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Travel Hacking My Way to Jordan

travel hacking jordan

Here’s the deal. My mom is awesome. Like super awesome. Like raised-two-daughters-as-a-single-mom-and-still-got-her-Ph.D.-in-the-middle level awesome. She’s always been supportive and wonderful, and I love her bunches. And she turned 60 this year, so I wanted to do something extra special to celebrate. For the past year and a half, I’ve been saving up credit card points to take her to Jordan (without spending a whole lot of money), and I figured I’d outline what I did here in case it’s of interest to others. I couldn’t write about this travel hacking strategy sooner because I didn’t give her the gift until last month, but we won’t be going until Spring 2020 (for her birthday I told her that we would be going, then we picked dates…).

via GIPHY
Continue reading “Travel Hacking My Way to Jordan”
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An Ode to My YNAB Budget

YNAB budget finance you need a budget

The Personal Finance community has some pretty strong views about budgets. About whether or not you need one, about the proper way to allocate money, and about what tool is best. Excel spreadsheet user? You should totally be using Personal Capital. No, you should use Mint. No, nothing beats a good old-fashioned spreadsheet! While I hate to add to the noise of the budget debate, I am a fervent convert of You Need a Budget (YNAB).

It has officially been one year since I started my free 34-day trial, and I can honestly say that using YNAB has changed my life. Without it, I never would have gotten my financial shit in order, and I never would have found the personal finance and FIRE community. I finally feel like I have control of my finances, and I want to shout YNAB’s praises from the rooftops. Conveniently, I have a blog now! Complete with virtual rooftops galore!

cats railroad aristocats animation singing from the rooftop
Aristocats…just pretend it’s a rooftop

So here it goes. Reasons why I love budgeting in YNAB:  Continue reading “An Ode to My YNAB Budget”

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Slaying My Consumer Debt

consumer debt, credit card, paying off

 

This month, I officially paid off the last of my credit card debt. I’m honestly a little embarrassed that I had any to begin with—I wasn’t all that careful with my money right after graduating because taking home a real paycheck was dizzying. I didn’t bother doing the math, and was pretty liberal to treating myself when I had a bad day and needed a pick-me-up. Or when I had a good day and needed to celebrate. Or really anytime I wanted something; I was a pro at coming up with excuses. Finally, when I got serious about budgeting just about a year ago (and subsequently fell down the FIRE rabbit hole), I was able to make real progress on tackling the beast. Continue reading “Slaying My Consumer Debt”