One of the great joys of my life was studying economics in college. A lot of people loved their college experience, and I did too. But my favorite part of college was probably the academics.
I mean, I got to study economics. Economics is basically philosophy marred by math and people, so nutrition for people who don't want to give up McDonald's. Economists basically exist to make everyone else look smart (and fit). What I'm trying to tell you is that economics is a stupid major. I learned almost no marketable skills, and I loved every moment of it. If my kids go to college (which I hope they do not, but expect that they will), I hope they pick a stupid major too. These are the common objections to picking stupid majors, and how I'll help my kids overcome them.
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Recently, Rob and I started to get excited about some potential lifestyle inflation. In about 10-12 months (depending on when Rob lands a job), we expect that our income will more than double. In fact, it could triple (Rob will finally earn more than me).
While we want to continue to live a generally frugal lifestyle, we expect (reasonably I hope) that we'll have opportunities to spend and give more than today. Of course, that has us excitedly chippering away at possible lifestyle changes including the potential of a big trip to New Zealand. Our first international trip with kids. Of course, that's all future talk. Right now, money is tighter, and we opted for a frugal vacation to visit family in Minnesota (including a brand new niece on Rob's side). We briefly considered sending Rob to visit his sister and niece alone, and having a 4 day weekend staycation later on. But we decided that Staycations are a bad idea for our family right now. Here's why. As expected, the second quarter drove expense through the roof. Our total reported spending is $9,982. This is just $2700 more than we spent in the first quarter of 2017. This number doesn't include charitable giving, income taxes, or work related expense (which were a hefty $480 for software subscriptions, a new software package, and annual accounting services).
We knew that childcare and medical/dental expenses would rival for the spot as top expense category, but who came out on top? Keep reading to find out ;) As parents, Rob and I want to do everything in our power to raise healthy, capable, flourishing adults. Even with young kids, we have to evaluate whether our parenting today will help them as adults 15+ years from now.
We know that part of this means teaching our kids to understand and use money. We've debated saving money for college or spending it on "educational" opportunities now (or in the relatively near future). We've made minor financial sacrifices to ensure that we have time to spend with our kids. We've tried to teach Kenny about earning, saving, giving and spending money. But all of this is secondary to the greatest financial gift that we can give our children- the freedom to fail. |
About HannahI'm a wife, a mom, an employee, and a personal finance nerd who is devoted to spreadsheeting my way through life. Archives
July 2017
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