure to set up a plan for building that fund back up to the amount you maintained before. Whenever your financial situation changes, you should reassess this amount to make sure it will still cover six months of expenses.

2. Pay off Debt

Once you have money saved up for emergencies, you have increased your net worth and also your ability to pay off debt. If you were trying to pay down debt before building up your savings, you would slip further into the red, and it would be difficult to get yourself out of debt in the future. It’s best to focus on your high-interest debt first—anything above 6%—since that interest will compound and add more to your debt if you don’t get it under control. Examples of high-interest debt could be on credit cards, personal loans and private student loans. Federal student loans are usually lower-interest debt, along with mortgages.

3. Maintain a Good Credit Score

Not only do you need to get yourself into a good credit score range (above 670), but you also need to keep that credit score up while you live your life. Your credit score can change at least once a month, but this can vary depending on how many lines of credit you have. You can keep your credit score up by paying your credit card bills on time, keeping your card balances low and only applying for lines of credit that you need. Over the last year, my credit score has stayed within the range of 770 to 780, which is considered “very good.” Maybe I’ll try to sneak into the “excellent” range (800 to 850) during my 30s 😉.

4. Start Saving for Retirement

I know most of us young people don’t even want to think about retirement half the time, but if you are actively contributing to a retirement account, you shouldn’t have to think much about your balance. The best thing to do once you choose your investments for your retirement account is to rarely check it. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but unless you have concerns about your account not making enough or you want to reconsider how your portfolio is allocated, it’s best to just let your investments ride their gains and only periodically check your balance.

One rule is to have at least half of your current income in your retirement account by the time you turn 30, but I’m not sure how achievable this is in practice. Especially with inflation, millennials and Generation Z are struggling to even hit what is considered the minimum. It might be more reasonable to shoot for having one-third of your income saved for retirement by age 30. For example, if you’re making $45,000, this would equate to $15,000 in your retirement account. I can honestly say that I have less than one-third of my income in my retirement account right now, but I have multiple savings and investment vehicles that together would cover this amount.

5. Know Where Your Money Goes

This is just a looser way to say “budget,” but by age 30 it’s important to know how much money you are spending relative to how much you are making. You probably have a general idea when you look at your bank account and credit card statements, but if you still feel a dark cloud over your head when you think about your finances, it might be time to break out the spreadsheets and take a closer look at the numbers. I yo-yo between finding my budget helpful and hurtful, but the truth is there’s no emotion that I’m not projecting onto these numbers. On their own, they’re just numbers. The sooner you face them, the better off you and your money will be.

6. Begin Investing

If you haven’t started investing, there’s no time like right now! For me, the hardest part of investing so far was the beginning. If you’re struggling to figure out where to start, it’s helpful to determine how much money you have available to invest. If you want to go for something easy that won’t take much of your time, put that money into an index mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF). It won’t beat the market’s return, but it will ensure that you have investments making money for your future.

How Do You Score?

By age 30, I have pretty much everything I need for financial stability. Out of the six goals, I would say I have achieved five and a half, for 91.7%, or a grade of A–. This means I have places I can improve in my 30s, so I’ll be focusing more on my goal of saving for retirement and optimizing my budget. If you’re turning 30 soon or you recently turned 30, how many of these goals have you achieved? What has been the hardest one? Let me know in the comments!

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Budgeting While Paying Down Debt

Another budgeting blog post, already? Yes, I regret to inform you that I’m getting extra cozy with my budget this fall. Now that my rent is too high for my liking and groceries cost the same amount of money as going out to dinner, it’s time to get real.

I’m also revisiting my budget since a few things have shifted in my expenses and income. My power bill is still going to be in the $40 range in October (the email came through yesterday, thanks to ComEd’s impeccable timing), but I got a call from Xfinity with an offer to lower my monthly internet bill for the next year! I’d rather look up the phone number of who’s calling me than actually answer the phone, but I know when Xfinity calls that it means money, honey! My internet will cost around $61 per month instead of $72, with no change in service. At this point, I’ll take any discount I can get.

My utilities for October still come out to just over $100, but with a lower base price for my more expensive utility, I know I’ll have more breathing room in the winter months.

I checked in with the budgeting zeitgeist for any new tips surfacing and stumbled on this article from the Good Trade. One of the hacks suggests asking your utility company about budgeting plans: “If you have very high electricity bills in one season and very low bills in another, reach out to your utility company to see if they offer budget plans. During a particularly cold winter in a basement apartment surrounded by concrete, our heat bill came out to nearly $400. We were able to pay closer to $120/month through a budgeting plan, rather than $400 chunks in the winter and $80 bills in the summer.”

My most expensive power bill in the summer has been close to $60, while the low end in the winter is around $20. This isn’t quite drastic enough for me to be on a budgeting plan, but if the horrors persist and costs increase over time, it’s something I can keep in my back pocket. It just strikes me as another thing that falls on the individual to take action in order to live comfortably, rather than the companies with the money and services making things easier for their customers from the get-go.

Another piece of advice from the Good Trade is to “make checking your budget a ritual so that it doesn’t cause you stress.” The article recommends having your budget with a side of wine or dessert to trick yourself into enjoying the process. Reviewing your budget more often also increases your tolerance for dealing with it. I wish I could say the same for grocery shopping, but I still have to mentally prepare myself before leaving the house and make sure I don’t accidentally spend $80!

The main reason I need to redo my budget is that I recently took out a loan to buy a new mattress. (It was so worth it, and I’m sitting on it as I write this—getting my money’s worth!) Since I’ll be paying it off each month for the next year, I added the loan payment to my fixed expenses:

Much of the budgeting advice I have found pushes you to prioritize paying down debt whenever you can, and I intend to follow it. Especially since my monthly loan payment will be coming from my checking account, I have to literally be tighter with the purse strings to ensure I have enough funds without overdrawing.

Though it’s not included in my monthly budget, I received a sizable one-time payout from being involved in a litigation claim with a skin care company. I used the brand’s platform that analyzes your skin and recommends corresponding products to treat acne, discoloration, etc. Apparently, my biometric facial data was stored by the website and exploited elsewhere. In addition to the payout, I received a voucher that can only be redeemed for buying the company’s products. I put this payout directly into my emergency savings account and will be sharing the skin care wealth with friends and family. Stay tuned for a post where I figure out how taxes work on this income!

All of these changes led me to make the tough decision of lowering the monthly amount I’ll be putting into savings until my mattress is paid off. My monthly expenses are now over 50% of my income, so something had to give (in September, they were just under 50%). I determined my savings amount by subtracting the loan payment from what I was previously saving per month and rounding it down to $500. However, I have been able to build up my emergency savings with the payout, so anything I save going forward will be allocated to my high-yield savings accounts that are making me more money than my regular savings account.

The more familiar I get with my budget, the more I realize that everything is temporary and in flux, and there’s always something I can do to make the numbers work for me. Now that I have a few different investing vehicles to take advantage of, it makes me feel less trapped by this monthly loan payment. I have the freedom to save a little less since I was consistent with my savings. My present self would like to thank past Anine, and you all, for encouraging me on this journey. I hope it inspires you to get your finances in order so you can do the things you love!

Check out AAII’s Education Hub to increase your investing knowledge and learn how to prioritize your goals with the PRISM Wealth-Building Process.

Back to Investing Basics: On the Road Again

For the August 2023 issue of the AAII Journal, I revived the Beginning Investor column with the article “Starting on the Road to Investing.” If you’ve been following along with me but haven’t started investing, I hope the article serves as a helpful distillation of what I’ve learned about my own finances so far!

Writing the article forced me to go back to basics and determine how each stop on the road to investing built the foundation for the next one. My investing journey was nowhere near as linear as the article’s order suggests, and yours doesn’t have to look perfectly tidy for you to start now.

I discuss each step, the tools required and the difficulty level below, along with my own experiences. Each section has a link that will take you to my first blog post on the topic. None of these are destinations, but ongoing processes you’ll have to revisit as you make progress.

Tools required: Pen, paper, computer

Creating a budget, though I long dreaded it, is an easy place to start. Not everyone has a budget or sticks to it, but it helped me demystify where my money was going and how much I truly had to play with. It also doesn’t require you to speak to a professional, unless you really want to, so this is a step that can be taken entirely on your own or with your partner. When I first started budgeting using the percentage budget, it was a huge relief to know that my fixed expenses were less than 50% of my monthly income. If I hadn’t started a budget, I would still be living in the dark, not understanding how much I was spending until it came time to pay the bills.

Tools required: Computer, savings account, discipline, time

Building up my emergency savings fund was the first thing I did when I graduated college and started working. Before I even heard the adage “pay yourself first,” I was saving as much as I could in a kind of competition with myself. (I’m not usually competitive, but I guess my worst enemy is myself!) Whenever I wasn’t spending money at Sephora was a good time to slide some of my leftovers into savings. Your emergency savings fund should have three to six months of living expenses—for the good, the bad and the fun things you’ll need it for in the short term.

Tools required: Computer, government-issued ID, Social Security number

I can’t tell you much about opening my regular savings account, but I believe it was done in person at an actual bank. This isn’t necessary, but if you’re unsure about opening a savings account, there are professionals who can help you virtually as well. When I opened my high-yield savings accounts, it was simpler than I thought it would be, but required a lot of front-end research on my part to find the right account for what I wanted to do with my savings. Interest rates are still increasing, so this is a great time to shop around for savings accounts with higher yields than your regular bank savings account, if you have one.

Tools required: Computer, materials from your employer, your budget, some mutual fund knowledge

Starting to invest in my retirement account wasn’t just hard logistically, it was also a very difficult decision to cough up the money from my paycheck. My employer-sponsored 403(b) account was eligible for contributions when I filled out the paperwork and chose which mutual funds to invest in. Except I made all those decisions without factoring in my own contribution. I couldn’t afford to live and save for retirement at the same time, so I put it off. When I created that budget I was talking about, I realized I could finally make it work.

Tools required: Cold hard facts, your budget

Only you can determine how much you need to start investing, based on what you decide to invest in and what you have available to spare. You could start with $5 if that’s all you have, but it would limit you to fractional shares or very small stocks. If you have $1,000, you could potentially invest in a mutual fund or a few exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

First and foremost, you have to invest in yourself, which means building up your savings and thereby your net worth. When you have your financial foundation of savings, any excess can be allocated to your investments and other goals. You can do hard things! Go forth, invest!

Budget Status: It’s Complicated

If you’re tired of hearing about my budget, that makes two of us!

Last time we talked about my budget, I tried out a mini-budget to get back on track with my savings. I haven’t been able to save quite as much as I wanted, but I’m still trying to stick with the percentage budget I have in place to save around 20% of my monthly income.

I recently renewed the lease on my apartment, and my rent increased by $100 to $1,300—as if my landlord thinks all the pictures I take of the sunset every night can pay my bills! It wouldn’t have been so bad if I had received it during the day, but when I came home at 10:00 p.m. on a Saturday night, my building manager was in the lobby waiting, lease in hand. If I hadn’t immediately texted the friend I had just been out with and my mom about it, I wouldn’t have believed it myself 😂!

Thankfully, this higher rent doesn’t apply until September, so I have some more time to be anxious about it! With my rent at $1,300 and my air conditioning hiking up the price of my utilities, my total fixed expenses slid in at 49.7%, just under 50% of my monthly income. I had a feeling it would be tight, but I have the peace of mind that after this lease is up, I’ll be moving out to find something better for my money (with a dishwasher, which should no longer be considered a luxury in this economy!).

Before I updated my budget with these increases, I thought I might have to decrease the amount I could save going forward. Thankfully, there’s still room in my budget to allocate 20% to savings. In my latest blog post, I moved money from my SmartyPig high-yield savings account into my brokerage account. I’m feeling comfortable with the amount I have invested for now, so I can shift my focus to building up my savings in SmartyPig and LendingClub to continue taking advantage of the high interest rates.

Since every month is different, with various occasions to buy things for and necessities to replenish, I should probably be updating my budget more regularly—possibly every month. At this point, I’m not sure if it will help or hurt the process in place; if it will make me feel like I have more or less freedom to live my life. Ultimately, my sense of wealth depends on how much time I spend doing the things I love, and that means spending money. It might help to have some foresight when expensive months are on the horizon so that it’s not a surprise when I can’t save enough—I can just pretend it was all part of the plan 😉.

Do you think this view should cost $1,300? Comment below!

The Carrie Finances: Using a Mini-Budget to Get Back on Track

This week’s blog post is dedicated to my coworker and friend, Derek Hageman. Derek passed away over the weekend after battling cancer. He was a big supporter of this blog and having him in my corner was the greatest honor. Derek was the most positive, humble and reliable person I have ever worked with. May his memory be a blessing.

The malaise and overspending of the holidays have passed, the days are getting longer (albeit wetter) and it’s time to update my budget again!

Whenever I come back to my budget, it forces me to confront every aspect of my financial standing: How much am I spending? How much am I saving? What’s the discrepancy between those numbers and the budget I have in place?


February was an expensive month. I have a lot of Pisces friends, so birthday gifts (and attending fabulous parties) were my top expense. In addition, grocery shopping has become unbearable! Not only are prices creeping up every time I go, but my favorite things can’t seem to stay in stock. Whole Foods, if you’re reading this, my fatigued body relies on your lemonade Vitamin Water dupe to survive at this point 😂.

As a result, I wasn’t able to save the right amount last month, and it made me consider lowering the percentage of my income I’m putting into savings. However, I recently found this article by Allison Baggerly on her site Inspired Budget. One of my favorite takeaways is #8, the “mini-budget.” Whenever unexpected expenses come up, or you feel like you don’t have enough money to make it to your next paycheck, Baggerly suggests writing a mini-budget to keep you on track. Going more in depth about the mini-budget, she says, “Budgeting is less about the math and more about your flexibility and willingness to stick with it even when you overspend.” Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Since we’re nearing the end of March, I already set up my full monthly budget for April 2023:


My total fixed expenses are still under 50%, and with a bit more monthly income my savings amount increased to $580. When I considered lowering the savings percentage from 20% to 15% of my income, the amount I would be saving (about $440) felt significantly less substantial. The thought of having an easier amount to save made me feel worse, like I had failed to even consider my goal. Worse still, it reminded me of something Carrie Bradshaw would do—making excuses for herself instead of taking control of her life. (Of course, Carrie wasn’t living through a period of skyrocketing inflation, so we have some leeway here.)

With Baggerly’s advice, I know it’s better to try to reach my goal every month rather than give it up or change it. Still, I thought it would be a good exercise to create a mini-budget for myself to account for the time until my next paycheck.


Baggerly says to start with my checking account balance and determine how many days until the next paycheck hits. Next, I subtracted the expenses I knew would be taken from my checking account before April 7: my monthly payment at the dentist, my rent and my internet bill.

Little did I know, I had already been running these short-term mini-budgets in my head around this time of the month. Once my last paycheck of the month hits, I break out my phone calculator app, subtract all the many things we pay for to live on this earth from my checking account balance and ask myself: Can I put the right amount in savings this month?

As of right now, I’m $95 short on my leftover amount, but the good news is that I will be able to put at least $580 in savings once I get paid again on April 7. Since I’m behind, I might transfer even more to my savings account this time in an effort to catch up. By sticking with my budget, I’m able to hold myself accountable and not give up on my savings goals—even when I’m not able to meet them!