Lifestyle Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Ms. Financial Literacy

Browse Category by Lifestyle

Behavioral Finance, Financial Planning, Girlfriend to Girlfriend Money Chat, Lifestyle, Marriage and Money, Money Habits, Money Psychology, Purchase Decisions

The Funny Thing About Money Psychology (What Would You Do?)

Wishlist and Bucket List

Do you recall when you first started having a wishlist or bucket list? I didn’t have one until I was in my mid-20s. Before then, I didn’t desire much. I was simply happy just having the essentials or necessities. I understood my financial situation as a student. My mindset at the time was that my situation was temporary and wanted to focus my attention on doing well in my studies. I looked forward to the day when I finished school, secured a satisfying career and then start living the life of my dream.

What was the first item that made it to my wishlist? It was a Marc by Marc Jacobs crossbody bag. I saw that bag on a fashion magazine that I subscribed to at the time.

Around my 25^th birthday, my husband and I visited Saks Fifth Avenue. When I saw that bag sitting on the shelf, I hesitated and started having second thoughts. The price tag was $249. It was a VERY expensive bag. My most expensive bag prior to that one costed me less than $30. My husband and I walked in circles around the store as I had a very hard time deciding if I wanted us to spend that kind of money. It was just a [beautiful] crossbody bag…After perhaps 45 minutes later, my then boyfriend was paying for the bag at the cashier register. And that was my first designer bag. From there, I went on to purchase couple Michael Kors bags.

money psychology money dilemma

Deciding on the Now or Later

Spread the message. Encourage others to begin their financial learning!

Financial Empowerment, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Financial Journey, Financial Planning, Lifestyle, Marriage and Money, Money Habits, Purchase Decisions

My Husband and I Created a Fun Fund!

Our “Fun Fund”

My husband and I recently created a “Fun Fund”. And the size of this fund is about 39.6% of our current projected/planned annual expenses. This Fun Fund includes the following categories: travel (we’d like to do two international trips and two U.S. trips per year as a family), gifts, charity, wardrobe items, entertainment and dining (e.g., treating others to meals; we’re already allocating $1,000 outside of the Fun Fun each month to spend on groceries and family dining).

fun fund

In a previous article, I mentioned that our projected annual expenses for year 2017 (and possibly the near future years, too, at the time of writing) was $50,000. Then, early this month, we’ve decided to move that number back up to $60,000 (our annual expenses in year 2015 and 2016 was $60,000), even though we currently don’t have child care expenses.

With a budget of $50,000, we were allocating about $13,700 toward the categories aforementioned. We’ve (most, I) came to realize such a number was a little over-stretched and won’t bring me much happiness. So, my husband and I looked at our financial numbers again, and we’ve decided that we can spend up to $60,000 a year and still be able to save a lot.

In my husband’s own words: “I feel I’ve lived my 60s while in my 20s, and now I’m living my 30s in my 30s. Maybe I’ll live my 20s while in my 40s!”

Spread the message. Encourage others to begin their financial learning!

Lifestyle, Marriage and Money, Money Habits, Money Psychology

Adopt This One Money Habit to Grow and Attract Wealth

I love free honest money. I was 10 years-old when I found my first $20 bill on a grassy field. That was shortly after my family and I have immigrated to the U.S. With my parents’ combined income being less than $2,000 a month at the time (providing for a family of 4), you can imagine what that $20 bill meant to me. To say I was super excited would be an understatement.

money habits grow attract wealth picking pennies

Are All Free Honest Money Equal?

However, not all free honest money has always been equal for me. I don’t ever recall having picked up a penny off the ground. For some reason, picking pennies just never seemed worth it to me.

As for my husband, while he wouldn’t waste calories to pick up one penny, he’d spend the calories to pick up two plus pennies. And he’d get very excited about this kind of free honest money. Just a few months ago, we even joked that if one million people on earth would be willing to share a penny with us once a year, we’d have $10,000 of free honest money. This is a large sum of money! Even pennies add up to being worth something.

For years, I teased him about this money habit of his. I didn’t appreciate the value of a penny back in the days when I was growing up in a low-income family. At our current financial standing, the value of a penny is worth even less to me. I didn’t understand why my husband bothers to pick up pennies. For a long time, I never asked him.

A Transformative and Significant Moment

Spread the message. Encourage others to begin their financial learning!

Financial Freedom, Financial Journey, Financial Planning, Investment, Lifestyle, Retirement Planning

March 2017 Non-W2 Income Report and First Quarter Recap

You can go here to read about why we’re sharing our non-W2 incomes on the blog. And you can visit this link to see our past non-W2 income reports.

As anticipated, March was a very great month for us. We received a total of $5,249.31 in non-W2 income. Our international stocks (many of which pay out dividends in larger amounts once a quarter) were responsible for the big jump.

march 2017 non-w2 income report

This month’s number plus the January 2017 and February 2017 numbers have brought our first quarter non-W2 income total to $8,906.89. The monthly average is $2,968.96. With our monthly expenses being around $4,000, this monthly average covers about 74% of our expenses.

We anticipate this percentage will be a little higher by the end of the calendar year. Some of our investments have large dividends/interest payouts bi-annually or annually. Additionally, we continue to make new contributions to most of our accounts. We’ll see as we continue to track these numbers.

April’s chart will look slightly different as I recently did a 401(k) rollover.

We use Personal Capital, a free financial tool, to track our net worth, view our investment performance, analyze our asset allocations and project our retirement goals. I wrote a comprehensive review of Personal Capital in another post. I encourage you to check it out.

Like what you’ve just read? Sign up for my free weekly newsletter to receive new post updates. Posts have been very sparse lately as my family and I are adjusting to a new lifestyle. I hope to resume posting two to three times weekly starting in May. In the meantime, feel free to connect with me on Twitter or Facebook. As always, thanks for reading.

Spread the message. Encourage others to begin their financial learning!

Financial Freedom, Financial Journey, Financial Planning, Investment, Lifestyle, Retirement Planning

Money Makes Money: February 2017 Non-W2 Income Report

It’s already April and I just got around to sharing our February non-W2 incomes report. A lot has happened in my family in the past month. Some of the changes and adventures included giving my resignation letter to my previous employer and possibly forever saying goodbye to W-2 employment and taking a road trip across the country.

february 2017 non-w2 income

There are two great things I’ve came to love about non-W2 incomes; one being having incomes coming in to cover my expenses while on vacation and that, two, these incomes are location independent (e.g., I can be anywhere in the world and still continue to receive dividend/interest payments.).

You’ve probably noticed the few “$0”s on the table above. First, I was surprised we didn’t receive any dividends/interest payments on either one of our Roth accounts. Second, there was no financial coaching income for February. We were busy preparing for taxes and for the adventure across the country.

All things considered, the total for February was only couple hundred dollars lower than that of January. We are optimistic that the March total will be much higher. Many of our investments either pay dividends/interests quarterly or pay out higher amounts on the quarter mark. Come back to the blog to see the March report soon. You can view my previous non-W2 income reports here.

Like what you’ve just read? Sign up for my free weekly newsletter to receive new post updates.

Spread the message. Encourage others to begin their financial learning!