10 budget breakdowns of young professionals who live in NYC.
The Cash Fasting Gift Guide: Low Budget Gift Ideas
Unless you’ve decided to not gift any presents this year, the holiday season can be rough for us frugal-minded folks. Generally, I try to avoid spending money, but I don’t skip out on holiday gifting. I enjoy giving gifts! Staying on a budget over the holidays hasn’t always been successful in the past. Well, I’m getting smarter this year. After much …
My 2018 Financial Goals
One of the best benefits, in my opinion, of blogging, is that the goals I write about are always accessible. It’s not like resolutions of the past, where I’d write something on a piece of paper but completely forget about it only a few weeks later. When I set my 2017 goals, I knew I wanted to focus on financial …
A Cash Fasting Reveal: My Net Worth
Prior to this summer, when I paid off my student debt, I didn’t think about my net worth. Why? I’ve been using Mint as a budget calculator for over four years, and the site couldn’t account for my loan balance because I owed my parents, not the bank. However, now that I’m done with debt, things have changed. Why am …
Cash Fasting Round 7: A Two-Week No Spend Guest Challenge!
After over a year of Cash Fasting away by myself (or otherwise roping in poor Ian), someone has made a contribution! Of course, it was a real-life friend who reached out – you’ve met her before; it’s Alice, my fellow friend in frugality. For two weeks, she attempted a full no-spend challenge. Let’s see how she did.
When Student Loans Bite Back
This year, I finally paid off my student debt. I’m lucky enough to have parents who paid for my education costs upfront, then let me pay them back in my own time, interest-free. For many students, this is not the case. There are countless stories of people who dutifully send monthly payments toward loans, only to find out years later …
What does a 64% Savings Rate Actually Look Like?
In a recent update, I got SUPER excited after calculating that I had averaged a 64% savings rate in Q3’17… like, wtf?! In retrospect, I’ve realized I should add some additional clarity on what that looks like for me. That 64% was calculated by looking at my savings over my take-home income. I’ve seen a savings rate calculated two different …
A Q3’17 Savings Update
2017 is wrapping up way faster than I’d like. Fall is here, Halloween is around the corner, and I don’t know if I’ve made as much progress towards my goals as needed. That’s not to say that there haven’t been successes this year. After all, I paid off my student debt in June, which has allowed me to really jumpstart …