Personal Finance

I espouse a peculiar mix of the philosophies of Jesse Mecham, Dave Ramsey, and Mr. Money Mustache.

AAA Discounts

For Love and/or Money: Financial Autonomy in Marriage #article - "We realize how crazy this all sounds! Nonetheless, we’re perfectly serious, and do actually pay each other to put our kids to bed and whatnot. We think we have quite clever mechanisms for deciding who does what and keeping things exquisitely fair, efficient, and resentment-free. And separate finances — i.e., financial autonomy — is a prerequisite."

Gusto

Money Simulator - educational game for learning about money

My Personal Finance bookshelf on GoodReads

Oxygen - "We’re Oxygen: the fresh new bank account for free thinkers, rebels and entrepreneurs. Awarded Best Digital Banking Account* in the US, we look after people who want to rise above. Yes, we’re looking at you."

Analysis Tools

Fentury - "Your Personal Finance Advisor. Manage all your accounts from a single place and receive pro-active advice on areas that can be improved."

Mint

Personal Capital

PocketSmith - "PocketSmith is personal finance software with cash flow forecasts. Understand your money and its potential. Start saving today."

Budgeting

Getting Started #1 – What am I Supposed to Do With All This Money? #article - "Your goal every two weeks or so will be to count up all this extra cash, figure how much you need for upcoming bills, and sweep the rest to somewhere useful. Somewhere that either pays you interest, or saves you money by reducing the interest that you pay."

GoodBudget - "Goodbudget is a budget tracker for the modern age. Say no more to carrying paper envelopes. This virtual budget program keeps you on track with family and friends with the time-tested envelope budgeting method." NerdWallet review.

MoneyLover - "Simplest way to manage personal finances. Because money matters."

PocketSmith - "PocketSmith is personal finance software with cash flow forecasts. Understand your money and its potential. Start saving today."

Toolkit for YNAB #extension - "The Toolkit for YNAB is a free, community contributed, open source browser extension for use with You Need a Budget. It adds tweaks and additional features for a more customizable experience." #chrome #firefox

Toshl - "Connect your financial accounts, or enter expenses using our quick and slick Toshl apps. Toshl helps you with the financial means. So you can focus on the goals."

You Need a Budget #webapp - "You Need A Budget is award-winning software and a proven method—that works." Forum. Reddit.

You Need a Budget by Jesse Mecham

Emergency Fund

MMM vs. The Emergency Fund - MMM Show Episode 9 #video - "How much cash should I keep around in my checking account ready for emergencies? And how much cash buffer should I maintain during retirement when living off of investments? 3 months, 6 months, or a year? In this episode of the MMM Show we answer these questions."

Our emergency fund is exactly $0.00 #article - "In our financial plan, you will never find the one staple item that every financial planner calls the cornerstone of a responsible financial plan: the emergency fund. We have none. Zilch. Nada."

Top 10 reasons for having an emergency fund – debunked (Part 1) #article - "In a past blog post, we pointed out that a $0.00 emergency fund is most useful for us. Lots of visitor traffic came from both Physician of FIRE and Rockstar Finance (thanks for featuring us!!!) and most comments were very supportive. Good to know that others follow a similar approach. To make the case more complete we should also look at some of the standard arguments people normally use in favor of keeping a large stash of cash for emergencies."

Frugality

Buying Foods Based on Cost Per Calorie | The Simple Dollar #article - "Recently, I came across this infographic that listed a bunch of different foods, separated by category (fruit; vegetables; fats, nuts, and seeds; fish, poultry, and eggs; whole grains; beans and tofu; red meat; and dairy) and sorted within those categories by the cost per cup or cost per 100 calories, depending on the item. (The truly low-calorie items, which were the vegetables and fruits, were listed by cost per cup, while the other more calorie-dense items were listed by cost per calorie.)"

Freebie Alerts #app - "Receive a notification each time your neighbor post Free Stuff on Nextdoor, Letgo, OfferUp and TrashNothing!"

Insulation: first the body, then the home #article - "You could fill a library with reports and books describing the importance of energy-efficient heating systems and home insulation. However, not a word has been said or written about the energy savings potential of clothing, even though there has been a lot of progress in this area too. Modern thermal underclothing offers the possibility to turn the thermostat much lower without sacrificing comfort or sex appeal. The potential energy savings are huge; the costs are almost nil."

Living well on the trailing edge of Luxury #article - Mr. Money Mustache. "Because of this exponential change, our world is awash in almost-new consumer products. The hottest ones are in the stores, and the hottest ones from just a few months ago are abandoned in people’s drawers and garages. You almost NEVER need to buy anything new, because you can have an almost-new item for 25-50% of the cost out of one of these drawers. People are so accustomed to buying new things, that they are willing to almost give away their used things even when they are barely used."

The MMM Show - Episode 5 - Why Gas Is Really $42 Per Gallon! #video - "Should you move closer to work even if it means higher rent (or house prices?)"

Two Dollar Eats - "Love your taste buds and your wallet! At Two Dollar Eats, our main goal is to save you money. We strive to provide you recipes that cost about $2 per serving, allowing you to eat delicious food while not breaking the bank!"

Insurance

Hippo - "Traditional Home Insurance Coverage + so much more"

Insurance: A Tax on People who are Bad at Math? #article - "I recently read a Facebook conversation about health insurance where one person said, “I’m better off saving the $1000/month premiums and paying for my own medical bills if they ever come up”. And the other person said, “Bah! Recipe for bankruptcy! You need full insurance!”. Which person was right?"

Lemonade - "Home and Renters Insurance for Urban Dwellers . Lemonade's amazing coverage protects the stuff you own at home and everywhere else."

Root - "Save up to 52% on your car insurance. Get a rate based primarily on how you drive. Fair insurance. No gimmicks."

Sources

Cait Flanders #blog - "Hi friend! My name is Cait. I’m an author, podcaster, and traveller from a beautiful island in British Columbia, Canada. For the past nine years, you could say I’ve been on a journey of less. Less debt. Less clutter. Less consumerism. Less alcohol (ok, no alcohol). Less time online/on my phone. Less consumption overall. I wrote a self-help memoir that documents some of what I have experienced and discovered. The Year of Less came out in January 2018 and became a Wall Street Journal bestseller."

Dave Ramsey

Low-Tech Magazine

NerdWallet

Saving the Crumbs

The Simple Dollar

You Need a Budget blog

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