Hello new blog readers! April 14, 2012

Well, this was quite the surprise.  There I was, minding my own business, when I see a tweet mentioning me and a bunch of other Boston bloggers.  Apparently, TNGG loves our blogs?!  I had no clue what that meant.  So naturally, I clicked the link.  Which brought me to a post on Boston.com, written from the group The Next Great Generation.  The post listed a bunch of blogs written by 20-something Bostonians.  The instructions?  Subscribe to these blogs.  NOW!

You can see the whole post here.

I felt honored!  And of course I immediately told all my friends.

So, new readers.  What can you expect from me?

Like the article said, I’m usually talking about personal finance.  I often write about financial decisions I’m trying to make, new financial websites I’ve tried, or career/personal finance books I’ve read.  I’ve recently started branching out a bit beyond finance to fitness.  I’m also hoping to start writing about Boston events and places a bit more.

I always welcome questions, comments, and suggestions!

So, are you one of the new readers?  Or have you been reading my blog for a while?  Either way, I hope you stick around!

Vote for me (please)! February 18, 2009

Just a little bit of self promotion here.  (We’ll get back to posts with actual content soon!)

I am participating in Free Money Finance March Madness.  The personal finance blog Free Money Finance is running a competition where pf bloggers submit a post they’re proud of to go “head-to-head” against another person’s post.  My post, How Often Should I Contribute to my Roth IRA? is competing against Chops Money‘s post, What’s Wrong with Used Goods?.  I actually think Chops’s post is pretty insightful, so I won’t be hurt if you vote for his post instead.  But here’s what you’ve got to do.  Go to this post and comment there with the keyword related to the post you think is better.  So, for our competition, either type Roth (for me) or Wrong (for Chops).

Oh, and if you’ve found this site from following the Free Money Finance link, take a look around!  Let me know what you think of my blog!  And thanks for dropping by!

And of course, thanks to all my usual readers!  I really appreciate your comments and input!

It’s my blogoversary! October 27, 2008

Well, that’s not exactly true…

I started blogging in general in 2005, when I mostly discussed happenings around MIT.  I started discussing personal finance related topics in May 2007, and made the transition to WordPress in October 2007.  So it’s been about a year since I’ve started writing on this blog.

I suppose, as is the trend around the blogosphere on your blogoversary, you take a look back at your year of blogging.

So let’s begin!

Financial achievements and changes:

Opened my Roth IRA in July 2007, met goal of fully funding it for 2007.  (somehow didn’t post about that one).

Enrolled in my company’s flexible spending account (and did that again at my new job).

Got laid off

Got a new job

Bought a car

Since December 2007, through saving, paying down student loans, and contributing to my retirement funds (and getting a salary, of course), my net worth has gone up approximately $17,000.  I’m pretty impressed by that.  Though I have to keep in mind that my method for calculating my financial net worth also includes my car, both the Kelly Blue Book value for how much it’s worth (assets) as well as my loan amount (liability).  So currently, that number pretty much cancels itself out (since the car is still valued pretty highly, but I haven’t paid off much on the car yet).

I’ve continued to make most of my financial transactions automatic if possible.  My ING accounts take money from my other accounts a few times every month, my Roth IRA also deducts from my checking account once a month, as does my student loan company, my insurance and 401(k) contributions are taken directly from my paycheck, my car payments are withdrawn from my bank account, and some of my utilities are also withdrawn directly.  However, I do go online and pay my other utility bill every month, cable and rent I have to transfer myself every month, and I sign online to pay my credit card off each month.  I think with these expenses, they change a bit each month (or there is no automatic option available) and so I’ve chosen to pay those off in that way to make sure I have enough money in the correct account.

I have to attest that I think making the monthly expenses automatic is pretty key.  You make sure that you pay your bills on time, which means you don’t have to pay unnecessary fines/fees.  You just have to be careful not to go on autopilot in terms of spending.

Okay, to prevent this from going on too long, I think I’ll talk more about other blogoversary-type things in another post.

Woo, blog blog blog!

Looks like I’m a brazen careerist September 14, 2008

Every once in a while, I get an email asking if I’d like to be part of a blogging network.  It’s kind of cool, makes me feel special.  I’m definitely nowhere near the top when it comes to personal finance bloggers:  I don’t post very often, and I haven’t been doing this nearly as long.  And I’m sure I don’t get anywhere near the number of visitors as the likes of The Simple Dollar or Free Money Finance.  But anyway…

I got an email from someone at Brazen Careerist Blog Network.  It seems to be the sister site to Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist blog.  Now, when I hear the words “brazen careerist”, it makes me think that you’re gung ho about climbing to the top in your career, often at the expense of other priorities.  I’m pretty sure that’s not quite what she means (I’ll admit I haven’t read her book.)  From what I’ve gathered, the term still relates to doing what will help you climb the corporate ladder, but it’s not all about ignoring other values and priorities.  So I think I’m cool with that.  It’s more about being smart about what the current work environment is like.

So, anyway, this invite basically means that I am now a member of a blog network!  The network is geared towards members of Generation Y and covers topics such as careers, finance, and other general topics for our generation.  Frankly, I didn’t actually know what “generation” I was part of, but I was born in within the year range listed at the wikipedia page (1982-1994).  I was asked about another blog network before, but I didn’t think I could commit to the number of posts they were talking about “requiring”.  Mostly, the site I’m part of now merely posts my feed under my profile.  So I can handle that.  It sounds like sometimes you might write an article specifically for the site, but for now, I’m just going to go with this.

It’s got me wondering…Am I a brazen careerist?  I enjoy meeting new people, which comes into play nicely when it comes to networking.  I’m thinking it might be a good idea to read this book…so I know what I’m actually talking about.  I did read The Big Sister’s Guide to the World of Work, which has a lot of those types of business tips.  Guess I should put the book on my request list at the library.

I think I should start thinking more about my goals, not only for my career, but also for finances and personal life.  Looks like I’ve got a topic for my next post!

A strange day indeed January 13, 2008

This past Friday I had more people visiting my blog than I usually have in a whole month.  It all started because FreeMoneyFinance posted a link to my post about Roth IRAs in a list of “Star Money Articles“.  Seems that many people followed that link to my blog.  And because so many people had visited my particular post, it became popular enough of wordpress posts that it was on the WordPress homepage under Business News (it’s not there anymore).

I feel like I should thank the writer of FreeMoneyFinance for mentioning me.  Isn’t that what bloggers do?  But thanks especially to those who commented.  I was thinking some about putting all the money in at once…and also wondering if I should put more into my 401(k).  I agree that paying off debt is a surefire way to have good returns in the long run (since you’ll pay less on interest as you pay down your debts).  I think I’m a bit uncomfortable with upping my 401(k) contributions since I don’t want to have too little money available (I’m a bit of a worst-case-scenario type of person), and I figure the more money I have now, the more I can pay off my student loans.

I appreciate all your comments, and hopefully others benefited from the advice as well.  Keep the comments coming; the more we all know, the better we can get at this!

(or as they said on the most recent episode of Monk:  The more you know, the less you don’t know!)

Who wants to be on my blog roll? October 19, 2007

So, I realized that my blogroll currently consists of the initial two that worpress gives everyone. I’m thinking I should add some links to blogs I actually read, or that are relevant to my writings. Perhaps a personal finance blogs list, or links to my personal friends’ blogs? I might also start writing about some science or food related topics at a later date, so perhaps some food science or molecular gastronomy blogs might show up there.

I don’t know if I should just put all the blogs I read, or the blogs of people who comment on my blog, or blogs of people who specifically request to be included.

Any Suggestions? or requests for blogroll inclusion?

And don’t worry, the Nicaragua posts are coming. They’re mostly written, I just need to edit them so they’re a little bit easier to understand (and less stream of consciousness-like).