Money and family

Frugal living
Money and family
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5 ideas for low-cost last-minute gifts everyone will love

If you are still looking for gifts ideas that won’t break the bank, are still meaningful AND can be pulled off last-minute look no further! This post is for you. At this time of the year we are flooded with posts that help us ease the guilt of not having a gift for someone we […]

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Money and family
Our Path to FI
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From baby steps to pillars: 10 ways ChooseFI changed our lives in 2019

I came across the ChooseFI podcast in April 2019. We had been walking the Dave Ramsey baby steps for a few years by then.  We had eliminated consumer debt and learned to save with discipline.  We paid cash for our wedding and honeymoon, our cars, and our travel.  For the first time ever, we had […]

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Money and family
Our Path to FI

Open enrollment: a yearly test for my financial literacy

November is for thanksgiving and open enrollment! I have been working for the same organization for 8 years, and I find that this yearly process is a great test for my knowledge of personal finance. The way I navigate open enrollment has changed as our financial picture evolves. At first, the process was filled with […]

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Money and family
Our Path to FI

Health, family and unexpectedly buying our first home

A few years ago, my husband and I were living in a high cost of living area we loved.  Our neighborhood was beautiful, we had great friends, and there was lots of opportunity for career growth.   When we started contemplating buying a home, it didn’t take long to realize our estimated budget wasn’t going […]

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Money and family

8 ways good intentions can sabotage your finances

The more I learn about personal finance, the more I am aware of the well-intended decisions that actually sabotage our progress. We begin to make financial decisions based on the mashup of knowledge (or lack of) we gather from our surroundings: the conversation with our family at the dinner table, the clerk’s savings advice at […]

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Money and family

5 rules to follow when financially helping family

Helping family financially is a subject of polarizing opinions.  Nonetheless, many of us decide to do so for a variety of reasons that vary from cultural to personal. This article is not about if you should or shouldn’t help. Instead, my purpose is to share how you can offer your financial support in a more […]

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Frugal living
Money and family
Our Path to FI

Buying cars with cash: what we bought without ever having a car payment

Every single car we have owned we have bought with cash.  To be honest, that wasn’t the plan when I dreamed of buying my first vehicle; I just got denied for the first (and only) car loan I applied for.  Back then, 2006 to be exact, we weren’t putting much thought on our finances.  Thinking […]

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